Flukeman

Thanks Catt, of course I can't tell which male or female I am seeing from the bank, but that explains my observations. Great info for us curious types.

I do not know about your neck of the woods. I live on a lake in New York and get to watch the bass spawn along my shoreline. The females never seem to stay very long after dropping their eggs, the males lock on pretty quickly. That's just what I have witnessed, small lake no tournaments. When BASS was on Oneida Lake here in New York, they had release boats that took the fish out to several deep locations and released them.

I have 6 Rick Clunn reels I would like to sell. 2 are the first generations with the flipping switch, used but good mechanical condition. 4 are a year old (blue ones) in excellent condition. 2 used all year, 2 used once at the end of the year. So what should I ask for them?

$32 dollars, that's funny... march of the lemmings ;D

We have a lot of laws about that stuff up here.

ESPN is running tournaments to attract and audience. In their minds doing that takes big fish, greatest numbers of big fish are caught around the spawn. They are not trying to get guys like you and me, were already hooked, it's the fringe fans they try to get. I liked the shows they had years ago when they were much more technical in nature and more widely spread through out the season. I did not care what size the fish were. But I guess big fish are like crashes in NASCAR, it draws a bigger crowd.

One good thing about being a co-angler first is you get to see many different boats. This will help you decide if that boat is what you want for fishing tournaments. Some clubs and trails also have boat size and motor limitations, be sure your boat qualifies for what you want to fish. You could also look up some folks with similar boats to what you are looking at and ask about pluses and minuses. You will also need to know the tournament format. If it is a shared water tournament and the other persons water is not close to yours, a 30hp really cuts into your fishing time on larger bodies of water. Just make sure you check out all the variables before you drop down your hard earned cash.

We used to have off-limits for our state federation and did away with them for a couple of reasons. One was trying to get towns and businesses to sponsor our trail was getting tougher. Because people could only come to town to pre-fish Saturday, tournament Sunday, they felt they were not getting enough out of their sponsorship dollars. The second reason was gas prices went to $4 a gallon here, and our membership could not afford to travel two weekends in a row to practice for a tournament. So our membership voted to do away with the off-limits. Here is the funny part, only one tournament has been won by a "home towner" over the last few years we've done this. There really is no way for us to enforce an off-limits policy anyways. And people who are going to cheat, are going to cheat no matter what rules you have in place. I do know of clubs who still have off-limits. I also belong to a club that had off limits for 25 years and just did away with them. Your club or organization really needs to do what is best for your it's membership. Your never going to please everyone in this business. But they are all capable of making their own decisions of what trail they want to fish. Good Luck,

Under the new AOY system you would definitely want to take the field, its so much easier to be top 12 at year end now than it used to be #1 at seasons end under the old system.

I do not think BPS is trying to make Shimano look bad. Shimano does not want to be a part of the promotion, that's fine. They also hold a very large part of the market. So how do you avoid having to tell people "no" a 1000 times during the sale, and bring reels in for no reason,you advertise the fact. It is the winning marketing strategy in this situation.

I hope your hair doesn't hurt too bad Jack Nicklaus was most dominate from the 60's through 1976 (14 of his 18 majors), his golf course design started in the 90's I thought. Greg Norman was dominant from the 80's to 1993, clothing started in 92. Tiger practically unstoppable until the last couple of years when others started closing the gap. Year that foundation started 2007. Your name on clubs is no different than your name on fishing rods. Shooting commercials is a lot different than traveling around country and shooting half hour shows at our countries major cities. Most of the shows you see KVD on are old shows cut into new shows. Although I did see one the other day with a 5 minute slot of him fishing what I beleive was the new swimming soft jerkbait type baits.

Easy boys, I should have known you would take it the wrong way. Not bragging, but I have met both guys several times, my Jr. Bassmaster Club has worked with the pro's every time they have been to Oneida whether at registration, eating dinner with them, being in a parade with them, having them stay at friends homes and cottages, as a marshall and spent 12 hours on the water as a camera guy with Ike. I've been very lucky to have conversations with most of the pro's. Now don't go thinking we are friends or something, I've just been lucky to get to ask questions about the business of fishing. I like Ike as a person, all though I'm not into the showman stuff. I have I found him to be a great guy and has a ton of neat projects going on. I think he has the drive to be successful at everything he tries, and he is a GREAT fisherman. That said I do not believe he looks at the records or the business of fishing the same way KVD does. That is all I am saying. In my OPINION Ike has a different outlook on the business of Bass fishing, its not a bad thing

He's not even close and won't be. Kevin's focus is 100% fishing and being the best when he retires. Ike already knows he can't be the best, thats why his focus is on fishing, showmanship, and other business interests. If your focus is spread out over many things its not possible to be the best at one thing. That's been proven through out all sports through out history. You can see it in every TV showing of the two when it comes to time usage on the water. Ike wastes a lot of time to promote himself and his image. Kevin does too, but his is called fishing! it's just two guys making different choices about their career.

I've used that line and really liked it. The only reason I switched was to try 100% Floro's and just have not returned to it as of yet. I have liked many of the P-line products and around here they are usually at a reasonable price.

I use XPS Floro for all my cranking and it is completely invisible under the water and has good abrasion resistance. Tried Vanish and it had terrible abrasion resistance. I did use Seguar Invisix on a friends rod and that seemed like nice line as well and presented no problems.

Thanks guys. John good seeing you on Sunday, good luck with the new rod!

I just picked up the last four my Gander had. And each box had a small bottle of oil in it. I usually use "Hot Sauce", is it better to use the Abu oil?

The BPS here in New York is always out of product, but the associates are great for info and doing all they can to help. Our store only started out with two Carbonlite Reels that they just got in before the sale. I will say one year I was at the Nashville BPS for the spring sale and it was amazing. I stayed for multiple days to see the seminars and local tourist sites. The were not only stocked to the ceiling, but when they ran out, new stock arrived each night to fill in with. They got several items I wanted back in for the next day! I had a chance to handle the Carbonlite Reel, it is much better than the old Prolite. Basically Abu and BPS swapped some technologies and it is a low end Revo. I would have bought them, but just an hour earlier I bought 4 of last years Revo Premiers at Gander for $115 each. After handling both just minutes apart the Revo was slightly smoother. But for the $80 with reel trade-in it is a great reel.