SirSnookalot

One of the best days I had offshore was during a squall. Headed out on a day with 3-5', a squall blows in the waves and wind got to be pretty heavy along with a torrential downpour. We waited it out, for about an hour the 2 of us had either a kingfish or salifish on the line at all times, the squall ending and so did the bite.

I have a good buddy down here that buys nothing but custom rods, he told me he has 75 of them. He had a new rod that I was admiring especially because he is using the exact reel that I wanted a new rod for. He told me he pays about $100 being a friend and repeat customer, so I contacted his rod builder. I was a first time customer the wait time was 2 months (had a booth at a boat show and was swamped with business) and the price was about $250, I also had to drive up to Jupiter to pick up the rod. I opted not to. Did my due diligence and bought a rod I love. I've fished next to Ray many times, my casting distance is the same and so is the backbone, Ray's rod may be a bit prettier but no more effective. I had no wait time and saved a nice chunk of money, plus a lifetime warranty of which I may be dubious that rod builder will always be in business.

I'll be 69 this week but I'm the baby of my boat group, one guy is 77 the other past past 80. Don't think for a second those 70-100 pounders don't take a toll on me. In my normal everyday fishing I don't target those kind of fish anymore, don't do the offshore thing near as often now. It's inevitable once one hits 60 you're going to have some kind of problem, whether it be from an old or new injury, an internal medical problem, it's gonna happen. I've got my share of aches and pains, ailments, maladies, and diseases, do does everyone else my age.

Shimano rods have treated me well, or maybe I just treated them well and never had issues, but I don't baby my rods. At some price points I would not bother with a warranty claim even if it were lifetime, unless it was over the counter. A lifetime warranty tells me the company has faith in their product that under normal wear I should have no problems, that lifetime warranty gives me more piece of mind. What my plans are with Shimano remains to be seen, I won't make any upfront decisions until I need to.

I have 1 split grip, being an 8' rod the butt and foregrip are quite ample, I don't mind it. A split grip in a shorter rod is not to my liking.

http://www.silverdoctors.com/putin-may-have-been-target-of-plane-shot-down-presidential-jet-mh17-intersected-at-same-point-echelon-minutes-apart/ I've seen a few other articles just like this. Another theory the plane may have thought to be a Ukranian military transport. Whatever the target was, hard to believe the Malaysian plane was the intended.

I highly doubt prices will go down. The objective is more profit for Shimano, not a savings for the consumer.

I hope not. Don't know what the reason would be for a terrorist attack on a Malaysian plane or American passengers. What may have happened was hitting the wrong plane, the real target could have been Putin's plane coming back from Brazil. The 2 planes have similar profiles, time and altitude were similar too. This is my gut feeling.

Quite true, not that I do much freshwater this time of the year but the the lighting has curtailed my efforts. The mornings at the ocean have been nothing short of spectacular, getting some nice fish too.

I agree, I've yet to have a problem with any rod from any company that didn't surface quickly. A defect was handled by the store or online company I purchased it from. I have never had the need to use warranty for a rod. When I do see warranty for less than lifetime I get a bit nervous that the company no longer has faith in their own product. Question remains to be seen, will quality suffer?

If money is involved there will always be biased reports as well as the possibility of corruption, whether privately of publicly funded. I tend to have more faith in data furnished by scientists that are educated and have worked in their respective fields for many years. Even scientific studies are not right 100% of the time, but a far better track record than opinions based on little or no data. We have no smallmouth or trout here in south Florida but we have both invasive and introduced species, they are heck of a lot fun to catch, even more so than some of the so called sportfish. There is a lionfish problem, as I understand it no natural predators. I have read that commercial fishing may help to control their numbers as well as being a new food source.

A boat is best based on the looks of the picture, but there are places where a boat can't be used. Where I do a lot of fishing the current is always running at at least 8 knots, plus it's against the law as an inlet is only for navigation. I'm a bit confused with the parachute cord, much easier and more effective would be to gaff the fish in the lip (which I'm not too crazy about) or a long handled net. Drop pier nets are good but difficult for 1 person to handle with a larger fish on, but very doable. I don't how big the average fish are there but I would not be using too light of an oufit, mh rods with 20# braid and 30# leader is what I use. I have no problem in lifting or springing up 7-8# fish which is about average here, any bigger you need a net for sure. I do this kind of fishing almost daily. A milk crate is just so big and takes about a lot of room in your vehicle, nets lay flat. I have a 30" collapsible net, it's old and really too small, needs to be replaced. Frabill no longer makes a collapsible round pier nets, I have searched wide and far for one, I will be buying a steel hooped 36", non collapsible. Always rinse your nets, they will smell if you don't.

I couldn't see from the picture if there are big rocks to contend with or just a straight sea wall going into the water. Come down to the Boynton inlet and we pick up fish every day. Getting fish up is no problem, you have to know how to "spring" them, like a trampoline. There is a limit of course most of out fish are about 8# and I don't spring higher than about 7 or 8 feet. Another option is picking them with the leader, I'll be using a 30 or 40# attached with a good sized swivel that acts like a little handle, don't ever pick up braid. There is always a drop pier net, Frabil 36" is $29, best way to do it.

I'd go with a 2500, more verastile and still plenty light at 7.0 oz.

All my rods are general purpose spinning rods, I use whatever lure types I want to. I have enough rods to cover my bases, that being different lenghts depending on wind conditons, not necessary but my prefernce. Different powers to fish certain areas, I'll use a mh for sea walls and jetties but a med power for beach fishing. Ml is my choice for most pond fishing, high banked canals I like a med inshore rod. My boat fishing is different, that's offshore in the ocean and I use heavy for casting, 30# and 40# for drifting and trolling. I've got my brands pretty well whittled down for the performance I'm looking for.

Trolling rod isn't necessary but I would not want to use a rod with too fast a tip. Even at a slow troll speed I'd prefer moderate action with some backbone, mh woud be as light as I would go even for smaller fish. Most of my trolling these days are at 6-10 knots, wahoo a little faster. I count out by handstriping my line.

A 40" toothy critter is about the average size around here, caught 3 yesterday. If I were using an expensive lure I certainly would want to protect against cutoffs. I'm using 20# surflon with a duolock, those are crimped, my tubes are made with 30# surflon, effective and inexpensive. If I'm using spoons I'll use a 20 or 30# mono leader, take my chances on a cut off which does happen. I do wait until I see Krocodiles on sale for $1.99 and stock up, I don't take getting cut off too serious then.

I make my own barrauda tubes as a few of us do here. 2 styles, the green uses a 12/0 limerick hook, beaded chain swivel and spins, the orange uses 4/0 trebles and does not spin. Most of the time the larger cuda are caught with tubes, 55" do happen. People love eating them here, especially the smaller ones, very tasty fish.

Bought a new color Flo orange and the cuda loved it. Caught 2 right about 40", a few other strikes with no hookup and 1 35" on a Kroc spoon. 2 snook around slot (not in season), few mangroves and runners, not bad morning at all.

They're there, or at least at most of them.

I agree.........I do like to use a 3x.

I stopped by DSG yesterday morning in Boynton Beach, the inventory on reels was low. I went in the the specif purpose of buying 1 rod and 1 reel which I would have paid full price, neither was in stock so I bought nothing.

I don't fish freshwater at night, don't trust snakes and gators, it only takes one bad episode.

First bass no, first tarpon, yes.

Back in the day when I hunting 2 legged prey I drove home tipsy many a night, glad to say I haven't done that in 30 years. In this day in age many people don't leave home without their pistol, I'm not going to drive with some that's drinking and chance he is packing too. That's an element I don't care to be around, the littering would not have been an issue as I wouldn't have been there to see it. As far as I'm concerned only an idiot would even gotten in the car/truck with him in the first place.