SirSnookalot

As an everyday saltwater fisherman I never recommend bass gear, however for a short trip with budget limitations use what you have. Fishing the beach you can get away with lighter gear, don't have to worry about lifting them to high pier or even a sea wall. Don't need much in the way of lures, this is not complicated fishing, the fish are either there or not. Gotchas, spoons, bucktails is all that's really needed. I would suggest taking a towel if you have to lay your rod down (I should pay attention to my own advice, lol), sand is your number 1 worst enemy. Fishing cut bait I'd suggest the heavier rod, you'll most likely need sinkers for casting distance, heavy rod won't load with light cut bait. A rod spike or rod holder to stick in the sand is a very good tool to have fishing bait on the beach. The best advice will be obtained from a saltwater forum in the area you are going.

A chicken rig has any number of hooks tied to a leader with a sinker on the bottom, primarily used with cut bait. Another type of chicken rig would be a sabiki, used to catch live bait. In freshwater it's called a drop shot rig.

My top price for a bass lure is an Xrap, I catch many on less expensive ones too.

Looks a lot bigger than 280#. I hooked a manatee last year, I do believe posted that event. I snagged by accident with an xrap, I'm sure it didn't know it was hooked. Broke loose after no more than 30 seconds, these critters are huge.

I fish everyday now, at one time I played golf everyday. Never a long hitter but a single digit, had a very good short game. You name it, I bought and did that every year. I've got 4 sets in my garage right now and I haven't played in years. I bought many sets of irons that were much easier to hit than my favorites, I went back to those favorites every single time. Those were Callaway s2h2 irons with a memphis 10 shaft. Even though many irons were easier to hit, I never had any that hit as far and as accurate. Didn't make them them the best irons, just made them the best irons for me.

I'm so sorry for your loss, I'm pleased that she passed away peacefully.

I may be wrong in my interpretation of the original post, I had the feeling it was in reference to weighing every or almost every fish caught. I know have seen posts of people weighing fish 1-2# while their PB is over 5#, that I don't see the point of. Everyone approaches fishing "doing their own thing", if weighing them is that thing, well then go4it. I don't weigh fish myself, I will admit if catch a good one I'm as curious as the next person. If some one happens to be around with a scale, that's cool but I choose not to carry one.

I'm a Quantum spinning fan all the way, my choice for future purchases. My Quantums are strictly used in saltwater, I appreciate both the performance and durability. I'll buy a smoke for inshore fishing but I would like to see a different knob on the handle. The issue here is freshwater spinning, my criteria is somewhat different than it would be in salt. I am not catching fish that produce blazing runs, I don't need a drag that would rival the performance of an offshore spinning reel and I'm not running down the beach a few hundred yards to avoid being spooled. I want a reel that is smooth on retrieve, IMO a president fits that bill perfectly.

Anyone getting away from the rigors of daily life and enjoys their fishing merits an A+.

I would never take the time to jot information down, those few moments could easily cost the opportunity of a good fish, a dry lure catches no fish. There are so many variables that are not constant year to year or even day to day, what happened 2/25/2014 may not be what is in store for me today. Different weather conditions affect everything from water clarity and temperature, to the growth of vegetation, to tide activity to bait fish, that's just scratches the surface of the variables. Having a general idea of the nuances of various species is invaluable information, but it's only a guideline and does not guarantee 100% success. I do my research every morning, weather, tides, and some forums to see where and what the hot bite is. I do have pinpoints on maps, fishing so many different freshwater and saltwater locations I can't remember them all.

It isn't just you.

Polarized for fishing for sure, for just being outside I don't care for them. Never saw the ball well when I was playing golf and driving my car if I was at angle the LCD displays were too dark. Everyday use I prefer traditional sunglasses, for me it's prescription.

Google Drive is excellent, we had another thread and Drive was mentioned. I don't do logs but I do use drive for maps, syncs perfectly to your mobile device, also from your device back to your pc. In the Kit Kat android OS there are a number of syncing issues, most notably assigning a name to a pin point or map title, Drive works well as a workaround and a description can be inserted into a pinpoint location, with the downside being no satellite view for maps. I do have have a workaround for that too if some one is interested.

I don't have an itch to scratch. Not only do I fish 7 days a week, I catch them everyday too. I fish with no more than 5 or 6 different items, seldom buy anything else. When I'm not catching fish is when I'll look at different lures. I lost a 3/4 oz Acme kastmaster (hung it up on a rope by a dock), went into DSG, walked right to the rack picked 3 and didn't look at any thing else in the store. I may have spent 3 minutes there, which was more time than I cared.

From the standpoint of enjoyment 2014 was outstanding. I caught no large bass, I didn't fish for them too much. I fished ponds with a ul spinning outfit and caught a bunch of bass I was real happy to catch. I did quite bit of site casting for peacocks, with a good degree of success. Inshore was both good and bad, snook was big disappointment but I may have my best year catching both barracuda and tarpon. Much of this has to do with weather and bait bringing fish into the area.

I've used them a few times, the saltwater version, and if I were in the market it would be my next reel. I own a Quantum Cabo 40, hands down my favorite reel with nothing being a close second. If there would be a complaint it would be the weight, which is fine on the rod it's mounted on. For use on a lighter rods is probably the reason Quantum came out with the Smoke series. When you deal with Quantum you deal with a company that provides excellent customer service. My buddy sent his 30 smoke in for a cleaning and requested a 40, they just replaced the 30 with a new 40, no charge. Same thing happened to me prior to my friend, I sent a Boca in for cleaning and asked to upgrade to a Cabo stating I would pay the difference. A new Cabo arrived, no extra charge. Freshwater warranty 48 hours, saltwater 24 hour turn around time.

Me too! Even using disgusting outdated PP that some liken to a saw blade (or any other line for that matter) never once have I had a guide problem due to the line. From an inexpensive Lightening rod to more expensive rods, the guide wear or lack of it is identical. Personally there only 2 things I want a guide to do, 1 is having the line go thru them and second is not to have my saltwater ones rust out, which does happen even with the so called best of guides. My suggestion, fish more and read less.

Straight braid or backing is a personal choice. I go straight braid putting about 1" long strip of painters tape for grip.

I have used one a few times, one of my fishing buds has a 7' med signature 6/12 3/4 oz spinning. He uses it for bass fishing but he is primarily an inshore fisherman (usually fly rods). I am witness to him consistently throwing 2 oz bottle poppers, have seen him land quite a few snook and jacks up to 20#. I like this rod a lot, it's a winner IMO, have never seen a non surf rod cast so far.

I loves the summer down here, but not for bass fishing. I don't mind the heat and humidity but I do mind the lethargic bass bite as well as the inland insects. I do bass fish in the summer just not as much. My favorite time down here is late summer thru the end of the year. We have the bait runs, lots of inshore fish, then about mid October the bass pickup, insects pretty well gone then. My mornings are at the ocean and my afternoons are bass fishing, I do a lot fishing that time of year.

For any sizable fish I want a little bit of shock, braid doesn't furnish that. Toothy critters can easily bite thru braid, one thing we have down here is fish with sharp teeth. There are species that will attack a swivel as quick as the lure, which is quite evident when just the braid comes back bare with no swivel or leader. If a strike snaps the line you'll feel it, cut off you won't, just have a limp line.

JF, appreciate your input. I don't have near 10,000 photos, the online "cloud" sites I'm using I'm not really finding any fault with them. I'm not cold on them I just want to go a different route, why................I really have no significant reason, lol. Since I have many photos that have never been uploaded, many of the ones that have been uploading are duplicates and some are not, I guess I'm really looking to condense and centralize everything. I think it may be easier and quicker to d/l my online albums than uploading everything to an online site. Playing around with this for about a week I do believe what I'm going to do is keep everything in my hard drive (backed up to a flash drive) and use Picasa stand alone desktop. For future picture posting I'm thinking of attaching the file, not that I've been displeased with using a url. Using dropbox my photos are automatically d/l to my computer, this has been working well for me. Life was less complicated with a Brownie Hawkye, lol.

Unless this test is done in complete darkness under a new moon, heavy cloud cover or wearing a blindfold, I do believe your going to see what you are using. Even in low ambient moonlight the rod and reel are visable enough for recognition. But let say you don't know what you are using, I think many would recognize their own brand and model just by feel. It might interesting to see if one still held their rod in the same high esteem as they did before the test. If I'm going to test a rod I want to do it in daylight, first and foremost among the different factors would be casting to a specific target, I'm not sure I could do that blind folded.

I don't think the test can be done, even fishing at night you will know what rod you are using based on the reel you have on it, don't think you can block it out of your mind. To a lesser degree many of us have done a similar test. Putting your reel on a rod in the store, liking it and then go fishing. There have been times I liked the rod and other times when I didn't, both from a casting standpoint and having a fish on the line. Buying a rod totally blind based on recommendations and reviews is something I don't do too often. I'll buy a rod because I have other models of the same rod that I already like, or I'll use a friend's rod and make my own judgement.

Only addressing what I do, I use the same rods regardless of lure type, treble or single hook, or species of fish. The only decision is ul, light, ml, med or mh. I don't over think it, I just naturally react.