Micro

Common prey?

I tried Seagar Invizx, hated the stuff, and never used it again. Yo-Zuri Hybrid is the perfect compromise between pure fluoro and mono. I use it for everything.

I know what you mean. Every snake around here is considered a Rattle-headed-copper-mocassin.

Where I live is almost completely devoid of Copperheads. I have found a whopping 3 in my whole life. I have to go to the next county over before they can be found. The woods around the lake I fish has some Copperheads. I took my son out last year looking for Copperheads at this place and took literally 5 steps off the trail and found one under a holly tree. Pretty snakes.

I went out today for about three hours. It's the first sun I've seen since the middle of last week. If it wasn't for the howling wind, it would have felt very warm. The water was all whipped up, the coves were cloudy, lots of leaves and dead grass and stuff being blown around. Starting the feel like spring

Mine was easy to backlash, too, until I got the hang of it. I set my spool tension knob so the lure drops slowly without any jiggle of the rod tip. Then I arbitrarily set the brake to the 1/2 way mark. From there, I fine tune the brake. The reel will cast 1/4 on up as well as any reel I've used. I think you have your spool tension knob set too loose.

When I was 7 years old, I was throwing an Ambassadeur round reel. I grew up on them. Now, get yourself another STX, but this time, try and learn to use it. Claiming that it's crap in light of the huge majority of inexperienced people that have learned to use it well just sounds silly. And, BTW, Skeet Reese isn't the only Abu pro, and isn't the only Abu pro to have won a Classic. IIRC, Duckett is a winner using the STX. I'm trying to remember a winner using the Patriarch. Maybe you can help me, since all that seems important.

Here's a typical adult Cottonmouth from my city of Newport News, Virginia. (This isn't me, its a fellow that participated in a the 2008 VA Herp Society's spring survey at Newport New Park). They do get bigger. Here's a great guide to telling Cottonmouths from harmless waternsnakes... http://fwie.fw.vt.edu/VHS/venomous-look-a-likes/cottonmouth-look-a-likes/cottonmouth.asp Plus, one more picture I took of a juvenile Cottonmouth in Newport News, VA...

Cart, don't take it personally. Who cares what Skeet Reese chose. Some people like centrifugal, some people like magnetic. Some people need both. A great, big, fat, slobbering "so what." Like I said, the vast majority of people like their STXs and have learned to use them. A very, very few never took the time or never got the hang of it. Just because you're one of them doesn't mean there is anything wrong with the reel.

I can't believe anyone would seriously consider buying that. As stated, it looks like a disaster waiting to happen. Its width to length ratio would make it extremely un-hydrodynamic. Its as flat-bottom as it gets, so theres no way it can take any chop. It looks like it would flip in a heartbeat. Total garbage IMO. Not even a good experiment.

The vast majority of STX owner have learned to use the reel with no problems. That you have to constantly adjust it is bunk. Either you take the time to learn to use it, or you don't. You don't need a reel with all the brakes on it the Patriarch has.

When He was done chuckling, He let me catch a really big pickerel. So we're good, now.

Bingo. If you are only catching 5 lb bass in open water, great, never touch the drag. Hook up with a 7 lber near a blowdown and see how that drag does. The fish, and its surroundings are the variable. There is not one, perfect setting. There's only a setting you haven't experience all the variable on. I'm not talking about cranking the drag down. I'm talking another 1/2 lb - which may be the difference between the drag (set for a 5 lb fish in open water) keeping that "fish of a lifetime" out of the blowdown, or letting it make it to that blowdown. IMO, there is no perfect setting that covers all scenerios.

I don't fish VA Beach/Norfolk area. I stay on then Peninsula and points west. Try the DGIF website. I understand there are some very good lakes down there.

Here's a baby I caught a few Octobers ago...

Virginia is the northernmost that Cottonmouths occur in the US. And my city has monsters. One local reservoir has produced 72 inchers that were as big around as you forearm. The trail around the lake even has signs. But I've never had a problem with them. I've walked up to them without knowing, stood next to them, and even accidentally squatted over one and never been bitten. The only time I've ever seen one aggressive is when I've gotten between it and the water.

I picked up a few of these today. I love lipless baits and have been itching to given them a try. Any one try them? Any opinions of them? Stringjam? T-Rig?

Billions and billions of years ago, there was nothing, except for a tiny speck of matter, unimaginably dense, trillions of times heavier than the not-yet-formed earth. Unable to contain itself, the speck exploded. Matter spread out at nearly the speed of light. Suddenly, a universe was born. Energy and matter reunited and became stars. Dust collected, compacted and became planets. They all came together, started the swirl and became solar systems. Solar systems came together and became galaxies. On an outer arm of just another galaxy, a star burned brightly. It's planets spun around it. The third planet was favored. Its center was molten lava, but its crust was hard. Has spewed from cracks in the crust and in millions of years an atmosphere was formed. Soon, rain fell. Acid at first, then water. Then the water evaporated and clouds formed. A few at first, then more and more. In a few million more years, there was water on the surface, and water in the sky. Complex acids swirled in the water. Then lightning flashed, and those complex acids became life. Over a billion or more years, those acids became cells. Those cells came together and formed the simplest forms of life. Over another billion years, those cells became animals. By now, hundreds of thousands of generations of life had come and gone. But life was here to stay. One day, life pulled itself from the water and breathed a breath. Millions of years passed and the life that had only been at home in the water found that environment hostile. The land life evolved. It became amphibians, then reptiles, then dinosaurs, the mammals. Life kept going until 65 million years ago something happened and most life was obliterated. But the creatures that had lived in the shadows of the great dinosaurs now ruled the earth. Over the next tens of millions of years, those animals lived and died and became the creatures we know today. Two billions years, life had come and gone. It grew, lived, reproduced and died. It all piled up. Over these millions and millions of years, all that life, all that organic matter became oil. One day man saw oil, perhaps bubbling up through the ground. Not knowing what it was at first, the intelligent humans found uses for it. For fuel for lamps, then fuel for vehicles, and in the last 60 years or so, for plastic. PLASTIC! Oh, what a magical material. It was tough, waterproof, and could be molded into infinite shapes. One day, a man named Hoover started a vacuum company. It survives even to this day. Long after Hoover died, engineers in the spirit of Hoover created new products. Among them was the Hoover Steam Vac Spin Clean. Engineers decided that plastic was the appropriate material to use for the water collection bucket. Plastic - that magical material made of oil. Oil, millions of years in the making. But when they were done designing it, they had 2 grams of plastic left over. Some higher power inspired them to put two flanged on the bucket about 3 inches apart that were totally unnecessary, but it did use up the rest of the left over plastic. Those flanges don't do anything, but they do make it hard to snap on attachments. I happened to buy one of these Steam Vacs. Today, I tried to snap the attachment on the bucket. I succeeded in breaking both of those flanges off. One hit me in each eye. I now have a nice knick on both eyelids. It was too perfect to be just chance. They snapped off like rockets, each hitting me in the center of each eye. It took me a few minutes to determine I was only minimally injured. Where's all this going, you might ask (if you've gotten this far)? Well, it's my attempt to explain that I think God loves complex irony, even if it takes billions of years to manifest itself. Good one, God. 5 billion years just to pop me in the eyes with some plastic.

Yeah, I know. But was the water that cold this time last year? I mean, it's like its still February around here. I'm starting to believe Al Gore is full of crap.

I went out today for a few hours. Still, very few bass in the shallows. Caught one buck bass on a jerk bait (Jackall DD Squirrel) on the first cast. Caught three pickerel, one almost 3 pounds (on Daiwa DC Shad SP). Even the crappie action seems slow, and it was poppin' this time last year. I am seeing some baitfish in the shallows. Some balls are starting to move into the coves. But everything seems delayed this year. The water is still cold. There is almost no folage on the trees. It still seems very winter-like. I looked at some photos I took at the same lake in mid-March last year and all the trees had some green. This year, it still looks like mid-winter. Anyone else notice this or am I just nuts?

I have this reel on my list. I may replace my Revo Ss with this reel. I've read the reviews and it seems to be very well regarded. My experience with Daiwa is that they are very, very good reels.

IMO, no. The Winch is a good long distance casting reel with heavy baits. Its deep spool filled with line is heavy. It's hard to get started but it goes a long time once it does. It will cast a heavy crank bait a long way. But this is different than flipping. You may be flipping a heavy bait, but you don't need all that line and you need it to be able to start up quickly without a hard cast.

OK, I haven't read the rules since I was a kid. The king isn't in check, but he can't move. My king can. So I thought it was a check mate. Oh yell. I'll swallow my pride and admit the game is right. Argghhhh. Just doesn't seem right. I kick *** and its a draw. > ;D

I'm in the minority, too. I'll adjust as a I see fit while I have a fish on. Occassionally I get the drag set just where I want it. But more often than not I fin tune it while the fish is on. I see nothing wrong with this whatsoever.

I bought a few Arukus, at the recommendation of Stringjam, a few months ago when we had a good lipless discussion going on (also bought some Jackall T/N70s). It's an impressive bait. Highly detailed, nice and durable finishes. Best of all, it has a very good action even at low speeds, and will sink and stand on its nose on the bottom. Since then, I've bought more. So far, the best three lipless I've ever fished are the Yo-Zuri Hardcore Drum, Jackall T/N70 and Spro Aruku Shad. All have great actions at very low to high speed, and all will nose-stand on the bottom.