SirSnookalot

just mentioning, not that I personally would buy one.

Tools are made to cauterize the ends of braid so it does not pull through, a cigaret or lighter will do the same function.

Jaheff was making reference to tuna fishing.

Unless I'm tieing something else and calling it a blood knot. " A rose by any other name would smell as sweet", Shakespeare.......

Braid to braid I use a blood knot, no problems as long as it's tied correctly.

If I'm not mistaken Fish Chris used to fish Okuma spinning and he catches decent fish. I fish offshore with a couple of guys using Okuma spinning, not top of the line either, my guys being around 80 years old often just hand me the rod when they have a larger fish on, so I have personally handled fish up to 150# with them. The reels have performed well and probably as good as any other brand within the price range.

Just about any reel priced up to $200 is going to perform fine, that said I wouldn't spend $200 on a freshwater reel, just don't see the need. As long as the reel performs well, balance and feels good, then catches my eye, that's good enough for me.

I have seen gators dozens of times while playing golf and fishing, all my freshwater fishing is done from shore. AS said leave them alone and they will do the same, however on very rare occasion gators have attacked. A couple of years ago a female jogger near Ft Laud was attacked and killed by a gator, the possibilty is there so I do my best to keep my distance. A few months back we had a gator taking up residence in one of our ponds that just happened to be quite near to the kids school bus stop. I posted it's picture as it was being caught a few months past. Past good fortune means nothing to a ticked off gator, be smart and don't press your luck.

Go braid and don't worry about anything.

I don't over complicate the leader issue and quit using using florocarbon, I fish in Florida too and fish the same kind of areas. I just use leftover trilene 17# or 20# p-line floroclear from my offshore reels. Nothing short of wire is going to save you getting cut off on coral. I hardly ever lose anything in freshwater, saltwater I lose stuff every day.

I've got a glich with my livemail. It's just like outlook express which worked perfectly for years and years. My email add is comcast.net, but prefer opening it with express now windows live. I get a error message saying that I'm unable so send mail thru windows live, however I have no problem in sending mail, works fine. I just want to get rid of that warning screen. The people at comcast don't understand windows live and say they only address outlook express issues, even though they are pretty much the same. I think it may be a port selection problem, but as I saw it works fine.

I got the computer, set it up all non stop and was blurry eyed for a couple of days. I called H/P back to upgrade, wouldn't let me do it unless I canceled order and rewrote it, so I said no to windows 7 professional, something I didn't need anyway. I did order microsoft suite 2010 as I was informed my corel would not work, wrong it does work, so H/p refunded my $$. Only snafu was the spread sheets needed a tweek (runtime error)that I was able to accomplish in seconds after finding out what to do. As fast as this computer is and should be because it's brand new, it falls a bit short to my old favorite I had in 1998, a Micron with win 98, I never had a better and easier computer. I have a 21" wide screen and I did like my standard 19" more, I'm getting neck strain, but all in all it's a good purchase and the price was real right. Now I'm off to buy my wife a new laptop.

Not complaining as the first 4 months of the year were pretty good, caught tarpon, amberjack, kingfish, cobia, sailfish, not to mention some 8# and 10# bass. Seems as there is a bit of a lull in the action now, I've caught nothing memorable lately. Took a 50 mile ride this morning and fished for snook, not a strike for 3 hours, some guy walks on and 2 casts later pulls in a 20 pounder off the beach, just the way it goes ! I read nothing into it, it always turns around, but no complaints.

I enjoy both golf & tennis, playing as well as watching, even on tv.

There is a time and a place for me to use bait, live or cut, and that's drift fishing out in the ocean, it produces quality fish. Seldom do I use bait for freshwater or inshore fishing, it's just to easy. I have casted until my arms were ready to fall off with little or no luck, then on quirk I'll catch some bait, hook up and the action starts. Within minutes I've got larger snook, tarpon or barracuda on the line and have done the same thing with shiners for bass. It isn't my style but it works, same goes for a senko, just not as much of a challenge.

The fish in my avatar was caught using properly tied clinch & loop knots.

I don't think being a snob is using higher end Shimano equipment, I believe being a snob applies to a group of fishermen(using any brand)that honestly thinks the more expensive the equipment, the more fish they catch and of course they are having more fun, just ask them. I always get a chuckle out of that statement and it isn't exclusive to bass fisherman, fly fisherman and saltwater fishermen can be snobs as well. If it were me and I spent 500 or more on outfit and I'm catching on average 2# and 3# fish or not very many, I'd be disappointed and depressed and probably look for excuses why the bite is off. I think the person who is catching the nicest and biggest fish is having the most fun, just my take. As in golf, you can't buy a swing, maybe invest in fishing lessons before dropping big bucks on equipment.

I always thought Michigan was humid until I lived in Florida during the summer. We don't get the heat down here like we had in Michigan, I don't think in the last 6 years it's ever been over a 100 degrees, but the humidity makes it feel way hotter than it did up north. Another factor down here is the intensity of the sun, and we don't get a break from June thru September. I can handle it, but what I can't handle are the d**n gnats and no seeeums, glad to say offshore there are seldom any insects.

After using my Penn Conquer for a couple of months and seeing them show up almost every where I fish, I'm now a big fan.

When I was in the scrap business I could look at a pile of scrap, filled drum, laying on a pallet or any other way and have a very close estimate of the weight, simply because I did it every single day. A person catching fish everyday would be able to estimate their catch even easier, so many less variables, these TV people know exactly what they have. Fishermen by nature tend to embellish the facts, a 2# fish is reported as 5#, 10 fish in an outing is now 20 in an outing......haha. I've owned a wide variety of scales, from scales that weigh in grams up to truck scales that weigh 100,000#, for the most all were pretty accurate( we knew how to make any scale read what ever we wanted it to, that's a story for another time ). I have an old fishing spring scale laying around the house, must be 50 years old and it's still accurate, I think.

I use cricle hooks quite a bit for offshore fishing and I do set the hook, but not in the way it's traditionally done for bass, done more gentler and it's a feel thing, not a lip ripping. Circle hooks are great but aren't failsafe, bad hookups do happen sometimes. Because of the physical nature of their shape(very short shank) they aren't very effective on certain species of toothy creatures. Fish in the Mackerel family have their teeth right next to each other with no spacing, unlike a pike or cuda where there are gaps between the teeth. When the hook gets placed in the corner of the mouth, the abundance of sharp teeth and a short shank cause lots of cut offs.

The canals in my area are dreadfully low, a month ago I couldn't catch jack sheet. My ponds get reclaimed water pumped in so they are not low like most I see, but the humidity is terrible and the gnats can drive you crazy this year. Snook & tarpon are getting hot, going after bass is not even an option I'm considering now. The offshore bite has slowed a bit but the big bonita are turning on, 20+ pounders are the norm, I catch 2 or 3 on spinning gear is enough of a workout for me, the other day I caught 6.

Getting the new computer Thursday, luckily I somehow managed to save what I wanted to and will be able to load it all in, except an old Lotus phone book. Those numbers hadn't been used in years anyway so it's not a hardship. Fortunately my business life is over and my world does not revolve around a computer. My first computer was purchased in the early 90's, to be honest it only complicated my business life and slowed me down. I was smart enough to back up everything, as I did prior to being computerized, in a loose leaf binder, best system I ever had, lol, those older systems did crash. In all fairness, the best feature was being able to get on line and find new markets for some of my scrap metal items, but word of mouth from people I knew in the biz was still more beneficial. I became very nimble navigating my way around on my older puters, but I have let time and technology get away from me and I'm way behind the curve now.............THANK GOD !!!!

I use a loopknot on every lure, I never take the spit rings off and I never use a palomar knot. Loopknot holds everything from bluegill to tarpon without failure, if tied correctly.

Reading glasses or sunglasses with built in readers are not for everyone. People with astigmatisms may have a difficult time with them, I can't wear them. For my offshore use I use flip up cocoons and my inshore use drug store flip-ups, no problems with either. Most of the time I don't wear sunglasses that's why I like the flip ups.