J Francho

My hands are pretty ugly any way. I play drums, and along with the callouses, the wooden sticks suck the moisture out. Dawn or Palmolive gives me dishpan hands. I do think PS is a little irritating at full strength. Diluted it seems fine.

Small swim baits like that, 12# CXX or 50# Power Pro.

I get it at Gander.

Dishpan hands? Every reel tech will get them. Wear gloves - I do.

Way to spill the beans on the pink dye. Lol.

But you added the words "Carolina keeper" and "weightless" to the description, lol. That I understand. When someone says they used a T-rigged creature to catch the winning bag, no one thinks it was weightless. Right?

I left a wet box if jerk baits in my boat last fall. Fished them out a couple weeks ago, and most of the hooks were rusted, some rusted right to the baits, leaving a bad mess and what thought was a costly mistake. Cut all the split sings and hooks off, and cleaned them up with PS. All I did was ruin some hooks the I would have replaced anyway. 1001 uses, lol.

It doesn't really matter, some guys will do what they do - I'm one of them, stubborn to a fault. I kept the stuff under wraps for more than two years. I'm sharing it now because it works, and it's a little payback for all the good advice I've received over the years. My purpose is not to be better than everyone else, it's help everyone else get better. Take what you want, leave what you don't. Look at me, I see hundreds of posts a year about how good a C-rig is, and I've learned when the optimal time to throw it. Do throw it then? Not really. I'd rather stick a fork in my own eye. Call me crazy, but that's how information works.

Not completely related, but an article I wrote a few years ago. http://www.bassresource.com/fishing/fishing-with-friends.html

My take away from the original post is to fish the moment. Would you disagree with that advice?

I was just gonna type up something similar - that it's the weight of the bait, and the line diameter that dictates whether I use spinning or casting gear. One exception to that is when the effort free line flowing off the spool if a spinner makes fishing easier. I use weights heavy enough to warrant a casting reel on my deep drop shotting, but with a casting reel, it's a pain to thumb the spool down 40' or more, and even worse with light line. Another time is jerk baits and windy days - which often go hand in hand.

I wouldn't be so skeptical with green fish. I seem to recall finishing within spitting distance of Dwight with a green one, a few years ago. Maybe he was having a bad year, lol.

As long as the heat is civil…

There's personal preferences, true. Mine is developed over cleaning literally thousands of bearing packs. To say that all it takes is a couple swirls in solvent is a little misleading. That may be true with a relatively clean bearing, that only has lite oil applied. Customer reels are often loaded with factory grease and dirt that is not handled well by solvents. Lastly, solvents leave more residue than the water from my tap. Never mind the fumes, lol. I probably would have never tried using PS on bearings, except for some that had some seriously nasty, oxidized grease all over the outside that acetone would not touch. A few minutes in PS, and it was easily lifted. Try it, don't try it. Use what works, I know - and anyone that has been turned on to the stuff - knows too

I disagree. That's simply rigging it weed less. You can call it "Texas style," or "T-rig style," but when someone says "Texas Rig," anyone that has been around a while will think you mean a bullet weight, a hook, and a plastic, wigged weed less. I realize we're using colloquialisms here, but there has to be some consistency in the nomenclature, and we're talking about 40+ year old rigging that only recently has been transformed by rooks on forums. What is a Carolina rig? Is the weight optional? No. Is the swivel optional? No. What about those mojo weights? Well that's a Mojo rig. Is a weight optional on a drop shot? No. What if you put a leader on the hook? Well, it's a 3-way rig then. What if I use a weed less hook? Then it's a drop shot with a weed less hook. What if I peg my bullet weight on a T-rig and slide the weight up the line, C-rig style? Then call it that. It's not a C-rig though. I probably sound like a rigging nazi here, but on an online forum, it really helps noobs and experienced anglers alike to use established terms when referring to rigs. If you do search on the rigging names, the majority of search results will show a common theme. You might even find the history of the rig.

It'll say copolymer on the package. CXX, YZ Hybrid, Silverthread Excalibur, are a few copoly lines I've used and like.

Anyone that says naphtha or acetone is better than PS for bearings, hadn't tried it. Seriously.

I don't think it's necessary to question Tom's credibility, nor do I think it's relevant to the discussion. I've had the pleasure if chatting with him offline, and based on our discussions, he knows what he knows, and his input is as welcome as anyone's. Bottom line, he knows what's up, and more importantly, he's an old dude that can share some of the history. I like my old guys, and value their stories and experience. They might not be dialed into what is right now, but that doesn't mean their experience is irrelevant. To the original point… I can't tell you how many times I've heard this at the end of the day: "I caught the heck out of them the past two days, but couldn't buy a bite today…" or, "you should have been here yesterday…" at the ramp, weigh in, coffee joint, etc. We're talking about fishing the past. I love fishing against guys that don't know how to prefish, or manage their spots over a two or three day event. Where are your fish? You sore lipped them and took them on a boat ride! Changing conditions…there are things that occur, sometimes overnight, that dramatically change the game. This is key in one day tournaments. Guys come in on a Thursday, and get their plan and spots. By Saturday, it can be completely different. Do what you did on Thursday - fish the past - and you fall on your face. It's happened to me. Now, having fished in changing or inclement conditions will help, if you know how to find a bit in those conditions. This is the fishing in the past that Catt, and others talk about, but it's not that same as hitting same spots over and over. Let's face it, the guys that are citing experience are better than average sticks, and know when to fish what. They've made the new memories Tom refers to. Case in point, I grew up on Port Bay, and I ALWAYS fish the outlet. When I was younger, if I didn't catch, it was just a bad day. Later, I started to put things together that tied good fishing in that spot with certain environmental conditions. That spot always holds a few fish, and the point on the east side is a well beaten community hole, and not just for bass. But, in certain situations, and I've done it twice in tournaments, you can beat green fish from frogs, jigs, senkos under docks, with brown fish that are suddenly where they never are. It's not a spot I rely on anymore. In fact, since I've fished this water for over 30 years, I don't rely on anything there. You might call that fishing your memory, but it's beyond that. If I fished that spot every tournament, I may never win, or I may luck out with smallies. You aren't going to find too many big green fish, though they are right around the corner in a totally different habitat. One I may have never found either, had I not decided to try something different, and make new memories, experiences. All Tom is saying is leave your comfort zone.

I'm a big fan of P-line products. Fluoroclear has to be one of the worst lines I tried. It breaks way too easily, in any size. My buddy loves the stuff. I've never seen so many baits cast into oblivion as when I fish with him. He always has an excuse for it, tip was rapped, should have retied, etc. it's the line, I keep telling him. Never mind the fish tat break off, lol. If you want to fluoro, get fluoro. If you want something stronger than mono with less stretch, try a good copoly. For zero stretch and low diameter, then braid. Any line that is a mix of both worlds has been a let down, save Yo-Zuri. But that line acts like a copoly more than hybrid line.

I use that stuff on every part of the reel. Cuts my cleaning time by three fold. As a side note, it also gets scum off my aluminum Xpress hull, makes the white letters on my tires look new, it's the best thing I've found to clean my rubber floor mats, makes my stove top glimmer, gets that nasty stuff stuck to the back of the fridge, and nothing gets my teeth whiter. Ok, last part was a lie.

While I use fluoro, and in the past CXX on that AVC70MM, that rod would be a good match for braid, if you want to go that route. It has a lot of flex, to keep the trebles pinned, but there is a surprising amount of backbone in the bottom third of the blank. I've caught quite a few accidental northerns, a few over 12 lbs. and never felt out matched.

Up here, tournaments don't start until the 3rd Saturday in June. Bass are usually post spawn or in summer mode by then. If it's a milfoil lake, a jig or creature will usually do well. Watch out for the froggers and the dock skipping senko dudes.

Pretty much.

Standards would stifle product evolution and cost more for consumers. Most companies get it right.

I generally only work on support centers, so the cold calls aren't my fault. Now, you get connected to some call center halfway across the globe because your left click button is broke, well… Actually, I gather the data from the calls to measure performance. But, knowing how the operation works is critical to doing that part.