mc6524

Mono floats, mono stretches, mono can been seen by the fish better. I guess I’m at a loss as to why you think mono is better. The only situation todwhere mono is better is with the Carolina rig where you want the bait to float easier and mono will help with that.

If I may take a step back here. For regular leader to connect to braid, I’d suggest fluorocarbon line. Mine line of choice is Yozuri topknot. If you are Carolina rigging to braid mono is in order and I suggest suffix advanced. Please keep in mind for finesse fishing 6-10# leader is usually the best and especially if you are fishing clear water, using the same 6-10# mono leader weight for your Carolina rig would be in order. I grew upping trilene big game before fluro came out and loved it, but frankly unless your flipping big cover IMO it’s overkill.

The fish n fool knot is virtually the United knot and I use it all of the time. It calls for 4-5 wraps and I usually use 5.

IMO Lew’s would be my choice. I don’t think you can get the tournament MB anymore. I think they have upgraded that at reel to the tournament MP. The cost is $159.

Ranger phenix basscat

When I stated out building rods I purposefully chose an inexpensive blank to learn on. From there I found two blank manufactures I liked. Point blank blanks and MHX blanks. I found these after getting more well known blanks like St, Croix and G Loomis blanks were getting harder to get.

The things I find the most valuable is weather conditions (I.e., cloud cover, air temp, and water surface temp), comments I make like what I caught the fish on, if it was in cover like trees, and an estimated depth that I caught the fish in. For example if my boat is sitting in 30 feet of a water and I hook the fish half way from the boat I estimate the fish depth of 15 feet. What bait I caught them on. This allows me to put all the other info I’ve listed in perspective. For example if it’s a blue bide day air temp 90 and I catch my fish in an estimated 15 feet of water on a crank bait versus a finest jig with a trick worm that tells me something.

Yes I keep a log. I have found through the years that even when I fish the same lake a lot, I don’t always remember the finer details which has me fishing at a disadvantage. The log helps me focus. It might be easy to put a fishing plan together based on the time of year, but I find that when I review my fishing logs it helps me remember the little things. For example, I’ve fished the same lake at pre-spawn, but have found that the water temperature fluctuates from year to year even when fished around the same time of the month.

I’m not sure where you are located, but some of the smaller Bass circuits are looking for an individual to be a tournament director (ABA, USA BASSIN). Tatway you would get an idea how much work it takes to run a tournament as well as get experience. Then, if you like it, you can start your own open tournaments.

Randy Howell finesse jig works great. I’ve also used a football finesse jig which I like because you can get some side to side movement of your bait as well

Yes' the Berkly tool really helps especially for spinning reels. I keep it in a bag with my line making it convenient to take to tournaments,

A couple tricks I’ve leaned, and learned probably the hard way is, 1. Take all of your brakes off. 2. As with regular casts thumb control is key 3. With dual brake reels I turn my centrifugal brakes off, I set my magnetic brake on full and adjust tension brake at a point where I can do a regular long cast with no backlash. Then when I want to pitch I turn my magnetic brake off. I find this should get you an accurate pitching distance about 45 feet give or take a couple of feet.

Berkley makes a line stripper that is also a hook sharpener. It’s battery powered.

I put a drop of reel oil on the top of the pin an then use the Bocca bearing pliers and push it through. It makes it easier to pull out with a needle nose or pliers once I have the pin pushed through.

What I’ve found fishing heavy cover is Texas rigging the bait with a hook and then putting a hook weight on.

Ymoderate to slow action rods bend at the top half of the rods. They are usually used for multi hook baits such as crankbaits and top water lures, or other reaction baits such as spinnerbaits, rattlebaits and jerkbaits. Since the action is softer it helps prevent the bait being thrown by the fish.

Try the CA Bass Federation. They have several regions and tourny’s listed

For me the Yamamoto 5 inch single tail grub in a smoked color with purple fleck. If the water is significantly stained, a pure white one for contrast works well

There are several good line-to line knot. Look up the “slim beauty” knot. It’s a knot developed to take the place of the Bimini twist knot. It’s a strong knot used for saltwater (tarpon) fishing.

I watched the video and to me it seemed to be a lot more work, time, and line waste.

I had a 2001 Procraft 185 with that exact motor. First of all, I did not have any problems with the boat or motor, but with a used bass boat, as I’m sure you know, it’s a matter of how it been taken care of. That being said, IMO I would list my pro’s and con’ as: Pro’s 1. The boat did really fish well for an 18’ boat 2. Easy to maneuver in trees. I did not get high centered on stumps, etc. Con’s 1. For me, I sat low in the boat so see how comfortable you are in seeing out when sitting in the boat. 2. It had a fairly rough ride if the lake was rough, but honestly, that is the case with most if not all 18’ bass boats. The longer boats as a whole do ride better in rough water. i hope this helps

Several things come into play but many of us fisherman continue to be confused between the difference between structure and cover. Structure is the big picture part of the lake. Such things as dropoff’s, channel bends, transition from rock to gravel, etc. cover on the other hand is more specific like lay downs,, trees, grass etc. Our challenge on any given day is to match these two together to develop a pattern. To do that we then need to match the seasonal pattern with the structure and cover. For example, a summer pattern may be fishing deeper main lake points that have a channel bend with pea gravel. Now you know why on some days they are so hard to catch ?

Actually, casting distance is a combination of spool weight and resistance which relates to the reel’s bearings. The point of having the spool full relates to the circumferance of the spool with full line. There is a greate amount of line coming off of the spool with each spool rotation with it full.

I have several Lews tournament MB reels and love them. For me, they are a utility reel that can handle any type of fishing. I woule also suggest you don’t worry about having a big spool. I put backing line on all of my reels with only 75-100 yards of main line. All baitcast reels work better if they are full of line, and in reality if you don’t put backing line on the reel you are wasting a lot of line and money. I just use an inexpensive mono as backing for my fluro line, or even my braid line on my spinning reels.

Be careful getting a generator. Not every campground will allow them. I ran into this situation. A campsite with electrical hook-up should run around $20-$40. That’s fairly reasonable.