J Francho

What I should have said was, you won't have those worms lying around long enough for age to matter. You'll be buying more soon enough. Yes, they work that well. X1000! - No one could have said it better! Thank goodness SOMEONE caught the drift, LOL. ;D

I emailed a report in to roadwarrior, because I was too ashamed to post, but he talked me into posting it anyway. To me it gets funnier every time I read it so here is the note, as written to Kent: Fairhaven State Park, Little Sodus Bay I can't even post this on BR, its soooo bad! That, and I called in sick Friday, to prefish. That comes back to haunt me in the tx..... Prefished Friday. Found a good frog bite, tricky beaver/creature bite involving seams formed by weed species and depth, and a trap pattern for post spawn smallies leaving the little bay to Lake Ontario. I fished with Cam (Bassguy9 on NYBASS) and decided to leave the frog bit to him, and only hit the main beaver spot is needed. My partner had ideas to fish the wind beaten west shoreline, so I knew that would take most of the time up anyway. Cam and I set up the campsite, and mapped out our plans. He also had a backup plan to hit the two ponds on either side of the main bay, but that depended on how rough the big lake was. I told Cam, if he could come up with 15 lbs., he'd win. He needed two 4+ fish, or a solid five 3 pounders. Tx. day, my partner's boat had a dead cranking battery. If I were a dick, I'd tell him to give me my money back, and jump in another boat since a few didn't have non boater partners. I stuck with Jimmy, though - he's a good fisherman. This is the second time that I've had a boat where jumping from the deep cycle didn't work. I think these guys need to check conductivity of their cables, and make sure the darn thing is charged - JEEZ!!! Ended up pulling the battery from the truck, and jumping from that. Then we let the boat idle for about an hour. Tough to pitch beavers in milfoil while the big motor is running. Obviously, we didn't catch any fish while the motor was running. Long story short, all my patterns from the day before bottomed out. The fish were there, but we had to resort to shaky heads to catch them. We got a 5 bass limit, but just 1 lb.+ dinks. I just could not upgrade. None of my fish made it to the weigh in. That really irritates me, as I have a reputation for generally supplying either the kicker, or two or three good upgrade bass of the five. At Cayuga, last year all our fish were mine. Somewhere toward the end of the day, I felt sick. Not sure what the deal was, but I left a nice chum slick behind. Probably bad karma from calling in. Later I would find that sometime around then, I must have kicked my AVC70MHF and Black Widow overboard. I have no idea where or when I did it. Nice, add another $250 to my expenses. More actually, I just spooled it with fresh Power Pro. We ended up with a pitiful final weight, something like 7-14. It wasn't that bad, two boats had nothing, and we were one of only 4 boats that caught 5. I think we were in 5th or 6th. Now Cam, well....with ten minutes left, he made a run to the pond. Pulls up, tosses his beaver, and sticks a 4-14! That put him around 15 lbs., which took the win and that big bass won lunker. His partner had never fished in a tx. before, and needless to say, he had a blast. I'm proud of Cam - it was his 19th birthday, and he won his 1st Tx. The kid is good. So, I had a miserable time, lost a rod, and didn't weigh in a single fish. For Father's Day, the family and I were going to Bass Pro Shops for the day, so I knew I might have a little fun.... I replaced that rod, which I always felt was too heavy for what I was doing, worms and small jigs, with a LTBC70MF "Teaser" rod. I almost put a Chronarch on it, LOL. But they didn't have a lefty, so I settled for a Zillion burner. Also picked up 10 packages of the Big Anacondas - they better work brutha! They really are a sexy worm, if there's such a thing! Black Lake, next week. Redemption! Hope your Father's Day was less expensive, LOL!

What I should have said was, you won't have those worms lying around long enough for age to matter. You'll be buying more soon enough. Yes, they work that well.

It makes absolutely no difference.

Yes, you do. Picked up a bunch of the big Anacondas yesterday, and decided to hit my lunchtime pond. I had intentions of just chucking it out weightless, and burning it over the weed choked pond, but after all the rain, the pond was up about 4'! After a couple of casts, it was clear that some weight was needed. I was letting it set in pockets, and although it was slowly sinking, the tail wasn't wiggling. Instead of going with the typical free or pegged slip sinker, I decided all that was needed was a little quicker fall. I pinched on a 1/4 oz. hook shank weight, I believe they were XPS weight, and the action was perfect. If you fished it exactly like a classic t-rig ribbon tail worm, you get the same type of action, but in super slow motion, with that tail wiggling the whole time. I even was able to trigger a strike retrieving it like soft jerkbait. This is a very versatile plastic. It gets a full time slot in my tackle bag. Sick! And deadly on the fish that had moved into the open pockets between the flooded shrubbery that was once the shoreline. I'll be back after work to finish the job, LOL. I've tried the Chunks, Craws, Shad, and now the Lobster and Space Monkey, and they all work well, are well made, but to be honest, while they had great action, and caught fish, they were just another brand in my tackle bag. That's not a negative thing, I just happen to have A LOT of plastics. I'll probably keep buying the Space Monkeys, because I like the way they look, and they catch as well as anything else. They are another bait that does multiple tricks. They can be burned, like a plastic toad, or fished slowly on a c-rig, like a lizard, or even on a pegged rig for flipping pockets like a beaver. The Anaconda, to me, that is another beast altogether. That big tail just seems to keep this bait aloft so much better than other ribbon tails. Speaking of the tail, it takes very little to get it moving. I was originally thinking these might replace the plethora of 10" Power Worms in my box, but I think I just have to make room for one more "big fish bait." Oh yeah, I christened my new combo with a 3-8 LMB

I've done it to myself, actually. I catch a fish, "hmm, nice fish," I think to myself, "probably around four." I weigh it, and its a 6+. WTH! Then I think I have a monster on, only to weigh it, and its a 3.5, LOL. They are very hard to tell in that 3-5# range. After 5, the take on a different look, and you usually know that they are a big one. I imagine its the same with Fish Chris's 8-12# fish. I know I've heard of so many unweighed "10 pounders" here in NY, and it actually ticks me off a little. I've got the #7 LMB and #5 SMB as reported on NYBASS big bass board, and I worked for those fish. Its not an ego thing for me, its about personal accomplishment. A little positive reinforcement for my effort. There's something very different about "big fish." To have some kid say to me, "not bad, but i caught a ten pounder here last week' bugs me when I'm releasing a 3-5# fish. It scalds me when I ask him what kind of scale he has, and doesn't even have one.

I know for me, invisibility is the last quality I look for in line. I like fluoro for these qualities, in this order: 1. It sinks 2. Abrasion resistant 3. Low stretch 4. Its invisible

The Zoom 4" trailers make horrible drop shot baits

Man that's a beaut! I'd have lied about the bait I used, though. You don't want to let the secret out about Senkos!

They look like spinnerbait trailers - huge ones at that. Similar to these: http://www.orderoutdoors.com/zsplitt.html

Why not look into something like this: http://www.g3boats.com/GatorToughJons/?m=1756CC#model

Actually, this is pretty well known among the live crab fisherman. We use "softshell crabs" which are crayfish that have recently molted. They often exhibit some pretty wild colors and patterns, and indeed are soft, and pose no threat to a hungry smallmouth, since their claws are pretty small after molting. You can induce a molt by providing clean water, some food, and trace quantities of iodine. No soft plastic can out fish live softshells, most days. Seriously. I don't use them much anymore because of the trouble and they are expensive, but once a year I like to go old school like my grandfather and I used to. You still have to find the fish, and understand bass, so don't go buying a couple dozen thinking you'll automatically smoke them.

Wouldn't BPS be the best place to find out about the reel and what his options are? The Shimano forum actually has a Shimano reel mechanic that posts there. I agree that going to BPS with the reel is the solution, and I've now said it three times, but it doesn't seem quite right to me for everyone here to blast the dude for asking.

Dunking a reel will not cause the yoke posts to break off. To use your auto analogy, that would be like having both rear struts break in half after driving through a puddle. Yes, sometimes reels get messed up after a dunking, but that usually involves sediment getting in the reel, or an extended soak in zebra mussel water. It only takes about a half hour for them to start growing in the crevices. You would know, almost immediately that something was wrong, this is from personal experience. I really think something else went wrong here, and we're not hearing the whole story. Just two days ago, I purposely dunked my reel to wash off all the cottonwood seeds (white fuzzy crap) and green slop that had accumulated in the line guide. Nothing bad happened to that reel, and its nothing special.

Hmmm...we have an entire forum dedicated to Shimano support, but no where to ask about BPS reels? I think you guys are being a little tough. Apparently you never had a reel break on you. I realize its a private label reel, but its their best reel for crying out loud, and not inexpensive, at that. ************************************************************* Dude, take your reel to BPS, explain the what happened, and see what they can do. If you can get credit, go for the Zillion. Its silly nice!

LMB: 6-8 prespawn, 3/4 oz. Outkast RT Jig w/ Superchunk & Megastrike SMB: 5-0 on a bed, dropshot 4" Power Worm

I might surprise you with my answer, given my location. Since I already have two LMB above 6, and a SMB at 5-0 this year, I went with 6+. I've got a PB NY LMB at 7-2, so I'm actually gunning for 8. Any smallie over my PB 5-4 will do. But this is for my personal fishing. In a tx., it depends on the water, but five in the well is a start. Once I'm there, I look to upgrade.

Depends on the time of year, the depth and structure, and weed cover. Most of the ponds I fish right now are so weed choked, only a frog or rat will work. If rains raise the water level, a toad or a big weightless ribbon worm (I swear I won't say Ragetail Anaconda, LOL) can be burned through the holes that form.

If the reel was lubed and oiled properly, a freshwater rinse would be all it takes. They are reels, they are meant to get wet. Do you actually believe the saltwater guys disassemble their reels after rinsing the salt off their gear every time they fish? A dunking rarely causes catastrophic failure, like detailed above. A fishing reel bears very little resemblance to an auto. Its closer to a winch.I actually think it took an impact before the dunking. Take it back to BPS, and explain the situation, and see what they can do.

That part is plastic in the Curado, too. http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1224097297/0#0 No, the yoke posts on a Curado are metal.

To avoid further confusion.... White Crappie (Pomoxis annularis) Black Crappie (Pomoxis negromaculatus) Rock Bass, Rockie, Goggle Eye, Google Eye, Googly, Rocky Balboa, etc. (Ambloplites rupestris) I can see confusing the two crappie species with each other, but the rock bass is totally different, in appearance, habitat, and behavior. Sorry for the huge image, but they were the best portrayals I found.

Just make sure you periodically harvest the plants, not letting them overrun the tank, and crash due to nutrient depletion. By the looks of the fish, you are doing a nice job with the tank.

Uhhh, why not? How do you think they get their performance baselines? Its pretty easy to track a salaried employee these days. Work output, that's another story. BTW, I build web based reporting solutions for just that - tracking workers and what they do. Great! Though those systems never work for me since i legally changed my name to "Mike'); Drop table Employee; " Ever since then those systems never can get my time in right. ROTFLMAO!!!! For those not as astute as M Starr, I'll fix their records for $50, LOL. (drop table doesn't work on my databases...... I actually had a guy try it!)

Wait until the snails invade your tank like locusts. You'll need to add a red ear to take care of them. BTW, plant use CO2 during daytime hours and give off O2. At night, they do the opposite. In just about every planted tank I ran, I needed to supplement with CO2 to get good growth.

There's the reel answer - Doh!!!! Thanks RM