RichF

The original D&M piranhas are awesome if you can find'em.

4/0 Beast hook would be perfect for 3 1/2" to 4 1/2" swimmers like the keitech fat impact or kicker fish slapper tail, etc

Just wait until you land a 6 pounder during a tournament though....You'll quickly forget about this bad day. No better feeling!

Owner beast hooks are by far the best. Super wide gap and the center pin screw is great.

I flew with rods once on JetBlue Airlines. Had them packed in a telescoping bazooka tube. I checked it obviously. They inspected and didn't properly close it back up. I ended up with a broken Lamiglas pro certified. Luckily the rest of the rods were ok.

I had one. Have the tour as well from that year. They worked ok. Could cast a mile but I found the brakes touchy. Lots of drag power and very smooth. $10 is definitely a good deal!

Been using the Palomar for years with zero problems. The snell is just a pain to get it perfect and I'm not "sold" on its effect enough to take the time to use it.

- 1 pair of Polarized Oakley Monster Dog sunglasses - 1 pair of $135 Spy polarized sunglasses - plano box of cranks - Falcon speed bag full of plastics - Basspro Extreme Rod/Plueger President reel I feel your pain. As you can see, I've lost my fair share of gear over the years. But like Master Bait'R said...we can just replace it with even better stuff!

It won't perform that well. But they're St Croixs...you could always pay the replacement fee. Depending on how much they're discounted, you may get away with paying quite a bit less for a $400 rod.

Well you obviously didn't understand what I was saying. When did I say keeping bass was wrong? Read my first post, specifically the part when I said: as long as you abide by the laws, only keep legal limits, and so on. Do I like seeing guys at the ramp with a stringer full of bass? No I don't. But if the season is open, you have a license, and you've only kept your legal limit, that's your right and I would never infringe upon that right. I also never said that someone who keeps a bass doesn't respect nature. However, when someone says "it's just another fish," to me, that shows a lack of respect for the resource. I would feel the same way if that was said about any other species. And I'm not going to entertain your other "questions" with answers...they're a bit silly.

I like number 6 on that list

I do quite well in northern NY on 6in shadalicious swimbaits. Mostly pre spawn fishing though.

It sounds like you already know what you need to do. The things you're saying are the things any pro would tell you, you need to do. Sponsorship is VERY limited these days in the bass fishing world. Big sponsorship, more specifically. And the guys that get that, are the guys that have been in the game for a lllooonnnggg time. And they'll continue to be in it for llloonngg time, meaning very little sponsorship dollars for newcomers. You're going to have to pony up the cash on you're own if you wanna play. That's just how it is. Good news for you though...you're young. It's much easier to make the large financial risk at 21 than at 31. You'll definitely want to fish as a co in the Bassmaster Opens just to get a taste of how a big tournament is run. That was my biggest take away from fishing them for 2 yrs. You may even draw an Elite series guy as your boater which is pretty cool. Once you think you're ready to make the move to the front of the boat, go for it. Just be ready to get your butt kicked. That's not a knock on your fishing skills (I have no idea how well you fish). You're going to be fishing large bodies of water that you'll have had little or no time on and you'll be competing against a lot of local knowledge. And that's not just the local anglers competing but all the other non-local guys that got information from the locals. But, if you can win or do consistently well in events like these, you should get noticed by potential sponsors. Guys talk about it this all the time and it's something I really believe in and think is uber important in tournament fishing....mental fortitude. You have to accept the fact that rarely does the best fisherman win the tournament. You have to accept the financial strain, the strain of driving thousands of miles across the country, the strain of being away from home for long periods of time, and on top of all that important life stuff...the strain of fishing in high stakes tournaments. If you can accept that these things are a part of the touring pro life and stay focused and ambitious, you may do well. But just know...you can do all those things and still might not. Hopefully you don't take this as me trying to crush your dreams, heck, I have the same one! I wish you the best brother. I'll leave you with some quotes from Elite series anglers I've met over the last couple years. They made me realize that there isn't an actual answer to the question of "how do I become a pro" (even though I made an attempt, sort of, in the paragraphs above). You might get a kick out of them. I know I did. Timmy Horton's response to me asking how to get to the level he's at - "fish local tournaments and work your way up" Randall Tharp's response to a very similar question - "you can do it man" Ish Monroe's most important piece of advice with regards to sponsorship - "don't take on a sponsor if they don't pay you cash" Not much substance right? lol

After all his talk before the season started about caving in to the need to seek out information....I hope his St John's win wasn't a result of that.

I definitely get where you're coming from. I would love to have all the same line of rods and reels because I'm 99% OCD. My problem is, I can't say no when things are on sale/clearance so I have a bunch of different brands. In a perfect world...I'd have a full set of each brand I like! As for a brand suggestion... I like Shimano, however I don't feel their lines below the Crucial ($150+) are that great. I'm also a big fan of St. Croix but again, I'm hesitant about their sub $150 lineup. The updated Mojos with the SCIII graphite may be a game changer though. I've heard Cabelas' ZX tourney rods are really nice (I've also held them in the store and they feel pretty darn good). They can usually be had for around $70 and I hear broken ones can be replaced pretty easily. Those would be in your price range as well.

Another thought....green pumpkin is supposed to be a natural color for clear water (most people's view I'd say). I would think the added chartreuse contradicts that?

I hate chartreuse on anything. Honestly don't think that little bit of color makes any difference. But this is also coming from someone who fishes the "easy" waters of Northern NY. lol

I love All Terrain's junebug jigs. I definitely think they make a fine replacement for black and blue. I actually haven't thrown a black and blue jig in a long time. I only use that and green pumpkin. And I'll throw both colors in dirty water. As for trailers...chigger craws, rage craws, super chunks, and big salty chunks.

Are there pike or pickerel present? I'm convinced that if a fish just slaps at my frog, 9 times out of 10 it's a toothy critter.

A couple years ago, my father and I fished a team tournament on one of our favorite lakes and were in contention to finally win one together with this particular (really good) club. We had a great bag but thought we needed one more good one to seal the deal. Neither of us missed or lost anything all day. I cracked "the one" with about an hr left in the day. She was the biggest one we hooked that day (about 5 lbs) and would've gotten us the win. I pulled her up from the grass, she tail walked, and spit my jig. I was crushed, ticked, devastated, you name it. It didn't set in for another couple pitches then I snapped...Cracked my Legend Extreme over the side of the boat and broke her in half. We ended up in 2nd place by about 2 ounces. Not my proudest moment.

I fish those AT jigs almost exclusively and only use 2 colors: junebug and green pumpkin (one for clear water, one for dirtier water). I catch hundreds of bass on them every year. Like most guys are saying, it's best to keep it simple. I'm a firm believer that the fish just simply don't care about minor subtleties in color. I'm not even sure I'm sold on the dark colors in muddy water deal (even though I do it most of the time). I don't know how many I've caught on all green pumpkin in water with an inch of visibility.

I'll let you know when I win the powerball

My father actually has the 7'0 MH avid, 7'3 H KLX, and the 7'1 MH LTB. He almost exclusively throws jigs 1/2 oz - 3/4 oz. He tried them with the LTB and didn't care for it for that purpose (he now uses it for bladed jigs). He likes the KLX the best. I have a few as well and I love them. They're as sensitive as the Avids if not more so but definitely lack the solid warranty of St. Croix. Kistlers are also powered a little less than St Croix. The MH avid and H KLX are pretty close in power. No experience with Dobyns but I hear they are also a little under-powered. You really can't go wrong with any of these. They're all nice rods that won't break the bank.

I'm not sure if I'd like a MH glass rod for this application but the Heavy is perfect. When I realized the "best bladed jig fisherman in the world" (Brett Hite) uses a glass rod for this, I figured I might have made a decent choice.

Welcome aboard. The Flea Market is what you're looking for. Enjoy