J Francho

Conventional wisdom says longer rod = longer casts, all things being equal. All things are rarely equal when fishing, and in my experience, I cast lures the furthest when using my shortest rod. The long cast is the sum of the parts: rod, reel, line, bait, and casting style. A good, two handed, overhead, snap cast on my AVC62MXF, Alphas ITO Ai, 8# CXX, with a Sammy 115 yields a cast that leaves only a half dozen turns of line on the spool. This is with the spool tension wide open, and the brakes set to 0. By far the longest cast I can make. So long, I sometimes have difficulty getting hooked up. A close second would be a RC 2.5 on my light, 7' cranking rod, or a Spro Frog on my 7' 6" flipping stick.

I have the AVC70MHF, and this is one heavy, powerful stick. Not so much heavy in weight, but in the way it fishes, and the baits that work. I use it for Jigs and t-rigs in the 1/2 to 3/4 range. This rod fishes like other manus H. I also have the AVC62MXF, that I primarily use for topwaters and jerk/rip baits, but I have also used it to throw unweighted plastics, medium drop shot rigs, and even shaky heads in the 3/8 oz. range. After handling the AVC68MXF, I can say the action is very similar to my rod, and the added few inches a big plus for plastics, and other "tip up" presentations. My other plastics rod is a LTBC70MF (Teaser), similar to the AVC70MF, and this is perhaps the finest plastics rod, as well as just about everything and anything else in its stated weight range. One caveat, it is rated fast, but its a little faster than many "fast" rods I've owned, and it doesn't take much get into the backbone. I tore up many a wacky rigged Senko on the cast before deciding this rod was the wrong tool for such baits. EDIT!!! Well, I need to read closer, LMAO, this was for spinning. in which case, the either rods would be fine, and I in fact was testing out an AVS68MXF last night as well. The above advice works if you are looking for casting format. Sorry about that!

It may not be browser related at all. Try doing a Disk Cleanup - Click here for instructions. The next thing is run Windows update, and then make sure your AV/Spyware protection are up to date. We can go further with registry scrubs, and other malware removal, just to be sure, but for now, I bet these simple things will bring some improvement.

Do either of you remember if those little brown things were attached to the body of the fish, or were they just debris from the water? They really look the female anchor worms. The puffy, swollen areas near the caudal peduncle (base of the tail) are what is left behind. The fishes body encapsulates the resultant infection in order to keep from spreading into a systemic infection.

A hybrid unit, with a manual cable foot pedal and the remote powered steering would be an awesome trolling motor development.

That's a good tip. I have more than a few small pointers, and it never occurred to me to use them. I know its not bass related, but I'll be trying them out this spring when the dropback steelies and browns are on the alewife bite. Since I generally fish this bite from the yak, the inconsistent speed from paddling should be great with the suspending bait. In the past, I've generally used spoons, but the hard bait bite might be the ticket.

You can get jigs is just about any color - you just have to look for them, though truthfully 90% of mine are black and blue Start here for Jigs 101 and 102: http://www.***/articles/jig-fishing.shtml

I agree. Just about every full dunking inevitably leads to a full super clean and lube. Up here its even worse, as it only takes a 20 minutes or so for baby zebra mussels to start encrusting the reel. They are a pain to scrub out of gear teeth, LOL.

Many pike and musky spinnerbaits have a looped line tie, for this reason, and because most Esox anglers use steel or sevenstrand to tie their baits on. That slips up the shaft on a standard bass style R-bend bait. What line are you using, and what knot do you tie for your spinnerbaits? I've had no troubles with a Uni knot on all types of nylon mono and fluoro. With CXX, all it takes is a standard cinch knot, pretty much no slipping there, though occasionally, it loops around itself on the knot during the fight. Fish sometimes mangle the baits, comes with the territory. Terminator T-1 don't mangle easily, and are one the best fishing spinnerbaits around.

So are you outing silicone as the secret ingredient in KVD L&L? Have you used it? How do you know its silicone?

Sorry this took so long to respond, but I've been busy, and this took a back burner. I had a suspicion about a parasite I've seen in pond fish, mainly goldfish and ornamental carp, but I've seen it go widespread in other "mixed species" ponds as well. They look to be secondary infections caused by anchor worms, Lernaea sp. The females look like a "Y" with the base stuck in the fish. The two legs of the "Y" are egg sacs. The site where the parasite attacks usually gets infected, and the swelling is that secondary infection. Here is a link to an image showing the little critters. They are a around a cm in length: http://www.fws.gov/midwest/LacrosseFishHealthCenter/Images/Anchorworms.JPG The life cycle of anchor worms is 20 days @ 70°F. So, in the warmer climes, it wouldn't be unusual to see the infections, but not the parasite. If there are coldwater species mixed with the bass, such as koi, goldfish, comets, etc. I would say that is the source. The parasite usually runs rampant in a stressful environment, where many environmental parameters are not optimal. Heat, or huge temperature fluctuation, with no ideal water retreats would one stress that might cause an outbreak. Otherwise, it could be just one sick fish. If you catch anymore, I'd say sacrifice it, put it on ice, and bring it to either the TPWD or your biologist friend for further analysis. You wouldn't want that honey hole of yours to crash and burn.

So you agree. KVD Line and Lure is better in icy conditions.

As the weeds dies back, I go to a big football jig. I'm not so picky about color, mostly black and blue, black and purple, and browns. I use the cast out, drag, bump, and rock in roll retrieve. I like single and double tail grubs, sometimes with a contrasting color. Another option that works is threading a fluke, ribbon tail worm, or small paddle tail swimbait. Its just something bigger. Other times, I can't find a big bait bite, and go to the little "puffball" jigs, no trailer necessary. I did not type "Skinny Bear" in this post, LOL.

Explain? Not having a quick release to your anchor system is much more dangerous than no anchor at all.

Here is a much better set of instructions on how to make a drag anchor. http://www.kayakbassfishing.com/kbfBB3/viewtopic.php?f=65&t=2487

Anyone can look up things on the internet. It takes experience on the water with products and the techniques to gain true knowledge. Its not any rip on you, its just many try to add ballast to their one sided opinion with quotes from other sites. I've used both, and actually had issues with KVD in freezing temps. When I asked Rob Faddis about it, he explained that KVD will coat and seal the pores in the mono, and line previously treated with Real Magic might interfere with that process. I spooled up fresh line, did as he said, and I'll be damned if he wasn't right. Previous to this, I would have recommended Real Magic, and have for many years. KVD is that much better. As far as braid goes, its totally inappropriate for sub freezing temps. If you are wondering what type of conditions I'm fishing in, take a look at this: Air temps were in the mid 20s this day

Yawn....more internet fishing.... That is exactly the problem with mono -- its porous. KVD coats the line, keeping the water out of the pores.

Uh....yeah. : ;D

Anyway, to the OP, you can go ahead and try an original flaoter Rapala trolled a little longer than a casts length behind the boat. The lure was originally designed to be trolled behind a rowboat. The pulsing, start-stop action is what triggers the bite. You can do this easily by holding the rod, and pumping it gently forward and back. You want to be totally throttle down. If the bait rolls, you're going too fast. Admittedly, I don't have a lot of experience trolling shallow divers for bass, but I have done quite a bit for northerns in spring. The baits are just much larger, but the concept is the same.

It was my understanding that Ray Scott was sick of seeing the trollers win all the tournaments, so he banned it. Same with jigger-poling. Interesting that such an effective option should fall to the wayside for apparent "cultural" reasons.

Nope, but it occasionally carries a fish or too, breifly:

What ever you devise, you will want the wheels as close to the balance point as possible. This is a big weakness in the kayak cart I use. That boat is easily a couple hundred pounds loaded up, and its a bit of effort getting anywhere.

My uncle: "Why would you sit there and cast all day, when you can troll more water?" Me: "Why would waste all that gas trolling all day when you could cast to productive spot." LMAO

Chili with beans? Yeah, that's good, but beans are a side dish. Chili has no beans. Chili con carne is chili with meat. Chili has chiles in it. Here is an EXCELLENT chile recipe: http://www.richz.com/chili/recipe.html Also take a look at his drop shot article

6/0 Owner Beast.