RoLo

If you've lived through the life cycle of the Palomar knot, you'll remember it skyrocketing to fame about 20 or 30 years ago, but then it fell from grace. Going full circle, the palomar knot has made a comeback of sorts instigated by the Super Line manufacturers. I've stayed the course with the Uni-knot, so I kind of missed the show Roger

Powerbait is fine, but Gulp I can do without. The Gambler Ugly Otter is as low as I go ;D Roger

Actually I have two favorite plastic craws, depending on the application: > Yum Crawbug (a hollow bodied lure) > Zoom Big Critter Craw (solid floating plastic) I find myself using green-pumpkin with orange or chartreuse claws, but I'm not aware of any color that wouldn't work equally well Roger

Tackle Warehouse (I like White Escape) Problem is, after every few casts you've got to squeeze out the water (be careful of that double Owner hook ) Roger

Had to mention the Helicopter Lure...didn't you? Oh well, so much for that secret OHHH NOOO! All these Banjo Minnows and no way to launch them Roger

Chris I'm sincerely glad that you found what you were looking for Although I wasn't as fortunate as you, I know of course that it's possible. Mine was only 12, but I don't even have a picture of her (that hurts most of all). I didn't mention it, but the hardest part of getting a skin mount (beside killing the fish) is finding a taxidermist who possesses old-school taxidermy skills. They're going the way of the dinosaur. Once a taxidermist gains a following in prototype reproductions, he quickly becomes reluctant to engage in the thankless lost-art required in a skin mount. By the way Chris, that is one gorgeous mount! If I may offer a suggestion, mount her a little further from the ceiling (given the room), more in the viewer's line-of-view. I recently lowered a pike mount that I hung too high and she gained a few pounds (I love when that happens) Roger

Hold it Right There! If it weren't for watching TV, I would've never discovered the Flying Lure and the Bango Minnow, two lures that catch bass during ALL lunar periods!! Knock-Wood, they haven't been banned so far in Florida 8-) : Roger

First off, I like what you're doing The most important feature of any artificial reef is "location", and to that end, your Depth Sounder is the No-1 tool. Above all, manmade cover should be placed at the base or crest of a steep slope (depending on depth). In other words, you'll be creating a holding site that will merge Cover with Structure. A pile of stuff lying on a flat will attract an occasional bass, but when it's placed on a drop-off it will be a true Fish Magnet. Finally, it should honor the 'priority of poverty' law, which is to say, introduce cover only where there is no cover. Roger

If I decided to have a fish mounted, it would definitely be a "Skin Mount". I would sooner go without any mount at all, than hang a replica of someone else's fish on my wall. I once looked into the fiberglass replicas (money in hand) and was not able to find one decent fish pose. Most of them had a backward reflex (banana bend), an overextended mouth or a bad tail flip. With a skin mount, you leave the taxidermist photographs or diagrams of exactly what you want. With a replica, in addition to settling for someone else's fish pose, it would take a miracle to find the mold of someone's else's fish that had the same length, girth and shape as your fish. Bottomline, I personally prefer the look of a skin mount, which in my opinion, cannot be beat (how could fake be better than real?). Today's skin mounts use the same inserted jaws and pliable acrylic fins used in fiberglass mounts and last just as long. Roger

I love hollow frogs, particularly the Boze ZZ Walker, which walks just as good as the super spook. Unfortunately most hollow frogs have a 'fatal flaw'...they eventually take on water and begin to sink!! Roger

Welcome to the forum Sjnobes You'd be hard put to find a more weedless lure than a texas-rigged plastic worm. In submergent weeds you might need 1/4 oz bullet sinker to slide through the foliage. Over a surface mat, you might need up to a 1-oz sinker to punch through the blanket. In emergent weeds, you're probably better off getting away from a plastic worm because they tend to wrap around the stalks. A fluke is a more compact lure and doesn't wrap around the emergent stems of bulrushes and cattails. Above all else, don't leave the weeds Roger

After experimenting with many combinations, I've settled on an 'unweighted' Zoom Super Fluke with a Gamakatsu 4/0 Super Line hook (0.062" diameter wire). I prefer to work the fluke about 2 feet deep and with a 4/0 heavy wire hook it sinks about 2-ft in 5 seconds. So after it rides up after a couple of twitches, wait about 5 seconds and she's back in paydirt. Roger

In tidal waters, the moon has the same powerful effect on fishing activity as the generation schedule on a riverine impoundment. In non-tidal waters however, the moon has an immeasurable effect on water flow, tidal height and fishing activity. For non-tidal waters, there are several versions of the solar & lunar effects on fishing activity. Some versions place the emphasis on lunar phases, others place the accent on moonrise and moonset while still others use some symbiotic mix of both. The fact that several versions exist smacks of retrofitting, and reminds me of the backtesting and optimizing I do when working with the price charts of stocks. One of the most popular versions of astral energy (solar/lunar) specifies the peak feeding periods as follows: The 3 days before the full moon The day of the full moon The 3 days after the full moon The 3 days before the new moon The day of the new moon The 3 days after the new moon The day of the half-moon waxing - The day of the half-moon waning That is a grand total of 16 days or 53% of the month. In other words, if fish activity were randomly and uniformly distributed throughout the month, the solunar period would experience the majority of fishing activity without any help from alleged astral energies Roger

For decades I toted around Raul's truckload of lures (actually two truckloads: one for my wife and one for myself). Only after merciless culling was I able to condense those two monstrosities. Today, the bulk of my bassing is done with "10 basic lures" and I carry them in one small tackle box. Eight out of ten are weedless, soft-plastic lures; I shrunk my hardbait arsenal to a pulp (and luvin it). Surface Lures: 3 Mid-Water Lures: 4 Bottom Lures: 3 Roger

Chartreuse Black Red Green Yellow Purple Brown Orange Blue White Watermelon Watermelonseed Pumpkin Pumpkinseed Fire Tiger Merthiolate Limetreuse Camo Tomato Red Shad Clown Marmalade Arkansas Shiner Bleeding Mackerel Fire & Ice Tequila Sunrise Nishiki Bubblegum Junebug I like many others, but those are my favorites Roger

UNI-KNOT (6 twists on each member) Roger

> What was your best fishing deal? My wife

Texas-Rigged 7.5" Ribbontail Plastic Worm w/ 1/8 oz Bullet Sinker Roger

Spinning tackle is really all that I ever use. For the most part, casting with spinning gear is a mere flick of the wrist. When the boat is positioned far away from the target area, the casting distance is generally built-in to the thrust of the cast itself without any external tweaking. However, when the boat is positioned tight to the target (pitching range), I end up feathering about half of my casts using my "reel hand" (not the rod hand). To feather the casting range, I open my left hand and hold it about 5" in front of the reel-spool. In this manner, I can feather the outgoing line in the web of my left-hand between the thumb and forefinger. Using such a large area and a separate hand gives me greater flexibility and latitude to fine-tune the friction. When I blatantly overcast my target (lure headed for the willows), I'll brake the cast in mid-flight, but for braking I use the index finger of my "right" hand (rod hand). Roger

I live smack in the center of Florida, but I'm in the Florida Mountains ;D The altitude is only 298-feet above sea level but it is the highest point in peninsular Florida (Lake Wales Ridge). This morning it was 46 degrees (11 days ago it was below freezing) BRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!! If this keeps up I'll be joining Raul in Mexico! Roger

I owned a Skyline graphite rod a loooong time ago, off a recommendation by Al Lindner. In truth, I was unimpressed with the Skyline, and wasn't aware that they're still in production. Roger

Rods that I own include St Croix, Fenwick, Daiwa, Shimano Triton, Penn Slammer, Kunnan, Challenger, Captain's Choice, Johnny Morris, Bionic Blade and a few custom-built rods. Based purely on "feel" and "versatility" I'm partial to Daiwa Rods. Roger

The lesser the diameter and the more slender the float, the sooner it will telegraph a bite with the least amount of resistance. In contrast, a wide diameter float will not begin to sink until a greater amount of force is applied. The "Ball Float" suffers from two disadvantages: 1. It doesn't bob up-and-down as readily, making it harder to notice a light bite 2. It applies more resistance to the fish early-on, before the float is submerged. When panfishing, "always" opt for the "Slim-Jim" style float. ================================================================================ When fishing for 6 to 12 pound bass with live shiners, light bites and resistance are not an issue. For this reason we normally use party balloon where the shape of the float is happenstance. I generally tell my guest, blow it up to the size of a chicken egg (that'll work) ;-) Roger

MUCHO PRETTIER THAN BAITSLINGING GEAR

If it lacks memory, then it lacks fluorocarbon. Reducing the memory of fluorocarbon is what inspired copolymer lines (hybrid lines). By blending nylon with fluorocarbon you end up with line-memory somewhere between the two (there's no magic). Roger