J Francho

Not all bass have potential because they are limited by environmental factor and growth rate through out their life. Bass grow their entire life, except for the very end, when they shrink a bit. To get a truly big big fish has nothing to do with temperament or genes, barring any genetic issue. It's about environment. I'm selling on the aggression/catch-ability notion. It's bad science in my book. The only way to make that correlation is if every fish is caught at least once. Most are not caught. Ever. It was always better way back when.... I don't agree. That might be true of some places, but most often, people do the same thing over and over, and things change. Don't adjust, and it was always better back when you didn't have to think about trying something new. Most of the places I fish are better now than they were in 70s, when I was a little kid. As far as private ponds and likelihood of catching big fish, well that's just law of averages and confines. Why is it some of the most heavily trafficked lakes are the ones that put out huge fish so consistently? Because they are fish factories, that have all the environmental factors in place to produce big fish. Not special genetics, not because they aren't fished...food, cover, comfortable temperatures, room to grow.

You can do your own research. Around here....Erie, Conesus, Keuka, and a few smaller mud puddles that shall remain unnamed on the internet....record fish, though? I don't know. Think about the Perry fish....came from an Oxbow that doesn't exist anymore. Sort blows that deep water theory, doesn't it? The NY record came from a private pond. Hmmmmmmm......

People fish waters because they are productive. The circumstances that grow gigantic bass (or any species) are almost always weird, and don't follow the "blueprint."

I would argue that most records come out of regularly fished spots. Why? People are fishing them frequently, lol.

Color and GPS are MUST HAVES for me. 300 and 500 series from 'Bird have some good units that work well with a kayak - I use an old 383ci in mine. Plus 'Bird has ascupper mount transducers. If you want to step up to DI, the Raymarine Dragonfly is an excellent unit. I use one on my Bullet, but it would fit a kayak just fine. Research your TD options, and look for install videos. The unit isn't worth a thing if you TD isn't installed correctly.

The one you use the most is the one you will cast better with.

Same reason those CA fish get big on stocked trout - high fat and protein, soft body, and tons available to eat with little effort. I want to be clear - fishing pressure may have something to do with whether big fish are easily caught or not, but it has ZERO influence on size. Look up Lake Dixon.

When I teach people to use a baitcaster, pitching is the FIRST thing they learn to do. Follow the video links, and practice. Had my girlfriend pitching 10 yards in about a half hour. Flippin....I have no idea what the problem there is, you don't use the reel to flip, unless you're reeling in a fish. Pull off enough line to make a flip, and engage the reel. From there, it's only pulling line from the stripping guide, and swinging the bait to the next spot. As far as pitching and flipping with spinning go...it's just a casting technique, you can do it with any reel. In fact, I'd say I most often pitch my finesse baits unless I'm skipping. Even then, I can pitch-skip a bait with a spinning rod. It's worthwhile knowing how to do.

This is huge to the point of monster bass in NE. The "herring corridor." Herring is why some of the northeast records are so big.

Simple answer, they don't dissolve. That's one of my peeves - leaving balls of line behind.

Speed and handling only liits how far you can go, not how big a lake you can fish.

I see pike casserole.

Fisher - they should make braid scissors out of zebes and quagga mussels.

No clue, other brands swell up, some don't.

I could be wrong, but I swear "plastisol" was PVC. I could way off on that, though.

Some do! Senkos will get as big as a Cuban cigar, lol.

Jimmy Johnson's hair.

Actually, no, it's punctuation, which isn't really a part of grammar, though it could be argued it's in the semantics subset of grammar, but in general grammar is generally the rules used to construct expressions in English. Both sentences are grammatically correct, and punctuated correctly, though each has a completely disparate implication - the very definition of semantics. But I digress...Gary and I were kidding around. It should probably be known that we have each others' phone number, and yell into the phone at each other at will, lol. Anyway, there are lines that tougher than FC - especially reel filler line - Yo-Zuri Hybrid and CXX come to mind. FC leader material is another story, though it's more expensive than the Cortland leader I recommended above. One thing, once there's a nick in some FC lines, it's over. Retie. Copolymers and traditional mono is more forgiving in that regard.

Your budget is going to pretty much limit you to a small, used, aluminum boat with a small outboard. Check your local listings, there's always a few for sale this time of year. Make sure it has a title, and runs.

Those smarts are a few clicks away, lol. http://bit.ly/ZMNAzD

Cheap, compared to $5 to $20 a crank, lol.

That isn't my experience. Their reputation is overblown. Add to that that once they realize it's a pickerel or northern, people panic and horse the fish in, breaking off in the process. There's also the crummy knot tiers that always blame bad knots or worn leaders on toothies. Whether I use a leader, it really depends on the bait. Moving baits aren't as much a problem as jigs and plastics, though wakes and square bills seem to attract a lot of attention from gators. In fact, I don't even bother with a leader of any kind when fishing northerns with a spinnerbait. 10-12# copoly or fluoro holds up fine. In fact, I lost one spinnerbait (it actually broke in half, line intact) over the past few weekends fishing northerns. I'd say I've boated around 35 to 40 of them. Now If' is was using a contact bait that gets inhaled before you set the hook, that's another story. Here's a spinnerbait fish from a couple weekends ago, fishing with clayton86. Pretty typical size, 8-9 lbs., caught using 10# CXX: Here's one where I was lucky....tiny little finesse crank, 8# CXX....13-8 northern, lol. This is a case where clearly I should have used leader, and I did once i understood just how many northernswere in this creek. Moral of the story, sometimes there are issues that don't need solving. In the OP's case, sounds like he's actually losing baits. To me, steel sucks, as a solution. It creates a whole set of problems, not the least being it ruins the action. So far, the Cortland leader I described above is one of the best options. The next best, if you must use a leader, is titanium.

In many states, all of this is illegal to throw in the lake - natural or not. Check your local laws before placing anything in the lake.

We're just goofing on you (and me), aavery2 - carry on