gulfcaptain

What jigs did you order?

I've seen a bunch of people get in trouble without a license but not myself. Normally they are posted up with 5 rods keeping everything they catch and really don't care about following the rules. Depending on who caught them, I've seen it go from a pack up and leave without the fish(park ranger) to the actual fish and game warden take everything, run their names while writing the ticket for each offense(each fish kept is a seperate charge btw) and if they come back with any kind of warrant, well off to jail. So if you're asking is it worth it to fish without a license I would say when you come of age, go ahead and get one unless you think you can pull off 15 for another year. Otherwise just get the license and carry it with you at all times.

Rods: Falcon, BPS, ***, Quantum Reels: Quantum, ***, BPS, Daiwa Line: Power Pro, 832, Seagur, Pline, Berkley Tackle: well a bit of everything and then some.

If I practiced it would be to get a feel for the water and what baits to use as well as an idea of what may be going on as to which rods and techiques I would be geared up to fish.

Co-Angler A-Jay, non boater. I know I'll fish 2 of the 3 days for sure. Hence worse case, I get 2 days of fishing from the back of a boat.

Worse case as said before, hey I'll get a 2 day guided fishing trip. Couldn't be any harder then trying to find fish offshore when I ran sportboats for a living. I don't have the pressure of running the boat, just catching the fish. But thanks.

Okay, so after 2 months of debating, I pulled the trigger and put my deposits and entries down for the Western Regional FLW Rayovac Tournament curcuit as a non-boater/co angler. So here is my question, I am familiar with the Delta, Clear Lake, but haven't really fished Havasu. Anyone have any suggestions what the fish or what kind of fishing situation I am in for come the begining of Febuary? Due to work schedule, well this one I am truely going to be fishing in the blind but I think I can handle it as long as I have some sort of clue as to what to expect.

An 8-10" swimbait. And if you must, you can down grade to a 6" but from December till March I will have an 8" Hudd or Line Thru tied on as well as a 10" triple trout floater. Also going to try a jigging/structure spoon too, but late fall till summer I'll always have a swimbait tied on. Others prefer jigs and that may work for them as well as jerk baits.

tungsten would be nice too. Like the skirt idea as well and the lighter sizes with interchangable hook system.

Hundreds? Um, you need to think a bit bigger if you're going to sell baitfish.....thousands. Figure each person you sell bait to buys 2 dozen. So your "hundreds" now result in 4 people buying bait per 100 fish. Now you have tanks but need to keep it filtered and clean, feed those new little mouths so they don't die(although some will), and if you don't keep the quality up then they wipe out the who tank. Good weekend could wipe you out of your hundreds of baitfish, then need to be able to replenish your stock to keep up with demand. Unless you have access to an area that you can dig your own stock ponds to raise them, you will find out quickly that your great idea to make some fast cash isn't as cost effective as you thought it was. If you run out of "wild caught" baitfish for you customers, then they are going to go somewhere else. They come back again and no baitfish there will be no third time. And the .11-.25 cent a piece bait your selling may cost you more to capture and keep to sell then you will make. By that time you may have wiped out your great bait catching stream of those prized shinners you have and have to go buy some from someone else until their numbers return to havestable levels. I know I may sound a bit harsh, but you're thinking of a business idea. Have to look at all the pieces. I didn't even touch on the legal parts/permits/licenses/taxes. Yep, all the stuff that go's along with the permit and license to sell those little shinners. Your profit margin is about $.03 to .05 if you're lucky. Is it really worth it to make a dollar profit for every 100 you sell when you only have hundreds to catch?

Look at some inshore spinning rods. I'm sure you can find something that will be in that range that will work with what you are looking to do. Just have to shift to a different marketed area rods. My swimbait rods are musky models. Try to find something with at least an IM-6 blank but the inshore market or even a spinning rod made for musky fishing will probably work for what you're looking to do.

I'd agree with A-Jay, need to spend more time. Tend to find smaller water body fish act different then larger water fish do. More pressure with less areas to move. Spring fish follow water temps and are driven by the urge to spawn. Very predictable. Then summer to late fall they move, spread out, do all kinds of things to rebuild their fat and energy supplies for the next year before winter starts. You will always have fish that stay shallow, but it does sound like the fish you saw were sunning themselves and the water willow was probably absorbing the suns heat as well. But if you spend more time on those bodies of water later in the year you will learn what works and where. Added fishing pressure on a body of water just means in order to be successful you need to work harder and be more efficient in your presentations and techniques.

I pitch all the time from the bank. So yes it is a great technique to have for the shorter targets under 30 feet away when you need a soft entry and pin point accuracy. I would start to learn with at least a 1/2oz bait till you get the technique down and then try lighter baits as you feel more comfortable with a looser spool tension.

go look into a BPS combo with one of the Pro Qualifier/carbonlite or one of the other options...you can get yourself a great set up for under the $200 mark you have...

Then you simply state "yes you have one 10lber, unfortunately you have ONE, lets look on my side shall we....yep, it's full of fish that will weight more then your one as well as the others I had to put on the side with yours since I ran out of room on mine from all the fish I caught with my 20 rods. Oh and btw, I'm gonna need gas money for todays trip, thanks "

Your asking a lot from one rod to do everything. Deep cranks, jigging, a-rig. The 3 you mentioned you could possibly do 2 well with one(deep cranks and A-rig), jigging you're going to want more sensitive and possibly a stiffer tip where your cranks a more moderate softer action to keep from pulling hooks(which works well for me also for a-rigs). So with that said since your wanting one rod for all you're going to have to find something in a MH preferably H Mod/Fast action and that may be able to do both in the 7'3-7'6" range.

You will find a lot of people will suggest Shimano, Diawa, Lews, Quantum, ABU...etc....I'll throw in Fishing 13 just becaue they impressed me and now have 2 of theirs as well as some Quantums, Diawas, and a Shimano. Bottom line, look to see what you want. I use a lot of BPS Carbonlite's simply because they are nicely made, work well, and are light, not to mention priced well. Hit up a few stores, BPS, Gander Moutain, Acadamey, Cabelas, Dicks, etc and pick up the reels, hold them, put them on a rod in the store if you can so you can see how they feel. Asking that question you're going to get a lot of different answers. You are the one that's going to be fishing it, so you need to find what works best for you and any reel honestly between $130-200 is going to be a quality reel. You just need to decide which fits best for you. Also can fnd plenty of nice reels in the $80-120 range that are also quality, but most will come in with a weight of about 7.5oz on the lighter side and avg around 8.2oz compared to the upper range of what you're looking for that avg between 6.5oz to 7.5oz.

or atleast in a pre spawn pattern with some wanting to if the conditions are right.

Welcome to the swimbait world....def no magic bullet and you can't catch every fish you see. But great search bait in locating those larger fish and learning their locations.

Spro BBZ 4" shad, S-Weaver, Savage Gear Glide Swimmer. There's 3 normal sized swim/glide hard baits you can fish with regular MH action rod and most are under an ounce in weight.

Well I do have 2 now, lol, just don't always bring both and really like the looks of the new Diawa Swimbait rods or an IROD.....guess I should have one for the hudd, one for the line thru, ofcourse need one for the triple-trout....oh and then an XH for those 10oz baits....ok, gotta go make some online purchases for these new set ups.

I only take one rod when I'm dedicated to the swimbait bite....that way there isn't a reason for me to put it down and try something else. And during the summer I normally always have 2, may not fish both, but always have a frog/topwater and then my punch/pitching set up for the grass mats. Besides, it's hard to just pick one when I have so many.....lol

I know, it's just the way it sounded. It's all out of fun. Back to the OP, what is your question? Why we fish more then 1 rod?

There ya go, trying to stir the pot....didn't we just have a post about being civil? And to be honest, I have more then 7. Some of us regular folks take a few rods to fish with and the more into it you get, the more specialized you start to become with your rods and reels. The more techniques you learn the more rods you aquire to excel with those techniques. But as long as your catching fish, it doesn't matter, the rod doesn't catch the fish, the fisherman holding that rod does, weather he has 1 rod, or has 10 strapped to the front of his boat. I normally carry at least 3 when I'm bank fishing.....all for different applications just incase I need to adjust my presentation.

Yeah, but it's hard to get a 170ft crewboat up some of those cuts....lol, but you left off the flounder bite also.