piscicidal

I was out there yesterday, mostly running/gunning trying to get some good video. I fished by the winner (Benton) in the morning...I was running up to my spot and noticed about six boats there. I look closer and notice that only one guy was fishing...the rest were following behind, watching. I drove by him slowly and went to another spot. Benton mixed it up pretty good. He spent his time moving back and forth between Turners Cove and South Bay and threw a lot of moving baits. He fished that skinny dipper bait and chatterbait a lot. Also sight fished with a craw. He got a little bit lucky with that kicker. He only had about 8-9lbs with seven minutes left to fish. Then he nails a 7lber on a spinnerbait. Looked to me like that was in Clewiston Channel (see the video). That was an Ike/Omori "never give up" moment.... Ehler finished second and he seemed to be throwing a lot of moving baits also...with some flipping. Some cool video on FLW with Ehler yesterday hammering offshore fish with the birds diving all around. Neal finished third and I think he was mostly ledge fishing up by the Kissimee River mouth. Hendricks finished fourth... He had a kicker each day and could have easily won the tournament. Says he lost a 10lber early in the morning, yesterday. He was doing a lot of frog fishing and it looks like he was fishing somewhere off the shoal. He was definately on the west side, judging by the waves coming in there. Cotten finished fifth, and did most of his damage flipping jigs to reed heads up in fish eating bay. He had 54 lbs day 1-2 and 12lbs day 3-4. When those fish moved in, he wacked em. Saturday they moved out and he struggled. He fished like the Florida guys fish...relying primarily on the flipping bite, which really hasn't turned on like in years past. There was a decent flipping bite on Friday, and most of those guys pulled in good bags that day. McMillian sacrificed his tourney on Friday, to help Tharp with an equipment issue, or he well might have had a big bag also. I understand why those guys do it....you just assume going into the tourney that somebody is going to catch 100lbs and the only way you're going to do it is to flip. The lake is fishing a lot different this year though. Those south side fish haven't moved up at all this year. The whole South Side has been a mess....really hasn't cleared up since Sandy. It will be clean for a day or two and then you get a little wind and the whole place is chocolate milk again. I'm a little bit concerned about it. We all know how windy it gets here in March.

I took a trip to China last year for my regular job (engineer). We ordered a hot oil fish that they call "wu li". Look closely in the lower right hand part of the bowl...just below where the spoon enters the liquid. It's the head of a snakehead.

I hear ya, Glades. It's tough to compete with the semi-pros/guides who are fishing +100 days a year out there, when you have young kids/two jobs/business travel/etc.... If I fish 10-15 days a year in the glades, I am happy. But like you said, those guys put in the time and they deserve to reap the benefit from it. I just enjoy going out there and competing. Like in golf, you get better by going out and competing against better competition.

Jeremy, We're glad you like em. We loving hearing positive comments from our customers, and your expert knowledge of bass fishing equipment carries a lot of weight around here....so, thanks!

The MVP don't need to be the most expensive or the best rod in your arsenal. But it's the one that makes things happen....the one you can rely on everytime out. Kind of like my guy Adrian Peterson. OK...maybe not the best analogy since he #28 IS the best and most expensive player on my Vikings, but you get the point...

mvorbrodt, The bite has been pretty tough down here recently. 15lbs (five fish limit) won Burkes tourney at Okeechobee, yesterday...a bunch of studs fish that thing. Only about 1/4th of the boats in the King of the Glades yesterday caught over 10lbs. The bite is tough right now....the flipping bite is not going and the fish aren't chasing. Don't fight it...If the senko is working for you, stick with it. When the temperature stabilizes a little bit (temps in 60s at night), throw a skinny dipper in that shallow canal.

I've got a couple Fenwick rods...I love em. +80% of the saltwater fish I have ever caught have come off my Fenwick spinning rod.

Rods don't have to be expensive to be the MVP. You just have to use them and like them. I have several veritas rods and I love em.

Yeah man. I do love my Dobyns 804C...she's my MVP...I take her everywhere. My Dobyns DX745 OTOH is the smokin hot mistress I often think about when I'm with the 804.

Most Valuable Pole. In honor of my favorite football player, Adrian Peterson... what is your favorite fishing rod? This is the fishing rod that goes with you everytime you go fishing. The setup that elicits a visceral response just by looking at it... I'll start: my Dobyns 804C. It is labeled as a "carolina rig rod", but it is awesome at launching soft-body swimbaits and frogs obscene distances. My tourney partner Jack, jokes with me about no bass being out of reach. If I see him bust, I can get the bait to him...and since it's a carolina rig rod it has a seriously stiff backbone. Can set the hook on a hollowbody, even at long distances. It doesn't matter what kind of bite is going on at any given time...I will have the 804C with me and I will be using it for something (frogs, swimbaits, spinnerbaits)

robert, did you fish KOTG yesterday? We weighed ~11lbs, which I think was 16th. I was actually pretty happy with that, until I came in and saw the dinosaurs that Skip/Hank weighed.

My best bass gear purchase was one of my first... Three years ago I bought my neighbors golf cart as he was moving away. As I went to pick it up, he asked (begged) me to take his fishing stuff. 22 bass rod/reel setups (18 baitcasters/4 spinning)...a nice round wood rod carosel and 2 tackle boxes FULL of gear for $100, total. The rod/reel setups were not new...5-10 years old....but there was some good stuff. Reels were all good...curado Bs, chronarch As, quantum accurist. Rods were decent: many BPS tourney, berkley lightning stick, etc, however some were really good ones...Falcon, St Croix. Many of the reels were left handed...I sold all those on craigslist. That purchase awoke the bait monkey in me BIG TIME...as I rooted thru keeping the stuff I wanted and selling the other stuff off on EBAY/craigslist and turning them over into new stuff. I still have many of the rods/reels from that transaction, and the money from those transactions have fueled most of the many baitcast combos I currently have. Each of the tackle boxes had way over $100 in baits, themselves..and that stuff was mostly new. For example...there were 42 rattle traps in the tackle boxes. At least 20 poppers/spooks. 20-30 spinnerbaits. countless sinkers/hooks. The guy knew what his stuff was worth, also. He was quite weathy, was in a hurry to move out of the house and into his new one. He was too busy and just didn't want to deal with it. He told me if I didn't take it he was going to leave it in the house for the next owner (who may or may not be a fisherman). I tried giving him more money, but he wouldn't take it.

Similiar to ghoti's comment...I would like to see a unified method for characterizing rods. I would like to see... 1.) mass (in grams) 2.) modulus. a pseudu spring constant of the full rod assembly...if I apply "X" grams of mass to end end of the horizontal rod, the tip bends "Y" amount. 3.) speed. replace the generic XF/F/M parameters with something more universal and more meaningful . The current method of categorizing rods is essentially useless. I have a Dobyns 735SS and a 735C...both are 7'3", 5 power rods with a fast tip. But in real life they fish quite differently. And those are from the same manufacturer. When you start trying to compare rods from other manufacturers, there is almost no commonality. You have MH rods from manufacturer equivalent to H rods from another, etc....Some companies provide a modulus number (IM-8, IM-9, 20ton, etc..) but these ratings are not helpful either as they give the modulus of the graphite material, but don't account for scrim, epoxy, guides, mass, etc... It doesn't mean anything to me. What I care about is the final assembly. Give me a number...then I have full deliniation between different rods, not just arbitrary M/MH/H, 4 power, 5 power, ratings. speed...everything I fish is either XF, F, or Mod. Again, you have a situation where the ratings are somewhat arbitrary and vary from vendor to vendor. I would like to see a number (for example, percentage of rod length from butt to the point where "X" amount of deflection occurs). If people are confused by the new terminology, perhaps create a legend to help show where the "ideal" for many people lies... crankbaits: 30-40 worm/jigs: 40-55 jerkbaits: 50-60 etc... lower number is "slower" action..higher number is "faster"

Boy, were you ever right, Bruce! I fished the King of the Glades yesterday....about 50 boats. Only seventeen boats weighed in more than ten pounds. More boats weighed zero than weighed double digits. Skip/Hank caught over 31 pounds!! They just crushed the field. They also had big fish (8.15lbs)...take away their 8lber and their other fish still averaged almost 6lb and they still would have won! Those guys are on something special, way out in the middle of nowhere.

Great news for fans of the old (very hard to find) top water frog from Reaction Innovations. http://www.facebook.com/hideki.maeda.58#!/photo.php?fbid=444358978952880&set=a.111919198863528.17070.100001363458993&type=1&theater

Matt, that one is on my "to-do" list....I'm thinking a camo Cardiff on a Dobyns Coalition rod.

Thanks! I'm having a Citica done up right now. Should get it back tonight.....silver background, black carbon print with clear top coat. Can't wait....

Robert and I make these carbon fiber handles with the cork knobs www.hawgtech.com I have realy become a fan of this reel. Love the rugged simplicity of it...easy to assemble/disassemble. It casts mile and is very inexpensive.

I'll let you know about the durability. I am going to be doing some extensive field testing in the coming months...

Man, that is a gorgeous little reel, John. A Daiwa TDX?

Wanted to share a recent project me/Robert were working on. Here is a Shimano Cardiff 200A with the side plates hydro-dipped in carbon fiber pattern. I have three other reels I am having done right now. Robert and I were talking about giving away this reel, but I am coming down with a serious case of cold feet. I love this reel! http://www.facebook.com/hawgtech

Welcome to fishing man...those stupid little green fish will drive you crazy sometimes. It's part of the challenge....finding out what they want to hit. I was out with my Dad today at the everglades and we were doing pretty well. However, you had to give them EXACTLY what they wanted...they wanted a very slow falling bait. They would not touch the moving baits nor would they hit a bait that was falling too fast. The large silver fish that kind of looked like a bass...probably a snook! They do look a lot like bass in the water and there's a bunch of land-locked snook around here.... They may look like a bass, but when he hits your lure you'll know he isn't. Holy smokes, do those things fight.

Louie, Sorry to hear it. It could have been worse, though. A lot worse. Gear can be replaced. Sounds like you were inside the marina (since you only had to swim 30 yards to get to a ladder). That should be a no-wake area. Don't take this the wrong way, but it is probably a good thing it happened where it did. If the waves inside the marina were getting your stuff wet and a boat in a no-wake area capsized you, it is probably fortunate for you that you did not make it into the main lake. You capsize out there and your odds of swimming to safety with your aunt are much diminished. Again, sorry that your trip went so bad. You've gotten a lot of good advice here on how to get your gear replaced. Send me an IM...I'll see what I can do to replace your trip.

Froggerbass, Great response! The reason for my post was for exactly the same reason you mentioned. The BASS/FLW pros I have seen using chatterbaits are using much more parabolic rods than I would have guessed. Seems like they are using crankbait rods in many cases. I am going to search for the Ike episode online. (Ike, if you're still cruising these forums...feel free to jump in here! ) I have no intention of buying a dedicated chatterbait rod...just wondering which of my existing rods would be best suited for chatterbait use. I have a 7'10" cranking stick (MH/Mod action) with 14lb mono and a 7'0" spinnerbait rod (M/XF action) with 20lb braid. I'm guessing that one of those two will probably work for me.

I can see I am going to need to be more familiar with this technique. What should I look for in a chatterbait rod, in terms of length, action, taper, line type, etc. You guys that fish chatterbaits alot...is there a set-up that you use that doubles up as your chatterbait set-up (i.e. spinnerbaits/squarebills/etc..) Look forward to your responses.