.ghoti.

the buddhist who refused novocain during a root canal? He wanted to transend dental medication.

Valascus, I had the same thoughts when I first got some of these baits. I caught nothing on them in shallow water. But, I've caught a bunch in deeper wtaer. I let "em hit the bottom and crank em just fast enough to feel the wiggle and pause to let them hit the bottom from time to time, just to make sure that I'm staying close to the bottom. I also yo-yo "em, rather like a jig retrieve, only faster. I'm mostly in agreement with patb, I can do better with a crankbait or a spinnerbait. In my opinion, the results for this bait just don't match the hype. Good luck, GK

darn it, Keith, a middle aged, 6'1" 240lb man is not supposed to be sitting in front of his pc with tears in his eyes. You may be assured, I will be passing this one along. Thanks, GK

The line farther in on the spool is being flattened by the line wrapped on top of it. All mono will do this, all of the blended lines I've tried will do this. I suspect that pure flouro will also do this over time. If you've lost enough line off the reel to get down to the flattened stuff, your too low on line anyway. It's time to re-spool. Save yourself some cash. Don't take all the old line off. Use a back-to-back uni knot or a blood knot to tie the new line to the old. You'll only have to put on 75 yards or less. I've been doing this for quite a while. I have a bunch of reels, both spinning and casting, and this saves me a lot. I have several reels with backing line at least 7 or 8 years old on them. Good luck, GK

No matter how hard you try, you can't baptize the cat. When mom is mad at dad, don't let her brush your hair. If your sister hits you, don't hit back. They always catch the second one. Never ask a two year old to hold a tomato. You can't trust the dog to watch your food. You can't hide a piece of broccoli in a glass of milk. Don't sneeze when someone is cutting your hair. Puppies still have bad breath, even after eating a tic-tac. Never hold a dust buster and a cat at the same time. School lunches stick to the wall.

In stocks today; helium was up, feathers were down,paper was stationary, flourescent tubes were steady in light trading, knives were up sharply, pencils were down a few points, elevators were up and down, escalators experienced a decline, mining equipment hit rock bottom, sun peaked at mid-day, the market for raisins dried up, vacuum cleaners picked up, caravans were trailing, socks were unchanged, balloon prices were inflated, and the bottom fell out of disposable diapers. Just thought you needed to know the latest.

Custom builders have been making split grip rods for quite a while, so the demand seems to be there. I'm beeting that the major rod making companies will be jumpimg on this bandwagon in the near future. Just expect to pay a bit more for the same rod. Besides, they just look good.

Sounds like you have the right gear. And the change to flouro will probably work out for you. I started using flouro for most of my cranks, and will continue. GMAN got it right, deep crankin is not the way to build confidence in crankbaits. My all time best producing cranks are Shad Raps. I like to work the 2'-8' range. I carry just a couple of colors, but all the sizes. They are hard to beat. Crank it down, then start an erratic retrieve. Rip it, puase it, twitch it, jerk it, anything but a steady crank. And try to run it into something. Most of my fish have bit just after the bait ran into something. Logs, rocks, even the bottom is a good deflector. You may loose a few, but you'll catch a lot more fish banging the bait into whatever you can find. Good luck, GK

Welcome aboard. If you'll look at the top of the page, you'll find a link to the Fishing Articles section. There is a ton of good stuff there. I spent a lot of time there, and still do. Good luck, GK

Back when I was using braid, I only used two knots. Uni-knot for anything with trebles, and a palomar for everything else. Never had any problems, once I learned to check for perfection, and retie as necessary. You just have to be a perfectionist when it comes to knots. Google knots, amd you'll find more than you need. animatedknots.com is pretty good.

I have two JM rods, two JM reels and one Rick Clunn rod. All have been just fine. I put the JM rod, when it's on sale, which it is fairly often, at or near the top of my "best bang for the buck" list.

I'll relate a story, just for you, young man. A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, ( back when I was your age ) a fellow high school student, a couple of years older, got drunk, went on a road trip, crashed and burned, killing himself and four others. One young man survived as a total invalid. The drivers father, a man a few words, insisted that the casket be open at the funeral. Many of us attended. None of us ever forgot what he looked like. It was the worst thing I've ever seen. I can still see him, in my mind, 34 years later. I almost wish I could send you a picture. It would make your decision, up to this point, to not drink look like pure genius. Stick to your guns, buddy. It sounds like you are being wise beyond your years. Besides, what's so cool about being drunk? You can stumble around, fall down and slur your stupid comments. The ladies really go for that. You can puke, over and over. Now that's a real turn on. You can wet your pants, or worse. That'll have the young lovelies lining up to hang with you. You can pass out. Go to a party some time just to see what happens to the ones who pass out. It's real hoot. You can end up in jail. There are a lot of weird, misguided women around the country, writing nice letters to convicts. I'm sure you can hook up with one of them. Or you can end up dead. enough said. It's all up to you, man. Just remember, what ever you do, don't drive a car when you've been drinking. Don't get in the car with other drunks either. Good luck, GK

I'd say she's stepped up to plate nicely. Now it's your turn, if you want to keep her.

The Blade Dancer has caught a heck of lot more fishermen than fish. Add me to list. I bought several, couldn't catch a cold with "em.

Avid, I thought you were an "avid" user of braid. Try it on your spinning reel. Just remember to close the bail by hand, not by cranking. I used to use braid on one of my spinners, and the loops you get when closing the bail by cranking are much worse with braid than with mono. Having said that, I use Trilene XL on all my spinning reels. I'll try others, and always end up back with the XL. It's pretty hard to beat. Use some Reel Magic on the line before you go out. It helps. best wisshes for a speedy recovery. Do what the doc tells ya. Good luck, GK

George, That was a perfect explanation. Well done, GK

Here's one I found a little while back. It's ok, not great. http://fishinglures.spaces.live.com/ The tackletour guys do a decent job of staying on top of new developments in high end gear, I just wouldn't rely on them for objective advice. They tend to become positively giddy about anything really expensive coming out of Japan. I don't remember ever reading a bad review on any of the stuff they've tested. Probably keeps the freebies coming in. This one is interesting. http://www.tacklefiles.net/

Check out Reelmech's website. Look at how he does balancing. that will give you some tips on removing the butt cap, so you can reuse it. After that you're on your own. I've never tried this. Let us know how you do. I have a couple of older rods that would be better, in my opinion, with a shorter handle. Good luck, GK

What size line is it? If memory serves, that is line designed for crappie fishing. It may be too light for bass fishing. I'm using 12lb Transition for jig fishing. Just started using a jig a lot this year, and I've found that you have to be a line watcher. For me that rules out clear line. It's too hard for me to see. Transition is clear underwater and a bright yellowish color in the sunlight. I can see it very well. If you can see clear line, then go ahead with it. If that free line you have is 10 or better, might as well give it a shot. It's free, right? Good luck, GK

I use mostly 10 for cranks. I'll use 8 and 12 sometimes. All things being equal, 8 will get the bait deeper than 12. As long as the 8 is smaller diameter than the 12. I've heard some pros say they change line sizes to get different running depths, so maybe they're wanting a particular bait to run a bit shallower. I don't try to do that. I don't have the space to carry around that many rods and reels with all the different combinations.

For plastics, which is what's on my line most of the time, I don't think color is particularly important. No where near as important as depth and speed. Black/blue, red shad, dark green, and dark brown will be all I'm carrying next year. For cranks, all I think I need is basic baitfish colors for swimming, and basic craw colors for bottom bouncing. And a few with some chartreuse for dirty water conditions. White, white/chart and chartreuse get the nod for spinnerbaits, with a few black for night fishing. I'm going to eliminate about 2/3 of the baits I carry around by sticking to this scheme for colors.

Don't know what all the brew-ha-ha was. I missed it. Don't need to know. It would be a poor world without forgiveness given for mistakes made. Welcome back. Now, let's see the carp, please. Cheers, GK

Walkin the dog with a Pop-R or a Skitterpop is deadly, and nearly impossible when the line is tied directly to the bait. I used a loop knot for a while to facilitate this retrieve, but i can't seem to get a loop knot tied worth a hoot. Lost quite a few fish, and baits, to bad loop knots. I don't know what my malfunction is, but I gave up and started using split rings on my poppers. Works much better for me. If you're using the pop and stop retrieve, this probably has little or no advantage. I like the oval rings better than round ones. I started putting those on all my cranks that see regular use. tp://www.basspro.com/servlet/catalog.TextId?hvarTextId=30197&hvarDept=100&hvarEvent=&hvarClassCode=10&hvarSubCode=5&hvarTarget=browse

Shad Rap shad color Frenzy rattler black/chrome

If that doesn't put a smile on your face, you'd best make an appointment with the wig mechanic.