Red Bear

there is nothing wrong with Ugly Stiks, they are decent rods. you dont have to like them but they are decent whether you want to admit it or not. my trout rod is a 5'6 Light Ugly Stik Lite-Pro. Works just fine thank you, I've also caught bass up to 5lbs on it, catfish over 6lbs, and hundreds of pan fish.

ive never used a chatterbait, i own one but cant recall ever tying it on. Also, i guess this thread has expanded from lures to techniques, because drop shot is not a lure in itself, just a technique...

yes, absolutely. it will last that long and keep its strength. lets just say there are a lot of worry-warts on here who think it gives them an advantage to change line every trip, or every few weeks. in reality theyre just wasting money and time, sure its their money and time, but it could be better spent doing something else. there has been a lot of misinformation spread, mostly out of paranoia, about the life of mono, and fishing line in general. all i can tell you is test it for yourself and see, the only reason to change it in most instances is if your spool is low or you want to try different line.

sounds like yall had a fun league this year. i won my league at work for $400. i had great RB production all year with David Johnson, LeGarrette Blount, and Demarco Murray. My QBs also did good, Cousins and Carr. My WRs were lacking until i made a gem of a pick up midseason in Tyreek Hill, and DeSean Jackson came on in the playoffs with 3 straight 100 yard games...

the "reel" problem is those shimano reels, throw them in the trash and replace with Pfluegers on a more serious note, i dont think the cost of the rod matters at all, as said above the length/action/power etc of the rod would probably make more difference.

ive used mono on the same reels for 4-5 years and only changed it because it got low or i wanted to try a different kind or size of mono...it will last a long time if properly stored. if your mono is getting stiff and brittle in a year or two then you arent storing it properly...also, it can take a very very very long time for sunlight to destroy mono, a few days in the sun wont hurt it...

go with a jerkbait in silver color. also if shallow water, go with a shallow diving crank bait like a manns 1-minus, also in silver color. silver just seems to work for me in cold water better than other colors. anyways, those are the things i caught fish on in NoVa during the winter. plastics wouldnt even buy me a bite no matter how i fished them, i cant say they wont for you though...

id roll with the 12lb as is, see for yourself if it is too big for your clear water lakes, probably wont make much difference going down to 10lb...

if properly stored and not dry rotted, then yes i will use old line

I bought a 91 Chevy W/T 1500 for $1000 about 9 years ago. its still going strong, over 200,000 miles. yeah its needed some parts along the way and we redid the clutch as well, its a 4-speed with overdrive. its a tough truck though, i used it a lot to haul firewood. i basically let my moms husband use it as his daily driver now, he maintains any upkeep it needs, told him if/when we ever sell it, we will split the money. I drove it back and forth to work, an hour commute in heavy northern virginia traffic for 2 1/4 years myself... keep looking around before jumping on it, as it does seem a bit high in price, look online and see what similar trucks are going for.

killer pond baits for me have been weightless rage tail baby craws. berkeley pit bosses, and white booyah pond magic spinner baits. you want to catch only the bigger bass and possibly biggest, catch a small live bluegill, hook it, and toss it out. that bluegill jerking around will draw in the big girls, and the ones too small to eat it will be sitting around staring at it lol

its the same on Smith Mountain Lake in the winter. flock of seagulls = baitfish and feeding striper

http://cryptozoologynews.com/reptile-like-creature-spotted-in-north-carolina/ http://cryptozoologynews.com/park-ranger-and-coworker-spot-nessie-like-creature/ keep your eyes open out there...

seems to me the more you use them the less reliable they come, of course the same can be said about many things. i cant speak for everyone, but i dont weigh every bass i catch anyways or even a majority, just dont care to, i weigh the ones that look worthy enough to weigh. ive weighed enough bass that i can pretty much say to myself "looks to be about two pounds", toss it back and not really care if it was 1.75 or 2.5 lbs. but i do know that we've been through a few digital postage scales here at work, i also know that the old school letter hanging scales always work...

oh.. well... sometimes you'll have that...

exactly, a BACKUP, if youve invested in a digital scale you like i dont see the point in buying an expensive backup scale. a 5 dollar back up spring scale will get you by for the day, and its not way off inaccurate as you surmise, its close enough to be satisfactory. if you want a longterm every day spring scale then i wouldve suggested a better alternative, but im talking a cheap inexpensive back up that will get you by. not everything has to cost a million dollars for it to work, sheesh thanks, i wasnt sure if anyone would agree with me or not, but i feel the same way about scales. i work in bulk mail and use a digital postage scale all the time, its not uncommon for it to go bad out of the blue and have numbers jumping all over the place and such. some people seem to forget there was once life without all these electronics at are fingertips, yet people still got the job done with their "old fashioned" tools and methods...

too unreliable. you have short fat bass, long skinny bass, short skinny bass, long fat bass...too many variations to trust only length. there is nothing wrong with spring scales at all. i know i said 5 dollar in my post, but thats as a back up plan to digital, but you cant deny boga grips have quite a good reputation

Pretty much what Mike L said. None of us are going to know, and neither are you, unless you attempt a hook set and theres a fish on the other end. or you snag and possibly reel in a stick. Why would you even stop fishing to come here and ask such a question is what im wondering? last thing i want to do while fishing is go online. i go fishing to get away from computers and tvs and phones and all that stuff. well i do take my phone, but with no intentions of having to use it, especially to browse the web.

what do you mean by fudge it exactly? just make sure it is set to zero before you weigh the fish, its not hard at all. id probably trust my spring scale more in the long run than i trust a digital. too many things could go wrong with a digital and the electronics in it. even a low battery could possibly give you wrong weights. not saying digital scales are garbage or even frequently wrong by any means, just that i would put more faith in my spring scale. just because something costs more and/or is more advanced technologically doesnt mean its better...

keep extra scale batteries, or keep a $5 backup spring scale with you.

picture is so small i cant really tell whats going on here. kind of looks like the old "love toilet" skit from saturday night live back in the day

serious question here, some of you only mention doing fishing related stuff in the off-season. dont yall have any other interests besides fishing? you know, that can be done in the winter time? once im done fishing for the year, i dont even want to look at my fishing stuff until march at the earliest...

i love to night fish for catfish(all types), maybe just as much as bass. I have no qualms tying on a sinker and hook, baiting up a nightcrawler, tossing it out and just fishing for whatever bites, its probably 75% of my fishing right there. If i catch some panfish, they become either live bait or cut bait a lot of times. But i really enjoy just relaxing, waiting and drinking some nice cold budweisers while wetting a few lines, its just so peaceful and refreshing...

i know white perch in lakes will destroy nightcrawlers. and yes they will hit them on the bottom with a lead sinker. even more so, i catch them on a drop shot with a piece of nightcrawler. i like to use the small gold abeerdeen hooks by eagle claw. white perch are pretty aggressive feeders, take a lightweight rod and have a blast. i once caught two white perch at the same time one a single hook using nightcrawlers. one fish was hooked in the mouth normally, the other fish bite the hook shank and was just hanging on for the ride. i pulled them on the dock and watched one fish open his mouth and just drop to the dock flopping around, was quite amusing, my uncle fishing with me couldnt believe it...