.dsaavedra.

i emailed the fisheries guy at my local DNR to ask him if it was OK for me to use live bluegills as bait where i was fishing. in a very prompt repsponse he said it was perfectly legal. so after that i went to the local park which is OVERRUN by bluegills about 3-4" long and i'd just drop a hook w/ a pice of white rubber (the best bait for them) in the water and catch a small bluegill. then i'd hook it in the back just under the dorsal fin. make sure the hook is fully exposed. alot of times the hook will turn around and penetrate the bluegill instead of the bass on the hook set. then i'd do a technique used on the chesapeake bay for striper called "live lining". what you do is you cast out your little fishie and wait for a bite. when you get a bite, open your bail or click into freespool. then let the fish run w/ your bait for about 30 seconds. after that close the bail or engage the spool and just crank down on it, dont set the hook with your rod. works well for me. i get great hook up ratios.

I don't keep count. Dave, I haven't caught a bass yet this year either... :-/ whats wrong with you, southern boy? you're supposed to be all up on the bass!!!! ;D

ok your argument makes sense. it would be nice to have a second rod for fast access to a different lure. as far as the rod goes, im not sure how much they cost. i have never purchased one. i had one given to me as a gift (A very cheap crappy one) and it broke. at first it was easy operating, but shorly after it broke. i personally wouldnt reccomend a teloscopic rod either, cuz i feel they are un-reliable. what you might consider is just getting a slightly shorter than normal (maybe 5' 8" or 6') 2 piece spinning rod, and just breaking it down and sticking it in a backback. sure the tops of the two pieces of rod will be sticking out, but its not like you have to be concerned about looking like a dork when you fish ;D one of my buddies left his 2 pc. spinnign rod at my house once and i brought it to school to give it to him and i just broke it down and stuck it in my backpack with the tops sticking out.

i realllllllly like that shad color in the top picture! nice work!

lol thanks micro. i might just have to steal that logo! maybe i'll purchase some clear lure bodies from janns and do em up pretty and sell em.

that is one of the ugliest reels ive ever seen.

YES!!! im getting a little tired of seeing all the moved threads and "hi new member here" threads. they are clogging up that section and making it difficult to get to the information that is there.

i have no idea but like fishizzle, i am going to keep track this year. #of bass; 2008: 0 easy! ;D

smallieking, they are very easy to expand and collapse. all you do it just strech it out to its full length to expand it. and then just push the sections toward the butt to collapse. the process takes a few seconds. but according to rapalas website, the 2.5" version of the shallow shad rap is 3/16oz, the 2.75" version is 1/4 oz, and the 3.5" version weighs 3/8oz. so the only one i could see as being difficult to cast is the 2.5" version. im sure if you practiced in your yard casting your shallow shad rap and playing w/ the controls on your casting reel, you could cast it no problem once the reel is set up right. perhaps it would be easier to just buy a bigger bait instead of buying a new rod? im sure the fish wouldnt notice 1/4" increase in size. those crankbaits are more of a reaction strike than a finesse type lure, so it wouldnt matter much.

this is one of rapala's few baits that never "caught on" IMO. i never see anybody using them or talking about them. i like them. i bought one when they came out and i fished it once at a farm pond and pulled out a 2.5lber a few casts later. i never fished it since. im sure if i fished it more i'd catch more on it. but over all i'd say its a good lure and its worth getting one or two.

this lure has me very curious. anybody know how big it is? im gonna have to try to make one like this.

ok. well the spray paint i had was being retarded, and it wouldnt spray evenly, it would only spray in a few bursts, i think it was almost empty. so i just sanded off all the spray paint and then painted it with a paintbrush and black acrylic paint. then i coated it in outdoor polyurethane. its tough stuff, that polyurethane. at 8:00 tonight im gonna put a second coat of polyurethane on them.

thank you for the compliments everyone smallieking, no i did not build the bait, i just repainted it. the bait is a bass pro brand bait. i think its called "XPS Static Shad".

i have not tried them but they look pretty cool. i'd consider buying one if i needed a new inexpensive reel. i know Tin is a firm supporter of the pro max and the other max's.

no im pretty sure mine is a rudd. here is a picture of a rudd next to a golden shiner:

why cant you just use both baits on the same rod :-?

i like the way you think! that is exactly how i feel

ok thanks. i split the grips on my ugly stik this morning. since i dont have a rod turner, covering the middle section of the grip with thread was going to be way to difficult and time consuming, and it wouldnt even turn out even. so i primed it with black spray primer and then im going to put on a few coats of gloss black spray paint. i dont know what im going to do as a clear coat. maybe some polyeurathane?

ok thanks for the link. for $20 i think i'd rather try to make a bait similar to that myself! if it was only $5 or so i'd consider buying one but not for $20.

this is exactly what i do. i can use both and i do use both. its really a matter of what bait im using. i'll tend to flip mainly wacky worms with spinning and everything else with baitcasting.

well now i have a project for tomorrow! ;D i think i'll split the grips on my ugly stik spinning rod (no biggie if i mess up ;D) and then my berkley lightning casting rod. did you have a rod turner (i guess thats what its called) to rotate the rod when you were curing the epoxy/marbling? i dont have a rotator and that could be a problem.

that thing actually looks pretty good. i like how the tail flaps when you twitch the line. this looks just like what several dying baitfish have done when i've seen them floating at the top. might be worth a shot fishing that thing! is there a website i can go to to order them?

4/0 Gamakatsu G-Lock Offset EWG for everything that will fit on it! ;D

haha maybe i should have made this clear: I CAN AND DO FLIP/PITCH WITH A BAITCASTER TOO i can flip/pitch with a baitcaster. i can get distance by doing that, i can get quiet entries, i can get accurate casts. i practiced this quite a bit last fall. i just prefer to flip/pitch while using spinning tackle.

am i the only one who prefers flippin with a spinning rod? i can get much more accurate casts when i flip/pitch with my spinning rod. flipping w/ spinning gear just is more comfortable for me. maybe its the way you hold a spinning reel compared to a baitcast reel. im not sure. all i know is that im very good at flipping w/ spinning gear. so who else prefers spinning gear to flip/pitch?