Browns7213

Sorry to be a dunce, but what do you mean when you say don't crank against the drag? I'm a city boy who recently moved to the country who is learning about the finer things in life like fishin, huntin and gator wrasslin.

This was not the cause, we pulled off the spool guide covers on both poles and no tangles. I got buy in from my finance manager that we can go for the open faced reels. She did however have an ulterior motive as she dropped the bomb on me that her brother and his girlfriend are coming to spend 4th of July with us. So even though we can get new reels she wants the Zebcos fixed so our guests can use them to fish with us. Oh Joy!

Okay, we may be able to take advantage of some 4th of the July sales. Do you have some recommendations that won't break the bank, but are very reliable?

Okay, thanks much for the info & suggestions!

Ok will give this a try. What is line conditioner?

Yes we have had to do this with all the snags we have encountered.

Not even close there was a ton of line left on both spools.

My wife and I got a couple Zebco 33 reels in early spring and are now having issues when we cast. The line will go out a little ways and then lock-up and not go any farther. We thought the lines were tangled in the spool, but they were fine. We restrung her spool with all new line, but same issues. Any suggestions as to what we are doing wrong? Thanks

Okay, we've been out 6-more times and still bupkis. We've tried fishing at different times, morning, afternoon, early evening and late evening and have not had a bite. We bought a bunch of additional lures including square billed crank baits, floaters, sinkers, Texas rigged plastics and still nothing. While I know its called fishing and not catching it getting pretty depressing going down and pulling out absolutely nothing. Any other suggestions, besides persistence and paitence?

Good to know thanks for the advice.

I was fishing off my dock yesterday when a 3' gar slowly swam by breaking the top of the water with it's fins. I was casting a crankbait all around him which he didn't even look at. Any suggestion on baits for hooking one of these monsters?

. "Ever try to slide a plug knocker up your line into a tree? :eyebrows:" That's a hysterical and very valid point! While I've not hooked any trees, I've caught a few shrubs trying to get close to the shore. Telescopic retriever it is.

Yep there's tons of logs, 2 other docks within casting distance and sea walls. I can't follow them cause I don't have, nor do I want, a boat. Fishing off the dock is just an opportunity to spend some quiet time together when all the weekenders head back to the city.

I've seen a few different tools available to get a snagged lure back and was wondering which one, if any, you've had the most success with?

Thanks guys, as a newbie I had no idea it was a sinking lure. Unfortunately we have a lot of logs off our dock, which I know is why the fish are there, but having gotten snagged twice and lucky enough to get it back twice I'm concerned my luck is going to eventually run out.

The wife and I have made a date to go fishing off our dock every Sunday evening and had great luck with us catching 2-3 fish each outing. The last 3-weeks bupkis. I saw an article in the local paper that said most of the fish are done spawning and have moved out of the coves into the deep water, which I thought could be the reason we have not gotten even a nibble. However, I was down on the dock just enjoying a cigar and there were no less than 10 fish jumping out of the water. The first time it happened i was daydreaming when this massive fish went up, out and then created a huge splash, almost causing me to have a huge splash in my drawers I was so startled. My question is if the spawning is over is there anything new we should try to get the fish interested?

I read some good things about lipless crank baits so I bought one, but could not find any info on how deep it goes. My fishing hole is only about 8' at its deepest point and I have snagged it twice. Any idea how deep this thing goes?

It should be fine. I was fishing off my dock a few weeks ago and snagged my favorite lure on a stump as well. I cut my line and tied it around a boat tie on the dock and checked it every few days. About a week later I saw it floating in the water so I want to get something to retrieve it and when I came back it was gone. Sure enough as I started to pull the line in there was a catfish at the other end.

Thanks for the help will add a better quality monofilament.

We have been using the cheap "PINK" monofilament line that came with our Zebco reels, but since we started dragging Texas rigged plastics across the bottom our lines our constantly breaking. Literally after 7-8 casts we flip it out there and line just snaps. Fishing this route is getting expensive with all the lost hooks and plastics over the last couple weeks. I wondered if we could use a stronger braided line in our cheap Zebco reels to reduce the loss of or bait & hooks?

UPDATE: We tried the Texas rigs and they worked great, but only for a short period of time. I rigged a weightless fluke as recommended on my pole and a weighted worm on my wife's pole. After A few casts I hooked a 2-3 pound largemouth and my wife caught a small catfish. We used the technique described of casting, letting the bait sink, lifting the rod and letting it sink again. But after a few casts my line inexplicably broke near my pole not near the lure. A few moments later the same thing happened to my wife's line. Any idea why this would have happened? Is this fishing technique not viable on our cheap Zebco reels?

I do this,but I mix a ton of parmesan cheese into the bread crumbs which thickens the crust up a bit and gives it a nice flavor.

Okay after lots of googling last night to find out what all these things are, turns out we have most of them! The tackle box was put together by a guy at BassPro, so looks like he actually knew what he was talking about. We plan to use the Texas Rig and see how that works out this weekend,but one question still remains. Are there baits that will only attract bass and not catfish??

Way ahead of you. YouTubed Texas Rig last night and excited to get some hooks and some plastics to try it out. That may just save me thousands of dollars. My neighbor owns a dredging company and suggested he could clean up our fishing hole for a few, okay many thousands of dollars!

One of my other hobbies is cigars which is easy to combine with my fishing hobby.