fishballer06

I've got my 71XG setup with just enough mono to cover the spool and then 50# FX2 for a mainline. I can bomb a 1/2oz frog into the next area code. If you're going to be flipping and pitching, I would still recommend putting a thin layer of mono down like I said, or wrap the spool with a wrap of electrical tape. Braid will slip otherwise.

I grew up in Bedford. Nice to see another local!

Guys use them, but they may not talk about it. I will agree with you that the Jitterbug does produce fish, and quality one's at that. One down fall of the bait is that it must be fished slow and hookups aren't the greatest for a treble hooked lure.

Welcome, Mock! What part of central PA are you from?

Mono and FC I am leary of once it gets more than a year or two old. It can get stiff and brittle with time. Like others have said, sunlight can be an enemy of nylon lines. Braid, however, is a different story. I've used braid on the same reel for years.

Throw a 6-8" Hudd. If a fish can swallow that and get the hook in its mouth, then you've got a quality fish.

You mean to tell me your real name isn't Catt...

In regards to your post @j bab, I see you've only been a member here around 6 months, so I'll give you some of the background story: @FishinDaddy was the one who always organized and ran this Fishmas Event for years. However, he hasn't been active on the forums in months, so no one knows what happened with him. Hopefully everything is ok with him and he just hasn't been online. I had brought it up publicly here that I would like to continue this tradition even if FishinDaddy wasn't around to run it. @deaknh03 was kind enough to step and up put this event on this year without the proper planning or time to run this the way it should have. So I'd like to tip my cap to deakNH for putting on this event for everyone on such short notice. Moving forward to next year, maybe deakNH and I can organize this a little bit better to give everyone a little more notice and get even more participation.

My package just shipped out yesterday to my person. UPS took 11 business days to deliver my Tackle Warehouse package. I do a lot of shipping with my business, and FedEx is the only company that has been on time this entire holiday season.

You can throw a 168 S-Waver on a standard MH rod. They don't have much resistance in the water and you can fish them on standard gear. If you're looking to throw some stuff in the 1.5-2oz range but still want a practical rod, check out the Dobyns Champion 806CB.

It's that d**n Loch Ness

The new layout is going to certainly take some getting used to on a desktop. The layout is a bit wonky and everything feels very compact and things are in odd places. The mobile is very difficult to navigate and do anything that should be a simple task. I'll probably stop getting on here with the mobile site being how it is now.

FX2 is quality stuff. It holds it's color decently too, which I could care less about because I use it for topwater/frogs.

I believe the Ohio River is still soft.

Bill Lewis uses the following terms for the following sizes. Tiny trap - 1/8oz Mini trap - 1/4oz Original trap - 1/2oz

Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I like to be safer rather than sorry. Most of my leaders are 18-24", and sometimes I'll make them up to around 36" if it's really clear water with a slow presentation. Yes, it is nice to cut and retie throughout the day, but in my opinion, that's where you can get in trouble. If you have a FC leader, and you cut and retie, cut and retie, rinse and repeat, to the point that your 7' leader is now 1', you should probably be tying a brand new leader knot as well. When using braid, which doesn't stretch, and a fluorocarbon or mono leader, which does stretch, keep in mind that over time, that fluorocarbon or mono gets thinner and weaker with each cast/fish/cover it comes into contact with. So in my thinking, I'd rather have a fresh leader material than having a super long leader that I can cut and retie five/six/seven times.

Raw HTML... I dread the days in high school of having to develop HTML web pages. I have a website that I run my paintball business with. There are so many tools and engines out there that make creating a webpage a piece of cake these days, you'd be a fool to actually take the time to type up all that HTML coding.

If your leader knot is going through the line guide of your reel, your leader is WAY too long. 16-24 inches is all the longer you need a leader to be. If your leader knot is reaching down to your reels line guide, you've easily got 7-8 feet of leader.

If I have a technique I want to learn/improve, I usually go to a local pond where the fish are pretty easy to catch, and I'll just fish that lure/technique. After catching a dozen or so, it will really help give me confidence once I go out onto the big lakes.

Here is PA, you're allowed one antlered deer per year. So whether you get your buck in early bow season, during rifle season, or late muzzleloader season, that's it. As for doe, you can apply for a doe tag for your WMU (wildlife management unit, the states way of splitting the state up into smaller sections) in late July/early August. After that first week they're available to state residents, they go available to out of state sales and they usually sell out in no time. If the WMU you hunt still has leftover doe tags after the out of state people get their two weeks to apply, residents can apply for a second one. Each of these doe tags are $6 each. It astonishes me to hear about how you guys are allowed to kill all these deer in your states, but I'm guessing it's because there are far less hunters to deer in your states. They estimate that in Pennsylvania on the opening day of deer season, there are 750k-1M hunters in the woods. Our rifle season is two weeks long. The first 5 days is antlered deer only.

I deal with the same thing with my father. 55 years old and his eyesight isn't as good as it used to be. If I'm fishing with him, I'm tying all his knots. If I'm over visiting and he's going fishing without me, he'll have me tie up all his rods. If he goes fishing without me around, I'll hear about all the lures he lost because his knot wasn't tied properly.

I've been shooting guns since I was about 6 or 7. Back in high school, my friends and I would shoot a brick of 22 every weekend. I can shoot a water bottle cap at 45 yards 4/5 times. So I guess you could say I'm a pretty good shot.

I use left handed casting reels, but last winter I bought two right handed reels to experiment with. I practiced pitching in my basement and felt like I was pretty decent with it. Once I got on the water to actually fish with a right handed reel, I couldn't do it. I was fine if I just straight reeled something in, but if it came to doing anything that required working the rod and reeling (jerkbait, poppers, spooks, etc) I just didn't have the strength/control that I have whenever I use my left handed reels. So I'm back to all lefty reels.

Swimming for a topwater lure???

The 308 is a great round, especially for those 90 yard head shots.