bigbill

I started out fishing with a 5' rod for trout. I learned to be very accurate in stream fishing. It's the difference between losing tackle or not in making accurate casts. I like to use the 5'6" to 6'6" spinning rods were I'm very accurate. Switching to the longer rods with the heavier line does take some practice. with the baitcasters I need a lot more practice. It's a matter of how we hold the rod to cast and when we let the spool go. I finally after 10 practice casts I now moved the landing sight from my left to straight out in front of me. My old educated thumb remembered the old days so I can cast with the magnets off. But I learned on Penn saltwater reels. I can hit a 6" circle at any distance with a spinning outfit. Now I need to be that good with the baitcaster. Don't ask me on how good I am with a fly rod yet. I been itching to go bass fly fishing.

I use mainly all shakespeare fishing rods for my spinning and baitcaster setups. I been happy so far. I also have the cherrywood rods for both reels too.

That answers my questions. I'm still learning about baitcasters. I been upgrading my spinning reels to metal frames already.

Is there a tool that opens up the rubber band that holds the spinner bait skirts so I can add more skirt to them?? I'd like to bulk them up a tad more.

Don't forget the Orange bottoms they seem to work better. I been trying to use the lacquer model car paints. Then I figure I can clear coat them with clear lacquer too. But there maybe a better way to do it.

Could some reels be suited better than others for different uses? Why waste a better reel on flipping and pitch in when it could cast spinnerbaits and crank lures better? My point is could there be a place for a magnetic brake reel as well as the adjustable brake shoe reel too? Would one be better than the other in different situations? Sorry for the dumb questions.

Your talking about the first rig I was taught how to use back in the early '70's. We used the longest sewing needle to thread a #2 or #4 snelled hook into a 6" black creme worm. We doubled over the snelled hook and pulled it thru the worm Where the hump is. The hook is in the middle of the hump just enough to work. You put the smelled hook at the loop in the needle and pull the hook in first then the rest of the smelled hook will follow as you pull the needle thru it. It's easy to do. This split shot rig was in field n stream / outdoor life back in the early 70's. It just gets reinvented. I still have the needle today. We still do this today. You ask why does the split shot rig with the black creme worm work so good for over 40+ years? While night fishing while using a flash lite I noticed the freshwater eels at night are within inches of the shoreline. I think the bass think our black plastic worms are eels.

The dogs were friendly but one pug was going after my lure.

I purchased the mirrolures from www.fishingtackleoutlet.net for $1.99 for that cost I figured I'd try them. My KVD lure is the sexy dog.

That's awesome for your son, congrats.

I'm next door in Ct. and I been planning on fishing the housatonic river for pike soon. I been buying my pike lures from www.overstockbait.com There very affordable and have a wide variety of pike lures too.

Ok they taste great but there really ugly. Will we ever have a snakehead tornie? Could this be bigger than bass tornies someday? How many states have snakeheads in there waters?

I went fishing during the overcast, the light rain during the full Moon phases. Let's say I've seen weird people during this time as a kid when pumping gas at night. At one if my local hot spots I stood in one spot and fan casted the whole area and caught 19 bass. During this time I felt something looking at me. There was a doe with her two games in the road right near me standing there watching me. Now between the bass I caught two white and pink fish that looked like sunfish in size and shape. I have no clue as to what they were to this day. On my way home I stopped at another local hot spot to make few more casts. I caught two 2 1/2 to 3lb smallies and one large mouth bass the same size. I never seen smallies in the 15 years I been fishing this place. The only lure I used was a Joe's Fly 1/4oz bass size inline spinner in his firetiger apache. It has that Colorado spoon for thump. For low light conditions or overcast times this color rocks. I just don't understand we're the weird colored fish came from. If there released fish from someone's fish tank how do they survive our cold winters? I've seen 22" thick of ice on during the winters here. I just don't understand it to this day. On full Moon phases all the animals come to life besides the fish too in the low light of course. I'm thinking that everything puts the feed bag on at this time.

I was out fishing and enjoying my first time out in a longtime(illness). I caught my spook in the high grass just as a woman let her dogs loose out of her car The dog runs over to me and sees my lure. I'm telling him no. The woman asks me if I caught a fish, I said no but your dog is about to bite my lure. I don't want to hook your dog. Then she says "oh" and calls her dogs. Fishing lures and dogs don't mix. I still have a vision of my neighbors dog with three trebble hooks in its lips. The little kids tossed him a lure. We cut the hooks off with a cutting pliers. This was 30 years ago but the thought of it still haunts me. We just need to be aware of our tackle around animals. And people need to lookout for there dogs.

Please quit smoking. I lost one older brother to smoking. My other older brother is crippled because of cigarettes. His veins are all clogged up. I'm the only son out of four brothers who doesn't have clogged veins. In my family that's rare. I just lost 60lbs on my own. I have another 60/100lbs to go. My point is I love good food not junk food and if I can give up food you can stop smoking I'm sure if it. Let me be your motivator. Go cold turkey now. Focus on the better things in life go fishing. God bless, bigbill BTW, I look at this way we can live longer or die sooner it's not much of a choice. I started out in January at 390lbs. Right now I'm 330lbs. I'm getting that big gorilla off my back one leg at a time. You can do it too.

I went out just to try some new to me lures with some presentations. I picked up the mirrolure size 95MR and a Bomber Saltwater Walkie Talkie. These are like larger topwater spook type lures. I was throwing them off a high bank so I could see them. They look great with a walk the dog presentation. The mirrolure seems to roll side a tad as it walks too. I threw a KVD topwater lure too but I'm not sure what it's called. I will get back you on which one it is. All these seem awesome for fishing in the dark. I go out to see how my rod setups perform after putting new line on them before going night fishing. Or just checking out a new setup. I want to make sure there ok. There's no pit stops in the dark to repair tackle. To me having any problems is unacceptable. It's loss fishing time every minute counts as daylite approaches. Plus I like to practice with new different lures to see how they run. Remember to have a needle nose pliers with you to adjust lures if they need it. I'm moving more towards the smaller saltwater sized lures for bigger bass as well as the northern pike lures painted in the bass colors. My goal is to catch bigger bass but I'll take a school of one pounders any day there fun to catch too.

Great advice guys. All my older baitcasters still work great. I even have some older quantum spinning reels that still are working good too. I been switching between many rod setups during the season. I been mainly using spinning gear with baitcasters once in a while. I been picking up extra New spinning reels when I see the okuma on sale. But I haven't really wore any good reel out yet. I grease my reels with moly. It eliminates all wear, reduces friction, prevents galling, fights corrosion and doesn't attract dirt. www.ts-moly.com I remember a time when my older new D.A.M. QUICK Spinning reels came with extra New bail springs. We don't see that anymore. All my fishing rods and reels even though there older they still look like brand new I take care of my stuff and I'm careful when I handle it. Even my 70's dam quick reels still look like new.

Fall fishing is the same as springtime fishing. I go with cranks, spinnerbaits, swimbaits like the money minnow. You might want to try uprising your lures too when it's slow. The bass may try to conserve energy as it gets colder and may want a meal instead of a snack. I fished till November even in the light snow they were hitting the money minnow. I use the dying minnow presentation flutter. I hate this spell check on my kindle fire HD. It changes my words. I never threw swimsuits before.

I went fishing today and it was awesome. I need to limber up now. It was just fun being out in the fresh air casting trying to drown my lures. If it comes back so be it for now it's life in the fast lane. I love fishing, bass fishing that is. I'm ok for now. God bless everyone here, bigbill

I'm still suffering from the side effects from the radiation. But someday s are better than the rest. My misses took me out fishing today. I got out and sat and tried to drown some lures today. I respooled most of my rod setups and I have my new setups ready to test before I use them in the dark. Three setups worked awesome today. I felt so alive just casting out practicing my presentations with my new lures I never tried before. I found the mirrolure and the topwater KVD lures to work awesome. After making so many casts for the first time I'll be tired tonight for sure. Now I'm itching to go early in am in the dark to fish. I'm all fired up ready to go. Bigbill I'm hoping that fishing brings my upper body strength back to life.

Before my health went bad I had the new bass boat pictured in my mind. I wanted to start fishing the local tornies. So I purchased anything that could be boat and fishing related. Reel Talk, I purchased new Shakespeare, Garcia, Mitchell and Okuma New baitcasting reels at that time. This has to be over a decade+++ ago. My Garcia has on open spool with a metal plunger to release the spool for casting, while my Shakespeare and mitchell reels have flip up hoods that cover the front part if the spool. Needless to say there still new and hardley used. I think there old enough to be collectable now. Time went by so fast. I do use some of them but not as often like I wanted too. Right now I seem to have the baitcasting bug worse than ever. Now I want to stick with it and use them for my spinnerbaits and jigs. I know you guys were having fun with me before and your right. I need to upgrade soon. I figure i can still use my old/still new reels for this year. I did go searching for new reels to replace my older ones and got sticker shock. Some of these better baitcasters can run up to $1,000? Does anyone use the baitcasters that run between $400 to $1,000? One of them is a megabass and another one is a zillion if I remember correctly. I'm on the borderline of spending maybe a $100 to $200. I don't really understand what makes a baitcaster reel worth $1,000?

BPS has a lot of stuff in there outlet section. Mister Twister has added more stuff too. This is my favorite time to spread the wealth and shop smart. We get more fishing stuff for less money. But don't go to crazy with the bait monkey on your back, don't buy what you don't use.

I picked up some frog noise making bobbers for him too. When the bobber goes under the water it makes the frog croak.

This is the time right now to start browsing. I think these sellers aren't waiting for the end of the season or till after New year's to have there clearance sale. Dicks Sporting Goods usually puts a table in from of there fishing section with deals and steals on reels and rods. Wal-Mart already has sales on reels. It's listed on there website with the in-store pickup.

I'm looking to get my grandson his first real fishing rod. I'm thinking a push button zebco reel and rod. The rod says "bite alert" on it what does that mean and do? I don't see anything in the picture on the net on the rod tip. Is this rod for live bait only? I feel really dumb on this one.