Simp

I recently went to a left handed reel for my new pitching set up and I love it. The first few trips were awkward but now it's second nature. I played a ton of basketball as a kid so I trained my left hand to be pretty strong. I think this has really helped my change over and the biggest issue was the hookset. Most of it is just muscle memory and building those muscles that aren't used to being used. So if you fish a lot like myself in no time it fills natural. While on the other hand if you only go out 3 times a month it might take a long time to get used to.

I wish it was that simple. I don't pre dip because I like the really strong smell it puts off. I know the smell is permanent but IMHO it's still stronger it's first hour or so. I go threw close to a pack of ragetail craws a day thanks to the bluegill. So I'm always putting on a new one and I end up dipping several times a day. Then this stuff can gas up and drip off the lid onto you as well. I'd say I'm loosing close to half my JJ's to it gassing up and yes it's in a cooler. So it would be nice to find a spray bottle solution. It would be tough to work it as a die but for the clear it would be perfect.

OK so I love JJ's but don't love the green hands it often causes. I can live with it but I thought about throwing some JJ's in a empty bottle of KVD's. I didn't know if anybody had tried this or if anybody from JJ's on here would have a recommendation.

Rage Craw- I swear by these! Right now with black and blue and dipping the tips in chartreuse JJ's. This adds smell and matched the hatch. We have a thousand sunfish running around with glowing chartreuse tails. Yamamoto Flappin' Hawg when I want less action and more of a crawdad look. Paca Chunk when I'm out of Rage Craws!

Well Pitchinkid I hope the move was spurred by a great opportunity for yourself and your family. Maybe in a few years you can even get a Ranger or something!

Wow that's one big fish! We've went out a couple nights ourselves but no luck yet.

Well I'm surprised this type of change didn't have to have a vote before the change. We just had to vote on a change to one of our tourneys tonight at our meeting. The closest we've came to this is our launches which are always a mess because they are at "safe light". What happens is the president will say something like be there at 5:30 and we will take off at safe light. Then people get there at 5am and SL ends up being at 5:20 and we take off early. So the people who show up at 5:30 are just SOL. His response is always "I said SL!"

At least a 7ft MH with a 6.3 or 7.1 reel.

Yeah the reels are junk but KVD is still the man. I always try to avoid anybody's signature stuff, the vast majority of the time they're not worth the price just because you're partially paying for the individuals name. There are a few exceptions but not very many. I have a KVD reel and love it. It's smooth cast a mile and has help up well.

I hate my megaforce and it's horrible "twitch bar". Dang thing won't stop flapping when I would reel in. First one did it out of the box and the replacement after a few months. It now sits on the shelf colecting dust.

Well I usually have both tied on. The braid is usually used for my Frog fishing, but it can be switched in a hurry for muddy jig fishing. My main jig set up is using Fluro mainly because I do fish some fairly clear water at times. It's very unusual to have less then three feet of visibility on my "home lake". It certainly got areas that are dirty as well but I fish enough clear water to have Fluro on. I also like the way it comes off the reel better then braid. It seems to make it easier to pitch very light jigs.

Ya here in Southern IL the spawn is basically over and after a HUGE post spawn bite they got lock jaw. My dad and I found it very hard to catch fish. We finally went in search of dirty shallow water with current. We found some in a area of our home lake we really hadn't taken much time to fish before. We found it to be great water to fish under blue bird skies and post spawn conditions. We also found some dirty water with lots of pads that produced some very big fish with a frog.

Oh crap now I need another rod. 1)Flipping stick with a jig tied on, check! 2)Frog rod with Braid, check! 3)Crankbait/topwater rod, check! 4)Spinning set up with a drop shot or senko on, check! 5)Spinnerbait rod, check! 6)Carolina rig. Not yet! I need a bigger boat!!!

The hat and glasses are what makes it so perfect. ;D BTW AWESOME FISH!

Paul I don't know if I should be more jealous that you got some before me or because of all the huge fish you catch!!! :'( ;D

Hey I'm 27 years old and I'm already looking for a hat like that. My baseball caps are just to hot in the hot humid summer months here. My late grandmother used to work out in the yard allot and she sported a wide collection of them. I guess when I get one I have to make sure it's in manly camo color.

Well you are a big guy and if that fish is 23 inches I'd say it's over 5lbs and getting close to six. Now if that fish is more in the 20 to 21 inch range it's in the 4 pound range.

I use the Uni Knot that Power Pro recommended and I have never lost a fish/lure due to the knot since with braid.

By far my favorite is the frog bite. You usually have two types of hits with the frog. The first is when the smaller fish just destroy it with everything they have and that's just fun. The other is when the 4lb and bigger fish just inhale it and hardly make a splash. When I see that type of strike, I usually say "this could be a big one" and about that time it's time to set the hook. Then to set the hook so hard with braid you think you might see the frog come flying at you and hook yourself instead of the fish. Only to have the rod go about have way up on the hook set and the big stiff rod bow over like it could snap in two and send you fying out of the boat. Then you have to reel and pull with everything you have to get that fish out of the slop. That is the the FROG BITE and I LOVE IT!!! ;D A distance second is the Jig bite only because it's very similar to the frog hookset with the possibility of it being a giant.

All I know is they fished with me on the Roadtrip and suddenly they're hotter then KVD with a spinnerbait bite on! So make sure you send me one of those boats your due to win any time now, because I need it! ;D Congrats guys!

Beautiful fish Paul!

My dad abd I share a combo that has this reel. My Dad loves it and prefers it over his PT. I think it was a very good reel for the price we paid . It's a good medium crankbait reel and does well with topwater.

I can attest to this happening more then we think. We have a hunting and fishing days fair each year and they have seminars for different things. One seminar was by a local Crappie pro on using jigs. He went over fall rates ect. We had large a viewing tank set up for these seminars and over and over again he would get a bite and not know it for several seconds. So of course he often missed the fish entirely.

Please explain is it because of the option of the higher gear ratio and the larger handle size? I'm looking at possibly adding a reel to my new carrot stix coming that I'm going to use for jigging and pitching.

What's funny is I used to not be a hat guy but now I have so many we can match our clothes and hats. I think I got 5 from the roadtrip alone. It be great if next year we had Bass Resource hats at the roadtrip!