Big Mike in Fl

Has anyone actually put their hands on this setup?? I feel like for the price it’s probably not very good, however I know some of the other h20 stuff is reasonably priced and still decent. I figure at the price it isn’t a terrible risk to take, just wondering about. Good real life reviews. I was in my local store the other day but I didn’t see one there.

It was somewhat mentioned, but the lure has a lot to do with it too. A fluke, or worm not rigged straight, will corkscrew on retrieve which can create more twist. A boot tail or keel weighted bait is less likely to twist. One thing overlooked is the wind and casting, have you ever noticed depending on the wind how your bait can tumble end over end, this creates a ton of twist that can’t be easily fixed. Its funny because i experience bad twist sometimes, and I fish with braid. I mostly fish baitcasters (I’ll take 8 BC on the boat and 2-3 spinning). My tournament partner fishes exclusively spinning gear except for a flipping rod which he isn’t exactly dominant with. He gets significantly less twist issues than I do. We fish similar reels, similar line, similar rods, we both close the spool manually. I can’t explain What he does differently than I do, but I have way way more trouble than he does. I typically wind up back to a baitcaster after a While unless we’re on a solid pattern that dictates spinning because I get tired of the twist issues. And the fact that half the time I have to lose 10-15 yards of line because I can’t get the windage/twist knots out.

I fish exclusively braid, so my opinions are completely based on that. I use 30lb braid at a minimum on baitcasters. I’ve tried lighter however no matter how tightly I spool it, I seem to dig in and backlash. Of course they say it is 8lb equivalent. On spinning set ups ups I’ve found I like 15lb or 20lb, 15 on more finesse and 20 on med heavy stuff. In this case I feel like the lure and application dictate the line size. I fished 10lb braid for a while but did have a few break offs. That was also a different brand than I prefer. On my heavier cover stuff... frogs and flipping, I have 50lb braid, I feel like 65 or 80 are over kill. I’ve never had a situation where I broke off the 50 i. Heavy cover, and flipping here in Florida can mean some of the heaviest stuff. My swim jig/chatterbait/ lighter jig set up runs 40lb, I will often be swimming it where heavier like isn’t as necessary, however I do still flip/pitch that set up a lot so I beefed it up a bit. On my ultralight set up, I throw 10lb braid, because why not, it super thin and still strong. I often use my ultralight while still bass fishing (think small top waters, original floating rapalas, and small weightless plastics) now I do use flouro leaders on most of my set ups, and the thickness of those ranges from 10lb to 25lb with 14-20 being mostly used.

I like trick worms (straight tail worms) of lots of different brands and varieties and do well on most of them, I have used and will continue to use 7.5 and 10” culprit ribbon tails. I like zoom ultra vibe speed worms. I just picked up some of the rage tail cut R worms and am hoping they work as well as I’ve seen, similar to a magnum speed worm best I can tell. Honestly not a lot of worms that I have used that seem to just NOT work.

Both Veritas had gear guard warranty from bass pro, so they reimbursed them, the second one was the replacement of the first. After the second broke I switched to the BPS carbonite rods and haven’t looked back. I didn’t contact about the vendettas, but it’s been too long now. Both broke around the same spot, just above the second eye. I retipped, and repurposed both rods, a 6’9” went to a 6’5” that I used for top water(this one eventually met a tailgate end) and a 7’ went to a 6’8” that I still use for Texas rigs.

I think all of us lefties have to adjust some things, lord don’t ever look at me trying to use a skill saw! As for guitar it was always natural to me to play strumming with my left hand and fretting with my right, so I do play a “lefty” guitar, which bay the way sucks because options are limited and always priced higher. I did learn to golf righty, even though I batted lefty in baseball, and finding a good lefty glove was always difficult. I retired from golf when I was 18, found myself paying way more attention to the fish in the water hazards and realized any time I was golfing I could be fishing and would be happier. I shoot guns lefty (all be it right handed bolt actions) but I feel more natural shooting a bow right handed, I’m eye dominant neutral, meaning I can use either. I used to be seriously left eye dominant until I had to use a scope at work that could only be used by the right eye, so now either work. I’m an aircraft mechanic, and can turn wrenches with either hand. Getting to some spots inside the wing of an Airplane can often dictate which hand you use. Now to the final point, as far as I know, I fish right handed in the traditional sense, on a baitcaster I hold the rod with my left hand and reel with my right. On a spinning outfit I hold the rod with my right hand and reel with my left. I always cast with whichever Hand is holding the rod, I don’t switch hands in an casts, although I do reposition for palming a baitcaster. as far as I’ve always been concerned both of those are “right handed” but feel comfortable to me, I think it’s all about what you learned on.

I had two veritable rods break randomly for no reason, I also had two vendetta rods donthe exact same thing. Can’t say I’ve ever had a rod break like these 4 did. I don’t buy Abu rods anymore

Apparently a state thing, and a mike thing. I have the same problem.

I’ve actually become a big fan of the bass pro carbonite 2 rods. I’ve got three of them, all heavy actions, I use a 7’3” for swim jigs, typically 3/8oz and it works great for this, I frequently flip and pitch that set up if I’m not using my heavy punching stuff for flipping. They’re $119.99, but often go on sale for $89.99. Bass pro has a sale coming up I believe starting the 8th and it might be on sale then.

That summit is actually really nice, I picked one up and am very impressed with it, I have an older shimano Stradic, as well as a penn battle 2, and I feel like the summit is smoother than both of those. That being said, it is newer. We will see how long it holds up.

I have a riptide as well, if this one is set up like mine, then it has a sort of crush washer that hold it’s in place on both sides, if they washed is gone it will move around on you. I wound up pulling both of mine and replacing them with same diameter bolts of the same length with a Teflon lock but on the other end. Seems to work better for me.

Color is a funny thing, I always feel like we put way more thought in it than we should. I tend to believe if a bass is gonna hit a black and blue worm, it’s gonna hit a June bug just the same. I feel like if a fish is gonna hit an Arkansas shiner then it’s probably gonna hit baby bass, and so on and so forth. I’m sure some people will disagree but I’ve never seen much of a change. I will say in my “home waters” of Garcia reservoir, when I first started throwing senko style baits, smoke shad seemed to be the best color. After a few years they seemed to lose interest in that and keyed in on watermelon/red flake. That lasted for a while and now they seem to predominantly go after junebug. I’m not saying the other colors don’t still catch some, just that June bug seems to catch the most. But I’d bet others who fish that lake will tell you a different color works better. With all that said, here are the colors I typically use; spinner baits are are almost always white, maybe sexy shad. Swim jigs are either bluegill or baitfish type color depending what I’m trying to imitate. sticks are usually either junebug or watermelon/red flake trick worms on bottom are typically dark, but if I fish them higher on the water column I like white. Swim baits and flukes, cranks, and top water plugs are always some sort of dark back/ light bottom jigs/creatures/craws are almost always black, blue, or brown. Pretty much, match the available forage. i’m probably missing some stuff here but that’s pretty much my staples.

I saw that when I was there at Christmas time, wasn’t sure if that was a seasonal thing or what. Any suggestions on gear to bring and throw for that time of year in that area? Senkos worms and jigs?

For those using circle hooks for wacky rigging, I’m curious, do you use a typical hook set, or just apply steady pressure to the fish? When I think of circle hooks I think of offshore salt water fishing for grouper and the like, and a regular hook set tanks the hook right out of their mouth. Is it the same scenario with wacky rigging??? It’s hard to train myself not to load up when I feel that bump. I’ve Texas rigged senkos for years and years and have probably caught more fish that way than any other technique, but recently I tried wacky for the first time and got lots of bumps, but I was using the VMC weedless wacky rig hook and had lots of trouble with missed hooksets. So I need to find a solid dependable wacky hook.

Does anyone fish Boone lake? My inlaws live in Jonesboro right around the corner from there, and I’ll be visiting in July. Looking for any info/pointers. I’ll probably be shorebound, I drove by the dam and along the area near the tricities airport, looked like a few small places to stop at. Just curious what my best bets might be for that area?

Kind of funny, I consider Garcia my “home waters” as I’ve been fishing there for over 17 years, and has always been a numbers and big fish lake, I’ve had plenty of 50 fish days there, a few 100 days, and caught several fish over 7lbs. It has been pretty much a well kept secret for a long time but has certainly gained in popularity in the last couple years. Like most lakes, you must know the lake a bit in order to have success, but believe me, Garcia can fish as well as any lake around, including Lake O.

I use a 6’4” for topwater walking baits, it was previously a 6’9” that busted off, which means it has a much stiffer tip, many people tell you to use a softer tip for treble baits, however I find it so much easier to get a good quick walk the dog type action with this rod. I just have to baby the fish once it’s on, however I’ve adapted well.

I did find the limited lifetime on the composite shaft, the question is was the shaft defective and that’s why when I hit the stump it snapped? Guess that is minn Kota’s call, I also have to send it (at a charge to me) to them, which would probably cost me more than a new shaft is anyway.

Unfortunately it’s a two year warranty, and the motor is 3 years old. What’s worse is my gear guard from bass pro expired a month ago (doh!) looks like the the shaft is pretty cheap, and it can be replaced, so I’ll be attempting it Sunday

So, fishing last night on a reservoir with lots of submerged stumps, and bumped hard into a stump, causing the shaft on my minn Kota rip tide to crack, it doesn’t appear to be cracked all the way through, and the Damage is about 5-6” long. I’m curious if anyone has done a repair on these ( epoxy and sand?) or if I should plan on just replacing the whole shaft. I’d hate for water to get down into the motor, and I’d hate even more to snap the shaft in half during a tournament, however things raw tight these days and if I can get away with repairing it, I’d like to. Thoughts?? P.s. I’m trying to post pictures however it says my file is too large so I need to mess with that to see if I can get pictures up

I have a couple of other reels made by them, and am satisfied with them. I’m interested in trying their rods as well

Depending on where you mean by south Florida, blue cypress is a pretty lake with decent fishing, and public camping.

Did someone say Palm Bay? ive loved I Palm Bay all my life, pretty well know all of the bodies of water big and small, first thing I’d tell you is around here plastics and top water reign supreme. You can find bass year round and can certainly catch plenty of quality fish from the shore. If you are indeed in Palm Bay, hit me up, I can help you out

From what I understand MLF is fishing my home lake this week, Ansin-Garcia in Indian river county fl.

Hey fishing cowgirl, after seen by your pictures I realized I fish in the weekend warriors club with you guys.