Scott F

Try a 3 inch wacky rigged senko type. Catch crappie and bass.

Exactly. Thinner diameter lines let lures run deeper than thicker lines. The resistance of the water pushes up on the line keeping the bait from going deeper. Go from 12 pound test to 10 pound line (mono or fluoro) and your bait will run up to about 1 foot deeper on average. Braided line being so much thinner, has less resistance so baits run even deeper. If braid were as buoyant as a bobber, your baits would not be able to dive. But braid just barely floats. It takes very little to get it to sink. It is not much more buoyant than Fluoro which does sink but it is not so heavy that it will drag down a floating bait. Most of the crankbaits you use float, but they will still dive down deep.

I don't know that I'd make a decision based on an estimate made by someone who did not even look at the car. Your mechanic "thinks" the timing chain jumped. Is he sure? Before you dump the car, I'd get another mechanic to look at it. It could be a lot simpler problem. It may be just me, but I don't trust dealerships. They always try to sell me work I don't need so they can hit the target dollars to get their bonus.

I'd go with the St. Croix Premiers also for a good rod in your price range. The only rods I own that aren't custom made are St. Croix. Premiers are still made up in Wisconsin too.

Braid is not so buoyant that it has any effect on the depth a crankbait will run. A single hook causes braid to sink. I use braid on my suspending jerkbaits and they suspend perfectly. If the "floating" braid was that buoyant, It would cause the baits to rise up, but it doesn't. If you are using braid in the smaller diameters, your baits will run much deeper than mono or fluoro because the smaller line has less resistance in the water. The increased sensitivity and no stretch of braid will also let you feel your bites much better. Use a snap for your big crankbaits. Even with a palomar, there will be very little waste.

How far are you willing to go? Have you got an Illinois fishing license? I'd tell you to go over to Heidecke Lake, south of Joliet, but the ramp there is under construction and terrible for launching. Supposed to be ready in June. A little farther yet is LaSalle Lake near Seneca, IL.

Good luck. If the weather is nice, there will be so many boats going back and forth, the water will be so rough it would make fishing pretty difficult. Get out VERY early. You might get an hour or two before the water gets too stirred up.

Higher octane fuel just has more anti-knock compounds and is designed for high compression engines. It won't do a thing for engines that don't need it.

Even if you could prove that scent would get me more fish, I wouldn't use it.The overspray gets on your clothes, boat and tackle. The bottles always leak and stink up your tackle box. It smells so bad, I don't want it in my boat.

You need video editing software. You can get it for free or you can spend several hundred dollars. Google it.

Find the spot where water is draining into the pond.

It was the old braided line that was the problem, not the rods. Newer braids are much smoother and won't damage even old rods.

I use 8lb Fireline on my spinning gear and 20lb Suffix 832 on my baitcasters with swim jigs. Never had a problem with line digging into spool. I don't need or like heavier lines when I'm not fishing heavy cover. I use braid for everything.

New Quantum spinning reels don't come with an anti-reverse switch. I use the switch to back up when I reel the lure too close to the rod tip or when I want to back up the lure to hook it into the hook keeper that is near the reel on my rod. I keep my drag tight enough where pulling against the drag requires more effort than just flipping the switch and back reeling a few turns. I won't buy a reel without the switch. All baitcasters have a button that puts the reel in freespool, but I've never seen one that allows you to crank in either direction.

I don't use Senkos in muddy water. Because they have little action of their own, bass have to see them in order to hit them. In dirty water, I like lures the fish can feel like a single spin spinner bait with a big Colorado blade or maybe a chatterbait.

The section of the book I found online did not show the study done on the Nevada, Arizona and Wisconsin lakes, it referenced and quoted sections of it. There was no reason given that I saw, why some nests were guarded only 3 days aside from anglers removing males.

Thank you for pointing that out. Upon further research, I found a book,"Reproductive Biology and Early Life History of Fishes in the Ohio River "By Robert Wallus, Thomas P. Simon that points out that "largemouth do not eat while on the nest and that includes pre-spawn, spawn and post spawn periods." The male will remain guarding the fry until the fry are 12-32 mm long which can take up to 2 weeks. "The presence of the male guarding the nest is essential for a successful nesting event." In studies done on lakes in Arizona, Nevada, and Wisconsin, successful nests were guarded for up to 15 days, unsuccessful nests were guarded for only 3 days. When anglers removed males from 34 nests, all nests failed.

I have many reasons why I choose to bass fish over fishing for other species. The main reason is because of the way you fish for bass. They readily hit a variety artificial lures and you can cast for them. Changing lures, casting at targets, you are always active. That makes for fun fishing. I'd rather stay home and paint my house than to drag live bait rigs around for walleyes. That's just boring. I'm also not crazy about staring at a float for hours, sitting and waiting for it to go under. Pike fishing is fun, and I like it a lot. It's a lot like bass fishing except the potential for much larger fish is there. The problem with pike fishing is that to get good numbers and size, you have to go to Canada. There isn't a lot of decent pike fishing that is closer that 600 miles from where I live. Muskies would be good if you had a reasonable shot at getting several in a day. I don't live anywhere near saltwater so there's no opportunity for that. I have smallmouth bass in rivers 15 minutes to an hour away that I can easily catch all summer long. They fight hard, and are present in good numbers. That's why I choose bass over other species.

That's interesting. There are those the think bass are genetically programmed NOT to eat their young. That's why I don't use minnow imitating baits for quite a while after the spawn.

I'm pretty lucky in that the lake I fish, if I get 50 bass, odds are there will be 4 or 5 big bass in that number. If all the bass were 10 or 12 inches, after 5 hours, I'd change to another lake. For me, the thrill of the big fish wears off quickly, going two or three hours with no strikes at all is not what I like to do. I need consistent action to keep my interest up. It's a big reason I don't get excited about musky fishing. All musky anglers have to do is SEE a couple of fish in a day and they're happy. I've had 10 hour days where I caught 5 muskies and was not that thrilled with the long lulls in between bites. To each his own.

I keep a senko rigged up and ready to go. If I get a strike that misses, I pick up that stickbait and cast right back to the spot. Gets them a high percentage of time.

I use a scissor clamp. They're scissors and a locking hemostat in one tool. There is also a sharp pin for cleaning paint out of a hook eye and a flat blade screwdriver. The scissors cut braid very well and the jaws remove hooks. I clamp them to the flap on my shirt pocket when I'm done using them. No matter what kind of tool you use, you have to train yourself to put it back in the same place after you use it. Nothing will be where you want it, when you need it, if you don't.

Musky, pike, walleye, perch, rock bass, bluegill, crappie, gar, bowfin, drum, pickerel, catfish, white bass, striper, skip jack herring, shad, carp, whitefish, lake trout, eel, snapping turtle, and a mallard duck. There are few things that swim that I haven't caught while bass fishing.

Here's a few more. #9 Man shall not go directly to a spot shown by another man the day after being shown said spot. #10 On road trips, with the duration being more than 45 minutes, but less than two hours, the purchase of breakfast for the driver by the passenger shall be acceptable in lieu of gas money. In addition, under penalty of ridicule, no vehicle, regardless of value shall be exempt from gravel roads/muddy roads.

I would not use olive or vegetable oil (pam) on my baits if they were going to be stored for any length of time. Vegetable oil gets really gummy after a while. If you want to keep them lubricated, I'd think that mineral oil would be a better choice. I've had some plastics for 15 years or longer, kept in Plano utility boxes with no added oils and they are just like the day I got them.