SirSnookalot

I did fish a turnpike pond near my home the other day, the pond was lifeless and the canal adjacent produced only 1 fish, but a good one.

Moderators are like HOA board members.

The best reel...........only the Shadow knows. There is no best reel under a $100, each has it's pros and cons and whatever you get comfortable with will work well. I use 3 sub $100 reels in freshwater( except for my $30 Shakespere with the handle out of bubble pack and have fallen in love with it, lol), all them are Pflueger supremes, each size matches the rod they are on very well, after several years of use only a drop of oil every now and then has kept them in tip top condition. Still in the sub $100 market I have a Pflueger arbor and medalist, both used in saltwater and targeting 20#+ fish, still smooth and perfect, perform as well as reels twice the price.

Jose Wejebe said in one of his videos that an alberto knot was as strong as bimini twist, that's good enough for me. I seldom tie line to leader except when targeting certain specific species, so basically I'm a swivel man. I'm going to use a swivel with the split ring large enough not to go thru the guides. There are a number of different kinds of swivels on the market, barrel, crane, power and ball bearing. Most are really just line connectors with very little rotation like a good sampo or spro, not that they are bad for what they do, I use every type except the barrel. Just about any fishing knot tied correctly will be just fine. I keep it as simple as I can, clinch for mono, improved clinch for braid, loopknot for lures and an alberto for a leader. Whether I'm fishing for bluegill or billfish, it's always the same 4 knots, if I've had knot failure it's only because I've done a poor job on the knot.

I doubt they even carry what I'm interested in, if so I'd pay full retail. Okuma raw 2 and Okuma cedros inshore rod. Wouldn't mind getting a Shimano terez and get rid of my Star handcraft.

I don't know about pro fisherman, never met one and never been to a tournament. I have met pro golfers and been to ton of events as well as TV viewing. It doesn't mean anything what kind of hats they are wearing, or the brand name on the bag or head covers, whats' inside may be entirely different. The bag may say Taylor made, but the irons could be Callaway, the wedges could be Cleveland and a Ping puter. I wouldn't be surprised if pro anglers did the same thing.

Thanks for the input 0119, I do use tape on my arbor first, even with mono, not that I need it but it's just gives me a bit of extra confidence and takes but a moment to do. I don't know about catching beasts, lol, but some of these hombres down here can put up a bit of a tussle. I want 1 continuous strand of line and it being in healthy condition. Taking it one step further, I quite often forgo the arbor knot and just tape my line on, again no slippage at all. I do have fish on the line once in while that can spool me all the way down, I'm going to lose my lure and line anyway and the knot probably will not stop that fish. I doubt it would happen but why take a chance on harming the reel. I treat my freshwater spooling no different than what I do in saltwater. I'm not much of a technical kind of guy, but when I need technical info, 0119 is the man to go to.

No problem, I do it every single day. I use several rods rated max at 1 oz, 1.5 oz is pretty common for me to use on them, I just cast easy and let the rod load up.

It would be hard for me to bet against MJ as the greatest player. The era of Jordan, Magic, Bird, Jabbar IMO was the most exciting time in professional BB. Going back some, Chamberlain, Russell, Robertson weren't too shabby either. Not there best team ever, but I loved the 70' Knicks and my favorite all time player was Magic Johnson.

Haven't had the desire to be on Twitter but I do use Facebook. I'm a member of a few groups where the members are from my elementary and high school, it's great to see what some of these people have been doing the last 50 years and where they are living.

@bluebasser, you get my #1 vote for the most impressive fish, the cat.

I like throwing a twichbait for bass, I usually buy catch 2000 or catch jr, pretty universal lure.

NYC is the exception to the rule, they have done a really good job there.

Who uses rope, most of us down here including myself fish 10-20 line and mh spinning for fish the size of pike and muskie. I won't argue pound for pound what fish fights harder, think what you will on that. You may choose to use backing for a 40# muskie, I wouldn't consider doing that for tarpon or jack, using fresh new line is the best ploy here, difference between landing and losing them. Out of curiosity how many 30 or 40# muskie you catch in a year, 10-20 of them? I catch a lot more than 20 fish that size in a year, I gotta go with works for me and I do most of it from shore where I chase them down on foot, try doing that for a couple of hundred yards. BTW, I grew up on Lake St Clair and fished it for 50 years, very familiar with perch, walleye, bass smallmouth pike and muskie

That amphitheatre is awesome. Hard to say what my favorite was, so many different genres in different eras. Outdoors could be a toss up between "WAR" and "Earth Wind and Fire", "Hooked on Classics" laser light show was incredible. Indoors in Vegas " Paul Anka", never saw an entertainer sing eye to eye with everyone in the audience, just fantastic, for sheer electricity................ELVIS !

This is true, damage from hurricane and named storm requires the policy holder to pay a different deductable, most ins. companies I've been with charge 2% of the policy. NYC has had the lowest homicide rate in about 50 years, that can't be said for other major cities.

I can't imagine having a problem with perch or walleye either, just reel them in, not the case with many other species.

You can put a piece of table on the spool, so it wont slip. Tied direct to the spool yes, a piece of masking or electrical tape on the spool first NO SLIP. I even use tape before spooling up with mono.

I fish both salt and fresh everyday, fish are fish, it doesn't make a difference what the package says. I catch snook and tarpon with a senko or any creature type bait on a jig. I catch bass on a salt water poppa dogs. The key to catching any fish is not the bait, it's learning the various nuances of each species. Before any one gets in an uproar, yes there certain fish that will only hit live or cut bait, or crabs, but for the most part most fish will hit anything.

You've got the rod and reel, line can always be changed, experiment to see what works best for you. One negative I have with mono or copoly is coiling, even 14# will do that on a 4000 reel. What I do to combat that is soak my line in warm water before spooling it up, then I don't over fill the spool, my reel ( off the top of my head) may hold about 160 yds, I put about 120 on it. I ALWAYS troll out my mono either before my outing or just after I've finished. You want to use the lightest mono you can get away with, understanding your drag and how to play a fish is of paramount importance, your line and knots will not fail if done properly, excluding a few exceptions of course.

When was this, must have been a long time ago? For quite a few years the limit on snook is 1, prior to 2002 I think the limit was 2. I fish with a guy who can't fish to save his life, I even tie his hooks on for him. We will be out drifting using the same bait, weight etc, he almost always catches the first and the biggest of the day, needless to say he thinks of himself as a world class fisherman. He pulls in a 40# amberjack and I catch trigger fish, lol.

Your legally caught fish is entirely your business what to do with it, throw it back, eat it or mount it. For the ones that have an opposite view, let them do as they see fit. I c&r as I don't like the taste of bass, wouldn't eat anything out of these Florida freshwater canals and as mentioned above mercury content, especially for pregnant women, and it just isn't bass, some saltwater species too like swordfish. If I'm not going to keep them I certainly won't leave them on the bank, sure I'll toss one to a bird once in while, just for the sake of thinning them out. I don't want the flies, the buzzards or any other critter coming to feast on them, that may be health issue.

It's all about the fish! There a various schools of thought and numerous articles about what's most important. More expensive rods may be lighter and to some that's important, do they really cast farther, more sensitive and handle bigger fish? I'm sure some will say yes, I would too just to justify spending $300, in reality I say no. Same for reels, does my stradic really handle a 8# bass any better than my $30 reel in a bubble wrap with the handle sticking out, to justify it to myself yes, in reality no. I don't mind spending a significant amount money for larger harder fighting fish. A good fisherman I may be not, but certainly not out of my mind, $300 reel and $300 rod to catch fish that average a few pounds at best and a few that might go 10+.

I would not trade good for something that is not so good. IMO there isn't much out there you can't handle with a spinning rod.

The sojourn blank for about $29 is pretty darn good, mine is a heavy 12/25 lb with a cabo 30 reel and 20# braid, bear in mind it's a freshwater rod and I've replaced a few guides due to corrosion a couple of times. This is one of my barracuda outfits, I do have another with 14# mono line, more line capacity reel but on a mh rod. Being in Florida I no longer fish for stripers, but have spent much time in N.J and on Long Island catching them, so I'm familiar. On a 4000 sized reel I'd pick braid 95% of the time, the exception is when I'm using lures that rotate a lot a put quite a bit of line twist on, closing the bail by hand will not prevent twist, only loops caused by your line not being taut on the first crank. I'd probably use 20# braid, should have no problem with your average striper which may be 10-15#, when you hook that 50 pounder it's time to see what you are made of.........lol. The key is to get past that first run, then ya got them licked.