ww2farmer

Same.............I can skip way better with a mag break reel than I ever could with a centrifugal. External adjustment on the fly when skipping is a big plus too. For straight up casting, flip a coin, both work fine, in fact centrifugal are less fussy with lighter weights.

I keep it simple, the only plastics in my arsenal are Berkley Havoc, Gulp, and power bait. All of my hard baits are Strike King, and my jigs are home made with Boss components.

I use them. 10' might be a stretch, 6'-8' is more like it. Just a little deeper than a square bill. I like them in the spring when they are not coming up for a jerkbait, or biting a lipless bait.

3" Gulp leech, Powerbait twitch tail minnow, 4" Havoc bottom hopper, Havoc Money Maker, and the small Havoc Pit Boss.

As many of you know from this thread http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/147512-i-feel-useless-sad-and-sick-to-my-stomach, my boss was horribly injured in a farm equipment accident three weeks ago (the day after Thanksgiving). Long story short, he lost his right leg from almost the hip down, and for a week or so post accident it was not known how this was going to go. He has slowly been getting better, and the last I heard (late last week) was doing ok. I guess this week he has made leaps and bounds improvements. Today I went to visit and was very shocked at how good he was doing. Sitting up, talking freely about everything, making plans for getting out and getting back to work, joking around, and just being .....well himself. I know he's got a long long way to go, and his attitude might suffer setbacks, but I know him well, and for the last 20 years, the one thing I know he's not is a a throw in the towel in the face of adversity kind of guy. Thanks for all the well wishes sent his way guys. And I'll keep you updated as he gets better.

If the mods could kindly put this thread to bed, I'll start a new one on his progress. I went to see him today and he was better than I thought.

Not hydrilla (because it ain't here in NY..........yet) but I punch milfoil all the time. Sometimes it's the best thing going, sometimes it's not. Fish can be caught out of mats from the minute they form here, to the day they vanish late in the year. I find mat punching to be at it's peak in the immediate post spawn, the bigger fish use the protection of the mats to recoup, and usually bluegill bed colonies are not too far away from the edge of the best mats, so easy meals are around. And also mat punching shines, during high skies, the shade of a mat on an otherwise feature-less flat is a fish magnet. Mats are pretty easy to fish if you have the right gear IMHO, I have a two prong attack. Over the top with a frog, if that works I stay with it, or if they are just boiling or not coming up for the frog at all, I'll punch. If neither work, I am off to do something else.

I have not yet dipped into the realm of blade baits, save for tying one on and just playing with them in the water. I know a guy who uses them effectively in cold water, while I am using a football jig, tube, A-rig, or dropshot.................and most of the time he is catching more than me with the blade, the only thing I have ever come close to matching his results with when his blade bite is on is the Ned rig.

Other than small ponds, and little parks on some of the lakes, shore access is limited for me, so I probably wouldn't fish as much.

I'd have a tuff time deciding between a cigarette butt, or shoelace.

Senko type bait, jig,and hollow body frog.

I never have been for not having a license, because I always have one, but I have been ticketed for not enough safety equipment in the boat. Which was just a mental lapse on my part. it rained the last day I was out, I took the life jackets out to hang them up to dry, I put mine back in, but forgot the 2nd one for a potential passenger. Well I had a passenger and got stopped the next time out, NBD small $25 fine, and the officer let me have his spare life jacket so we could keep fishing the rest of the day, and I dropped it off at the boat ramp attendants building at the end of the day, so it wasn't a total fiasco.

I put a link up, and it was taken down. Google search the topic, you'll find it.

I "bubba shot" all the time. 7'MH casting rod, 30lb braid, 15 or 17lb fluoro leaders. 3/0-5/0 VMC power-shot hook (depending on bait size) , and 1/2 -1oz sinker (depending on cover thickness and/or depth) tied DIRECT to the drop line. You can bubba shot any bait, I use the same baits I regularly pitch and flip with, creatures, craws, stick baits, straight tail worms, etc..... some times I downsize the bait, sometimes I don't.

Same......While some of my bigger bags were not caught with spinning gear, some of my winning bags were.

I put megastrike on Powerbait stuff. Still catches fish.

Except for the Red Eye Shad, I wouldn't use any of that crap

I've seen guys around here do it, and it's just insane to me. Either they have way way more money than I think they do, or a bad case of "keeping up with the Jones's" syndrome. To me a boat is a toy, and unless I am making money with it, I will try to do the best I can with the least amount of financial burden to me and my family, if that means a rubber inner tube, so be it..........lucky for me I can afford slightly better. LMAO

They work even better when it's the last one you have, and can't be bought locally.

Unless you live in an area that has big water/bad weather....a heavy glass rig IMHO is not practical or cost effective. I fish the western finger lakes (Honeyoe, Conesus) and other misc. smaller lakes in the area (Silver, Cuba, Waneta- Lamoka) outof a 17' tin....it's plenty good enough.........in fact, my next boat will not even be as "fancy" as my current one. In the next few years, I am going to get an 17' aluminum, mod-v, plain jane, all welded jon boat hull, and rig it up the way I want. I am sick of carpet, compartments, through hull fittings, and wires/cables running in impossible to get at places. All I need is a front casting deck with a decent TM LOL

NFL: Buffalo Bills NHL: Buffalo Sabres I'm a local homer. I don't have a favorite Collage program, MLB or NBA team, but I casually know whats going on.

For that price why not? It won't be the most refined combo,but for $5 who cares.

Black and blue, green pumpkin, and watermelon red

I am starting to see a pattern here........................................... God bless you brother for your service to the country, but it seems, by your own posts, that your life is always in turmoil with constant drama.

To fish.................a hollow body frog, at least when they are biting it. What has caught me the most? Probably to close to call between a jig or a stick/senko type bait.