Koofy Smacker

Ya I have trouble buying reels anywhere other than Ebay. I got an Okuma Helios off the bay earlier this spring for $150 (normally $200) and then also got the $30 rebate through Okuma. Free shipping too!

Everything I have seen on them is that they sink like a rock and suspending doesnt even relatively begin to describe them lol

Id word that question different. I think your talking more about learning techniques than patterns. Patterns change daily and you cant learn them, only learn to recognize them once on the water

Rule #1 I follow is once you find the shad - DONT fish the shad. Fish around them, within 50-75 yards. Fishing the shad themselves can get them all spooky and they can disappear and then your really out of luck. Fish the cover around them. Weeds, trees, rocks etc. Bass are ambush predators and will sit and wait for shad to pass to strike. Get to them before the shad do and youll get a lot more bites.

I leave the spool in and feed it through the wiffle holes in the spool itself. Never another slipped knot

How would he break it off from wind

My general bay rod for striper fishing is a 7' St Croix Tidemaster MH Fast with a 4000 Stradic spooled with 30 lb sufix. Then a 20 lb mono or fluoro leader and to whatever lure I am using. Not sure what bays you play on fishing but the smaller back bay waters that I get into it is absolutely perfect and you can walk and toss all day with it. More open water, and if you are on a boat I would suggest a round reel, because bait will probably be used in that case

Could very well be a regional thing. I work there thats how I always know a few days before, but it generally goes within much larger regions, ie; northeast, southeast, midwest etc.

I looked into them. They do bow a lot more than a typical bunk and are much slicker. I went with a typical 2x4, bought the carpet at Cabelas and sent myself on an afternoon long project in the basement cutting and carpeting them. Next time I went to the lake it took me about half an hour to pull the old boards off and put the new ones on. 2 years going and its like new. I did however urethane the ends of the boards with 3 coats to stop massive water absorption. I think in total it cost me around 60 bucks all said and done. Plus if your trailer is good you can reuse the stainless bolts and washers which should have come with it

electrolyte is really just the sulfuric acid inside the battery which stays there. Adding distilled water only brings the level back down to normal. Once the electrolyte is gone, its gone. Essentially you COULD add more electrolyte as they do sell it but your better off getting a new battery as its not easy unless your a chemist

the problem with any old steel cable is how you attach it on the motor end. I bought the G-Force cable and have been more than pleased. My handle did break but they sent me an updated stronger handle and its been great. Well worth the 30 bucks

I know what you mean about putting them in tight spots. The area is tidal that Im referring too though and its easy to fish it on a mid outgoing tide where the spots are much more easily accessible with a pitch. Still takes skill to get it around the posts and into the tight spots around boats but its very rare I need to skip. Its very shallow also. Always less than 6 ft deep and on a low low tide gets down till the trolling motor is hitting around the docks. But none the less these fish are still there.

Hook point side. That way when the weight slides down and hits the top it shoots the hook point out and into the flesh

BTW go to your local dicks. I know atleast the Citica 201G6 is on clearance for 99.97 and then 50% off this week.

Give them a call and see what they have to say. Ive seen companies give the OK for another company (in this case an aluminum welder) to do the work instead of having to take the whole hull. Who knows though until you talk to them and they take a look.

You have a lifetime warranty on the welds. And I can promise you it will be void should someone else touch the boat and do "modifications" in any way if they are not a tracker certified tech. It wont be safe to go out in a leaky boat, if its a hairline crack it could open up and become a major issue in the middle of the water. Basically what Im trying to say is get it back to a dealer or in your case bass pro

I will. Im gonna cross my fingers and hope I don't end up losing weights on sharp snags

The heavy weight is for the reaction strike which has gotten me a ton more bites than previously. Half to 3/4 oz jigs which fall much faster are gonna get them to strike much more frequently (in the dog days of summer) than throwing something light with a slower fall. I do punch also and it's that same reaction I'm looking for. The bigger fish bite a lot more when they don't sit and look at it for more than a split second. If you watch the MLF episode with ish "dropping bombs" on docks it's the same thing

I hear you about unpegged but there is a LOT off cover under these docks. Everything from drain pipes to old dock pylons to brush piles and stuff that floated down out of the river into the flats that the docks are on. I am keeping tension on the fish and it's really hard to keep them from jumping and getting their heads up when I'm getting the hooks in them from the hookset. (I only have about 10 ft of line out on a typical fish)

I wanna see what you guys think. Not sure if its just a bout of bad luck or not but its starting to get my nerves going. Heres my setup: St Croix Legend Tournament 7' 4" Heavy Fast Revo SX with cinched down drag 65 lb Sufix 832 4/0 Paycheck punch hook or Trokar flipping hook in same size tied with snell knot Pegged 3/8-1 oz tungsten Soft Plastics include creature baits (pit boss, sweet beavers etc.) and rage shellcrackers So far in the past 3 weeks off of docks I've lost 3 fish easily 7-8 lbs while flipping/pitching. I'll feel them, slam home the hook and 10 seconds later at the boat they shake and off they go. These are the only 3 I have lost this way; although all the others have been less than 5 lbs the biggest ones are coming unbuttoned. I'm not sure if they are biting the tungsten and Im not driving the hook home hard enough (Im really swinging already) or what the deal is and I know I am not ripping huge holes because they are all driven through thick cartilage. What do you guys think?

I think you answered it yourself. You were running carb cleaner through your outboard when this started happening and when pulled the lower unit oil was jet black. It would be very milky white if it had water in it. My guess is that the carb cleaner loosened up a whole bunch of built up gunk and thats exactly what you saw.

your fine bolting it onto a galvanized trailer. However it wont do you any good it it eats through the boat thats sitting on top of it

Biffle was jumping waterfalls... Enough said

Never while fishing although too many times to count I have had people driving down the road flip me the bird while walking into the woods to archery hunt and also in gun season. Several times they scream obsenities also but they never stop. If anything they yell it while they speed up

Thats the whole purpose of that reel. Any loop in the line goes in those cut outs and stays away from the line coming off the spool stopping knots from forming. It does nothing else and will never come in contact with your line except for on the cast. May I ask why you want a smooth spool then?