bigbill

I use three older cherrywood rods and haven't had a problem yet. One is my plastics rod setup. But I only use mono and copolymer line. It's probably more forgiving pressure wise on the hook sets over braided line. There working on the eyelet wear problem as we speak. That's all I can say about that.

I believe in clear water when the bass can see your lure so no rattle maybe needed. It's like using a rapala original floater it's quiet. I still use a scent on it anyway. "But"in stained to muddy water I like having a rattle plus a scent. If the lure sends out a vibration like a inline spinner that could be the key to success too. I like having all the basses sences covered anyway. I throw a rattle bomber crankbait most of the time when I go threw my ritual of lures looking for a pattern. The rattle rings the dinnerbell over long distances for me and it gets there attention. Some lures come with a low pitch rattle while others have a high pitch rattle. I notice in the bomber crankbaits they use many smaller BB's in there rattle making it a unique multiple rattle sound. While other rattle sounding lures have just one bigger bb in them making them a knocker instead of a rattle. Some spooks and topwater lures are knockers rather than rattles. It depends on how fast or slow your presentation is to turn up the volumne too. A violent action makes it knock harder or rattle harder think about it. We can actually hear a knocker lure at long distances on the surface as we walk it. You can also cast it out and pause it, then just twitch it, sending out the I'm wounded, here I am too. We can use a rattle or knocker lure many different ways. I suggest going with a rattle/knocker lure anyway. And have your quiet lures ready too. We need to throw both. Bb When the bite dies off I found the bigger fish will come in to see what the smaller fish are feeding on but they won't hit the same lure. Go larger in lure size. As the lighting conditions change go brighter in lure color as it gets darker. My rapala original floater in blue is a quiet lure I throw at twilight I the morning. I call this lure the "blue max" because it will catch anything in its area. Sometimes a stealthy lure will sneak up on fish for a reaction bite.

I carry some senkos, worms, bushogs, swimbaits, frogs, spinnerbaits etc. A little of everything in a small tackle box I call my fast fish box. I have three 9606 stuffed with everything. But I use these most of the time. I have a gutted tackle box with a door inside the roof with a latch so I can store plastics inside the top and bottom. I was carrying 5 tackle boxes at one time. It's a tough choice what to bring or leave home. My fast fish tackle box, Crankbaits, in red, Brown, green, chartreuse, firetiger Spinnerbaits, 1/4oz white, 1/4oz chartreuse Inline spinner mepps Anglia silver blade Brown cocktail Spin fly Joe's fly 1/4oz bass size black gnat,glo tiger,firetiger apache Worms, red shad, black shad, electric blue, green shad.a few of each in zip loc bag. Senkos a few in a zip loc bag. Extra carolina rigs. A mixed bag of plastic hooks too Weedless lures, a few. Topwater, walk your dog stuff, 5 different colors.

I'm going to install twin turbo's on mine over the winter. Maybe a rear spoiler to go with the front end.

Ok mono has lots of stretch, copolymer had no stretch. My question is how does flourocarbon compare to mono and copolymer? Does flourocarbon stretch like mono? Is there an advantage using flourocarbon over mono or copolymer?

That sounds ok were all fisherman. It felt great to hookup with a bass on my second cast. The funny thing is my mepps minnow spinner was also rotating too as I reeled it. The minnow body was rotating slowly yet the bass still hit it. This is the second time I had a flawed presentation that caught a fish. My other time was when a rapala minnow was snagged on my line by the rear hook. Even going backwards they were taking turns hitting it. So all this time I been focusing on Oscar winning presentations and sometimes it doesn't matter go figure. Maybe during the fall when the feed bag is on the presentation game changes?

I was thinking of putting two rod setups with some lures in both of my cars so I can stop anywhere to fish when I get the itch to try a different spot or I'm near to a local hot spot. The cheaper used reels would be the way to go. Now I'm thinking a $5/$9 rod, a low cost spinning and a bait caster setup in each car would be awesome. Maybe four Chinese reels would do it. I figure a spinner bait in white and one in chartreuse, some bomber cranks, a Carolina rig(senko,brushog,worms,creature baits), a topwater spook and frog, an inline spinner and some joesfly, plus some scents. Just incase anyone was thinking what the heck is bigbill thinking? There are positive thoughts behind my madness. Sometimes. As far as bait caster reels go I just ordered a $99 quantum code red bait caster on sale for $54 @ fishandsave the sale is still on. I found the code red in the spincast section hiding there.

Yup you guys are correct. I need to step up to the higher priced reels now. It's time not to be frugal.

I field tested these spinning reels; FINOR 200S & 400S OKUMA ultra lite, epixor #15, #20, #25, #30, #40 & #55 Viva ultra lite, #20 & #30 Globe 100 & 200 All these spinning reels were found to be flawless in operation. Price wise there between $25 to under $99.

I was purchasing different brands of spinning reels. I purchased a Finor that came recommended by a co-worker that has a Finor Ahab. Finor manufactures those big saltwater gold colored reels for marlin/sailfish sized fish. I found my freshwater Finor to be outstanding quality wise. Then I purchased some Okuma Epixor to tryout. Again another quality spinning reel. My next one is a Viva spinning reel. There smaller ultra lite was the exact same reel as the okuma ultra lite. But both reels preform flawlessly. The next size Viva up from the ultra light is a totally different looking reel but also a quality size 20 reel. I purchased the next size up Viva 30 reel too and it's still on my worm rod today. I'm presently using three viva spinning reels. Then I found a Globe Spinning reel. It's looks similar to the okuma explicit in look and finish. I found the Globe spinning reels to be another quality spinning reel, I own two of them. And I still use them. My point is there is a lot of unknown to us quality reels out there today. Here I posted a few of them besides some well known brands too. Bigbill

I'm attracting the bass threw music. They like Elvis too.

I'm seeing bigger bass swim by me just off shore at the drop off's I'm trying to nail down what alerts these bigger gals so they don't strike. If I see these bigger gals at all of my local hot spots up in the northeast then you guys fishing south of me have to have bigger bass too. This can't be a fluke here. I'm very stealthy went I walk up slowly and quietly to my hot spots. I handle my tackle like a sniper handles his rifle. I take this stalking very seriously. Cleared my throat once and watched a big wake in the water going away from the shoreline where I was standing at twilight. I just don't understand why I don't see more of these bigger bass being caught when I know they are there. I lost two of these bigger bass already. One took my bps topnocker into the deeper thick weeds. And the other inhaled my bps 7 1/4" stick o worm when I had too small of a hook in it. She spit it when I went to set the hook. I've been so close so far. It's either something from our rod setup that makes them aware or the boats spook them in your case. There has to be something out of the ordinary that alarms them. These larger bass appear like ghosts in the water then there gone. I'm not over thinking this, I'm looking for ideas as to what's going on. Bigbill Btw, When I mentioned this on a CT Fisherman website the local torque guys mocked me then some were catching between 9lb to 11lb bass soon after. One threw a spinner bait from shore and landed a 9lber. Before this happened one of the Tornies guys said we only had 6 to 7lb bass max that's it because he never caught anything bigger. He was dead wrong. All these baby bass that are restocking these places aren't coming from the smaller gals. It's these bigger gals that are keeping the population up. At one local lake here we have a weed chopper to keep the over grown weeds down. It killed a 12lb bass in the process and no one connected the dots that we have bigger bass here. It should of been a wake up call, the light bulb should of went off in there minds but no thought was given to it. The body slams I hear in the dark sound like a human doing a cannonball into the water. These aren't the little bass I'm hearing. Thank you for your time in reading this it's just food for thought. The facts to think about.

My wife worries if the hook hurts the fish. She gets spiders and other bugs on a piece of paper when there in the house so she can let them go free outside. When I go hunting I do not bring anything home. I clean the fish and she will cook it and eat it. Women and fishing. We took my daughter trout fishing. She had her limit of 5 trout before my two sons had there lines in the water. They were too busy helping take her fish off her hook. I was very proud of her that day.

We must remember that sound travels farther and faster under the water too.

I was using my cheap noisy spinning reel at this place deep in the woods where anyone hardley fishes. The bank is 4' above the water. I can see most of the fish because it's shallow and the water is clear. It's very quiet too. I'm cranking my noisy reel. I see a bluegill at the spot where my line enters the water. It's like he is listening to my line. I figure the noise from my reel is vibrating down my line into the water line a guitar string. My question is if I use a baitcasting reel does the click of the casting lever when it resets go down my line into the water too? Some of these bait casting reels make a loud snap when they reset to reel again. My point if we're fishing at a very quiet place could noises like this spook the very aware bass? On my spinning reels after casting I close my bail by hand very quietly. There is no way to make this noise quiet on a bait caster. When I start out fishing in the dark I'm very stealthy like I'm not even there. I make no noises at all. The fish are close to me at the shoreline. My BP of 10lbs was caught 2' from shore about 8' from me when she hit. I made a long parallel shoreline cast. I wonder if the noise of the bait casting lever will spook the bass?

I was a trout only fisherman for decades. After the trout slowed down we would hit the lake for bass once or twice a year. We would also fish for strippers, snapper blues, harbor blues and blues in saltwater. We would go for porgies and blackfish too. Inbetween trolling for blues we would catch weakfish too. We went spear fishing for whitings but never got any. Also we would fish for Flatfish too. (Flounder) We would anchor the boat and fish for flatfish as the tide was going out then go claming off Norwalk. Now I fish for bass. I do enjoy catching the larger chain pickerel. We do have the northern pike here too. They put them here to control the white perch population in one lake. Now we have pike in all the bodies of water that's down stream. We also have salmon here too but I never targeted them yet.

I just caught a decent bass on my ultra lite trout setup using Excalibur copolymer silver thread 4lb test. I was worried about landing it but it worked out find. I tried to break it by hand after and it's really tuff line. I switched to Excalibur silver thread line because I was losing too many bass on the cheap rubber band mono I was using. Years ago I was using the $1 per spool Garcia river mist mono line. It was ok for trout fishing but not for bass fishing.

What would you rather be called than Fisher women? Or is Fisher women & woman ok? In logging the women are called "Jill's" fisherjills? Do the women have any suggestions here?

Not too many fisherwomen here? We must have more women readers than posters. Come on ladies here's your chance to get involved her. You have a voice here too. Don't just stick your foot in the door and peek inside just come right in and post your welcome here.

I used them with no weight. Just a hook in them. I just casted them out and reeled them with a pause. I used them in black shad 12" in the evening.

I was thinking of using spike it to tint the bottom of spinner bait skirts to a orange and blue color like bluegills. I've used it before on worm and grub tails in chartreuse.

I just realized that. I purchased another new bait caster and three more used one's. One works awesome while the others are parts reels.(backup parts) But it's cheaper to purchase better reels. I'm just thick headed.

WRB Your right I fish at three manmade dammed places that we're once used for a water power and a water supply for uniroyal chemical plant which is now closed. The waters are loaded with bass that prey on craws, blue gills, etc. All our big lakes are man made dams too.

The bass can only see certain colors at times. I have noticed on certain days a red color will work, when no other color works. On certain days green works, on certain days Brown works. These three colors all worked on one day too. This tells me to try different colors till one works. Don't limit yourself to using one color. Quote Bill Dance, If a bass could see all the colors all of the time there wouldn't be a minnow left in the body of water. The hues in the water, the water conditions and the amount of sunlite limits what colors the bass can see at that time. I run throw a variety of colors till I get action. Read the water condition too. Remember what color worked today might not work or be as hot tomorrow. All the conditions do change. I return to vary my colors again. Water conditions Clear water Smaller sized natural colored lures fished faster Stained water Small to medium sized natural and brighter colors fished slower Muddy water Larger sized brightest colored lures fished the slowest Using scents and having a rattle is a plus. Now when the daylite changes to low light in the evening and the bite/action slows down I switch from natural colored lures to brighter colored lures. And catch fish again till it gets dark. Overcast cloudy days brighter colors. Dark to early morning to first light. I go with brighter colors as the sky starts to light up. Then it's natural colors as it gets brighter as the sun comes up. At the twilight in the evening and early morning at this unique time it's brighter colors. The basses eyes adjust to the changes in light conditions faster than the bait fishes eyes do.

Thanks my last email was sent at pure fishing. I kept it civil but to the point. I can't purchase a product were we don't get the support when it comes to parts. It may seem to be a small thing with just a screw but I picked up other used Shakespeare reels that need a thumb friction knob. Plus I have another one they should inspect for product reliability problems. There's nothing like seeing the problems from actual use in the field from the end product user. I have one Shakespeare alpha bait caster that has seen heavy use from fishing that still functions but the glue on the spool to hold the metal disc for the magnetic brake didn't hold up. It allowed the metal disc to float ruining the plating on the magnets. Otherwise the reel is still functioning. I'm surprised these companies aren't interested in the feed back from us the end product user. There is no other way for a fair lifetest then us using it. Bb