J Francho

I have three All Stars I use for shore fishing, I think they were around $50. Not as nice as the Team All Stars, but they are well worth the money, especially if its tight.

Interesting about credit for "potato." I use flies quite a bit in winter, just to change up my offering - ESL, olive buggers, Estez, stonefly (deadly on warm winter days), etc. My problem with fly tackle is the delivery, LOL, as I'm not a very good fly caster. I worked on the double haul for a long time. Had it for 60' casts in my front yard. Get out on the water, and forget it! Give me a 8-10' casting rod, a float, and some baits and I'm good. I will occasionally bottom bounce, but I've been working a bulk shot float rig that does the same thing. Kase is totally dedicated to the pin. Thing is, he gets owned but the trees in the smaller ditches, like Mills, Shipbuilders, and Max. Anyway, sorry for going WAY OFF TOPIC. Its always good to here from you Paul. And BTW, we once saw a rotten potato in the potato hole. We almost died laughing. Good to hear the origins.

Some great pictures, Paul - beautiful fish. Nice to see actual flyline on a flyrod, and not the usual mono/pacman/#2 hook.

Sounds like lobbying them. THAT is why we have the best government money can buy. The two parties just trade places every few years & keep accepting the money. (that is not MY cause) Actually, its called writing letters to your representatives in office, and letting them know what you want. :

Look here: http://bitemejigs.com/_wsn/page4.html

Actually, the dumbest thing I ever bought was a scale. All my fish got smaller after that.

Nope. Most units project a 60° cone or high detail 20° cone, or a combination. it really only works using the narrow beam, with vertical presentations. A crank bait is cast out and retrieved, and the only time its under the boat will be when its on its way up. At any rate, you are probably only going to figure it out if you can compare the bait to new ones in the package, or showing it to someone that knows the baits.

impressive max resistance number, but a total deal breaker, since its not adjustable.

The tube really is a "do all" soft plastic. The way I fish a tube here in the Great Lakes is to imitate a goby or sculpin. I use Bite Me Big Dude heads to get the profile. Its on my list to try rigging it in the classic pegged T-rig. Oddly, I've never tried it. Seems to be a go to bait for many.

I chose Daiwa, because that is what I use. But that doesn't really answer the vague question, "What is better?" Better at what? Daiwas were lighter, and more compact, but I'd say Shimano has caught up. Shimano has some reels that Daiwa doesn't really even address in their line, e.g. Curado 300. While Daiwas are certainly very serviceable, there is something about breaking a Shimano down that just plain "makes sense." Little things, like putting the spool shaft retainer screw on the Symtre/Sahara line facing out for easy removal. Or being able to pull the one way bearing by removing three screws, yet it still has two screws that keep the whole unit sandwiched together. Some reels are simply engineered to be assembled. Others are actually designed for long life, performance, and easy care. Daiwa and Shimano meet that target in almost every product they make.

Thanks guys. RW, you'd be surprised at the gear I used. Since we were fishing tight quarters, I decided to see how my St. Croix AVC70MM held up to these puppies. I paired it up with a Daiwa Black Widow II BWII153 and Suffix Siege 8# in Tangerine orange. The mono was brand new and treated with KVD L&L only, since temps were slightly about freezing. I have the reel set up with a wet Carbontex drag stack. The thing worked beautifully. For those that think that this rod lacks backbone, you're sadly mistaken. The moderate action, combined with a smooth drag set to one click south of 3# protected the 6# CFX leader. When the fish wanted to run, I just let the drag peel out, and when I needed to put pressure on the fish, I simply thumbed the spool. The extra give in the top half of the rod was just enough insurance to give me time to let my thumb off the spool, if the fish took off. My only break offs were when the hook got hung up in the tailouts. Using a baitcaster is preferable here, due to the ability to run the drift in freespool. Contrary to other trout techniques where you cast upstream, floating generally requires a quartering cast and letting the rig drift unabated downstream. My only complaint with the system is that I wish the rod was lust one foot longer. Drifting the deepest holding pools requires a shotline below the float that is about 5' long. Add in the 6" float above, and a 3' leader, and the terminal rig is nearly 9' long. Makes impossible to land one by yourself. This is my third time running this rig with these fish, and it is so good to get back to using a baitcaster for this. I really have no desire to learn to use a centrepin, but I do need to get a longer rod for bigger water.

Yes, that's KaseV. I learn him about bass all summer, and he learns me about trout all winter. We've become pretty close friends since that day when he yelled out, "Are you Jay-Fran-Chow from the internet" across the outlet last spring. I was just saying to some downstate guys that were in awe about the fact that it was pure silly that we can just "bang these big fish at will" up here. The fact is, it isn't that easy. No one I know can do it as well as my friend Kase. He comes up with fish in ANY river conditions, even blown out. And his fish are bigger than average, sometimes much bigger. I'm good at transitional fish, on the move or at the headwaters. I'm getting better at fish holding deep in pools or in the tailout of a run. Kase tears them up. One hell of a trout fisherman.

Thanks guys, it was a great day to be out. Weather was actually pleasant - 38° and no wind. Micro, if you get a chance to get up here, Kase and I will show you around. Gotta be in winter though - as soon as the lakes open up, I'm fishing for bass. Paul, you got it! When the river is green, the bite is mean . The "Potato Hole" was really producing.

After my early '09 drought, detailed here, the floodgates are open, and the cold steel is flowin'! Some fish from Saturday:

Around here, rainbows key in on alewife in the deeper lakes. I've caught dropback rainbows that were puking up alewifes by the 1/2 dozen. The bug eaters are usually stream dwellers. I've had HUGE success with browns employing bass style baits that represent gobies.

Brand new at last years ICAST. Looks like an answer to Xcalibur's One-Knocker.

I'd fish with Zebco for half that

In order: #2 or #1. #3 and #4 are not an option.

Poor man's Presso

Thanks again. Spring won't come soon enough. A quick April for the spring run, and its back to the green and brown fish. Here's one for you, a big old Salmon River stud, taken on the pink worm. We picked at least a half dozen flies from his pectoral fins. Too smart for the flyrod/long mono/split shot snagger goons, LOL.

I have two Black Widows. Nice little reel, a little on the wide side, but comfortable anyway. Well made. I'd go with the Black Widow over the Trillionaire. BTW, the Exceler is based on the JDM Aggrest, which has versions ranging from $185 to $260. I'm pretty sure its meant to be a light saltwater reel.

Thanks Big Tom. Spawning males are quite the spectacle. I really love the colors on spawning brown trout bucks. BUT, if they look like this fresh chromie, they are great for the smoker: If you like those colors, here's one of the prettiest 'bows I caught last fall:

Yep. if the image is 100 px. x 100 px., it will be 75 px. x 75 px. Now, the caveat is that, I'm not real sure that it will end up the appropriate size for posting. If you use something like BDSizer, you can be specific about the end size. And on the other hand, photobucket is great because it resizes automatically, and once uploaded there, you don't have to attach anything here, or any other forums. Just use the linking tags and code. Personally, I think you'll like the photobucket solution the best.

Thanks all. I use casting gear. My buddy is a pinner. Unless you're running weight on your tippet, you're not getting down to the fish. To me wight on a fly rig isn't really fly fishing. In other words, its the wrong tool. The right tool is a float rig, and depending on the depth, the terminal gear can run to lengths over 8'. At any rate, a drag free drift is what you're looking for, centrepins and baitcasters are ideal for this. Spinning flat out sucks for it, though I keep a 9'6" spinning rig in the car when spinning makes more sense.

The weakness is that there is no way to set a target size, and highly imprecise. make sure when you use "Image > Stretch/Skew" dialog, you use equal percentages in the stretch section. Leave skew alone. Otherwise, the image will be distorted.