Dwight Hottle

Well it’s October so the brown bass will be on the move.

Sweet way to recapture those memories.

Casting using 14, 17 & 20llb. Cranks, topwater & jigs. This is for the straight copolymer main line. Bass up to 11.5 lbs at Lake Baccarac in Mexico. The leaders that broke were 20lb on hard hook sets while shiner fishing in Florida.

Well the buckeyes won against a tough husky team on their turf. Bama has Georgia’s number. And the ducks pulled it out at night in a tough environment. They are scary good.

I have seen them on Great Slave in the Northwest Territories. It does kinda freak you out seeing white pelicans so far north.

I have found that using copolymer as a leader with braid causes breakage problems because of the sudden shock during hook sets. I have used Suffix Advance as a main line with no similar problems on some big fish. But when I used the same line for a 4 to six foot leader it's was breaking above the hook knot on hard hook sets. When I switched to straight mono of the same test & diameter the problem went away. I assume you are having the same problem. It's not the brand but the type of line that doesn't have the shock resistance when using it with braid.

@Tennessee Boy @OldManLure Yes I know but they also imprint from someone feeding them.

He's young looking he might be trying to imprint on you.

Well only four teams in the top 25 lost ground Michigan,Arizona State, SMU & Florida. But based on last year a two loss team can still make the playoffs. Even a three loss team could squeak in. Time will tell.

You & me both.

I have seen that picture before. It was a very impressive photo showing the girth & overall size of a very thick fish. Was it published in Musky Hunter?

Big winners over the weekend. OSU got the job done at home against #1 Texas thanks to a strong defense. FSU upset Alabama big time. Catt's beloved LSU took out Clemson, Miami beat ND in a rematch of the Convicts vs the Catholics & Tennessee moved up the ranks with a win over Syracuse. Great start to a new season of exciting football.

@A-Jay The most important aspect of Andy’s informative post is the size/length of the jig hook shank. You want to match up the size of the swim bait length with the hook length. Always strive to use a hook length of 1/3 or no more than 1/2 of the baits length. 1/3 is preferred to get the maximum flex/ wiggle of the baits tail action. Too long of a hook kills the bait’s action.

Hey it's either black or white.

Your other choice is to use a snap & that problem goes away.

@king fisher I'm running out of Haha emojis for your sense of humor. Must be the Mexican beer.

Niagara & St Lawrence come to mind.

Is the rod going into a tube in the rod locker? If so do you always put back in the same spot. I can’t believe that 30lb braid is breaking like that not under tension.

Looks like a 7lb class fish. Congrats on the new PB.

@Swamp Girl Congratulations. Your definitely the head engineer on the numbers train. Once you get on it's hard to get off.

Let's talk about live bait & how bass respond to it. All experienced live bait fisherman strive to get wild shiners versus domestic shiners. They want fresh bait that has been conditioned or hardened and they want the most lively bait available. None of the above lends evidence to bass preferring wounded or weak bait. But there are exceptions to the rule. A well known bass guide on Stickmarsk/Farm 13 almost always fished the same area. It was a dead end cut abutting a water control structure.There was a heavy mat of vegetation at the end. He would work through dozens upon dozens of live shiners in a single outing every day, week after week. He was basically baiting the area like a corn dump attracting deer. When he ran out of live bait he started using up the dead bait left over to extend the fishing time for his clients. After a while he noticed the live bait wasn't getting the same attention as before. He decided to try a dead bait instead & got bit quickly. For a period of several weeks he found out the dead shiners out fished the live shiners. We surmised that maybe the bass were becoming conditioned to the live bait & getting hooked frequently. This body of water is catch & release only so the frequency of the same fish being caught over & over is common. Eventually the live bait preference returned. How much effect does conditioning have on bass behavior & feeding? We all know how conditioning does affect our pets.

Braid increases the sensitivity & mono decreases sensitivity by speeding up or slowing down your sense of feel. If you can not feel the difference in sensitivity between an NRX+ and A $50 Lews it makes sense to stick with the cheaper rod. But if you can appreciate the difference a more expensive rod or blank delivers then spend what you can afford on the better rod. For me quality tackle just makes the whole experience of fishing more enjoyable especially with bottom contact baits.

I ordered a Metanium from Digitaka on Aug 12th during their holiday period. I just got the reel delivered by FedEx today the 21st.

Ohio Fred Abrogast & Pleuger & Nick Creme tackle manufactures Joe Thomas, George Pilowski, Glen Lau, Steve Clapper & Homer Circle as fisherman.

You can email your pics to yourself & when prompted select the size you want to use small, medium or large. Just keep the file size under 1.0 MB.