mdmaynard

Congrats! Nice looking bass you caught there. I love it when a top water is attacked... gets my blood a pumping :-) Nice job

Greetings all! I have some newbie questions that may have been answered before but I am not finding my exact answer in the searches I have done. I had been using nothing but eagle claw 8# mono line. The other day I decided to try some 30# test Spider Wire braid. Geesh I had heck with it, not so much backlashing but it acts as if it is wound to tight on reel and well not cast (hung up acting) then backlashes because of this. So my first question would be what am I doing wrong. Next question relates to proper balance. I have an old abu garcia c3 baitcaster It lists so much yards for 8#, 10# and 12#, so does this mean It will not balance properly if I put 20# test on it? I have read where some you have 30# - 50# test but when I look at different baitcaster reels I do not see any that list so many yards of 20# 30# and so on... they usually stop at 15# I believe is the highest I have seen. So how do you get by with using 50# test and where does Fluorocarbon fit in all this. My last newbie question again relates to balance.... As I said I have an old old abu garcia c3 (picked up at yard sell for 5.00 )and I have loaded eagle claw 8# mono on it again, my rod is a shakesspear 6'6" medium action I have my garcia on it with the 8# mono so would this be considered balanced? I am hoping to sell off some stuff and buy a couple good quailty reel and rod but for now I have to use what I got.

I have to say, I have heard all sorts of stories, yours is by the far the first to be unique to me. Welcome to the group. I am fairly new here as well, the people here are awesome and always willing to answer questions without making you feel ignorant. Even some good humor along the way, enjoy!

Nice Job! I just started using c-rig the other day for the first time and like you caught a couple pretty nice bass right off the bat. Can't believe I hadnt tried it before.

If you do a search there might me a thread on selecting proper fishing sneakers might even find some with scale on the rubber sole of the sneaker, however you probably would have to pick metric or U.S. as I am not sure you can get both ;D

Very nice looking bass there!

I had express frustration with not being able to set a hook using the c-rig in another post. I had some very good feedback and took that advice and tried it out again here at lake keystone. Using the c-rig and skin hooking the zoom trick worm, I felt what I thought was the weight dragging rock on bottom, the next thing I know my line is going hard right. Using the advice it seems the bass hooked itself. It put up a pretty good fight. Weight in at 4.5 pounds on a analog scale. here is pic ( posted this under the arrrggghhh c-rig post in tackle as well)

GREAT ADVICE!!!! I went to New Mannford ramp off Lake Keystone here in oklahoma and tried the C-rig again with a 6" pumpkin Zoom trick room. I tried the skin hook I felt a little hit thought it was weight dragging rocks and then all of a sudden the line took off left, the dang thing set the hook himself. weight on an analog scale 4 1/2 pounds. Here is pic

X2 X3 X4

Not sure i know what skin-hook is

Great Info, thanks for all the responses. What a great group y'all have here.

Good Looking Bass

I am guessing if the wife outfishes you, you just replace the wife?

Thanks for the info. This may sound stupid but I actually do not remember if I was swinging up or to the side. I will make a conscience effort to low sweeping hookset tonight when I go fishing again. I appreciate the input.

I went out fishing again last night. I have been trying out the Carolina rig off and on since i read the thread on it a couple days ago. (nice thread by the way). I am so frustrated because I had several good hits on it but I could not set the hook at all. Not sure what I am doing wrong. I read through the well written thread on C-rig and I feel I am following all the good input there but I just do not know why I cannot seem to catch the good hits I have gotten.

Greetings again all! I appreciate the responses. I ordered the dvd and have received it. at first I was a little disappointed because google maps gives me a better map of the lake but when I ordered the HD version of the lake I fish the most I was quite pleased. Even though I am a shore fisherman right now, it gives me an idea of how far out and how deep the bottom contour is. Now I have a better understanding why I had been doing so good in this one spot, it seems I had been casting right to an edge where the water changes from 6' deep to 20'. Thanks again for the input and I am glad I purchased this product. (still learning the 3-d part of it).

I have had the best luck using "bruised Banana" and Watermelon green. What I have heard and found to be true is the darker the water the darker the worm, the lighter the water, the lighter the worm.

From one newbee to the forum to another WELCOME!!! I am also new to fishing so I will probably be probing your mind along with probing other experienced fishermen for input on many many many things... I may even get annoying with some of my questions.. :-) A big welcome to ya!

I appreciate the feedback. I was hoping it would give me some depth of lake contours and also give me an idea of coves and such that has accessible roads. Well if nothing else it will give me maps of for just about any lake I want to fish I hope to have a boat next year, barring no financial emergencies come up.

I am relatively new to fishing. I fish from the shore/bank of lakes as I do not own a boat so obviously I do not have a depth/fish finder to know the layout lake bottom. I found this software from http://www.nulime.com/Navionics-Hotmaps-Explorer-DVD-10000-Lake-Maps/p277305 Has anyone used this before and if so was it worth the investment.

also caught a couple this size

I did some bank fishing this morning around Lake Keystone (New Mannford Ramp Area). Took my camera with me so I could catch and release. Not great but nothing to be ashamed about. Caught about 6 all pretty much the same size. Decided to try C-rig rather than the usual T-rig, caught one on the C-rig and went back to the T-rig as I am not really sure how to work the C-rig correctly. Used a zoom 6" trick worm color was bruised banana The dirt is from when he was flipping around on shore.

I have always used T-rig, after reading this I am going out tomorrow morning and trying c-rig GREAT READING and very informative thanks all whom contributed.

unfortunately the fish did die. It did not go to waste we cooked it up with some frog legs and fried potatoes. We are new to fishing and was catching keeping and eating until we started reading about catch and release, so since then we have caught and released. Not intentionally trying to offend anyone.... learning as we go. Just joined a local bassmasters club so I can hang with other fishermen and learn even more

Nice! I got outfished last night by my wife, came in at just under 5 pounds...