J Francho

Casting, 6-2 Spinning, 6-3

Most of the time it's a Uni knot. Palomar works too.

A little more on heavier power rods…with the exception of froggin' and punching matted milfoil and coontail, the heavy power rod is more for comfort with heavier baits. Spend a day casting an overloaded rod, and you'll begin to hate it. More effort for less distance and accuracy. I know I never thought I'd need anything beyond a medium, but then again I never threw anything more than 3/8 oz. Time and experience has led me to venture into heavier stuff, and a well balanced stick suited for the job makes it more satisfying.

It's been slow for me too, both trout and bass. A couple 2# bass from a pond, and three steelhead, none cracking 10#. The bass seem slow to "wake up" and the trout all jumped on redds, making them difficult for my style of fishing. I don't like messing with trout on redds anyway. Seems like snagging to me.

Saint Croix 4C79HF - 20# CXX swim baits up to 5oz. Okuma TCS-C-7111XH - 65# Power Pro - punching plastics over 1 oz. Dobyns DX744cf - 50# PP - jigs/plastics up to 1/2 oz. Dobyns DX745cf - 50# PP - jigs/plastics over 1/2 oz. Pinnacle DHC7-731CAH - 50# PP - frogs

So put Shimano oil in a Shimano reel. It's not a mystery. Most reels are packed with the proper oil.

It may actually help. The bearings may not even be greased, and need oil. Grease is just oil with detergent. The drop of oil can increase the viscosity, and improve performance. You do not want add so much that oil runs down the spool shaft and into the drag washers.

A drop of oil isn't going to hurt a thing.

Yeah, that's it. He's not any watch list. Heh.

Just fish it.

I guess I don't share the same experience, as a northern bass angler. Most guys have pile of casting rigs and a few spinners. Now if you hit the trout streams, there are your casters, your spinner guys, lots of fly guys, and the knuckle dragger centrepin guys like me. Use what you like and what gets the job done.

You should make him take his shoes off before getting in your boat.

Nice fish. Your buddy needs to get scale.

Do people commonly cheat? Commonly, no. Yes, there are many documented stories of individuals that commonly cheated in tournaments, but to say its common is totally off the mark. There is very little cheating in tournaments.

Pretty much any bait that I value, is hard to replace, or expensive is a pike magnet. Failing that, anything fast and shiny seems to work.

There's a TLA for that, it's called CLM.

Bass Resource is not avenue for wholesale product bashing. It's one thing to give an unbiased, educated review, detailing usage parameters and fusing circumstances, but this is simply a gripe fest. Remember what your mother said about when you don't have anything nice to say?

I think that wraps it up.

Those are unusual circumstances the weren't part of the original question. It's like answering the question of where bass spawn. They like a hard bottom. Where do they soawn when there's no hard bottom? The next best place. In less than ideal circumstances, the spawn using the other cues, cues secondary to water temperature. Just look at Florida or Mexico. Those fish spawn when the water cools.

Bass do not spawn at the surface.

Uh, Kent, my 5-12 smallmouth and many others approaching that size were caught on a ml. I suspect your preference has more to do with habitat and fishing style than whether it's a capable bass rod. I use mine for trout too. Most of them were well over 8 lbs. Locale, species present, and cover have a lot to do with gear selection. Remember, Fish Chris has caught some seriously gigantic fish. He uses UL tackle.

I like braid with a leader of fluoro or tough copoly.

I have small hands, and haven't had any trouble with any lo pro casting reel. There really aren't too many that are "big" anymore. My girlfriend likes Daiwa Sols, and they are a great reel, but you'll have to search the used market.

Interesting perspective. In my state, our rights to fish have been broadened in my lifetime. This was achieved by anglers engaging the DEC, and organizing ourselves into one loud voice. I'm not going to get into the political details here, but suffice it to say, cooperation works better than disobedience.

Many do not lay eggs at all. According to DEC biologists up here, 75-80% of adult bass don't spawn.