.ghoti.

Never tried an infrared thermometer. No reason it shouldn't work. I try not to get hung up on water temperature. It is what it is. In the summer it's pretty warm. In the spring and fall it's cooler, and in the winter it's hard. In the summer, if you want find cooler water, fish a little deeper. In the early year, cool water times, if you want to fish the warmest water, find a shallow protected bay with a dark bottom. It's not like you're gonna say "well the water temp is 48, let's drive around 'till we find some 75 degree water". Just noticed that this sounds rather snotty. I didn't intend it that way. Please don't take it that way. I have one of the BPS thermometers that Falcon recommended. I don't use it much at all.

might be an inverted dorkfish

I caught quite a few two to four pound bass on a Storm Swimbait, and a few five's. I don't use the big ten inchers, for the same reason you proposed. Here in the middle of Illinois, an 8 is a giant. I've had the most success targeting deeper structure, cast out, letting it hit the bottom, and cranking it back just fast enough to get the tail wiggling. I'll pause and let it sink back on tight line from time to time, whenever I think it's gotten too far from the bottom. This retrieve works well with the storm baits. Some of them will not run true at higher speeds, and I've found no way to correct this. They seem to track well at low speeds. Experiment with speed in shallow water where you can see what's happening. When you get it just fast enough to get the tail moving, speed up just slightly, and you'll find the right speed to make the bait do a kind of side to side searching action. That's the right speed, and the right triggering action. If it won't do that, throw it away and get another one out of the bag. To answer your first question, I don't do this very often. It's a lot of casting for a few fish. I tend to bring these baits out when my regular offerings either aren't working, or I'm just catching dinks. This is the most neglected part of my arsenal, and I intend to build up my stock of bigger baits over the winter, and buy a rod suited for this tactic. I currently use a Quantum Tour Edition rod; a 7' MH that's not quite stout enough for some of the big plastic swim baits. Cheers, GK

Don't know of a website other than Reel Mechanic's to show you the way. But, it's not hard. I've been doing mine for quite a while. Step 1 Take the reel apart, all the way. Step 2 Clean to remove all grease, oil, and other junk. I used to use Dawn dish soap. I now use Simple Green. It's easier to rinse off. Step 3 re-assemble and lube; grease on the gears, oil for everything else. Step 4 casting test. I leave the old line on the spool because sometimes I don't get everything back together exactly right, and the casting test will find that out before i get out on the water. This problem seems to be mainly with graphite framed reels. the all metal reels don't give me much of a problem when re-assembled. Step 5 new line. If you've never taken that particular reel apart, you should probably have the schematic on hand. You're gonna end with a lot of small parts. It can be very easy to forget where each one is supposed to go. I dump everything in an old margarine tub with boiling water and Simple Green, swish it about for a while and let it soak. An old toothbrush is just fine for the stubborn stuff. A hot water rinse using a mesh tea stainer and an air dry is all it takes after that, though I sometimes help it along with a hair dryer. A buddy of mine uses an old ultrasonic jewelry cleaner, and claims that it works great. I haven't tried that, but if I ever find one at a garage sale, I'll be trying it out. Good luck, and if you screw it up, Reel Mechanic can put it back together for you. PM me if you get stuck, and maybe I can help over the phone. RM would be your best bet though. Cheers, GK

DUH! I can't believe I missed the second one. DUH!

Glad to see you back in the game, my friend. Now, don't overdo it. Ya hear? Nice picture, for a change. Cheers, GK

I have two L&T casting rods, a 6'3" and a 7', both medium power. I consider them the best bang for the buck out there. I have rods from Setyr, Airrus, St Croix and BPS that all cost more, that I don't like as well, or use as often, as those two L&T's. Cheers, GK

Also try cranking them slower. A lot of the storm baits are speed sensitive. Cheers, GK

I'm in agreement with the natural. Attractant is the wrong term. I've proven to my satisfaction that some scents/flavors work by masking odors and flavors I've added during handling. Power Bait works. Salt impregnated baits work. Anise works. Garlic works, except for crappie; they seem to hate it. And yes, megastrike works. Salt added baits are a waste of time and make a big mess in my plastics bags. If the salt is not impregnated in the bait, it's a total waste of time. Adding salt to the bags is a good way to insure that I will not buy them. I do know that I very seldom gut-hooked a bass until I started using Power Baits and Yamamoto baits. There are times when you have to be quick on the trigger, when using these two baits, or you'll be removing hooks from guts. Cheers, GK

That's a wels. Native to some European rivers.

done. Does it still count if I passed a little gas when I bent over?

Well said, Hoover. I don't know who you were before, but welcome back. I know I've been guilty in the past of making some smart-arsed comments. I hope nothing I said caused you to leave. Good thread LBH. A little something here for all to think about. I too have been thinking about how to reply to this. Hoover beat me to the punch, and said it better than I would have, so I'll shut up. Cheers, GK

I've had this problem also. A Rubbermaid tote will solve that problem. Here in central Illinois we don't see minus 20 very often, but we do get to zero or a little below often enough. I've never had any plastics ruined by the cold. The mid summer heat is another story. I've lost quite a few packs of plastics to the heat. Storing Power Baits in the house is strictly verboten, so I loose some every year. Just the price of doing business. Cheers, GK

I'm curious if you would mind share your results... like the actual scale readings at the point the lines/knots broke, and which # test. flechero, I have the numbers on a couple of sheets of notebook paper. I'll try to get them into a spreadsheet next week. I'll e-mail it to you if you like. There are some curious and inconsistent results that pretty much have to be the results of poor knot tying. I've always considered myself to be good with knots. Former Boy Scout, you know. The main thing I proved was that I'm not a good knot tyer. Got a busy week going and a fishing trip this weekend, so it will be the middle of next week at the earliest. Cheers, GK

Anybody else take a look at the back pages? Wish I had the nerve to try this out. Cheers, GK

Not so, my friend. They area actually pretty good table fare. I end up killing one every now and then. Usually when the fish sucks in a big jerk bait and gets a treble or two in the gills. One of the rules I was raised with was; if you kill it, you eat it. I release all of them I can. For such big, strong fish, they are rather easily killed when out of the water. Handle them carefully, and get them back in the water as soon as possible. You need a BIG net, good grips, very long nose pliers, and long wire leaders. Those little 9" and 12" pre-made wire leaders are not long enough. My best baits have been Brody swimbaits and big Yum Dingers. The 9" forked tail ones. It's almost time to get after them. By the end of the month, it will be cool enough to get the big boys headed upstream in the Lake Shelbyville tailwater area. Cheers, GK

Awesome fish, and an awesome story. You, sir are an inspiration to the rest of us mere mortals. I've never caught a sturgeon. Would love to give it a shot. I will, too. I'll be retiring in a few years, and the plan is to travel a lot, and catch as many species of fish as I can, in as many different places as I can. Chris made an excellent point. All of us live in range of some "other" fish, some of which grow to incredible size. We need to take some time and go after some of them. It's almost time to get after the muskies in my area. I can't wait. Cheers, GK

Brooks, it's probably the rod you're using, not the reel. You'll need a softer rod to throw an unweighted Power worm with a baitcaster. The key to good casting is matching the lure weight to the rod, or vice versa. The bait needs to be heavy enough to load (flex) the rod on the backcast. For unweighted plastic worms, you need a really soft tip. Either of the reels you have shaould be able to do what you want, if they're matched to the right rod. What size line are you using. Lighter line may be something you need to try. Cheers, GK

Some of the recent threads had me thinking. And no, I didn't strain any delicate parts, thanks for asking. I decided to do some of my own tests after seeing some interesting testing results. I taped some foam rubber around my clothesline cross piece, to act as a buffer, wrapped the lines around it and pulled down on the hook with my Rapala Lok-N-Weigh. Not really scientific, but consistent enough for comparisons. I used a 5/0 EWG superline hook and 10 and 12lb test lines since these are what I use most. The lines were Trilene XL, Sufix Elite, and Transition. Mono, Co-polymer and flouro. Those are what I had on hand. I used Palomar, Clinch and San Diego Jam knots. Those are the knots I use. I have a theory to test. I won't get into all the numbers, but for mono and co-polymer lines the Palomar knot was the clear winner. I broke the line as often as the knot when testing these. When using the other two knots, the break occured at the knot every time; and at a lower break weight. When testing the flouro line, in every test the knot failed. And all were in the same range of breaking strengths. Close enough to be an insignificant difference. What was interesting was the range of breaking strengths I found. Very inconsistent results in my admittedly unscientific tests. I believe that I proved my theory. A simple theory: it's the knot tier, not the knot. The most consistent knot, the Palomar. The most inconsistent knot, the clinch knot. What did i prove? That I need to work on my knots. I tried to be as even handed as I could be for this process. I tried to tie every knot the same, and as well as I could. I think I also proved that I tie a Jam knot better than I tie a clinch knot, and that I tie a Palomar knot better than I tie a Jam knot. I think that's all any of the knot tests prove. That whomever tied them has as much, if not more, effect on the results as the knots themselves. Some food for thought. Cheers, GK

Interesting thread. I didn't know anybody still did this. Back in the "day", when line wasn't what it is now, and the Mitchell 300 was the best you could buy, you had to backreel. The drags were just not that good. With IAR bearings, good drag systems and consistent line, who needs to take a chance. Let your equipment do what it was designed to do. It will do it better than you can. Cheers, GK

I'm interested too. I'd like to hear if you think the new rods are "worth" that much more than what you've been using. If I came home from the tackle shop with what you came home with, I'd still be unconscious. Cheers, GK

that poor fish needs some Preparation H

I had it 3 rounds to 3, with Taylor ahead by one point due to the second round knock down.

Now that's some funny stuff, right there.

What size braid are you using. The reason I ask is shock strength. Braid has a very low shock strength because it has so little stretch. If your using 30lb test, or less, that may be your problem. Cheers, GK