webertime

Unless you hit a Moose or perhaps a Cow at high speeds you will not damage the Powderhound. I used to work is ski/bike shops and we had one come back for a warranty (someone tried to break into it and just messed the thing up). Yakima asked that we destroy the box... 3 of us took hammers and ourselves to it and the thing (when closed) laughed at our efforts. A sawsall on the other hand, showed it who's man. Get some foam padding(~1/8" - 1/4" thick) for the bottom and sides to prevent too much slippage and marring of the rod and you should be fine for a long time.

Hags Undertaker is a great Shaky Bait (and C-Rig as well). http://www.***.com/Hags_Undertaker/descpage-HUT.html

That's my exact same set up for fishing them as well. Try lubing them with a little Megastrike and toss them into some serious junk.

I know a couple guys that swear by the Crucial flipping rod. http://www.americanlegacyfishing.com/shimano-crucial-7-6-heavy-crc76h-flipping-casting-rod.html sign up for their newsletter emails and get a $25 off coupon. Should be ~$115 shipped.

Cat's out of the bag!

I just got another one for $97 shipped five minutes ago! (pm me if you want to know where) I love my 51!

We rescued a baby Redwing Blackbird when I was a kid, we named him Yappy and he survived and thrived! Mix a bit of water with some wet dog food, far easier and cheaper than worms.

We get them on Champlain Smallies all the time. Little pick/sting, that hurt like heck and get red and swollen for a few days. Unless it's oozing something or you have red lines/patches ratiating from the wounds (go to Dr.) then you have to just wait them out. In our club tournaments nobody wants to be the weigh-master because they are all sick of getting stabbed by the smallies.

Check your Local Dick's out, they are having 25% of anything ending in .97. I found a 6'6" St. Croix Avid Medium for $120 at mine.

http://dponthefly.blogspot.com/2011/05/its-pickin-up.html This river is, at it's widest, is as wide as a road in your neighborhood. I've fallen in a pool that is 5.5' deep and that's the deepest pool we found on this river. Little rivers/creeks are some of the best waters around since they are often overlooked. Check the rest of that guy's blog out, pretty cool stories about carp from flooded yards, random Largies in a trout stream, he's nutty for warm water fly fishing.

I can totally feel it in your writing! Reminds me of College!

If it's Rocky use Mojo Rockhoppers weights If it's super weedy us thin/pencil Mojo (forgot the name) weights, My favorite C-Rig baits (produced 2 5lb Smallies) are Rage Craws and Smokin' Roosters along with Zoom Speedcraws. Sebile Magic Swimmers work really well as a C-Rig bait. Shallow water/small pond go with a 4' leader. It's a lot of fun sitting there going "fish?! nope rock, FISH?! nope weeds, FI..!!! Oh yeah that's a big one!"

The 6'6" should not be all that tip heavy, if at all. Go for it! You're a good dude for this. Doctors say that to sort of scare/impress the importance of proper care to their patients. I blew my ankle up when I was 21 and got the same arthritis by 30 statement. I'm 33 now and it does get stiff from time to time (wah wah wah...) however my ankle is 100%. I took care of it and didn't rush my rehab, once I was ok to go be an idiot again I wore support. Tell him to keep his chin up stay active (but don't abuse his body) and he will be good to go for a long time.

I "THINK" there's more salt in the Ika and the Palm Tree is available in more goofy colors. Both catch fish.

The key is forage. If there are enough Perch/Shiners than the Walleye won't have too much of an effect on the Bass. Heck Walleye are notoriously canibalistic so they can eat themselves out of existence. I wouldn't worry about the bass is there is enough forage base for all the Walleye and Bass.

Just made my first purchase (and Birthday Present to myself!)

THE Weber Rig!!! Slip an O-ring around a craw about ~1/3 up from the tail. Slide a nail weight in the tail. Use a wacky hook or flick shack jig head under the O-ring. The weight in the tail causes it to hang a bit, so when you move it through the water is sort of folds under just like a real crawfish's tail does, when you stop is sort of swings back out. Slow hops seem to work best. I've used it with Vaquero Craws, Hag's Undertakers, Rage Craws of all sizes, Yamamoto Craws and Zoom Speed Craws with it, the Hag's worked best (soft and hollow so it moved a bit more).

Citica pulls in 27" of line per handle turn, the curado 51 pulls 25". I have both a nd love both, but the curado is sick!

Field and Stream as mentioned above or go to Monster Tackle, they have Skeet Reese's rods for $58-$68...

I lost 10 DS weights yesterday and I need to replace them now. I was just wondering what you guys all used for non-lead weights (no lead 1/2oz or less in VT). I'll be using them in rocks and occasionally weeds so I do prefer the skinny shape over the ball. We DS'd an old wreck yesterday, it was brutal on tackle but the fish were incredible. I'm hooked on the DS now!

I can't fish, but I just spent 60 of the last 72 hours fishing Champlain. The spawn is over, Smallies ended about 2 weeks ago and the Largemouths are about a month now, males were guarding Fry and the Momma Bass were all skinny 2 weeks ago. This weekend we boated about 65lbs of Largemouths and the girls were getting thicker. The water is 68-72 and the weeds are pathetically behind where they should be. The flooding really messed up the weeds this year. We found the best weeds (Milfoil) to be out on humps/points that are off shore and had clearer water during this spring's debacle. Even "good" spots were still pretty small. Today we ran into guys from Peru, NY and they said the grass is way behind down there as well. WOOD WOOD WOOD is the key... Flooded Timbers AND Wood that was washed out into the lake by all the rivers during the wet spring. No good weeds... Wood will do! If there are weeds around the wood even better. We were in Missisquoi Bay (about as far from where you'll be as you can get on the lake) and figured out a great pattern that revolved around wood. Today in St. Albans Bay we Drop Shot-ed some really nice fish from old wrecks, again, wood came into play... Keep in mind the Pro's will be up (down) there for an Everstart Tournament and there is another Open tournament out of Larabee's (just north or Orwell) so you will have a lot of company down there. PM me if you have any questions, I am writing this on 2 hours sleep and a pretty rad case of sun brain, so I might not be super clear. PS the Northerns are out of control, have the pliers ready, they love them some crankbaits!

Which model? The floating one? I'm heading out now to give my floating one a whirl. It does seem very soft out of the package.

The Green/Blue sparkle Pitboss is $$$$$$!

All my rigs. BOLD are what I bring on tournaments Spinning: Lamiglas Excel 703 (7' ML) with a Plueger Supreme XT 1030, spooled with 10lb PP and 6lb YoZuri Hybrid. [Finesse, River] BPS Extreme (6'8" M) with a Shimano Sahara 3000, spooled with 30lb Tufline and 20lb PP. [ugly Finesse, Skipping, Wife Rod] Field and Stream IM7 2pc (6'6" M) with a Shimano Sonora 2500 with 8lb Fluoro. [Pack/Exploring on MTB or Hike] Casting: Kistler Magnesium (6'6" MH) with a Shimano Citica 201E spooled with 50lb Tufline and a 12 lb YoZuri Leader. [spinnerbaits, Swimjigs, Ikas and Senkos] Lamiglas Excel 734 (7'3" M) with a Cabela's Prodigy (Diawa Tierra/Advantage) spooled with 12lb Seaguar Red Label. [Cranks, Topwater, Jerkbaits] Abu Veritas 705 (7' MH) with a Shimano Curado 51E, spooled with 10lb Big Game. [T & Carolina Rigs, finess jigs, Senkos] E21 Carrot Stick LTX (7'6" H) with a Shimano Curado 201E7, spooled with 40lb PP. [Flippin'/Pitchin', Frogs, Carolina Rigs, Swimbaits] BPS Nitro (7'10" H) with a BPS PQ 7.1:1 spooled with 50lb PP. [Flippin'/Pitchin' Swimbaits] Fly: Orvis Green Mountain 8' 6wt. with matching Orvis Reel, Cortland 444 WF line.

Colorado Blade Spinnerbait & Louder Cranks too. I like throwing swimbait (6" Hudds and the such) in the rain since the splash they make is somewhat tempered by the rain, maybe it's in my head but it seems to work.