ww2farmer

A Right now it's the Daiwa Lexa/Exceler platform.

What ever you say expert. I know what works for me. My reels perform better with lubed bearings as opposed to dry. But then again I fish with "junk" ....lmao.

If you like Mosins, don't ever get into M1 garands, it will lead into a lifetime addiction that will leave you broke Lol.

All I do is clean the exterior up good, and put some oil on the worm gear for the level wind, and a few drops in the spool bearings. If they need a full service, off to a specialist the go. I know it's time to send them to a pro when performance is reduced and my basis maintenance is not bringing it back. New reels usually go 3-4 years for me before I need that done,and I fish 100+ days a year.

When the water gets "dirty" here, usually mid to late summer from algae blooms, I have caught them flipping and pitching on the deep (12'-13') weed edge. It's a little more water temperature sensitive than the largemouth bite, as they don't seem to show up regularly until it dips into the low 70's, but over the years it's been consistent enough to expect it, especially in known smallmouth producing areas.

I am a junk fishing specialist.

Same, I don't subscribe to this "panic box" theory. If what I usually use when the bites tuff isn't working, then it is what it is, that's fishing.

Pre-spawn is one of the times of the year that the smallmouth in my home lake can be caught doing anything. I just "go fishing" and catch them right along side largemouth most days. They don't move into the shallow back water areas like the largemouth do,but on the main lake, they are intermixed, and it's seemingly random which one your going to catch. If I want to target them specifically, sometimes I hit known higher percentage smallmouth spots, but even then, the green ones are there too.

ww2....because my other hobby is collecting WWII militaria,weapons,gear,and doing WWII living history/reenacting. farmer....because I have worked on farms all my life.

FWIW...........I know nothing about bigger motors, like you my boat has a smaller 4-stroke..................BUT, my boat is an 07' model year hull with a 06' motor...........new from Tracker Marine/BPS. I ordered my boat in Dec. of 06' and they got it in Feb. of 07' so they were probably using the remaining stock of 06' motors on the early 07' builds. Maybe that situation is what you have there?

Just another thing to consider................I see a lot of people whining about "tip heavy" rods when the hold them in a store with nor reels on them, and/or tags, anti-theft thingies, etc....festooned to the blank. Get the store to take that crap off, and put a reel on it before you decide it's tip heavy.

That they are..............but depending on the heads you got they might be a royal PITA to rig and keep rigged. The Berkley Havoc Bottom Hopper worms are what I use, they are more buoyant than the Zoom and Robo worms you have, but not as buoyant as the Z-man or SK Elaztech worms,. BUT, FWIW, your Zoom and Robo worms will work and work fine on shaky heads, the "floating" worm thing on a shaky is over stated, and IMHO in most situations kind of nonsense.

Because I am using it, if I didn't have any confidence in it, it wouldn't be in my rotation.

Ladies and gentlemen, heading into the first straight-away, and taking an early lead in the "what the.....??? are you kidding?" post of the year contest is the the above quote.

I like cats, and dogs too......... I pretty much like any animal, especially the delicious ones. LOL Anyone that I have ever met that was "anti-cat" is usually covering up other area's of personal deficiency. Sure I get mad at them (the cats) when they act a fool. Lets just hope this thread doesn't fall into a pee pee stretching contest of tales of cat hatred, abuse and shooting them. Cause you know that's what "real" men do, shoot and curse cats.

Sorry to here that buddy. Your cousin sounds like he's being very immature and stupid, and not being held accounatable. BUT...life has a way of teaching lessons to those who act like that. That's probably of little comfort to you right now, but just remember the good times you had with the dog, again, sorry to here about this.

I spend between "none of your business" and " I don't want my wife to find out".

My favorite is the Red Eye shad.

That's what I use too, plus it's nice that it has a set of split ring pliers built in. I also keep a pair of kids scissors on the boat, as well as some needle nose pliers with a wire cutter, in-case I have to cut a hook or something.

yes

I use 20, as well as 30, and 50.............and 10. Let the cover/conditions dictate your line choice.

I have a handheld Berkley that costs $20 that agrees weight-wise with the weights on my $300+ dollar tournament weigh-in scale, as well as other clubs scales. Good enough for me. If I have two fish that are close in weight I balance beam them to be sure....99% of the time the hand held scale is right.

I like green pumpkin as an all around color, works every where in every water color. I like watermelon red stick baits and worms in really clear water. I am not "color matters" guy, but that don't mean I don't have favorites for one thing or another. It probably matters little to the fish.

If you like Sweet Beavers and Super Chunks, look into the Berkley Havoc Pit Boss, I used to use both the Sweet Beaver and Super Chunk, and have replaced them with the Pit Boss's. Here is a price per bait break down for you (based on TW prices) R.I. Sweet Beaver 4:20....$4.79 per 10....or .47each Zoom Super Chunk ....$2.39 per 6...... about .47 each also Berkley Havoc Pit Boss...$2.99 per 8.........about .37 each Berkley Havoc Pit Chunk...$2.99 per 8 .....about .37 each And believe me, I have no regrets switching. People might think .10 a bait is chump change, but when I go through 1000 baits a season, that extra $100 I saved while catching just as many, and as good of quality of fish helps. Fishing doesn't have to be needlessly expensive, it's expensive enough as it is.

Green for me, for no other reason than the first spool of braid I bought years ago was green, and I just never felt the need to change. Besides the wal-mart 5 mins from my house sells green power pro, so it's easy to get.