J Francho

Plenty of guys here have built up jons. The beauty of that route is you can pretty much do it "your way," not by someone else's plans. Personally, I don't care for the layout of that boat. I'd rather a bigger, but lower front deck for standing, an extended bench seat in the back for driving, and no need for the coolers and center storage - makes it too difficult to move around.

Ponds are probably one the better places for an opportunity at a truly big bass. Stop targeting dinks, and go big and slow. 10" Anacondas would be my recommendation.

Time to get some real fishing line.... YZ Hybrid P-Line CXX Power Pro braid there are others.

Take a long look at the Avid AVC70MM and AVC70MHM for cranking sticks. These are VERY sensitive, moderate action rods with plenty of backbone. In this type of rod, I don't see the LTB as much of an upgrade - mostly cosmetic.

JF, what is a rod's max rating? Max rating of what? :-? Line rating on the rod. Use the breaking strength of the line, oir the rating of rod, whichever is lower, for your drag calculations.

Dayum! As kids we'd tightline for bullhead at our cottage. Looks like you guys worked, but had fun.

Hopkins Shorty Spoon.

Read what you wrote, and tell me again you aren't being judgmental. You are telling anyone that doesn't fish like you not to bother fishing. So either admit you were being judgmental, or retract the statement.

Sounds like frog water to me.

I have three LMB over 6 lbs. this year - not bad for my location. Two came on big jigs, and one on a frog. My biggest last year and the year before came on jigs. I'll go with jigs for now. 8-)

I quess no body wants to answer my question. I don't want to seem like a smart a**. I'm serious. If you're concerened for the fish, why catch them? I can't imagine spending thousands on a boat and gear, and not keeping a few legal fish. Why do you fish? Is it for the fight. If that's the case, tie a pork chop on your line and cast in the back yard. Your dog will give you more fight than any fish ever could and you will be guaranteed a strike every cast. I'll be fishing this weekend and I'll be bringing home dinner. 8-) Yea!!!! I love self righteous posts! Why I fish is my business, as is yours. I don't judge you, why judge others? I mean, if you are going to feed your family, why bother with bass fishing? Seems a bit counter productive. It would be a lot easier to set some rat traps than to try and catch fish, LOL. Oh, that's right, you said you keep SOME of what you catch, what was the point of catching the others? Sport? C'mon dude, give us break.

For reiterating what I already said? I guess so, LOL.

What is the rods max rating?

Anabolic Steroids have been illegal for quite some time.... :

This is the sentiment of Canseco's book....the league basically created a situation where they felt forced to use. Not totally buying that, but that's what he says.

Look again at his stats, year by year. and he was on those texas teams he was team mates with ken caminetti too wasn't he? 1987-1988 they were teamates then ryan wen tto texas and was teamates with canseco et all nolan ryan was the key all along and he's a hall of famer there's your guy if it's anyone canseco is refering to it's nolan ryan it's so obvious.... this is a guy who from age 33-39 didn't lead the league in K's once.... no cy youngs, no mvp's, and at the age of 39 had a 253-226 record... hardly cy young.... then from age 40-46 he led the league in k's 4 times... and got to 324 wins and the hall of fame

I have four Avids and two LTBs. The Teaser is one of my favorite rods. Its a noticeable upgrade over the Avid, which is also a great rod.

If its new, then its covered under warranty. Contact Shimano.

I just want to add a few things about setting drag, and the various methods.... I generally start with a straight pull. Technically, it makes no difference whether the reel is mounted or not, or whether the rod is loaded - 3 lbs. of resistance is 3 lbs. of resistance. If you don't believe me, try it out. The reason I don't like to recommend the "bag of weights" method is that you can break a rod very easily. With reels with advertised max drags in the 20 lb. range, it would be easy for a newb to get a little overzealous. The main reason to mount the reel on a rod is to match the drag performance with the rod itself and to test the smoothness of the system, both while paying out line, and at the point where it transitions to slippage. it may turn out that the reel manages 4.5 lbs. of drag, but performs better at 4.25 lbs. yes, this is subjective, and I'm splitting hairs here. You don't want to set your drag, and simply pull on the rod to see if it slips. You want to start very low. You'd be surprised just how much pressure and stress just 3 lbs. of resistance actually places on the rod. My big problem with the bag of weight method is that it always stresses the rod, and many will set it to actually hold that weight in the air. If you have 3 lbs. in that bag, and your reel and rod is holding it without slipping, your reel is set higher than 3 lbs. You want it to be just slipping when attempting to lift the weight. Anyway, sorry to get so technical, but I felt that I left some useful and cautionary info out of my posts.

Nolan Ryan?

Whoops! Missed that critical step

LOL, OK, I'll revise, it was a short list of great players that probably haven't used PEDs....

Jr., Maddux, Jeter, Puhols.... I seriously doubt Jeter, although Im a Yankee fan (not A-Rod) and have been as long as I remember, I hate the fact of PED's in any sport, take the Giam's,A-Rods,Petites and the rest of the friggen cheaters and ban them from the game. These guys are the best of the best, the elite and idolized by young american boys with a dream of becoming a baseball player, all they're doing is teaching them how to cheat. It was a list of players that I don't think used PEDs....

It could also be an issue with the AR bearing, though generally that has a studdering slippage that is intermittent at first, before totally failing.

Preparation for a tournament is part of what I enjoy about bass fishing. I'm a technical person, and I like to know that my drags are set to specific resistance. I set them, and forget them. It gives me confidence to know that they are set correctly to my specs. The only job I have to do when i hook a fish is bring it in - no messing with drags, worrying about knots, etc. None of this means I catch more fish, but it works for me. The OP wanted to know, and I told him. If you don't go through that routine, I have no problem with it. As i said, after a while, it becomes intuitive, and you can go by feel. But how do you know they are set properly if you don't have this experience?