fourbizz

they get torn up easily, but are also easily repaired. i use a cigarette lighter and the shank of a hook. heat the hook up, then weld the plastic together.

Nice fish dude! Congrats!

you can also try to bend the internal harness, but the nail weight will probably work better

due to the shape of the bait, its a miracle when they run perfect. try a nail weight postioned on the "up tilted" side of the bait

whoops, sorry i was thinking that it was a BBR965C. but if you do go the round reel route, i hear good things 'bout the luna, and i guess i've become a known calcutta fan boy too.

Avid, dude, get a %$%^^%*#& swimbait reel for that thing! I was talking to one of my buddies that only swimbaits. he never learned how to "regular fish" just straight to swimbaits. kind of weird actually. we were talking reels. he has a luna 300 and loves it. i would go that route. I honestly don't think you should use a low pro reel on that rod unless its a curado 300 or a daiwa bbs. i would go with the luna or calcutta though, you will be better off in the long run.

Don't you just love that! i mean except for the turtle part. but the huge menacing wake!? thats awesome. One of the coolest things I have ever seen, bar none, was a huge fish chasing a trout on the surface for about 30 seconds. SOOOOO COOOOL!!! I still think it would be fun to catch a turtle on a popper though!

Those must be the 8-track prototypes for the iBoob....

The heat has arrived....blech! So begins the season of madness for me! Wednesday after work, I met my buddy Justin just as he was getting out of school and started the long drive to the lake. I had to work at 7:30am the next day. Its so nice being out on the lake with no trout fisherman bothering you and enjoying the 60 degree temperature....especially when the bite is on! We had a little over 21lbs for our best five which is not a ton, but it was a ton of fun! My buddies biggest fish came on a swimbait and went 5-13. I tossed some giant trout plugs for about an hour before breaking out the "big fish" gear....a buzzbait, lol! We didn't catch a ton of fish but they were all better than three pounds and I had some GIANT swirls that never connected. But I did get a new buzzbait PB at 6-2. F I N A L L Y packed it in a little after two. Lost my cell phone somewhere along the way. WEAK! Asleep by 4:30am and out the door for work by 7:00. UGH it was miserable the next day, but soooo worth it! Buzzbaits are fun! P.S. Check out the weird light anomaly at the top of the picture. I think we were almost abducted......

Calcutta.

I love P-line! Everything that I use, except for braid (but their braid rocks too), is P-line. Having said that, Flouroclear is pretty much the junkiest line ever. Abrasion is resistance is soo terrible it is unreal! Try their CX premium in 10lb or CXX X-tra Strong in 8lb. That should help alot.

saltwater shouldn't cause any harm to your line. lunges from big fish without much line out, can pop even heavy line. bummer!

That sucks man! I would have taken the ticket.

I have hunted all my life. Hunting is not without ethical management either. Obviously releasing the animal is not a possibility, but selective harvest is not only possible, it is VERY important! I have yet to kill a trophy Elk, but I would only get a bull tag every few years, as opposed to the people that just go out and bang away at 6 points every year. There are hunting zones that are much much better than some others. Why is this? Of course habitat, human population densities, predator concentration, available food, and other things come into play. But most often, these zones are managed in a way that greatly reduces the overall number of animals killed and to an even greater extent, limits the amount of trophy class animals that are harvested. You may not be able to release the animals you kill, but you are most certainly capable of DECIDING which animals to take. When it comes down to it, that is the nature of this whole issue. Decisions. Often, the best decision, is an educated one.

Its probably the wingnut...driving the boat!!! My guess would be a bent shaft/armature. Assuming that there is no noticable damgae to the prop. and the shear pin is fully intact.

That is too freakin cool!!! Good for you Avid! Nobody up there likes me, my last rod that went overboard STILL hasn't come back >...of course it is in about 65 feet of water, but still!!!

Oh my mistake! Ryobi are resonable, less expensive. and reliable. Milwaukee 28v is the best. but pricey.

I would recomend going to at least 30lb braid for baits that require a hard hookset. Since braid has no stretch, when you shock load it like that, it just pops in the smaller lb classes. 30lb still has the diameter of like 8lb test or something, so its not to thick. Or you could just train yourself to set much lighter, but that is VERY hard for me to do!

If you are only gonna do decking, just buy or rent a QuickDrive, about ten times faster than a normal screw gun.

I kind of know what you mean. My dad is SEVERELY allergic to bee stings. If he gets hit, I have to give him an artificial adrenaline shot and get him to the hospital in a very short time. Its pretty scary. Anaphyllactic (sp?) shock is no joke. Because of this, I have been a hardcore bee hunter since I was about 8. Everytime we would come across one, he would run and I would kill, LOL. I am not afraid of bees at all, but rattlesnakes....F that! Those things make me squeal like a little girl.

Do any of you guys fish 1oz jigs in the rocks? I got on a bite this weekend where the fish were just pounding a 1 oz jig as it shot down past them on a steep wall. two other guys in boat, both rather inexperienced with jigs. one had a 5/8oz the other had one of my 1oz jigs. guy b caught three times as many as guy a. They were really keyed into that haulin butt fall of the one ouncers. I had never done this before and only had a couple real heavy jigs. They were flippin jigs, arkie type head, super stiff and bulky weed guard that had to be trimmed ALOT, crappy hook, and a rattle system I did not care for. Is anyone fishing this method? If so I would love a heads up as to your favorite football head/no weed guard jig. Thanks guys

In LAYMANs terms, red does not become "invisible" It just becomes a grayish color. I think transition is a junk line, but my dad has very poor eyesight and I spool it on his rod for him. For that matter flouros are not "invisible" either they just refract light very similar to water. Red is invisible??? So why do red hooks, bleeding trailers, and red spots on cranks and other baits "simulate blood and trigger strikes"? Its just an easily skewed scientific property that makes for easy marketing. To give my opinion on the original question. I have ZERO faith in hi vis lines with no leader. I do fish in gin clear water though. But having no confidence doesn't mean it won't work, which I am sure it will. I don't have personal experience with fishing with poor sight, but having spent alot of time on the water with my father, I can see how frustrating it can be. Perhaps you could pre tie a bunch of leaders at home under a magnifying lens. Just tie a couple feet to a small ball bearing swivel and some of the baits you plan on using. then on the water you can tie the hi-vis line to the swivel and be ready to fish without having to worry about tying lo vis lines or missing potential bites with hi-vis.

I think Ceph's advice is great!

If you can afford it, something utilizing a litium ion battery is the way to go. They are much lighter and last longer. The 28v Milwaukee stuff is AWESOME!! (Im a carpenter, I use this stuff everyday)

After throwing a swimbait for 6 hours and not getting bit, getting such a solid strike that you have already set the hook before you realize you got bit, then experiencing the most exhilirating 20 seconds that you can have outside of the bedroom