Loop_Dad

I am for rotating baits until I find a pattern. I was almost exclusive tie-direct until last year. I use snaps and snap swivels often these days. The swivel part is probably not needed for me, but I use them since I have some in my box. I tend to use heavier baits in general and not much of finesse fisher man. And the way I fish, I do not believe I am loosing sensibility, even with jigs. If you are on lighter set up the effect might be bigger. Try for yourself in a shallow clear water to see how you feel when your bait bumps into a small rock and to see how snap swivels interfere with the signal you get on your rod. In my test, I didn't see the diff. One thing, don't use cheap no brand hardware. I tested these hardware myself. I picked up a bag from local store and was shocked how easy it was to break. I have confidence (for now) that my hardware will not break before my hook straightens out.

Since you are using braid, it is not the line. You are complaining about amount of weed just by little difference of the hook. So I am assuming you are fishing very heavy weeds. If I had to guess, maybe your medium action rod is too wimpy for the cover that you are really not feeling anything while you fish, until fish totally ate the bait and swimming with it. Congrats on your PB.

I don't know how others do, but when I use baitcaster, I start thumbing while the lure is in the air. I don't think about it, but probably start thumbing as the lure hit the apex and gradually increasing. I think I am adjusting my thumbing based on how I feel on my thumb also. I went night fishing the other day when the moon was crescent but I had not problem with backlash. However the place had heavy weeds and I used the flashlight just little bit to see the weeds. Hope I wasn't spooking the fish.

Mine was when my then 5 yrs old daughter caught 2 lbs on her brand new 4 ft Shakespeare combo on her first (or close to first) cast on a brand new cute crank bait she picked out herself at the store.

Not sure about general comment like that. I have had very positive experience with small ebay outfit and negative experience with others you would think you have nothing to worry about.

I always carry these two with me. They are small but powerful. With these I can cut all of the hooks I use with ease. I feel everybody should be able to cut their own hooks in case of emergency. ( I once hooked my brother on his cheek. ) If the hook point was out, you could have cut the point and barb and probably removing was easier: End cutter http://www.amazon.com/Channellock-357-Inch-Cutting-Plier/dp/B0000BYDYD/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1379401003&sr=8-3&keywords=7+inch+end+cutter Bolt cutter http://www.amazon.com/TEKTON-3386-8-Inch-Heavy-Duty-Cutter/dp/B000NQ4OYO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1379401122&sr=8-1&keywords=8inch+bolt+cutter I don't know how many fish you caught that day, but I have never had that many fish gut hooked, especially very same way. Something tells me you are setting hook very late? Maybe your set up is too stiff or line is too stretchy so you are not sensing the hit right away? I don't know. Also I pinch barbs on all my single hooks. As long as you keep your light tight, you don't loose much. If you do this, your fishing will be more joyful.

I would need to see the water and fish activities, but one possibility based on what you said would be 4" dinger green pumpkin or green pumpkin/chart t-rigged with 1/16 oz 1/8 oz bullet weight, but again it depends. Also, I often rotate my baits trying to look for color that works.

Me too in general I can cast farther with baitcaster except for really little baits which I don't use. I can comfortably wamm-it the baitcaster, but with spinning I feel a bit awkward, something with the finger holding the line. I never measured how long I am actually casting.

I did the flush and oil with Citica. My understanding was that worked because Citica's come with bearings of decent quality. What I was not sure about was if that's true to the older models. And as far as replacing I was not sure where to get bearings for older reels...unless someone tells me that Shimano have always used the same size for their spool bearings...

For me I am not too much worried about gear ratio. However, I would like to keep the IPT on my reels somewhat in the same ball park, say 27 ipt - 30 ipt. I think that's generally mid to high gear ratio. By doing this, I have more freedom to switch around the reels and not worry about changing my retrieval speed just because I am using reel A today instead of reel B. Speed adjustment for the bait is applied by me.

I have two reels that I still take out time to time. I got emotional attachment to those. However the performance (casting distance basically) is not as good as newer reels (of course!) I was wondering if there's any way to make them perform a bit better. Reel #1. Shimano BM-1 (Japanese market model of Lews BB-1 from 70's) Reel #2. Shimano Bantam BlackMagunum 100GT from 80's. These reels are lightly used and are in pretty good shape. I have schematics for BlackBugnum, but not for BM-1. I have recently cleaned up the bearing for Citica G and put a drop of oil to them. I was happy with the results. Can I do the same thing ( clean and oil) with these older reel's bearings and expect similar kind of improvement that I got on Citica? Can I replace the bearing of these older reels with something new and expect improvement?

I have no idea what's it like to be in your area, but one possibility it forget the major body of water and go small. My biggest fish of the year so far came out from a pond that I never knew existed until 1 year ago. If you hit a jack pot, you basically own the place. If you want to be on the water and iIf you ave having tough time paying for even launch fee, then maybe float tube might be a way to go for you. I see those on Craigslist for less than $100 including everything.

I have never used 12", but I remember that years ago some folks rigged big worm with some of the line threaded right in the center of the worm for first few inches before rigged the hook t-rig style...

A couple of weeks ago, I was fishing a rock wall from a boat. There was a road on the wall and a lady in the minivan stopped and yelled at me asking how I was doing. I was off probably 30 yards from the water edge, 40 yards from her. It was bit windy too, so talking wasn't easy. I said I got 6 fish. She asked what bait I was using. I didn't mind telling what I caught them on, but I wasn't sure how to answer her because I wasn't sure if she was even a fisherwoman who knows there were more baits than nightcrawlers and minnows. Anyhow I told her that I caught them on several different kind of lures. Later I realized my answer was very vague at best.

Jay, I use Pitzen with all type of lines, including fluro. \ http://www.netknots.com/fishing_knots/pitzen-knot I actually use up to 7 wraps instead of 4. Still it is easy to tie and very strong. I tried the double version of this (Shaw Glibsy one) before, but didn't like it because it has three ends to trim. I like to keep things simple. My tip to tie this knot nice an clean is to moisten and bring the knot close to the hook by your finger, before you pull the line to tighten it up. Good luck.

The one on the top looks like a mermaid. Sorry, couldn't resist. I'll be interested to know what others think thou.

I was looking for green pumpkin with chart tail brush hog. The guy at the local store said I can die with yellow Spike-It. He was wrong. The color didn't change much. I suspect the guy didn't know what he was talking about and all die basically needed to be used on light color plastic, am I correct on this? Anyhow, I bought Big Bite Bate's Bush Pig in Green Pump/Chart color after this.

I'll also consider Bitter's when I need to buy some more. Their color selection is amazing. You're right. I did catch some on this worm after tail being chopped off.

I don't use them not only glide on top of the weeds, but in between weeds, including dropping in the holes as well.

This worm has been working good for me lately, except for one thing...the tail get cut off too easy. I am not sure fish biting them off, or they get cut off when I yank them out from the weeds. I use them in heavy weeds. I hate this because often times the rest of the worm is perfectly fine. Anyone see the same issue? Maybe better alternative?

Sam, I like your #9. Nice.

I do sweeping set. I have toned down since I switched to all braid.

I don't fish 'river' but do fish delta. Also I don't fish small mouth, but LMB. So this might not apply to your situation at all, but I seem to find more fish where the current is hitting against something. The mental picture I have is all those fish are looking upstream with mouth wide open waiting for the food to come down stream.

Thanks to this thread, I picked up Strike King S11 Amber. I used it today and love this pair! I feel this is a bargain with $40 retail price. I was bit worry about the fit since I ordered online, but it fit very well to my rather larger head. I think the design is to fit small to large head.

I bought some stuff from TW too. Just little, I don't need much at this point. But I was wondering about that too. Why it ended before the actual Labor Day?