SirSnookalot

Not enough weight lose to get me real excited. I prefer a full rear butt and on the long side. I do not care for split grips on a 7' and less rod, I have an 8' with both an ample fore and rear grip, it's not bad.

This is the way the jettied looked before the renovation 2 years ago, it was 2' lower with no guard rail, we liked it much better then. No nothing has been showing up, caught only 4 snook in the last month or so, and haven't seen a jack in ages, not even small ones. This has been a poor winter so far. I need to to a ride to your side of state and look for some redfish.

Fishing for gag grouper with that senator?

I've used Quantum service only once for a cleaning on my cabo, the turnaround time was lighting fast. Not sure they still promote this but at one time they advertised a reel would be shipped back out in 24-48 hours.

Sometimes we cannot control events happening in our lives, health and accident issues can pop up anytime regardless of how well we look after ourselves. That you just have to deal with and make the best, luckily coming out of the service you have the VA. We have much more control over relationships and finances, each are replaceable commodities, at 26 you have time on your side.

If you grew up in the 50's there was a good chance you learned how to fish in a rowboat with no electronics. Back in those days there was a boat livery on most inland lakes, we were always not on the same body of water, we caught fish by instinct and trial and error. Not owing a freshwater boat in the last 10 years I still do it the same way. In all fairness the amount of boat traffic was way less than it is today, you gotta look a bit harder now for fish. The advancement in technology has to work wonders and it does, I do a lot offshore shore ocean fishing, be a real tough grind without it.

A jig is going to catch just about anything, I wouldn't give up on using it, I've caught bass with or without trailers. Sometimes ya just gotta think out of the box, I don't always have a bass jig, I don't stampede out to my local tackle shop, I improvise. I may use a bucktail with a creature trailer or worm, maybe no trailer at all. I've taken a kingfish skirt (I put a 1/8 or 1/4 egg weight, the skirt covers it) then tie on a hook and used a trailer, works just fine.

The only problem I have with Rage Tail products is that they are so pretty in their bubble pack I hate to use them, lol. If I were to support any 1 product it would be Rage Tail because of the valuable information Big O supplies to us non experts.

I fish a standard bass jig anyway I want to, I mainly swim them with "wavy motion", not a steady retrieve but I'm always varying my routine. As far as trailers go, I've used maybe only 10 or so different brands or models, catch rate doesn't seem to be much different, I do prefer the ones that are a bit more durable and stay on the jig better. I do like the weed guards on a bass jig but if I'm out I'll use a bucktail jig with a trailer and works just as well. I catch fish by fishing, not using magic lures.

Doesn't pay to do so, by the time you pay labor and parts, then shipping 2 ways you can almost by a new reel and you'll have it right away. My options would be doing it myself, local repair shop or buy new.

Not Roland Martin, but if any Floridians are interested Mark Sosin will be speaking "Techniques & Tactics that make a Successful Fisherman", at the Boynton Beach Fishing Club, Feb 26 at 7:30, admission is free.

One of the things that manufacturing companies like best about robotic use is, no labor disputes, no healthcare, no vacation time or personal days off, you don't even have to turn the lights on for them. There expensive but the money is recouped in a timely fashion. They do malfunction at times so the need for technicians is always there. Many of the companies I serviced were quite computerized and used robotics. Hard work is hard work regardless of how it's done, whether it be by your back or by your wits. Owning a scrap metal co at times I did everything. I started out driving trucks, the day didn't end with that, I had to always be soliciting new accounts and take care of all the book keeping aspects and paying my customers. Once I got yard that's when the real work began, if an employee didn't show up me or my partner hopped onto a truck with 6 axle trailer, or drove a hi lo or bobcat for loading, even operated cranes and front end loaders. The office tasks still continued, but the hardest part of it all was having to make payroll, pay taxes, fix equipment, etc etc etc when business was slow, and always trying to satisfy the customers, no harder work than stress. Never a day went by without aggrevation, I thrive on stress.........lol

Ideal would be to have more than one combo with you. That said I never do, I make a commitment based on where I'm fishing, what the water and wind is like, then decide what kind of baits to use, take 1 rod and leave the rest in the car. A duolock or facsimile there of is an excellent way to avoid having to tie on a fresh leader. If I'm using soft plastics I'll tie a new hook or jig on when necessary, and start by using a bit longer leader, I'm not a fan of a knot, as small as it might be, passing thru my guides. It doesn't take too long to tie a fresh leader and hook on when needed.

A fluke is a dynamite bait, catches about everything. I use 4/0 standard worm hook t-rigged in shallow or weedy conditions and fish almost like a topwater bait, open water I like putting them on a light lead head.

My only set rule regarding replacement of trebles is 3x in freshwater and 4 x in saltwater, I'm not fussy on brand. I only replace my hooks when they really need it, even having only 2 hooks left on the treb is fine, some people around here will cut one of the hooks off. I keep in my inventory all sizes from #6 to 3/0 and I do experiment with different sizes than was originally on the lure. For spoons don't overlook using a siwash.

Braid and my favorite is what's on sale.

Even though you're in Florida and it's Bass time doesn't mean you're not going to hit an off period. I've been doing well this season but that last few days have been harder. I thought I might get skunked yesterday, but caught 3 on the 11th hour to get off the schneid. Most likely was a snook, too bad we have no freshies near where I live. You think bass fishing might be a little slow, I've caught exactly 4 snook and 2 barracuda inshore in the last 5 weeks, no other fish at all. We call it the winter doldrums and happens every year, this year seems worse than normal. This is why I bass fish Dec, Jan and Feb, gotta have a rod bending everyday.

For some reason I can't hop on the Apple bandwagon, I do hear wonderful things about them. Never had much trouble adapting to a new MSFT os, if there is a complaint it would be non compatible programs, but that is the aim of MSFT forcing the purchase of new software. Now that I'm comfortable with win 7, I'd prefer doing a total reformat instead of the new tile system.

A 200 # + experienced person using a heavy rod with 65# braid (that probably doesn't break until 80 or a 100#) should land the majority of bass, does the fish really have much of a chance. There are some beautiful bass displayed on this site, but we are not talking about "wicked tuna", these are bass. Winching them or playing them, they are short on stamina and strength as compared to many other species of the same size. Enjoyable and fun to catch, but IMO landing a bigger one should not be that much of a task, just reel it in. It's all about finding the big one, not landing it.

I don't do it too often I like to reduce my chances of gators and mocs. Most of the fish that can't be hoisted or "sprung up" grabbing on to the spool and just walking backwards drags them, that's what we do on the beach at the ocean with some of the bigger fish. Everyone once in while you just can't do that, ya just gotta go down and get them.

About 7:30 AM facing due east. Yesterday not a one showed up, casted for about 2 hours. Perfect wind, perfect tide, but ground swells muddied up the water (something out there in the Atlantic), but that's cuda fishing. I have never fished for a more wary fish with the smallest window of opportunity, not unusual to go weeks without even seeing one. Even though the hook up and landing ratio is quite small no other fish gives me a thrill like a larger barracuda, I've been casting surgical tubes for the last 10 years.

Not a bad idea to be using it. Having 20# braid breaking around 35 pounds IMO is really using 35# line. I like the thought of the challenge instead of fooling myself that I caught this whopper on light line. I caught a 35# cuda on 14# silver thread yesterday, where does that break and would have I landed that fish on Ande tournament which may break closer to label.

I agree with Rootbeer's assessment. Technology has eliminated jobs thru computerization and in some manufacturing the use of robotics. There will always be a need for qualified service people, but how many in comparison to the total population. I don't really believe this is an issue of work ethic, the objective of any company is to make money for them and their stockholders. Whether it's thru offshore labor or getting more production with less people right here, that's what they are going to do. We may think technology is for the mass population, it's really for business to make more money. I don't how many younger people remember going to the market, quite a few checkout registers open, now just a 2 or 3, scanners have reduced the labor force. Banks used to have 6-8 tellers, now just a few and many people don't even go inside anymore, use of their atm card which does almost everything or doing their banking on line in the comfort of the home, bet that put a lot of people out of work.

We drop 12/0 weighted treble hook on a length of line.