Low_Budget_Hooker

Way to go man!!!

Very respectable finish!! Go team!

Thanks guys. Big-O, not sure which was more important, if either, or both (I love fishing,lol) but I also blacked out the line to about 2 ft and then spotty blackening to about 5 ft from the lure.

Yea,...they say to learn swimbaiting, show up with 1 rod, 1 bait, and stick to it. I think I'm ahead of the game,...... I tried it with 1/2 a rod,....1 bait......etc etc : ;D Oh man,.....This is like a drug! I have to wait a whole 4 more hours till I'm back out there!!! My first Low Budget proto type is 1/2 done You guys didn't really think I would pay $40 for baits did you?? I'm all set up,...this nightly ritual of mine, this time, I have a saltwater rod,......Revo stx.......yadda, yadda,lol LeftCoast, on behalf of the North Face and New England crew, hows this, a new avatar for me? ;D

Fun morning Mike, thanks for coming down. You're always welcome on the Ghetto Barge, just holler when you want to come back

I'm with Skillet on this one Kumbaya B-Blvd, I work at UPS, was wondering the same thing...... ;D

Yup,.....you'll fit in here welcome aboard

....and an Ugly stick....I know, I know...... : ;D (Robert, don't be nervous, I had to get these blunders out of the way so I'm all clear of rookie moves when the Crucial comes in.... :-? ) A few pics from today....

Ooooooh maaaaan. Where to start,lol First off, if you didn't read about day 1, go HERE So,..day 2 and Mass Hole Mike is coming to fish the shift with us. I'm excited as can be, 2am,...pouring rain, slight wind,......it's my kind of morning,....a Gore-tex morning and I'm PACKED with confidence from the previous days' swimbait experience. So we suit up and head out in the darkness, a thick fog moving fast across the water as heat is sucked out of the lake and up into the atmosphere. Today, I have a rod that Ronnie (Alpster) left here when he came up from Jersey for the CAST event. A 7' MH that fishes like a Heavy flipping stick, all day long. I was very surprised at the distance and control I had with such a large bait and a 7' rod. So we start casting. About 20 casts into it, in a slightly rippled, perfectly protected cove of 6-8 ft, we hadn't had any luck but the swimbait was starting to feel natural in my hands, something I was curious about having vision taken out of the equation at this hour of the day. A few minutes later, I attempt to zing out another long distance swimbait cast and the lure is rejected about 10 ft out and comes shooting back at us at mach 2,.....oh man,...not another braid backlash,...in the dark,...yesterdays cost me $20 worth of line and 1/2 an hour..... So I release the bar and free spool it,...no backlash,....what the,....???? Mikes giggling as I pull on the line and can feel the lure coming up and down.....(he can see the 10" of rod tip doing so alongside it,lol) Rod #2 in 24 hrs,.......this game is getting expensive,lol So I go back to the Spook on my other rod,......the one I brought "just in case" (Ha friggin' ha) The lure that felt like an extension of my being a week ago, now seemed dainty, foreign and benign for what I was trying to accomplish. So after maybe a 1/2 hour of fishing with zero confidence,..I say,...screw this,....I'm low budget and I'm ghetto,.....but a broken rod ain't stopping me. I grab Ronnie's rod, now more of a pool cue, and my leatherman and saw off the remaining 3" of rod above the newly appointed "first eye". I cast,......Mike laughs, silently thinking,..."what a character...." Hold that thought Mike............................ FISH ON................................................ THE VIDEO

11"? not really sure, this is all new to me. It was the biggest one they had in stock. That much I know.

You got it man,....see you in class, 5 hrs and counting I'm making breakfast sandwiches for me and Mike (Bac/egg/chs) , I know you don't want one. I'm bringing 3 in case Dad wants one, tell him I have one on board and come find me if he wants it. (or just flash the light and we'll meet in the middle, near Gilligans)

BOAT Let me know if you need more info Frog.

D**m,...you know you have friends when,..... - You broke your rod at 9am and there's already a loaner at your house that evening. -You broke your rod at 9am and a certain someone in California(yea, you know who,lol) puts a Shimano Crucial swimbait rod in the mail for you. Thanks senior Fernandez!!!!! You guys are AWESOME!!!!! Sincerest thanks. Kent- You were dead on about the warranty. Thanks for taking my call.

Thanks Broke You know how I am with color though,.....as long as it's black, brown or green.......

As some of you know, I went to the Cape last week to meet Jim Halpin, the host for the CAST event in Mass and to see the site/lake. We got to do a little fishing while I was there. He was throwing swimbaits and made me a quick believer. Watching twin 5 lbrs bounce off each other to get the bait,....it'll do that to ya,lol. So I asked to use his spare rod and got my first swimbait fish. Nothing big, but a foothold in the door of bigger and better fish. So, game on, went out this week and bought a swimbait, an MS Slammer in red. (limited baits in area,...limited colors too) Met Dirk at 3am and went to the lake to find lightning touching down everywhere,.....we drove allll the way home,..back to bed. Got back out at 10ish. After throwing it for an hour or so with no action at all, I added some black to the body. 1 swing and a miss!! So I added more black,....another swing and a miss,....so I went nuts with the black sharpie, and BINGO! 6.3 lbs, my first real swimbait fish.. down side- I was "That guy" and in my excitement, tried to swing her in,.....SNAP. Fenwick Tech AV that Roadwarrior gave me,....gone Bittersweet yes, but the rod is going on the wall with the rest of the gear that has earned a spot there. VIDEO of catch and rod snapping are HERE

Natural- Ambassador? It's not a job,...it's a way of life! lol As for softness,....which food do they eat that is that soft? What food do they eat that is the softness of a knock-off? What makes ANYONE think they can tell the difference? Remember, their diet is primarily based on spiney, boney, or shelled critters. I honestly don't think the bass can tell the difference softness version 1 over softness version 2. Soft is soft, hard is hard. The bass in our lake don't care which one you bought,...they'll eat them both. They also don't care how much you spent (or didn't spend) on them,....they'll still eat them both,lol. the ONLY advantage I can see with a softer bait is you might get a hair more wiggle out of the ends on a wacky rig. The wiggle on the knock off is more than "enough" to trick a large class sized fish. It's certainly not worth paying more than double. but heck,...it's only $$,lol.

I've had a few through the years, my last one is now the upstairs toolbox

The return home is when they REALLY need our support. I'd like to look into this, get further involved,....this is a good one. Thanks for the awareness FB.

if possible,...bring 2 sets of the above mentioned ;D You'll use them.

I'll vouch for that! (DOH) You 2 would should have a "#'s" tournament,lol, quantity, not quality, would be funny actually, "Lunkerville meets Dinkmaster",....doesn't quite sound right,lol Seriously though Mike,...Burley will underfish you, any day of the week! ;D

Good luck, Be safe!!!! What an opportunity, you'll learn a ton, about alllll kinds of cool stuff. If you get internet access, fill us in!

Excellent!!!!

It's been a pleasure Sam, looking forward to moderating your posts when you're 90 (I'll help if the spelling gets sloppy,hehe) Any time you are up north, I'd be happy to turn you on to the New England seafood scene. Congrats and thanks for being such a stellar member!!!!!

Absolutely, but it depends on the product. Some things are just a basic rip off. like the Yamamoto stuff. designed to be quickly replaced even, a marketing genius. Unlike you, I am PROUD to not be sucked in to hype. I WILL pay for quality, but I will HUNT for value. Some bargain savers of mine are *** plastics Eagle claw hooks Just about any rod above the Ugly stick level. Ande line My numbers and size speak for themselves. Swimbaits are next, I'm hooked, unfortunately, there is no middle ground here,.....

7-10 #'s, you might want to start with a wake bait and then go to a wake bait, ending the night with a.......wake bait.