piscicidal

The bucks were back on the beds at my house this morning. I left them alone and probed around for momma, but didn't find her.

Bang it with a rubber mallet. I'm not joking.

A little over ten pounds won. It was as brutal out there as I had feared. Only two boats weighed more than ten pounds. Only 11 boats weighed anything. We were fortunate to weigh two fish. Only two bites we had all day. With the water being so high and so cold, its just really tough right now.

I checked the beds around my house this morning. Nothing. Even the small bucks were blown out by the cold weather. Over the next couple of days, we should see the fish move back up. Hopefully big momma comes up also.

Yeah...not much compliance with those aluminum reel seats. Do like JFrancho said...use the electrical tape. It will help fill in any gap due to tolerance differences between brands, but moreso, will add some much needed compliance to the stackup.

Those Accurists with the aluminum frame are bulletproof. I have five of them, and they are absolute workhorses. Those are my pitching/flipping reels and get some pretty harsh use. I've caught two snakeheads over 37" (both potential world records, I've since come to find out...) flipping my golf course pond. If you have never hooked a 10+ lb snakehead on ~10 feet of 65lb braided line, it is hard to explain the experience. Something like setting the hook on a bucking bronco. I also use these in the saltwater (didn't want to use my curados, chronarchs, etc) catching fish that fight much harder than any bass you will ever encounter. I have two smoke reels and could not be happier with those. NOTHING outcasts this reel. I am not as impressed with Quantum's other offerings outside of the Accurist/Smoke models.

That's my thinking also, Bruce. I like my chances better with a tough bite, versus a 25-30lb slugfest with all of the sticks out there.

I would not doubt that report. I haven't seen the fishing this bad for such a long period. The canal guys and the flats guys are all drawing blanks. I haven't fished out there in awhile but on some of the forums, guys are talking like the fish have just gone

I'm with DVT, I would leave the shields on. I bought an ultrasonic cleaner at Harbor Freight for about $30 dollars. Works great for cleaning bearings....put the bearings inside a baby food jar filled with acetone. Close the lid on the jar. Put the jar in the ultrasonic cleaner well which is partially filled with water. Run the ultrasonic. When it's finished, drain the acetone. Refill with new acetone and run it again. Repeat until the acetone comes out clean. For the price of two ruined bearings, you could pay for a small US cleaner and not have to worry about removing the shields again.

Thanks for the good explanation, Hayden. I've got a 735c an 805c and a 766FLIP so I think I've got the heavier stuff covered. I'm looking for a dedicated rod to use with 3/8 to 3/4oz jigs. I think the 745 or the 784 will serve the purpose.

Yeah, Hooligan. One of the things that jumped out at me looking at the DX784 specs...that 15" butt section. A long, conventional (non split) cork grip is one of my key criteria for my next jig rod. I'm really liking the 7'8" length also....perfect for me. I'm a little torn between the 4-5 power, but it seems like the 784 is more like a 4.5. I'm getting the feeling like she might be the one.... I received a very generous offer to test drive an NRX, so I am definately going to give that a shot, also. It's over my (somewhat arbitrary) price figure of $350, but I'll spend more on the "right one".

Who plans on fishing it this year? First qualifier this Sunday. The fishing out there has been downright miserable. My partner Jack fished a big fish tourney there last week and apparently one fish was weighed in. Every report I've seen in the past month has been miserable. Most people blanking... Aymon won an open out there recently with 10lbs. It's just ugly right now. A couple guys I talked to aren't even going to bother with this first one. We're going to give it a shot. Going to try like heck to weigh five fish...

Hayden, I have a ton of jigs, but there's two that I use the most. In the slop, I like to use a fairly heavy grass jig like the Hack Attack (1/2oz, 3/4oz). On hard bottom, I use primarily an AT Rattlin jig in 3/8, 1/2 or 5/8oz. I have a few 1/4 jigs, but they don't get used much. I'm interested in your thoughts regarding the 745 and the 784...seems like you've put some effort into this. Dwight, Thanks. Check your PM.

Thanks for all the input, definitely putting the DX745C and BCR855 on the short list. I'm very intrigued by this Mike Long Jig Rod (DX784). I found this looking at the 745C online. I'm really liking the specs on this rod. Anyone use this rod?

AMEN. One more thing....no one will ever convince me that color doesn't matter after that day. Robert had me down 12 fish to 1 at one point with identical setups and only a color change. And this was fishing in the slop with about a 50% catch rate. So basically he had 24 takes to my 2, before I wised up and switched. After that we got hit an even amount. i.e. Florida Spawn. I took the golf cart out day before yesterday and for the first time saw some bucks circling around the beds. Caught a few of em, before deciding to leave the poor guys alone. I imagine after this cold snap, and once the water warms up a little we might see some females move up. I'll be looking for them tomorrow...

JF, I'll check out the Deep South. Is it sensitive? That is my #1 criteria. From my OP, it may seem that I am harsh on rods, but I don't think I am. I have ~30 rods and have not had these breakage issues on any of the other brands. The three rods I've broke have all been different failure modes and (IMO) are workmanship issues.. CF, thanks for the suggestion. I haven't heard of Cashion, but I am open to new brands.

I didn't meet my 2011 goals (1000 fish, a DD bass). I came close...966 fish and two 8.5lb bass. I also spent 83 days in China this year so that didn't help. My goals for this year...the same. 1000 fish and a double digit. I'll add a third: fish more (i.e. less time in China).

I've been targeting bass seriously for about 2.5years (August 2009). When I did get serious about this, I started making a journal starting Jan 1, 2010. I log the information in a composition notebook, one for each calendar year. Each fishing day constitutes one page in the journal. I include sketched picture of the lake, where I fished and when, and any pertinent information (water temp, wind speed/direction, weather conditions, baits used, size of fish caught, large fish dropped off, etc...) I will keep notes about any kind of pattern which was attained. i will also record in the upper left hand corner the weight of my five biggest fish. This serves as a quick reference for me so that I can go back and quickly reference those days which I had the most success. I make a point to make the journal entry at the end of that fishing day. It is a useful exercise for me to go thru and replay the day's events events in my head (I used to do this when I was attempting to become a scratch golfer...) and do a thorough play-by-play account so I can see what I did wrong/right/etc... Now that I've been doing this for two years, I am starting to accumulate a pretty good "database" of information that I can refer back to. I can go back to my "2010" and "2011" journals and look for specific details which may help with the trip that I am making that day.

OK, I am in the market for a new jig rod. I like the one I have, but this is the third rod I have broken from this manufacturer. I think it's time to look around a little bit... Price is not really a consideration. Usually I am a bit frugal when it comes to rods (especially moving baits) but I know that the jig rod is not the place to skimp. I'd bewilling to spend up to about $350. I am not attached to a particular brand (anymore!) Any suggestions?

Yeah, that was just sick. +80 fish/27 lbs by noon. Boats around us not doing anything. Funny thing, I was fishing in the same boat as you and didn't start catching until I changed my setup to EXACTLY match yours. I even had to change my rod to get the right action. Point is...we could have given someone the exact GPS coordinate to that spot, but odds are they would not have had that kind of success. I was on the lake Thursday morning. Water temp = 66 degrees. I didn't see anything on the beds but I caught some nice fish staged up nearby. Caught a couple flipping mats near the beds also. I heard water temps were 62 yesterday, so we should see a wave moving up soon.

I dont think theres much to worry about here. At current levels, lake O has ~19B sq ft surface area. A 290M gallon drawdown = 38.8M cu ft removed. Assuming constant depth (not completely valid, I know), a 290M gallon draw down would result in a total linear decrease of 0.02ft. Accounting for non constant depth you can increase this number a little bit. Unless, I misplaced a decimal somewhere, this draw should not harm the lake levels. The other draw down they were discussing, involved hundreds of Billions of gallons which would definately have a drastic effect.

My son is six (I made a mistake in my previous post) . I gave him a quantum energy pt reel wth 6'6" bps extreme rod. I need to be careful as hes' becomg somewhat of a "snob" when it comes to gear....doesn't want to fish with senkos anymore. They're "too easy". Doesn't want to use spinning gear, anymore, either. Loves fishing top waters. When he caught a peacock bass on a tiny torpedo, it was all over!

I got a couple of BPS gift cards, a columbia spf shirt, and some Spro frogs as stocking stuffers. I gave my Dad a Calcutta. Gave my son a BPS card, an assortment of hard baits (topwaters, cranks, jerkbaits) and his first baitcast setup. We were just practicing a little in the pond in the back yard, and he's doing pretty well with it. By the time he's six he'll be slinging it out there.

I've got a 6'6" rod with MH/F action. Combined with a 12-15lb mono it seems to have about the right amount of stiffness/recovery for walking top water spooks.This is my primary jerkbait rod as well. For me, a short handle is a must for twitching spook/pointer type lures.

red eye shad and aruko shad.