fooman

Scott,thats the problem with living in central Illinois..Seems every other body of water has a differant HP limit...10hp limit on 1 body of water and a 40hp limit down the road with the same size lake.. Right now I'm wanting a new bass boat to fish some bigger power-plant lakes but I like to fish the 10hp limit lakes also... I'm looking at deep-v's so I can add a kicker but I do not like the lower front decks...its getting frustrated I know the lakes down that way have bass tournaments so I might swing down and see what those guys are using

I use Cabelas neoprene covers $5-$6..they have a built in ring to hook the baits to search Cabelas for reel covers

Give yourself a big pat on the back...very clean

Nice river smallie

I bought 1 that I put on a spare rod for a loaner.. 1st thing I did was tear it down and clean everything out and re-oiled it..seems like a decent reel for $30

BP not showing any Curado's..only 300 combo's

I just bought 2 President spinning reels and cant wait to try them out.. Weather was nice here yesterday but now we have some more snow on the ground today

The EverStart Maxx 29 battery has 875 cranking amps,205 reserve ,I was thinking about picking 1 up for my 2-man for $75

I've used the speed clips but have since changed over to the duolocks.. Never had a problem with either one but have had problems with cheap no-knot fasteners breaking

I have the BPS retriever and a telescopic golf ball retriever I use

x2

Jerky,smoked salmon,fruit and PowerBars..no more chips or sunflower seeds in the boat.. as for drinks Monster in the morning,gatorade and water

he said he fished it 2-3 times per week though so its not that "unfished anymore" I'm the only one who fishes it and I never keep bass so I would consider it pretty unfished. IMO that might work against you depending on how old the pond is.. Alot of the farm ponds here in Illinois that haven't been fished are full of stunted bass because of the competition for food.. I have had better luck catching larger bass where the pond has been selective harvested,meaning a few people are keeping smaller bass.

Sufix has a rebate right now http://www.sufix.com/FishingLine/USA/images/E2.jpg

I know guys who use a file holder that you can buy a Staples,office depot

I have targeted carp specifically.. I've taken many nieces,nephews,neighbor kids and my own out to the river to catch carp..at the end of the day you cant wipe the grin off their faces.. They dont care what the species it is as long as they caught a big thrashing fish..

At 1st I was told they were out and they sent them out at random.. Then AFTER I place an order they can send me 1.. What I thought was funny is they sent the catalog in a seperate box than with my order.. I do agree its the principle.. As for the discount I get them in my email every so often also

I'm not saying Rat-l-traps or Rapala's are best..I'm saying buy more than a couple brands(its an excuse to buy more lures ;D):Rat-l-traps,Rapala,Frenzy,Yo-zuri,LC,Bass Pro.. If 1 brand is not producing try another,they all make a differant sound and the bass will tell you which 1 they want that day..The next day it might be a differant brand.. Some days they may not want any sound at all ,thats when a lipless with the bb's removed comes in handy.. Dont limit yourself to 1 brand

I haven't tried the SK Red Eye Shad yet but have used all the others..I think differant baits give out differant sound or have a differant action..Usually I have found that when they quit hitting on Rat-L-trap I can switch to a Rattlin Rap or Frenzy and go back and catch some more fish

Right now dont be in a hurry,in the spring Dicks,Cabelas,Bass Pro and Gander will have their kayaks on sale and you might be able to get a better kayak for your $$$ Also dont be afraid to look at a blemished yak(scratched,crooked decal,etc) a couple of guys I know bought some Wilderness System yaks that were blems at a decent price

I know what your going thru..been 1 of the longest winters I can remember. I usually ice fish to make the winter go by faster but could not hit the hard water this year.. I'm going to hit a shallow river 1st for some smallies then the ponds because they will thaw and warm up faster. Remember the Illinois record largemouth was caught in Feb and the smallie,spotted record were caught in March

Welcome It's hard to give you advise with it being a public pond and not knowing how many bass are being kept by other fisherman.. But I can give advise about private ponds..I belong to a club with a pond and the bass started getting thin and stunted..We had a bioligist come in and shock the pond and we had way to may small bass in there..He advised us to take out 150 bass under 12" After his advise we went and looked at our harvest books and found out nobody took any bass out in over 5 years.We all assumed somebody else was harvesting bass.. The 1st time out I took home 3 small bass and fried them up and IMO they tasted like crap. Everything else caught the rest of the year were put in a livewell and transfered to a new sub-division pond.. Without the added compition now the bass are starting to come back around with some decent size..

I just recieved my Illinois Outdoor News paper and Cabelas has an add for Rapala Days March 1-16 25% off: x-rap shad,x-rap sub walk,DT fat 03,jointed shad rap, and tail dancer.. I ordered some tackle yesterday and asked about the sale and they said it was only at the stores.. So if you have a store near you it looks like you can get sub-walks for about $5.50

Tony Sign up for the Cabelas reward card,they will email you discounts:spend x amount and get x amount off As for the hard bound catalog when I called they said they were out,but when I placed an order I asked for 1 and they sent it

I have all my baits in Plano 3700 boxes organized:shallow cranks,mid-depth cranks,top-water,jigs,etc then those go into a large bag. My plastics are stored in the bag they came in but organized by type:worms,lizards,creatures,etc and put into large zip-lock bags then into its own tackle bag