SirSnookalot

Good luck.

The London Olympics of 1948 cost G/Britain something slightly over $100,000, which would equate to $1.2 million today. The city of London was in shambles due to the blitzkrieg, no new buildings were built for any of the events. Many competitors brought their own food and urged to supply their own towels, the French only came ashore to compete and lived on their ship during the games. Great Britain's cost today is around $14.5 billion.

I like Fins braid on a couple of reels the last year or two. The last few times I was in DSG they were out of stock on 15 and 20#.

I have seen that rod dozens of times and everyone raves about it, been tempted to get one myself. I really do not know much about heir reels, but I would try and mount the reel on the rod to get a feel, if that's possible. The reel has good line capacity and it doesn't lack in drag. From the picture, I like the cranking knob on it. I don't what your plans are for the rod, but if it's for inshore fishing I'd opt for the 7'6 model 8/20 with 1/4-1 oz lure range, be a nice double duty outfit. If it's for bass fishing I'd select a smaller sized reel, not really a whole of difference in both the Fin nor 2500 and 3000.

As all my fishing, it's spinning gear. I'm not a frog thrower, except when I go for snakeheads, for that I'm using an older 4000 spheros that had 20# braid on it in perfect condition, the rod is a bass tourney 7' med 8/17 that I bought for bonita, snakeheads have not been a problem in handling. That medalist may be one of the best reels I ever used, mine is a 5000, the negative for me is 18oz. I replaced it with a lighter reel, actually one with a stronger drag, but so far it isn't quite as good as the medalist.

I only use mono for 2 techniques, I seem to go back to trilene xl after trying something else every time. Mono will troll out line twist, braid will not, on the types of fishing I do that are very prone for line twist, mono serves me better, plus total replacement is inexpensive.

Hard to go wrong for 50 bucks, I own a couple of $55 rods I really like a lot. As far as Shimano, one of my most favorite rods is a 4 year old clarus, one of my most disliked rods is a Shimano blue water tallus that has done nothing but collect dust for the past couple of years.

$39 reel for redfish or bluefish isn't going to cut it. In fairness southern bluefish do not reach the size of northern ones, 8# is a real nice blue, on L.I. 20 pounders are common and are excellent fighters. I don't brand recommend, but if you are going to use it in saltwater, buy a saltwater fly reel and rod and I would not go lighter than a 9wt., redfish have the potential of getting very big. One of my buddies caught a 42# red a couple of weeks off Melbourne beach, and that isn't even in record territory.

Technically speaking there is a difference between line and leader material, for freshwater use I cut my leaders from mono, I no longer buy any F/C line or leaders. What one uses is their own personal preference, I use 10# braid, 15# in cover with a 15 or 20# mono leader for 100% of my freshwater fishing.

First of all, the drag on any type of reel should never be locked down, it should be set to the test strength of the line, it's ok when the fish is on to tighten up the drag a little bit, but the key to landing any larger fish is letting it run and having patience. A person not used to catching fish that make runs of 50 -100 yds or more panic when they see that line coming off the reel at warp speed, they tighten the drag down and that's when they lose the fish...........stay calm and don't get excited, it's only a fish. I have caught scores of them when I lived in Michigan. There is a difference of what's needed to land them and what you should use. You should use bit heavier gear to land them, they do not withstand a good battle that well, personally it's a fish I would never target again. They are a pretty fish, get good size to them and they are a much rarer catch, but imo they come in pretty easy for a fish of that size. I would be using a rod heavy enough to handle the size lures I'd be using, wire should also be used. At present the closest to muskie I catch are barracuda, they average about the same size and are very toothy too. My standard cuda set up is a 4000 spin reel on a mh rod, 14# mono or 20# braid with 30# piano wire about 12" using a haywire twist, there is no kinking. Anything other than single strand piano wire is an unneeded expense for me. Down here we can use lighter gear because we don't release them, we gaff them, someone always wants them for a meal. Not that cuda are easy to entice but once hooked give some of the best inshore battles one could imagine.

I agree with K_Mac, and yes it's about money. The countries that have the ability to fund their athletes, whether it's state or privately funded have the best chances of winning metals. I get a charge when an athlete competes from a poor country, train pretty much on their own without the aide of world class coaches, win gold, I love it That's what the Olympic spirit is really about. I have the utmost respect for the athletes, their dedication is awesome. That said the countries that win the most have the most to spend, best training facilities and best coaches, the deck is stacked in their favor, hard for them to lose. National pride when a favorites wins, not really for me, it's expected. When USA beat Russia for gold in hockey, kids against pros, same goes for BB when Russia was always the team to beat, that's when national pride bloomed for me. Now it's just something to watch on tv, I'd rather watch an old Bogie movie. He was great, but he fought only amateurs, Rocky Marciano, 49 and 0, fighting other pros, only undefeated heavyweight, and at a mere 184 pounds, fighting 15 rounds, not that they went that long, not 3 or modern championship fights at 12 rounds. Olympic scoring in boxing is a joke, a knockdown earns no more points than a left jab.

You can use whatever # test leader you like, bear in mind if you are choosing a f/c leader it's most likely for visibility. If that's the case the thinner the leader the weaker the entire hook to mainline will be, it's ok some prefer it.

There are a number of events I enjoy watching, especially track and field, as boring as it is I love the marathon. A bunch of events I could easily live without seeing, but I'm sure there is an audience for them. The opening ceremonies were just ok in my opinion, looking back I was much more impressed with Bejing, but for me nothing topped Barcelona. The blind archer igniting the Olympic fame was epic. I do think professional athletes have no place in the Olympics, regardless of what other counties do, the spirit of the Olympics is amateur competition. The 92 "Dream Team" was great to watch, in all honesty who could have beaten them? In 2016 Golf is an Olympic sport, not that I think it should be, but the USA should field amateurs and not pros, same goes for tennis.

Myself and most inshore fishermen I know are not quite as critical on reel weights and 4000 and 5000 series reels are most often seen. Staying in the spirit of this being a Shimano thread, I have less interest a spinning reel with any graphite in the frame for saltwater, however one of the workhorse conventional offshore reels is a Shimano TLD, which is graphite I believe. I have heard terrible opinions regarding the new thunnus, same material as the stradic, people prefer the heavier baitrunner. For me a stradic fj would be my only inshore sw reel choice in the Shimano line up and that would most likely be a 4000, unless I got a great deal on a 3000. Only based on fondling if I were to buy a Shimano for freshwater use it would be a saros or stradic fj, anything more is overkill IMO.

As far as lines, rods, reels, lures, leaders etc, I say find your niche on your own experience, every recommendation is going to have an opposing view. I only use spinning gear and braid and always with a leader, that's 100% of my fishing, whether it's bass, inshore species, I vary that for offshore but that isn't pertinent in this thread. I go braid all the way, usually 10# but I will jump it to 15# in heavy cover, I'm going to fish a bit heavier rod and reel too. As a cost saving measure there is nothing wrong with mono backing, for bass you don't need more than 50-60 yds of line. I use 15-20# leaders, tied with a swivel and about 2' long for freshwater, I quite often use a duolock, and don't change the leader for every outing. I've lost only 1 lure all year and that's because I hooked a tree. That said I do very little bottom fishing and freshwater jigging. One of the main reasons I use a leader instead of braid to my lure, is getting the line wrapped around the front trebles, a leader is much easier to untangle. It isn't unusual for me to use just 1-3 lures, I'll forgo the duolock and use a loopknot. Visually I don't think it matters that much to the fish, many people on here use braid and no leader with excellent results. I no longer use F/C line or leaders, my strike rate seems to be the same with or without. This is just what I do for the waters I fish and the techniques I employ.

Line

Match the hook size to the bait, not the fish. Too large a hook on a small bait like a shrimp or cigar minnow will kill the bait faster, best to hook a shrimp in the tail. I use a 1/0 circle for small baits and as large a 4/0 for bigger ones. I mostly buy Eagle Claw, inexpensive and strong enough. I have had only 1 Eagle Claw circle hook break in the last 9 years and that was offshore on something pretty big and strong, that was a 5/0. Spending twice the price won't land any more fish for you.

You can post a link from a site like photobucket after you have published it there, also reducing the size of the pic will allow you to attach a file, this is an easy site for reducing. http://www.shrinkpictures.com/

Season opens Sept 1, 2012 on the Atlantic, the Gulf is catch and release until Aug 31, 2013 http://myfwc.com/fishing/saltwater/recreational/snook/

i did head off shore this morning for a few hours, west wind, calm and slow bite. We ventured out to 150' where we saw fish busting, thinking they may have been dolphin. I took out my mh inshore rod that had a spoon on it, as I'm retrieving my 8000 spheros gets hit and the fight was on. I gotta say I was gaining on the fish but a real slow go, then my 20# mono snaps with my drag set to let the fish run. 10 minutes later on the same rod, same story, line breaks. Once again I hit get this time on my Avet, rod nearly bent in half, I can hardly turn the crank but I'm making headway, my rod bumps the bimini top and my 30# mono breaks off losing about 75 yds of line. Result zero fish in the boat, sore back with 1 chiropractic visit and 2 new spools of line purchased. Way it goes some time, just wish I would known what was on the other end of the line, just a guess, some very large kingfish, but who knows.

I'm very anti gun, but no gun control law could ever stop a tragedy as this, If some one wants to obtain a weapon they will regardless of any law. As Mayor Bloomberg said on TV the other day, we have enough laws, just that they are not enforced and there is a lack of funding. We do have more guns per capita than any other nation, and with that we have more deaths per capita attributed to guns than any where else, undeniable statistics. 20 years ago more people were in favor of gun control, that has changed, in years to come and after another 50,000 dead by gunshot, the sentiment will change again.

For under $100 nothing I've seen performs better than anything in the Pflueger line up. I own 6 of them not a single one has ever seen the need for service. For the price of a president, just buy a new one or send it back to Pure Fishing, they probably will replace it for free. Pfluegers are like a Timex, they just keep on ticking. My track record over the last few years other than just a cleaning, 4 Shimanos 1 stradic and 2 spheros needed repairs, 1 Daiwa repaired, 3 Abus repaired (replaced by pure fishing) 1 trion, 3 supremes, 1 medalist and 1 arbor, smooth as the day they were bought and never a need for service. In fairness my Shimanos and Daiwa work just fine after being repaired for salt use, however my salt use Pfluegers never needed repairs in the first place. and are still smoother. The only Shimano I would buy is a stradic, anything more is overkill and anything less is an inferior product IMO, that said I'd buy a stradic for SW, never for freshwater.

It was nice meeting Qnormus the other day, I didn't have a strike on my fluke and he caught a bass on his first cast with a senko. Yesterday morning I was fishing the outgoing tide, had one snook on for less than a few seconds and that was it. Sun up came and I put a spoon on, big mistake not using wire, first cast and I get cut off on my newly purchased lure that was used for the first time. I put a wire leader on and caught 1 small cuda. I went to my pond at home and did some bass fishing, the humidity and gnats chased me out, the dinks were active on a senko. I'm getting ready to head offshore in a couple of hours.

Like others I'm a member of other forums too, not just fishing sites. I'm not sure why but I see little or no arguing, personal attacks or any reason for a moderator to even be seen, and they aren't. In all fairness BR has a large membership, needs certain policy restrictions that other sites can be more lenient with in regards to subject matter. I do see the need on BR for more moderators as this site is active 24 hours a day, other sites get far less membership participation. One of the main differences I see is moderator participation. Other sites the moderators do exactly that, moderate and are not overly active in day to day posting on topics, giving little or no bias or upstaging, just some occasional general information useful to all. I'm not one for brown nosing or walking on egg shells to voice an opinion or to agree just for the sake of acceptance. I would be remiss if I didn't say Glenn does a wonderful job as moderators. Glenn sets the bar, however I don't feel his standards are always met.

@ new...........I do not use a snap swivel for fast change, I do however use a duolock, for that purpose for freshwater, I tend to be lazy and use the same leader and lock for a few weeks. In saltwater I change my leaders whenever it's needed, 2 or 3 times in a few hours. I strictly attach lures with a loop knot, no duolock in salt. A decent crane swivel is far superior to any barrel swivel like the ones in Walmart.