Chaz Hickcox

I have a quantum Surge Inshore reel and I can't for the life of me figure out how to get the side plate off. I have taken off all of the screws, but can't seem to rotate it properly. The Quantum Burst is basically the same reel just the Surge has extra anti corrosion coating for salt water. I searched for this and found some quantum stuff, but there is no release button I could find as it is described for the reel in that particular thread. Any and all help will be greatly appreciated.

Out west I never went over 10lb mono for visability sake. I am sure that up north you all have the same issue with super clear water and the fish spooking at the sight of the line. When I moved out here I lost a lot of tackle and fish because of that. I had never fished wood like there is out here and my line was getting destroyed by the wood out here so I switched to heavy braid. Basically, the clearer the water, the lighter the line, the more structure, you need something that will hold up.

Excellent! Definitely the "wrong" set-up, but it kinda goes back to: "All your fishing can be done with one rig. Three are all you really need." 8-) RW I have to absolutely agree! I have 3 Baitcasters (2 MH With braid and a M with mono) and a M spinning rod. What else do I need? Seriously, I throw cranks and lipless all the time on the 2 MH. "Wrong" by who's standards?

So I got a crazy idea to try out some water before going into work today. I went down to the West Neck Marina to see how much ice was there and try to try and slow walk some eeliminators near a break in the ice. Unfortunately the entire marina was iced over with about 2in of ice. :-/ WINTER NEEDS TO STOP. Good thing is that the old man there said it would break down this afternoon, and after this weekend's warm spell it should be broken up and almost all gone. I need to get my boat on the water, I'm goin nuts!

Thanks. I have to be honest with you. Being from out west the trees here have been a huge question mark to me.

Cypress Trees, soft plastics, not having electronics on my boat, jigs, COLD, muddy water. I grew up sight fishing with swimbaits, crankbaits or topwater, everything else is pretty foreign to me.

Heat in the summer is much better than Virginia Cold!!! I miss the desert (Arizona). And that is an awesome day with the pops. I hope I get to do that with mine. God willing he makes it past this year.

I got stuck on a sunken barge, and had to wait for a yacht to steam by on the intracoastal waterway. Once I was off and I tried to start my main, my crankin' battery died. For some weird reason I had some stereo wire on my boat, which was lucky because I was able to jump my crankin battery from my trolling battery. To do this though, I had to take my back seat out of the slot to get in the aft compartment. The wind was goin nuts and another yacht was coming by so in my haste I forgot to put by seat back in the hole. I was two miles down the river before I thought about it. It was obviously off the boat. I went back to see if it floated, but it didn't and I lost a whole *&^% seat! Talk about an idiot day.

Has anyone ever tried these? There's an ol' boy at work who swears by it, but I have never seen him or heard of him fishing in the last year while he's been here in Va. Looks like a good idea.

When I was a kid I would fish for cats in the creek near my house. I knew they lived in the roots near the bottom of a small waterfall. The roots came out over the pool and I could stand on it and look down the 6ft or so to the bottom. The water was gin clear. I could never get them to come out when I was just putting the blood bait near the holes. So I would chum the hell out of the place, dumping almost have the bag. When the entire school of cats would come out I would bounce the bloodbait that was on my rod right on the cats. They would take it, but only in their gums for awhile. I would open the bail on my reel and let them have it until I saw the bait disappear in their mouths. I guess in short I am saying, you need to chum the hell out of a place. Then when they take your bait give them some time (amount is all relative to size and species) before you set the hook.

Try Cabela's Online, they're maybe 2in long and look huge for roostertails, but are great for all kinds of bass. Caught my first white bass in '91 with a yellow one.

still not finding anything for laserlure

When bass are chasing shad or minnows just under the surface I like to burn a 1/2 oz white Roostertail just under the surface.

They have to be able to find the real thing in the dark, so why wouldn't the swimbaits work then? If you want a little more commotion you could also try the Castaic Original Hardheaded Shad. When I lived in Ca and Az those Castaics were what I used at all times of the day. The hardheads act like a shallow crank that looks realistic. If you have crappie, they also have a baby crappie that did me a lot of good too. Also the Castaic Rock Hard Trout in 4in is a good alternative too. The hard body actually clicks against itself when you burn it. I have found in low visability conditions I twitch it while burning it back to the boat. A really fast and hard cadance twitch will elicite strikes from a lot of fish who normally won't bite. And don't worry if you don't have trout in your waters, I'm in swampland here in VA and there aren't any trout, but my rock hard is one of my best producers.

Rage Tail Eeliminator Check this out - Why am I the first to post this? Who has ever seen an eel with a fat body and a long slender tail. The eeliminator has to be a tadpole immitation, but they won't market it that way because of what y'all are saying about tadpoles. Who cares? We're not trying to feed the fish just get them to attack right?

Rapala just seems to be of better quality. Like someone else said the only Rebel I have is a Pop-R. The Rapalas will last forever, I still have some jointed minnows I bought in 1994.

Topwater 1. Buzzbait (Cavitron or Strike King depending on how slow I have to go) 2. Rapala Skitterpop 3. Scum Frog Paddle Frog Skinny Water 1. Castaic Original Hard Headed Shad 2. Castaic Rock Hard Baby Trout 3. Rapala 5 in Jointed Minnow

Watchin Bill Dance and Roland Martin on The Nashville Network back in the early 90's. Since then, I have learned a lot here, and the hard way, a lot of error and error. Then, there was always the great articles in the In-Fisherman Magazine. My pop would go with me, but he still thinks we were catching pike in Lake Powell and we caught them instead of stripers by the dam (To me there's a big difference between a brown pike and a 15lb striper). Oddly enough I taught him how to tie a hook. I was spoiled though, I learned by sight fishing from my 4x4 at Lake Pleasent, Az. Never needed a boat just a 4x4 and an eye for the desert trails leading to the virgin bays. I would sit on shallow bass all year long.

There is a way, live where it doesn't get cold. Unfortunately for most of us, that's not an option right now. Therefore, we're screwed.

LOL TROUT! Here's the record "trout" Jay... Back to topic at hand, that is a massive muskie! Hey that is a real picture, those trout live in Mongolia and are HUGE. They're called Taimen and can grow to be 2m and about 90-95kg.

I have to agree with you on that, when I was a kid we used to fish the farm ponds on my cousins' land in Eastern Kansas. It was awesome for awhile catching 4-5 Four pounders in an hour, but after about a month of that, we were done fishing. That was a great summer, 16 yrs ago now. How time flies.

I know that. But considering the fact that it has been in the US for over 150 years, the Brown Trout that are fished for now are in their "natural" habitat. Trout fishing has a big following in lots of areas. It might not be popular in Virginia Beach, (no trout there) but head over to the Appalachians or any other mountain range and you will realize how popular it is. Hey man, the trout comment was a joke there buddy. I have plenty of friends from Montana, Wyoming and Colorado who swear by their monster rainbows. And look at my icon under my screen name, do you think I am actually from VA? Let's just say the hills I'm from make the appalachians look like a group of mounds.

My misfortune with it probably has to do with only throwing it a few times.

Have one of the suspenders in shad, but have yet to get hit on it.

All my casting reels are 6.3:1 or more, all you have to do is slow down your retreive. My spinning rigs are all 5.1:1 but I use them with live bait or when downsizing only. As far as swimbaits are concerned I have found that slow rolling a light castaic is the bomb. For durability issues in the swamps around here all I use is braid, and my forte is swimbaits. Braid is good stuff. Just don't be jumpy with the hooksets.