ww2farmer

I toss traps w/ a 6'6" M BPS Cranking stick and a BPS 6.3:1 Extreme Reel spooled up with 12lb Trilene XL. I am very curious about these though http://www.castawayrods.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=car&Category_Code=rat_fresh

Yeah..was trying to defend the Ugly stick.......lol see what that got me. If any one should be offended by what I said it should be LBH, I did call his post nonsense after all. Here is how I see it: We gots 3 guys sitting on a park bench, we'll call them ww2farmer, LBH, and Ugly Stick. A women with a beard walks by, LBH say's "look at that!......who would want to be with a women with a beard" ww2farmer elbows LBH in the side and wispers " cool it man.........Ugly stick over there is married to a women with a beard, I don't get it either, but lets not starts a fight" LBH replys "I was just wondering was all......" conversation ended. I didn't know...from the way he started the topic....... which way he was trying to go with this, and I just seen a rousing bout on another forum on the SAME TOPIC, in which names were called, and nasty stuff. Thats it.

Well curosity got the best of me, went out to the garage, and was able to fit 10 rods in the locker, and lay 4 on the deck. Also loaded the boat up with just about every thing I own, the 2 front compartments are bursting full, and the under seat spaces are there is still room. I will rarely if ever carry this much with me as I don't fish tournaments, so looks like I got plenty of room and some to spare. I went back and looked at the 175 literature I had, rod locker, and front storage seem to be the same. No gain in that area by stepping up to the next boat.

I also store them in Plano boxes, sorted by size/color/style/brand. This may sound stupid, but I toss a few packets of that dissectant in that comes with my wifes clothes/shoes, seems to keep the rust and moisture away

Hmmmmm.........why is a thread like this even necessary? I don't fish with or own, or have ever owned an Ugly Stick, and I wouldn't recomend it to any one who wanted to seriously fish for bass. But some people do use and like them, people like my father-in-law, who goes down to his pond maybe a 1/2 dozen times a year, tosses out a bobber and night crawler for bass or panfish,and might once in a blue moon use a lure like a rapala or mepps, then tosses it in the corner of his garage. Makes sense to me.........no wait..........he should have a $450 Steez reel, and a GLX for that.........c'mon. You don't see how Ugly sticks have a place for people who could care less about every little move a bass makes........out of touch to say the least. I thought you would be above starting nonsense like this LBH.

HAHA I just fell for it too........

Well almost any lure will "work" if used in the right place and at the right time. When the popper bite is on, I really like the skitter pop, frog is my favorite color, but silver is a good one too. I am not much of a prop bait fisherman, I have a few , but rarely use them. I will go with poppers, frogs, buzzbaits, and walk the dog baits over props 99.9% of them time. Stories............well hows this, one day last summer was fishing a pretty thick milfoil mat with a floating hollow bodied frog, was getting huge blow ups on it evry time I stopped it in an open spot and started to move it again, but was failing to hook up with any thing. I even tossed a senko in those holes after a few of the misses but came up with nothing. I decided to try a skitter pop in there, but man was it tight, open spots about the size of a hub cap in milfoil so thick you could walk across it, I basicly "flipped" a top water bait. well that did the trick, put it in the hole, popped it a few times and bam, fish on.......did this at most of the holes I missed fish on the frog and/or senko, and hooked and landed several nice bass. Just an example of me "guessing right" that day as to what the fish wanted

I have yet to master this technique myslef, but played around with it alot at the end of last season, I have only used the spot remover heads, so far I like them, this year I am going to add some of the Tru-Tungsten Ikey Heads. I used mainly Zoom trick and/or finesse worms, and had decent results. Played around with some differnt baits , like flukes, craws, and also got some of the new Zoom shakey tail worms to add to the mix this year.

As far as reels go, I like a faster reel with at least 25 IPT, for not other reason than that is what I have always used, and what I am comfortable with. For a rod, last season I bought a new 7'6" H BPS Extreme telescoping handle "flipping" rod........I liked it at first, but as the season wore on it fell out of favor with me, it was too heavy, and I thought the sensitivity lost in the telescoping handle out weighed the extra 6" of rod you got. That rod has been sold, and replaced with a 7' Heavy/Fast St Croix Premier, first and formost I bought this rod for frogs, but will also double for flipping, I have also flipped with a 7' MH/Fast Fenwick rod in the past and liked that alot, that will return to that duty as well. I like all my other Extreme rods, but that 7'6" beast was just not right for me. I use braid only on any thing that will be used in heavy cover, I like the smaller diameter 20 and 30 lb test braids, some don't, I have also used 50 lb braid, and thats what most guys will recomend.

If I may suggest it.............the Pflueger Presidant spinning reel is right in your price range. I have a couple of them (not UL size though) and they have been workhorse's for me, zero troubles. I also have a Daiwa Procyon (Renamed Laguna for Dicks Sporting goods) it also has been a good reel, but again not the UL size. And funny you should mention the Pflueger Medalist, I bought one this winter, the XX30 size (I found the xx35 size I like in the presidants to be too heavy for my tastes). I have used it briefly on my 2 short trips out this year, it also feels like it will be a great reel. I don't think you could make a bad choice on any of the reels you mentioned............unless you get a shimano

Count me in......, no group of mooks could be complete without a farmer.

I have doen the 2 job thing most of my adult life...............On our farm things really slow down in mid-late november, so I take a part time 2-3 night a week, 3-4 hour a pop, job on neighbors farms milking cows (we have no cows to milk). It doesn't ammount to much, but pays for my fishing stuff, and keeps all of my real job $$ going to bills/wife/kids, when we thaw out and get busy on our farm I stop.......for one so I can fish in the evenings, and once we start workng in the feilds, I am busy enough with this job, let alone 2.

I like the 2.5" Yum craw bug on my 3/16 and 5/16 oz jigs, and the 3.5 crawbug on 1/4-3/4 oz jigs. I have also used the Yum chunk, but prefer the crawbug. I just got some NetBait Paca chunks to try. Don't be afraid to experament with trailers, I have had success with some different things, zoom flukes, any kind of grub.......even live bait.

This might not be the "proper" way to do it, but here is how I have done it for years with no ill-effects to my rods. Run warm tap water over the cork, then rub in a little Dawn dish soap, works good to lift teh grease and grime off, scrup lightly with a dish cloth, rinse...........they always look darn near new when I am done. I do all my rods in the winter, some thing to do when I am not busy.

I don't care who makes BPS rods...........I like em alot, and BPS stands behind them. Also if you guys have a Gander Mtn. nearby, check out there house brand rods, I bought a few last week and can't wait to see how they fish. They were very reasonably priced for what was offerd, IM-7 blanks, Fuji reel seats, Fuji Hardloy guides,and very very light, as light if not lighter than my St Croix Triumph rod, I got a 6'6" Med/fast spinning, and a 6'6"MH/fast casting for $49 each.

Hey how many rods can you fit in the 170's locker ? I just bought a new 07' 170, and have yet to do any thing but bring it home and lock it in the garage. I have around 18 bass fishing rod/reel combo's and would like to think I could carry at least 5-7 of them with me on the boat.

Take a look at these: http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_-1_10001_73559_100002006_100000000_100002000_100-2-6 SiC guides, 64 million mod., for $100............not to shabby, I love BPS rods, for the $$ the can't be beat.

Why whould you expect BPS to warrenty a rod they don't make OR even sold you in the first place? I am not made of money,but if I broke the tip off a lightning rod, they are cheap enough to toss and buy a new one.

Skitter pop is my fav. followed by the chug bug, and the pop-r. I have a few "new to me poppers" to try this season as well, I got off my wallet and bought a few X-Caliber Zell Pop's

I have been using Gamakatsu almost exclusivly for as long as I can remember (except for one ill advised attempt to use BPS XPS hooks). Never had any issues with them. I have tried the owners too, and truthfully, I had no better (or worse) hook up % with them over the gammys. I am a hook setting fool, and use low stretch lines/and or fast rods for soft plastics. I could see where the owners would have an advantage on mono line, and with soft rods, but I'll save the extra buck or two, keep buying gammys and not worry about it.

My best lilly pad pattern have been a hollow bodied frog over the top, or a green pumpkin jig and craw swam over the pads and dropped in the holes. Kinda new to the pad game, my ponds do not have any, and last year was my first year as a boater on my home lake and the pads have always been impossable to reach from shore. But now I love them, it seems like they always produce fish..........quality fish at that. I can't wait for this season, now that I have a bigger boat, I will be able to hit all my favorite pad "fields" in one outing.

Yup was near 70 here Tues. ALMOST took the new bass boat out for it's maiden voyage, but balked. Now it's 28, with about 3 inches of snow. Ahh WNY early spring weather..........gotta love it. I have yet to spend more than 2-3 hours fishing yet this year, and only have 1 small bass on the board. Not sopposed to warm up for the next 5-7 days either. Gonna be a stretch to get my usual 150+ days in this year.

I always wear a blue shirt.

Congrats!!! Give mom and baby my best.

I don't think there is a wrong way to fish a fluke. I mainly fish them weightless on a gamakatsu 3/0 EWG, but have also fished them on a c-rig, t-rig, shakey head, as a jig trailer, mojo rig, even whacky rigged...........caught fish every way I tried it. Great baits.