Bean Counter

I bought Handpouring 101 on ebay and it is an excellent resource to get you started. If you are going to hand pour, it is the best money you will spend.

I know just how you feel. I got my first St Croix less than a year ago and I now have six of them. Enjoy!

I have had several BPS rods and they are pretty good. However, I have just replaced my last two (a crankin stick and a tourney special) with St Croix because of the weight. When you cast all day long a few ounces makes a difference. I have also had several BPS reels and all I can say is I will never buy another one. The low end reels will not last a season and with the better ones it is a crapshoot whether you will get a good one or not. A Quantum Acurist is a much better reel than an Extreme for just a few dollars more.

I've tried a lot of lines on spinning gear and always gone back to Stren original. It just seems to work for me. I use Trilene XL on most of my bait casters. I use braid on my jig rod and florocarbon on my Senko rod.

I wear prescription Trifocal glasses and was always too cheap to pay in excess of $200 for a pair of polarized sunglasses. I used polarized clip-ons that worked OK. Then my employer changed our benefit package and insurance payed for one pair of glasses per year so I got a pair of prescription Serengetis. The first time I wore them fishing I was wondering where all of the "new" structure in the lake came from. I could see under water so much better I could hardly beleive it. The moral of the story is, get as good a pair as you can afford, you will never regret it.

Another vote for St Croix

I use Trilene XL on my bait casters and Stren original on my Spinning rods. I've tried a lot of lines at one time or the other and always went back to these two.

I bought a 10 foot jon boat at a garage sale and thought I could use it as a one man boat on small ponds. I put a pedestal seat in the middle and raised it 6" the same as I did on my 12 footer. It was so tippy I couldn't use it till I lowered the seat back down. A few inches makes a big difference on a boat that small.

I'm with catt on this. Any time and any place. I fish t rigged palstics more than all other baits combined, year round.

In fly lines you really do get what you pay for. When I started fly fishing I bought cheap lines and they did not turn over very well. If you are starting out in fly fishing buy the best line you can afford and spend less on the rod & reel. You are casting the line and you will have a hard time casting cheap lines. I use only Orvis ,Rio and Scientific angler lines.

When I first started fishing with BC reels, left hand reels were almost imposible to find. So I started using right hand reels and have been using them for over thirty years. Recently I decided that left hand made more sense so I bought one. I was so used to the right hand that I only used it twice before I gave it away. LIke Reel mech said, use what you are comfortable with and will help you catch fish.

I have a Triumph, a Premier and two Avid casting rods. I also have two Avid and one Premier fly rods. I like them all, especially the Avids. I have over 30 rods standing in my garage that I have accumulated over the years. In the future all my rod purchases will be St Croix.

Mine is easy. I am a CPA. When my kids & grand kids ask me how old I am I say "as old as dirt" so I thought the avatar was appropriate.

When I read this post last week I was thinking I have been fishing for almost 50 years and have never lost a rod overboard, these guys are careless. Then yesterday I was reeelin in a five pounder and the wind pushed my jon boat into a bush catching a St Croix Avid with a Pfleuger Trion reel and flipping it into the water. I could just see it about 10 feet down. It took me about 2 hours to snag it with a jig & retreive it. My apologies to all those who I bad mouthed.

Back in the early 80s I got a job selling boats. I had been there for several weeks before I sold anything & I finally sold an 18 foot bass boat ;D. When the boat was ready I had to deliver it to the new owner on the lake he lived on. When I got to the ramp there were about ten members of his family to watch the launching of his new boat. I backed the trailer down the ramp, unhooked the boat, cranked it up and backed it off the trailer. I trimmed the moter all the way down and was feeling pretty good about myself untill I felt the water around my ankles & realized I had left out the plug. I wasn't going to let my first sale sink so I gunned the boat to drive it back onto the trailer. I didn't realize that with that much water in the boat it was sitting much lower in the water & I hit the lower unit of the motor on the ramp, damaging the motor, and hit the boat on the trailer so hard it put a hole in the hull :-[. Needless to say, the sale was off and so was my new job. The next day I was looking through the want ads again.

Fishing on a private lake I caught one my buddy & I estimated at 10lbs (no scale or camera on board that day) on a spinner bait with a twin tail grub trailer. About an hour later I caught one we estimated at 8 lbs on a wacky rigged senko. By far my best day ever!

Great idea! When it comes through the south I would love to rub some MOJO on it.

DO NOT USE BONDO! Get West System Epoxy from a marine supply store and make a paste by mixing in fiberglass fibers. fill the hole with the paste & let it set up. (if you can get to the inside, cover the outside of the hole with cardboard lined with plastic wrap and pack it in from the inside. after tthe paste sets up remove the cardboard.). Cut a piece of fiberglass cloth large enough to cover the hole and any gelcoat cracks with about three inches on each side. Sand the gelcoat to get the shine off of it. soak the fiberglass with epoxy and put it over the hole,pushing all of the air out. When the epoxy sets up it can be sanded to make it as smooth as posible. you should put another coat or two & sand that. After you have it smooth paint it with gel coat & buff it out. If you can get to the inside put a patch on the inside too. a patch like this will be as strong as the original hull.

I have taken both of my kids bass fishing between 6 and 8. I found that age was not as important as how you plan & carryout the trip. The most important thing is to take them where they can catch fish early. If they go a couple of hours without catching anything, they will get bored and lose interest. I made that mistake with my son and he will still not go fishing with me after ten years. You should also not expect them to have the patience to fish most plastics. As has already been mentioned give them a spinnerbait or crankbait to keep them doing something. I took my daughter to a private pond where I always catch fish and gave her a small spinnerbait on a closed face spinning reel and she had a ball. She still asks to go fishing with me everytime I go. Another important thing is to not expect to do much fishing yourself. Make the trip about them having a great time and mostly just help them.

I grew up in Putnam County, fishing the Saint Johns River. I used to hunt cows on the land that was flooded for the Rodman. (That tells you how old I am). I now reside in the land of the dawg (Georgia) but I am still a Gator through and through.

My PB is 10lb 6oz. My goal is 25lbs ;D. When I was a kid, my dad told me if you shoot for the stars you just might hit the moon.

Triton Mike You are right, I finally looked at the boat & it is on the negative side. I guess I was having one of those senior moments.

I have two bigfoot switches on my boat and they work great. It has been a while since I put them in, but my recolection is that the big foot should go on the positive line between the trolling motor and battery. Your diagram has it on the negative side. I will look at the boat when I get home tonight and see for sure but I think it should be on the positive.

Go to earthworm77's web site & get his e-book on pouring plastic baits. I got it and it gives all the information you need.