Team9nine

No actual lake closings to my knowledge around here, but several private ramps have banned tournaments until further notice, and several tourney orgs have canceled their season openers.

Finally stuck a good one this morning :) Rapala Husky Jerk weighted to perfectly suspend.

Sitting here watching the snow fall. It will all be gone by this time tomorrow. Will likely keep me off the water this weekend, but its been a good week. A total of 5 trips resulting in 95 bass. Most have come on jerkbait, but have also caught several on jigs, A-rig and crankbait. The one in the pic came Thu. on crankbait. Water temps at least on our reservoirs have been running 43-46 degrees. Still waiting on a really nice warm day.

Cloudy skies, drizzle and colder temperatures shot my planned boat trip today, so walked a couple ponds instead and managed 31 bass, including a more seasoned citizen from one of those ponds. Everything on an old Husky Jerk (size 7, I believe).

Here in Indiana, I fish a lot of the exact same type waters as Ned does back in Kansas; smaller flatland reservoirs with a lot of water-willow and semi-stained water much of the time, what Ned once referred to as "Kansas clear." As such, and like Ned, long casts are rarely needed (typically 25-60 feet), and so shorter rods work fine much of the time. They actually give you more control in executing subtle retrieve nuances when combined with shorter cast length. My two most used rods have historically been 6 footers, but I have found a 6'6" and 7'0" that I like and use in spurts.

Here's the metrics for comparison between the old RC and the MB-110. Might be able to tell the old from the new based on the numbers. I haven't bought any of the new/bad ones recently to compare with.

Just my opinion, but 66 yds is a little short for my liking. I usually want something closer to 80 yds. to account for not only retying and long casts, but keeping the connecting knot well buried under the topper line. You don't want that exposed or even a large "bump" on the spool if you'll be doing any thumbing of the spool during a cast. Great way to tear up a thumb quick Obviously 100 yds would be great, too, but I don't go any more than that.

No brand loyalty here. Have a bunch of different ones that I like and use all the time. Lots of good companies out there.

Picked up over a dozen from a small 4 acre lake yesterday from the bank; all about the same size and most on blade bait. Might get one or two more bank trips in this week, but warmer March weather has arrived (50s) and I’ve started boat prepping in expectation of finally getting out on open water this coming weekend.

I'll play : ROD (CAST) MODEL Length WT (g) WT (oz) Team Daiwa topwater (PG) TD-601-3RBC 6'0" 140 4.9 Lightning Rod 6'10" LPC6101M 6'7.25" 155 5.5 St. Croix Premier PC66ML 6'6" 110 3.9 Loomis Mag Bass MBR783C IMX 6' 6" 110 3.9 Denali Rosewood 843CB 7' 0" 140 4.9 Cabela's Tournament ZX TZXC-69M 6'9" 113 4.0 Galyan's BGN2212N 6' 6" 145 5.1 Megabass F5-610C 6'10" 122 4.3 Loomis Spinnerbait Rod SBR812 6' 9" 130 4.6 Denali Mark Tyler Multi 883MTM 7'4" 139 4.9 Stanley SJ2 6' 10" 140 5.1 Denali Rosewood 885RS 7' 4" 165 5.8 Galyan's GN2217 7' 7' 0" 150 5.3 Denali Rosewood H Jig 804WJ 6'8" 168 5.8 Team Daiwa flipping TD-76T-4FB 7' 6" 177 6.2 Cabela's Tournament ZX TZXC-73H 7'3" 125 4.4 ROD (SPIN) MODEL Length WT (g) WT (oz) Gary Roach Lightning Rod LPS621M 105 4.0 Gander Mtn Tourney GMTMS-66ML-1-SP 100 3.5 Shimano Clarus CSS70LC 106 3.7 Loomis Shakeyhead Rod SHR821S 115 4.1 Loomis Popping Rod PR842S ML 112.5 4.0 Otterrod 6' Custom Avid 80 2.8 St. Croix Premier PS66MLF 115 4.1 Otterod 6'6" Custom Avid 100 3.5 Temple Fork Outfitters GTS 055 692-1 100 3.5 St. Croix Premier PS66MF 115 4.1 Denali Jadewood 843SH 122 4.3 Berkley Lightning Rod 6'0" M 95 3.4 Team Daiwa Light & Tough TL7014FS 100 3.5

Would agree with @MN Fisher above - UL is more a whole system of downsizing, not just a certain line weight. I’d also say your M outfit is borderline light on 1/2 ounce Traps. Might work most days, but I’d feel more comfortable bumping up slightly...but I also don’t know how stiff your M rod is. No real standard for that. If it feels a little underpowered to you, then it probably is. If your setups are working though, keep using them.

The season never ends. If you can pitch a bait into any kind of open water, the game is on. Been out 11 times since Jan1. Caught bass 10 of those trips despite partial ice cover on half those trips

Unless you are going micro with your baits, a good ML outfit can easily handle 4-6 lb line and downsized baits, typically considered L/UL in many circles, while still maintaining a little more power to handle the larger fish (or any fish).

The bait ran great, but I never caught anything on it when I tried them some 25 years ago. The few I have left are all in packages and part of my vintage tackle collection. The lexan blades (I believe that was what they were made of) were very light and didn't have a lot of pull back or heavy vibration like a metal blade might from what I remember. Would have been a good blade for burning a spinnerbait in clear water, I imagine.

Crankbait Corp (Tom Seward) was the first to create and sell them to my knowledge. I still have a few :)

Agreed - depends on the knot in question

My original name proposal after we got Charlie was for Johnny (“Rotten”). Thought it would be great to have Sid snd Johnny as my two dogs, and the latter one certainly had a “rotten” temperament - lol. Wife kind of nixed the idea though - haha

We’ve got a shootout at the top...Tharp, Neal and Wheeler just 6 ounces apart with 10 min to go in period 2. Last period is going to be good! Wheeler had a scale issue at the first event (last day). Fortunately it didn’t come into play in the final results

No offense, but the dumbest practice, ever. Indiana used to not observe it, one of the last to change, but we caved and I’ve been bitter ever since - lol ?

Wife and I have had 3 Pekingese spanning nearly 30 years. Sid (“Vicious”) lived to be 18 years old and was our first back in 1991. Then there was Charlie, a.k.a. “Chunk”, who lived for 16 years. Sid and Charlie overlapped for around 10 years and didn’t get along. Charlie passed in 2016 and we went a year and a half without a Peke - it’s so tough losing each one. I finally pushed a little and in Oct. 2017 we got a newborn Peke from a breeder; “Archie.” Wife was originally hesitant because she still wasn’t ready for another, but this guy has turned out to be fantastic. Can’t imagine life without him now. Hoping he becomes the first to enjoy going out on the boat this spring.

Ditto - never called in sick to go fishing at present job (21 yrs). Used plenty of PTO in that time to schedule a fishing day though ? ...usually about half my allowed time

While the technology is impressive, I personally have a hard time getting onboard with some of it because it's gone a little too far, IMO. I don't ever see me buying some of the units for that reason; kind of like I won't fish for certain species of fish/with specific methods at certain times of the year. @lo n slo kind of touched on it with his comments about the "sport" of it. I'm just a little too "old school" What's the difference between the two pics/scenarios below?

Had a serious health issue over the summer. Believe it is now resolved, but might have played into the picture given the demanding travel schedule. Go back in her video list about 7 months ago for specifics.

Texas rigged stick worms have been a key player for high finishes in Florida tournaments (and similar waters) for a while...

Got around to doing the sink rate test I wanted to on this line. Using a 6 inch deep wide pool of tap water at 70 deg. F in a clear glass container so I could observe. I measured 2 inch segments of straight braid (PP), YGK112 sinking braid, and clear nylon line (Stren). Density should be as follows: Braid = 0.97 g/cm3 YGK = 1.12 g/cm3 nylon = 1.14 g/cm3 I set each segment individually on the waters surface as they all floated due to surface tension. I then used the sharp end of a small paring knife to push each segment just below the waters surface by pushing down on the middle of the segment until submerged. At that point, I watched through the glass to see how each piece responded. As expected, the true braid segment would continuously rise slowly to the water surface and float being less dense than water (water is generally considered 1.0 g/cm3, but that is at its most dense state (40 deg.). At 70 degrees, it's slightly less (0.998 g/cm3)). The nylon segment immediately sank to the bottom of the container when pushed below surface tension...not crazy fast but steadily. The YGK segment also sank to the bottom of the container, though it semed to be a little slower than the nylon, even having the one cut end that wanted to stay near the surface until I pushed it below separately. End result - the claim is confirmed. YGK sinking braid does, in fact, sink on it's own accord once it breaks the surface tension of the water, similar to, but apparently somewhat slower than nylon line. Literature I've read states that the YGK line has a silicon coating (most silicon is also denser than water), so it might be the case that after use and wear and the initial coating worn down (or off), the end result might be slightly different.