Marty

Nope. My daughter fished with me a couple of times when she was a young girl, but she and my wife have -0- interest in fishing, or less than -0-, if that is possible. But that's fine with me, probably works out better that way for all of us.

Chatterbaits and other baits in that category have produced in the two years I've fished them, for bass, pickerel and one channel cat. I don't know about the best trailer, all I've used is the style that comes with them, your basic spinnerbait trailer. However, I have no way of knowing if these lures are any better or worse than less-expensive spinnerbaits.

I'm a line-watcher too; I have to be because most of my strikes are detected by seeing the line move off the side, as opposed to feeling something. That said, I'm using the worst line for line-watching that I've ever used, green Power Pro. But things have worked out somehow. When I can't see the line I often see a little disturbance on the surface made by the line movement. I don't think there's any doubt that fish can see the line, regardless of how well we can or can't see it. The real issue, as far as I'm concerned, is whether it affects anything. The fish sees it, but can it perceive danger from it and preclude it from attacking that attractive lure? I don't think so, but that's an opinion, not a fact. But I have confidence that it doesn't deter strikes and I don't bother with a leader.

I'll just address this question. Both are excellent fish attractors. My preference is to use the buzzbait when and where I can and use the buzz frog when the vegetation precludes buzzbait use. That said, buzz frogs are good in open water as well as vegetation, but I have more confidence in landing the fish on a buzzbait on which I always have a trailer hook.

1. I fish a wide variety of baits with braid and have no problems that I can detect. 2. My answer would apply to any line. Get a relatively large spool diameter. The larger the spool, the longer the cast because the line makes fewer revolutions coming off the spool than a smaller spool for a given distance. 3. Braid is good for soft plastics. Visibility is not something everyone agrees on. I don't think it affects my bite and I don't use a leader. 4. There's no "best" anything. I can recommend Power Pro and de-recommend Tuf-Line XP.

Are you talking white or yellow perch? But it almost doesn't matter to me. Both species take a wide variety of lures and for either one my preferences would be crankbaits and grubs on jigheads.

Like this? Sorry to tease you, but I don't know where to get them, but I think I got them at some tackle shop, but it was years ago.

I don't want to either. Never been in a kayak, but I just finished my first season as a canoe owner. I've been out leisurely fishing and have boats go by and produce waves. I've never come close to capsizing, but I don't like it either. Most of my fishing is in ponds where gas motors are prohibited or in shallow, weedy parts of larger lakes where motorboats are less likely to be. But that's my preference, others may feel differently. Canoeists, as opposed to fishermen fishing from a canoe, I think, are better equipped to handle motorboats, because they're paddling along and need to watch for traffic and can quarter into the waves when necessary. I might be anchored or drifting while facing the shore and be unaware of boat traffic behind me, and I don't want to be blindsided. Unfortunately, there are too many idiots out there on jet skis, water skis, various boats and, sad to say, fishing boats, who just don't seem to give a rap about the little guy. >

I agree, that's a very appropriate comment. I thought that apparently bogus interference call would do Navy in, but no, they stuffed them good on that run. Congratulations to Navy for getting that monkey off their backs.

This is not an "experienced opinion" as you requested. However, you're not going to get the sensitivity, responsiveness and overall quality with a telescopic rod as a one-piece, or two-piece, for that matter. I know of nobody who uses a telescopic EXCEPT under circumstances when they needed the telescoping feature for storage and transport. That said, a $5 rod from a junk shop will catch fish and so will any other type of rod.

Countdowns are underrated and underutilized as far as I'm concerned. They're good for bass and anything else that swims. Retrieve it steadily or erratically, just do it at a speed that maintains the depth you want.

It stands for Regular. Based on the Daiwa rods home page, Regular appears to be what others might call Moderate, since Regular's between Fast and Slow. http://daiwa.com/Rod/

A friend of mine used to throw his canoe in the back of his pickup, but he got rid of the truck when he remarried. He had no good way to transport the canoe and his wife bought him a trailer as a birthday present. I don't know what kind, but she bought it at a canoe store, so it's made for that type of boat. As to how it works, it works. Put the boat on the trailer, secure it and it does what it's supposed to. He doesn't back it into the water like would be done with most boats.

Probably masquerading as a fisherman. :'(

An alternative weight "system" is to remove the rubber from a rubber core sinker of 1/16 or 1/8 and crimp the lead onto the hook shank.

Thanks Matt. I've been monkeying around with SLRs for 40+ years but this is my first digital. I can't set aperture or shutter speed, so something went terribly wrong and I'd love to know what could cause something like that. The results were about what I'd expect from that exposure, but the camera shouldn't have selected that exposure and I have a feeling that a failure like that might happen with my "fish of a lifetime."

I was given a Canon Power Shot A560 about six weeks ago. In that time I've had two horribly overexposed shots with no idea of what might've caused them. Below is the latest. The information about the shot is self-timer used, ISO 125, shutter speed 1/60, aperture F2.6, no flash. So-called "evaluative" metering was used. Subject is a little off-center, but if the metering was done on the sky, then it should have been underexposed, not overexposed. Anyone have any ideas?

I hate to be nosy, but what are you trying to accomplish here? Senkos are great fish catchers; so are dozens of other lures. To the best of my knowledge, Senko fish don't look that much different from crankbait fish or topwater fish. I've caught bass on Senkos ranging from 722", as well as other species.

It's not that unusual. This was just posted on a small regional forum that I'm active on, although I don't know what kind it is.

During the off season I do a lot of whining and moaning. It's not like Rochester winters are anything new to me, as I've lived here all my life. Every year my wife tells me to get a winter hobby, but that's easier said than done. As to visiting tackle shops and buying stuff, at my advanced age I've pretty much passed that stage of life. I've got more than I need and generally limit my buying to replacement items or new lures if they do something different than other lures I own. New York gave us a marvelous gift this year by legalizing catch-and-release bass fishing during the closed season. So now, spring starts 6-8 weeks earlier than before.

Bud does sound like he has factual information, but the Stren site says Pure Fishing and the Vicious site doesn't mention Stren. Which is not to say that Bud isn't correct, it's just another case of manufacturers' sites being horribly unreliable because of non-timely updates.

Aren't WEC baits made by Zoom? As long as I've had internet access, the Zoom web site has been a permanent future event.

I don't have a 3" Slug-Go to look at, but just for laughs, check that #1 hook. If the gap isn't at least double the size of the bait's diameter, then get a larger hook that meets that criterion. And I wouldn't dismiss the already-mentioned possibility of bream or other small fish, unless you know otherwise.

Sounds like you might be southwestern New York. I'm in Rochester and fish a different assortment of waters.

I don't think that there's any doubt that most experienced anglers prefer the non-trigger models. I've used a number of trigger reels over the years and had no particular problems, though.