ww2farmer

Fished for about two hours after work yesterday and it was an OK night. Caught 8 largemouth before I ran out of daylight. No hogs, but a couple 4lbers, and the rest all solid 3's.

Been there, done that...They will say no. I broke a 7 MH/F Avid casting rod, wanted to "downgrade" to a 7' MH Mojo, they said no... they would only replace it with another Avid, or upgrade me to a LTB, LEX, or LE.

I fish these almost exclusively when I am frogging. I use all three, the regular size, the popping, and the jr. one I would have to say I use the regular sized one about 85% of the time, in all kinds of conditions. The popping one tends to get the call in low light, light cover situations, when there is a slight breeze, or stain to the water and I feel the popping mouth will draw an extra bite or two. I get bit in the same conditions with the regular one, but it seems I get a few more on the popping one. I use the little one in ultra clear water, or if the are slapping and not taking the bigger one. One trick to get them to fish matted grass better, is to stuff some hunks of used Yum dingers into the body. It will "push" the frog down into the mat a little better. Spro's used to be my go to mat frog because of there weight/density, but since I started adding those chunks of used plastic to the Pad Crasher, I have had the same results as I always had with the Spro's. I use four colors: Shad Frog Dart Frog Cricket Frog Bull Frog

I am a die hard braid and fluorocarbon leader user. Nothing is going to change my mind. If the people that use straight fluorocarbon love it, good. To each his own. If my dislike for using straight fluorocarbon somehow offends people, that's their problem, not mine. It's really a pretty insignificant thing to worry about in the grand scheme of things.

I didn't have to go into work until after lunch today, so I hit the lake for a couple hours. Not on fire. I caught 4 average sized largemouth and a pike poking around in some backwaters, and one 3lb smallmouth and a walleye on the lake before I ran out of time.

I have had a pair of SK S11's since they first came out. They are worlds better than the $20 SK's, Berkley's , etc....that I used before. I have had them for 4 years, going on 5, and need to be replaced soon as the frame is cracked from me stepping on them. At $40 they have been a good value, because I used to go through 2 pairs of $20 ones a year replacing them after the lenses get all scratched up. I wear them 24/7 and at work is where they get all beat up, but the SK's lenses have lasted much much longer than the rest.

One of the best tournament fisherman on Conesus lake use spin cast reels to skip docks. He's whipped people using them, and has for 30 years...........so IMHO they are a viable tool in the right hands. Conesus is usually ultra clear up shallow, and you have to stay WAY WAY back to skip to avoid spooking them. Some real hogs get up under those docks and using spinning gear is a way to get your heart broke. The distance you have to stay away makes it a real challenge for even the best skippers with casting gear. So he puts a spin caster on a stout casting rod, stays back, and takes our money.

When I am throwing a small jig, like the 1/16th and 1/8th oz. Bitsy Jigs the small Big Bite baits craw worm gets the call for trailer duty.

I use all 4 sizes of Yum Dingers (3,4,5,and 6 inch) in some capacity. The 4" and 5" do the bulk of my stick bait work. 3" and 6" are more of special niche baits for me.

I fished from 11am till 3pm today. Not bad. Not a barn burner, but my best day so far. I caught 6 largemouth before the rain, nothing special, all just average 2.5-2.75lb size fish, with one over 3. As well as a couple pike. In the rain I caught 7 smallmouth, with the best five being a 4-12, 4-7, a matching pair of 4-3's, and a 4-1. The other two were upper 2lb range fish.

I own many Lightning Rod Shocks.....IMHO they are not a pure fast action, nor a pure moderate action. Moderate fast would be the best description of them IMHO. They are............also IMHO, the best sub $100 rod on the market for throwing reaction baits with braid. I fish them right along side many higher priced name brand rods, as well as custom built rods, and they hold their own. I use the 7'6" H rod for big deep cranks, swimbaits, A-rigs, and as a back up punching rod. I use the 7' MH rods for frogs, swimjigs, chatterbaits, ripping lip less cranks out of grass, ripping square bills out of grass, running deep cranks on deep grass lines, silver buddy style blade baits. and fishing Biffle style wobble head jigs I use the 6'6" MH for all of the above in close quarters work. I use the 6'6" M for topwaters, jerkbaits, and close quarters small square bill work. I use the 7' M spinning rods for drifting and dragging drop shot rigs, and small jigs in deep water And I use the 6'6" M spinning rods for skipping weightless plastics under docks. They are no slouch in the sensitivity dept. either. One season while I was waiting for my custom rods to be built, I fished with these rods exclusively. Not only with all of the above reaction baits, but I used them for pitching/flipping jigs and soft plastics, and just about every technique in the book. I never felt underequiped and caught the same amount and size of fish I always have. I have even won several tournaments using nothing but these rods that year.

Silver was slightly better this evening. Caught 6 good largemouth, and 1 decent smallie.

My evening outing tonight was a carbon copy of last night. Struggled to get anything going for largemouth, and with about half an hour of daylight left pulled into a smallmouth spot and caught a couple more good ones over 4lbs.

Drive truck hauling AG products, mow hay, spray crops, and harvest beans. With a little bit of wrenching on the equipment I run. It's a year round job crammed into 8-9 months. The other 3 months I am a stay at home dad. But as the kids are getting older and soon won't need dad in the winter, I went out and added the Hazmat endorsement to my CDL to hopefully in the future be able to get a in with one of the local fuel oil/propane companies when they add seasonal help in the winter when we are slow on the farm.

SK KVD's in the 1.5 and 2.5 size. The 1.0 has not been a very good producer for me, at least for largemouth and/or smallmouth. It catches the fire out of rock bass though. I upgrade the stock hooks most of the time before they ever hit the water. The 1.5's get #4 Mustad KVD elite 2x short 1x strong triple grips, and the 2.5's get #4's. I don't bother upgrading the hooks on the 1.0's as I don't use them enough to say so. I keep the color selection basic and simple. Bluegill, Orange belly craw, chart./black back, and chart. sexy shad. I have a bunch of Storm Arashi's too, they are a well built and good looking bait, but for whatever reason are just no where near as productive as the KVD's.......which says more about how great the KVD's are than anything, because everyone and their brother uses them around here, and they still catch fish like crazy.

I'll give the man credit...I love the snot out of his hard baits. The KVD squarebills, the Red Eye Shad, his Jerkbaits, and the XD cranks make up about 99% of my hardbait selection, most of the time those said baits are festooned with his Mustad hooks...............but his cranking rods just don't work for me, and my style. He gets enough royalties out of me, I need to keep the money flowing to other guys too. LOL

I am a big fan of swim jigs and chatterbait style bladed jigs. So much so, that I have not bought, used, or carried any spinnerbaits with me in a few years now. I like the swim jig in clear water, and the chatterbait in dirtywater. Both excel for me in a broader range of water temps. than spinnerbaits, and both work much better for me in grass. The swim jig (along with a soft plastic senko style stick bait) is one of the most versatile lures there is. It can be swam over, around and through most any thing, and also be killed, flipped, pitched, etc... into and around cover. It's the ultimate clear to lightly stained water search bait IMHO. About the only thing a spinner bait does better than both is stay "high" in the water column at slower speeds.

check you PM's

Same here, I had the 7'4" MH for a short while when Walmart was blowing them out on clearance a year or two ago. I used it for cranking 5xd's along deep grass edges for about a week and couldn't get rid of it fast enough. Not only did I loose my feel for ticking the grass (with braid no less) with that rod, but when I did run into grass with it and felt it, I could not get the clean "pops" and "rips" out of it I wanted. I sold it toot sweet, went back to a 7' MH mod/fast graphite rod for this, and was happy again.

I like a "bullet" style head, with a large heavy hook. 1/4 oz gets the call in super shallow water, 3/8's is my "do all" size, and 1/2 oz for burning, or running along deeper outside grass lines. I have found the Boss swim jig heads to be a good value, and they fit my uses well. I use my own home made skirts. The Boss swim jig heads also work well as a lighter grass flipping jig too, so they are right up my ally in the versatility department.

As a boater, I cut back, way way back on the amount of stuff I carry I used to stuff 12-15 rods in my boat...............I now use 6 I use to have dozens of 3700 size boxes filled with everything under the sun....I now have 7-8 Part of "downsizing" was a learning process. Over the years I learned what works year after year, day after. So now I carry the "basics" and sprinkle in some new stuff every season. Only once in a while does one of the new wizz bang items make the final cut. Even my reduced rod/reel, and bait selection can cover the water from the bank to the abyss, from cold water to summer, and any weather and watery clarity conditions I may see. I am NOT the guy tackle mfgs. market stuff to.

Not to bad an evening after work tonight. I fished for about 2 hours. Started looking for largemouth and fished for them the first hour with only a couple pike to show for it. Switched to smallmouth just before dark, and caught a 4-11, 4-4, and 4-1 in the first and only smallmouth spot I hit.

Did you go back to Silver today? I was there for a couple hours after work, and it stunk again. One Pike, and one bite off was all I could muster up. The bass are taking there sweet time getting going this year. And I don't think I have been there when they are biting well. This time of year timing is 3/4's of the battle.

A rifle range you say....LOL

I don't think anythings on fire right now, or yet. I talked to two buddies on the water around 1-1:30 and they had caught three bass between them since first light, and these are guys whom are mainstays in the cashers/winners circles at my tournaments.