J Francho

It's a little more than the depth.

Pickerel must at least 15" to be legally kept in New Jersey: http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/pdf/2012/digfsh12-regs.pdf You may not realize this, but larger esox, in this case pickerel over 20" or so, primarily subsist on smaller Esox. This is why when the larger fish are removed, there is an explosion in the population of smaller fish. Follow the rules governed by your DNR. There's a reason they are set in place.

Bedliner on a glass boat? Ehhhh, I don't think that would work too well. I don't really like the idea for tin boats either, though.

I've fished dozens of tournaments out of my 18' Xpress. Won a few, too.

I haven't really met a frog rod I like. They seem more suited to casting the frog than actually setting the hook. Most often, I use my flipping stick for frogging.

That's mine too, except I have a righty Alphas or a lefty JDM Zillion on mine. Depends on which one I was using the day before, and how sore I am, lol.

It's at about a dozen that I start to feel cramped. We're faced with so much diversity in our northern, natural lakes that it's hard to fish with less than three or four, even if you're dialed in. Even when I'm fishing deep smallies, which is somewhat specialized, I still have three drop shot rods out, a jigging spoon, a football jig, and at least one cranking or jerkbait rig on deck.

Look up "deep jacking a crankbait." This essentially achieves what you're after. And, ummmm.....it works. Shhhh.

A beard, sometimes.

1) A shorter length that you can twitch easily downward. 2) A medium power with an extra fast tip for fast recovery after the twitch. 3) Any reel that feels comfortable. 4) Any gear ratio is fine, since you take up slack on the pause. 5) A balanced combo can alleviate fatigue when jerkbait fishing all day.

Yep.....22 lb. brown on 6# fluoro. 15' UL rod.

Yep, but it's a short window as the lake warms quickly. Love hitting the piers in April. That's actually how I caught my PB brown. I haven't been doing it as much, found some shallow lakes where green fish wake up early.

What about a custom spinning build on a fly rod blank? Something in the 8' range, maybe 1-2 wt.

I think at one point, many of us have stuck a broken Senko on a jig and fished it. Ned Kehde has just refined it a bit, using a gopher head. The mushroom style head has a slim profile and helps with a horizontal fall.

From a boat, or kayak in the lake, September - November. Wading creeks, November - April.

Cool.

Out in the lake, any bass gear will do. In the creeks, there are special tributary rules, but a spinning outfit will work.

#3660 pushes #3658, and keeps it from catching the edges on #3656, which disables the anti reverse. Keep monkeying with it, you'll see what I mean about the spring. When the reel goes forward, the spring and rocker part move in tandem out of the way. When it goes backward, the rocker locks in on the anti reverse.

It does every time. It's a pain. It won't click when the Ar is off because the lever pushes the rocker out of the way.

Actually, the self centering AR mechanism is pretty standard among many low to mid range Shimanos. The clicking is part #3658 bumping #3656. It's cause by #3659 not being aligned properly with #2280 and #3869. http://fish.shimano.com/media/fishing/SAC/techdocs/en/Spinning/00SC2000FA_v1_m56577569830642089.pdf

Something isn't back together right if it's clicking. Might be a misplaced shim under the rotor.

The first one was caught wading a small trib. I used an egg pattern fly, under a float rig with a centrepin, but a traditional floating line with a fluoro tippet would work too. The second is from close in shore, in 4-8' of water, and is easily accessible from a kayak. In fact.....

None of the rods I own are from companies that make reels. Well, I guess the G. Loomis and Shimano are a match. Other than that, they're all Dobyns and St. Croix. Reels are all Daiwas and Shimanos.

I wouldn't start on an unfamiliar reel without a full schematic in front of me.

Open seat, and lodging. Anytime.