J Francho

Wow. Didn't we just do a dozen pages or so on this recently?

Disco the tach, and see what happens. Good luck!

Get a super clean from a pro, and practice. Simple as that. No upgrades necessary. If you want to add performance, concentrate next on the drag. Then for smoothness, a light handle with bearing knobs. After all that, and you still want to soup it up, better bearings, and a light weight spool.

Proven to do what, with what, on what?

3rd is respectable, no matter the field. Do you have the break down of the top 5?

Grow up. Agree to to disagree and don't act like children. Neither of have earned the privilege to kiss Irene goodnight.

No charges will be filed.

I'll gladly tell you what I'm doing…after the final weigh in. Before that, it's nobody's business.

There aren't too many duds as you approach the $200 mark. At that point it becomes an exercise in what balances with your reel, and what feels comfortable in your hand.

Nice work, Gary. Your findings echo my own, including the reel seat threads. So, here is my own thought on that, and why it's overlooked. On a rod with a fore grip, why is this not an issue? My fingers are in the same place whether there's a grip up there or not. But every time I hold a skeleton split grip build, I automatically complain about the threads, lol. At any rate, a good example of a best practice would be the knob on the Dobyns. If you like a small padded area, the Okuma TCS has one of the most comfortable arrangements I've used.

Prefishing helps me determine where there are fish. This can't be done in a single trip. Sounds like you have this down. Practice is where I develop my game plan. Routes, spots, travel time, and my final spots are all worked. If it's a big lake, you want to know how long it takes to get to the weigh in check point. Figure out plans for good weather and bad. The best time to diverge from the plan is up to about two hours before check in. The plan can change on the spot, but be sure you aren't wasting time running, when you could be grinding out fish. Worse, don't be late to the check in. If you're struggling, chances are so is everybody else, if you're prepared. Don't sweat that, "I have to get a limit" attitude. Everything has to go right to get a W. When something goes wrong, address it and keep fishing. Stay focused, humble, and most importantly, have fun.

I'll add that one of the reasons live bait isn't allowed in competition is that it levels the playing field, and it's an easy variable to control.

I've fished both. If I was going on vacation, Black Lake. If I was going fishing, Oneida. Both are great fisheries.

I think my favorite is when I set the hook, fish jumps, and gets caught in a tree. Game over.

I have control issues, and live bait doesn't really play well with this personality defect, lol.

Throw upstream, and let the current sweep the bait. Or move up in weight to keep the bait in place. There are times when throwing downstream work, but not often.

New York, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, Connecticut, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Florida, and Ontario, Canada.

Get a faster boat. Some guys can only figure out the bent rod pattern.

In summer, deep generally wins. Deep can mean different things on different lakes. Spring and fall, you better check the shallows first though. In summer, it seems like shallow is the last place I check. Glad I did last night.

That's true. I guess the original question is more like when they close down a city for an F1 race, like Toronto or Morocco. But it's not like pro fisherman are driving 180 mph through the streets. Maybe more pros should drive Bullets? Lol.

Snag them. That's a heck of a deal.

Normally, my response would echo Mike Siebert's. Not tonight. All fish caught off wood in inches of water. At first, I was drawing them out with a Mini Slammer, but no takers, just follows. There were a ton of little baitfish, so instead of trying to finesse a big rat swimbait through the timber, I used a spinnerbait. That wax responsible for several fish. In places I felt had to have a fish, I plied it with a jig. This worked about half the time. In all cases, I had to make contact with the submerged wood. Unabashed plugs: Mike's spinnerbait and arkey style jig are tools well suited for this. The bullet shaped head on the spinnerbait never got hung even though I cast over and through fallen timber. The Owner hook keeps the buttoned. No trailer hooks today - almost not necessary the way they were eating them. Mike's arkey jig is great in lumber. The wide head kicks the jig out when coming through branches, addid the movement needed to get the Rage Chunk claws flapping. Props to my new Pinnacle 6-8 MXF DCH5 micro spinnerbait rod and 7-3 MHF DHC5 micro jig rod. For the spinnerbaits, 12# CXX on an Alphas. Jigs, 17# AbrasX on an Optimus hand tuned. Hope that helps, seemed appropriate given the topic since I just got off the water. Not my usual game, but it worked well.

It is a swimbait, not a glorified swimbait. I have a couple gliders. One isn't a production model, the other is the Savage Gear bait. Speed is on the money, a bigger bait has better gliding action. The main difference I see as well, is that they typically don't have as dramatic a swimming action on a straight retrieve. It's more like a rolling action. Basically, a different, more specific bait. Calling "glorified" would be like calling a suspending crank bait a glorified jerk bait. As people gain success with bigger baits, they quickly have a desire to fine tune the presentation. This type of bait fits that description. Is it better? No. Maybe. Yes? Depends on whether you use them and get bit. I like them. Forces me to slow down.

It depends. As long as those special rules apply for anyone with a legal right to fish, then sure, change the regs for that area. It's been very successful for the pre season tournaments on Erie.

I really like traps for this kind of fishing. For vibration baits, Spro Aruku Shad in both sizes is a great bait in rocks. Reel them in quickly, that broad head gets lower the faster you reel, and acts just like a bill on a lipped crank. I use the Jr.s for shallow, and regulars for a little deeper. For smallies, speed kills.