Goose52

But itsn't the degree of the fight relative to the gear? If you're looking for a good "fish fight", you can still find it with <5lb LMB if you use lighter gear. If your fish run small, use ML, L, or UL gear.....which is back to the point that Bilgerat and Fish Chris were making I think... : Since my fish run small in my lakes, I nearly always use Medium or lighter rods. A 3lb bass on ML or L gear and light line is a nice fight. And medium (or lighter power) is still enough to land the occasional big fish as well (in open water). Different strokes for different folks...it's all good...

For sure - native trout beat out our stockies in every way. Great looking fish ! Nope, this fish was probably stocked. They release tens of thousands in this creek every year. Some make it to the Lake, and grow big, and come back every year, either to feed or spawn. Well, I guess it doesn't matter where it was born - it's still a great fish!

Sporting has different meaning to different folks I guess. One thing that has always puzzled me is that some anglers will fish for bass in a fancy bass boat, with side imaging, using uber-sensitive big-bucks rods (often medium-heavy or stouter) with 50-65lb superline, and expensive "this will fool 'em" baits, and ski the fish back to the boat. Hunt them bass down like dogs - no mercy! And all that's OK. BUT, if you use a net to land your fish, it's somehow not "sporting"...... : Just sayin'....... ;D

And I bought a regular 570 at the beginning of last season - drats. Technology is always moving on.... :

Brrrrrrrrrrr. Hope you were bundled up good. At least you got some fish - some's better than none! I got one fish on New Years day and nothing since then. My lakes froze up (again) just after New Years and were still hard as of yesterday... :-/

Let us know. I've been waiting to hear how they fish...

I have a new-condition Avid rod arriving tomorrow via UPS. I was DELIGHTED to pay $96 for it, plus $25 for shipping = $121. For $76 plus tax....that's a killer deal - buy NOW! You could always turn it around in the flea market and make some $$$.

WOW - great deal. I guess I'll order a set to play with.

That's good to know - what did they set you back?

There you go - sounds like a great deal !

I have some reasons why I don't care for split-grip rods and will choose a full-grip rod over a split-grip: -- The valid technical reason that dodgeguy gave - you're taking weight off the wrong end of the rod. -- The rod manufacturer is telling you where to put your hands - I want to be able to grasp the length of the grip, anywhere I want. -- I palm the reel and often the butt is resting underneath my forearm - I'd rather have cork under there than the bare blank or just the little end-butt. -- Finally, I think much of the buzz on these rods is just trendiness...and I'm not one to chase trends... ;D Would I EVER buy a split-grip rod. Maybe. Like Stasher1 said, you might see a split-grip rod that has quality components and a good blank, at an attractive price, and it may be too good a deal to pass up. I actually have a sort of split-grip rod - a BPS Extreme with the Cam-lock extendable butt (got it for about $49, couldn't pass it up). I can somewhat live with this concept as at least I can adjust the end-butt to where I want it. Based on the experience with this BPS rod, the only new-gen split grip rod that I've looked at is the Abu Verdict - the adjustable butt might make it tolerable... :

For sure - native trout beat out our stockies in every way. Great looking fish !

Well, not much moving water in my lakes to support reproduction, that's for sure. However, the stocked trout here in my lakes do make it through the summer. We have lakes with up to 80ft depth and I've caught those rainbows trolling deep in July. I had some rainbows "follow-back" my bass baits as soon as the surface water temp went into the 50s. They sure are dumb fish when first stocked though - can catch them on about anything. Those few that make it through their first season though...seem to get a lot smarter! ;D

How so? Are we still talking spinning reels? What advance in spinning reels has occurred in the last 20 years that has put so many more fish in the boat that the reels of only 20 years ago should be considered toys... :-? OK...maybe 'toys' was not exactly what I meant. I was referring to the higher bearing counts, better machining tolerances, magnesium construction and bail improvements to name a few. Spinning reels have inherent problems that can be worsened as size decreases. I know there were certain ul reels made decades ago that are still held in high regard, I never owned any of them. Didn't mean to step on any toes, just throwing my $.02 out there NoNoNo - no toe stepping at all. I was just wondering if I had missed a technological advance significant enough to warrant retiring the 9 spinning reels that I still have that are 25 years old and older... : There is absolutely no doubt that the reels of today have more bearings, are tighter, smoother, maybe better drags, perhaps (but not proven yet) longer lasting...but I personally still get good service from my existing reels and only buy new ones when I need MORE reels, not to replace one of my old reels... ;D ;D ;D On UL reels, my Mitchell 408 was considered UL in the 60s but would be considered awfully big today. My Shakespeare Sigma 025 was a nice reel 25 years ago and will still get the job done (probably for the rest of my life). However, if I ever do need a new UL reel, I know that the one that I get will be smoother and nicer than my old ones...but I'm just not convinced that they will catch me more fish... :

How so? Are we still talking spinning reels? What advance in spinning reels has occured in the last 20 years that has put so many more fish in the boat that the reels of only 20 years ago should be considered toys... :-?

I have limited experience with trout but did catch 59 rainbows last year (between 12" and 17"). I had a pretty high loss rate on those fish. On hook-up they would just go berserk and by the time I got them to the bank or the boat, the were pretty tuckered out. They're great fighters, but I almost hated catching them. On the Mitchell 300 - I wonder if the millions of fish that were caught on them knew that they had mostly bushings and no fancy bearings... I still occasionally fish my mid-60s vintage Mitchell 408 - great reel - smooth enough, catches fish. BUT, I will say that the lack of a manual bail feature drives me nuts, as well as the noise and backplay from the ratchet & pawl anti-reverse system... ;D I also like the push-button spools on the old Mitchell reels so you don't have to change your drag setting when you change spools.

That's a very good summary indeed! On gear, I don't follow any trends. I buy gear based on what I think will work, and what is a good value, and use it until it's "used-up". I don't sell or trade gear to have the latest and greatest stuff. I still have, and occasionally fish, my rods and reels from the 1960s (although the rods are hopelessly obsolete by todays standards). I still have in front-line service a bunch of spinning reels from the mid-1980s. Then I have my modern gear. I got so much stuff now that I won't be able to use it up by the time I'm gone. On trendy baits, I'm a victim of that to a degree. When I got active on this site just over a year ago, I followed all the threads about the various hot baits and techniques and then started placing orders (winter and on-line ordering are a dangerous thing). However, when the spring came and I started fishing my particular water and conditions, I found that just a few baits were all I needed and the trendy techniques weren't necessary to catch fish. I'm retired and can fish every day and it's going to take me couple of years to fish all baits and techniques! So, there's a lot to be said for the KISS principle when it comes to baits. On following the crowd, or not...when I first moved to Tennessee and started fishing, I had everyone tell me that I had to join the bass club to be successful. So, I looked up some of those guys and they told me that the basic rules were that you had to have a boat to be sucessful in our area, and that only plastic baits would work. Hmmmm, that didn't jive with what I was learning on my own so I figured those guys were in a rut for sure. I'd be fishing from the bank and some of those guys would drive by and say "you won't catch nothin' off the dam." Uh, excuse me while I land this 7-12 LMB from the dam. "Crankbaits don't work in these lakes." Uh, excuse me while I land this 4-12 LMB on this crank. "Dummy, you can't use a buzzbait in the daytime in open water." Uh, excuse me while I land this 3lb LMB on this buzzbait. So, I think I prefer going my own way, reading and learning what I can, then shaking-and-baking what I've learned on my water to see what actually works..... ;D

Nice catch ! The good thing about Tennessee is that we're a bit warmer than you guys up north and our open water season lasts a bit longer than yours. The bad thing is that we do get ice-over on the lakes...or periodic ice-out but with water temps in the 30s...but the ice is NEVER thick enough to safely walk on so ice-fishing isn't a remedy for cabin fever here. :-/

Ya gotta love salt water for variety and size! I bet you had fun!!

Hey goose, The only ice I'm going to see on my water will be in my glass Enjoy! Looks like you're having some great fishing!!

For sure. RW hasn't checked back in to this thread yet so he hasn't given us an idea of what he meant by "winter largemouth." Since he's a fellow Tennesseean (although he lives down the hill from me) I was assuming he meant water temps in the 40s or lower. Others on this thread are talking about 50, or even 60 degree water ... or even hard water! BIG difference !

For shallow and mid-depth cranks (say, down to 10-12 feet), you can use just about any reel or ratio - get whatever floats your boat. If you're going deeper than 12 feet or so, you might consider a reel with a low 6.x or a 5.x:1 ratio. The was a recent thread about cranking reels where the merits of high-speed vs. low-speed ratios were discussed - you might want to review it to get some opinions on the topic: http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1293677180 I personally use a 6.4:1 (26IPT) reel for shallow- & mid-cranks... : EDIT - here's the link to another thread on cranking reels: http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1293145256

Dwight - first, VERY nice fish - second, give us a break, you're still in Florida...when you see some ice on your water, check back in !!!! ;D On RWs question - I've read that bass in cold water will go after large prey so it's worth the effort expended...I've also read that bass will go after smaller, more readily digestible prey... so what to do? When the water temp went below 45 I started off big with 10" worms - nothing, went down to 7" worms - nothing, tried larger jigs - nothing, tried a 4" Berkley Crazy Legs Chigger Craw - nothing, tried a little SK Bitsy Flip jig with a small trailer - some taps but no fish. Finally, tried a 3" Zoom Ultravibe Speed Craw - bingo. Got a little 13" fish in 40deg water on New Years Eve, and got a nice 20", 3.76lb fish on New Years day in 45deg water. Water here has been either in the mid-30 temps or hard since New Year day so no fish since then. Not a very big sample size or test...but I think I will stay small the rest of the winter until water temps are above 45 again. :

I'm not in the market for a PQ rod right now...but I wonder if they would honor the $99 catalog price on a phone order? BTW - only the 7'6" PQ rods have the split grip, the others still have full-grips (for now..............).

Yikes - those aren't in the 2011 hardcopy catalog! They have the old solid-grip PQs for $99 in the catalog. Time to keep an eye on the clearance page !