Masshole Mike

dude, nice brownie!

Did you forget that this is the initiation if you want to fish on my boat? I wonder if I forgot to tell Masshole? Hmmmmmmm, oh well he'll find out this Sunday @ Webster ;D great.... ;D

oh man that's a nice fish! huge respect for the monsters you consistently catch HC, very impressive. one of the first things russ told me when i went fishing with him last weekend was "this is gonna be an expensive day for you..." to which i asked "and why is that?" russ' reply? "cuz after today you're gonna wanna fish swimbaits!" he was right. we matched each other with 3 fish that day. mine went 2.5, dink, dink. russ' were 6, 5.5, and a "lil ole" 3. i was sold right then and there! so yeah, the baitmonkey thanks you, russ. from the bottom of his cold, dark heart.... ;D

too late for that now! it has more tail wiggle without the lip anyway that and im TERRIBLE at installing lips :-/ i always put em in crooked. just a suggestion, it looks great anyways! can't wait to see the finished product dave. keep up the great work bud. 8-)

the bait's comin along nice dave! have you thought about maybe putting a small lip on it to drop the head a little? i'd have to imagine a small lip would dig the head in a little deeper when you're crankin it, creating more of a wake and maybe even more action?

I got set-up I'll sell ya for $180 ;D ;D make it $200 and it's a deal! ;D

congrats sam! 8-)

$140?! heck, if you don't scoop up that deal, gimme a contact number and i will! and i understand matt's an okuma rep, but i've gotta imagine there's a reason he uses those rods (other than being sponsored by them). judging by the quality of his own products, i can't imagine he'd endorse anything he doesn't feel to be a quality product. plus with the excellent review these rods got on tackle tour and all the positive replies here, i think i'm pretty much sold on one. next order of business... anyone got an okuma swimbait rod they'd wanna get rid of?! 8-)

fish chris ain't got nothin on me! ;D

that was one of the reasons i was looking at the okuma's, i read on matt's site that's what he recommends and uses them. and like you said, there are better sticks out there but these seem to be almost unbeatable for the price. slomoe, what reel is that you've got paired with the 7'11"?

been looking into getting a swimbait rod to throw baits like the mattlures bluegill and baby bass, ms slammer, etc. the tackletour review for the okuma big bait rods highly recommends them, especially for their low price, but i was just wondering what comments people have on these rods before i go and purchase one sight-unseen. i'm looking at the 7'6" heavy (has to fit in my car still, not sure the 7'11" will!) anyone that owns one want to throw their .02 cents in? thanks guys! also, anyone know of any websites offering reduced prices on these rods? ebay?

x2

a barber you are not, my friend! good effort though, although i'm sure kuma would disagree.

i use the berkley digital lip grip scale, at $50 it's less than half the price of a boga. never had a problem with it and the lip gripper has come in handy many times. http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/product/standard-item.jsp?id=0011558014820a&navCount=3&podId=0011558&parentId=cat90002&masterpathid=&navAction=jump&cmCat=MainCatcat20166-cat90002&catalogCode=IJ&rid=&parentType=index&indexId=cat90002&hasJS=true

some healthy 3lbers you got there, keep killin em bud! 8-)

great story cj, and nice fish gavin! if he grows up to be anything like his old man, he's gonna be one HELL of a fisherman (looks like he's already well on his way!) 8-)

i fished whitehall in hopkinton with bronzeback bomber yesterday and it was sloooooow. we asked probably 6 or 7 other boats how they were doing and everyone said "not too good today" so it wasn't just us. seems like it'd be a great fishery though, we just had a hard day.

blaine is definitely a high-class guy (even though he's a yankee's fan! speakin of, how many games back are they now?! )

met up with paul (bronzeback bomber) this morning at 5am and hit whitehall reservoir in hopkinton, ma. we were on the water around 5:30 and paul almost immediately put two little guys in the boat throwing a topwater on the glass-like surface. we moved into a cove and started working pads and downed timber and i managed a decent little 2 1/2 on a junebug senko. by 7am we had about 6 fish in the boat but nothing over that 2 1/2. after that the bite slowed way down and we put maybe 2 more fish in the boat all day, one of them being a tiny little pickerel. at one point we were working around the outside edge of a large lily pad area that extended off the shoreline. i cast a floating frog towards the back of the pads and as soon as my frog landed, the pads about 2' behind it pushed up and boiled like there was a big ole hawg moving around underneath them. i asked paul if he saw the pads lift up but he hadn't been payin attention to where my cast landed, so i made a cast to the same spot and again the pads lifted up and the water boiled. so i start working the frog back across the pads and whatever was under the pads starts chasing my frog down. i'm getting pumped now thinking the end of my line is about to be smashed by a giant! just as i think it's going to strike i see a baseball size head pop up out of the water, scope my frog and go back under, only to dart under the pads towards my frog, popping up literally right underneath the pad my frog is sitting on. as i look closer i realize my frog is being stalked by a HUUUUUGE bull frog! this thing was massive! it chased my frog down through the pads, and once it tracked it down he actually attacked it and swallowed the d**n thing. paul and i were in awe! paul's tryin to grab the camera and i'm just laughin my @55 off as this gigantic bull frog is swimming around with my frog in it's mouth. he eventually let me go and swam away, just as paul managed to pull his camera out, but it was definitely one of the strangest things either of us had ever seen. so that's odd story #2 for the day... (odd story #1 would have to be the two guys backing their boat into the water with all the straps still attached to the trailer... we had a good laugh at that one first thing in the morning!) later, we're working the edge of an island in the main body of the lake. now keep in mind there is a speed limit of 12mph on this reservoir. it's not enforced at all, and we even might have gone over a couple times during runs to different parts of the lake, but for the most part everyone abides by the speed limit to some degree. so anyways, we're working the edge of this island as we see some jackass go buzzing by at about 30 right up the middle of the lake. we don't pay much mind until we look up again and notice that this red canoe that had been paddling out in the middle is now overturned. paul turns to me and asks "did that canoe just flip over?", but neither one of us knew if it was just some kids messing around or if it had really capsized. as we're watching the canoe, two boats go zipping right by it, and there's another guy sitting in his boat fishing no more than 100 ft. away from this canoe. no one is going over to help this capsized canoe so paul and i reel in as fast as we can, jump into our seats and fly across the lake to where they are. as we get closer we can see two adults in life vests holding on to the overturned canoe. paul yells to them to ask if they're alright and the woman starts waving us over. we idle over to them and i reach out and grab ahold of the two people in the water. we give them a hand getting into paul's tracker and strapped their now sunken canoe to the back of the boat. as we're idling over to shore so they can empty it out and get back on the water, the guy that was sitting 100 ft. away from all this cruises between our boat and the shore line. by now we've calmed down a little and are making light of the situation, and paul asks the guy "how ya doin?" only to be met with a blank stare. so again paul asks "any luck today?" and again only a blank stare, as if we've just ruined this guy's spot by dragging a capsized canoe and two soaking wet people through the area. the guy never said a word, no "everyone alright?" or "need a hand with that?", NOTHIN' just cruised on by and kept goin. needless to say the two people in the canoe were extremely gracious that we stopped and helped, as they were both struggling just to keep the canoe from sinking, never mind having to keep themselves afloat. we made sure they were all set and went back to fishing, but neither one of us could believe that not one other person stopped to help these two people in obvious need of assistance. later as we were loading paul's boat out of the right side of a 2-lane ramp, a guy in a saab pulls up and starts backing his trailer down the other side. he makes about 10 attempts before pulling up next to us and rolling his window to ask "think you could pull ahead so i could load my boat?". just then we both realize it's the guy that had cruised by without saying a word or stopping to help. so paul pulls up and we start talking about the day's events, and as we're watching the guy in the saab try to back his trailer down we're both shaking our heads because this guy just can not back it in straight. he's got the whole ramp tied up because his trailer's jack knifed sideways across both lanes, and we could do nothing but laugh and think about how much it must hurt to be such a moron. all in all a very interesting day. i had a great time getting to meet and fish with paul and i hope it's not long before we get to do it again. hopefully next time we can focus on catching fish instead of giant bull frogs and capsized canoes!

and today's fishing experience is brought to us by the letter G... as in G-HETTO 8-) at least there was some redemption, in the form of that hawg that ran just shy of 6lbs even, not to mention the 5 1/2 and 3 1/2 kickers that russ smashed with the "g-model" modified slammer (thrown on the newly-modified alpster pool cue rod). i managed two dinks and a decent 2 1/2 on a watermelon trick stick, and dirk killed em pullin in a 5 1/2+ and a bunch of good keepers. it was a great morning despite the constant downpours and slow bite. and ronnie, i was considering letting russ throw the slammer on my fenwick pitchin stik, but i didn't think he could bear the burden of breaking a techna, your rod, AND an elite tech all within a few hours of each other! ;D

another great vid russ, you guys crack me up!

i fish a swim senko exactly like i fish a senko if i'm throwing real shallow, but i also like a reel-reel-pause retreive if there's more vegetation in slightly deeper water. i also have had a lot of success burning swim senko's topwater. the tail kicks off a good wake and gurgle, much like a buzzbait. i've actually caught more fish on this technique this year than any other.

man oh man russ, always comin through with the sweet vids. sooo... when do i get to be in one? (and let's just hope it's not of me trying to pull another treble hook out of a finger!)

:-? wow... haha!

that's awesome. my niece is only a little over a year old but i've already bought her first pole for her. of course it's a fisher price and uses magnets to pick up rubber fish in the tub, but i figure if i get her started that much earlier she'll be outfishing her uncle mike in no time! great pics and nice to see the kids out enjoying nature. 8-)