J Francho

my mistake, that makes it all OK then. : That's the point, kid. I'm not black, and I was offended. It's not about your audience, and who you are offending, its about your view on the world, the way you see and speak of others. You're language above was racist. I don't appreciate it.

Sounds more like the spool tension is set really high.

If you're going to go to the $150 mark, save for two more weeks, and get a St. Croix Avid.

Not to call you a racist, but you are a racist. I'm racist? DUDE lighten up, to make things clear I live in a society that is very multicultural and I have a lot BLACK friends whom I ball with. And yes, I refer to them as my BLACK friends or better yet, I call them my black person at times. Please don't start with that racist crap. Keep diggin' bro - you sound worse and worse. I know what you're trying to say, but its coming off as VERY racist. Its just fine to point out cultural differences - hell, we are a melting pot, and that is what makes it special - but using verbiage, like "all black people do this" or "my black freinds" sounds very iffy, as if you mentally segregate your friends by race. I hope my friends don't refer to me as their "wagon-burner" friend.

why? chances are that it would have the same type of low-mid range blanks and components that the Mojo has... so what it would make it so that your average middle man or person who cant afford much with this economy atleast be able to hold onto and fish with a top brand and be able to say they own one (might not mean anything to you or be crap/garbage to you) but to that guy it would be gold...nuff said!!!! I don't really get it...unless the status of owning a G. Loomis label means more than the quality that G. Loomis is. It wouldn't be the same status if it was accessible to anyone with $100. There are PLENTY of EXCELLENT rods at the $100 price point, some are made by some big name brands. Just get the best gear that you can afford, and make sure it feels comfortable to you. Don't ignore things like brand, especially when it comes to warranty, but don't count the name as your #1 motivation to buy.

I think this guy knows a thing or two, LOL. I'm 37 (as of this past Friday ) and just finished up my "spring tour" of Western NY: 10 days, 7 lakes. By Monday (day 10) I was spent. Literally could not get up out of bed at 6 AM. I managed to drag myself up at 8:30, and prepared for a 1/2 day of fishing, but wow. I wanted to get up, wanted to fish, but my body said no. Pros that fish every day must really do a lot of time management to be able to set aside time for rest. Would I do it agin? Yes! I do it every year. ;D

For me, its constant maintenance, research, and documentation. As far as "getting ready" to go fishing, I was BORN READY!

Those lizards look fantastic, man.

Are we only taking one entry per angler? My largemouth at 57.78 is pretty respectable, though not as high as my smallmouth at 60.61. Not that I'm complaining, LOL.

This is just this past week, so we'll have to see how the rest of the year pans out. I've caught TWO largemouth that better my last year's season's best, and the second biggest smallie of my life. I'll include the timestamps from the image files. 2009-05-25 12:58:49 2009-05-25 10:38:09 2009-05-22 10:55:14

High fives to your son from me. Atta-boy for Dad!

Both, but under different circumstances. 1. Tournament Fishing 2. Rec. fishing/trophy hunting

I know this is a little late for many, but for the northerners, this might be useful. I happen to be acquainted with two contributors for this week's reports. Keep an eye out for next week's http://www.versuscountry.com/bassspawnmap.aspx?rid=3941 Keep up the great work Mr. Shramm!

Tom, try a c-rigged worm, tube, lizard, or other plastic trolled as you go from spot to spot. I'd put the rod in a clamp on rod holder, though.

I just spent 10 days straight on the water - hit 7 WNY lakes. Yes, its my thing, LOL.

Largemouth, New York State record, 11-4. My fish, 6-8, for 0.57777777777777777777777777777778 Smallmouth, New York State record, 8-4. My fish, 5-0, for 0.60606060606060606060606060606061

The big one.

I'm going to keep this simple. Just finished my annual Memorial Day/Birthday/Fishing spring break vacation. Many thanks go out to the Jims, Burnie Haney, Kase Vasavong, Jimmy Varney, Terry Border, Paul Shipman, Cam, and any others I forgot to mention. I'll try to indicate the bait I used. Most waters were in full spawn, with the usual post spawn fish, and prespawn fish, especially if the temps were higher. I saw temps ranging from 59° to 76°. Obviously, deeper, clearer lakes were on the cooler side. Bottom line, the fish cooperated very nicely, and starting on Wednesday, the bite got really HOT. Here is the "photo journal" 3-14, Conesus, Ugly Otter, pegged: . Unweighed, Little Sodus, Sweet Beaver, pegged: 230 lbs., Port Bay, Tales of huge spawning smallies (Burnie Haney) Unweighed, Port Bay, Beaver pegged 5-0, Port Bay, Drop shot 4" Power Worm as a follow up to a beaver Unweighed, Oneida, Drop Shot Cut Tail Worm Oneida Doubles w/ Jim Jr. Unweighed, Oneida, Drop Shot Cut Tail Worm: Unweighed, Oneida, C-Rig Turtle Back Worm, by Jim Sr. 6-0, Undisclosed Location, 3/4 oz. Outkast RT Jig & Zoom Super Chunk 6-8, Undisclosed Location, 3/4 oz. Outkast RT Jig & Zoom Super Chunk A special thanks to the fish of Port Bay, Sodus Bay, Little Sodus Bay, Irondequoit Bay, Conesus Lake, Oneida Lake, Erie Canal, and some undisclosed locations.

Its legal in NY, not sure about MA. Depending on the actual bait, I think you may run into issues with deeply hooked fish. When I'm in my yak, I often troll a crankbait when going from spot to spot. It can give you valuable info about what depth the fish are at. Think Buck Perry, and spoonplugging.

I should have gone to bed, LOL. Had to watch the replay of the Yankees game. They're on a 6 game tear. Ever since the T-storms Friday, a cold front brought near freezing nights and 60°'s daytime highs with really "high skies." I love going out in the crisp air, but I'd rather it be overcast. Poor fish were building beds, now I think they are confused. Someone that speaks "bassese" needs to tell them they live near Rochester!

Got on the water today around 12:30. Water temps dipped a bit after the wind churned everything up yesterday. I had 58-61 depending where I was. Apparently it was pretty breezy in the morning, but I had gentle NNW breeze until dusk, when it shifted to W, about 5 mph. The DEC boat was anchored at the outlet, doing a lake creel survey. I wish I was prepared to troll for browns, because there was a sick mudline out in the lake, and sure enough, guys were coming reporting limits in an hour or so! I went to work with a vibration bait, same as yesterday, and stuck a nice 4# fish on the third or fourth cast. This fish hit the bait about three times on the way to the boat. I had another strike on the same spot a few casts later, but missed. I figured they were there, and it was time to slow down. Well, things sure did slow down. Five hours, and just five fish in the 3-4 lb. range. Decent quality, but no monsters, and no numbers. I did meet a couple of other guys prefishing for a TX. soon with the Good Old Boys club. Nice people, gave one guy some tips about the water. After a snack on shore, and some time to enjoy the view, I set about finding a TW bite. None on. As the sun dipped below the trees, I quit fishing and started skipping a Senko tight to the shoreline, near trees and overhanging brush. Bam! There's fish in there! It kind of caught me off guard, since they weren't there at all earlier in the day. I ended up getting 5 more fish in the last 30 minutes, though most were in the 2 lb class. There was one decent fish, that scaled up to be a little over 3.5. No float planes were seen, and no photos were taken. Just a few fish have holes in their lips.

Fish the bait with rod tip relatively high. Feel the bite, and point the rod tip at the fish as you reel in the slack, and then swing hard upward.

Man oh man, the wind was unbelievable today! We departed with Kase as the skipper of the tin can rental and fought 2-3' chop to get to some protected areas. Inaccuweather said wind would west, about 10-15 mph. Try 20-25 steady, dead north. Sodus Bay is bad enough with any breeze, but north winds pretty much leave you with few safe havens. We eventually got to some spots, and I immediately got into fish with a vibration bait. Most fish came from 3-6 FOW. I was really ripping the bait, despite the conventional wisdom of slowing down and going smaller after a cold front. I did switch up with a jerkbait, a spinnerbait, t-rig worm or lizard, and shallow to medium cranks. The majority of my fish came from the lipless crank and jerkbait, though I must add that I nailed my 1st t-rig fish of the year on a lizard. Kase's fish came on mid level cranks, and jerkbaits. He did get the biggest fish of the day on a spinnerbait. He also had a nice 7-8 lb. northern on a crankbait. He almost leaped right into the boat. On the jump, I could see that he took the crank very deeply, and knew that crank was history, LOL. It looked like he was all done, so I tried to guide it near the boat, and grab him, but he broke off. I guess I'll have to hunt down some baby bass cranks for Kase, LOL. Most fish were average cookie cutter to downright small. We boated somewhere around 25 fish. I had a real nice fish on the trap, but he was taking drag, and then charged the boat and shook off. I'm real disappointed about that one, and everyone here knows, I take drops seriously. I'm not sure I would have done anything differently - it just wasn't meant to be. May that fish get bigger, and tug someone else's line Had dinner at a waterfront restaurant, fished a little more, and then made the fun trip through 3-5' rollers in the tin can back to the docks. I was skipper for the final leg of our tour. Had a few"rogue waves" that were huge, and breaking that old "every six or seven waves is the big one" rule. Good to be back on land, instead of pretending to be part of The Deadliest Catch cast, though I can't get the room to stop swaying

There is scientific evidence that bass are more efficient crepuscular hunters. They have the ability to adjust from rods (lowlight, monochromatic vision) to rods (daylight, color vision) quicker than certain species of baitfish. But in practice, I find while you may get quantity during these periods, the quality comes in the midday period. Now, I personally think there are other influences there as well. By midday, you usually have a good lock on the pattern, and I fish that time of day more frequently. Another factor could be that I generally slow down, and fish a little deeper at midday, and I really think the bigger fish spend a great portion of the day there. Now, as for my "other 10%" of big fish. Well, my biggest fish last year came from about 8" of water, about an hour before sunset. Go figure. If you really want to catch fish, you simply need to be there fishing. I don't worry about the time of day.

I can't speak for RW, but if I look at the date/time stamps on my biggest fish from the past four years, 90% of them are from that midday period.