jasone

Hummer? Louis Vuitton? Can you get me a job where you work? Just kidding. Those are just about the coolest briefs/bags I have ever seen. Kind of makes me wish I needed one. Most of my meetings are informal. I say go for it! J

I guess I am kind of brand loyal. I like St. Croix rods and Daiwa or Abu reels. With that being said, anyone who does not try new things is really cheating themselves. I don't always practice that to the letter. I fought the chatterbait thing like the devil and eventually succumbed. But if I had remained only loyal to St. Croix I would never have tried a Kistler. I've been fishing with guys that swore they only used this brand or that. That works for a little while until something else starts working. I guess my point is, brand loyalty is nice up to point but why limit yourself forever? J

Remember when Rapala was the most expensive lure you could buy? God when I was a kid I wanted to cry everytime I lost one. J

I've only had one real good fishing partner. He was a very humble good ole country boy like myself. His gear was very old and low end (which had no effect on me other than a lack of understanding about my gear). He usually outfished me or kept with up me which was great come tournament time. He never bragged about it, just told me what he did different. My wife is a terrible partner. Every third cast something goes wrong. She gets bored easily, can't or doesn't help. I had a partner for a while that was horrible. He smoked in my boat and left his trash. Never wanted to pay for anything. He also hated getting skunked and swore that he had never been on an outing that he hadn't caught something. He made me stay on the water one day for 2 hours past time I had scheduled to depart. And God help me if he ever did outfish me. I had to listen to it all day at work the following day. Not worth it.

God bless that looks like it hurts!! :'( J

When you describe your "equipment" in your sig you've gone overboard. Just kidding. To each his own, as long as you and your family are fed I say spend it while you can. You certainly can't spend it after you're dead. J

I'm a Quality Engineer so I deal with customers all day and let me tell you that there is not much more stressful at my place of employment. I would be interested in reading your letter to them. Its not really the same thing but customers aren't always right they just think they are Then again, I'd never treat a customer like he treated you unless you have written an inflamatory letter. No business likes to hear is that they have a bad reputation. My 2 cents. J

Yeah it happens to me. I fish em on jigs though. Its one of the consequences for having such good action on the claws. J

Electronics are CRUCIAL!! You can use any good fishfinder. You will also need at least two of the orange buoy markers. Find a ledge or hump on your contour map. Use GPS or line up landmarks from your map to get the general idea. Idle over the rough spot until you find the depth of the upper feature. By that I mean if its a hump, find the hump, a ledge, find the top of it. Your fishfinder will read steady then all of a sudden the numbers will start falling. It is imperative that you made your buoys ready before then. When the numbers start falling toss one out the side. Coast down from your first buoy and repeat. I try to move at least 50 yards from the first one. You can lay as many as you want but two or three usually does it for me. Make long casts past the buoys and drag well past them. As you drag, feel the bottom. If there is nothing but silt there you may be in a less than ideal place. Ideal places have rocks on top and a brushpile either on top or the bottom. When you bump a rock or brush, pause and reel in all slack. You will get a lot of bites when the rig makes contact. Sorry if all this has been covered. For most people this is just drivel but when you live on a Ledge lake you must know how to do this. J

You may need to experiment a bit. I would suggest that you throw something slow and small. The smaller Spook or Sammy might work. We were catching them on Sammys down here in KY when the water was right around 60. We were throwing them shallow and it seemed like the bass were either looking for beds or working on cleaning them. Casts, of course, are free. Even the ones that don't catch fish teach you something. J

Amen.

or.... Running wide open at night. Bump, bump, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM GPS won't show barge wakes.

What's at the end of the line? I pull, it pulls back Damnit, its a rock again.

You did the right thing. It miffs me when I see people here or off-line that tell about how someone got too close so they fired a warning shot (casted in their general direction). It has to be about the rudest thing that can be done. Its so obviously maliciously done. Saying, "Hey man, you're a little too close" is less rude and takes more tact than what those guys did. I've beat the bank behind crappie fishermen where they were casting toward the middle. If they think im too close they turn around and start tossing them toward me. I hope they don't plan on catching fish there!! J

I finally made my decision and after all the great opinions here, it came down to weight and comfort. All of the rods recommended were great (as much as I could tell at the store). But I ended up getting the Kistler KSM66. Anyone have any experience with this rod? As for reel, im thinking either the Sedona, Symetre or the Tierra. I'm definitely going over my budget but oh well. Thanks again for the help. J

Avid is completely right. If you bought every buzzbait that gets mentioned here you're gonna be broke in no time. I've fished sometimes where I've had one brand on, broke off, switched brands (but not color) and kept catching them. Then there have been other time where the same happened and it effectively ruined my fishing day. I would have to say that the only exception is the Lunker Lure. I can switch to it and usually increase my catch rate. I've broken that one off more often and they wouldn't touch any other. Good news, they're cheap but they start easy, run true, squeak like crazy and catch fish. Good luck. J

Well they are tagging this as the fight that saves boxing. Then again they did that to Lewis vs. Tyson, Tarver vs. Jones Jr., etc., etc. The most exciting one I've seen in the past years was Klitscho vs. Lewis. Anyway, I think Mayweather won't be talkin the trash when he walks out of the ring. None of these guys learn, you talk trash to Oscar and you pay for it. Mayweather's dad used to be Oscar's trainer and I really think he held him back. My prediction. First four rounds are gonna suck. After that its going to break loose. Oscar by decision is probable. A 11th round knockout by Oscar is possible. J

I had so much trouble hooking up with the Bronze eye. I switched this year to a Sumo frog. Hope it works out better. J

Thanks guys for the help. You've given me a lot of good ideas. J

Hey all. I'm looking for a decent priced setup for fishing dropshot and shakeyheads. I'm more partial to baitcasting than spinning but I realize that spinning gear is the obvious choice. I'm curious as to what you guys use. I would like to limit my spending to $200 rod/reel and all. Thanks in advance for the input. J

Is there such a thing as a sunglasses monkey? I already have two pairs and I am finding that I need more. J

OK, buy one and tell me how it works. ;D

I haven't tried one. I like LC lures but in this case I would take your 20 and buy 4 Devil's Horses. J

Of the swimming type jigs, I have used two and saw another one in action. All three worked great recently for fish up in buck brush and mustard flowers. I've been using the original chatterbait the most. I like the action but the skirt is lacking. I added a mister twister to the hook for more action. I don't like the hookup ratio but it could be that the fish are short striking me. I used and watched a buddy use the Strike King pure poison. I must say that the action is as good or better than the chatterbait. The big difference is that skirt. The thing flows and kicks sideways. Looked great in the water. I watched him pull a 4lb male off a bed with it. I watched another buddy with the Boogee bait. The skirt action was not as nice as the SK PP. It does have the tails but he ended up adding a grub also to addd some action. The hookups seemed good with the leverage hook system. I had wondered about that. J

Anyone else keep a steady log? I input my fish and any I actually witness caught (I don't log supposed catches ). I input lure/color/time/date/size/water temp/air temp/location/front conditions. Anyone doing that? What did your latest day look like? J