basser89

I started using braid on cranks a couple years back to keep toothy critters from cutting me off on the upper Potomac. On a couple of the sections that I fish, there is a decent population of muskies and they have a tendancy of hitting my smaller Bandit cranks when I'm fishing for smallies (MskSlyr can atest to this too). I've landed several muskies this way and it hasn't had any negative affect on my smallies fishing from what I have seen.

Nice work Mike. That's about the size of the smallies I was catching there the last time I was there. Was the herring hanging around there begging for food? Every time I would catch one, it would fly over to me waiting to see what I was going to do with the smallie. At one point, it was no more than 5' from me. I'm planning on hitting PEPCO on tuesday (visiting family in PA now).

Hey Baron, good to see you, if you remember me as BassBandit at UB, got banned ha. Anway, do you know what model? When I googled, most of them came up as a newer one like E750PT and etc. The reel you must be talking about is black with gray roof ? I have the Energy PT as well. It's an older model they don't offer new anymore, its the E640PT. Great little reel, IMO!

Nice. Think I would have been ducking for sure! I no they have surveyed muskies down that way but I have never hooked into any muskies at PEPCO. Smallies, walleye, rick bass, crappie and catfish are all I've hooked there. The majority of my musky fishing is in Washington county. That's where the highest population resides according to the DNR reports.

Yeah, no doubt! I've seen some hunters back there but haven't heard any shots! I know a spot down from the parking lot and there's a bank that, under normal circumstances, is usually about 4' or so down to the water. When I was there last, the water up even with the bank there. I tried moving up stream to where the creek comes in (it was clear) to fish the mud line but there were a bunch of guys already camped out there.

I just checked the levels and I can imagine it was rolling along pretty good! The levels were roughly 3' higher when I was the the weekend before!

Hey Brian, I know what you mean! Work's been crazy for me too! I'm off from the 25th through Jan 4th! I'm hoping to make it there at least one day! If you've never been there, the parking lot is kinda tricky to find! Here's a map of how to get to the turn off for the parking from Dickerson. http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl At the end point on the map, you'll make a right. If you zoom in a little, you'll see the parking lot basically to the left of the marker. Park there and it's about a 5-10 minute walk up to the discharge area itself. As far as I know, the canal you walk up by is not heated but there are some decent largemouths in there! I pulled a 4 pounder out of there at the end of last month. If the discharge area is insanely crowded or you're not getting any action, give the canal a shot if its not iced over!

Thanks Muddy! Wasn't watching the thread as close as I had thought! Once I have January figured out, the rest of the months will fall into place so I should know something within the week!

Has anyone been out lately? I made it out 2 weekends ago for a while. I tried hitting PEPCO but unfortunately, the levels were still high and the water was still rather muddy! Needless to say, I blanked. The weekend before that, MskSlyr and I had my boat out on the Potomac on one of our regular spots. Weather was about brutal and I only managed one hit. The short fight felt like a smallie but it came unbuttoned before I could see it. Hopefully, with the Christmas break coming up, I'll be able to wet some line before its time to get a new license!

Hey Muddy, I'm in! As soon as I figure out what weekends I have my daughter in January, I'll chime in with the dates that work for me!

For the 75-100 range, the first 3 that come to mind are Bass Pro's Bionic Blade, Quantum Alliance and St Croix Triumph. Good luck and Welcome aboard!

1. Break the 6lb mark for largemouth. 2. Increase the number of 4lb plus bass over my '08 mark. 3. Catch a 5lb smallie. 4. Catch more bass than '08. 5. Increase my confidence in plastic worm fishing. 6. Become more effecient at eliminating unproductive water. 7. Catch a musky 40" or better.

bassnleo hit the nail on the head! With the flippin switch engaged, when the thumb bar is released, the spool will be engaged. There is alot of tension on the flippin switch which does mean you have to use a firm push of the switch to activate the feature. I've opened my older Accurists for cleaning and have had to hunt down the spring on a couple of occassions! I'm alot more careful opening them up now! I pitch far more than I flip and use my Accurists all the time! Whether I'm pitching a tube, jig or even a spinnerbait, I aboslutely LOVE the feature! For normal casting purposes, you'll never need to use it. If you do and your thumb slips off the thumb bar, you'll be grinding the gears and need to replace parts!!! I was sad to see the Accurist removed from the line up for this feature! They have included the flippin switch feature on the Code so there's still a solution if you like it!

Hey, don't shoot the messenger! I just posted it! I didn't write it!

I've been a Cowboys fan for many moons now. I didn't want T.O. when they first talked about getting him and wish he wasn't on the team still! Too much talk and no where near the performance he's getting paid for! Yeah, we had our problems with Michael Irvin, but at least he was dependable on the field!

Did you try Googling it? I did and found that Amazon has it.

This is too funny not to share! This was an email I received....... "Roping A Deer------- (Names have been removed to protect the Stupid!) Actual letter from someone who farms and writes well! I had this idea that I was going to rope a deer, put it in a stall, feed it up on corn for a couple of weeks, then kill it and eat it. The first step in this adventure was getting a deer. I figured that, since they congregate at my cattle feeder and do not seem to have much fear of me when we are there (a bold one will sometimes come right up and sniff at the bags of feed while I am in the back of the truck not 4 feet away), it should not be difficult to rope one, get up to it and toss a bag over its head (to calm it down) then hog tie it and transport it home. I filled the cattle feeder then hid down at the end with my rope. The cattle, having seen the roping thing before, stayed well back. They were not having any of it. After about 20 minutes, my deer showed up -- 3 of them. I picked out.. ...a likely looking one, stepped out from the end of the feeder, and threw.. my rope. The deer just stood there and stared at me. I wrapped the rope around my waist and twisted the end so I would have a good hold. The deer still just stood and stared at me, but you could tell it was mildly concerned about the whole rope situation. I took a step towards it...it took a step away. I put a little tension on the rope and then received an education. The first thing that I learned is that, while a deer may just stand there looking at you funny while you rope it, they are spurred to action when you start pulling on that rope. That deer EXPLODED. The second thing I learned is that pound for pound, a deer is a LOT stronger than a cow or a colt. A cow or a colt in that weight range I could fight down with a rope and with some dignity. A deer-- no chance. That thing ran and bucked and twisted and pulled. There was no controlling it and certainly no getting close to it. As it jerked me off my feet and started dragging me across the ground, it occurred to me that having a deer on a rope was not nearly as good an idea as I had originally imagined. The only up side is that they do not have as much stamina as many other animals. A brief 10 minutes later, it was tired and not nearly as quick to jerk me off my feet and drag me when I managed to get up. It took me a few minutes to realize this, since I was mostly blinded by the blood flowing out of the big gash in my head. At that point, I had lost my taste for corn-fed venison. I just wanted to get that devil creature off the end of that rope. I figured if I just let it go with the rope hanging around its neck, it would likely die slow and painfully somewhere. At the time, there was no love at all between me and that deer. At that moment, I hated the thing, and I would venture a guess that the feeling was mutual. Despite the gash in my head and the several large knots where I had cleverly arrested the deer's momentum by bracing my head against various large rocks as it dragged me across the ground, I could still think clearly enough to recognize that there was a small chance that I shared some tiny amount of responsibility for the situation we were in, so I didn't want the deer to have to suffer a slow death, so I managed to get it lined back up in between my truck and the feeder - a little trap I had set before hand...kind of like a squeeze chute. I got it to back in there and I started moving up so I could get my rope back. Did you know that deer bite? They do! I never in a million years would have thought that a deer would bite somebody, so I was very surprised when I reached up there to grab that rope and the deer grabbed hold of my wrist. Now, when a deer bites you, it is not like being bit by a horse where they just bite you and then let go. A deer bites you and shakes its head --almost like a pit bull. They bite HARD and it hurts. The proper thing to do when a deer bites you is probably to freeze and draw back slowly. I tried screaming and shaking instead. My method was ineffective. It seems like the deer was biting and shaking for several minutes, but it was likely only several seconds. I, being smarter than a deer (though you may be questioning that claim by now), tricked it. While I kept it busy tearing the tendons out of my right arm, I reached up with my left hand and pulled that rope loose. That was when I got my final lesson in deer behavior for the day. Deer will strike at you with their front feet. They rear right up on their back feet and strike right about head and shoulder level, and their hooves are surprisingly sharp. I learned a long time ago that, when an animal --like a horse --strikes at you with their hooves and you can't get away easily, the best thing to do is try to make a loud noise and make an aggressive move towards the animal. This will usually cause them to back down a bit so you can escape. This was not a horse. This was a deer, so obviously, such trickery would not work. In the course of a millisecond, I devised a different strategy. I screamed like a woman and tried to turn and run. The reason I had always been told NOT to try to turn and run from a horse that paws at you is that there is a good chance that it will hit you in the back of the head. Deer may not be so different from horses after all, besides being twice as strong and 3 times as evil, because the second I turned to run, it hit me right in the back of the head and knocked me down. Now, when a deer paws at you and knocks you down, it does not immediately run away. What they do instead is paw your back and jump up and down on you while you are laying there crying like a little girl and covering your head. I finally managed to crawl under the truck and the deer went away. So now I know why when people go deer hunting they bring a rifle with a scope to sort of even the odds."

Like MALTESE FALCON, I also use a back pack for shore line fishing (mostly due to the weight of my tackle bag). The rest of the time, I use my Okeechobie Fats tackle bag (weight is somewhere near 50lbs).

Does PA have ground hogs? Haven't you ever heard of Puxatony Phil? Who do you think checks for his shadow in the little town east of Pittsburg on Ground Hog's day?

Hey ghost, While I palm these reels, I move the ACS braking (usually to a lighter side), that's what I meant by tweeking the brakes. The "had" was a typo (was running on very little sleep when I posted before! LOL)! I still have both my Energies. I haven't noticed any odd noises. My guess that would come from that hot sauce junk they put in the reels. As I've said in other posts, I don't like the hot sauce. IMO, it's best to have that stuff cleaned out and replaced with better grease and oil!

Hey ghost, I had an '07 Energy Burner and an '08 Energy Power (5.1:1) and LOVE them both! It's heavier than my other reels (mostly Accurists) but that doesn't botther me. My only complaint is the way I palm the reel, I have a tendancy to tweek the ACS brakes and on windy days I tend to get a "professional overrun" if I'm not paying attention. Can't compare it to the Shimanos since I only own Quantums.

I don't know........ I'm kinda partial to Achmed the Dead Terrorist and Jose Jalapeno myself!

Thanks for the heads up! A couple of us were talking about him and his special at work on thursday.

Awesome! Welcome aboard Outdoor Channel!

Unreal! Glad I don't live in your neck of the woods!