Five-Alive

I am throwing my #5 shad raps on a drop shot rod, Dobyns 701 with a Diawa Certate, low gear ratio and the smoothest drag I have ever felt and use 8lb. Berkeley professional grade flouro but have purchased some 7pound Gamma flouro to try this year. This is one of my favorite bites.

I used the alberto knot for years and never had any issues with breakage at the knot, last year I switched to the FG knot, also no issues with breakage but I find it to be a more compact knot. I don't have small guides and use a 10 pound braid and a 6 pound flouro leader. These are the two best braid to flouro knots that l have used. Whichever you go with you should be pleased.

There is one on the flea market page on this site for $180 which is a fair price, I lucked into mine new on clearance for $149 about 4 years ago, I use it to throw the A rig on and it rocks for that.

Heading to the Chowan River for the weekend to visit my parents and do a little fishing. I haven't fished it since I was a kid and would love to hear any tips.

or maybe you need to market those custom jigs??

TW will probably announce one later this week, if my memory is correct it has been 15% off on a lot of items the past 2 years.

hydrowave?

Tackle Warehouse had the old 50 E on sale for $158, other sponsors mnay have them as well. Great reel!!

Clarksville was still muddy last Saturday, the water was 306 but still seems to be being drawn down it was 303 earlier this morning. Going down tomorrow to look around, good luck on Saturday!!

Cool deal, I just wanted to give a warning, I would hate to see you get stuck in the middle of the madness if you weren't fishing the tournament. We will be on my boat, a 1997 Red w/silver stripe Ranger R-80 with a Mercury 150, be sure to say hello if you see us and best of luck. Dewey Knight, Collinsville VA

sounds pricey to me but before I pass judgement I would like to hear from others who have used it. As far as sebile, I am a little bitter ....... I bought a magic swimmer and it will not move freely like my partners will, it hangs to one side after a twitch. I wrote them but with my luck that very week I read about them selling or changing hands and never got a response so I feel $15 bucks in the hole to them.

there is a lot of good advice here!!

clear is my favorite but I haven't use a color that didn't work. They are supposed to be releasing a new spook this year too.

heck yeah!! I like the water to be 60 degrees or more but I know guys that will use it sooner. I like it early or late or anytime it is overcast. My favorite is a cavitron black on black.

Just an FYI, Oconeechee has good ramps and plenty of parking but be advised the Anglers Choice tournament comes out of there on the first Saturday in April. We had 223 boats in our first tournament on Smith Mountain Lake. http://www.anglerschoicemarine.com/tournament-trail/schedule-info-results.html

they are on the beds around the state park already.

Pop-R, I am from the Martinsville, VA area and we fish Belews several times per year, matter of fact I have a club tournament there Saturday. This is a Duke power lake and the water temps are higher due to warm water discharge into the lake. http://www.duke-energy.com/lakes/facts-and-maps/belews-lake.asp For example, the fish are bedding already. You will hear folks refer to where the warm water comes out as the "hot hole" and can even find you tube clips of folks fishing Belews or fishing the hot hole. The fishing can be pretty good but I don't know if I would call it a big fish lake. I normally put in at the Pine Hall ramp and it is very nice and good parking unless you hit a tournamnet day where it can fill up at times.

I have Saros, Stradic and Sustain and am pleased with each of them, I can only imagine how nice the Stella is and with it's price I will probably never be able to afford one!!

Interesting comments, I have been considering the Falcon Reaction, 7'4" Heavy for throwing Football Jigs, has anyone used this rod that would comment, also curious to which Kistler would compare. I would be throwing the 1/2 ounce to 1 ounce football jigs.

I noticed an HDS 5X for $399 with a note of course that there are limited quanitites ........ probably less thanone per store!!

Thanks jignfule!! I'll finally be throwing mine for the first time this weekend and was just curious.

are you guys using a swivel of any kind to keep line twist down or keep rig running straight?

I've got a 150 Calcutta and love it. I have had it for over 10 years, it is the only round reel I have all myothers are curados.

WMD in Kentucky covered it pretty well. One thing he didn't mention was that when you show up for your meeting they gave you enough goodies to make up for the $100 cost of being a marshal. We received a long sleeve columbia shirt (that we were asked to wear each day) the shirt had a $54.99 price tag on it and then it was embroidered with a BASS logo, we als received a BASS hat, a yamaha hat, a pack of worms, a really nice ESPN coffee mug and a $25 gift card to Bass Pro shops. I marshaled at Smith Mountain lake in 2010 and it was a very positive experience. I did get paired with some fantastic anglers and downright good guys, Terry Scroggins, Denny Brauer and Gerald Swindle.

a little different application but don't overlook the stand up shaky heads in 1/2 ounce to 1 ounce and throw it where you might be throwing a football jig or Carolina rig.