Chris W

I pretty much fish a spoon the same way, usually a hopkins shorty, either in 1/2 or 3/4 of an ounce. I will give you a couple of tips if the In Fisherman article did not. Always fish with a ball bearing swivel when fishing a spoon or else you will get MAJOR line twist, if you will tie a set of feathers on the treble hook you will have a better hook up ratio. Also if you want you can take a larger treble hook and just put it on your line above the spoon this will increase your hook ups too. Do not tie the treble hook to the line just thread it through the eye loose so it can move freely up and down. Many times with a spoon you are fishing for schooling fish and if one grabs it others will try to take it away. I cannot count how many times I have had doubles on a spoon with the treble hook on the line above it. One last one make sure you do not use a rod that is too stiff you need a soft tip to help keep the fish from throwing the bait.

It is probably just some moisture, but get a good cleaner for you graphs. I use a product from Wilson Frazier that is great. http://www.itainttv.com/clearly.php

It is more now, I just checked the reel was a Shimano Core 50mg. Now the shipping is 19.95 instead of 18.95. This is why I have quit ordering from BPS and Cabela's

What I get annoyed with with BPS and Cabelas is how they rape us on shipping charges. I ordered a reel from Cabela's after Christmas. I would have gotten it elsewhere but I got gift cards for Christmas. And to ship 1 reel it was $18.95.

Make sure that you use a heavy enough jig too. Don't try to fish 20ft with a 3/8 oz jig. I fish Ky Lake and Barkley alot with jigs on the ledges and about 3/4oz is the smallest I use for 20ft of water. Try ripping them off the bottom to the bass really seem to like it, creates a good reaction bite.

As long as you don't put it on a spinning reel you will be ok with it. I like the regular for baitcasters, it is a little too stiff for spinning. The Flurocast I have not had any luck with it on anything.

Very nice fish Congratulations.

Which one is it the regular Fluorocarbon (this one is good) or the Fluorocast (this one is not)?

The only time I have had trouble with line is when it is stored somwhere it should not be. Ex. in the sun, in a hot boat. Etc. I keep all of my line in the basement of my house and have never had any problems with it, it stays about 65 degrees down there year round and does not have any windows. I have some line that at least 5 or 6 years old that is still good.

5/O owner J hook most of the time. I have tried the oversize owners but like the J hook better.

There are tons of Largemouth and Spots they are just up the lake more so than the Smallmouth there are some very big largemouth too. My neighbor had a 7lb15oz and a 8lb1oz largemouth last week.

I fish Dale Hollow all the time live about 20 min away. The smallmouth fishing has been kind of spotty lately the largemouth fishing has been really good. We have had unseasonably warm weather the last 2 weeks but it looks like things are going to go back to normal after today. On D.H. hair jigs, spinnerbaits and crankbaits are usually a good bet, the water temp has been as high as 58 degrees but looks like it is going to be falling after today we have some very cold rainy days coming. Good call on hiring a guide I have fished D.H. for over 20 years now and it is still the toughest lake I have ever fished. Listen to what the guide says he knows the lake better than you.

I bought some of the arkie heads the football style last year and cut the hooks off and attatched a gamakatsu skip gap worm hooks to them, it was not easy but you can do it. You have to have a really hard punch and a piece of 2x4 if you are careful you can open the hook eye up enough to put them on the head you will screw some hooks up but it is possible. I tried doing it with other hooks but owners were just to hard you ended up breaking them. It is a great lure to use when combined with a sweet beaver or one of the biffle bugs. We won several tournaments last year during the hottest part of the summer when no one was catching many fish we had limits of good fish using this.

I usually change them unless it is a bait that comes with a premium hook already on it. I always change my hooks on rattletrap style baits to a bigger size and topwater baits also.

Storm Short Wart's those are the best square bill cranks I have ever used.

I used to have an 18ft Xpress with a 150hp Yamaha that would do 77 on gps with 2 people and all of their gear. I imagine with a light load and 1 person it would get very close to 82, and that was with a stock motor. That being said I got rid of it because it scared me to death.

On the bigger motors it was 50 to 1, but for some reason I think the smaller ones like that were 100 to 1. I would double check me though. That was awhile ago that I had one of those.

I have one on my aluminum boat, I like it. But if you are used to a typical foot control motor it will take some getting used to. I really like the anchor feature, the tracking feature I have not used as much as I should. I hardly ever use the foot pedal I usually run it off of the remote most of the time. The only problems I have had with it is, it went nuts once and would not stop turning right , it broke the locking collar, It took minn kota a week to ship me a knew one, and the transducer went out in it already and I had to send it back to get it replaced. I would not replace it on my aluminum boat for anything, but saying that I would never put it on my bass boat. Too many things that can go wrong with it.

While they are not going to be for everybody they are great rods. If you like the GLX's you will love the NRX's they are lighter than the GLX's. I got them rather late in our fishing year and have not had anytime since tournaments stopped to use them very much. But the little time I did have with them (about a month) I like the 3 that I have 852, 853, 854 alot. I will also pick up a 893 after Christmas more than likely. I weighed the 852 and the 853 when I first got them while I do not remember the exact # both rods were about 3oz.

Punisher Lures in Celina, Tn makes the best one in my opinion. Use the lightest ones that you can get away with, and don't overfish the lure.

I have one that I do not use, the first one I bought worked well seemed to be accurate but it just died one day. I sent it back got a new one but it will not weigh the same weight twice. You can weigh the same fish 3 times and get 3 different weights with 6oz differences. For the price tackle warehouse has them though you can throw the scale away and just keep the cull tags.

I agree I have 2 Sols both with Zpi 85mm Handle on them and it feels right with that size reel. And the stock is 80mm.

The older pixys seem to cast lighter lures a little better, but I love the new reel with its 6.8 to 1 retrieve ratio. I have not modded my new Pixys yet with the pixilla modification but will this winter at some point. Hopefully at that time they will be as good or better than the old ones.

This one is a no brainier you have to stop and help, unless it is that punk that has been buzzing around you all day on that worthless jet ski ;D

Great looking boat. Congrats.