Crookedneck

That and holding them horizontal by the bottom jaw with one hand. Do some research on that once....I used to do it till I read up on it. Now two hands if they are horizontal. If I can only use one hand, the fish is vertical.

I hear you on where you are at in life.... I just got a 17.5' boat this last year. Saved up and paid cash. Only difference was I wanted an aluminum, v-bottom bass boat (not the easiest rig to find), as I fish the Menominee River, north of Green Bay, WI. And the water can get pretty skinny, and when the water gets skinny, there are rocks... My advice is this, 2 options. 1.) Get your step dad to start fishing tournements with you and use his boat. Spend the time with him. Save your money until you find exactly what you are looking for. 2.) After you get the boat checked out by a good marine mechanic, then buy it. My boat is fine with just me fishing. I am not afraid to take it into big water under the right conditions. I have taken it into some rough water on the mouth of the bay when others won't even attempt it. Having my own boat is awesome. My level of confidence and ability grew 100% last year. Fishing 2 people in a tournement isn't bad out of my boat. You just have to be organized. For me cost was a factor. I didn't want a payment. I didn't want to burry myself. And in the end my boat catches just as many fish as some of the others. And every once in a while, more... Spend what you are comfortable spending. Don't burry yourself. It is alot more fun fishing out of a boat that belongs to you straight up. Then use your winnings and savings to buy another one in a couple years. Good luck! Mike

$1 spinner baits at Wally world

You will not need CP for either.

So my brother and I have two very different methods of fishing. I'm huge into bass. He is a die hard fly fisherman. For Christmas I built him (actually still building) him a new switch rod. And in turn he is tying me some tube flys. He uses these for fishing steelhead and browns. I thought they would work great on a a T-rig. A hair jig-rigged T-rig. I'll call it the WinkRig. It is a fly wrapped around a piece of plastic tubing. Your thoughts? Sorry for the pics..taken with my phone..

I suppose it would depend on the caliber of the pro. There are several "Pro's" who enter smaller tournements around here. Some are very good and I always enjoy pitting my abilities against them, sometimes they do well, sometimes they struggle. Then there are the few who I chuckle at when I see them pull up to the registration. I think the term pro in all honestly, is a very select few.

I carry a Cross Knife in the woods. it is a very resonably priced custom. It is a small drop point knife that is perfect in the field. It is made here in the United States using an A2 tool steel (carbon steel). The steel is all domestic steel. Sharp isn't even close to explaining the edge. And the knife is warrantied for the life of the knife maker. Carbon steel has it's advantages if you take care of it.

Top notch work Scott! Great fit and finish all the way around. Love the cork and wood. Steve K. from realseats has some awesome wood and you did it justice! Mike

Not my biggest but one from this year Took my buddy fishing one day and this was his biggest smallie This is the biggest of the year caught it with my stepson. This fish has got to be one of the ugliest. But, he makes up for his dark ugly self by being a pig of a smallie

Here is a picture of the one I built several years ago. I like it and haven't needed to do any thing else. What you don't see is that there is another portion a separate stand, simular to the ones you attach with the dowel, I use it for for supporting the rod. I purchased a couple thread tensioners and used small key hooks on the front of the wrapper to run my thread through. The big metal knob allows me to adjust the right side of the wrapper. I put felt on the inside of my Y's. You can get it at Wally world that has an adhesive backing. And I use a couple of my wifes nylon/elastic hair ties for tenson on the blank. Just another option. Maybe to give you some thing to think about.

I haven't used the KVD brand. I use Reelmajic on my braid and it works well. Less tangles. It says it can't be used on Floro. So I'm thinking I will try the KVD brand too.

I had small club tourney last night. I was so confident in my location last night that I told my partner to fill the live well right after live well checks. The tourney started, and 18 minutes into the tourney I had my 5 fish limit. I finished first but agian, missed out on big fish. It sure is alot of fun dink dropping 3lbers 20 minutes into the tourney. All of my fish came out of shallow water throwing a 3/8 oz spinner bait in chartruse and orange with a single colorado blade. Here are a few from my bag.

Spinner baits will get ya a few. I like to use 1/2 - 3/4 oz in the current. Keep your tip up, reel just fast enought to keep the spinner baits above the snags. I like a willow/colorado mix. Right now they are tearing up the spinnerbaits up here by me.

It can be done. Islandbass actually did a good job cleaning up the blank, but he is correct about using heat and sandpaper you run the risk of damage to the blank. I would recommend removing the entire grip. Then turning new grips to your liking. Then installing both the rear grip and fighting butt from the rear. This will allow for a better finish on the cork. The appearance of the exposed blank portion may not be the greatest. But, an experienced, skilled builder will be able to make it look good. The weight savings is probably not going to make a very big difference. A few grams at best, and it probably won't be very noticable. If you are going for fit - function and look then I say go for it. Cost depends on who you send it too. Prior to doing it, tell them what you want and have them give you options. Good luck

Not sure about the Ohio but I had the same battle here. I combatted it by finding moving shallow water. Find a place where the water is moving through the rocks, the current through the rocks will create oxygen, that is where they will be. Use spinner baits, square billed cranks, top water. If you happen to find deeper pocket bounce of the bottom

I was using white & yellow with a chartreuse trailer

DT & Bob gave some good info. Currently there is no grading scale that is all inclusive when it comes to this. I think a lot of it is marketing. One companies IM7 or 8 can be totally different than the next. So too can the powers & actions. DT hit the nail on the head when he said taper, material & thickness all affect a blanks construction

Not sure why I wasn't smiling.... these were caught on the Menominee River about an hour north of Green Bay, Wi. I'm sure these were fish that moved in off the bay.

We took first but did not get big fish. Another boat saw us catch 3 right away and fished the same area. He only caught one fish, but it was a slob of a fish that was 20" long and weighed 5 lbs 13 oz. It was so fat it looked deformed. The one I'm holding in my left hand, (I'm the one not smiling in the blue shirt) is 19 3/4" and weighed in at 5 lbs 2 oz.

Great looking smallies!

Had a small 3 hour tourney last night. 20 minutes into the tourney we had three slobs in the boat. All these fish came on a 3/4 oz spinner bait with a willow and colorado blade combo. All of them came in 1-5' of water. It was fun, considering the last couple weeks have been tough.

Great looking cranks Ben!

Great finish on that rod! A++

Use a line conditioner it will help with some of the backlash issues.

A 10# bass, largemouth or smallmouth in this part of the country is going to be hard to come by. Not saying it isn't possible, just hard to do. The state records for largemouth in MI and Wi are 11 lbs'ers the smallmouth records are both 9lbs'ers. MN large and smallmouth records are both in the 8lbs range. Iowa smallmouth record is a 7lbs'er, it's largemouth record is a 10lbs'er, Illinois smallmouth is only a 6lbs'er and the largemouth record is 11lbs. Lake Michigan and Superior probably hold the key to coming close, but plan on spending hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades.....trying. I'm not saying they aren't out there, just saying good luck in the north. I would recommend heading south. The southern states have a longer growing season due to warmer weather. Good luck