ChrisAW

Every day I go to work, I have to look at a 12 pound largemouth that I know I'll never catch Largest I've ever seen in a public lake was no smaller than 6 pounds, probably closer to 7. She tried to fly after my frog one morning, I had a full view of her when she came out to eat it. Well bigger than the 6 I had caught in the same lake that year. I was actually reeling in a bad cast when she tried to eat it. I stopped it and she came back and nearly came out of the water again to eat it. I gave it a second and felt her pull on it. Set the hook, felt the weight and a couple head shakes, and she let go. That is the day I stopped fishing SPRO frogs. Had too many hookup issues with them, and that was the last time I was gonna let it happen. Biggest of any species was a 48+ inch Musky that was after a 2lb smallmouth I had hooked on St Clair. I was half tempted to let it But, I started reeling hard and flipped him in the boat instead. It was kind of like the little smallmouth let me do it too, because he quit fighting and surfaced, which allowed me to swing him up out of the water pretty easily.

Just now.

Its all open if we want to buy the licenses, some will some wont. If its worth it I would probably get it, but I would have to discuss it with my boater as well. Is fishing still usually pretty decent in Michigan waters? Im not expecting 25lb bags but if even 15 is unlikely I would probably try to get out MI waters.

I have a question pertaining to this topic a bit as well. Tuesday, we have a small tournament going on, kind of a for fun thing, but theres still a $240 pot up for grabs so I will take any advice I can. I have a general idea of what kind of lures I will be fishing already. Main question I have, is that this is kind of a Border War tournament MI vs. Ohio, and us Michigan anglers have very little water available to us. Have they been moving up more shallow by now? Or because there is not much water deeper than 20ft for MI waters, would it be a good idea to get an Ohio license to take advantage of more water?

You're exactly right, those people do not work for BPS. But, they do have a deal going with JM and we all know exactly how annoying they are. We don't want them there either. With our recent store manager change, the BlueGreen or Outdoor Traveler people were pushed to one area of the store only, where they used to have a station right infront of one of our entrances. He knew this was annoying customers, but we have no choice in them being there or not. Unfortunately for us, they were put right next to the fishing reel counter, smack in the middle of our department. Best way to avoid them may be to look distracted, but a polite-ish "No thank you." seems to work just as well.

As a currently employee of Bass Pro, I have to say, seeing threads like these can be painful. This is a long winded post, and I mean no offense to anyone if you find it to be, but: I hate to see people saying "I went there once and this kid didn't know anything, I'll never go back!" Yes, they will hire younger people that might not be very experienced. They might really enjoy hunting and fishing or what have you, but may have only been taught to do it one way their family or friends have taught them to do it. Do you really want to talk down to a kid who may enjoy the sport, but might not know EVERYTHING about it? They are there to learn and get some work experience just like many of you with your first job. We have a new kid at my store as well. A highschooler, on the school Bass fishing team, who enjoys the sport and wants to work in the industry. Where else do you start? A customer recently, very angrily, called him a moron because he didn't know what backtrolling was. That is the kind of thing that makes retail very stressful when it definitely should not be. Not only that, but there are often employee's walking around the whole store that work in recieving, promotions, maintenance, or even just taking an item they found in their department back to where it goes. Even if they aren't in sales, they are told to try to be as helpful as possible. Many times they aren't going to try to pass a customer to a department associate, as some of us have witnessed, that this will annoy a customer just as much as them not knowing an answer. But I keep seeing people mention minimum wage, and the truth is, most of us make more than that. They really don't hire at minimum wage, besides MAYBE holiday seasonal workers. I hired in above and have continued to climb in the pay scale, because hard work and knowledge is rewarded. They also have a lot of full time employee's that get full benefits and can buy pretty cheap healthcare and insurance. BPS may now be a big box store, but Johnny Morris started it in a gas station in the 70's and grew because of a good reputation and good service. We might not always be cheaper than small shops and internet based companies who may have under 20 people working for them, but they now employ something like 14,000 people that are for the most part paid decently, and Johnny donates a LOT to conservation groups and charities. Whens the last time you seen any of these online stores giving a shopping spree to someone terminally ill or things of the like? This is just one example from the store I work at: http://tinyurl.com/pboe9gn But yes, there are downsides. Because we are such a large chain, product comes in slower than people would prefer. And because we may have thousands of customers a day, popular stuff sells faster than we can get it. And if the lures that don't sell well end up being removed from our stock, even if it was one of your best producers. Being mad at the people you see at the store is not going to make things any better. If you want to see things improve, talk to the store managers and the people in corporate, whether its good or bad. They decide what goes on at our stores. Believe me, we don't want to have lazy co-workers as much as you don't want them. And we can only carry what people buy. If you just come to us to look at things but buy online, things will only get worse. In my case, I'm always willing to do whatever I can to get you the lures, reels, rods, or line you need if we don't keep it in stock, as fast as I can. I had lures ordered and shipped in within days for quite a few guys fishing the BASS Open on St. Clair, and I would do the same for any customer if they just ask instead of getting mad at me for not having it on hand at all times. Edit: And I forgot to mention, NO ONE at Bass Pro works on commission. We're not asking you if you need help because we get a fatter paycheck, we're asking because its what we're known for and what most people expect. If you dont want help, just politely say, "I'm fine, thank you." Or something similar, and well be on our way.

This is basically it. The pictures below show what I'm talking about. This is as far as I can tighten the locking nut down, and its nowhere close enough to fit any reel I own. It moves and threads easy, it just bottoms out on something. The key that lines it up doesn't seem to be contacting anything in particular, its in place. The only thing I can think of is that the inside of the cork is too small of a diameter, or this run of rods tapers down too quickly inside and doesn't allow it to tighten enough. And this one shows the cork. If I try to tighten it further than when it just bottoms out, or force it basically, the cork starts to pull away from the nut.

Same as above except one thing. I got a Lunker Hunt frog from a rep to try out, and I have to say I wasnt a big fan of the stupid "realistic" legs. I ripped the realistic legs out and put regular rubber strand legs in. Those Lunker Hunt frogs have become my favorite frog now, but only after replacing the legs. Ive had VERY good hookups with it. I can only recall a single missed fish all year.

More than likely you're right, they probably knew about it. I'll see what I can get done with Fenwick, if not, I guess wait until my next trip up passed their store.

No problem. I was thinking that because they use the grip on the spinning rods as the threaded section, that the threads on those may be longer than casting, where the foregrip is what tightens down on the casting rods. I guess if not a picture, could you just loosen the foregrip on one of your casting rods and measure how long the threads on the rod are? Mine measures 1-3/4" long, when the foregrip and seat hood are only just above 2" long. I know they are pushing on the cork on the inside of the foregrip because the cork is actually being split and separating from the hood. It wont tighten down any farther than the base of the threads on the rod.

Smalljaw, could you possibly unscrew one of your casting reel seats and take a picture of the threads? I have a feeling whoever built this rod at Fenwick may have accidentally used the threads for a spinning rod instead of casting.

I stopped at a shop on my way up into northern Michigan on Friday, and found they had a couple Aetos' clearanced for $100 from $180. Of course I bought one. I was pretty excited to get it ready to go out fishing tomorrow, but trying to put a reel on it I found a problem. The reel seat will not tighten down to my 1st gen Revo S. The threads for the seat are 1-3/4 long, and the hood for the seat is just barely over 2" long. It's contacting the inside of the cork foregrip, and it started to separate from the locking nut. It won't even come close to tightening down to any reel I own, something is wrong with the reel seat, and I'm curious if anyone else has had or heard of this issue? The place I bought this from is well over an hour from me, taking is back isn't really an option at the moment.

Abu Garcia has a new heavy action winch rod out with the Veritas 2.0, 7'11" rated up to 2-1/4oz lure weight. This would work great if you're trying to keep it $100 or less. It is what I plan on getting if I feel the need to go out throwing some 10xds. I have the 7'6" mh already, works great up to 6xds and I haven't had any issue at all.

The bass in my avatar ran under the boat while I was reaching for the net, I wasnt paying attention and she ended up pinning my rod against the side of the boat and it ended up snapping. Well after it broke, I was going to handline the fish in, but she surfaced on the other side of the boat. So still holding the rod on one side, I netted her on the other. I just sat there for a moment in shock that I actually got her, as both the people I had with me were just staring at me as well. It was quite the experience.

Up to the point when I quit working there, the Gander reels were just badged Quantums. I don't know if that's true still but I doubt you would have any issues. For the same price, I probably wouldn't chance it and I would buy the Citica. If you're a right hander, you may also look into the new Pflueger casting reels, the 99$ one. They're new ones are capable of the 20# drag rating like the Revos, which would make it a big contender to me for an inexpensive frog reel. Haven't heard anything bad about them yet, and I've been told they can cast pretty light baits rather well.

I was just fishing a pond the other night was the only reason I had a swim jig on this rod, just mentioned it as an example. I dont use fluoro on the rod I normally throw swim jigs on either and have no issue feeling the bite with that, but I don't feel like spooling CXX on this rod. as i mentioned before, I have other rods with fluoro and braid. I know what to use those for. Thanks for the suggestions guys.

Like I mentioned first, I know they all stretch. I do want some stretch, but the line I have spooled on it now has a LOT of stretch. Not only couldnt I hardly feel the bites I got with tight line while fishing a swim jig, but I had to crank a couple turns, step back and swing back as far as I could before I even really felt like I had any pressure on the fish.

Again, I have other rods for braid. I want this mainly for jerk baits and cranks, but it will see topwater use. I don't want zero stretch, I've tried it before and found myself ripping lures out of the mouth of fish more than hooking them. I don't mind stretch, I just don't want to have to take three steps back and swing for the fence like I felt was having to do last night. The other reason I want mono is it will keep some lures from diving deeper than I want them to, and the other rods I have with fluoro I can use when I want the same lure to go deeper.

Im looking for opinions on which mono lines tend to be less stretchy. I have a 7 foot medium rod casting setup that I want to be a sort of all purpose rod. This will be mostly used for top waters like poppers and small spooks to jerk baits/crank baits. Maybe things like curl tail grubs from time to time as well. I spooled three last of the YoZuri hybrid 12# I had on it and I feel like this line has a lot of stretch. No, I'm not going to spool it with braid or fluoro. I already have a similar setup with with both other types of lines. Just looking for a suggestion for a somewhat lower stretch mono in 12#.

Actually I believe that guy caught the tying fish used live bait.

There are two piece mold available for pouring as well that will have a sprue. I pour stick baits with a two piece plaster mold that I have to cut the tip off of after pouring. The mold he linked to its an injection mold as well.

Ill pay more attention to my hooks in the future. I had heard about this happening in the past but that it had been fixed.

I have his heavy cover Honeycomb rod and I like it. Lite, sensitive, good power for punching. I have thrown swim baits on it for deep water with heavy mono, and I could feel the bottom pretty clearly with it.

Should be fine, as long as those baits are within the rating of the rod. I met a guy the other day using these rods for big musky bucktail spinners. He liked it because its powerful enough but still lite and more comfortable to throw all day.

the claims of one fish using these as a trailer are pretty false. I used these for a trailer all year at one private lake a couple years ago, and didn't go through more than two bags. I could easily get 10 or more fish before I would need to change it. This isn't like a Senko on a thin little hook, they have a good amount of surface area being threaded on a swim jig to keep it from moving and ripping easily. I never had a major issue with just the tail getting bit off, it did happen but not enough to say it's a problem. They have a pretty thick tail section to the paddle, so they don't rip very easily. When using these, I would cut the head off so that the hook would be coming out at the start of the flat spot on the back of the bait. If they were biting this, they would inhale it.