Steveo-1969

If you are fishing in Maryland it's possible you may fish some water that has Northern Snakehead. I've never tried it, but people say it's absolutely delicious.

I always use both hands to cast, baitcasting or spinning. Hmmmm... seems I'm in the minority here!

I have 3 "tricks" I use to help minimize line twist with a spinning reel. I actually learned these from watching Bill Dance I think and have been doing them so long they are now automatic on every cast. 1) Always close the bail by hand. 2) After closing the bail gently tug on the line before starting to reel to make sure there is no loop on the spool. 3) When starting to reel, let the line bounce off your extended index finger for 3 or 4 handle turns to make sure you don't bury a loop in the spool. AND with all that being said, I use braid on my spinning reels which doesn't give me line twist problems. :-)

I fished (almost) exactly the same thing this weekend. Curado I 200HG, NRX 893, 3/16 jig with baby Rage Craw trailer, 12# Invizx. 2 internal brakes set and external dial set on 4. Spool tension set for slow fall. No backlashes (even casting into a pretty stiff wind at times) but I had to stay alert with my thumb at times. Overall I'm extremely happy with how this rod/reel casts lighter baits. I was even throwing an 1/8 ounce jig with 3" grub. It wasn't easy and distance wasn't great, but it was doable.

I'll never forget about 25 years ago I was fishing a lake in northern Wisconsin one morning by myself casting a small jig for walleyes. A big musky swam at me and went under the boat right between my feet. I was shaking so badly I had to sit down!

Ditto. I wade fish a lot and every year I take at least one misstep and in I go. I've never worried about my reel though and haven't had any problems yet. But I make a conscious effort NOT to dunk them when I'm in the water.

Nice fish! I had to do a double-take when I saw your picture though because at first glance... you looked... just... like... Karl... Kalonka... (pause) Let's get another one.

Sounds like you've already (kind of) decided on a Revo SX. I've had a Revo S for a couple years and it's a great reel, never fished the SX but I'm sure it's great as well. My newest reel is a Curado I and I love it. Mark down my vote for the Curado!

Words of wisdom right here. I hate to see fish mistreated as well - held wrong, flopping around in the boat, etc. For me personally, I never kiss my fish (that's just gross and may be mistreating the fish as well? ha-ha), but I always say "Thanks buddy" as I gently set them back in the water and watch them swim away. Species and size doesn't matter, they all get the same treatment. My son does the same thing and I chuckle every time he thanks his fish.

For me it depends on the time of year. I don't count casts, but can do the math and get a ballpark figure. In the summer my best day ever was 30 fish in about 8 hours of actual casting. I estimate 2 casts per minute, so that was 1 fish every 32 casts. Now in the winter I've gone 4 months without catching a fish. Averaging 10 hours actual casting per week. That means it took me about 19,200 casts to catch 1 fish.

YUM 3" Mighty Bug. And you can only find them now in bargain bins because (of course) YUM stopped making them in the 3" size. Sigh...

I have not. But Roland Martin loves it...

I thought he said it was some type of blade jig?

^^^^^^ this. Because this thread is just for fun, and it's what I use every fishing trip spinning and casting. :-)

Wow, Chris! Great fish, congrats!!!

If you held a gun to my head I'd say the smallmouth is my favorite fish to catch, but any fish mixed with a "stripper" would automatically be moved to the top of the list!! MAKE IT RAIN!!!!!!!!

My suggestion would be to buy a pack and try them. They are definitely sharp! I don't use them day to day because I lose lots of hooks in the snaggy river I fish and they are just too expensive, but I used Trokars on a fishing vacation last summer and I'm going to use them again this year. The only thing I didn't like was I found it very difficult to resharpen them because of the different cutting angles on the point. Maybe I just need more practice though.

I've had a black Carbonlite reel (on a black Carbonlite rod - bought as a combo) for a couple years. I've been using a Curado I for the past couple months. FWIW, if I was going to buy a new reel tomorrow I would get another Curado I, but in my mind you can't go wrong with either one.

X2. It cost me about $1 for the chair leg cap and 20 cents in nickels.

As I don't use expensive lures, this is an easy answer for me. "Not long" ha-ha If I'm bank fishing, I'll give the bow and arrow a couple tries. It's amazing how well this works! If that doesn't work, I walk along the bank and try bow and arrow again. If that doesn't work, then it's pull straight back and break off 96.3% of the time or get it free 3.7% of the time. If I'm wading and the bow and arrow doesn't work, I'll walk to it, reel down and poke it out with the rod tip. (Carefully...) If it's too deep to get to, then pull straight back.

Hey Bear fan, let me help you out! Glenn just posted a great video about the Ned rig the other day. Hopefully this link works. http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-videos/ned-rig.html

West "By God" Virginia of course!!!!!!

That's what I was thinking too...

Welcome to BR CeeJay from a fellow West Virginian. I'm in Falling Waters and you mentioned you are near the Shenandoah so we must be fairly close to each other. I get over and fish the Doah near the Millville dam a couple times a year, though I'm primarily fishing the Potomac around Williamsport. I took a 13-year hiatus from fishing and just started again 5 years. I kick myself every day for missing so much fishing but I'm back now and physically addicted.

Heavily sugared? Or plain? Colors? C'mon man, give us more details!!! ha-ha