fishballer06

One of my local bass clubs made an announcement last night that has it's members very upset. So I wanted to make a post about this subject and see what Bass Resources opinion is on a matter like this. The announcement was that the PA Fish And Boat Commission (PFBC) told the club that they now have to limit their tournaments on a particular lake (lets call it Lake XYZ) to only 25 boats from here on out. So the club announced that in order to make this the fairest to everyone in accordance to the PFBC rules, they're making guys who are in the top 25 in points pre-register for the events on Lake XYZ. If they do not fill the 25 boat limit, they will open the event up to everyone the day of the event, and cut everyone off if/when they hit 25 boats. So, the background on this club. The club director says there are 28 teams registered as members in the club. This club also allows non-members to fish all of their events for an extra $10 entry fee and no points get added up for your performance(s). One thing that makes this club unique is that all of their events are electric motors only (no outboards/inboards). Because of this rule, the lakes they fish are smaller in size. They fish 12 total events per year, on 3 different lakes. So, a little background on Lake XYZ. Lake XYZ is a small 300 acre lake on top of a mountain in central Pennsylvania. This lake has two boat ramps, one on the north shore and one on the south shore, and the parking lots at each ramp will accommodate 20 trucks/trailers. There is one dock at each ramp, and these docks will hold one boat on each side of them. The boat ramps are only one lane wide and the water around them are very shallow and rocky, making them dangerous if you're not careful. So much so that the south boat ramp is basically only safe for launching kayaks. Despite being small in size, Lake XYZ produces huge fish for Pennsylvania. 5 pounders are usually a staple in each of the top performing boats, a 6 pounder is usually needed to win lunker, and a couple 7's have even been weighed in. You generally need 14+ pounds to even consider being in the money, and 19-23 pound bags are not uncommon. In fact, multiple 20+ pound bags are common in the fall tournaments. To put this all into perspective, this club had their first of four tournaments on Lake XYZ two weeks ago. They had 38 boats for this event. They normally draw 30-45 boats per event on this lake, so this was about average. Winning weight was 15lb. 11oz. Lunker was 6lb. 6oz. and there were 4 other fish over 5 pounds weighed in. There were 135 fish weighed in, 7 of which were brought to the scales dead (5% of the total). Keep in mind, they fish this lake four times a year, plus there's usually one or two other tournaments a year on this lake as well that generally draw 10-20 boats each (other clubs). I know that's long winded, but here's where I want your opinion. The PFBC has told this club that they have to limit their tournaments on Lake XYZ to 25 boats because of over harvesting (pressure) and the parking lot not being able to accommodate 30+ vehicles plus whatever general public shows up. Just by doing some rough math with the number of fish weighed in (135) and number of fish weighed in dead (5%), if you assume that another 10% of the fish died after being released, that's 20.25 dead fish per tournament, and at four tournaments per year, that's 81 (tournament sized) fish dead per year just from 4 tournament days on a lake that's only 300 acres. So do you think this kind of constant pressure on a lake this small can be detrimental to the fish population over time? Lets hear your thoughts on this matter, BassResource.

As stated, those suspended fish are the toughest one's to catch. I've pulled my hair out multiple times trying to get them to bite. My best producers for these fish have been fish head spins with a swimbait on them (remember to downsize when the bite is tough), and a silver buddy style blade bait.

I'm throwing my frogs on the Sierra 735C and it has worked great for me. I wrenched some 3lb fish out with 8 pounds of grass on them with no problem. I can't wait until I hook up with a big one to see how it does. I'm confident it will handle it fine. Only having a $100 budget for a reel is tough. You get what you pay for. I'd go with a 200 size Curado.

I've got a few that I like to use. 1. Rapala Skitter Prop - Cheaper and works well 2. Heddon Torpedo - a classic, cheaper, and a smaller profile 3. Lucky Craft Kelly J Prop Bait - more expensive, LC quality, catches fish 4. Black Label Tackle Cliff Pace Tease - most expensive, hand made and high quality, sits upright, can be twitched or stead retrieved I'd also like to try the Brians Prop Bee because I've seen a lot of the pro's throwing them and I like the way they come through the water, I just haven't brought myself to dropping $28 for one yet...

A. Palaniuk B. Feider C. Jpow D. JVD E. Pipkens As you can tell, I went with the big smallmouth guys. I'm hoping this pays off. I'm trying to crack into the top 90th percentile. Currently sitting at 89.7%.

7/8oz. So it's even heavier than 3/4oz!

MH at a minimum, H if you are adding a plastic trailer onto the bait. You're probably up around an ounce if so. Rather than buying a whole new rod, I suggest a smaller buzzbait. I fish a 1/4oz. Cavitron buzzbait as my go to topwater bait and I use medium and MH powered rods for it. When I need a little help with distance or fighting the wind, I'll take an old torn up Senko and off about an inch of it and thread it onto the shaft of the hook. It adds a little bit more weight to help get the bait out there.

3/4oz is too heavy for your rod. Furthermore, 30lb. braid is borderline too thin for typical baitcast use. Whenever throwing hard, you could be causing the line to dig into the spool a little. Thus causing a backlash during the cast. Lastly, large bladed baits like spinnerbaits and buzzbaits are tricky to cast because those large blades catch a lot of air resistance during their flight.

I was amazed this rod won over the new GLoomis Conquest rod.... At least the new Curado beat out the new "bearing-less" bright orange reel they have (even though it does have a bearing in it).

$80, no questions asked, life time replacement on a $340 rod? Sounds like a great warranty to me. I could snap my rod in half every two years for the rest of my life and keep getting a brand new $340 rod for only $80.

I heard about these whenever Brandon won his event using them. I'll be buying a few packs of these for sure.

If you want solid fishing advice, I suggest you don't watch YouTube video's pieced together by a 14 year old kid with an iPhone...

I own 100+ DT's and I fish them more than any other crankbait. I've broken 2 of them. First one I slapped the water to remove weeds (Rapala prints directly on the box not to do this) and the second one I casted and hit a concrete bridge pillar. So no, I don't think they are weak or of poor quality. As for the paint, no, it does not chip off. I have baits that have been drug over rocks for days and caught dozens of fish and the paint has never chipped off. I don't know where you heard this one.

Always good to have more PA boys on here.

You can use the street view and satellite view to determine how to access the pond once you park, as well as determine what areas are open enough to fish and what areas are covered with trees and brush.

If you pay attention, the big name brands are sticking to the plain old colors that we're all used to. Only the newer/smaller guys are using these obnoxious colors in order to get people's attention. My opinion? If you need to make something obnoxious colored in order to sell it, maybe you should design a better product...

I almost always go out of my way to pick up trash that I see floating in the water whenever I'm out on a boat. Trash bags, pool noodles, buckets, drums... The list goes on and on with the amount of things I've pulled from the lake.

Shad Raps are the go to whenever we troll for walleye. Catches plenty of bass too.

I can't comment on the Redfield, but if you're in that $200 range, check out the Nikon Pro Staff series. They're the clearest/brightest scope I've found in that price range.

^^^ Same here.

Either method can work. The "Locked Drag" method that you describe can eventually lead to two things - A. broken line. B. Hooks ripped out of the fishes mouth because there is no give. But like you said, having too light of a drag allows a fish to run around more, giving them a chance to wrap you up around wood/rocks/weeds, or for the fish to throw the bait out of their mouth. So both methods have their pluses and minuses. So with experience, you'll learn a happy median and style that suites you best.

The Chronarch MGL is going to a little smaller body and more comfortable to palm all day. Also, because it's a smaller/lighter spool, I would guess that it can handle an 1/8-3/16oz. texas rig better than the larger 200 sized Curado.

I saw the numerous postings by this guy on Facebook. I went as far to even post screenshots of them to the California Department of Fish & Wildlife. Upon looking over their page, about a dozen other guys had also done the same. I really hope they can stop this guy.

Rubber is the only way to go these days. It's less harmful to the fish and it doesn't get hooks tangled in it. Only downside is they're a little heavier.

I'll agree with you that the Shadow Raps have very light (some may say weak) hooks and hardware. The first fish I caught on a Shadow Rap back whenever they were released was a 4lb. 2oz largemouth. The fish had both sets of hooks in him. However, upon inspecting the lure after releasing the fish, I noticed that I had straightened out the front split ring and bent out one of the rear hooks. So this alone is an issue with these baits. However, your setup is a little overkill for jerkbaits. The higher pound test you use, the more your action is killed. I never go over 12lb. test for jerkbaits. So using 14lb. is going to kill the action some and potentially lead to more straightened out hooks. As for a replacement, check out the Gamakatsu TGW Finesse trebel hooks (designed by Aaron Martens). They should make a fine jerkbait hook if you're wanting to keep that bait's slow floating action. Another good option for a lighter wire hook is the Megabass Katsauge hooks. These are the hooks that come on the 110 with the outward barbs. These hooks are also very prone to bending out, but they're great for jerkbait fishing with the proper equipment.