Goose52

Paul, I don't know how far north you have to be to be considered "north" (I expect farter north than I am) but our lakes do freeze over in the winter here and we do have about 3 months of winter weather. Anyway, the bass in the photo was 7-12 and 26" - length was by the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency measuring method of from closed mouth to closed tail. This was a skinny, and probably old, fish.

I've been on the bank all my life but just this year I started rigging-up a fishing canoe to cover the 11 little lakes that I fish (4 to 201 acres). Since the photo was taken, I've added Scotty rod holders, a 3-tube rod rack, a "dashboard" with sonar and a transducer arm, an anchor system, and some other stuff. Not as good as a bass boat, but it's car-toppable and I can launch anywhere (don't need a launch ramp). From the time I pull up lakeside with the canoe strapped to the top of the car, it takes about 18 minutes to rig and launch.

Thanks Roger - it DID feel like a motorized beer keg! If I knew I was going to be carp fishing - I would have had my 7'6"h w/65lb braid. Since I was bass fishing, I was a bit undergunned for this guy. It just took patience - the water I fish is pretty open with not much for the fish to wrap you around and break you off. After the hookset, I actually loosened the drag a bit and let the fish take line and just waited for him to play out...I didn't know it was going to take 35 minutes though ! Sure am glad that I've been getting better about frequent checks of my line and frequent re-tying

I posted the story of this fish in the "Other Fish Species" forum but thought I'd post it here to as an example of the kind of fish my "Chinese junk" BPS ProQualifier reel could handle - 37.1 pounds of fish that didn't want to be caught... Pretty good piece of junk I'd say !

So I'm fishing for bass with a 7'mf BC rod and a BPS ProQualifier reel with 10lb test line and a Red Eye Shad lipless crank. Mid-day, I had a hook-up with a BIG fish; it came out of the water on a 2 foot high jump and came unbuttoned. It was brown colored so I knew it wasn't a bass (and was TOO big to be a bass anyway) - so I thought it was a big catfish (but I didn't know a cat would jump so I guess I really didn't know what it was). I spent another half-hour or so at that spot, trying to hook-up again and didn't. Went to another lake and got a 9" dink bass and that was it. Had some time before dinner so I went back to the first lake to look for the monster. I beat the water for another 30 minutes or so - nothing. Then, just as I'm ready to quit, BAM - a solid hookup (so I thought) and the fish came out of the water twice. After that it stayed deep. Took me 10 minutes to get him back near the bank and another 25 minutes to get him tired enough to get him close enough to the bank to grab and drag up on the bank - 35 minutes total. He made a number of runs and took out line against the drag quite a few times (of course, you keep thinking about how good the line & knot is...). I was surprised when I got him shallow enough to see he was a carp - not only that it turns out he was foul-hooked in the tail ! Which I guess makes sense since these things are supposed to be vegetarians but I'm still confused about having 2 hook-ups on this guy in one day. Perhaps these things just move slow and the lipless crank was getting dragged across them and getting snagged on the fish. I'll have to read-up on these things tonight. Anyway, before I grab my pliers to pull the hook out of his tail, I grab the treble hook with my hand, lift it a bit, and it falls out - so much for the "solid" hookset. After the photos I weighed him on a digital scale and he came up at 37.1 pounds. After that, I put him back in the water and supported him until he was ready to swim. In the Rods, Reels, and Line forum - a recent poster called the BPS reels "Chinese junk" - well, I guess my Chinese junk PQ reel did OK, huh... ;D

x2. I occasionally use duo-lock or cross-lock snaps, but usually just end up direct tying since I'm re-tying pretty often anyway. I only use snap swivels when using in-line spinners.

I suspect many from the Shimano posse will take issue with this. I will speak for the BPS China "junk". I have fished in the rain many times with Extreme and Pro Qualifier baitcast reels. I had three of each on deck this past weekend. It rained ~1/2" Friday afternoon. All six never missed a beat. The BPS Pro Qualifier at full price is a good value. I bought one on sale last week for $70. I don't think you can buy a better reel for the money. x2. I have 5 PQs and they're all running strong. I fished in the rain today for 5 hours with a PQ with no problem (and that water exposure also included the entire rod and reel being underwater for about 2-3 minutes until I could fish it out of the drink [don't ask... ]). Great reel, great features, great value.

I have a Garcia-Mitchell 408 reel with matching Garcia Conolon fiberglas rod that I bought new around 1966 that I still use for light-power spinning purposes. I have 6 (and 3 more in reserve) mid-80s vintage Shakespeare Sigma 2200 spinning reels that are still in service. I have a mid-80s vintage Shimano B-Mag BC reel and Shakespeare BC rod that I use as my "trolling rig" (cause I won't mind so much if I drop it overboard ;D). All that gear is still in constant use. I still have my first spinning reel from the late '50s/early '60s that I take out about once a year - catch a fish on it, then put it away. I just dug out my Shakespeare "Wonderod" flyrod that hasn't been used since at least 1967 and am getting ready to put that back in service. The rest of my stuff is recent vintage...

"Chartreuse Baitfish" and "Sexy Ghost Minnow". I mostly use the Ghost Minnow in clear water/daytime, and the Chartreuse Baitfish in dingier water or cloudy/low light conditions...but it sometimes seems the fish don't care which color they hit...

I've been fishing them a lot this year. I've caught 91 fish so far this season...72 of them were on Red Eye Shads in 1/4 oz. I've caught bass, rainbow trout, and crappie on them, and even had an 8" bluegill hit one (although I don't know what he expected to do with it when he caught it!).

X2 - I always go opposite the fishes movement...and if they swim directly at me, I usually keep the rod tip down and reel-in line like crazy

I got my $40 6'8" Exteme about 2 weeks ago - already caught fish on it

Great price...but that's only $10 less than the current on-line sale price and it would cost me more than $10 in gas to drive to the closest BPS store. I might still get another PQ at the $80 on-line price though...

I've owned this Zebco version for about 45 years now and still wear it on a lanyard when fishing from the bank and have it in the canoe when on the water (mostly for the tape measure feature). I used this to measure and weigh my PB - 26" and 7 3/4 lbs. Everytime the bass wiggled, the scale would "bottom" at 8 pounds. When it was still, the indicator would move up just a tad to 7 3/4. I did pulls from this De-Liar to a Rapala digital and they correlated reasonably well all the way to 8 lbs so I call my PB a 7-12 (although I wish I could call it an 8 )

The HB 570 portable comes with a small 7.2 AH battery so there's one yardstick. Cabela's sells a similar 8 AH battery: http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jsp?id=0036388018049a&type=product&cmCat=SEARCHFEAT_all&returnPage=search-results1.jsp&Ntk=Products&QueryText=battery&sort=all&N=0&Nty=1&hasJS=true&_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&_DARGS=%2Fcabelas%2Fen%2Fcommon%2Fsearch%2Fsearch-box.jsp.form23

Must be a store-only price? On-line, they are still on sale for $79.

Maybe it's just the chrome finish that's a problem? The Red Eye Shad in the photo has caught 41 fish in the past 2 weeks. No chipping or peeling - it does have teeth marks - and one point of the front treble broke off (guess I should replace that hook one of these days !).

I just bought a 570 portable. Charged the battery that came with it, hooked up the unit, turned it on, and had a BLUE rectangle in the upper right-hand corner of the display (didn't know you could have blue on a monochrome display ???). Called HB tech support, they had me "restore factory defaults" - no joy - so the brand new unit is back at HB for repair/replacement right now...FWIW. The specs on the 570 unit are great - I hope it works when I get it back :-?

I only use snap swivels with in-line spinners.

I've bought quite a few rods and reels over the last year or so, nearly all BPS equipment, and nearly all bought at great sale prices. I have 8 BPS bc reels (5 PQs, 2 RCs, 1 ProLite) with retail prices from $100 to $110, all but one were bought at $80 or less on sale (including two PQs bought on eBay for $30 and $40). I bought a bunch of BPS Extreme rods (retail $100) for $69 or less on sale or clearance. I bought another Extreme spinning rod just this past week - on clearance for $39 I obviously think that these BPS house brands offer great value in the under $100 price range, just be patient and wait for the sales. 8-)

Good report. I hope that the reel keeps on ticking and that your initial impression holds true for the long term. I'm a big fan of dual braking and have 8 BPS bc reels with that feature. One thing I wish the BPS reels had that you have is the click adjustment for the spool tension.

I think my fancy electronic scale is off by at least 1/2 pound - I put a 2lb rainbow on it the other day and the scale only said 1.47 lbs. Guess I should take it back...

If you're talking about a roll cast on a bc rod - check out this: http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1267278809/1#1

Outstanding fish. Too bad there isn't a way to keep that bass and train it to pull the yak around the lake - then you wouldn't have to paddle !

I would normally recommend the PQ - on sale on-line right now for $79. However, if you use left-hand bc reels - the 2009 model Rick Clunn (left-hand only remaining) is on clearance on-line right now for $59.77 - a killer deal. I have 5 PQs and 2 RCs - good reels - great values. Got all but one at sale/clearance prices. All have dual braking - an outstanding feature.