bass wrangler569

When it comes to spinnerbaits, I'm terminator man. They are made extremely well and they come in some awesome colors (trout is an amazing smallmouth color). They hold up well, especially the titanium ones. Lately though I have been experiementing with Nichols spinnerbaits and have been really impressed. The Nichols spinnerbaits have a little bit smaller profile and the seem to work better for smallies.

Informative post, and you really like smileys don't you. ;D

Try taking out that boat and doing some dropshot fishing. Dropshotting is hard to beat in clear, deep water. In the shallow parts spinnerbaits in translucent colors would probably produce as well. Depending on how clear the water is you might want to consider thinning out the skirt a little bit.

Catching bass on light tackle is a blast. I don't fish with light stuff nearly as much as I used to but a few years ago I would take my ultralight loaded with 2lb trilene to a local pond. Let me tell you catching 2.5lb bass on 2lb line is FUN!

I don't keep bass unless they are a casualty of fishing (bleeding gill, damaged organs, etc.). That being said I would never look down upon someone who was keeping a few fish to eat as long as they throw the big ones back. Some people tend to get real gung-ho about c and r but we need people who keep some smaller bass because it allows other bass to get bigger and it stops the lake from becoming a dink-factory.

This is by far the best bass fishing book I have ever read (and I have read over 20). I've read this book at least six times and I'm still learning things.

The problem with a lot of fisheries anymore is catch and release fishing. Nobody takes anything home anymore and the fish can get way overpopulated and undersized. I personally am a catch and release man but we shouldn't discourage people who want to keep the occasional bass.

Welcome to the forums! If I had a $300 budget I would probably look at pairing a Powell Casting Rod (7' Mag-Hvy EF 705) with the new curado E. When fishing frogs I like a high speed gear ratio so I can take up slack line quickly so the curado in 7.0:1 is a good choice.

I like them and I do think it improves sensitivity but I wouldn't buy a rod just because it had an exposed reel seat.

Make sure your using mono and not fluorocarbon. Like everyone else said sand the lip down. Or.... you could buy some ricos or splash-its and avoid the problem all together (if you cool with dropping some $$$)

I'm definately getting at least one of the new curados and maybe a citica as well. Does anyone know the exact date that they'll be available.

A guy in my club taught me this trick: put your spool in warm/hot water for 20-30 minutes and then put it on your reels. After I started doing this my manageability problems were solved. Give it a try.

I loved mine (I left it at the yesterday and someone walked away with it), it would cast a mile and it was very smooth. I'm not sure if it was worth the original 239.99 price but it definately is worth the 129.99 and then some.

Well, I wanna throw up. I just lost $700 worth of fishing rods/reels. Left my rods sitting by the boat and pulled away without 'em. I just went back to look for them and they're gone. I lost a Quantum Tour Edition baitcaster, a Quantum Energy baitcaster, a custom G Loomis spinnerbait rod that I literally built 5 days ago, and two BPS extreme rods. I'm not too upset about the extreme rods (I have like 8 of them) but the two reels... ughhh. And I can't even talk about losing that G Loomis. Have you guys ever made any mistakes like that.

I fish them mostly as buzzbaits. I especially like using the black ribbits at night. I'll also use them as jig trailers occasionally.

No you don't need to use braided line. I usually use 50lb powerpro braid but lately I've been using 20lb mono and I'm starting to like the mono better. I tend to set the hook a little early with frogs and the mono stretches so it's a little more forgiving.

When fishing them alone, I don't think it makes a big difference but I always separate it when using it as a jig trailer. The legs kick as the jig drops and it gives a little more action to the bait.

Most line will gets stiff after a month or two of hard use. Try changing your line more often. I usually change mine once a week but even every 3-4 weeks isn't bad.

Pflueger president and Pflueger supremes can't be beaten in the value department IMO.

The handle length is 18" (I like long handles). I used black for all my wraps so its pretty stealthy. I'm building a flipping rod next and I plan to try some more elaborate things with my wraps.

There aren't many places in America where you can throw a senko for 20min without a bite! ;D

You're not the only one. The new tour edition looks sweet. I'll definitely be getting one when the come out.

As far as plastic worms for bass go you need to get yourself a pack of 5" watermelon red flake senkos. Wacky rig them. To do this you hook the worm through the middle of the body (i prefer using octopus hooks but most any hook type will work okay). Cast the senkos out toward bassy-looking cover and let them sink. If you search the articles on bassresource you should be able to find a lot of senko fishing information. You could try texas rigging senkos or other soft plastics. If you google image texas rig you should be able to find a good picture of how to do it. If I were going to give you on piece of advice for plastic worms it would be fish them slowly. When you think your slow enough, fish it slower. As far as jerkbaits go, I'm not fishing them too much this time of year. Thats not to say they won't catch bass but other baits are more effective in the summer IMO. Deep-diving crankbaits work well in the summer. Try fishing them on underwater points and ledges. Another type of crankbait you might want to try are lipless crankbaits (rattletraps, rattlin' rapalas, lvrs, etc.). If the lakes your fishing have grass you should be able to catch bass by ripping the lipless crankbaits out of the grass. I've been doing very well lately using this technique. Sorry but I'm not going to be able to help you with trolling for trout. Whenever I fish for trout, which isn't often anymore, I usually fly fish.

This one cost me $180 to build but I didn't need to buy epoxy or tools. You can get all the tools and epoxy you need to get started for under $100.

I just finished building my new spinnerbait rod. It's the second rod I've built and it turned out much better than my first one. The blank is a G Loomis sb812 blank. So what do you think? Any constructive criticism is welcome. Sorry, for some reason I couldn't get the pics in the post so I heres a hyperlink to photobucket. http://s528.photobucket.com/albums/dd328/bass_wrangler569/?action=view&current=IMG_0482.jpg and another pic http://s528.photobucket.com/albums/dd328/bass_wrangler569/?action=view&current=IMG_0483.jpg