Goose52

OUTSTANDING! Now, go get some more !

Nope. Roadwarrior is a big Fat Ika fan - perhaps he'll be along soon...

One just that one lure? Not on the SAME grub - like any soft plastic bait, they wear out. But it is indeed 708 fish caught on two different brands of 5" grubs - Zoom Fat Alberts and a Gander Mountain "house brand" grub.

7.5" and 10" ribbon-tails - Yum, Culprit, and BPS have all worked well for me.

Funny that you mentioned grubs. I started using 5" single-tail grubs for the first time this season. I mostly fish them weightless on a 1/0 EWG hook. Results - 708 fish caught as of tonight (679 bass, 29 "other")! This is obviously my new favorite bait for 2010 !

Wow - I certainly have never established significant goals of the type stated by the OP! I recently retired and can now fish nearly everyday; this after not doing very much fishing for the 40 years that I worked (my bass fishing mostly stopped in 1967). This season is the first full fishing season since my retirement. My goals for this year were to re-learn as much as I could about bass fishing and to catch 1,000 bass. Thanks to this board, among other things, the learning process is proceeding well; and as of tonight I have 881 bass. I need to bag 119 more bass this year to reach the goal! I would imagine that my goal for NEXT year would be to focus on size instead of quantity! :

Outstanding job! Now that you got that boat all cleaned up - it's time to get it dirty by bringing fish onboard ! ;D

I fish 11 small lakes (4 to 201 acres) up here on the Cumberland plateau (elevation 2000 ft). We've had a cold spell here the past few days and day-time surface water temps dropped 10 degrees in a week. The low temp tonight is forecast as 36 deg. so no telling where water temps will be tomorrow. We will be warming up in the next few days and I'm hoping that water temps will get back into the 70s...

Water temps here in my part of TN just went into the 60s (63 surface temp as of this evening) and I'm still getting bit with buzzbaits all day (early morning, mid-day, and evening). However, it seems like I'm getting more short-strikes than usual so just tonight I added a trailer hook to my buzzbait and will be slowing down the retrieve a bit. FWIW.

I remember you mentioning the rusted hook keepers a while back but didn't know you had a problem with the reel too. Thought maybe you had used them in salt. If only fresh, it's kinda weird... :-?

...and were they ever used in salt-water, or only fresh-water? Just wondering as I've been using my Carbonlite reel just about every day, in fresh-water, since early April and not a speck of corrosion...

Extended battery run time per charge and variable speed - good stuff...

Wow - congrats on the win. That sure is "purdy"! I'd almost hate to put in in the water. If you DID use it for fishing - I don't think you could fit the 9-rod rack on it though ;D

The JM reel is a bit "portly" at 9.4 ounces - a bit heavier than we're getting used to; otherwise, many report that it's a fine reel at a good price. I have a CarbonLite, it's great - like a PQ but 2 ounces lighter; I have it mounted on a Loomis MBR842C - makes a great combo. The CL reel has been on sale before for $100 - a steal at that price...

Congrats to Glenn and kudos to the Mods for their hard work. I'm a newer member (less than 1 year) and this site has certainly provided me with LOTS of knowledge to help me get back into bass fishing after a long hiatus. It's working - I'm at 788 bass caught so far this season!

A big X2 ! I'm up to 598 fish caught so far this season on 5" single-tail grubs - nearly all caught with the grub rigged weightless and weedless on a 1/0 EWG.

I just sorted my "catch log" and I've caught 575 fish so far this season on t-rigged 5" single-tail grubs - the last one being an 18", 2.66lb bass caught about an hour ago...

Lots of info on these threads: http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1280695513 http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1278020655

Yep - the JM reel (and my Rick Clunns) are a bit portly compared to what we're getting used to today. I'm curious though - what's the hassle with dual braking. You set the centrifugals to whatever is needed for the bait, and you can set the magnetic to 0 if you want. If the wind comes up, you always have some magnetic in reserve (or an educated thumb). There's no real maintenance or weight penalty (a fraction of an once) in having the magnetic in addition to centrifugal and it's there if you need it. Sounds like a good deal to me...

An opinion shared !

And if you believe that, I've got a bridge to sell you. : Ha - I knew for sure that would draw you out .... ;D I was waiting for your "training wheels" comment about dual-braking as well

I think K_Mac summed it up very well... There are a LOT of people on this board with BPS reels and there have been periodic threads about BPS stuff, especially on the Pro Qualifier and the new Carbonlite BC reels. However, many of the threads start to go south with the various brand "posse's" trashing the BPS products, usually without any true objective evidence of any failures or problem areas with the current BPS reel line-up. Folks will say that they won't last, or that you won't be able to get parts for them, or no one will work on them. But, BPS has it's own repair department and parts will probably not be a problem. People have disassembled the higher-end BPS reels and have found similar quality of the internal components as other comparable name-brand reels so I'm not sure why the reels should wear-out prematurely. The current BPS higher-end reels offer good value for money at their regular prices and are killer deals at their sale prices. I own 9 BPS BC reels - 5 PQs, 1 Carbonlite, 2 Rick Clunns, and 1 ProLite. I paid full retail for one PQ and for the Carbonlite. Two of the PQs and the ProLite I paid $80, the last two PQs I paid $40 and $30 on eBay (can't get those prices anymore - too popular now!), and the RCs I paid about $70. There aren't any better reels available for that type of money - especially when you consider that all of these reels have dual-braking systems - a feature not offered on any of the competing reels anywhere near this price. Yep, I'm happy with my BPS stuff. Even happier when I read threads about some of the new "name" reels, like the brand new Shimano Curado 50e reel for $199 that eveyone is fawning over. I've been using a comparable reel for more than a year now - the 6.6oz BPS ProLite (it took Shimano a while to catch up with BPS) and I only paid $80 for it brand new!

I used the original made-in-France Garcia Mitchell 300 in the 1960s and as you say, it was the standard reel that eveyone used. It came with a spare spool and had a unique level wind mechanism that laid more line in the center of the spool than on the edges - very nifty. Literally millions of fish have probably been caught with Mitchell 300s and I have a feeling that because of the trend of frequent model changes from most reel makers today, the 300s catch numbers may never be equaled. I don't have a 300 today, but I do have a mint 408 (ultralight reel - same basic design as the 300) that I bought in the mid-60s that is on a mid-60s Garcia Conolon 6 1/2ft hollow-glass light-power spinning rod. I fish it every once and a while just for grins. The reel is still great, smooth and solid; I enjoy fishing it (the glass rod, not so much...). The "click" from the anti-reverse that you mentioned doesn't bother me but the anti-reverse is not the modern "instant" type and you have the backplay that we're not used to today. Also, you can't manually close the bail on these older reels and that throws me off as well. My Dad (87) still uses his 50s and 60s-vintage 300s and has never bought a more modern spinning reel. I've seen other older anglers still using theirs. They just seem to last forever with little to no maintenance. And this from a reel with mostly only bushings and not ball bearings. Someday, I will probably end up with my Dad's 300s and I will fish them too... On cost, the suggested retail for a 300 in 1964 was $37 although they were discounted quite a bit under that. Still, even if you could have got one for only $20 back then, an inflation calculator that I just used says that's about $140 in today's dollars; so, they weren't that cheap. I know I saved for a while to get my 408 at some point prior to 1967 but I can't remember what I paid. Also on cost relationships, the current Michell Avocet Gold retails today for about what a vintage 300 retailed for nearly 50 years ago. The Avocet is a great little reel that new is probably the equal or better than the vintage 300. A great example of modern materials and manufacturing technologies holding down the cost. NOW, will an Avocet last 50 years like an original 300......I guess only time will tell !

You ain't kidding - I pulled my canoe from one end of a lake to the other, following the original creek channel, just by crankin' a DD22... ;D

How do you guys hook the 5" grubs? Are you using a jig or worm hook? Thanks. I nearly always use a 1/0 EWG.