Paul Roberts

X2 I always thought that if I ever got involved in the tournament deal I'd like to be a reporter and hop and skip amongst boats just to see what was going on all over the lake. Same with members here, I'd just like to see what others have and what they are doing.

Seems there are different quality lines within Daiwa lures. The Peanut and ShadMaster are less pricey than others. Both the aforementioned are very good plastic plugs, with poor hooks. Another good small plastic is the Cordell Big O. I like all sizes but the little 1/4oz has been especially good.

Thanks Roger, and Tom. I've been chatting with Jewel and they are modifying a head for swimbait use at my suggestion. I think they will be IT -for hollow bodies.

Hey Todd. Yeah winter just won't give in this year. I'm "up above" so I had about 10inches or so. Be happy you are in town. There is a spring at the end of my driveway that is running like never before -it sucked in the snowplow and then the garbage truck -both had to call in for assistance. I gave em zuchini bread while they waited lol. Despite the weather, there's still fishin going on. Unless I see the ponds capped in ice, I'm still game. (I don't own an auger anymore). ;D Let's get out one of these days. I'm sure we must be seeing each others boot tracks.

Nice pics. Great smile -says it all. Wish I had been there too.

;D Love the image of you in those first few moments. I know how you felt. Good job keeping everything together. And WOW! That is one heck of a MI bass. 23 and 7 goes together just about right. Congrats!

Nice! What fun. And Wow! I see you've been working hard upgrading your canoe! ;D

Hollow heads were designed for use with a jig head. For weedguard jigheads I insert the point 1/4 back from the head of the tube, thread the hook into proper position. Push the lead head inside the tube -don't worry about the hole it makes. Then push the leadhead forward and pop the eye out the nose of the tube. Will take a few to get the line-up right. Gotta play with heads as weedless hooks are usually 30degree or less eye which can cause the tube to spiral on retrieve. 90deg head solves this, and gives best action, but isn't as weedless. I like the STF weedguard head, a 90deg, for lighter cover. http://sfttackle.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&product_ID=93 I like the Owner Bullet head in 1/8 for tubes too, which ends up pretty weedless and nice stable action. You can adapt other things to hollow tubes too: -Internal weights as mentioned. You can make your own -a small (1/8) bell sinker to slide over the point and to the goose-neck. I found that these spiral (rotate) on retrieve so I gave up on 'em -but I probably haven't given them a fair shake. Maybe I need a heavier hook. I hate that rotating action. -For T-rigging, stuff a chunk of plastic up into the tube head, (a little water will help it squeeze up there). Shank-weighted goose-neck hooks are available too.

Spectacular day! Congrats. I like the post-spawn too. Hey, what's the jig head? Bullet?

If you're referring to ruffed grouse, I wholeheartedly agree (my nemisis) Roger I am. I now hunt dusky's here in CO, and make up the difference by using a bow. ;D

Bring the proper camera and nothing will happen ;D. That's why we so often hear -"sorry about the crappy cell phone pix". You really have to have one with you all the time, and bother to use it. I've been a devout grouse hunter, and I used say "Wish I had my shotgun," on days when I was flushing lotsa grouse while just hiking around or fishing. but I came to realize that having the shotgun along doesn't mean you are gonna actually get the shot. Our mind's are quicker than the hand. And in photography, our eyes compose all sorts of glorious things that're tough to capture "on film". Digital has revolutionized photography in that the camera's are tiny, have high resolution, and I can go home and make something decent out of most photos. The ducks, geese and baby rabbit above were all too far for the lens, but snip-snap in Photoshop and I have something decent. Now if only I could make hitting grouse that easy.

Awesome! I dig Slider heads too.

Noticed the same thing. Very nice baits -I like the Shad too. But the hooks need to be chucked.

Action and power varies with manufacturer, and rod line -there is no industry standard really. Too many possibilities for taper formulas and materials I guess. Quick background: Power is rated for line break strength (important when fighting fish) and lure weight (important when casting). Action is how that power is distributed. Rods have three functions: Casting, strike detection, and fighting fish. Softer actions tend to cast further, and often more accurately, loading more rod and being a bit slower on the response making aiming corrections somewhat less critical. Because they load more rod they can also absorb fishes fight more smoothly. I'm not a big proponent of this last as a useful advantage, however I wouldn't want to try to fight a fish on a non-bending oak dowel LOL. Stiffer actions (faster) provide a faster response time in hook setting. All other factors being equal stiffer also tends to offer more potential sensitivity for detection. You can really learn to adapt almost any rod, but some techniques/lure types work better with faster or slower actions. Jigs tend to require faster actions for sensitivity and quick response time, as fish may take jigs softly and don't tend to hold them very long before they spit them. This can be true for heavily weighted soft plastics too. Soft plastics may be fished the same way as jigs but bass tend to hold them longer. You can use a fast rod just fine, but many people (myself included) like a softer tip to allow me to "weigh the line" -that is lift a bit to feel whether that extra weight is alive, or just a weed. This is most effective/important with lighter weighted plastics, like shaky and drop-shotting. Again, there's no industry standard. There are fast rods with a rapid tapered tip that may be pretty "noodly" up front. I have a Shimano Clarus 66 M F that has some backbone, but a wimpy little tip LOL. It appears to have been designed to throw very light lures accurately with that tip, but is rated a medium and has the power for that. I think they tried to design too much lure weight latitude into that rod. When I hook a fish with it (I used mostly it for finesse plastics), the tip folds up instantly --outta the picture-- and I feel like I'm fighting the fish with a 5 foot broomstick. When I pop on a jerkbait, the tip folds! When I swim a jig I may detect a light take too slowly, and miss em. Don't like that. If I wanted to fish a 1/16 oz jig that tip is appropriate for, I'd be using a L power rod. I replaced it with another M F rod this spring, which I like much better. Stuff to chew on.

Sounds like a great time all around.

Oh yes, Hammer4 is very right -big fish can be subdued on light tackle (they don't weigh anything supported in water), but part of that experience he mentions is knowing how to match lure and hook size to the tackle.

I know this was hit already, but I'll say it again: 8lb line is pretty light for many "frogs" and swimbaits. In fact it's pretty light for lots of bass lures. You need to match your tackle to the lure -mostly weight and esp, hook size. You can't play 18 holes of golf very well with just one club -same for fishing. 8lb is fine for light and med wire hooks up to about size 1/0 (gap). This covers most "bass-sized" treble hook lures you'll likely fish. For most skirted "bass jigs", spinnerbaits, and texas-rigged plastics, you'll likely need to go up to 12lb or more depending on cover (trouble those fish can get you in). For weedless "frog" baits and swimbaits you'll be best off with 15lb or more -most people like 30 to 50# braid. These are entirely different rod and reel outfits from what you currently have. Roadwarrior suggests a three rod arsenal you can work toward -maybe he'll pipe in. ALL hooks must be SHARP -so they stick, won't slide, on your thumbnail. Next is fighting the fish. When they get closer to you the risk of them getting off increases tremendously. Won't bore you with the details but when they get close leave a little more than a full rod's length of line out and lead the fish (in figure eights if need be) until it can be lead it to hand without a lot of thrashing. They will calm down, you just have to be a bit patient at the end.

Now...pics??

Bass can see almost any line. But they have no idea what it's about. So, that factor is just not terribly important. I know guys that use fluorescent braid with no leader, and don't notice a catch difference. It's the major properties of each line type that anglers are most interested in: What braid offers is low stretch for sensitivity and hookset power. It also floats. If you've never used it before, like anything else it takes some getting used to. Many people hate it, at first. Beware of small loops or tangles -they can get nasty quick. It also billows around in the wind, which can be a hassle. What mono offers is stretch, flotation 'til it gets soaked then it's neutrally buoyant. More abrasion resistant than braid around hard cover like rock. It can also cut it's way into soaked wood cover. Fluorocarbon sinks, and it's density allows it to buck wind a bit better. Those are its main, and maybe only, advantages. Hope this helps you in your decision.

Absolutely. Thanks for that post. Nice to step back and just enjoy a simpler form of fishing. The joy is all there, and the "pressure" is left behind. One could get used to that.

Very cool. Interesting how those banged up finishes still catch fish. But we still get all jazzed at the fancy finishes that come out -I know I do. I had a "walleye" finish Rebel minnow I had caught a bunch of walleyes on, until the finish was worn off -and it still caught em. I eventually lost that plug, and bought a new one, which I was sorely tempted to take 50 grit sandpaper to. ;D Those 'eyes are pretty, aren't they?

Every Mother's Day we take a wander around "The Ponds" -an old gravel quarry made into a public park, with 20 or so ponds to play around in. We bring mud boots, binoculars, dip-nets, fishing rods, a picnic lunch, and this year, our two new border collie pups -talk about a handful those two! A couple of days ago I followed up on one pond that had winter-killed 3 years ago, and found it full of reasonable sized bass (12"-15") --the boom following the bust. We headed there to see if my son could catch one. He's not a die-hard angler, more interested in dip-netting and exploring than casting, and it didn't take him long to wade in over his mudders -thigh deep -but he caught that tadpole ;D. I put a super-shallow crank on his spin-cast rig and he got to business: Whap! "Papa...I think I need help..." "Nah, you can do it. Just keep crankin'." Mother's (and babies) were everywhere it seemed. It's a wonderful time of year: The pups were finally wiped out. Wish that had happened while we were fishing. :

Thanks all. bh, I hope the front was good to you too. My guess is, in MO, you are smack in the spawn. Thanks, Mrs M.

Interesting you say that. I haven't the cranking experience some have I suppose, but I've always done fine with a fast rod. Occasionally I'll have a poorly hooked fish pull free, but I doubt a softer rod would make THAT much of a difference. Reminds me of the extraordinary lengths steelhead anglers used to "cushion" the line. What it came down to for me was matching hook size to line strength, for two reasons: penetration and pulling power against hook gap (how much fish you've got a hold of). A soft rod (and/or stretchy line) can help for the latter, but with lightly set drag, or back-reeling (which I do with spinning) the risk diminishes greatly and a stiffer rod is perfectly fine. I prefer faster rods for sensitivity. And I will up-size treble gap when using heavier line weights, like when weed cranking. Further, I've never really bought the "letting a fish gobble up a crank deeply" advantage of a softer rod. Fine for soft plastics where weighing the line aids in detection, but with hard baits, jigs included, I like a fast rod. When bass are engulfing -great! But they don't always do that. See the thread "Crankbait Hooksets" from a little while back: http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1256327089/0 The one advantage of a softer rod could be potential cast distance, and with braid you've got the greatest potential for distance.

Awesome. Glad it's turned out so well. Can't wait to hear more reports, esp from Tom (Rhino).