Team9nine

Lol - old guy with facts, no sizzle ? sounds familiar, doesn’t it @Paul Roberts

Ditto @RFSims - Thirty years of owning and towing bass boats and electronics, and I’ve never removed them while towing. Only one incident in all those years. None ever went bad. Running in rough water or accidentally getting “popped” by an errant backcast are much greater threats IMO...but I completely understand the concern and have several friends that always remove theirs if feasible.

Happens everywhere, eventually. You have to have something to keep the donators coming if you want to keep the pots large. Paying down more places sometimes works, sometimes not. Another option is keep pots/payout the same, but add a random draw after weigh-in for all teams out of the money that day for their entry fee back.

1.5” and 2” angle (1/8”) throughout and it never failed in the 8 years I had the boat afterwards.

Yeah, but I'm not certain I can post it here since it's on my own/personal blog/website. Can I send it through IM without violating board policy?

Can't wait to see the final report. I think I might have been the first one to take a "scientific literature" look at this and write about it some 10 years ago. They even borrowed my post title (closely), though that might be coincidence.

The two Premiers I have are certainly one power higher than their rating...I’ve compared/tested them against my other rods to prove this to myself. I have a couple other rods built on Avid blanks, but they don’t seem to be as powerful for their rating. Maybe other St. Croix users could chime in and confirm.

Right now the current favorite in my lineup is a ML Shimano Clarus. Believe it runs around $90 if still available. It’s labeled as ‘fast,’ but definitely feels a bit more moderate which is my personal preference with small light-wire hooks. The old St. Croix Premiers had similar actions, just bump down a notch because of power (L instead of ML).

If you are also using smaller, thinner wire hooks with your 1/16 oz heads, I’d call that overpowered. If you are using some of the newer heads with heavier, larger hook sizes, you’d probably be fine. I like ML for most of my Ned stuff, but actions and power ratings vary quite a bit between manufacturers.

True light action rods you’ll need to be careful, but if you know what you’re doing, you can boat flip some decent sized fish on a ML outfit. How concerned you are with actually landing a fish will play into it. Species aside, I’ve flipped thousands of fish aboard with ML outfits and never broken a rod yet.

If you are using a decent brand of line, you should be just fine. I typically get 2 or 3 seasons out of my fluoro outfits, and in Indiana we always have weeks or even months of down time due to winter ice. Braid - easy to get many years out of braid if you choose to do so, so no issues there.

So sorry to hear. Will keep your family in our thoughts. -Brian

I haven't tried the SS140, but from its description, my initial guess would be 'yes' since fluorocarbon makes up it's core. In theory, I would think the fluoro core would provide more tension on the line via mass vs braid alone, as well as the density that might play into increased sensitivity either through a more direct route to the lure via sinking or increased vibration transmission (density)...or a combination of both. I have been using the SS112 for several months now, and it is pretty impressive line. It would be interesting to pick up a spool of the SS140 to compare to the SS112 now that I have a pretty good feel for the line. I'm guessing there are distinct qualities to each line that aren't necessarily shared between the two due to construction differences.

Been doing a fun little experiment the past 7-10 days and thought I'd reproduce it here, kind of in diary form. Got to take advantage of the open water we've been fortunate to have. January 7 at 7:22 PM Had a few minutes to stop at a pond after work. Wanted to do a little science experiment. Forecast is calling for 3-5 inches of rain for our area from Thursday through Saturday. We are also supposed to be near record highs (almost 60) for a couple of those days. So what is the temperature of rain? If it rains on a warm day, is the rain the same temperature as the air? If so, will our near freezing lakes suddenly become spring temps again? Will the warmer water just float on top of the cold water underneath and eventually just wash away through the normal draining process, leaving cold water lakes again afterward? I'm speculating that the rain will be about the temperature of the dew point, whatever that happens to be during the 3 day storms. And given the amount of rain, some of that cold water will be mixed sufficiently that we should see warmer lake temps once it is all done...but how warm? I needed a baseline measurement before all this starts, so I grabbed a temperature probe and got that answer: 40.1 degree surface temp in this usually tough, cold water fishery. It was a bonus to land 3 bass in the process given I only had about 30-40 minutes. Now I wait... January 9 at 7:30 PM Picked off 5 fish right at dark, just before the first drops of liquid mayhem began descending on the area Now we wait for the deluge to end in about 72 hours, then see what the damage is. Looks like they did split the storm with the worst parts going north and south of us, but still enough heavy stuff to trash our waters from the looks of it. Hoping to be able to get the resulting water specifics Sunday. January 11 at 4:31 PM Edge of the back side of the cold front has started moving through. Air temps have dropped 17 degrees in the past two hours. Prolonged cold air overnight will affect surface temps, so I stopped at a couple places to check on water conditions to see what is happening. Total rainfall in the area was 3.3 inches, and everything is flooded. Over the past 24 hours, our dewpoint has been between 52-59 degrees. I checked a large, shallow pond I have been fishing a lot lately (but not the exact same pond as the initial temp trip from a few days ago). The surface temp there at mid-pond was 9.7 degrees C, or 49.5 F. Probably safe to assume it was also in that near 40 degree range at the same time. I wanted to check the temp of just the rain in general, so I also stopped at a local creek that is severely flooded. It was a tad warmer at 10.5 deg. C or 50.9 deg. F. The pond is likely cooler from all the mixing with the cold water. That wouldn't occur in the creek since the rainwater would basically flush everything out continuously. Clarity at both places was well stained, but not muddy. Average visibility in the 4"-6" range, at least closer to shore. Hoping to hit the original pond tomorrow for a bit and see if it's the same. Also going to try and catch a fish Guessing most everything in the immediate area will be pretty ubiquitous. January 12 at 8:12PM Had sleet/freezing rain overnight, and high today of 36, so guessing surface temps will cool off quick. We'll know tomorrow. January 13 at 7:26 PM Stopped for a quick check after work. Water temps, at least on the surface, have continued to drop. The one I checked today was pretty consistent at around 7.1 degrees C (44.8 deg F.). Even the incoming water from the main drain that feeds it is the same temperature, so we've lost several degrees over the past 2 days. This isn't too surprising considering that for the past 48 hours, our temps have held fairly steady between a range of 33-41 degrees, with almost no sun exposure. Water color is well stained with about 2-3" of visibility. You can get a pretty good idea from the first picture. Made some casts with a tiny, slow moving blade bait that worked well right before the storms with no signs of success, so quickly switched to the jig/plastic and just pitched a few key areas. This worked, as I caught 3 bass in a fairly short amount of time. Hoping to catch a little warming trend tomorrow and expand on the area. See if I can get a few more fish to bite in this cold, murky water. Jan. 14 at 8:00 PM Frost overnight and minimal sunshine meant the ponds continue to cool, now down to 6.3 deg C or 43.3 degrees F. Parts of the pond were still muddy at 1-2 inches of vis., up to a good 6 inches the further away you went from the incoming water. Did manage 6 bass, all mostly smaller, and all displaying the very pale coloring often seen in cold, muddy water conditions. Interestingly, most of the fish came from the murkiest water, and were surprisingly aggressive, either thumping the bait or grabbing it and hauling butt. Wasn't expecting that.

Personally, I’d look closer at your jigging cadence, how fast you’re dropping your rod tip, and which hole position you are using on the blade bait before I questioned the line choice in this case.

Hanging tough in Indy. 4 short bank trips in the first 7 days of the New Year to several different ponds and not a blank to be had That will jinx me good. All going to heck in a couple days with 3 days of heavy rain in the forecast, anywhere from 3-5 inches. Guessing everything will get muddy and flooded, and that will probably kill our winter bite for a while. Going to learn something in the process anyway. Got my baseline temperature reading in before the storms, and will see what actually happens to the water temps given we are supposed to have 55-60 degree temps ushering in all the rain. Will our lakes magically revert to spring time temps, or will any warm water just float right over and off the cold water underneath, leaving us with winter temps again? We'll soon know the answer

You have it correct...on paper. In reality, there are several other factors to take into consideration to determine what will actually happen. An actual difference may or may not be readily apparent on the water.

That’s a good point, and it will be interesting to see how it all plays out. There is, and has been, a fine balance between what the anglers want and what the owners will allow. This situation is no different. Owners seem hesitant to change because it takes away from what they founded everything on, yet if the ‘players’ aren’t happy, they can easily leave and pursue other options. It’s at least partly why you have practice days now. How many big names would have to defect before interest in the league would wane and sponsorship money leave? Guessing we’ll see more tweaks than complete revamping.

These are both being discussed or in the works to some degree. The anglers sound like they’re pushing for a 10 or 12 fish “limit”, though the idea has to be ‘sold’ and receive buy-in from the owners, and the recent announcement of the “heavy hitters” addition will invariably play into most everyone's strategy at each event trying to capture a big bass.

This was at a corporate pond I have permission to fish on the NW side of town (Park 100 general area).

Woke up to a deteriorating weather forecast, so nixed the boat plans for a day and went into work instead. Stopped at a pond afterward to try and catch some green. Took a while to figure out where they were grouped up at, but finally found them at the opposite end of a 4.5 acre lake from where I last connected with them. Was able to pick off 16 in under 2 hours, with a flurry of 10 in about 45 minutes from the best spot. A little better quality than what I'd been on. 1/2 ZinkerZ trimmed even shorter and fished slow continues to do all the damage. Here's a few.

Believe Connecticut can also claim Rich Zakeski, and Massachusetts gets Bill Plummer, inventor of the Super Frog... both of which rank very high in my book ?

Indiana has a few that come to mind: Dan Basore: World famous lure collector, one of the earliest BASS members and competitors, and a 2017 inductee into the freshwater fishing Hall of Fame Jacob Wheeler: Now in TN, but grew up in Indy, and has won a BFL event, the BFL All-American, the FLW Cup, BASSfest, An Elite event, an MLF Championship, two Ultimate Match Fishing Championships, and was 2nd in last year's Classic. Kenneth "Dusty" Pine: Won the 1990 B.A.S.S. NY Invitational, was on the winning team of the Bassmaster Team Championship held on the St. Lawrence River in 1987 (along with Larry Nixon, Stanley Mitchell, Chet Douthit), and is one of just a handful of anglers to have qualified for the Classic as a pro the year after making it as an amateur (1986/1987).

The struggle is real! Thought after two days of low 50 degree highs, I'd see a lot more melting at the ponds. Nope. Still almost nothing open, and the one I hit two days ago is ony about 10% more open now than then...which means about half of it is still ice covered. Still made some casts and was able to land one little guy, so better than blanking. Continued warmup will get a couple of these places opened up eventually before we go cold again.

Considering I never hit the lakes around here until at least Noon, every bass I catch on jerkbaits comes later in the day - lol ?