bassh8er

Don't move close to a Cabela's... It will make the BPS obsession even worse.

Same brand or type? If it was a good deal, I'd get at least 2 so you have a backup... IF you like the rod. I'd probably take the same deal, but if I didn't like the rod, I wouldn't bother buying any more. I bought a $130 Camo Stix rod at Cabelas for $30 last year, and still haven't used it; so is the game of fishing.

Care to share any pics of this white and pink sunfish? It sounds very interesting....

Gatorade for the morning, and Coor's for the afternoon

I've never caught a fish on a rattling, lipless crank, like a Redeye shad. I know they work and I keep buying them every spring, but have no confidence in them and haven't thrown one in 3 years.

I've recently come to an epiphany regarding my soft plastics. I spent a whole weekend last summer building a shelf to neatly house all of my soft plastics. I'm not a tournament angler but had amassed over 400 bags of plastics in over 30 different styles and countless colors and brands. While getting ready for the first outing of the year a couple of weeks ago, I realized that even with my large assortment of styles and colors, I really only threw a handful of baits. Before each outing I would grab the bags that I thought I would use because there was no way to take all of them to the lake, and even if there was, I literally had never opened over 300 of the bags and kept going back to the baits that I had confidence in. That's when it hit me. Why not buy 2-3 colors of only a couple of different baits not clog my mind and wallet with so many choices? This would also be a good way to try some of the plastics that I normally considered too expensive previously. So far it has worked out well, and I have enjoyed my success with Gary Yamamoto and Rage Tail plastics. I've narrowed it down to black and green pumpkin for most of them, with a few exceptions. Does anybody else do this? I know that there are better colors for particular water clarities, but I always found myself going back to the same colors and throwing baits other than plastics in really dirty water; hence the reason I chose natural colors and black (the soft plastic color I have the most confidence in). Tought to give a good report on how well it's working because it's only been a short time, but it has helped my narrow down my choices and make accessing my gear easier. Would love to hear your thoughts / experiences.

It used to be green pumpkin, and I still have a lot of confidence in it, but more and more, I'm leaning towards black.

Tipped with a Rage trailer? haha.... I love the X-raps. Great for pike and bass.

I do like the Compre better, but it costs a little more money. I was and am happy with the Crankin' stick and like it even more at the price.

I've got a Crankin' stick and it's great for the money, and all around actually. I picked up another Skeet Reese S-glass cranking rod and it was ok, but I sold it to put money towards a new Shimano Compre crankin' rod, and I don't regret that choice at all.

Heading out for the first time on open water on Saturday (hope the pond is open) and was wondering what you guys have had success with early on in the year. The ice on most lakes around this are have been off for about a week, but I cannot give an educated answer on what the water temps are. I've heard jigs and jerkbaits worked slow, but was hoping for any other suggestions. Anybody tried dropshotting this early??? Thanks in advance for any tips.

Agreed. You can do the free ship to store and they'll call you when it's in; that's how I got my new Extreme and KVD 1.5s in the new colors before they hit my local BPS shelves. I'm a huge PQ fan, and bought a new Extreme this year to try something new out without too much of a budget hit and because I've heard a lot of good things about them. The Exteme may be up your alley, but I'd lean towards the PQ because it's a proven reel for me.

Helsinki shad is just another in the long line of Sexy Shad imitations. I have the exact opposite opinion when it comes to Rapala colors, and I think that they are a little primitive in most of their color selections. Admittedly, I don't use many Rapalas because I think that I can get a better bang for my buck with Bomber, Strike King and BPS baits. I buy Lucky Craft and Xcalibur as well, but I've found great value in the KVD 1.5, Red Eye Shad, Fat Free Shad, Fat Free Fry and various series of the BPS brands.

Anybody have a decent suggestion for an outfit that I can pick up during the BPS Classic? I currently have 1 spinning outfit for bass but want to make an upgrade to 2 so that I can throw a shakey head and a dropshot or a weightless rig at the same time without retying. My current setup is a 7' M Carbonlite with a Johnny Morris size-10 spinning reel and the few times I used it last year, I liked it. I was going to go a similar route with a different rod because they're both on sale during the Classic, but wanted to entertain any other suggestions. I'd like to stay in that $200 retail price for the setup with the hopes that it will be on sale and I can take advantage of the rod and reel trade-in. Thanks for any suggestions.

My favorite color is bull bream, with pearl green shad being a close second. I'm pretty sure they quit making that color a while ago, so if there are any left, I'd grab them up.

I hear a lot about Rage products on this forum, and maybe deservedly so. I've never used them, but bought 2 packs of Rage Craws last week and plan on trying them as jig trailers this spring. I guess my deal is this: How often do you guys say, "You need to see what the bass want that day" or "It all depends on the mood of the fish"... Is that to say that, every time bass prefer Rage craws to Paca's??? The action is obviously different, but is one better than the other, or does it depend on the mood of the fish that day? I really don't know, and don't really care either. One of my favorite things about bass fishing is to buy a bunch of different brands and types of lures. I have WAY too many plastics, and am yet to have a favorite, probably because I don't fish any one bait more than others. My theory is to find a bait that you have a lot of confidence in, and fish it a lot to get even more conifdence in it. Or, be like me, and if you're getting bites on a particular bait and color, tie on a different one.

It seems like I've heard a lot more about using braid with mono and flouro leaders A LOT more lately. I like the idea of being able to change out leaders and being able to reuse the braid year after year, but I've got a few questions that I'd like your input, and any other disadvantages about this setup that I may have missed. 1) Are there any techniques where this setup is not a good idea? (Cranking, topwaters, etc...) 2) How long of a leader do you use? This seems like a great idea in theory, but I am still hesitant to put another know between the fish and me, and I just know that the first time the knot breaks, I'll be back to straight flouro or mono.

Float and fly is another good option for smallies in coooooold water.

I'm trying to cut back on setups this year, and I have it narrowed down to the following 5. 7'M Mojo casting rod with PQ 7'MH Mojo casting rod with PQ 7'H Mojo casting rod with PQ 7'Compre crankbait casting od rwith PQ 7'M Carbonlite spinning rod with Johnny Morris spinning reel I think I'm pretty set on the Compre and putting some 12# flouro on it for cranks, and maybe some 6 or 8 on the spinning reel, but I'm kind of lost on what to put on the three casting rods. I throw the normal bass baits: spinnerbaits, plastics, jigs, topwaters,frogs, etc... What do you guys think? Braid on the heavy rod for throwing frogs and maybe the occasional jig? Would I be better off using mono for the other medium and medium heavy setups so I can still thrown topwaters, or would only the MH need buoyant line? I've also thought about putting some braid on the spinning rod with a flouro leader. I would be mostly using that setup for shakey heads and weightless plastics; good idea? Thanks for the help. I don't fish tourneys or anything for money, but I would like to most effectively cover as many situations as possible with these 5 setups. Size of line is also in question; I don't fish anything too deep, clear, or with too much cover. Also, I have a 5.whatever ratio PQ on my cranking rod, and the other 3 are 6.4, 6.4 and 7.1. Which rod and line setup would work best for the burner reel? Thanks for looking, and I know it's a lot of questions.

Berkley TransOptic has an orange tint above water when exposed to the sun's UV rays, but the tint diminishes underwater. I like it for jig fishing.

Maybe they always show KVD because he's winning??? When's the last time Stacey King or Ott Defoe won back to back Classics and AOY?

I've posted this before, but I made a tackle shelf in my garage. I keep all of my lures in Plano boxes and the plastics like the picture shows. I keep all plastics in their original bags and separate them in Wal-Mart totes by type of plastic. The totes were about $1 a piece.

The one on the right looks like a Norman's Fat Boy to me.

Your last comma should have been a semicolon, but I digress...

As far as hardbaits, it's definitely the Bluegill color. As I was going through my tackle recently, I was reorganizing my shallow cranks. I counted 47 shallow divers / square-bills, and closer inspections showed that 39 of them had some type of bluegill pattern on them. Haha, good thing I fish in small midwestern ponds where sunfish are the primary forage and shad are lacking. Haha, and my favorite softbait??? Slurpies, Brush Beaver in, you guessed it, Bluegill.