ww2farmer

I missed this when you first posted............but a belated Congrats!!

Depends...............If I had 18 frog rods.............that would be too many.............for me.

At one time I didn't have "it"................then I got "it"................ But I don't know what "it" is...........I hope "it" isn't what I think "it" is. I am probably getting to the age where I will lose "it" sooner rather than later, and the younger kids will then get "it" and then "it" will seem weird and stupid to me, and to compensate I will just yell at "it".

Let me file this right here in the big stack of...................things I could care less about. Money Talks....The #1 reason a TV fishing show exists is to sell product. Teaching is secondary. How else do you think these guys are able to afford traveling around and producing these shows..............it ain't by putting duct tape over the logos of everything they use on screen. Some keep the hocking of the wears to a bare minimum, some do it in a cartoonish over the top manner. I have always found the Lindner's on what ever progrum they were on to strike a good balance of sales pitching and teaching.

About 5 years into my tournament "career" I had a light bulb go off in my head that would have helped a lot had I been told to do so....And that is: On tournament day............just go fishing, and do what you do. Leading up to that, I did OK in tournaments, cashing once in while, and rarely winning. Since I said "screw it, I'm just going to fish a tournament like I would fish any other day", I cash more times than not, and win more often.

Cold muddy water = go find something else to do for me. There are much better conditions to fish in.............in fact, I can't think of anything worse* * this is assuming it's not a year round muddy water fishery. Fish that usually live in clear/lightly stained water, do not react well to mud/cold.

I just buy black ones......the fish don't care. I have caught them when they are all nice and pretty out of the package, and I have caught them when the paint has all chipped off and they are bare shiny tungsten.

Depends on the body of water/area. Around here birds don't mean much..........we have lots of seagulls, but they are rarely feeding on the lake as we don't have a shad based food chain, they usually use the lake as a resting area between foraging in plowed fields and other off water activities. I do know this.................when a large flock of them returns to sit on the lake from parts unknown, especially late in the year....you can expect the fishing to be slow. Wildlife is wildlife, I pay close attention to other species activity levels when fishing. More times than not, if I see birds just sitting around doing nothing, no woodchucks or other critters moving around the bank, and things seem "quiet" fishing is generally slow.

When I can not get bit on ANYTHING ANYWHERE................I head to docks with a spinning rod and a 4" yum dinger on a 1/16th oz wacky jig. More times than not, after 2 hours of this, I'll have a limit.................they may only be small keepers, but I WILL get a limit on that.

It was over for me around Veterans day..................not because the weather sucked, actually it was quite the opposite, and most years if we had the weather we had through late Nov. - early Dec. I would still be fishing. I just decided to pack it in a little earlier this year. Water levels are/were at an all-time low on my lake thanks to the super dry summer, and I was tired of fighting the launch ramp to get on and off trailer. Plus a lot of the stuff I like to fish this time of year WAS ON DRY LAND due to the drought. No sense in reinventing the wheel here, but I did leave them biting, at least the green ones. I know I missed some of the best smallmouth fishing of the season by calling it a year so early, but that just leaves me all the more anxious and excited for next year. Plus, it was nice to winterize the boat on a sunny warm day. And put it away dry for once.

My favorite squarebill and lipless crankbait rods are Berkley Lightning rod shocks. I don't know exactly what they are rated taper wise, as Berkley doesn't label them. The feel like Mod. Fast, too me. I use the 7' MH for ripping them through thick-ish grass, bomb casting/covering water on flats,etc... and the 6'6" M for target casting around laydowns, docks,isolated clumps of grass etc... They both work perfectly with the 1.5 + 2.5 sized squarebills and 1/2 oz lipless baits that I use most often. Enough "tip" to be excellent cranking rods, and enough backbone to get clean rips and pops out of the grass without loading up and causing the bait to dig in further. And the best part...............they are $40 at Walmart.

I loved my SCII Mojo 6'8" M/XF for finesse wacky rigs/flick shaking. That rod met it's unfortunate demise in a rod locker lid incident a few years ago, and instead of using St. Croix's excellent customer service, I traded the broken rod to my rod builder towards a small discount on a new rod I requested, and had it replaced with a custom build on a Batson 6'8" M/XF Immortal spinning rod blank........for all intents and purposes, it's pretty much the same rod with a slightly higher price tag due to it being a custom build, and a few personal touches I had my builder add. If that rod, for some reason, ever meets it's demise............I will probably go out and buy another 6'8" Mojo on the new SCIII blank. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the the Batson blank and/or the build, but some off the shelf rods just have "it", and the 6'8" M/XF St Croix's across the board have "it".

Any day/week now is when the new stuff for the next year from BPS comes out....at least online and in the printed catalog. Chances are if they are gone from the website, they are replacing it very soon with something new.

It's not all it's cracked up to be. I like this option much better.

My wife and I are santa claus, the tooth fairy, and the easter bunny.............at least in this house. And that's the way it's gonna stay for as long as I can help it.

Living in an area with Pike...........I don't have much say in the manner. I have often given thought to the theory of: "a crankbait that catches a lot of fish is special, don't lose it"..............then I get the bait bit off, tie on another one, and keep catching fish. Maybe I have all the good ones.

Noel showed me this trick, and I do it too. Except with Mustad KVD 2x short triple grips. Has never been and issue. I will loose the bait to a pike, or a snag on the bottom before I ever pull the hook eye open enough for it to be a problem. I get too much fouling of the front treble around the nose of the bait using split rings.

yup... April -Nov. is bass season Nov-April is reloading, and going to the range season. I will ice fish occasionally

Like some posters above, I don't like the same rod for jerkbaits and chatterbaits. I like a shorter (6'6") medium power fast, with a soft tip rod for jerkabits. This rod doubles nicely as a treble hooked top water rod, a weightless soft plastic jerkbait rod, and a close quarters squarebill rod for me. and I like a 7' MH power rod for chatterbaits, and I also use this rod for swimjigs, spinnerbaits, ripping squarebills and lipless cranks out of grass, and frogs. Say you have a $100 budget........ Get 2 Berkley Lightning rod shocks for $50/each, they are outstanding moving bait rods, and a better option than trying to make one rod fit both. I use them in the lengths/powers listed above. And I am very pleased. They may look funny sitting on the deck with my custom built rods, but I don't care.

President is proven, and has long been a front-runner in the "bang for the buck" arena. You already have one, stick with what you know, you'll have no regrets. I have bought Shimano's and Daiwa's that were $20-$50 more than Presidents..........and have never been impressed with them. I have also bought the next Pflueger up.........the Purist. It's basically a President with an aluminum frame. Funny thing is, I didn't like it as much as the President. If you want to save a few bucks, don't poo-poo the Trion, it's also very good, and a leader of the pack for the most bang for the buck in it's price range as well. I have both, and both serve me well.

I downsize, and like one that's subtle. Winter here is the few weeks before ice up, and a few weeks after ice out. The Yum 2.5" crawbug does a good bit of work for me as jig trailer during this time. Once the water starts warming up (or before it falls into the 40's) into the mid 50 degree range, is when I start adding bulk and movement to my jig trailers again. Unless it's windy, or the water is dirty. Then a little more bulk or movement helps, even in cold water.

Wacky rigging a 4" Yum dinger on a dropshot rig is "go-to" technique for me in the post spawn period, and anytime during the summer-late fall when the bite is tough and bass seem to be relating close to the bottom on the deep weed edge or isolated light cover out side the main grass beds. If they are suspended and the bite is tuff, a dinger on a wacky jig gets more bites than one on a drop shot for me, but the dropshot shines when they position closer to the bottom and seem to not be willing to bite jigs, t-rigs, other standard bottom contact presentations,etc.... I like a 3/8 oz sinker, as I am usually fishing this in 8-15 feet of water. It pulls the bait down quick, and I will get a lot of bites on the fall as they are not used to seeing a wacky rigged stick bait rocket to the bottom. Once the sinker hits the bottom, I let the dinger continue to "drift" down on slack line until it too is on the bottom............picture it this way.... Sinker and dinger go screaming down, sinker hits bottom and stops. Dinger pauses ever so slightly once the sinker hits, and then changes speed from a fast fall, to a painfully slow fall. Once the dinger is on the bottom I lift it up, but not moving the sinker. I would say almost 80% of my bites on this technique are on the short time between the fast fall, and the slow fall...........I often never know there is a fish on unless I see the line "tick" during the slow fall period, or when I feel pressure when I go to tighten the slack back up. If nothing grabs it on the first fall/pause/fall lift................I let the dinger fall slow in place again a couple more times without lifting the sinker off the bottom, and often get bit by a fish who has come over to see what is going on. After 3-4 times of doing this, and no bite............I reel in, and make another cast few feet away from the last and repeat the process all over again. I don't soak it too often, or move it around a great deal underwater....other than the little lift/fall routine. I use my regular drop shot gear. 6'9" M/XF custom made spinning rod/Pflueger Pres. 30 size reel with 10lb braid and an 8lb fluoro leader #2 VMC spinshot hook + 3/8's oz pencil shape dropshot sinker....I go down to 1/4" oz sometimes if I am staying in less than say 10 feet exclusively, or bump up to 1/2oz if I am fishing 15' + exclusively....but until I find out what depth they are preferring that day, I seem to stick with 3/8's as it's a good "general purpose" size..........sometimes changing sinker size and fall rate is a good way to mine a few extra bites out of an area that you have already caught a few good fish out of. I generally keep the bait 12" or so above the sinker.........ALL THE TIME. Color of the bait seems to matter little.........but I like black and blue on a cloudy day if the water is stained, green pumpkin/chart tail on sunny days in stained water, plain green pumpkin in clear water, and some kind of watermelon on really sunny days in extremely clear water. White seems to be deadly in the late summer/early fall and will out fish the other colors handily no matter what the water/sky conditions.

Bass probably 98% of the time in open water. I focus on Rock bass a couple times a year in the spring, esp. when I have the kids out. It's non-stop action for them on small cranks, spinner baits and jigs. I focus on bluegills/perch/crappies when bass fishing is uber slow, and I see lots of them on the graph. It can be one after another for hours on end with the UL and a small gulp minnow on a panfish sized dropshot rig. I won't go looking for Pike on purpose, but if they are on fire I am not complaining, as long as I am not losing too many lures. I typically only ice fish for panfish. I would like to try to Muskie fish, but there are none in my home lake, and buying the heavy equip. and traveling for them is not in the cards right now. I never target walleye, bullheads, carp, trout, steelhead, salmon, or any other species that live in the waters around here..........just not my thing.

This.................unless your cranking in, threw, and around a lot of grass. Then a 7' M power Fast action rod is what I prefer. It will handle things like 1.5/2.5 square bills, 1/2 oz lipless baits, and deep divers up to a 5xd very well.

I keep it simple: Power Pro for braid........Original works great for me, I may try the MaxQuatro this year. Seaguar for fluoro. I like Red label for leader material, and in the rare occasion I use Fluoro as a main line, It's Inviz-X on spinning, Abras-X on casting. And Trilene for mono, in the rare instances I ever use mono any more. Of all the Trilene mono's, I prefer Sensation on spinning gear, and big game on casting.