earthworm77

After you launch and head to the no wake on the left that separates the two main parts of the lake, the area on the right of that no wake zone(before you get through it) is a large weed flat that drops off to about 12ft of water. I crush in that area most of the season. If you continue thru the no wake zone and get into the other large part of the lake, stay on the far right shoreline. I am sorry I don't know if it is the south or west shoreline. Lucky Craft LV's, swim jigs and 6" works have always done well for me. I can't seem to catch a cold by all of the docks. So I stopped trying over there.

There are two things that might work..... 1- fish under the school if possible, often larger fish will be underneath waiting for things to float down to them during feeding. 2- look for some type of structure or cover close to, but not on top of where the school is, often larger fish will be only a slight distance away. I'll elaborate a bit- I find in my neck of the woods bass often school off of points and flats. If this is happening and I can't catch larger fish in the school, I'll back off of them and look for the first and closest piece of secondary structure.....usually it is a half casting distance or less away. I think they are creatures of habit and move around quite frequently.....maybe not necessarily because smaller fish have moved in...being territorial, if they move, it is for another reason.

I would opt for 20 to 25lb McCoy Mean Green. Fluoro is nice but mono is more forgiving when you have a casting "incident" with a big swimbait.

Do a comparison between it and other lines diameters. I have a few spools for if I am in the woods after an end of days event and I run out of Samurai or InVizX........other than that, it wont see any time on my outfits.

Finesse Fishing by Michael Jones Bass Fishing Armageddon by..........some guy

I prefer to finesse fish but if they want it some other way.......versatility is the key to success.

Really pretty Gills, the first picture looks like what we calla Copper nose blue gill here in Fl. They can get pretty big too.

I have a few Major Craft rods........mostly for ul spinning but I do own a couple of Basspara's including a 692 M casting rod that I got for when I head up to my property in NC to fish my pond. For a rod that I got for about 70.00, it has surpassed any expectation I had. It has been great and despite my aversion to 2pc rods, I don't even realize it is a 2pc when fishing it. I'm actually considering getting a few more and using them for my daily fishing here in Fl. I also own a Trapara, I am really big into the light tackle thing and the 2 UL and SUL rods I have are cherry. Again for about 80.00 ea. they are pretty much better than anything anywhere in that price range. I've taken fish close to 5lbs on the UL and 3lbs on the SUL and they have handled them well. I haven't heard of many issues regarding these rods and the guy I get them from on Bay....Shinok211 combines shipping costs for multiple rods.....so if you buy 2 or 3, you pay only the shipping on 1. A lot of Japanese sellers don't do that. I've heard the Nanoace isn't as good as the stuff made for the JDM market, it seems to be watered down for the US.

I am a river rat and it is all about current and things they hide behind. When I fish lakes, I find myself looking for anything that provides current. Once that water is moving a little it supercharges fish into being more active.

when you think you should set the hook, pause an extra second or two. That should fix things. I had to re learn when punching mats because I spend so much time wacky rigging with a spinning rod.

I think it is a better option to get a replica made. I have a fish that was mounted in 1991, it still looks great but I wouldn't get another. I fish with my GoPro all the time, I'd rather save the fish/experience on video.

Irish, PM your address, I'm going to send you some frogs that I pour. Those ribbits, the plastic is too hard and the legs don't move enough water. I hope your using a 3/0 or 4/0 EWG Gammie with those.

I'm in W. Central right on the Gulf, bugs aren't bad at all and I do a ton of night fishing. Scale your baits down during the heat, you may start catching more fish. Check out Holiday Park and Saw Grass Rec. I've fished both, along with Osborne and done well.

No, on your resume your not trying to promote anyone's products. Focus less on your tournament experience and more on how you can help out a potential sponsor. Your trying to sell yourself or market yourself as someone worthy to promote products. Tournament standings mean little else than you actually fish. Unfortunately you need to be a salesman rather than a consumer with product experience.

Zell, you should sit down with your cousin and find out any info you can about what a company like Berk. looks for. You may be able to get a ton of info from that.

Mega, Tin is pointing something useful out to you, not being a tool. In order for you to be professional, it goes beyond how you publicly portray yourself. You really do need to spell and use proper grammar in your resume. I own my own bait company and look at many resume's each week. I delete any that have the word sponsor mispelled, right off the bat, without even reading the body of them. As I said in the other mssg, it is a reflection of you, if you submit something that has mistakes, it makes one feel as if you don't care enough about yourself, your work etc.....it would make me feel that if you don't care enough about your end, how could you care about mine? Joe, you need to convince a potential sponsor that you can help them out. You need something to offer them and I don't see it in your post. I think asking for someone to support your habit is a bit bold. In this day and age, few companies are giving free rides and if they are, you have to pull a rabbit out of a hat. I think that your post is a start but it needs much more to be convincing. you need to sell yourself as if you were selling a product. Why should anyone be interested in you over the next guy. The accomplishments you mentioned are basic, you need to blow the reader away with something relevant to selling his products. I for one am not really interested what you did when you were 7 or 11 or 16. I hate to use this but what have you done lately? In my own resume, I use the past couple of years of tournament experience to show I am still active in that field but I don't bank the whole resume on that. In fact unless you are fishing some high level circuit...mainly the elite series, tx results mean little, very little. Read some of the threads on this to get an idea about how to improve your resume. There are some things to keep, and some to get rid of. Good Luck. Take a look at the Marketing Yourself The Intelligent Way posts. You'll see that everything that has been discussed here and more is in there...including spelling. Nobody is picking on you. They just want you to make your last mistakes here and have your presentation polished up for the big game.

I'll third that is it more unprofessional of you to spell sponsor incorrectly than for someone to point it out to you, so you don't make that mistake on your resume. But obviously you haven't read anything on this forum because spelling is a big issue when you are trying to land a sponsur, sponcer, sponser......S-P-O-N-S-O-R Not spelling the word sponsor correctly is a reflection of you either being lazy or not caring and who would want you to work for them upon feeling either is true about you? I for one would have deleted or thrown out your resume upon reading the title spelled incorrectly, so yes, it is very important. You should have thanked Tin rather than taken offense.

That is a good start. Remember though, there is always someone out there who has tremendous qualifications for a position that you seek. Dare I say more qualified. That person is your competition. You must have intangibles that you can recognize and key in on as strong points.

Hi, I'm Steve and I could really use some money to fish and some of your baits too. Um Steve, back to the drawing board buddy. Here is an example of what not to do, names have been omitted to protect the innocent..... I got a message on my home phone from a female Pro, fishing the whatever circuit it is...WBA, WNBA whatever. I don't follow it. Anyway, she introduced herself and it went downhill from there. She explained...to my answering machine that she was a local girl and needed "Help" paying for entry fees. It was totally unprofesh. First, you don't look up the company owners personal number and call the private residence. I give her props for going through the trouble to look my number up but it only annoyed me. Second you don't beg an answering machine for money, third you do it the right way by making a hard copy contact by mailing a resume and following it up with an email or call to the business. But not the personal residence. My number is unlisted. I only want a select few people calling me. And when I pick the phone up, I expect it to be one of those people. As a Pro who definitely has sponsors, she should have known better.

The thing is that you should actually have some desirable traits or skills that your sponsor can take advantage of in its marketing/sales. A lot of people try to get sponsored but fail. Too many people assume that because they like fishing, they are entitled to be sponsored. It is a job, it is work and nothing comes out of it for free. Here is my question, I don't mean any disrespect to you or anyone else considering this but why do you assume that you should be entitled to any "Help" with entry fees at all? Why you over the next guy? I read this in resumes all the time and I cringe. SO WHAT!! You have a hobby like the rest of us. In order to continue with that hobby, you need to make sure you have enough coin in your pocket. Don't have the cash, can't go to the big dance and you need a less expensive hobby. Like clam shucking for instance, all you need is a knife and maybe a glove. You can dig your clams yourself and maybe you could turn it into a lucrative business. Ever see the clam shucking championships? don't laugh, it is true. Anyway, I digress..... Unless you have it already figured out or are a big name Pro, chances are, in this day and age, nobody is giving you a cent. That is just the harsh reality. Why do you suppose anyone would foot your bill? I ask this question because if you think about the sheer number of people participating in tournaments, and if you imagine each of them in this situation, it is a wonder how anybody actually fish' competitively at all. I don't mean to be hard on you but this isn't simply you making up your mind and pursuing a sponsor, it is about you actually having something worthwhile for a sponsor to need and then having the bulletproof plan to actually do it. This isn't easy, yet many assume it is. The guys who try to get a free ride out of it and don't intend to put in the work necessary make it that much harder for the next guy who is 100% serious about it. My advice is, do the research, form a plan, read, read, read and then read some more about it.

I partly disagree.

Well, my question to you was made because you said you have been out of competitive fishing for about 3 years. Are you getting back into it? I still have my sponsors despite not fishing competively for about 2 years. I'm a writer and I can get exposure that way and I've done TV as well. The thing is, as a writer, which I think I read that you are, you need to be very careful. I obtained my sponsors through my competitive fishing before I really started to appear in print. You don't want your credibility damaged because people will look at you like the guy who is always hawking company X's goods in his articles. Obviously you need to be unbiased to be a good writer who is well respected. I guess what I'm trying to say is that the payoff from a sponsorship deal is likely not worth damaging your reputation as a writer. I'm not sure what you mean by a junk company. I mean, if you are comparing a major manufacturer to a Mom and Pop, to be honest with my experience, I'd rather go for the Mom and Pop and build a true relationship rather than a generic one where you deal with a handler and the experience is impersonal.

Bug, why are you considering pursuing a sponsor, what is your motivation? What do you hope to get out of it.

Great worm and without a doubt, the best black grape in the industry!!!

That is a nice looking jig. By the way, I equip my own with that Gammie Blk nkl round bend, it is a killer hook. I don't think putting a stiffer weed guard on a jig is detrimental to the hooksetting effectiveness of the bait. There are little tricks you can do to combat the stiffness. You can trim the guard, flare the guard and even clip a few strands out of the guard. Can you tell me a little more about the jig? I don't really buy into the fact that the guard needs to be clear, I'm guessing this was done to hide it but in actuality, the skirt should have little problem hiding the guard. I'm all for a good ole' fashion black weed guard of medium stiffness. But anyway, I like the looks of that head and with the Gammie.....killer!