L a r r y

With all the new baits that come out year after year, I wonder if anyone could come up with a bait that could imitate the action of a shiner or other live bait rigged on a circle hook? Or have I just over thought the idea, and what I'm looking for is to rig a soft body swimbait like you would a shiner and fish it on a drop shot?

not twinkies, but you'd be shocked if i told you. :-X What are you feeding those things? They have alot of girth for being so small in length? Please share a secret or two, it's only us here looking 8-)

TY TY....I've been a fan of AG for yearrrrssss. I still have my fathers old Ambassadeur round reels, that I've cleaned up and have sitting in the top of my closet. I LOVE my Vendettas!!!! I've horsed some nice 3's out of some thick hydrilla on 12lb mono and they've held up very very well. I've noticed I've had to snug the lock down, and give it another 1/3 to 1/4 turn to make sure that it stays seated, and I've had zero issues with it coming lose as you have had with yours.

Here is my small arsenal

If you get caught, there will be some more money mysteriously put on your book, but you must come back and give is the 4-1-1

In breeding???

There is a scheduled time to stop bass fishing????? What is this that you speak of, never heard of that HOW BOUT DEM COWBOYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Preseason sucks......but thats just it......IT'S PRESEASON!!!!!

I have some angled style nail clippers I picked up from Academy sports which has a lanyard attached to it. Makes it easy to attach it to my tackle bags zipper and always have it easily accessible.

Well here is my first frog bass and a personal best for me this year. I have been struggeling getting used to fishing frogs, so I can say that this was all by luck. The SPRO Popper was my weapon of choice, along with a 7'3" MH Vendetta paired up with a Revo STX-HS spooled with PP 50lb. Sorry for the crappy cell phone pics, but I was excited, shaking and nervous all at the same time. It weighed 5.40lb by my scale, 21" in length and 14" girth

When I feel those first few ticks while fishing soft plastics...I yell....Use them tiger teeth, bite it like a lil monkey

Slightly off....the SX weighs in at 8.89 oz and the STX weighs in at 8.92 oz, and the Premier weighs in at 6.70 oz. These are the '10 model numbers from BPS site. I have the 09 Premier and STX-HS and I absolutely love both of these reels. Both are amazingly smooth, and cast a country mile. I like the drag on the STX a little better than the Premier, but that is only maybe a half a point difference IMO

So I was fishing a small pond around here that I've been told hold some pretty nice size bass. So I've been hitting it up and looking for the ONE....On the first few times, I'm fishing topwater and I get some amazing swells at my lures...but no hook ups. So last night, I decided to go back and see what I could do. I catch a couple of 1.5# and a solid 2#. The sun has dipped below the trees and the street lights are coming on. So I give it my 5 cast countdown. I catch another dink on a Huddelston swim bait, and I grab my other rod and throw a cavitron. I catch a 2 pounder on my second cast so I know have 3 left. The area is dark now, so I cast toward the grass line and change up the retrieve, 3-5 fast cranks, and then slow it down 3-5 cranks. I do that a couple of times and about 15 feet from the bank, I hehear the explosion of a lifetime....feel the weight of the fish, set the hook....FISH ON....ohhhhh mannnn its got some good weight and is stripping drag on my STX spooled with PP 50lb braid. HOLD ON....HOLD ON...don't do anything silly stupid....It breaks the surface and this massive tail throws water everywhere....OHHHH MANNNNN....hang on...hang on...hang on...so after a couple of more tail flips, I start to wonder, what the hell have I hooked into? So I flip on my light that I have on my head, and what do I see....A BIG CAT!!!!! Oh man, I've caught cats on cranks before, but never caught one on a topwater. So after I finally get him up on the bank to where I can get a hand under his gill, and he flops out of my hand on the bank. My cavitron was bent up pretty bad, but it will survive to fish another day. Here are a couple of crappy pics and my bent up cavitron. I didn't get any measurements but I am GUESSING it went between 4.5 - 5lbs

a 10lb bass anywhere is considered a giant. Nice catch and congratulations

Crossdressing reels/rods is no big deal. What should be important is how the two pair up with each other performance wise

Meet me on the fishin bank you yankee and I'll learn you a lesson or two

I hit up a new small community pond because I hear that there are some decent sized fish in there. As a matter of fact, they say there are some BIG bass in there. Well after seeing what they would want to bite, I pick out a blue gill Bandit 100 crank. Give it a good flick and bam......fish on, I set the hook and about jerked this lil fell out of the water from about 25 yards out......First time for me to catch a blue gill on a blue gill crank bait

If its in the water, and will fit in their mouths, they will eat it. Do a search on "shoestring" lures posted by PAUL. .....that pretty much justifies they will eat anything ****EDIT**** Here is the link http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1275249700/0

Heres a thought...carry a few old spark plugs in our tackle bags. When idiots in boats spoil the bank fishing, tie a couple of them on, and give a nice heave towards their boats. I fish some small community ponds and the worse is people who let their dogs off the leash and swim all over the pond. I had a family let their Lab swim around and it would constantly swim over to where I was fishing and would come out of the water about 10 feet from me. So after the second time, I was fed up and told her that is a leash law and she needs to control her dog. She lipped something off in Arabaic so that only enraged me more. So next thing I did was pull out the cell phone, give a call to the local PD and made a complaint. Within 5 minutes they showed up and a citation was issued. Now don't take me as a pet hater, because I do own a dog myself, but there is a time and place to let your dog get some excercise, but disturbing someone else in the process is not the way to do it.

I have a 09 STX-HS to be exact and to be honest, I LOVE THIS THING!!!!!!!! Now I do not pitch with it, but I can throw small cranks and weightless plastics with it and I can get good distance. Now take it I don't get as good distance with throwing a .25 ounce or larger, but still it is decent. I have it spooled with PP 50??? (I believe) It takes a while to get things dialed in, it took me about a week to get it just the way I wanted it with a click or two from the magnetic brakes when I switch between lures. Don't give up hope on this amazing reel, it is quite finicky, but it will reward you with countless fishing experiences on the water once you get it dialed in to how you fish. FISH MORE STRESS LESS

This post is quite interesting. Does it take a TOP of the line rod to catch fish? No it doesn't. Does a TOP end rod feel better in the users hand, YES (to some extent) What we all want is to get on the water, wet the line and try our best to figure out what it takes to get these fish to bite. What one holds in their hand is not important. I've said it before, you can take a broom stick, a shoe lace and a paper clip and with the right presentation, you can catch fish. Hell look at the post PAUL made about catching a fish with a piece of a shoestring and he hauled in a nice size bass. Now take it, that was just a reference, that it is not all about the equipment and what it costs. The post made earlier from the individual who makes rods, I know he doesn't want to reveal what it costs him to build rods, because it would cut into his liveliehood, but the markup on ALL products produced is astronomical. AG was able to produce a rod with decent quality and feels pretty good in some peoples hands. Is it a $1000 rod NO, it is a moderately priced rod that has gotten the attention of the industry.

Steezy, that is one EXCELLENT rod. I'm still contemplating on getting at least ONE of the setups like you have, I just have to get the backbone and pull the trigger on dropping the coins for it. Fish more....stress less

Congrats.....I've caught roughly over 70 bass so far this year, and not one has come on a frog. I'm still chasin'em though

hey....move over so I can join in

I wasn't planning on changing line JUST because the color faded, I've read that before. I was curious if this was a common thing with the other braids, as I have only used PP. I've used KVD line conditioner from the very first cast after I spooled my reel up with braid, and continue to use it when I'm on the water. I love that stuff, especially on my mono spooled reels and I can definitely notice a difference on them when I don't use it. THANKS FOR ALL THE COMMENTS THUS FAR!!! 8-)

Ok, so I am under the assumption this is just the nature of the beast to have to deal with, whatever dye the braid is covered in, it will eventually be all over your reel?