anglerEd

I hope to see some other ideas and/or veriations presented here, but I very much like what I see in your plan. BTW to any middle GA folks out there, below is the website link to our Jackson Lake Pot Tournament Series. Details of the series under way are there and it will be updated to describe our new Spring /Summer series when the time is right. 100% payback, $35/boat. Spring/Summer we will be adding a Sinclair and an Oconee event to keep it interesting. http://lakejacksonpottournaments.tripod.com/index.html

Thanks, good ideas. It struck me as a touch more complicated than what I was expecting, but I am begining to understand it. Some clairifications if you have time. 1- Assuming we could guess and average, if our average boat count was chosen to be 30, I assume we would need to add points to the 200 base as well. 40 boats equals a top points position of 220? 2- weight is usualy a 12.34 or someting like that. Just use decimal places in our points totals? 3-when it comes to droping events, I just need some cairification there. 8 total events. 6 required to fish the classic. You are saying just tally everyones best 6 for points totals. That is a pretty good idea if I understand you correctly.

I would appreciate any advice on the best points system to use for a series we are puting together. The points will be to determin those who get a free fishing trip in a classic that will wrap up an 8 event series. We are now wraping up a series that will end with a March classic and are trying to get the buggs out for the next series. We have had great growth in attendance and realised our current points system was broken when we got into the 40 boat range. Currently we give 10 for 1st, 8 for 2nd, 6 for 3rd, 4 for 2nd, and 2 for 5th through last place. With our 4th event drawing 42 boats, we realised that folks who got checks in a 1 in 5 payout, recieved the same # of points as folks who weighed in zero. BROKEN! Our first event only had 12 boats, then the 2nd and 3rd events had turnouts in the low 20's. We havent run tournaments before but we are learning now and at least are figuring out what will not work. So please help us put something together that will be straight forward, friendly, and fair. I have heard to stay away from weight based points, and a system based on boat count has been recomended, but I could use some details. Also, it is a bit dificult for us to predict the size of our following now and in the future. We are geting over 40 as of the last, but who knows on the next and through the summer series. I would think 50 boats would be our max, but who knows? We need something with some flexibility built in for big and smaller turnouts. Thanks Ed

What troubles me about your question is that you don't know what happened when you broke off. All the appropriate advice has been given here, but exactly why did you break off. Were you useing 2# line? Are there toothy critters in the water (gar) that could have bit and cut you off immediately? These might be the only exceptions, but generaly one would know if they broke off in a snag, a fish, or whatever.

Ok, I was way confused there for a minuite until I read on to some replies. No bobber on this rig correct? Just a simple light c riged fluke but yall are using a bobber stopper instead of a swivle. I havent used it, but it sounds like it is worth a try. I don't fish flukes hardly at all. When I get around to geting bit on one, I have rarely hooked up. Is it worth a try in cold water (less than 50).

I gave Mikes knot a try. It is easy and seems mostly full proof.

Ok man, here is what you do. Terminal Tackle is OK advice, and so are rods and reels... but, Sounds like you have BAITS on the brain and you have a budget. You must have the rod and reel taken care of for the moment. If you need line, for the time being just get Big Game. Hooks, just get Owner or Gamakatsu. Maybe 3/0 to 4/0 for starters, but it wouldn't hurt to have 5/0 for you Ole Monster big worms. Someone said buy a bunch of colors. IMO a total waste of your budget. Buy Green Pumpkin in any new variety plastic you choose to experiment with. Get some Chartruce dye for tail coloring if you want to play with color for the time being. Get some 5' Sencos. Zoom Z-Nails will work pretty good if you don't want to fork out for Yamamotos right now. Yum Dingers are OK too. Buy a few spinnerbaits. Booya or many others should get it done in chart, white, and/or chart/white. Dbl willow and Colorado. 3/8 should be good all around for starters. Jerk bait... you might consider springing for a LC pointer78 in chart shad. Topwater... you could just get some long casting 1/2oz buzzbaits and/or a pop r, but if you can squeeze a Rico in the budget, you realy owe it to yourself to have a popper that good. I forget what else you were after and can't see it from here, but this stuff will get you bit.

Just the other day, I was reminded of why I am shy about this technique. I said good bye to one of my old favorites in 15' of water. Hope it gets bit eventualy.

And if I may ask, what was the proper way to replace. I guess I have 2 basic concerns. 1- Is overheating a big issue if you make a reasonable effort to keep it to a minimum. 2- I have used the hot glue that comes with kits and followed the extremely basic directions. I have had issues with the tip continualy rotating under stress. I have always felt that when I applied glue to the rod and pushed on the tip, I was removing the glue in the process. Ther must be a more professional and sturdy way to make the repair and I am missing the boat.

That depends on what you have and what you would like to have. Big broad question. Can you narrow it.

Make sure you put a few LC Pointer 78s in your collection. Regular depth and the deeper runner. Chart Shad.

Well, if you only tried 1 dock and got too bored to continue, ... ? I love fishing a weightless senco on docks. You will wear them out, particularly in the spring. I stick to relativly shallow docks on sunny days. You realy don't need to wait that long to get bit or get the bait to the bottom. Most of the time I don't do much of the "pickit up and let sink again" thing. If I have some reason to be extra thourough, like a miss, then maybe I would. Most of the time though, I am running the pattern and covering multiple docks. Fish all parts of the dock untill you can eliminate fishing unneccesary parts. It should work to shoot the dock a few times and go to the next, if the bite is on. When the bite is on, you realy should get bit right away. Strike detection is a whole other topic. There is a little bit of "feel the force Luke" in it and alot of line watching. You should never feel anything, because the bait should be falling on totaly slack line. I watch the coils of line laying on the water, closest to the bait. If I see nothing in a 5/1000 count, I put a little tension on the bait to check for movement. If you stick to this pattern on a sunny spring day, with relatively clear water, you should have a breakthrough.

Go for it man. My nerves were a wreck in my first tournament, but I had a lot built up in my mind just as you have. I fished hard for yaers before I went for it, and probably should have got involved earlier. Fishing is its own enjoyment, but the addition of competition is a whole new kind of fun. I have never had the back of boat club experience, but I am sure you will enjoy and learn from it.

The 7 will be great for all your plastic applications, jigs, topwater, jerk baits, spoons, and liples cranks. I would go with the 5 for all other cranks and spinner baits (particularly ones with larger blades).

Man, if you are snaping off 50# anything at hookset, particularly on soft liped carp, something is way wrong. Have any of you P-Line fans ever looked at the actual line diameter of p line cxx vs the same# of other comparable lines. It is always significantly larger in diameter, so there is no magic in its performance. Generaly, there simply is not an apples to apples comparison.

It may not be text book, but I use a 7' MH fast for big dog walking baits. I just feel I can control the bait better. It is arguable that I should use a more moderate action because treble hooks are out there, but I feel like staying hooked up is less of an issue with the larger treble hooks. Also, the extra backbone aids in setting the larger hooks, particularly way out at the end of a long cast. I use moderate and slow actions with my Rico/Pop R fishing. Then I am dealing with smaller hooks and all I need to do is reel down on them.

Thanks for the recomendations fellas but I should have been more specific. I am looking for a casting rig rather than spinning. As for the 6-8 st croix, that is a possibility. Sounds similar to my 6-9" loomis med x fast which I have tried for this application. I will be suprised if a particularly fast action is going to load up and be accurate with light baits the way I want. I think there is a 7 ft med power, medium to med-fast action blank out there somewhere. Under $150. If I need to spend $150, I will probably go custom.

I would prefer not to put an estimate on it and remain blisfully ignorant as to what I spend on fishing.

I am shoping for a light jig rod to handle 3/16 to 5/16 or maybe 3/8oz jigs. Primarily, I need good short range accuracy for dock fishing and better backbone than the rod I am useing. Temporarily, I have solved the accuracy issue with a castaway med action popping rod in 7'. It has a parabolic action that also serves well for cranking and gives me very good accuracy for sliding jigs under docks. However, its weakness is that if there is any distance between the fish and I or slightly deeper water, it lacks the backbone for desirable hook set. I need a happier medium for this style of jig fishing.

I always keep an eye on ebay when I am shoping for price. Very often somone will throw up a low buy it now price for NIB with free shiping. Often they can be shimano lisenced dealers with full warrante. Although, with the quality of shimano customer service, pretty much any Shimano should be considered to have a good warrante. That price sounds hard to beat, but I wouldn't bet against ebay.

I would just go with big game. I use it a good deal for many mono applications and find it to be a very sound line for the money. You mentioned memory and managability, which go hand in hand. I would expect big game which is pure mono to have less memory than Pline cxx. Pline, being a co polymer line, is going to have plenty of memory. When I hear copolymer, I think memory issues. Having said that, however, as a leader, neither line will have memory issues in your applicaton because the line will never make it to the spool. As for strength, I find 20 BG to be very tuff. I would think if you are going to 25, you are going to have a super strong setup, provided your knot system is sound.

I look forward to spending some time around here. just chatting, learning, and sharing knowledge. I am a regular at the GON News Forum, but it is dead around there and I am entering a whole new community. I have been fishing all my life. As a kid, for whatever bit. As a teenager, for bass, mostly in ponds. After high school, I spent a dozen years mountain living and trout fishing. After getting back home to GA, I have put in about 6 years fishing from a boat for bass in the bigger lakes. By now I am pretty well hooked on tournament competition when I get the chance. See yall around. Ed

Here in middle GA we have water temps in the high 40s to 50 deg depending on the weather. Generaly I am finding fish in 16 to 20 ft of water and catching them with football jigs and sometimes a C rig. Deep points, humps, and bluffs describe most of the areas. Vertica fish a spoon under sonar when it looks good down there. At the same time these bites are available, there can be a good crank bait bite in 5 to 10 or even shallower. You have got to fish everything slow, but just because some are in 20', doesn't mean you cant get some good bites shallow. Folks throwing plastic worms or shaky heads will often get more bites and hookups by shortening or downsizing their baits.