Kevin22

Colten im on the horseshoe chain right now just sw of st cloud lots of bass but its slow. Im leaving tomorrow or I would offer to take you out.

Off the reel. No rod. Tie a loop in the end and hook it to your scale

Spiderwire mono sucks. Pick up a 7 foot MH fast rod and use 17# fluoro or copoly for fishing around weeds and cover

When they get it they will call you and tell you what is going on. They have been very good to me.

I'd just use straight up 14# fluoro for what you are wanting to do.

What kind of cranking? Shallow I would use 40# braid and a 14# leader. Medium/deep I would probably use 20# braid and a 12# leader. Be careful with the 20# braid though if you are using big huge deep divers, it may dig in on itself and cause a mess. You might be better off going straight fluoro with baits such as a dt-22, 6xd, and such.

3 years? That is pushing it a little. I havent found any mono that was even any good after a year and a half. Always turns cloudy and gets brittle.. I change about every 2 weeks. With all the times I break off, change baits, and get nicks in the line I loose the ability to make long casts and have to re-spool. However, I do not use a full spool of line... I only spool up about 50-60yds at a time.

Yes. I like green pumpkin, watermelon, and black. A 14"+ fish will have no problem sucking down that worm.

x2!

I like seaguar red label. It has the diameter one size below the poundage and is really smooth. You should be able to use 12# and cast a mile.

Supposed to be a break from the heat next week, highs in the low 80's upper 70's. Maybe the fish will move up towards the surface for me!

I like to finesse with 10# power pro. Not really a fan of 832, nor its price.

Change your grip up a bit. Everyone is different. I put three fingers above the reel stem, my pinkie below it. My thumb is on top of the rod and my index finger is touching the rod blank above the foregrip.

Hmm, I got mine off berkley's website. XTFS20-15 (1279702) 0.016 20 270 Clear $7.95

It is $14. About $10 more than I would spend on a hook sharpener.

xt is .016 dia sufix siege is .018 stren orig is .018 Those are the three I consider to be in the same class of lines, as you can see the xt is the thinnest of them all.

None at all. I fish from 1/16 down to about 1/80 with it. It is power pro spectra.

Horseshoe chain in richmond. I think there are only two resorts left, the one we go to is always booked.

If it does not already have it, put a feathered treble on the back. Then either put a red treble on the front or take a sharpie and put a red dot right where the front hook hangs. In my experience with smallies and topwater, if you give them something to key in on and they will go for that instead of just swatting at the whole bait. I have another trick also but you will have to PM me if you want it. I havent been sharing it on forums because I have never seen anyone else do it.

If 2-3lb fish are common and 4lb fish are rare, I would not be targeting the rare fish for a tourney. Possibly if I had a bag of 3lbers, but I would spend my day getting a limit of 2-3lb fish and working to upgrade to all around 3lb. If 2-3lb fish are common as the OP says, a bag of 2lb fish could most certainly win it if the rest of the field has trouble catching a limit.

Ebay.

I wouldn't feel comfortable fishing that big of a bait for smallies during a tourney. Fun fishing, yeah all day long.. but not during a tourney. While they will hit it, not all of them will and the point of fishing a tourney with a 2-3lb average is to use a bait that will catch you fish after fish. Now if you were going for 4lb+ smallies I would say heck yeah, throw that big 6XD. Instead I would rig up a #9 shad rap on a spinning rod with 10# braid and a 6' 8# fluoro leader. You arent going to hit 20+ feet but you should be able to hit 15. What I would probably do though is put an 1/8 ounce bullet weight about a foot and a half above a #7 shad rap and peg it. Then let the bait sink for a few seconds before reeling, you should be able to dig bottom in 25' no problem and you will have a nice thin profiled bait that any 2lb smallie will take a whack at.

Those look really good! I have never eaten SMB, mostly because they are a pretty rare catch here and I'd like to see them take off. But I hear they are fantastic eating. Nice to see someone else that keeps the smaller fish for eating and lets the bigger ones go!

Soak the bass for 2 days in water, changing the water daily. Cut into strips about 1" wide and 2" long and fry the same way you would bluegill. If you are cleaning a big bass, you may have to plane the meat so it is not so thick. Prepare them correctly and you will not taste a difference between bass and bluegill. If you try and fry a whole bass fillet right out of the lake it will likely taste bad. 12-15" fish are eaters. Bigger are breeders!

Well shoot, I was hoping to hit a good topwater bite! Oh well, Guess the flippin stick will get some use this year.