bilgerat

Had a similar spot near me (abandoned sand pit) - No rocks, just deep clear water with nice big fish. Everyone's previous bait suggestions are on the money, I would only add approach these fish as quietly as possible. Cast from far away if possible and avoid ANY unecessary noise. If you can see them, they likely are aware of you. Fish in these type of places spook easily. I say HAD a similar spot, the land was bought by a developer, houses going up as we speak One of my area's best fishing spots gone forever.

Here's some suggestions (I fish ul a lot, these work!) 1) If you don't have a boat to let the line all of the way out to work out the loops, find a large area such as a park or a ballfield. Open the bail, lay the rod down (or have a buddy hold it for you) and walk out all of the line. Now reel the line back in with tension applied with your thumb and forefinger This is also a good time to apply line conditioner. By spooling your reel this way, the twists and coils will work themselves out. 2) Get in the habit of manually closing the bail AFTER EACH CAST!! Use your thumb and forefinger to put a little tension on the line at the beginning of the retrieve to avoid the first few wraps from being too loose. IMO, snapping the bail shut by turning the handle is the cause of most spinning reel line troubles. Good luck.

This was my first year fishing seriously with ultra lite and let me tell you, what a year!! I got a Pflueger Trion GX-7 reel on a BPS 6' Microlite UL rod. The reel well exceeded my expectations, it has been flawless. The rod is not bad either. I'm working on my Xmas wish list now, which includes a St. Croix Avid 6' 6" UL rod and a Pflueger President reel. I gotta say I'm very impressed with Pflueger's quality. The St. Croix will be my first high end rod.

T-Rig, I'm with ya on the Rapala. Definatly a classic.

You callin' me a jerk ? It still catches a ton of fish.

Get yourself a Yo- Zuri Pin's Minnow. There is a cavity inside that houses two ball bearings that serve two purposes : 1) On the cast, inertia forces the balls to the rear of the cavity, resulting in great casting distance. 2) On the retrieve, the balls act as rattles. They cost a few bucks more, but they are a fantastic topwater plug.

Yeah, thats a spy photo alright. Fishing on a floating billboard with a cameraman onboard 8-). AND the source is TT, the National Enquier of fishing sites.

Make sure whatever you get it is a DEEP CYCLE MARINE BATTERY. These are designed for this. A regular car battery will work, but will not last.

I killed 'em last year on tikis. Even when the bait was torn to shreds, still caught fish on just pieces of 'em.

Have the battery load tested by a mechanic. This simulates the load that the starter puts on the battery. The starter is THE biggest load on your battery. If that checks out, a worn starter could be the problem. A worn starter will draw way more current (amps) than a healthy one. This can be tested on a bench by a good mechanic. WARNING.... Before you go throwing parts at this, be aware that most every place that sells parts has a strict policy against returning electrical parts once they are sold. This is done to prevent you from using the parts as "test" pieces (replacing components blindly until the problem is solved). It's worth it to pay someone who knows what they are doing to correctly troubleshoot it. Good luck.

Oh, excuse me. I think I must have stumbled onto the Us magazine website. I'm goin' back to Bassresource. Bye now..

On the subject of hooks..... I read an article recently on another fishing site (I forget the site, can't provide a link) Anyway, the guy was a fanatic about sharpening his hooks regularly. He claimed most hooks out of the package could be sharper than they were. A good way to test a hook's sharpness is to put the point on your thumbnail at about a 45 degree angle. Try to drag the hook across your nail. If it digs into your nail, it's sharp enough. If it skids across, it needs to be touched up. I checked out my stuff and was suprised at how much of it needed sharpening. I practiced on old and rusty hookls until I got the hang of it.

I think I screwed up that link. Sorry. Try again www.prosoftbaitglue.com

Go to [ftp]www.prosoftbaitglue.com[/ftp] This stuff is great

Whoops I goofed. It's under "Solutions to common reel problems"

Check out the post at the top of this board (Important Topics) titled "Solutions to common baitcaster problems" written by Reel Mechanic. It's the first problem discussed.

Funny you mentioned a Low Rider. I'm probably going to order one at the end of the week. I did a lot of looking into them, seems like a great rod for the money, plus a five year gaurentee. If you don't mind my asking, whadya pay for it ?

Is that similar to a Bantam Crestfire? I have a CR101 left hand Crestfire. Was my first baitcaster.

$145.00 and free shipping from Delo's (one of the site's sponsers) $129.95 from Baitnhook, but on their site, they list the specs for a HSTL, which is an older version of the HSTA, but the picture is of the newer (11 bearing vs the older 8 bearing model) HSTA. Will have to call them to clear up that confusion. Will likely buy from Delo's so the site gets a cut of the action.

Thanks for the reply. I'm a diesel mechanic, so I understand where you're coming from. I've seen the results of improper/poor quality lubrication. It always equals lot's of $$$$ out of the customer's pocket.

I'm probably gonna go with the Daiwa. I don't have a problem with Shimano, I own quite a few of their spinning reels that have a lot of miles on them with no problems at all. I've never owned a Daiwa, so I'll go with that this year to see how I like it. If I don't like it, I'm sure I'll have no problem selling it :

Question for ***- I've read your threads in the past and you said you were not a fan of Hot Sauce, but I don't recall why. Could you explain ? For the record, I've never used it myself, I was just curious.

Have narrowed my baitcast search down to a Curado or a Daiwa Advantage HSTA. Looking for opinions on the Daiwa, seems like the Curado has a loyal following. My only concern is it looks like Shimano is getting ready to dump the Curado (future parts availability, etc.) Also, would like to know if anyone has dealt with Baitnhook. Any issues with customer service, delivery,ripoffs,etc.??

Got a catalogue from Bass Pro this week for their "2008 Spring Fishing Classic sale". They claim the prices to be the lowest of the year, but it is for internet and catalogue orders only. Seems to be some good deals in there.

A poorly made graphite reel can twist and distort to a certain degree under a heavy load. I've seen this myself on saltwater (fighting a snapper blue for instance). In a case like this, a reel with an all metal frame would have the advantage. HOWEVER, a well made graphite reel would be fine for 1 to 6 # fish. As previously stated, maitenance is the key. Excellent graphite reels can be had for 30 bucks.