SirSnookalot

I catch inshore fish everyday, never used a Gulp product. I probably do not use more than 3 different lures to catch fish on a regular basis, when I use something else it's strictly for variation and does not catch any more fish. To catch about any inshore species all that I need (and everyone else I know) is a spoon, bucktail jig and jerk shad on a 1/4 oz jig head. As I say I do this 7 days a week and have used many many different products, this kind of fishing requires no over thinking, either the fish are there or they aren't.

Once in a while I'll try a new lure, but for the most part I use the same handful of lures I've been using for years. When one is lost I replace it right away.

The farthest north I have caught them is Lake Osborne, although I didn't fish it this year. I caught many over the summer a bit south, I caught 3 this past Monday.

I have caught a fairly wide variety of fish both in fresh and saltwater, there are species I wouldn't consider back reeling. Some are just too fast, too powerful and too big. In fairness not all fish make the same kind of runs, as far as the duration of the run, number of runs before they tire, the distance of the run, and IMO the hardest with fish changing direction on the run and swimming back at you, hard to keep a tight line on those. If one chooses to back reel with a 40 mph fish, be my guest, I'll go with my drag.

Punch cards or as we referred to them as "tab cards" is what put me into the scrap business. Back in '73 manila tabs were worth about about $250 per short ton, mill price.

I'm 69, most of my fishing friends are in the same age group or older. Like me they fish 7 days a week year round, I'm not sure they even know what a fishing forum is.

Sure do, I use a pink crippled herring, no pink fish around here but it catches fish all the time.

An interesting event happened this morning along this subject line. I casted out a cast champ spoon, as soon as it hit the water I get a strike, before I put my hand on the crank. With lighting speed I had line peeling off, thought I was going to be spooled with about 250 yards of line. I tighten the drag to what I thought may have been 20+ pounds of drag on my Quantum cabo 40, the line still being pulled but I was slowing the fish down to have a shot at landing it. I was very happy not to be backreeling and doubt I could have landed it, I was very unhappy the fish spit the hook lol. Don't know what this fish was or how big (have a hunch), but I did land an apx. 70# tarpon on the same outfit early this year, this one made that feel like a guppy. Side note, big kudos to my bristol knot (real similar to the alberto) and loopknot, they held just fine.

Only memento is a jig head I caught my first tarpon on, it hangs off the hat I was wearing which I don't wear anymore.

No, some of my spinning reels don't have an anti reverse switch. I would not want to backreel with some of my target species.

I fish ponds nearly every day, I have 6 of them in my community. I would never use a large swimbait, that would mean using line and rod heavier than I want to. Most of the time I'm using a top water popper, light power spinning rod, seems to produce the bigger bass and fewer small ones. Bass aren't huge here, 20-24" are not uncommon, the lighter rod does increase the fun, I caught peacocks on this set up yesterday.

Yes. You say how as I only use spinning reels, not quite true. I do use an Avet mxj, no adjustments, no level wind. When I first got it I hadn't use a conventional reel in some time, I practiced in my pond. My first cast I burned the crap out of my thumb. I had about 30# kingfish on, tried to thumb the spool, that taught me to love my lever drag, never happened again.

Not even a contest, a boat by far catches more and better fish. However the determining factor is where you are fishing. Growing up on Lake St Clair in Michigan and Canada, you're dead without a boat. Being in Florida I don't boat fish for bass any more, I still give the nod to the boat. When I fish canals I can walk just so far, I then may have a fence, feeder canal or some other obstruction I can't get around, in a boat I can could go for miles. Many of the ponds I can easily walk around, I do know of some that are quite large and not unusual to see jon boats on them.

I fish many types of spoons, including Krocs, Gators, Kastmaster, LJ cast champ, and jigging spoons, but when it when comes to bass fishing I've whittled it down to 2 or 3. Redfish key spoon gold hammered, Mepps cyclops (I use the sw version, it's gold plated and won't rust or tarnish) and a Clark single hook spoon. All 3 are sw spoons but I prefer them for fresh. For the surf, try a Gotcha if you haven't, it's a great fish catcher.

I don't care for spooks, I fish poppers and don't feel the brand makes any difference. I primarily fish them in ponds, as of late I've been doing very well with them and most of the 20"+ fish have been caught in deeper water, not shoreline. I use either a storm chug 3/8 oz or Rebel style 1/4 oz, the pause after the twitch rules.

I don't carry a scale but I I have 2 marks on my rods, 20" and 25". 20-25" is a nice fish, over 25" gets my attention.

I would pretty much agree. Being only a spinning user this is what I use for bass fishing. 7' med rod 35 Pflueger, 15# braid.............for slop and vegetation. 6'6 ml rod 30 Pflueger, 10# braid............less vegetation with a bit more open water. 6'6 light rod 25 Pflueger, 10# braid.........open water. These set ups work quite well for me. Would I use a MH rod, yes if my water conditions dictated the need.

If I'm keeping my braid for backing I'm not going to switch lines, I'm going to put new mono or copoly and discard the old. I wouldn't use f/c, if I felt the need for it I'd be using a f/c leader not 70 or 80 yds. of mainline.

The basics from my dad for freshwater fishing, Wight Cooke for fly fishing and couple of SW guides for inshore fishing. Much of what I do is based on observation and common sense.

In 30 years of fishing in Florida I have never been so disappointed. For most of the year I was catching snook, lots of barracuda and this past July and August went wild with tarpon, so don't cry for me, lol. We now have the fall mullet run, should be catching fish left and right but it's not happening with me or anyone. There is just too much bait and it's near impossible to catch snook on artificial, been through this dozens of times. We should be catching bluefish and big jacks on the beach, they just are not showing up. If the fish aren't here, they can't be caught. Today there is a change in the weather, cooler with a stronger north wind, rougher northeast swell hopefully will bring some fish into the area. Seeing as there is an incoming tide could be lots of seaweed coming in, will be jumping my leader up to 30#.

I never bought into finesse with spinning gear and power with b/c gear, using nothing but spinning I use what ever type of lure and technique I choose to. I have no first hand experience as I don't own a b/c, but have read many times people throwing lighter baits with them. I do have experience with spinning gear, if I chose to use swimbaits or heavier jigs, I have rods that will handle them. Something I don't choose to do for bass fishing but I could. I don't think one lure delivery system is better than the other. I'm going to use the gear I get the most pleasure from, that fishes the best in the water conditions that I fish daily, for me it's always going to be spinning.

I'm glad you still have your wife, many aren't that lucky so there is a lot to be thankful for.

I might suggest looking on your state's fish and wildlife site, many of them have pictures of fish caught in their waters.

First off uploading pictures using 6 megapixels and more isn't needed for on line viewing, the higher mp is useful for making printed enlargements over 8x10". There are options, setting your camera to snap photos with fewer mp or once uploaded in the original format reduce them in size, which is what I have done. Whether using Comcast email, Windows, G-mail, Yahoo and others, to my knowledge they all allow several email accounts, some as many as 7.