Tuckman

I would definitely be interested in joining a club once I get settled in Westfield...I should be out of Milford by the end of next week and after that I will looking to sample the bass fishing around westfield...I gladly ride along w/e you have a open spot in your boat...sending ya a PM...thanks

I recently graduated from college and just moved to Western Mass, from Western NY, to take a new job...I moved out last week and will be training in Milford for the next few weeks, but after that I will be working in the Berkshires, and I will live in in Westfield. Due to all of the jumping around I have been doing, I had to leave my bass boat at my parents house in NY, but of course I still need to bass fish, so if anybody needs someone to fish with in the Western Mass area I wil gladly fill a seat and chip in for expenses. I have been doing open tournaments the last 5 summers in NY and I would love to do team tournaments out here if anyone needs a partner anytime. I am not familiar with the bass fishing out here but I see that there are many small lakes around and I hear that they are good bass fisheries, but acess is very limited due to HP restrictions...I would love to hear back from some of you Mass fisherman. thank you.

The 7ft Silaflex makes an ideal cheap crankbait rod...I an older have a medalion that I keep in the boat for my friends to use, but it is heavy and not very sensative.

Lucky Craft Man, Both of the other 2 came on jigs...one of them I caught just two weeks ago...the day after cayuta lake iced out...I can find no better one two punch for hawg bass than stickbaits and jigs...they always seem to be eating one of them. Heres the one from this spring...thats a falcon cara flippin stick next to her just to give you a size estimate.

I rotate between tiki sticks, dingers, and senkos regularly and I prefer the dingers, but half (2 out of 4) of my 7+lb New York bass have ate a tiki stick, so I have plenty of faith in them. This big girl ate a watermelon tiki stick last summer...

My worst tourny was last summer on a Cayuga Lake Avon Anglers Tournament...I had a really good bag, and the big fish for the tournament... But... ...The reason my bag was so heavy was because I lost count of the fish in our livewell and weighed in a 6 fish bag in a 5 fish tourny...The rules said I had to put one fish back starting with my biggest fish, so I had to let a 5.88 worth 350$ swim away. You can bet I will never let that happen again...I joke about it now, but it wasn't funny at the time, especially to my partner, haha, good thing I own the boat. The sad thing is that I have been doing 10-20 tournies a year for over 5 years now, you would think I would know to always do a head count before weigh in. Tommy Biffle did the same thing in a BASS tournament years ago so at least I'm in good company. lol

Notice all the votes for the "Other" boats...how can you not include stratos and skeeter on a bass boat survey? My buddy has a nitro 901 and it spends more time in the shop for warranty repairs than out on the lake...Nitros have big decks and look cool but thats about it...Just another BPS special as far as I'm concerned. My boat is a Stratos 285pxl and the hull performance is awesome and reliability has been perfect...Had it 5 years now and the only thing ive ever replaced are the batteries...I'd like to move up to a 294pxl soon though.

I use a 7'hvy falcon lowrider "lizard dragger" ....it is great for C-rigs, its light and wont break the bank...I also have a falcon cara "lizard dragger", but I use it for dragging F-jigs instead...great rods though

I almost always weigh, take a picture, and release my fish, but its funny how time can distort the memory...I sure cant remember a time when a released fish lost weight myself...I caught a huge rainbow trout the other day that me and my friend guessed at about 7lbs but she looked huge in my phone picture, and after sending it to a few of my buddies in a matter of minutes she had grown to 8lbs and was showing no signs of slowing down. I saw one of my fishing buddies yesterday and he said he had heard I had caught a 9lb rainbow, I was like yea man, but I released her and she was filling up on eggs so she might be a bit bigger by now...

Reaction innovations markets the BMF hook specifically for flippin' baits like the beaver. Its a bit expensive, but it wont bend out on a braid hookset like some other hooks...I like too use the BMF hook for flukes myself.

I was at a fishing tackle flee market the other day and found an 8'6" G.loomis steelhead casting rod for 30$...one of my best finds ever...Most of the tournies I do have no rod length restrictions so it looks like I have myself a new little N launcher...and launch she does, I can crank 3 separate pieces of structure all in the same cast.

I started out with almost all BPS equipment years ago because the price was right, but now the only BPS stuff I still use are a few bionic blades rods that have served me well. I have used the extreme casting reels with good success, they wear out pretty fast but I'd say you get ur money out of them. My little brothers both got the BPS J Morris reels for christmas last year and while they are not terrible, they already are having little problems like not casting well when they get wet. I myself now much prefere the mid range shimano and abu reels to any BPS reel. IMO BPS products are hit or miss, some of the stuff they make works great and some not so well.

Make them touch legal size any way short of stepping on them, and be able to prove it on your ruler...some tournaments have a ruler at the scales that makes the final decision. I have seen more than one person dq'd for bringing in short fish.

Stick that revo on a flippin stick...whenever some of my good reels start to lose distance on the cast, i can usually get 2 more good years out of them on my flippin sticks. Casting distance is not important when you flip. Not to mention the revo is a powerhouse reel that excels for flippin anyway...I have one rigged up right now.

I have a 7ft heavy cara and it is a very thin and light rod but its very stout and makes a great pitchin stick, but I agree that they dont have as much backbone as you might think a (H) would...I still love the rod though...very durable and sensative I plan on buying the 7.2 (XH) falcon cara pro grass next week for pulling bass out of boatlifts and lilly pads...I hope the (XH) is (H) at least.

I have all three of these reels right now and... 1)curado(cast awesome) 2)revo(tough as nails, tows cars) 3)... 4)... 5)... 6)Zebco 7)Quantum Energy PT(does not work anymore)

Anyone else read the write up about this in the newest BASSMASTER mag? I dont really have any opinion for or against the "Beat The Elite" tourny but I cant see why the pros are all that upset, they are still going to win the same amount of money, and I dont think many elite anglers are having as much trouble putting food on thier table as they claim. They just have to worry about their own tourny and let these guys have some fun. If the "BEAT" tournament was run exactly the same but under a different name I dont think it would be such a big deal at all. But of course then it wouldnt be gettin' all this publicity... Also if you combine the total number of people on SML with both tournies running at the same time there will still be less people out on the lake fishing than there is on any givin FLW tourny...and its a big lake to boot. What it comes down to IMO, is that pro bass fishing is a sport where the professional contenders must access public resources to ply thier trade. If they cant handle the public part, maybe Ray Scott Will build them some of thier own lakes, lake life pump and all. JMO

I love dock fishing and when the fish are on the docks during a tourny I fish them very hard I might even spend 5-10 minutes on one dock. That being said I am very careful to not hit any part of the boat. If I bump a wooden piling with a senko Im not goin to feel bad at all and I retrieve any hung up lures if at all possible. If I am confronted by a irate dock owner, I try to be nice but If that doesnt work I simply tell them that the bass lived along the bank a long time before your dock was here, and if you think I'm doing anything wrong my numbers are right on the side of my boat. Last year I was fishing some of that good old slop that gets up against the bank inside a huge marina not even near any of the moored boats, and this the guy who works there got on a lawnmower and started "mowing" the gravel alongside the shore trying to send gravel flying out at me like birdshot. I still fish his marina whenever I want.

dark colored traps are dynomite in nasty weather

In and around cover I have not experienced any noticable loss in bites using 30-40lb PP braid without a leader, in fact I have switched to using braid alone 99% of time around wood and docks now...even in very clear water, and I fish clear water a ton...in open water flouro is key though. JMO

That Daiwa(like all of them) only has 8.8lbs of drag. Combine that with a 7:1 ratio and you be lucky to pull a dink out of a bathtub. IMO not nearly enough power for a hawg stick... I agree with Brokeju, the Revo S will pull cars. I personaly like shimano reels and I still have revos on my flippin rods.

Terry Scroggins is one of my favorite fisherman but he must of forgot that Luke Clausen came into his home state of Florida and handed him his arse in the 2006 classic on a 6" worm. The buzzbait and spinnerbait were key in high finishes all year long in the FLW. Scott Canterbury rode a buzzbait right into the 2009 FLW Cup. I also think 99% of bass fisherman(including pros) have a spinnerbait tied on somewere in thier boat at any given time. I agree with KVD on the pork frogs though.

IDK about repel, lol ...I think we chase some of the the same smallies, and 3" gulp minnows and 3" yum dingers are about the only baits I'll dropshot...some guys from up your way cleaned house on a keuka tourny I fished last year on gulp minnows. I store all my gulps in the same quart container and have not had any problems with mixing them.

T-rage what lakes you fishing this early???...I see in your pic that you have a Cortland shirt on, I live about 15-20 min from Ithaca. I just graduated from Oneonta last year. I like to fish the smaller shallow lakes after ice out and the fish always seem sunbathing around wood in the afternoon, I've done the best the last few years by backing off and tossin a baby brushhog or sweet beaver on light line, both with 1/16-1/8oz weight. I have not been out on the lakes yet because I dont want to take my boat out of storage until I'm sure spring is here to stay. The lake I'm waiting for(cayuta) is still iced over anyway.

The Zoom fluke is #1 for me when the smallies are in the baitfish. In the clear lakes up here I fish soft jerkbaits fast up on top so I see no real advantage paying the extra money for gulp over zoom. you can get those translucent colors that work so well with a fluke as well... On a c-rig I could see the gulp working pretty good, though havn't tried it myself.