Fontana Finesse Man

spinning reels: 6 lb test for smallest baits like 1 inch twister. 8 lb test for flukes and floating worms and an occasional texas rig or shakey head. 10 lb test fishing around tree cover with those same baits. BPS Excel is what I use. I respool often and for the price of a 900 yard spool it is fine by me. casting reels: 1/2 oz or bigger spinnerbaits all get thrown on 14 or 16 lb sunline mono, 3/8 oz and 1/4 oz get thrown on 12 lb test sunline mono. Buzzbaits I use 17 lb test BPS Excel and spooks, sammy's and other topwaters, 10 lb test excel. Only two thing I use braid for are flipping and frogs because I fish it in the back of the worst stuff on my lakes. BPS Braid 30 lb test. I have a couple spools of flouro and if I think I am going to fish a dropshot, I will spool up one with whatever I have. Usually 6 lb test Berkley Vanish or Vicious. I hate flourocarbon, but sometimes to me it is a necessary evil. Quick note, my lakes have no grass and cover consists of mainly laydowns or brush piled up in the back of a cove. If I fish a grass lake, I adjust accordingly.

I use a gamakatsu o'shaugnessy offset hook 1/0 to nose rig my super flukes. PondBoss best advice I can give you is if you look on the back of a superfluke, you will see a small dimple (or small tiny hole) and I run my hook thru that. In general, I can fish all day on 3 or 4 baits. Catching fish will tear it a little each time, but generally it slides up the line and if you are careful you can slide it back down and it will still be fine. I lose more thru continuous throwing I will have the occassional occupational hazard ( just tear it thru and it slings off) Sometimes you will catch 10 fish on one and sometimes one fish will tear it off. Don't let that stop you from throwing it, it is a deadly rig!

I use them and so far they have worked out pretty well. Occassionally one will work it's way off of a fish if you don't get it on good but can't complain. I like them because I just just clip them on the livewell and take one off as I need it.

rod: 10 out of 10. Nice rods. reel: 9 out of 10. Never fished one but heard they were the stuff. line: 5-10. Line is a preference thing and I tried suffix and just didn't like it. I would love to have that rig with different line! LOL Nice outfit! Reel: Quantum Tour KVD 150 SPT 6.6:1 Rod: Quantum KVD Tour Cast 1. 6'9" Fast Taper Line: 14 lb Test Sunline super natural mono 14 lb test Spinnerbaits

Got my cabelas anniversary zillion delivered today. Was pleased and color isn't too bad. One question for you guys, it came with some type of oil that they recommend putting on left and right spool shaft bearings after every day of use. Is that really necessary and is it worth the hastle of taking it apart just to do this? Going to spool her up tonight and hit the lake this week to try it out.

Try building up the reel seat to fit your hands with something like BPS rod wrap or a tennis grip. Might help. That is what I did with mine that I have to work the baits with, jerkbaits, spooks etc. Helped me some, may help you?

Really good deal and unfortunately I couldn't pass it up as hard as I tried. Wife's gonna kill me! Now I am going to have to buy a new rod to put it on!

7' M MF Taper is a good solid rod that I use for some buzzbaits and mogambos, and some frogs. .

Rod: Duckett Med Action 7 ft spinning rod. Reel: Quantum Energy E20PTiB spinning Line: 8 lb test BPS Excel Hook: 1/0 Gammy or 3/0 wide gap. (99% of the time I fish them nose hooked and use 1/0 hook, when I fish docks use a 3/0 regular hooked) Most of my fluke fishing is in relatively open water. No grass, some laydowns so I really don't worry about breaking line and with gin clear water I like to make long casts. I have tried flouro and small braid but my personal opinion is that in order to make a fluke work best for me, light, mono line. I use bps excel because fishing it with no swivel, I replace the line alot and it is more cost effective than almost any other lines.

You will enjoy the TR20. It has plenty of storage space for rods, baits and accessories. Good handling and good running boat. I have one and love it.

Western end of state Fontana is probably the best smallmouth lake in NC. Smallmouth bass in Lake Santeelah and Lake Chatuge and Hiwassee Lake. Not sure if there is anything east of here that has smallmouth besides some creeks and rivers.

I fished out of a 1999 TR 19 for 5 years and loved every minute of it. Boat was quick out of the hole, excellent top end and a good solid ride. Only time I wished it was bigger was in big water when the wind was howling and waves were rolling! Then it was rough, but I always managed to get back to weigh in. Pulled well, was easy to manuever while trailered and on the water. I now have a 20 ft and love it, but I still long for my 19 alot of days. Storage was excellent also. Like others, have it checked out, but if hours are true, it is a pretty good deal.

My favorite hair jig for smallmouth around my area are 1/4 or 1/8 oz with burnt orange head and olive or brown hair (watermelon or green pumpkin). Bear hair jigs are my preference with no trailer. Bought some BPS enticer smallmouth jigs that I am going to give a try this winter. Fish on 6 lb test and fished slow during the winter, I prefer to slowly drag rather than hop in the winter.

Thanks for the deal! Just took advantage of the great price.

I currently use a wright and mcgill 6'10 tube/finesse honeycomb rod. I can't speak as to durability since I have only been using it a couple months, but the reason I bought this particular rod was for the extremely fast, whippy tip. Fishing streams from bank at time with trees hanging over I can't cast certain places and I have to "shoot" the bait. The tip on this rod allows me to do that pretty well and so far has held up pretty good to 2 lb fish. I haven't had anything bigger on it yet.

I will look for alot of current running over a rock or tree in the water. I like to fish where that structure breaks the current. Best river baits I have found are 1/4 oz tandem willow spinnerbaits, pearl super flukes, and rebel wee craw crankbaits. If you can find them, a 2 hook clown rapala husky jerk, believe they are 3 or 3 1/2 in. long.

Thank you all!

1. Quantum 2. Triton Boats 3. Evinrude Motors 4. Toyota Trucks 5. Lowrance 6. Zoom 7. Bill Gates! Wishfull! Bass Pro Shops

You say earlier that the bass eat the sunfish well, and people have said try a grub, twister. Look up Kalin's mogambo in bluegill color. Big and fat, and can be fished a variety of ways. Texas rig it, lead head or trim the head in a point and fish like a wake bait or frog on top. Largemouth think it is a crippled bluegill. Something to try.

Friend called and is giving their son a bass fishing themed birthday party and looking for plates, napkins, etc...and want them to have to do with bass fishing. I have tried all resources that I can think of and come up with zero. I figured maybe someone on here might have an idea about where to find this stuff or may have purchased it before and could help? Thank you all for any help you have. I know this is a strange request, but my reputation for being able to find anything is on the line.

44 years old, been fishing my whole life. Live in Western NC, home lake is Fontana, but have fished all over the Southeast. Found this page on google while trying to find some information on a reel. Looked around, saw a post I knew a little about so I joined to give some input. Figure perhaps I can help some, and be helped some! Message boards like this are awesome and offer alot of valuable resources. Great to be here!

New here and hope I don't step on anyone's toes. There are 2 that I use and they are Fat Ratz Lures (Randy) Tru Trac Lures (Lionel). Both make good spinnerbaits and each have made me exactly what I want even though they don't show on their websites. Biggest difference between the 2 are the types of heads they use and the wire size. Hope this helps.