jettech

What are the crappie doing out there or do you even bother with them?

Boy do I need to hook up with you sometime. Ive been wanting to learn that lake since I found it late last summer.

As an aircraft maintenance technition of 15+ years I can tell you a thing or two about graphite and carbon composite materials. Knowing what I know I would never buy a graphite framed reel. Composite materials are used in aircraft because of their strength to weight ratio. They are made basically by (totally untechnical explanation follows) gluing and baking sheets of composite together with granular patterns opposing each other to help with strength. If different shapes are needed they are pressed and formed into this shape while in the heated state. This is all fine for flight control surfaces and flooring panels and secondary structure. You will not find composite materials being used in areas of stress. The materials will not hold up. Composite materials chief enemy is MOISTURE. If moisture gets in between the layers of laminant it will cause them to delaminate (pull apart). All strength is lost at this point and fracture is eminent. Seeing how a fishing reel is pretty much useless if you are gonna keep it away from moisture I would not buy one no matter the manufacturer claimed.

Now.....your just gonna confuse me.

Thanks, I just may take you up on that. Is it harder to learn than a baitcaster?

Wacky Rig?

How do you throw those? I tried one when I was a teen, tangled it beyond belief and never picked up another one.

I had no idea that rods were rated for weights. I'm new to all the modern stuff. I don't even know what the MH relates to. I know its Medium Heavy, but have no idea as to Med heavy what. Never had to worry about all that with my Zebco. It could throw everything. On the budget I'm on, if you've got to have a different rod and reel setup for everything you throw with casting gear, I'll just go buy 3 Zebco Omega Z3's and be done with it.

Thanks for the link...that'll save the boards about a dozen question posts. ;D That answered a whole lot of questions

a split shot rig? Ive seen this on the boards many times but cant find an explanation of the term.

I have two questions as I am new to this whole thumb thing. 1) Try as I might I cant effectively throw light weights with my rig. Is it a technique problem or do I need a lightweight rig for light tackle. by Light tackle I mean 3/8 oz. or less. (think 7 inch Rapala floating minnows) I also have trouble throwing short throws around 25' or less. I can chunk it 40-80 feet no problems. If I try to throw short it dives down in a line drive hard. The only way I can throw short is to put way to much arch on it to be practical anywhere but wide open water. I have a BPS Rick Clum combo. 6.3/1 reel 6' MH rod. :-?

thanks for the input guys.....I may learn how to do this yet. 8-)

Floating? :-? :-[ dont I feel like a freaking idiot. Thanks.... I'll go get some this week.

I was at my fishing pond of choice this weekend and the water was clear. I was only passively fishing, more like experimenting and I rigged up a C-rig. I thought I'd pull it through the shallow water where I could see it and get a feel for the movement and how it will work under water. I had a 1/2 oz weight and about 18 inches of leader out. I had a 4 inch plastic Zoom something or other. I pulled it slowly about 2 feet at a time and all it did was drag the bottom. I was thinking it would get up into the water and not settle so fast. Didn't look very appetizing. I tried to put on my best fish thinking cap too. the only way to get it up in the water was to bob it as I dragged it and then it would sink quickly to the bottom, then drag some more. Am I missing something here? I got a little action by doing my pulls in a diagonal up and back pulling motion, but this is not how I read to work this rig. Will it have better action as the water gets deeper? thats the only thing I can think of, due to the relative density between the plastic and the water pressure at depth the worm would seem lighter and have more of a responsive reaction off the bottom. but I could just be way over thinking this whole thing. HELP!!! :-?

Definitely, Go by the motor. Spend a little cash and have them compression checked, as the motor is gonna be the biggest expense if it dorks up.

I highly recommend used. I got a 17 foot '97 Astro last year w/ 120 on it. Very well kept and engine in good shape for 5 grand. Paid cash and I love it. It may not be the best and shiniest, but some one else ate all the depreciation and it floats in the same water as a 40,000 dollar rig. Now being new, I dont tournament fish and have to beat 2000 guys to the best hole on the lake either though. There were a lot of 8-9 grand rigs ni the Boat Trader a couple of weeks ago. You would even have some money left over to have a mech go over it and clean the carbs.

Told you I was gonna ask some. I just finished reading all the articles on using your fish finder. I still have one question. What vantage point am I looking from? My finders scroll from right to left. Is the picture being presented to me a side to side view or front to back view? :-[ Once ya'll clear this up for me, I've got to turn off those little fish symbols. Told ya I was less than informed about this stuff.

Hey what happened? This got moved yesterday and now its back with some posts missing. I was really hoping for a get together in Lexington.

Thanks for the tip....I've just heard about that recently and will put that on my list of places to go.

Yeah A buddy of mine went last year, and said it was dry. But weren't all the lakes around here? Upper sardis was 14-17 down all summer Arkabutla was almost jon-boat only. Enid was about the same as Sardis. I hope we get lots more rain over the nest 4-5 months.

According to TWRA. It has consistently ranked among the best bass fishing lakes in the state. Has anyone been there? It's only about 1 1/2 hour drive from the house. I may have to try it. Any info would help.

Wow....You guys really know how to make someone feel welcome really quick. Thanks for the ideas, or shall I say for sharing your experiences I will definitely take them to heart and give a try to all of it. Now I must find out what all these little thing-a-ma-jigs are ;D... That'll be the fun part though won't it?

thats just what I was thinking FP. I found it finally...its called side imaging sonar. shoots three different frequency beams in about an 85 degree arc under your boat up to 480' in a pass. the returns look like slightly grainy black and white photos. Doesn't matter about water conditions or light or anything.....its really neat. The cheapest unit Ive found is about a grand+. That means it'll be a long time before one lands on my little boat. I need to find articles on reading your fish finder. I'll just bet there are some here

In the music world its called G.A.S. Gear Acquisition Syndrome. I had really bad gas there for a while. I like this phrase better though. If your monkey gets too out of control, you may have to have your wife/girlfriend/significant other spank the monkey. that'll set him straight.

If you'll go to the hummingbird home page, look at the first page at the top. If it really works like that it could change the whole way people approach this sport. At least the rich ones anyway.