gulfcaptain

Sounds like you found some females that had other thoughts and found a few males willing to play. Great thing is there are always fish somewhere that aren't in a spawning mood. That batch of females moved up, so somewhere in a staging area the next wave of females may be taking their place. I rarely catch big cruising fish so I just admire and ignore them for the most part and try and focus my efforts where I think they should be staging and slow down and grind it out.

Calcutta's are pretty cheap, $25 or so. Use them at work for any outside work so if they get messed up I don't mind as opposed to the Kaenon's that are sitting in my bag safely in my room.

I'd advice you to NOT do that. You can kill them with paintballs or a sling shot and air soft are plastic pellets. Natural way, find someone that has a Cooper's Hawk to run them little well things off. Have a couple that showed up in the small pond close to where I live. As much as I hate them they actually improved it by culling and removing a lot of the 6-10" bass that were in there and stunted. But then a group of about 50 pretty much wiped out the shad population in another pond. Only relieve for the forage was the stocked trout the state fed them every two weeks.

Always fun to read your posts, think this year has been even better. You can only make snow angels so long before you go crazy. You guys have def had a long winter to deal with.

TMI A-Jay. Back to the topic I like the idea of one that is well made, runs great, and most importantly PAID FOR.

I fish mono topshots for all topwater baits and braid main line with softer rods to help keep the fish buttoned. And this year decided to improve on my topwater fishing with one simple addition. Fly Floatant. Originally got it for fishing frogs and coating the braid to help keep the line up (first 12" and yes it does work nicely), decided to try it on a mono topshot with a popper and it worked great as well keeping the line up on the surface although I did have to re-apply it every so often.

It takes a long time to go through filler spools at 3 yards at a time. I have line that is stil in great condition I keep in my apartment in a drawer (apartment is always about 74). Some of it is 3years old, stil has no memory and is good to go. Proper storage is key. Do not keep extra spools of braid on hand though, won't buy unless I'm respooling a reel or 3.

Thank you, someone finally said it....stop blaming the line size. I'm glad I learned how to use reels without having to "dial them in" other then maybe adjusting the tension knob on the side to get the line fall rate I want. All that other adjust this, move that, set this....it's a reel, turn the brakes off and learn how to use the thing. There are no brakes on conventional "old school" saltwater reels such as Newells, Penn Jigmasters, Diawa Sealines, Shimano Triton Star Drag or TLD's. New reels now are overly complicated to assist us and do nothing more then confuse and irritate us when we can't seem to get them to work right. Sorry for the rant, but have read many a post where someone has bought a reel and expects all the bells and whistles to help them cast better when a trained thumb will do wonders. And no this isn't a dig at anyone on here personally, just an observation, I have friends I fish with that have the same issues and can't get their reels to work right and yet I can cast the thing without any issues.

Great thing about flouro leaders, it takes a long time to go through a filler spool of InvisX when you use 3-4 yards at a time. Other then the Uni to Uni, look into the Alberto Knot, actually pretty easy to tie and comes thru the guides quite nicely. Agree you don't have to match line size. Think the heaviest FC I fish is 17lb and most of my outfits are spooled with 20 or 30lb braid. Use 15lb a lot in areas where I need the abrassion resistance. I would go back to the size line you fished prior to braid which worked best for you. You could even go to a small topshot of mono since you say you're fishing in dirtier water and not have the extra cost. Welcome to the forums.

I personally don't like EWG hooks, not fond of the bait slipping up the shank of the hook. Prefer a Gamma G-lock in a 3/0-4/0 but seem to be a size smaller then a Mustad Ultra Grip Hook (4/0 Gamma is about the same as a 3/0) which also works well as I like the that design as well. Flipping hooks, I like a 3/0 in 4" beaver style baits, but craw baits a bit bigger would go with a 4/0. Bottom line though is you fish what you think works best for you as there are many choices. As long as you're catching fish and being successful that is all that matters.

I fish a rod with just about the action you're looking for although it is way under your budget. I fish the Falcon Bucco 7'M spinning rod. Fishes light baits great, has great action for cranks (moderate), actually have 3 of these rods, two of which are casting. Rod works great for shallow cranking. I fish light baits on the spinning rod, but have no problem throwing a 1/4 to 1/2 oz crank or spinnerbait on the baitcasting. Might give it a look over.

Why does everyone say braid under 30lb digs in. Most of my outfits have 30lb and under. Only 2 before this year were over 30lb. Never had 20lb dig into itself nor 15lb which I have fished on a baitcaster for many years. If it digs in, then it was user error in not putting it on correctly. No different then poorly spooled mono which can also dig into itself it's put on loose not to mention the mess it becomes. Sorry Lou, just have never had that problem and still believe when it happens it's user error and they just shift blame to the line. Now back to the OP, put a bit of mono backing on your reel before you spool up, and once you spool your line, give it a bit of KVD Line Conditioner treatment. This stuff works, and when I skip this step I can tell the difference. Also as stated above DO NOT wrap the line around your hand if you get hung up. Learn the Alberto knot well for attaching topshot/leader material. Loosen up your drag a bit to compensate for the lack of stretch until you get your hooksets down, no need to swing for the fences, and the little bit of drag slip won't hurt anything. Oh, and buy yourself a cheap pair of sissors, they work a lot better then pliers or fingernail clippers.

Yep, when they get over 80lbs and eat 3lb hardtails(bluerunners). This one was over 100lbs.

Big amberjacks and groupers next to the oil platforms in th gulf of mexico....or to flyline a 5lb skipjack to catch a 300lb tuna.

Maybe your aggressivve approach isn't what you need. Slow down, fish a jig with a pork trailer or a chunk style plastic trailer. Not much movement. When you feel you need to move the jig, well stop and think about it, look at the clouds, think about what you're going to have for dinner, then move it slightly. Yep fish slow, if you think you are fishing slow, slow down and fish slower. You still have ice on the pond, it's cold and so are they. They aren't going to chase anything so a slowly dragged jig may get you the bite you're looking for. May try a Fat Ika fished the same way.....slowly dragged on the bottom.

Wakebaits, fluke, and a Fat Ika.

5.3lbs and A-Jay, you should have held that fish out farther to make it look a bit bigger.

Yeah, you're NEVER going to raise enough money to fight the Enviormentalists in CA. If they had their way we wouldn't be able to fish anywhere. And yes public waters are hard to find that are open, but are there. I've grown up and I'm over trying to run from the Police or any other Athority that is after me for hoping a fence or going through a hole which has a big sign on it stating "NO TRESSPASSING". Someone gos through a hole, slips off the bank, drowns, and then the family sues the agency incharge of that body of water for their loss or someone gos in a causes damage to the property costing money to fix or replace.. Public municipalities and county lakes have what we consider "stuipid" policies because STUPID PEOPLE do stupid things then sue causing us normal "what were you thinking" or "we are responsible for our selves" people to pay the price. Just like fishing golf courses, some decide it would be more fun to throw the sand trap rakes in the water, tear up the tees and greens, leave their crap all over the golf course and irritate the people who live on or next to it. As the saying go's one bad apple spoils the bunch. Yep it sucks.

We all have our preferences and opinions. Mine, all mono stretches. The heavier you go the more you will get but takes more force to do so. Try and pull 30lb mono off the bottom in 50ft of water, well you're going to get quite a bit of stretch before you get to the breaking point. With that said, I fish topshots attached to braid so a little stretch doesn't hurt when you are only fishing 9-15ft of it. You have to find what works best for you. As for me, Big Game is affordable, good abrasion resistance, works great, and can strip it off after a few trips and respool without breaking the bank when I choose to fish straight mono on my reels.

The Energy should be nice. Used the 2 models below it and both work great. (Accurist and Kinetic), never heard about the other. Sorry had to edit this because I read the question wrong.

When I was a jr in HS, joined a Wednesday night bass club team tournaments on the lake I lived on in Okla. First tournament, well I got grouded for something stupid which I don't remember at this point, my Dad fished with my partner, I got to go to the weigh in that evening. They won, I watched. Got to fish the next week, but of course we didn't catch any that night. But that was my intro into any kind of bass tournament.

I've watched many a nice fish get lost, if I loose one its normally "Dam" followed by a quick sarcastic laugh with a few hops(not in a boat though). The best reponses I always enjoyed on the charterboats is when someone would loose a nice fish, then give the guy next to them the "look what you did" look, lower their head and walk away. Guess it was easier to blame the other guy fishing that had nothing to do with it then accept that it was their fault. But it always made me laugh inside.

Not sure how the steering cable will run to replace pending wiring and everything, but if you can get a straight pull, I have had to replace throttle cables on a crewboat I worked on when they would break and that 100ft run would have been a pain but an easy trick we used was to get some shrink tube and connect the two cables. Sometimes would double the shrink tube then put a wrap of electric tape over the tubing and use the old cable to pull the new one all the way back to the engine room. Not sure if that will work on a bassboat, but if you can it shouldn't take very long at all if it's just the steering cable and nothing ziptied or bundled with it.

I have the 8.0 and have it on my 7'6" BPS Crankin Rod with 15lb mono to 30lb braid. Will be looking to use them up the the Sac. Delta next month, but overall they don't feel that much different then cranking a 5XD which isn't that bad either and they are the same rough size as the SK Wake Shad, as well as the Live Target Bluegill wake baits, so I'm thinking fish in the 3lb range shouldn't have any problems eating one, although I'm sure there will be some smaller fish that think they can too.

Agree with with you, was a reference to possibly looking into a longer rod....but yes in order to get any good hookset at 90ft you have to use proper technique and that would require taking the steps you stated. My suggestion for the longer rod will not be a fix all. Just a adding to the discussion.