GANGGREEN

I have a Capricorn that I purchased for half price a few years ago and it's probably my nicest spinning reel. Very nice.

I broke two Cabela's Tourney Trail rods last year. One was mostly operator error as I cast at the same time that a buddy did and our rods met in midair, mine broke, his didn't. The other one just broke inexplicably while I was fishing on a hookset. I think the Tourney Trail rods are really nice for the money and thankfully, both of mine were replaced under warranty, but there's a case of a few rods breaking that weren't Ducketts.

I've ended up with strangers in my boat a few times for whatever reason and personally, I didn't care for the experience. First of all, I'm not sure any of them offered to pay to help defray expenses (though they may have and I may have declined their offers, I simply can't remember). You have to understand that everyone is different. I happen to be an extreme introvert. That doesn't mean that I'm shy or that I don't know how to be pleasant with a boat partner, it simply means that more times than not, I'd prefer to be alone or with family or very close friends. When I find myself in a boat with a stranger or person who I don't know well, I always feel compelled to make small talk and it makes my day far less enjoyable and I'm typically in a hurry to get off the water. Now that said, I also have friends who are extremely extroverted who seem to relish the opportunity to share some boat time or to chat all day with whoever they end up with. You just need to recognize that some boaters may not enjoy the experience even if they were kind enough to say, "sure, hop in". I suspect that I'm the type of person who would often times tell you to join me if you asked and if you appeared clean cut and decent, particularly if I had seen you or briefly chatted on other occasions. That doesn't necessarily mean that I'd want a stranger on the boat, it might just be a case of me being nice or being polite. For what it's worth, I like to think that I'm a better than average fisherman who has a good reputation locally for putting fish in the boat. I spend a fair amount of energy trying to avoid taking people along who try to invite themselves to fish with me. I know that makes me sound like a mean person, but as I've said before, I'm an introvert and tend not to like the experience on many or most occasions. Why should I spoil my limited time afield in the interest of being polite? Just my two cents. I like the idea that people have offered of joining a club to find like-minded fishing partners who may take you in exchange for sharing expenses. You seem like a good enough guy and I'm sure many people would enjoy having you in the back of the boat.

This is another one of those "be careful what you wish for" deals. Aside from the fact that limited trials usually don't correspond to real life on a large lake, it's going to be expensive (someone has to pay for government subsidies or grants in case you weren't aware) and may have a negative impact on other native or beneficial species. We've mucked up our environment so much that the cure is often worse than the original scourge.

I know what the fish on my lakes would be doing at that time of year, they'd be bunching on the bottom edge of drops in fairly deep water. That said, I fish in the north and I suspect that Oct/Nov in Tennessee is more like the fishing would be here around the end of September, meaning that you very well may catch them on or near the shoreline and near visible rocks, bluffs, etc.. Good luck and have fun.

My only goal this year was to get out a bit more than I have been over the last several years and I'm glad to say that I've done it. I suspect that I could still count my number of trips on the fingers of both hands (or it would be very close) but I've got a 2-3 day trip planned for this weekend and I'll likely get out at least once or twice later this fall. Mission accomplished. Next year my goal will be the same, to fish a bit more than I did this year.

I've never specifically targeted them but I've caught lots of them and they're awesome in a certain way. They're pack animals and they like to eat. I'm not sure that they're always on the feed but they can be really aggressive and will eat whatever you throw at them; your bass gear is fine. In my experience, they're more inclined to be an open water fish rather than being tied to cover or structure and they tend to like lures that are fished in the middle of the water column. They also seem to like white, bright and shiny lures. In addition to roadwarrior's suggestion, they'll also hit grubs, crankbaits and most anything else. I've got a fairly local lake that I rarely fish that has big ones (at least by Pennsylvania standards) and they're a blast to catch when you get into them.

I probably own 30 outfits if you include flyfishing gear and trolling gear. At any one time, there will always be at least 5 or 6 outfits in my boat, BUT, I suspect that as often as not, I'll pick up one outfit and fish with it for the entire day, never putting it down or switching it out. Admittedly, the outfit that I choose will be dependent on my target species and technique for the day but as others have pointed out, you can fish most techniques with a single outfit if you choose wisely. Now, admittedly, there are those days when I'll switch target species during the day, when the fishing's really horrible and I get desperate or when the fishing is so good that I simply get bored and want to try a different outfit but I've spent hundreds of days fishing with one rod/reel combo for the entire day. As the others have pointed out, I suspect that most of the guys on the board who have 10, 15, 20 outfits or more can afford to have them and see fishing as their primary hobby so there's nothing wrong with it but I think everyone on this board would probably agree that they could get by with one or two combos if they absolutely had to.

I got a chuckle out of this thread too. I will try to bring the topic back to fall smallies on Lake Erie and suggest that I was out on Sunday afternoon and water temps were 68-69 (Pennsylvania waters) so they're falling and things will be changing.

I was stumbling around WalMart today waiting for my wife and son to finish shopping and I found myself in the fishing aisle. They rarely have much of interest but I saw a Pro Max like that hanging in a display. I picked it up and messed with it as much as I could but given that it's in packaging, doesn't have line, etc. etc., you can't really say whether it's a decent reel or not. The odd thing was that there was no price on it and I was curious what the price point is. Anyone? Any idea if it's a halfway decent reel?

Some of you guys have a lot of stuff. Ha! I happen to be in the minority here because I use primarily spinning gear. I have more combos than this but of those that I frequently fish for bass that I'd consider my normal rotation, I'd guess that there are 6 or 7 spinning rods and 2 baitcasters. For the last many years I've tended towards finesse fishing and I also tend to be a multi-species guy in that I love to fish for yellow perch and walleye too. I'm presently doing an upgrade on most of my gear and I'm going to purchase at least one good baitcasting combo this winter for next spring's use but for now, I probably have 3 times as many spinning combos as baitcasters. Then there are the fly rods and trolling gear but that's not for bass.

I have a couple of the Optix 10s that I use for perch in the spring (I'm really serious about spring yellow perch fishing). They're surprisingly good little reels for the price.

Good to know that they're still running the Tuesday evening tournament and that Conesus is still producing quality fish. I'm on vacation next week (away) but may have to try to get up there for the evening tourney in a couple of weeks.

I'm another guy who's been pretty stubborn and who still mostly uses mono. When it was first coming out, I was using Fireline or braid on several of my spinning outfits but for one reason or another, I've gone back to mono on most of them. I presently have braid on one ultralight set up for deep perch fishing with small jigs and one medium spinning rod for livebait perch fishing in very deep water on Lake Erie (often 50-60 feet deep), otherwise, my reels are all spooled with mono. I'm guessing that perhaps the newer braided lines are better than the earlier stuff may have been and I'm surely willing to give it a try again (I'll probably spool up one medium spinning rig in braid next spring). I've always recognized the zero stretch and increased sensitivity but for me, mono was more versatile and easier to use. Oh, one tip that most of you already know by the way, if you're not using a mono backing with your braid, you can wrap a strip of electrical tape around your empty spool before spooling up with braid and that will prevent the line from slipping on the spool.

I don't know how relevant this is to your question but I have a 6' Pro Guide UL rod and I love it. It cost me half of what my 6' UL Tourney Trail rod cost and I've had two of the TT rods snap for no obvious reason but the Pro Guide seems to be a much tougher blank and I think it's very nearly as sensitive as the TT, which I happen to love, aside from the couple that were broken and replaced. I'm really trying to upgrade most of my rods and reels but my Pro Guide and TT ultralight rods will absolutely be kept and used because I like them both a great deal. Like I said, I don't know how that relates to the heavier bass fishing models but thought I'd mention that I've had good luck with mine and have recommended it to other guys who also enjoy theirs in the same length and action.

This is my first post to the site (no need to welcome me, really) and I thought I'd toss in my two cents. I've always been a guy that has too many hobbies and as such, I find it hard to justify the outlay of $200-300 for a rod or $150 for a reel. I started with whatever bargain basement stuff I could get (often times Quantum stuff from a long gone Quantum outlet that I used to shop at) and caught a lot of fish. I was a student of the sport and felt like I could work out a pattern about as well as anyone and I typically had good enough control of my equipment to land a fair percentage of the fish that bit. As I became older and found that I occasionally had a few bucks to spend, I upgraded to what most of you would call very moderately priced equipment. My best rods are the lower or middle of the road Fenwick and St. Croix rods with the odd Cabela's Tourney Trail or assorted other moderate priced rod, although I still have quite a few $40 Walmart type rods. Likewise, my reels are mostly Okuma, Daiwa, Abu Garcia, Quantum and Pflueger mid-priced stuff. I have a few friends who spend way more than I do on gear and who have what I'd call really high end rods and reels and without exception, these guys know me as "the best fisherman we know with the worst gear" and day in and day out, I can out-fish any of them (obviously on any given day, one of them might get hot and whip my butt but probably 8 or 9 times out of 10, I'll end up landing more fish than any of them on any given day). My point isn't that expensive rods and reels aren't better than cheap ones, but rather that a good fisherman will get the most of a rod and reel combo if it's at least in the "moderate" price or quality range and I think if you're using $40 Walmart combos, your fishing and catching are going to probably suffer. The only time that I've ever been frustrated enough to say, "give me that rod" was on a day when a buddy of mine who usually catches almost nothing was catching almost as many smallmouth and walleye as I was and I was curious why. I took his Loomis rod (I don't even recall the model but at the time, roughly 15 years ago, he told me that it was around $280 retail) and fished with it for 10 minutes. I have to admit that it WAS more sensitive and easier and more enjoyable to fish than the garbage that I had been using. Because I'm finally getting a lot of my bills paid off and I'm in a decent financial situation after many years of sacrificing good stuff for my kids' long-range comfort, I'm in the slow process of upgrading again and I'm hopeful to start purchasing more of the moderate to higher priced Fenwick and St. Croix models (though I won't ignore other options when they arise) and trying to upgrade some of my reels as well. Whether it will pay a huge dividend in the fish catching department remains to be seen but I feel like I've earned the right to start using decent equipment after a lot of years of using junk.