SirSnookalot

Don't do a thing with them, but I make sure the hook is perfectly centered and I like to put a little bit of a hump on the back. Quite often after the first strike they don't seem to run the same, I'll put a fresh one on.

The only soft plastic I use with any regularity is a fluke, Zooms work just fine.

Only kind of eels I run across

Good luck, take a single hook Acme 3/4 oz or 1 oz kastmaster, been a real hot spoon lately.

Until yesterday I never used a CI4+, unimpressed with this 4000 reel. The reel is within a few months old, it was not as smooth as I had expected with a slight geary feel. A choice between that and a sustain, I'd pick the sustain, better yet I'd pick a stadic fj. I had 3 reels with me yesterday, one of my old stradic fi's, an old spheros and a cabo, none have x-ship and each was smoother. Preferred all of them over the CI4+, nothing about this reel that excited me. If I were a Shimano buyer an FJ be my only choice, it's a darn nice reel.

I've used or owned most reels from the major brands, $75-$100 buys me all I want or need for freshwater fishing. I have at present $200+ reels that IMO don't perform as well as some at half the price. Recently we saw advertised a Pflueger supreme for $49, a deal pretty hard to pass up. I own 3 of them and that's what I mainly use in freshwater, smooth light and have been durable. It's actually harder to buy a bad reel than a good one, I'd be interested in a reel that matches the rod I plan on using. I only use inshore rods for my bass fishing as I prefer a foregrip.

I battered and deep fried one of my old sneakers once, tasted pretty good, lol. We only grill, bake, broil or a light saute once in a while our fish. I like to get the real taste of the fish, not the oil or breading, but it does taste good.

The reel isn't the issue it's the rod. Right now here in South Florida there is a lot of sea lettuce, 2 days ago this canal was wide open and I was using nothing but exposed hooks, not the case yesterday. I normally fish a ml, yesterday I had to fish med spinning, glad I had it with me. This stuff can get pretty thick, yes the bass fishing was quite good yesterday.

Lions have clinched a playoff berth.

I thought skip meant favorite bait that you don't use............lol. That would be a senko, great fish catcher but hate using them.

Yeh..........but I'd be headed for the keys. I catch the majority of my fish on 2 or 3 lures, I'm all set.

None of the aforementioned items. Bank fishing it's 1 rod and a couple of lures in my pocket or a bag of flukes with a few extra hooks. Don't need anything else.

I think mono manages better than fluoro, and braid better than mono. I prefer braid and I always use leaders, for me I only use f/c leaders for some of my very line shy fish. When I'm fishing light set up for smaller fish I'm using 1/8 oz. crappie type jig that I tie myself for mayans, crappies, peacocks and bass, this is some fun fishing.

You are right about the difference between a power swivel and ball bearing. I've used all kinds of both from the top brands like Sampo and Spro to generics. You may want to check out a Southern Salt on Ebay, pretty good product that offer some nice buys from time to time. Swivels do not have to be large in size to be strong, for example I use a 45# ball bearing swivel on my barracuda set ups. I use ones a bit larger offshore, don't recall the exact size, I feel I get a better knot using 40 and 50# leaders with the larger rings on a bigger swivel, I'd look for welded rings. I do prefer the BB but I would not discount power swivels, have used name brands as well as Chinese and never had a problem with any of them, incredible strength in a very tiny package.

Not unless they have enough votes to over ride a presidential veto, that would be 2/3 of the house and senate, 290 & 67. Doesn't look likely. Other than Canadian companies the largest lease owner of oil sands in Canada is not Exxon or Chevron, it's the Koch brothers. I can see why some of the new congress maybe in favor.

It's been a couple of good days for sure and I hope the trend continues. With the daily wild swings we have been having, flashing an intraday index doesn't really mean much until 4:00 PM. Quite true the US is pumping a lot of oil, many out there feel the quality isn't the best, we may be looking at costs to clean up the environment in the future. The cheaper oil gets just may force companies out of business due to a lack of profitability, lost jobs. Regardless of who controls the commodity price once supply is cut the price will rise. The US would probably benefit more using the 42000 workers it takes to complete the Keystone pipeline to rebuild our infrastructure, than transporting Canadian oil, which would take a lot more time than just 2 years. Is the glass half full or empty, that depends on whether you're adding to it or drinking from it.

Lets's see if I can give ya a quick tutorial. Snappers can be caught on lures, but bait is way more effective. Fishing flats is a lot of sight casting, spoons, hard and soft jerkbaits, top water plugs and bucktails is pretty much all you need. There are some exceptions, for permit and bonefish I'd be using live shrimp or crabs, you could get lucky with a bucktail, and I have never caught a tarpon on a spoon, but have caught them on all other lures. Another very effective and popular is using a rattling bobber trailed with about a 3-4' leader and bucktail or Clark spoon, killer presentation. Cudas IMO are the most interesting of all, this is a very skittish fish, much of the time they just trail the lure then veer off, it's the ones you don't see that strike more often. That cuda tube is a great weapon, we make our own here. What sets the tube apart from other lures is cuda are attracted to them and only the larger ones hit them, smaller ones just follow them. A moderate or slightly fast retrieve is best, if you see a follower don't slow down but speed up the retrieve, you cannot reel faster than they can swim. There are a great eating fish, but don't eat one in the Carribean, a possibilty of ciguatera (reef disease), lucky it doesn't seem to appear in Florida.

One of my exceptions to this rule is fishing for schooling fish. There are a number of species that school according to size, jacks, bluefish, spanish mackerel for example. If I'm catching 1-2# fish like a jack (that's still a lot of fun), I leave that school and try and find a school of larger schooling fish. Fishing for bass, I can catch an 8" bass then catch an 8 pounder on the next cast, it doesn't happen often but it can happen. I'm trying different areas to catch species that I don't have around here.

Even in South Florida It isn't that much different here in South Florida. Sure there are quite a few bass fishermen from here on this site, but for the most part the emphasis is not on bass. Driving down the street and and going by the marinas you see how many saltwater boats are here, far fewer bass boats. The smaller tackle shops mostly stock saltwater gear. A good portion of the population comes from the Northeast and are striper fishemen, many of them don't even know what a bass is or just fish for them in their own community ponds.

Spud?

I think WRB is right about this. An otter coming into a community type pond and eating fish is just being an otter. They may reduce the fish population some but aren't really posing any kind of a threat. If putting hooks on that 8-12" fish is bass, at least in Florida it's being used as bait, that's illegal, not to mention the harm inflicted on the otter. Would need a permit to shoot it if was a nuisance. Swimming around and feeding on fish is just an otter being part of nature, Some years ago I had possum holed up in my garage, to be lawful I had to trap it then have animal control put it back in the wild. Having 6 acres of woods behind my home a good chance that's where the possum came from, but I chose to do it the legal way.

Right on the money with Singletary, Payton, and Urlacher, can add Gale Sayers to that list. Greatness after Chicago, yeh it can happen. Ditka drafted by the Bears, eventually woundup in Dallas and scored the winning td in the SB, then on to the Hall of Fame. Won a SB as a coach too.

Much of the bulk packaging is more than enough for the two of us too. We buy at Costco Kirkland brand coffee, I like it and the price is pretty good 10.99 for 3 lb. We buy steelhead trout, salmon, filets, canned tuna, some vitamin supplements and my wife never leaves without a rotisserie chicken. For what we buy the membership is worth it for us.

Silver spoons are a staple in the surf, quite a few different styles and they all catch fish. I use spoons a lot for freshwater too, but I don't like the J-spoon as it rolls over too much and the hook is not the sharpest. I use saltwater spoons in fresh, hammered redfish key spoon in gold, Mepps syclops gold saltwater, being gold plated it doesn't tarnish, and a Clark single hook spoon in silver.

I agree with the other posts.