Hound_dog

I usually rig my drop shot up with a zoom tiny fluke. My next choice is a hightail holehot 4 3/4" finesse style worm. I find that it has more tail action than the zoom finesse worm does.

I like the Kicker Fish Hightail Ribbon Tail 11" worm for a more power approch. If I want something a little more subtle then I usually go with a zoom u-tail.

Might just see if I can swing some time off the rig for this. Oil field changes too much to be able to plan this far in advance though. Got it on my calendar though.

Look into the Lew's Tournament Pro Speed Spool TP1SH. This is a great real and light weight. I tried the smoke out and picked the Lew's of the Quantum. I have been so pleased with it that I have been replacing some of my older reels with the Lew's in the same speed. Very comfortable reel to hold and throw all day. As far as rod it depends a lot on where you fish and what kind of cover you are fishing. I as mentioned you have the finesse and medium baits covered. I would be more inclined to go for a Heavy action rod in the 7' range. You can flip with it, drag a carolina rig, throw bigger crankbaits, and big worms. Again it all depends on where you fish and cover you fish in.

Anyone planning on going to Toho to fish the Triton Owners Tournament this month?

The lable is under epoxy. What we do to remove epoxy from rods is to use a hair dryer to heat it up while slowly turning the rod. This will cause the epoxy to "melt" off and not damage the blank. Once you get the epoxy to start melting off you will be able to get the decal off. It might leave some spots on the blank. If this happens you can either use rod paint (found on mudholes website) and paint over it while turning the rod or you could do some kind of wrap with threat over the area and the re-epoxy the area. Its not that difficult but can be time consuming. What part of NEGA are you in? We might be able to help you out.

I'm another one of those year round fisherman. Maybe let the boat sit a day or two to hit the woods to bag a deer or two but other than that I fish year round.

You can replace it yourself. Mudhole Tackle is a store you can order your butt cap from and the glue to put it on. If you have any questions just call them up and they will be glad to help. They are located up in Central FL so shipping time should be real short for you.

Its on different rods and does not only break at the knott but also in the middle of the line. I have not called them yet as I want to check with others to see if anyone else is having similar problems. This tends to keep the BS companies try to tell down to a min. Its only started occuring as of late. I am thinking either the production process has changed or a bad batch was ran. I have spoken with one other guy whos had problems with the 10lb line.

I've been using Seaguar flouracarbon line now for awhile. Started when they came out with the Red Label, found it to be the best flouracarbon line on the market. They came out with the Invizx and Arabzx tried both of them in different applications and thought they were great lines also. Here lately though I've been having problems with 10lb and 15lb Abrazx. The problem is the line breaking really easy. I've tied my knot checked it only to have the line break, set the hook and have the line break on hook set, to stripping some line off my reel and checking it to have it break with little tension. I then check he spool of left over line and it too broke easily. I pull my rods out of my boat if I know I'm not going the next day, I change my line very frequently. I was wondering if anyone else has had any such problems. Its only been with the 10lb and 15lb Abrazx of lately from different spools. I've not had any problems with the Invizx or any of the Red Label spools I still have left.

I haven't fished one weightless either but you could try tying a swival in line like you would do with a trick worm. That should take care of any line twist issues.

The best depends on who you ask, where you fish, water temp., water clairty, fish preference. As far as when to fish one, a jerk bait can actually be fished year round. Most people only throw them when the water cools off which most of the time goes along with the shad kill in the lake. Jerk baits generally do excel during this period. A lot of people over look them other time of the year with different presentations. I have fished bigger JB in the spring and used an aggressive jerk-jerk-short pause repeat. I've also fished them around docks in the summer time and just slowly reeled them in with the occialsional pause thrown in. They are truely a versital hard bait that gets over looked during certain times of the year. Maybe this will make it clear as mud for you!!!

Braid - Flippin/Pitchin, Frogs, C-rig, & T-rig. Use it because of near zero stretch, stronger line at a thinner diameter compared to mono or flour. If the water is less than clear I tend to use more braid because of less chance of the fish seeing the line. Flourocarbon - Crankbait, spinnerbait, T-rig. Use it because it has less stretch than mono, and has the properties to make it nearly invisible, it sinks. If I am fishing in clear lakes most of my reels will be spooled up with flourocarbon. Mono - Topwater. It doesn't sink like the flourocarbon does therefore it does not have any kind of negative effect on the action of a topwater bait. Good luck making your choices. You are right, there are tones of different lines out there and it can get confusing. You just have to try different ones and find what works best for you.

Seaguar for me. I have had no problem with line twist out of either the invizx or the abrazx. I tried different P-line's first and had nothing but problems with them. Not a fan of BPS products because of lack of consitancy I have experienced from them. Sometimes you get good stuff and other times its been junk out of the same product line. I had a problem with a Berkley product a few years ago and contacted them about it and the complete lack of customer service turned me off of their products. Anyone you use I would recomend the KVD line and lure conditioner to be used with it. Good luck with finding what works for you.

Every year my bass club helps out with the Georgia Firefighters Burn Foundation Camp Oo-U-La with an outdoors day for the kids at the camp. For some of these kids this is the first time they have ever been fishing. I do it because I like seeing the joy it brings these kids. Some of these kids will never go fishing again for one reason or another. For at least one day they were able to enjoy what we get to enjoy on a regular basis. Another way to look at it is like this: Let say the person you introduce fishing to one day becomes a poltician. A different politician brings a bill to vote to ban fishing or some type of lure in the State or Federal Government. This person you introduced fishing to might be the person to stand up against this bill to have it defeated for those of use that love to fish. You never know who the person you introduce to fishing is going to become. The impression you make might have far greater impact in the future than you might could have ever guessed. This is all the more reason we all need to be good ambassadors for our sport.

It appears as if Basslover12345 theard was hijacked by people wanting to debate about the use of a sinko. Why don't some of you try to at least answer his questions while you're debating the sinko. He never said he was only going to use a Sinko. He just stated what he used the first 2 days to catch fish. Basslover12345 I think you have set a good goal to go out a learn more. It will make you a better angler as long as you keep several things in mind while going out on your quest. As Slonezp stated pay attention to everything you do. Get a note book and write down what the weather conditions (temp., pressure, rising or falling, ski condition, etc), water conditions (temp, clarity, depth, etc), bait colors & types you're using, size and type line, etc. Keep a log of every detail you can think of putting in it. You can then use this log to refer to in the future when you face similar conditions on different lakes. This will help you have a starting point of what to throw when trying to figure out what the bass want that day. When it comes to tournament fishing you want the most information you can get going into it to give you a better edge over others. The more different types of bodies of water you can visit the better it will make you. It gives you valuable experience in different fishing conditions. I think you have come up with a good way to help you learn more into the science of catching bass. Good luck on the challenge you have set for yourself.

Some nice fish you got there. Your title says fishing solo....Just from a safety stand point anytime you are out by yourself you really should wear you life vest at all times. Its extremly important in cold water. If you were to go overboard, your body could be thrown into shock due to the cold water. The life jacket would be the only thing to save your life.

Another option you can try is to snap the rod tip a few times during the retrive. This will cause the spinnerbait to stop for a moment which will cause the skirt to flair out. As evrgladebasser mentioned changing the blade combination can help out with this also. Not just the type of blade but also the size of the blade.

Thanks everybody. Gene - Not much. Sitting out here in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico for work ready to get back on land to do some fishing.

I am not new to Bass Resource but I am new to finally start posting on here. I grew up fishing on Lake Oconee in Georgia and still call that my home lake.

Swimbaits are my weak point. As for the guys having problems with spinnerbaits my experience is that the type and combination of blades is a big influence into if they are productive or not. There have been times where I would be throwing one combination of blades and catching them and my fishing buddy would be throwing the same color and weight with different blades and not catching a single fish. Next time you think they should be hitting a spinner bait try a different blade combo. I own over 100 different spinnerbaits with various blade combinations. I have a spinner bait tied on year round and they produce for me year round.