senile1

Nice introduction, Chase. Welcome.

I have 'em! They're even in the box! I just seem to never get it done. Old dog thing I think. I've also spent quite a bit of time drilling and weighting other plugs. I seem to be reluctant to drill into a Rap. I seem to have some kind of reverence for them that I do not have with plastic baits. Maybe something sentimental there too it seems. Old dog stuff I guess. ;D Funny I've spent inordinate amounts of time and money trying to get just that very look, with a plastic bait -Husky's, Rogues, Daiwa's, Matzuo, Bagley's, Storm, ...and any nice looking knock off I'll put under the knife. But an Original Floating Rapala?? I..I..can't do it. What would Laurie Rapala think of me? Would he rollover in his grave, or be ashamed of me for my timidity? It's rough being an old dog. ;D I worry about ruining the action with the weights so I don't add much and I definitely work to keep it balanced. However, I'm a fan of the Husky Jerks and the Rogues as well. The action of the original floater is classic.

SuspenDots and strips are a great way to go with the floater to get it down just above the grass.

I use 1/4, 3/8, and 3/4 oz weights. My percentages would be 10 percent for 1/4, 45 percent for 3/8, and 45 percent for 3/4. I do a lot of slow rolling with the 3/4 but I also do a lot of mid-depth and surface work with the 3/8.

Exactly. It's been my experience that active bass are much more likely to accept a lure from any angle. Passive fish, on the other hand, require a more precise approach. Catt stated: This is definitely a method to saturate the area from all angles. Deja Vu. Where have I seen this before?

Awesome!! thanks for the confirmation on the algae. Knowing is half the battle and thanks for the ideas i will definitely try them on the next outing Thanks everyone for the replies i will give them all a shot until i catch the big one ;D ;D ;D I should add that a smaller lighter jerkbait, that doesn't work too deep, will be the ticket. Despite your handle this also might give you a reason to hit the tackle shop. BTW: My favorite in vegetation is the X-Rap. It is amazingly weedless due to the recessed bill and streamlined head. A sharp jerk is all that it needs to rip free -unless the weeds are heavily draped with algae of course. Try it in the 8cm size with 8# mono on a spinning rig. Keep your rod tip up and you should be able to fish it in the top 3feet of water. With FC and a low rod tip you can get it down to 5feet. And don't forget those pauses -those are what let those cold water fish know that it's worth trying to catch. I would add that the Rapala Original Floater is perfect for jerkbaiting in the first three feet of water. Tin stated: I love jigs in this stuff as well. You will be cleaning your jig a lot but it will catch fish if you don't mind dealing with removing the junk. You can also swim a jig above the junk.

Welcome to the community.

Thanks for the link, David. I read the whole thing and I am intrigued. So I only see three builders in the registry of approved rod builders at this time. Do you plan on submitting a build to become an approved North Fork rod builder? I assume their standards are rather high.

This is an excellent book. In addition to this book, I would add Critical Concepts 2: Largemouth Bass Location. It expands on the location information in the 1990 Largemouth Bass book. I believe the locations book was published in 2005 but I could be off by a year or two.

Welcome.

Welcome to BR.

Welcome to the Bass Resource community.

Welcome to Bass Resource. I live in the KC metro area as well.

I definitely make it more complicated at times but I have a group of lures, among many, that I know work and cover all the situations I will experience. Rather than making the lure decision more complex, I try to concentrate on the complexities of choosing the right time to fish a particular location. Sometimes that can seem complex while at other times it can seem simple. If you have found a location containing bass and you aren't getting bit no matter what you try, it could be as simple as the fish aren't biting at this particular time.

Welcome to the BR forum, Wild Bill.

Welcome to the community, Scott.

Welcome, Cody.

Welcome to BR, Bob.

By the way, Paul Roberts has posted a thread in a post above that contains some excellent research from the Ridge Lake study on bass memory. Check page three of that thread for more information.

Classical conditioning requires some memory and has been proven in fish, from the studies I have read. I have read of fish that gather near feeders at the approximate time that the feeder runs. I've walked piers where the carp will gather expecting to be fed every time someone walks by because they have been fed before. As Rolo suggested, I have fished small ponds where, after a period of time, the bite on a particular lure decreases with continued use and a different presentation has turned the bite around. It would appear from all of these instances that some sort of conditioned response to stimuli is occurring and is being remembered for a period of time. Of course there are exceptions as there always will be.

I would like clarification on that point as well. I thought you were not allowed to use the Xpeditor service because you sent the rod in for the warranty service.

Most of us can post anecdotal evidence that fish don't remember being hooked. Anyone who has fished for a few years has probably seen the same fish get hooked multiple times by the same lure in a very short period of time. However out of the thousands of fish most of us have caught, what percentage did you go back and catch with the same lure immediately thereafter? For me, that percentage is very low. If fish didn't have some memory I postulate that most of their species would be extinct by now.

I'm offended that you think someone would be offended. Seriously, welcome to the community.

I see no problem with the Xpeditor service either. It just seems to me that it would be good customer service, in Roger's case, for G.Loomis to tell him to send them 25 dollars (or whatever amount covers the original Xpeditor shipping costs) and they will provide that service. He has already paid the first half of the shipping costs to send them the rod so he just needs to pay the other half. He sent the rod in for warranty/replacement service and Loomis disagrees that it was a manufacturing defect. That's fine. People disagree. Sending it in for warranty service should not negate the Xpeditor service, IMO. It's possible that the Xpeditor location for sending replacement rods and receiving damaged rods is completely different from the warranty/repair center and this is why Loomis does this, but I still think it is not the best idea from a customer service standpoint.

I don't think their "honesty" helps them in this situation. I've read the responses on this thread and no one was aware of this policy. Perhaps it was in the small print? It appears Loomis didn't make a concerted effort to make sure their customers knew about this loophole in their policy. I own an MBR844C GLX and I love the rod. I also own Powell and St. Croix rods. The incremental advantage in sensitivity of the GLX is not so much that I won't consider this poor policy when I buy my next rod.