Mike 12345

I am considering joining a local bass club in my area. There are several to choose from, so I'm wondering what is the best way to choose the one best for me? Obviously, given 10 bass clubs, there will be things a person would like/not like in any of those given clubs, but what are some of the core things that are important to consider when 'shopping' for a club? Not really BASS vs. FLW issues, I'm talking about things that would make you enjoy spending time in the club?

The Yozuri hybrid works fantastic for me, but I only use 10 and 12 lb line on most of my baitcasters. I tried the 20lb Yozuri on my flipping stick, and it felt like the reel was spooled with CATV cable, and was just about as workable. Now I think I'll stick with braid on this rod. I agree though, that other than the 10 and 12 lb hybrid I referenced above, I still use mono for most other applications, and it feels the best to me, personally.

Up to this point, I have done all of my flipping and pitching almost exclusively with mono, and I have had no problems at all with line coming off the spool smoothly and uniformly, or achieving realistic distance (especially with pitching). As of late, I have wanted to try using a higher test line, and have been working with 20# hybrid. Its no problem flipping, but when pitching, the line is large enough diameter that it won't come off the spool and feed nicely through the levelwind, regardless of how loosely I have the main casting control set. How do those of you who use heavier line flipping/pitching get around the increased drag of the larger line and levelwind, such that you can get the stuff to come off the reel? Maybe I should just forego the hybrid/flouro in this case and look for as low a visibility braid that I can find?

X2

I've not seen the movie, but the book was outstanding.

Ditto

I woke up this morning at 500am to my doorbell ringing....that can't be good, I immediately thought. A neighbor, on the way to work, was passing by my house and noticed the trunk and driver's door on my Nissan wide open, interior lights on. He did not want to touch anything but came to let me know something was up. I went out in the dark to check it out, and initially thought they just grabbed some random junk out of the car.....cheap sunglasses, some music, a 12 pack of Dr Pepper. It was not until later that I realized that a brand new set of Columbia rain gear that I'd bought at Academy was also in the trunk, and also now gone. Thankfully, I had removed 2 big boxes of new lures and plastics from the trunk just a few days earlier, but I'm steamed about the rain gear. Anyway, just remember to take stuff out of your car at night and don't leave out anything not nailed down. Man, I would love to have woke up in time to have stopped these jerks. > Let me know if you see my rain gear at the pawn shop :'(

Hopefully my comment is not too far off track from the original post, but when reading this (above) I thought I'd jump in. In terms of dissolved oxygen, the O2 levels are greatly dependent on sunlight penetration, are they not? If you have murky water, for example, and its summer time- sunlight will only penetrate the first few feet of water, so photosynthesis is limited to that space, and the thermocline should also be pulled up closer to the surface due to limited light penetration, true? And, if bass rarely go below the thermocline (baitfish feed on plankton and other things that depend on the sunlight & photosynthesis, better O2 levels, visiblity issues, etc) then, at least in quite stained water, should this not position bass fairly shallow 'naturally' as a consequence?

Have any of you had any experience with the Prowler brand TM from BPS? Any feedback on quality, durability, value etc would be appreciated. Thanks

Great example- exactly the point I was trying to make!

I can see where a person would view it that way....I'd thought about that too, but I also thought that he really didn't have to say much of anything at all if he didn't want. So, I ended up interpreting his comments as being respectful. More than Ike though, I heard several comments from other competitors as well as in the 'real time' blogs where, over the course of the tournament, some anglers stopped to help others in trouble (like Ish did, for example), others who were not really in contention to win the tournament gave way to other anglers (in terms of fishing locations), various things like that -- those are really things that I thing don't get the publicity that they should. They don't get the glossy coverage and footage, but hearing of those things.....especially when the stakes are so high..... is what I really think is neat to see.

I know a lot of guys on this board would disagree, but I thought that the weigh in for the Classic was absolutely outstanding. Add to the fact that a lot of guys left areas that others were fishing (esp if if others were in a better position than them) adds to my respect. I think the at the sportsmanship that Ike showed was totally commendable. Any of us should hope to emulate that. Congrats to Ike, and congrats to Ish, Snowden, Wirth, and others that I heard about over the weekend being good sportsmen! That is what makes me hopeful for the sport. Good job Skeet!

I am shopping for a foot controlled TM to replace my hand operated one. The one I'm looking to but has a shaft advertised as 42 in, while my hand operated one looks to be appx 31 in, assuming I'm measuring it right. When measuring the shaft for a trolling motor, where do you start and stop? Does the shaft begin at the bottom of the head, and end at the top of the prop housing? Also, if I have a TM with a 31 in shaft, and I put on a replacement with a 42 in shaft, the main drawback is that I will limit myself to 10-12 in deeper water than I can get into now, correct? ( I won't be able to get as shallow)?

Do any of you guys have any experience with the Kinami hard baits? I saw that my local Academy Sports had a few of them merchandised in with the rest of the cranks, and they looked like they had a pretty nice finish, with good detail. For right around $3, it looked from the surface to be a good plug for the money- I was kind of surprised they weren't more. Just wondered if anyone had used them, and what you thought about them.

I think you'll find that many of the state parks, as well as Army Corps of Engineers parks, have strict no alcohol policies. Some enforce these policies more than others.

Great idea.

I agree with this statement. UT lacked so much fire and aggression in the past 6-7 years that I think its pretty refreshing to have someone so bold to call out the established 'powers that be' in the SEC. Only time will tell if he's successful- I seriously would caution even the most staunch UT fan about being too optimistic about next year. They are not even recruiting a quarterback this year, waiting to try to nail the top pick next year. It takes more than 1 season to turn around a whole football culture, one that had begun to accept mediocrity-- in fact built it into Fulmer's contracts. Automatic bonuses and contract extensions for 8-win seasons. Maybe in the 80's and 90's that would take you to the upper echelon of the SEC East, but not these days. UT became uncompetitive, too conservative, and were exploited by coaches like Meyer, Richt, et al because they knew Fulmer would be unlikely to venture out of his coaching comfort zone. Something had to change. There is an enormous amount of money that is funneled into UT football from benefactors, donors, and alumni to accept the level that UT football had slipped to. Kiffin may be brash, young, and frankly, may be out of his league among the big dogs of the SEC, but hey..... he's put together an impressive coaching staff, gotten some good recruits this year, and is definitely not backing down from anyone. I like it. Ultimately, he may be steamrolled by the gorillas that are UT football and the SEC, but we'll see.

This past December on a chartreuse spinnerbait.

What is the preferred hook size for this bait?

mrbassky and Paul, your responses are kind of what I was getting at. I have been really getting excited to work myself into some good structure fishing this year, and have been really focusing my reading, etc toward that end. However, if the particular lake in question is unlikely, or less likely, to be one that would support successful deeper offshore structure fishing due to its low visibility, then I might be more succesful concentrating on shallower structure and cover. Then go to the other, much clearer local lake for deeper structure fishing activities......

What he's saying is that if we, the people, can see a lure as deep as, say 12 feet, then that would suggest that the water is quite clear, and that the bass could be holding as deep as 30 feet or more. For example, I fished Dale Hollow Res. this summer with some friends, and in the back of a cove we could look straight down off the boat, and see an aluminum can sitting on the lake bottom in about 10 FOW. Dale Hollow is a deep, clear lake, and I could understand the fish holding deep often. Alternatively, if we can only see the lure (dropping it in the water next to the boat, for example) down 3 feet underwater, then the visibility in the water is much more restricted, therefore positioning the fish in much shallower water.

I'm reading a book right now where the (very well known) author states that - [paraphrased] "If you can see a white lure down to a depth of 3 ft. under water, the bass in that lake are probably no deeper than 15 feet....if the water is particularly muddy, bass may be within 15 feet of the surface, since a muddy lake may not have any appreciable visibility below that level... But if you can see a white lure down to 12 feet, the bass could be as deep as 30 feet or more...." I find this interesting, and thought I'd see what you guys had to say about it, generally speaking. The lake I most often fish is very stained, and I really can't see a lure more than 18 inches deep, in a best case scenario. Less most often. Also, it occurs to me that I don't think that any of the fish I caught last year (or got good bites on) were any deeper than maybe 8-10 feet. Between 2 and 7 feet most often. The best was 4.5 lb in 49* water in December, in 3-5 feet. Add to that a converstion I remember having with a local recovery diver, who said he rarely dives in this lake because there is no visibility. (I know bass have lateral lines, but this is just about visibility) If all of these things are true, would it be reckless of me to jump to the conclusion that, regardless of season or water temp, a bass that is interested in feeding would likely be relatively shallow, and I would be best served by trying to build patterns around this set theories, observations, and experiences?

Hi guys- I'd like to get a decent pair of polarized sunglasses soon, and I've started to poke around on eBay, etc trying to whittle down the decisions, different brands, etc. How do the different brands measure up? Are they similar, or are some brands clearly better than others? I'm considering some from manufacturers like Costa del Mar, Wiley X, Oakley, Ray Ban, and brands such as those - just not in the $200 range. Are the ones that are 'fishing specific' really better for fishing? I have a cheaper pair I'm using now, but what's the best bang for the buck, say, in around the $70 - $110 range?

They look just like the sides of my parent's station wagon in the 70's. Weird.

I didn't know about Clunn, but I've read several articles in the last few weeks where several of the Classic pros were considering showing up to the Classic event with aluminum boats due to the kind of water and cover that they are expecting in the Red River. I'll be interested to see it!