Goose52

Boy - that's the truth. Even though I'm retired and can fish every day...I can't always fish during "prime time". I sometimes beat my brains out trying to catch a single dink bass when it's the wrong time/wrong place and there's no active fish. Still, it's better to out fishing than sitting on the sofa thinking about fishing... Sometimes it just goes back to the old expression: Question - When is the best time to go fishing? Answer - When you can!

One thing for sure - we all have different skills, fish different water, and have different perspectives of what a "big" fish is! We even have different visions/definitions of what is a pond vs. a lake (For me, a pond is a couple acres or smaller, a lake is about 5 acres or bigger.) I don't fish "big water" - just my 11 local neighborhood lakes and 3 ponds. All this water is man-made and ringed by houses. Public fishing access is on the dams, some lakes have other access points. All but 2 of the ponds can be fished by boat. The three ponds are about .5, 1.5, and 3 acres. The lakes run from 5 to 201 acres. The local bass club tournaments are routinely won with 5 to 7 pound 5-fish bags (two anglers) so that's one indication of the size of fish that are typically being caught. The bass club also allows "keepers" starting at 10" - another indication of relative size. For my water, I've come up with the following fish size categories: Dink bass - 9" and under OK bass - 10" - 13" Nice bass - 14" - 17" "Big" bass - 18" on up So, to finally get to Hayden's question (which was: "So, do you guys rarely catch good fish, and catch a lot of smaller ones, or do you catch bigger than average fish regularly?"). I work very hard to catch a lot of small ones. If I'm lucky, I might catch 3 or 4 a month 18" or larger. AND, I fish every day (usually minimum 2 hours up to 8 hours if I'm in the canoe). For this year, I've caught (1) 9 lb, (1) 6 lb, (2) 5 lbs, (5) 4 lbs, and (16) 3 lbs. Below is my bass count (by length) for this year - 826 bass as of last night. Not as big of fish on average as many on the board catch I expect... 25" 1 24" 23" 1 22" 4 21" 2 20" 6 19" 13 18" 10 17" 12 16" 21 15" 29 14" 44 13" 94 12" 149 11" 173 10" 121 5"-9" 146

I started using that knot a while back on spinnerbaits and buzzbaits. Two passes around the wire just seemed to anchor the knot better than one pass around. I always wet my knots when I cinch them down. SBs and buzzers are the only thing I use that knot for. The rest of the time I use the regular improved clinch or a palomar.

There have been several threads on the Enigma this year and you might want to search and read those topics. As I recall, only one person had actually used the reel and he said that the braking system worked very well. I think its great that BPS came up with a new and interesting braking system. Having said that, the reel does have a graphite frame (looked down on nowadays) and is not an attractive reel. Since there have not been a lot of "on-the-water" reviews on the reel, I would pass and consider the earlier recommendations - the BPS PQ or CL (Carbonlite). I have 6 PQs and 2 CLs - great reals and best values (well, best values after all the $60 Curados sell out - LOL). If you're not in a hurry to buy, wait for the eventual sales. The PQ is often marked down to $80, the CL down to $100, and if you were still interested in the Enigma - they have been down to $80.

I use a lot of 6lb YZ Ultra-Soft. I use either palomar or improved clinch knots and I retie often. I've caught (as of tonight) 498 fish up to 5 pounds on YZ6 so far this year with only 1 knot problem. I was fishing a 5" grub on a 1/0 EWG with a leader and swivel (3 knots) and had the knot from the mainline to the swivel fail - my fault as I got lazy and didn't retie that knot as frequently as the knot from the leader to hook. On a hookset, that top knot failed and I lost the fish...

Deep-cranking questions come up often. If you search, you'll find a number of threads and lots of varying opionions. For me, I use a 7'6" MH cranking rod, a 4.7:1 ratio (19 inches-per-turn) reel, and 10lb Yo-Zuri line. The 10lb YZ line has an actual breaking test of about 16lbs - it's not going to break during cranking. If you were concerned about line strength, you could always use 20-30lb braid. ww2farmer may be along with his recommendation and he recently said he is now using 20lb braid for deep cranking with good results - a nice blend of thin line diameter for deeper diving and high line strength. If you are trying to crank while the boat is in motion, you may even need to go with a heavy-power rod and give up some casting distance. Deep-cranking for long periods is hard enough, but trying to crank while the boat is moving is gonna be a bear. For sure, you'll want a very low gear ratio reel for this application. One last thing...if you ended up with a heavy-power rod AND used braid - you may have a problem with pulling treble hooks out of the fish - not enough "give" on the combination of rod and line...

It's state by state - probably different regs all over. It's legal here in Tennessee to use a gamefish as bait but you must legally harvest the gamefish and any creel and length limits still apply. It was also legal in Florida when I was growing up there (probably still is). In fact, here's how my Dad introduced me to bass fishing. First, he taught me how to catch "brim" on a little cane pole (I'm about 6 years old at the time). So, he says "go catch me a brim." I catch a little brim and bring it to him. Then he says "now I'm gonna teach you how to catch a bass." He puts a hook throught the back of the brim and tosses it out under a float. He would do this when he wanted to take a break from casting artificials or sometimes he would have it as a second rod in the water. He'd use brim 'cause shiners were pretty expensive and he usually wouldn't pop for them. Anyway, you can freeline them (hooked through mouth or tail) but in Florida it was common to hook them through the back and suspend them under a float. As for size - it depends on how big you think your bass are. As mentioned above - 1 to 5 inches is probably a pretty good range. Do I use brim as bait now - nope - last time I did was in the mid-60s in South Florida. Nothing wrong with it, I just prefer to fish with articials nowadays.

I am a user and fan of the earlier ProLite3. I've got 3 of them now and may buy a couple more if I come across them on the used market. As for the new "ProLite Special" - don't have one and probably won't...even at the $40 price. The specs sound great - perhaps too great for the price. I think BASSclary's report should be noted. One thing for sure - I wasn't aware that the centrifugals were fixed - not good since I usually only run 1 or 2 centrifugal brakes (on a 6-brake system). As for the OP's original question - I'm a BPS reel fan but you just can't ignore the screaming Citica and Curado deals right now. At 7.8 & 7.6 ounces - both are relatively light. I'm also a fan of the BPS Carbonlite; I have 2 of them - great reel for the money. BTW - the photo below is of the "good" ProLite.

It's all good. Some folks really get into the tackle aspect - all the way down to matching brands (and color schemes). Other folks just concentrate on what gets the job done. Either way, if it floats your boat then it's a good thing. And I'd love to catch a 5 pounder right about now. I got a 3.6 pounder last night - biggest bass I've caught in almost a month. Dog days of August for sure...

Interesting. The nine pounder that I caught in February, on a BPS Extreme rod, a 25 year-old Shakespeare spinning reel, and BPS Excel mono line, said: "Wow, I guess you didn't need to spend a lot of money to catch me after all...must not be the gear...but the presentation that got me..."

Whatever works - the fish don't know what brands of gear you use...or what color they are. For a while, I had a $35 Mitchell Avocet Gold spinning reel on a Loomis GLX spinning rod - caught fish OK. The permanent reel on my GLX MBR842C baitcasting rod is a BPS Carbonlite. It works, catches fish...

Yeah - I'm not a fan of the wooden handle knobs on the larger President models myself. However, and interestingly, the little 6720 model comes with a nifty rubber knob (that would work pretty good on the larger models as well). In the photo - the rubber knob is on a President 6720 - the wood knob is on a 6730.

x2. I had a Shakespeare Sigma 025 on my UL rod for the past 25 years or so and just this year switched it out for the Pflueger President 6720. While it's possible to find the 6720 for a low-$40s price - a more typical retail on it will be mid-40s to about 50 clams.

I've used quite a few Culprit 10 inchers - mostly in Red Shad - it's now pretty much my "standard" 10 inch worm. The Cuprits are durable and available at my WalMart for a decent price. I've used Zoom Ol' Monsters as well but IMO they don't seem to be any more effective for me than the Culprit and are not as durable so I've quit using them. The only other 10 incher that I use is the BPS "Squirmin' Super Worm" - also in Red Shad. It's durable and has a fatter/bulkier presentation than the Culprits. BPS periodically puts these on sale at a pretty fair price.

10lb line...37.1 pound fish. Open water, no rocks or slop. Keep a tight line, have the drag set properly, have enough line on the spool, and in open water you can catch about anything in fresh water with 10lb (except perhaps for the toothy critters mentioned earlier).

7.5" ribbontail worms lipless cranks AND.......no surprise.......5" single-tail grubs.

I have 5' and 5.5' pistol-grip BC rods that mostly only get used for spin-cast reels nowadays. These would be handy for the uses quoted above (casting under cover, etc.) if I could ever get used to using them again (I'm not big on pistol-grip rods anymore...) I have three 6' trigger BC rods. One is an ML-Mod cranking rod and another is an ML-Fast - both of these are modern rods that I use for small/light baits (both have BPS Pro-LiteC reels on them). I also have a mid-80s vintage Med-Mod cranking rod that has an early-60s vintage Ambassadeur 5000 on it - this is the nostalgia rod that I use just because... One of these days, I might see if I can take the 5.5' pistol grip rod and put a trigger grip on it - I've been thinking that I "need" a very short & handy BC rod to keep in the front of the canoe for quick follow-up casts with a different bait when you miss a strike with your primary rod. The rod would have to be short to fit in the bow of the canoe (all the other rods are behind me, pointed aft, and hard to get to quickly).

Good idea indeed. Also available are the kayak rod tethers. I may have to resort to one or the other some day when fishing deep water. For now, you can BET I have a death grip on my two Loomis GLX rods when fishing from the boat!

X2. I always cast with two hands unless I'm performing my meager imitations of a pitch or flip. Also, as I get older, I'm getting more and more problems with grip strength related to arthritis and other finger problems and two hands help keep the rod in my hand instead of the lake... Even with two hands, I've "casted" the rod right out of my hands several times now (luckily, not yet in deep water!).

Agree with the above comments. My surface water temps have been as high as 88-90 degrees and I'm still catchin' on lipless cranks (my favorite hard bait).

Wow - that many quality fish in only 10 acres. It must have been a GREAT fishery all these years - a sad loss indeed...

The point is, that the "training wheels" comment has been made on this board a number of times before. It doesn't really serve any purpose other than to perhaps give the impression to novice BC reel users that the desired end-state is to control a BC reel with only the thumb. That you haven't "arrived" unless you do. It then perhaps makes them less likely to use all of the modern devices on their reels that can increase their casting success and enhance their fishing experience. While one can learn to, in optimum conditions, control the reel with only the thumb - why limit yourself to that? Why ignore advances in technology that can increase success? Comments like "training wheels" should bite the dust... I'll go back to the car analogy. I've been driving the SAME manual transmission car for 39 years now. Love it. Great for driving con brio. BUT, do I want to drive that car in stop-and-go traffic for lengthy periods of time? Heck no! Automatic transmissions are wonderful devices that really make most driving much more enjoyable. Auto-trans are not "training wheels"...and neither are modern cast control mechanisms on BC reels. Just technology that should be enjoyed and used. As for BC reels and me - I have 19 BC reels at present - from an early 60s Ambassadeur 5000, to modern stuff. I seem to use them well enough - cast bait out, reel fish in...

For me - the Z-man TrailerZ chatterbait - 3/8 oz. Guess I'm partial to it since I caught my 9.06 PB on one last February...and a 6.32 on the same bait the next day... Z-Man TrailerZ

I was waiting for the "training wheels" comment...but I was expecting it from Burleytog... If mag brakes and spool tension are "training wheels" - then so are any braking system. If you were a REAL angler, you would use a reel with NO braking devices other than your thumb - right. That's how it was done in the "good old days" - right. Everyone would also only drive vehicles with manual transmissions - right. Don't need those new-fangled, trouble-prone, add weight and cost, automatic transmissions - right. Seems like some folks that have spent time learning a skill always somehow look down at other folks that take advantage of technological advances that make using an implement easier... Just sayin'...

For most conditions, I use very little tension on my modern BC reels. My early 60s-vintage Ambassadeur 5000 needs quite a bit however. For wind, most of my reels have dual-braking and I add more magnetic braking. For centrifugal-braking only reels, I will add a bit more spool tension. When throwing baits that tend to decelerate quickly (like spinnerbaits), in addition to perhaps adding another centrifugal brake, I might also add a bit more spool tension. Just recently, I've been experimenting with getting more casting distance on some reels by running only one centrifugal brake, and adding spool tension. That seems to be a sweet spot on these reels that gets me a bit more distance than running two centrifugal brakes, and less spool tension. This is with lipless cranks that tend to hold velocity well and not need as much centrifugal braking.