SudburyBasser

Darn right, and I'll be adding a crankbait rod from the line up in the next two weeks, ha ha. It would be nice to be able to afford a Crucial or Cumara but I'm pretty happy with the Compre.

The Compre rods are truly proof of God's love for man. The best addition I ever made to my fishing equipment -- outside of a brother-in-law with a boat -- was a Compre worm and jig rod.

I have to admit that I was strongly inclined to go with the PQ but I figure at $60 the Extreme would be a good entry level to see if I'm not completely useless with a baitcaster. I will admit my previous experience was with an ancient Shimano Crestfire CR200A which had zero action left in it so perhaps I'll do better with the Extreme and eventually graduate to that Shimano Curado that I was sorely tempted by a few weeks ago.

Unfortunately I'm a righty so I need a RH model. Well, at any rate, with this many up votes looks like I'll be grabbing up a 5.3:1 model...assuming there any left by the time I get home from work :-) My thanks folks! UPDATE: Darn it, they accept PayPal so I didn't have to wait to get home and get the credit card. Oh well, ordered it after successfully avoiding the bait monkey for three weeks. I guess that's a kind of victory.

Looking to put together a reasonably priced baitcast crank bait set up. Does anyone have experience with this reel: http://www.basspro.com/Bass-Pro-Shops-Extreme-LowProfile-Baitcast-Reels/product/11092105011121/ Particularly for beginners as I don't have a lot of experience with baitcasting reels

Yeah, over six hours of watching guys hammer docks is enough. I'm enjoying it, don't get me wrong, but seeing something different for the next round would be welcome.

I use Suffix 832 on my spinner gear and never had an issue.

For the past few weeks -- after a binge at a clearance shelf at a local store -- I've successfully resisted the bait monkey. Not even the convenience of eBay has been enough to make me break. How long this will last I have no idea but it feels good not to be feeding that addiction. Not to mention cheaper.

I was apparently having a bad day. I apologize to the kid and if he wants to wear a jersey then more power to him.

Precisely why I'm coming down on this. Looking silly at 41, my age, no one cares. Looking silly at 15...another story.

Wearing a jersey while amateur fishing is a little like wearing a NASCAR jumper while driving to get some milk. Cash some checks and get real sponsors...otherwise you look damned silly.

We all piled on BPS and Johnny Morris but you have to admit that it was a class move by him to show up at the store personally and apologize. I have to give the man credit for that.

Logic would dictate that he shouldn't have been drop shotting in that situation. Look, I'm not dismissing Martens' skills. Since making that post I read the article in this month's Bassmaster about Martens' drop shotting techniques and came away impressed. Never having drop shotted myself I didn't know much about it but in one three page article the cat schooled me good. It's the guy's attitude that makes me cheer against him. Mate a guy with his skills and a personable attitude on the water and he'd be as popular as Kevin VanDam.

Outside of whatever scent may come with plastics I buy I only tend to use Berkeley's craw scent on jigs. I don't notice any real improvement in hits.

That's the kind of thing that makes me switch to another outfitter. Shame on Bass Pro Shop.

I'd be more than happy fishing with any of the Linders. Truth be told, I'd be happy fishing with the worst fisher on the BASS, FLW or LBAA tours because they could still smoke me in a head-to-head and would teach me at least something.

Never poke the bear. Ever. What's hilarious is Martens on the cover of this month's Bassmaster extolled as a drop shot expert and failed pretty badly with that technique during the first period :-) I'm not saying the cat can't fish, because he can. Compare him to Edwin Evers when the cameraman was in the way of landing the fish. Evers let it go fairly quickly. Martens would have brought it up the entire day. That's why I liked guys like Ish Monroe and Takahiro Omori from the last episode...bleep happens...keep fishing and keep smiling.

After watching online the second episode I can only say the following: in any showdown between Omori and Martens, I will be waving the Japanese flag. By God Martens is a complainer.

As someone who owns a tour jersey autographed by him, I think if I had to choose one guy it would be Shin Fukae. I've always wanted to really work on my finesse fishing skills and he'd be the one I'd choose. Besides, I love his attitude...he always seems to be having a great time fishing even if he's catching the wee ones. If Fukae was busy that day, I wouldn't mind going out with Mike Iaconelli. He could shout "Never give up!" when I land the big one, ha ha.

I've bought some of the Chinese made lures from eBay out of curiosity. Mostly complete garbage. I'll take Japanese, domestic or European any day of the week and pay the premium without complaint.

Another vote for the Strike King Coffee Tubes.

I put a small label inside each compartment in my crankbait box with depth info ... early in the morning I'm not looking to do too much thinking. Most 3700s are also labeled for that same reason.

I think people figured out paying $25-30 for a rig that costs about $2 to make is a poor employment of money.

That's it. I'm starting a thread about the North American Fishing Club.

Somewhere Paul Elias just cocked an eyebrow.