derekxec

one question...how pro are the pros without the fish finders/depth finders, shad machines, etc that find the fish for them? if you want to put a pro vs a joe take them to a lake neither has fished with only rods, tackle, boat and motor and no gadgets and see who wins

im the same as you man if i get into it i have to go to the doctor sucks doesnt it! wear long pants and long shirt (white preferably) and make sure you try not to use your hands on your face if at all possible and if you even think you might have touched some during the day when you go home take a long shower and wash your body with dish washing soap (dawn is what i use cause we use it for dishes) and use cold or cool water not warm or else it get washed into pores the poison sits on top of your skin it doesnt soak into your skin and the bubbles that form are body fluid not the poison and the poison is hard to remove from the skin but lots and lots of water will remove it and the dish soap will help the water even more...also if you know you touched some make sure you wash your rods and such cause the oil will sit on them and youll get it again without going near the plant if you know you touched some and the water you are fishing is pretty clean rinse off the part that touched it really well where you are fishing and i mean really well cause again the oil is hard to remove also dont count on this but anyone who is allergic to it can become not allergic to it at any time and also the other way around if you arent allergic to it you could become allergic and it switches fast...i have to play in it a lot at work so when you get it every week and have to see the doctor every week you learn real fast how to work it haha...sometimes i get it then the next week i can play in it and not be allergic sorry last point lol there is another plant called virginia creeper it has 5 leaves and has the same type of poison so be careful of that too...here is a pic of virginia creeper

how about this... if we use the moss green powerpro braid without leader maybe since it matches the grasses underwater they think your bait is following a grass line

a lake i fish is like this and usually i get them in deeper water with a crank bait mid day and closer to the edges at dawn and dusk

man im sorry for you come to florida for a bit plenty of shops here for you lol

i dont have a problem using braid either and looks like tomorrow ill be getting a spool of the super slick for the reel of the new rod i just finished with slick guides

i use the 30lb and 65lb powerpro works nice for both...havent tried the super slick yet though

im a little north of you in palm beach and also use the ark shiner color and its hard to beat here too

i use the rattles in the worms and dont have a problem with sinker strikes...you dont have a dicks or bps near you? the ones i get from dicks are DOA ones made for their shrimp baits

i normally fish from land so i just do like i do when i go flats fishing i just bring 3 or 4 baits in my pocket in a worm bag and thats it

i use only black chatterbaits during day and night and retrieve it the same way always i real in fast enough to feel it wiggle and also for me ive tried it with and without a trailer and i never get any hits without a trailer the only thing i change is how high i keep my rod tip when im reeling it in if low rod tip isnt working i try high tip then mid tip ps. the only reason i use a black one is because its the only color i have and i havent tried any other colors because it works well for me in all conditions(clear water, stained water, night, day, cloudy etc)

i take only the practice bait but i dont just go out and cast everywhere...first i look at the bait and see what it closely imitates and i think if i was this where would i be at and where would the fish be looking for this thats where i look on the lake for places like this to throw then i work it many many diff ways for example if i was a crawfish i probably wouldnt be blazing around the middle of the lake on the top of the water also i pay attention to the weather too if its hot and i was a bass i would be at the bottom of the lake not in the shallows burning up in the sun and if an easy meal came by while i was cooling i wouldnt have a problem chomping on it haha but the way i do it i dont have a problem using the same bait for weeks and not catching anything on it just gathering info...also i try to write down the conditions and the baits i use each day and where i caught fish with them and how i was working them when i caught the fish after a while you can sort through each bait and youll be able to find some patterns that will help you even more...i might actually make a program for logging some info like this now that i think about it lol

i do it cause all my snook spots are dead right now (no rain to open the spillways) and im lazy to take out the boat right now but its not bad they just dont fight as good also FYI large mouth bass arent really bass they are a type of sunfish not in the bass family

and after fishing you can stop by the store for a drink lol thats great haha

hey another florida guy im in south florida palm beach i use a couple size power pro from 30-65 on my light fresh/saltwater rods and 80 and 100 on my larger salt rods for freshwater i really never break off and i rip them out of everything 30lb when there is a lot of open water and 65lb when im around lots of structure and yeah definately braid is a must in florida haha

i would rather have 1 big bass than a bunch of smalls but then again im more of a snook fisherman and even big bass dont fight half as hard as a snook but my spillways are closed mostly so the snook fishing for me is too slow right now

why not go braid? i use my rods for salt and fresh water for bass, snook everything and liine lasts 2 years easy...it fades and such but that doesnt affect it at all and you could even back the spool with cheap line and use say 30 or 50lb braid over it for 100 yards and really if it runs 90 yards you could horse it back to gain a bit of line if you do it that way for $20 right now at dicks you could get a 300 yard spool and do 3 rods like this for $20 + some cheap line

yeah but just because you see pros doing it doesnt mean the fish cant see it....read the how to get a sponsor articles and they say that its not how good you can fish its how well you can sell the sponsors product

i use a black chatterbait also and works pretty good although for some reason casting deep has caught all my bigger bass at night but i always see lots cruising the edges when i have my headlamp on

you shouldnt use a swivel if you want a leader which is not absolutely needed use a line to line knot....with a swivel ive had fish hit the swivel instead of the bait many times but the swivel doesnt have a hook: haha

you know whats easier? fishing without a leader like i do lol just learn to tie your knots with hardly any tag end.....the fish not being able to see your line is just good marketing and ive never had bass cut through braid

lol i wouldnt doubt it cause i catch a lot of fish but wow i tried to make a fishing show a 30 min one and good lord in the 30 mins without showing all the casts needed to catch one it took like 8 or more hours of footage easily and still i couldnt fill the 30 mins lol...takes a min or 2 max to reel in a decent size fish and the small ones even less thats why they play with the fish for 5 mins back and forth hahaha

top water baits are great cause even if you miss the fish you get to see them slam it and if you clean your reels with water get a water displacing oil...hobby shops sell it for RC car nitro motors to keep moisture out of the motors when they sit unused...just wipe off excess water then put some of the oil on a rag and rub it all over your reel (careful of the line though im not sure how it reacts)

wow grats! and my only freshwater trout was caught using a rooster tail

a bass boat? name it "Glitter"