Smallmouth Hunter

If you are a breaking bad fan- How are you liking this 5th season final episodes?

What i do is go to a pond with lots of bass, even if they are small. Go there and just practice with a small texas rig or small jig and just try to learn what it feels like to get a bite. I have a pond nearby that is filled to the brim with 12-16 inch bass, and it never gets fished much so the bass aren't as careful about what they eat. I can go there and catch 100+ bass in 4-5 hours and by the end of the day, i feel much more confident in bottom baits.

I would politely disagree... This reel has been a pain to deal with. The bail doesn't flip back nicely and i have to flip it, then place it in the right spot so it spools the line correctly. It is pretty smooth on the retrieve though. I would prefer the shimano's that i have had the chance to use in the past.

Yeah that is true with some worms. If it is a good sized bass with more developed mouth (in size) then this won't happen as much cause they will just suck the worm in with one quick open and close of their mouth. My friend and I were fishing at a pond and we spotted a 9lb pound bass spawning right on shore. I had already caught a nice spawner earlier that week so i said he could take that one. He cast to it for a hour trying to get it to commit on biting, and finally (after nosing it and barily nibbling it), it got ticked off enough to eat it good. One quick open and close of the mouth, and a 1/2 oz jigs with large craw trailer was gone. It was cool to see. Oh, and i don't know why he was using a 1/2 oz jig while bed fishing in 1 foot of water lol... Maybe that was the only jig he had or something, I can't remember

Oh, and the reel retailed for 60-70 when i bought it 5-6 years back.

I don't mind if people judge what reel it is. It is a okuma stratus xts 40. Shoulda told you guys the name yesterday, but couldn't find it.. I remembered today that it was in my kayak cause I took it off my reel after kayak fishing and just left it in the kayak. Sorry bout that. Not sure how this info would help solve the problem though...

Watch your line. If you feel tension, and the line is moving, set the hook!

It happens with all different types of baits. The line has been changed about 5 months ago and its 8lb berkeley tri-lene xl.

Thats exactly what i was thinking. lol

Post pictures of all the lures and reels. People on the forum will be able to help identify them and they could be worth a lot.

While we were using the trolling motor to try to get back to the launch (before we got towed there), a couple of jerks showed that they have no compassion and want to watch the world burn. There was this one guy in a huge ski boat going probably 30 mph and he did his best to go as close to our boat as possible just to hit us with a huge wake. We watched him turn to get closer to us. What a jerk and a bad example for his kids! I also found it ironic that he said "hey" to us and waved as he passed. Right when he said that i turned to my dad and we were just looking at eachother like "is this guy serious"... Our boat is pretty small at 15ft, and its old too.. A big wake like that could capsize us! It almost happened another time out..

The calcutta retails for 200, the cardiff about 110. Its odd how the cardiff is about 20% off retail, but the calcutta is around 50% off... They both looked to be in the same condition, but then again i didn't look too closely.

Does anyone else have a "hampton's lane" coffee ad on the top of their screen right now? lol

I went to my local tackle shop today and they have 2 used shimano round reels: (1) calcutta 200, (2) cardiff 200a (i think it was anyway). The calcutta was $100 and the cardiff was $80. Both were in very good condition with hardly any scratches on them. Would these to reels together for $180 be a good deal?

I have had it 5-6 years. It is a good model, just worn.

It is probably worth about $50-$70. If i were you i would keep it to hand down in the family.

I missed that game. What did johny "football" do that makes you say that?

and in the nba.. it get worse every year i hear (i don't watch nba though)

I read somewhere that the way that strike king found that fish are attracted to coffee is one of the bait designers was fishing and knocked his coffee over into water, and somehow there was coffee grounds in it (i can't really remember the story) and apparently panfish came up and ate it like crazy. Then he went and tried using it as a scent somehow and found it was great.

This happened to me once. I saw a big panfish spawning and so i decided it would be fun to catch him with a spinning rod. I cast over to him with a tiny crankbait and sure enough he bit it and got hooked on the side of his mouth. Out of nowhere, 4-5 big bass, the smallest being 3-4 lbs and the largest about a 7-8 pounder, came over and started to attack the panfish on my line. The second biggest one chased down the panfish, which i was letting swim freely with hopes to hook a bass too, and he got the tail end of the panfish. A second later he had half the panfish in his mouth. Then he spits it out for some reason, and the biggest of the pack comes and takes it. This time, from the front. He had half the panfish in his mouth and at this point i was trying to set the hook from the small crank in his mouth. I set the hook 2-3 times to be sure and the last hookset really ticked him off. He took of around a dock and frayed my line.... *snap* the 7-8 lb bass was attached to a 1lb+ panfish, by the hooks of the crankbait. The other bass disappeared and i was left in shock. It was very cool to see though

I ended up going. It wasn't very crowded at all. We ended up catching 4-5 bass and it was tough, slow finesse fishing. The major downfall of the trip was the darn motor wouldn't start and we were 2 miles from the launch so we had to use the trolling motor a half mile, then we were fortunate enough to run into a generous man who towed us back. By the way, if anyone could help figure out whats wrong w/ motor that would be great. It is a two stroke 70 horsepower old johnson motor from around the late 80's. When i turn the key (with choke & w/out choke as well) it does not start. Some days we can get it to start after 6 tries. We have to turn the key and hold it for 5-10 seconds at a time, and that takes a few tries... We are thinking it is a spark plug.

Pitchin is very fun but my local lakes have no vegetation whatsoever so i don't get to pitch often.. My favorite technique is small t-rigs and 1/4 oz jigs. Love the hard hooks sets

If you are going to throw a max of 1/2, and mostly 1/4 then get the MH. I have a 7' mh ethos and it is great for anything 1/4-1/2, but anything over that and it is too much for the rod.

I know how you feel. It took me an hour for us to get the boat out cause several idiots didn't know how to get the boat off their trailer. It was pretty funny to watch. A guy and his family had this big probably 25+ foot long, 15+ foot tall cruiser type boat and forgot to undo the strap holding the bow of the boat to the trailer so when he put the backed the boat in and tried to put it in reverse he was just pulling on his car. His car started to rock back when he put it in a higher gear reverse his family on the dock next to the boat was yelling at him to stop. It was funny. It took him an additional minute to find what was holding the boat on.

Would it be a good idea to go to some smaller reservoir? I would think that less people would go to one..