hawgchaser

I usually go with Andy Mnichowski or Bobby Warren. I am leaving on June 6th and am fishing with Andy's brother. When we go back in October we are going to try Capt. Boolah. I fell in love with this kind of fishing. Catching a 40" red on 7'M spinning rod is just too much fun! I can't wait.

I hungout with Scott Martin several years ago. He was filming a show in Arkansas and we had a few beers and played many games of pool. He was a cool guy and a lot of fun to be around. Unfortunately we have never fished together. I just happened to meet him at a local sports bar.

Yes, I am going three times this year including a trip in 2 weeks. IMO its one of the best fishing trips there is with light tackle. I love redfish and really like trout as well. I have fished lakes all over the south, been to the Cayman Islands, Cedar Key, and Gulf Shores. Venice is by far the best sportfishing I have ever encountered.

Ike is up there for me too. I have City Limits DVR'ed and he rocks.

I have been fishing with pointers and think they are great. However, this weekend, I grabbed the wrong jerkbait box and headed to the lake without my pointers. I knew that a jerkbait was going to be productive so I went to Wal Mart and picked up 8 X Raps. I was immedietly impressed with the looks of this lure. The colors were great, hooks were sharp, and just seemed like an overall good lure. I hit the water early and was throwing an olive colored X Rap. I ended up catching about 15 nice sized blacks and 8 smallies on this one bait. I have to say that I don't know if the pointers are actually any better. I have enough of both to last me a long time so I don't have to buy anymore for awhile. But the X Rap is a darn good bait and is in no way inferior to a pointer IMO. $7 a piece is a good price for these.

Thats exactly right on. I find a lot of big fish on points with a significant drop off. I use some locally made spinners, war eagle, and booyah Moontalker: http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_-1_10001_93971_100006001_100000000_100006000_100-6-1 http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_-1_10001_51780_100006001_100000000_100006000_100-6-1

I am just curious as to what anglers are the most popular. I thought it might be a fun post if it hasn't already been asked 1000 times. I would love to fish with KVD at my home lake of Greers Ferry. I have been fishing there my whole life and would love to see what he would do differently. IMO he is the best bass fisherman in the world and obviously has a lot of experience finding fish in unknown water. The second one would be SHaw Grigsby on a big bass lake in Mexico or in Venice, La catching redfish. I just saw his Venice show today but that is one of my favorite fishing trips. I am going to Venice in 2 weeks and can't wait. I chose SHaw simply b/c I think he would be fun to fish with. "Thats a big Ol PIG!!" , I can hear him say it now. The KVD trip would be a learning experience and the Shaw trip would be more for fun. So what about you?

Greers was pretty good this weekend. I was fishing around Sugar Loaf Marina. The fish were suspended in the flooded treetops, which there is plenty of! Anyway, we caught most of them on olive x raps. I did find another pattern the last hour of fishing. I was banging a deepdiving crank bait off the trees and having pretty good success.

I was very happy with PP until I tried sufix. PP will "break" in and become less rigid. The sufix casts great, has no memory, and will rarely knot up. However, any braid can get wind knots, especially with spinning gear. I have had very few with sufix....and no, it doesn't coil and will lay flat.

I would go with the Extreme Combo or the quantum Code/PT Energy Rod Combo. The Code is a decent reel but the PT Energy Rods are the best I have ever fished in this price range.

I assume your reel has a an extra spool? I use 6 or 8 pound Trilene XL on one spool and Sufix 20 or 30lb braid on the extra. This makes for a very versatile setup. I can fish for bass, trout, walleye with the trilene or switch to braid and go after the hybrids or redfish. This allows me to use a very small reel for nearly all my fishing needs.

I would try Sufix Performance Braid. I have used both if the others and never had a problem with wind knots with the Sufix.

IMO night fishing is much different than day fishing. Big black Colorado blade spinners slow rolled on the bottom and 10" Power Worms are my favorite for big night time bass.

They have always worked about the same for me. The sammy is a little easier to walk but I am probably not buying anymore of them.

I use Booyah and war eagle. The booyah with the booyah colorado blade is my big bass spinnerbait. I have not had any troubles with them. Hopefully its just a fluke.

The trout and panfish chatterbait on the bottom of this page was flat out awesome. However, I missed a lot of fish on it and switched to the roostertail.

Thats a good point. You can throw the right lure all day but it won't matter if the fish aren't there. I concentrate on eddie water in deep pools, the inside of bends, and on the downriver side of large rocks or trees.... Basically ambush sites where the trout can wait for the current to bring them dinner. However, if flyfishing, I use different strategies and look for different water.

I actually caught these about 3 hours ago on a white Rooster Tail. If the trout are aggressively feeding, a rooster tail is very tough to beat. I have a very small chatterbait made for panfish and trout that is a killer but I can't remember who makes it. For the larger trout, RW's suggestion for a countdown is spot on...One of the best trout baits around. If the fish aren't hitting these, a finesse carolina rig with power bait may be your only option. Make sure to have a few different colors...Trout are very picky about color sometimes. BTW...These are fixing to go on the grill

Thanks! I sent the email off a little while ago.

I agree but for some reason the Extreme reels just seem way better to me than anything else in its price range. For example, I bought 2 Quantum Codes basically for no other reason except to give quantum another try.. These are $70 reels.....and that is exactly how they feel. These reels cast an average distance, small and comfortable, BUT they just don't feel like an upper end reel. The smoothness just isn't there. The Code is worth the money I paid for them but no more. They do have some things I really like about them and I have fished with them a lot. The Extreme reels are the only reels in that price range that feel like a $200 reel. Pick one up and give the handle a twirl....it spins forever. The drag has proven itself to me, they will cast as far as any reel I have thrown. And thats a lot!!!! I bet I had at one point over 20 rod and reels. I have scaled down to half that bc all my stuff was stolen. Anyway, to each his own. I just feel like I got lucky with these reels.

I would go with a combo from bass pro. I have several extreme spinning combos that I use for bass, hybrids, and even redfish. They are very smooth. These are the best value IMO at $109 for rad and reel. http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_-1_10001_90689_100003002_100000000_100003000_100-3-2 $99 The next one would be a Sahara/Bionic Blade Combo. My brother uses this combo and I have on numerous occasions. I also have a sahara but paired with an Extreme rod. I prefer the extreme but they are good reels. http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_-1_10001_98417_100003002_100000000_100003000_100-3-2 $59.95 My last one would be for under $100. It is not as good as the 2 above but still a good performer. I also had one of these but it was stolen. The reel is incredibly smooth and the rod fairly sensitive. http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_-1_10001_100904_100003002_100000000_100003000_100-3-2 As far as line, I love flouro but NOT on spinning gear. Trilene XL is a good affordable line that can be found at Wal-Mart. I sually spool my reels with 8 pound Sufix Seige or Trilene, and put 30 pound braid on the spare spool. That way I can use the same setup on anything from trout to redfish. Oh, I would go with a 6'6 or 7' rod. Medium action. Have Fun!

More money won't buy you a better drag. I have found that any naysayers change there mind about these reels after they use them. My best fishing buddy, whom I spend nearly every weekend with, thought I was an idiot when I started buying the extreme reels. He has 16 Loomis rods, half are paired with Chronarchs and the other with curados. I made him fish a morning with one of the extreme reels and after that he has since bought 4 of them. He likes them as much as his curados but certainly not the Chronarchs. I find that most people that say they are not good have only "heard" that.

Dang man what kind of fish are you catching?

If you are looking for rods under $50. I would take a look at the Berkley Lightning Rods. They are $35 and have a $5 rebate. http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_-1_10001_89129_100002006_100000000_100002000_100-2-6 If you want to spend around $70 then you can get an Extreme Series from bass pro that is really nice. PS. The lightning rod got me through college 10 years ago and probably caught more fish than any other rod I have owned since

I think it depends on your situation. I really like 7 foot rods. However, if you are a bank fisherman, you may want something shorter as its hard to cast a longer rod with trees behind you! As for the action, those will work fine as long as the rods have plenty of backbone. I actually prefer a MH for most texas rigged baits and for throwing jigs and so forth. But a good med will work. I personally would get a M and a MH to cover nearly all your needs. But whatever get, enjoy it and watch out for the bait monkey.