Nick49

10 or 15 lb high vis braid with 6' fluoro leader for me.

I think you have a good setup. I use two setups for these baits (except for the swim jig), with the only difference being rod length. I use a shorter rod for throwing around and behind docks. With both setups I use 30 lb moss green Power Pro braid with three feet of 17 lb mono leader.

Dink, when not using Braid with fluoro, I will use P-Line CXX (high visibility). I use the hi vis CXX when fishing jigs/weighted soft plastics in water deeper than 15 - 20 feet. I am not a big fan of straight fluoro for many of the reasons previously cited. As a line watcher, along with great feel I like the visibility of hi vis braid. The uni to uni knot for braid to fluoro connections is easy and dependable.

30 lb Power Pro on my bait casters and 10 to 15 lb Power Pro on my spinning rigs.

Got a similar one for you. I can remember when it became popular (primarily for non-LMB species) in the northern states to "speed up" or "swim" the standard lead head jig with plastic grub rather than jigging it. Shortly after that technique was popularized a variety of adaptations took on the descriptor of "swim bait." My personal recollection goes back to the early In-Fisherman programs with Al Lindner and others.

The tool works great. With the o-rings you save a lot of baits because they slide of the line during the vast majority of hookups. I found a reference to an industrial source for the o-rings (rather than buying them at Bass Pro), resulting in significant savings. I sometimes use the weedless wacky hooks and most of the time they will still slide up the line on a hookup, however the worm will get torn up faster when you slide it back over the weedless wire and back on the hook.

Depends on time of year: Summer - jig, 10" plastic worm Fall - jig, buzzbait Spring - finesse worm, chatterbait Winter - jerk bait, jig

I usually fish larger bodies of water and enjoy trolling for walleye and white bass. I can't explain why, but with so many unique techniques available to the bass fisherman, trolling is one of those techniques I choose to not do. I don't do a lot of tournament fishing but whenever I am bass fishing I like to build on my experience and knowledge gleaned from sites like this, all the while informally measuring my results in comparison to local tournament results. Depending on the lake, I usually set a weight objective for my five best legal fish from between 12 and 20 pounds (6-10 lbs if a half day on the water). I guess I don't troll for bass for some of the same reasons that trolling is not allowed in tournaments. I am not a muskie fisherman, but I don't think I would find trolling for them to be an attractive option.

I tend to agree with the above poster. As I made a gradual transition, 20+ years ago, from almost exclusively spinning to mostly bait casters, I had trouble using my right hand to rhythmically retrieve walking baits (with a bc). I was accustomed to using my left hand with a spinning rig to retrieve smaller baits like the Zara Puppy while keeping a rod rhythm with my right hand. At that point it just made sense to stick with right hand reeling for all my outfits, including spooks, poppers, etc. Wrist strength seems to me to be less of a factor since today's longer handled rods incorporate forearm and body with hook sets and retrieves. That said, I go along with the general theme of posters - go with YOUR most comfortable technique.

For shallow and medium depth cranking I will utilize mono. I love my Skeet Reese cranking rod, but use a M 7' Falcon for traps and light cranks.

FORTUNATELY, my outlandish pursuit of fishing gear is not influenced by the IRS. UNFORTUNATELY, it is BPS, BTD, DSG and the biggest culprit of all - TW that increasingly force my irrational hand (& credit card) with each consecutive day that I am not on the water. A warm family vacation will do me no good at all, but it will help my wife tolerate my illness.

Behind and around docks (tight quarters) I throw a 6' MH fast for buzzbaits and chatterbaits. Everywhere else I use a 7' MH fast for buzzbaits.

Purchased a left hander on ebay (new, in box) a few days ago for $106.99, including shipping.

I went to the site for the Tour Edge Lures Chunk X Sling (post just ahead of mine) and it is exactly the same as the BassTEK Jig Sling. Highly recommend.

BassTEK makes a jig sling. They are relatively inexpensive and they work very well. You can google BassTEK jig sling and check it out.

5" Senko, Zoom Super Fluke, Baby Brush Hog, Chigger Craw, Paca Craw, Paca Chunk, Sweet Beaver

Not much to add. In recent years I added o-rings for wacky rigging, home made tiny coffee can lid discs (made from a paper hole punch) with a hole in the center as a "keeper" for t-rigged worms, and jig slings (made by BassTEK), which hold chunks and other plastics in place on jigs.

A few posters mentioned the shows with Bobber Anne and the "old guy". It's interesting that it was Bobber Anne who was remembered because I believe the "old guy" was Dan Gapen, a multi-species fisherman and icon in his day. And I believe Mr. Gapen was Native American. Along with a high level of TV visibility, he and Bobber Anne would appear at the major winter-time boat and fishing shows throughout the mid-west and north. Any other oldtimers remember Dan Gapen?

I like Power Pro. For spinner bait, chatter bait, buzz bait rigs I use 30 lb low vis green with a 12 lb mono leader. For pitching jigs, t-rigged worms/creatures and soft plastics I use 30 lb hi vis yellow and a 4 or 5 ft fluoro leader. For spinning rigs I use 15 lb hi vis yellow for drop shotting, shakey heads and other finese presentations - always with 4 - 5 ft, 8 - 10 lb fluoro leader. *For deeper water jigs/worms I prefer 12 - 15 lb fluoro, rather than braided line. I don't think visibility is an issue but I like the idea of dealing with occasional hangups/breakoffs with mono or fluoro rather than the braided line.

I use braided line on all of my "single hook" rigs as well as my surface baits and keep my leader short enough to avoid entrance to my reel.

"That fish'ill keep."

I am trying to plug in some public domain waypoints into my Eagle Fish Elite 502c. I am having difficulty converting lat/long data from the Google Earth-based readings to the presentation format on my Eagle unit. If the published lat/long reading is: 38° 04' 27.24” and 92° 34' 35.68”, what would the conversion be in the following format: 38° _ _ . _ _ _ ' and 92° _ _ . _ _ _ ' ? Does this format have a common name? How is the conversion calculated? Any assistance would be appreciated. Thanks!!

I use high visibility P-Line braid and a relatively short fluoro or hybrid leader when fishing jigs/plastics. Will use moss green P-Line with relatively short mono leader for topwater, spinnerbaits and chatterbaits.

Next KVD, I accounted for the surface tension issue by holding the line slightly under water before allowing the line to float to the surface or sink to the bottom. Your comment that "most lines will sink" is the explanation (fact) I was looking for. I was expecting the mono to behave more like braid relative to floatation. It appears that line diameter is a greater factor than line composition when it comes to various applications. Thanks for the explanation.

I have been fishing for bass most of my 64 years, but while "adding some lead weight" to some jerkbaits in an ice chest full of water in preparation for some wintertime bass fishing I decided to check some of my co-poly line (McCoy and P-Line CXX) to see if they would sink or float. I just cut a few 6" lengths of line and dropped them in the water. I was pleased to find they sunk at about the same rate as some fluoro line I tried as well. Now here is the kicker - I did the same with a couple of well known monofilament lines that I had handy. They also sunk! The only line that did not sink was braided. I have always avoided mono line for deeper crankbait and weighted plastics because "mono does not sink." This was a very simple experiment and there is probably a very basic explanation for the mono line sinking. I look forward to hearing from one or more of our line guru's at this great site for an explanation. Thanks.