ClackerBuzz

i fish a place like that and the only real way to get them during the day ie blue bird skys is going down in after them: http://www.***.com/how-to-pitch-deep-grass-with-bass-jigs/ you really need to be an a canoe/kayak/boat to be productive punch weeds. and these fisheries are far easier and more productive off shore. they will come to the surface and roam at night. topwater should be good at night and dusk/dawn. if they aren't chasing top water during these times slow drag a senko thru the tops of weeds should do the trick (put a bead on line and it will slide thru the weeds easier). the only time i fish these places 'normal' is overcast, rain, wind or pre-frontal. then i junk fish till i find what they are biting. if i don't have the weather on my side I don't waste my time with 90% of lures. my pond has wall to wall weeds that either break the surface or leave very room for spinnerbaits etc. it looks like pure frog heaven but they only work in ideal conditions or at night. its very hard to get a decent fish to surface from 8 ft down in the cavern/tunnels.

a lamp is on my list of things to buy. one with a dedicated red LED button that can be turned on immediately (ie you don't have to click thru low, med, high white light causing ur eyes to adjust till you get to the red).

x2. buy braid and skip the KVD serenading song and dance. and still post pix of pigs!

v-e-r-y well said

try everything but when ur ready to catch fish it's hard to beat slow dragging a weightless/weedless rigged soft plastic of ur choice http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/13845-guaranteed-to-catch-bass/

very smart guy welfare is pennies compared to corporate subsidies (and don't forget about middle class homeowner subsidies). plus anyone that shops at Walmart should be tar and feathered. that company is the largest private employer in the country but the low wages they pay makes their hard working employees the one of the largest recipients of federal aid. http://www.upworthy.com/if-you-think-only-poor-people-need-welfare-wait-till-you-see-what-really-rich-folks-do-with-it

i think you said you have a fiancee. turn her into a wife, add two children a big mortgage payment, two car payments etc and your decisions become more clear. "it's him or me" sounds selfish but it's not when someone else's irresponsibility can jeopardize everything you've worked so hard for in your life. your career, house...the possibility of your children being raised without a father. let alone all the other men on the job and their families. it all becomes more important than being 'liked' at work or being promoted/voted up. that might be the leadership Lund was getting at. not defaulting to the company handbook that someone has to volunteer their alcohol problem but rather you documenting he has alcohol on his breath. and let me just say that i can truly empathizes with you. i hate chess, politics and long drawn out strategy. i'm a knee jerk reaction guy. i shoot from the hip and follow my gut. i hated working in a corporation b/c 50% of my time/energy was spent trying to protect my job. just let me freaking do my work and go home..and pay me for it. i quit after 1.5 yrs bc it was pain and drama 24/7. decisions like this get much easier as you gain experience and maturity. the first time round is the hard part. as far as the future goes...there is probably a better chance of you getting stuck by lightening than of this guy laying off the booze. he will keep coming to work drunk..until he is finally fired...by your hands or someone else's. this is only round 1 of you getting involved so start figuring out how you are going to respond to round 2. it may be more anonymous emails, phone calls, higher in the chain of command etc but just know that it's coming. he will keep drinking...a leopard can't change his spots. sooner or later you're going to have to get your hands dirty. you should feel 100% safe in getting this guy fired. you will NOT have a target on your back. if the crew/work ethic won't stand up to an alcoholic they definitely don't have the coconuts to confront a leader.

800 number will be jammed 24/7 with same prank call... "Hey you giving out free BJ's today!?!"

dang i thought i was cheap i use the real stuff. you won't waste more than 6 ft of line by practicing 50+ knots (far less on the braid side). you'll be happy you mastered the exact material when ur out on the water guys swear by the albright knot but it slipped for me. i'd go with uni to uni or bob sands knot (kinda like a uni on mono side and san diego jam on braid side). the braid doesn't slip at all

buy all ur rods brand new at full retail price....that way there's more 50% off rods in the flea market for me

You're definitely walking a tight rope. Sorry to hear ur in such a tough spot. I would document while being vague ie make sure to notify the corporation/HR etc via email...but you don't have to mention the guys name. "I just wanted to send you a follow up email to our conversation last month. The same guy was clearly intoxicated for the third time in 2 months. This was his second major accident". The first sentence documents that you've already brought it up before. Now it's being put in stone via email. You could easily put something together that you feel comfortable with. Documentation lights a fire under corporate behinds b/c they can't hide from it anymore. It would help protect you if he kills someone. Phone calls and personal conversations are 'he said/she said' in court. In this day and age emails are the norm and you should use that to your advantage. We had a saying at my old job "always CYA": cover your a$#

use braid to leader on all ur reels. it makes ur shore fishing rods twice as versatile. just remove the leader when ur around nasty cover. and as mentioned use lighter wire hooks so you can bend them out. just be sure to play the fish and let the rod do it's job. when you're done playing these games buy a kayak. you're fishing addiction will never be the same

i don't measure according to time. i measure location... and lure type. locations vary according to lots of variables like shallow to deep water, sun, wind, weeds, main lake points, back creek channels etc etc etc. and i make sure to vary the lures from horizontal reaction w/ vibrations (spinnerbait etc), w/o vibration (swimjig a rig etc), vertical slow fall (seknos, tubes) vertical fast fall (jigs etc), down to bottom lures (dead sticking ie shaky head) to bottom bouncing (jigs, t rig ribbon/lizard etc). throw topwater in there too. a bite usually turns up after crisscrossing these variables...or i get a headache and go grab a beer. that all being said...i won't spend more than 20 min casting a single lure on a particular spot. i'll try 3-4 vastly different lures on that spot and if no takers i move on. but feel free to revisit that spot 2 hrs later with 3-4 new lures

my #1 rule when taking women or children fishing: leave my rods at home. if ur hands are free it means you can help them with ur hands, and mind. it makes the experience so much better b/c you focus solely on helping them catch fish.. and that makes them addicts

i'll be following this thread to see what turns up. i bought 3 packs of ika 2 years ago after reading posts. i still have most of them laying around. they are great for skipping dock however there are plenty of other options available at much cheaper prices and more durable options. a .10c senko knock off skips docks just as well, and a weedless tube or jig are far more durable, or really any hunk of plastic wacky rigged. i'm a soft plastic junkie and am always looking for 3 bites: 1-getting hit as soon as it hits the water 2-getting hit on the fall (experimenting weightless, w/ weight, t rigged, wacky rigged) 3-getting hit while working the bottom or dragging weeds i chucked those ika's many a place and never got a hit on 1 or 2 unless it was under a dock. that's a bad sign to me. i did get hits slow working them on the bottom and pulling them thru grass. but again any hunk of plastic works well being pulled thru grass. i was hoping smallies would have more interest in their slow rate of fall but i've had far more luck with the spiral effect of tubes. if i woke up tomorrow and they were discontinued it wouldn't surprise me. you gotta really have some good moves to charge $1 for a piece of plastic that tears and so far i haven't seen them. i'm using the rest of my stash while targeting smallies on bluff's this summer. maybe something will turn up

talk about littering his own lake. i'd def be heading back there with a snorkel and goggles

i'd use the grub as a silent reaction bait on a simple 1/8 oz jig head (or bullet weight if you have them laying around). ie when they want something small silent and moving b/c the large flashy/vibrating blades of a spinnerbait are too much. grubs seem to work when spinnerbaits/crankbaits etc won't. and i'd use it on a drop shot. or as a sb/chatterbait trailer. i'd use the craw bare and T rigged, unpegged with 1/4-1/2oz bullet weight depending on conditions. (lighter in shallow water, on clear sky days and ponds where fish might be spooked; when they want a slow rate of fall). heavier in larger lakes, in wind and in weeds i want to penetrate). or weightless in very shallow water and burning thru lily pad fields like a silent wake bait/topwater. or peg it for target pitching and pulling thru brush piles. or as a jig trailer. i'd T rig the senko weightless around any kind of cover. if you put a bead in front of the hook it will slide thru weeds much more easily. or wacky rig in water deeper than 6ft or open/clear water where they can really see the wiggle working. wacky on spinning gear to skip under docks and under lay downs. or add a bullet weight if you need to get to the bottom and slow drag. the Federale is just a senko that works better T rigged than wacky. weightless or add bullet weight/jig head for a bottom bait. or on the back of a spinnerbait as a trailer. it's a hunk of plastic you'd do well with in any farm pond in the country. weightless on spinning gear w/ 6-8lb test line will get you far more bites. yes you'll have break off but its worth it b/c you'll have more fun catching fish while learning all about bubba

the weeds don't have to break the surface for you to flip/pitch/punch them. it's really about the structure/bottom under the grass. forget about the top of it and analyze whats underneath. if you catch an aggressive fish that came out of the weeds to eat a rattletrap stop what ur doing. that is a good/fishie area so there will be alot more bass around. take ur time and flip that area with a 3/4+oz beaver/craw. and return to the scene of that crime often bc there might be something special about the bottom that holds fish year round.

by ur location looks like you have to add heavily pressured water to the problem mix. i'd say 3 things: slow and low bottom baits. small plastics. light line. after you start catching them on a 3" split shot worm or 1/16 oz 3" tube on 4-6lb test then you know they are there. start experimenting from there for bigger fish.

holy shameless plug. this site is amazing for so many reasons and yet shameless sponsor/product pushing is the most embarrassing part of it (in defense every site pushes their sponsors but none quite so shamelessly). mike from DVT is amazing and will def get ur reel running...and super tune the bleep out of it. something tells me he's not ur man at this point in ur life. you're a young guy, probably in high school, that clearly joined this site to figure out how to fix it yourself b/c you don't have money to spare. don't panic you'll get it working soon enough. you just put something back together wrong and a few more attempts will be the cure. i'd bet $20 the problem will be fixed if you simply break it down and put it back together 3 more times. did you watch any youtube vids? you can learn a lot from all reel maintenance videos (lews, bps, shimano etc). and follow ur reel schematics while doing it. this shimano vid does a great job of exposing all the parts and how they stack back together. keep an open mind b/c your reel is basically the same.

x2 on beavers or Dbombs b/c they don't have craws that tear off

sounds like ur in the right location. i'd be far more inclined to change from reaction lures to slow moving baits b/c of not getting bites than to blame it on weeds hanging off my trebles. i love vibrant green weeds coming back on my hooks b/c it tells me i'm fishing in the right area. vs i hate slimy half dead weeds b/c there isn't growth, oxygen, water flow, bait fish ie bass in the area. i just rip/stroke my rattletrap really hard to clear the fowled weeds. that alone gets tons of bites. a chatterbait is my other golden weed area reaction lure b/c that blade just vibrates weeds right off (vs a spinnerbait being a weed magnet). if no takers on reaction i'm slowing down to pitching jigs and slow dragging weedless senkos (putting a glass bead in front of senko allows it to slide thur weeds much easier).

this is literally an entire industry. you really need a professional to come in to analyze endless variables. they will shock the fish to find out what slots to start harvesting, recommend adding/removing species etc etc

i fill 3 reels with a 150 yd spool of line (i'm never going to cast farther than 150 ft). my arm to arm length is 6 ft. i strip off 150 ft of braid in my living room for my main line (25 arm lengths). tie it direct to bare spool and reel in. then just add as much mono as needed to fill spool, leaving 1/8" of spool rim w/o line. the line is on backwards but perfectly spooled. strip all line off and tie on mono. after all line is back on just add 5-15 ft leader of choice. with this method the only thing you have to be careful of is the mono can coil in ur house if in a tight area. i'm careful in winter and run the mono around chair arms, under pillows etc. it's very easy outside b/c you can walk off the mono and keep it straight. just reel up slowly so you'll see if a coil is coming

if we're talking high octane buy a black 1/4 oz buzzbait (clacker preferred ) and burn that sucker parallel to shore during dusk or dawn!