Hyrule Bass

i bought one booyah spinnerbait in white about 5-6 years ago. it has been a bass slayer for me. ive caught a ton of fish on it. amazingly the skirt is even still holding up. its my favorite spinnerbait of the ones i own...

i dont believe in "search baits" because it could be any bait. i start with what i feel will work well, then adjust from there. could be a berkley power worm one day, a senko the next, a crank the next, a top water the next, then a spinnerbait, etc etc etc...

at the beginning of the summer, start him off with one of the 20 dollar shakespeare tiger spinning combos from walmart. i had one for years until i gave it to my uncle because i stripped the handle from screwing in on the left side and cant reel with my right. the reel still worked great though. i would do this for his payment for the first lawn cut and work. now its obviously he will be doing more than $20 in work a day. so id also give him a few hooks, sinkers, plastics, couple lures or so, to get him started. and then work out cash payments the rest of the summer. and if he does a great job on the yard work the rest of the year, give him a better combo as a bonus at the end of the summer.

no lure is worth getting hypothermia, next time you should just snap the line...

id feel better in a boat than on the bank if i was fishing with gators. if i was bank fishing id stand way back. they would make me really nervous and cautious. i'd probably focus on them more than my fishing. just might not enjoy that regularly, from the bank that is. snakes are another thing im terrified of, if a snake of any type is around im gone. i was in NC back in february, and my bro in law had to kill a copperhead in his backyard, in freaking february. there were a few warm days, but dang, it wont that warm...sucker blended right in with the pine straw...

since i havent bought a single new bait all winter, this is the year i use all those baits i bought past winters and havent used or have used very little....

wow, some impressive lists. ive been nowhere lol. Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia, Maryland, Washington DC...

id recommend both the trion and the cardinal. i have one of both, both came with spare spools. the cardinal i think is going on year 6 this year and the trion is going on year 4. both still work flawlessly and have had ZERO maintenance.

tomahawks =D

bluebasser, those are some terrific lake stripers yall got there. my biggest striper out of a lake doesnt break 30 inches, i believe its 27.5 inches. that 42 incher i posted above was caught out of the chesapeake bay in salt water trolling big umbrella rigs...

this is why i debate with myself about ever trying braid. seems more trouble than its worth. i have none of these breakoff problems with mono, not on a cast or a fish. no backing to deal with or putting sticky tape on my reel, etc...

HA! so ummm...you dont use braid either? i was thinking of using it on one reel this year though... either way though, you see, people are still offering up different tools and what not...and having a few good laughs. and this thread was considered unworthy a few days ago :smh:

i dont really set fishing goals, i let things come to me. of course i want to get better at it, just dont see a need to set goals. Less pressure of meeting goals = more relaxation while fishing...

i believe abu-garcia puts serial numbers on the reel foot, not sure of lews though, but could be a place to check...

yeah, my experience doesnt sound as bad as yours, as after piercing my tshirt and jeans the front treble barely went into my leg, atleast not past the barb it didnt, and the rear treble went through my shirt and jeans and the hook stopped in my back pocket. what made my situation difficult was the way the hooks were embedded. if i pulled one end with the pliers trying to rip it out of my clothes the other treble wanted to bury itself further. it was a tough deal with only needle nose pliers. if i had the cutters then i could of just cut them out quickly and got back to fishing, and not had to worry about if pulling one treble out was gonna pull the other one in. i bought the cutters for the sole reason of if i buried a hook into myself somewhere. also, next time my uncle says lemme pull the boat over there to that tree limb and you can get your lure out of it, im gonna let him do it instead of insisting on yanking it hard a few times...

safety glasses doesnt stop a 100mph lure headed for your leg, arm, body, etc...i know from experience last year. had a crankbait fly out of a tree after i jerked it, went 100mph into my leg. luckily not past the barb. but the way the hooks were in, pulling on one to get it out, pulled the other treble into me. for this reason alone i finally bought some side cutters for this season. wouldve been much easier to cut those hooks out then pull them against each other with pliers...

jigs, never had much luck with them.

ive never caught a thing on roboworms

6-8lb mono

what a waste of line, there is no need to change mono once a week. someone must've brainwashed you into that... i used to use trilene xl a lot. never had any problems with it, other than it would fray easily. however i just switched to sufix seige last year to try something new, it helps that spools of it were on sale for $5 at BPS too lol. Youre right that it casts smooth and is nice and limp, its just a better line. i would recommend 12lb sufix seige

sometimes you can have something when you get home from the bar too...just hope its ready to be gone by morning

there may not be a striped bass section, or an option for favorite bass, but they certainly do get talked about and mentioned here. http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/118332-chesapeake-bay-striper/#entry1294221

What I love about fishing is it is like free mental therapy in a way, it just clears my mind of all of lifes happenings for awhile...very refreshing

always be prepared. bank fishing off a dock one night at the lake and the water was kind of low. well i happen to hook into a fish on a bad cast, the fish eats my night crawler on the fall at that. so i set the hook and started reeling in. this thing takes off and starts stripping drag at a rate in which i just stop reeling and let it run. it slows down and i start cranking in again, fish takes off again and goes on another run, in all this fish made three runs like that. i finally get the fish in to see what it is, and its a huge 20+ inch crappie. problem is i dont have the net down at the dock with me, its up in the garage of the house. i debate with myself, run up to the house and get the net leaving the fish hooked up and in the water, it was laying on its side by then it was so worn out. or lay down on my stomach, and pull the line up to me until i could lip the fish. i chose method 2 as its a steep hill back to the house and laziness go the better of me. just got the fishes tail out of the water and a couple inches from lipping it when SPLASH. the fish falls off into the lake and takes off like a bat out of hell. wish i had that net with me and now i never forget it, wouldve been a hell of a picture and i probably wouldve had it mounted. the culprit, my hook bent from the weight of the fish and it fell right off without thrashing or anything...

looks pretty fake to me. the skin mounts look much more natural. replicas often look way too bright and shiny as well. lots of people can put together a model and paint it. and they can make it look like anything they want. from reading your posts, youre not even getting actual replicas of your fish, just models of what you want a fish to look like. as for skin mounts, thats what i call real taxidermy, not replicas. i have an excellent taxidermist who does all types of REAL animal mounts and they look great. i wouldnt call putting together a model and painting it taxidermy at all. youre just customizing a fish to your likings is what i get from your posts. well hell, i can do that without having never caught a fish. and dont mistake me, im not singling your replicas out, i feel the same way about every replica i have ever seen. now that ive elaborated on my thoughts about replicas i wont hijack the thread any further. all im saying is they look fake and factory produced, you have every right to be proud of the fish youve caught, but i cant get down with a fake looking replica, much less one that was altered and designed to not look like the actual fish its supposed to be based upon...