Fish Chris

First off, what a COOOOL fish ! :-) I love those things ! They look so much like a gigantic Largemouth Bass :-) They have just got to be related somewhere millions of years back, before freshwater fish came in from the salt. I'd love to have a replica of a 400 to 600 lb'er, painted like a Largemouth :-) Hey PA, I'm quite sure the deck hand was getting himself confused (with the excitement all) I'm sure it was a 200 lb mainline, with 400 lb leader. Light ? On the contrary, this is about as heavy as it gets for sportfishing purposes, but not too awefully heavy for a fish like that. Speaking of the deck hand getting tongue tied, it wasn't both 80" long, and 60 plus inches "long" too. Girth ! He meant to say girth ! I guess I would be a little bit beside myself too though :-) Very cool, Fish PS, Sure would like to see some giant fish catches like this in HD.

I put on an auto-inflating life jacket (Cabelas brand) when I get on the water, and never take it off until I get back to the ramp. So super comfortable, that I almost always forget I have it on.... Then, at the end of the day, I find myself walking back to my truck and, "Doh ! I still have my PFD on" ! :-) I used to wear those big, bulky, old school types, but they were so cumbersome, that I always took them off when I got to my fishing spot.... which was actually pretty sdtupid of me, as the "SAFEST PFD, is the one WHICH YOU ARE WEARING" ! I almost never fish with anybody...... But if I did, I would insist they wore a PFD, and it would be nice if I could offer them an auto inflating type. Peace, Fish

Welcome. Beautiful fish Bass Mekanik ! Just one thing to consider..... if you should catch another fish that is close to the same size (which you certainly will, sooner or later) how will you know which one is your new PB ? Gotta' get / bring that scale :-) Continued success to you ! Peace, Fish

a skilled angler, who knows his water well, will do so much better with either of these brands, than a novice will... with either. The brand, color, size, shape, etc of soft plastic lures has SOOO little to do with their effectivness, that pitting one brand against another is like splitting hairs. Again, just MPO, Peace, Fish PS, It's been one of my strong beliefs, for a long time, that people most often look to the "wrong end of the line" when they want to see what's working.

Much easier answer: Use braid. Peace, Fish

On a Senko no less...... Sometimes those big ones will just bite "ANY" crazy thing, huh ? ;-) Congrats on the new PB ! I bet their is an even bigger one out there with your name on it though ! Go get her :-) Peace, Fish

you mean, you were fishing in water that holds both Largemouth Bass, and ttrout, "and you were not throwing the Hud" ??? Peace, Fish

Do you think that every time a trout, or any other smaller fish jumps (or heck, even 20 lb Carp !) jumps, it scares bass ??? I think maybe if your talking about a runt of a bass, which has to worry about a great big trophy bass eating it for breakfast, shoot yea' ! A splash might scare it. On the other hand, I think the most a splash from a swimbait might do, is annoy a trophy bass which isn't hungry, or, get it's attention if it is ! Peace, Fish

I use the palomar to attach hooks. The improved clinch for some larger lures, like swimbaits. And the bloodknot for joining my mono leader, to my braided main line. I have said this before, but I don't think I could ever repeat it too many times >>>>> Everybody occasionally ties a bad knot. The key lies in being able to tell a bad knot apart from a correctly tied one (read: no unwanted twists were introduced). I certainly tie my share of lame knots, but I ALWAYS recognize this, and retie them before they ever hit the water, and consequentally, my knots NEVER fail on me, during the battle of a big fish. Peace, Fish

TUF-Line XP

first off, one wouldn't "have" to use a mono, or fluorocarbon leader with braid. I used straight braid for several years, and never had any real problems because of it...... Just those "in the back of my mind" things. Mono / fluoro just have several properties which make them enough "more suitable" as a leader, than is braided line, that it is well worth it to me, to add that one connection, in the form of a well tied blood knot. {although not every knot I tie is "well tied" :-), as I have mentioned on this forum before, when I do tie a bad knot, I ALWAYS recognize it, and retie it, before it ever makes it to the water} I typically tie my leaders short enough that I don't have to repeatedly cast the knot through my guides...... But in situations where I wanted a longer leader, I have found that a well tied blood knot is much more durable ripping through guides than one might suspect. Least wise, I have NEVER had a knot fail because of this. As for silt lodging itself in the line, whether it be in salt water of fresh....... Believe it or not, I have even contemplated this too. First, to answer your question specifically, no, I have never had fresh, clean line get dirty, then not fit back on my spool...... and second (my bigger personal concern) I have never noticed that potentially abrasive dirt particles caused my braided line to break down, to the failure point, any quicker than my braid used in gin clear waters..... And believe me, when you use "white" braided line as often as I do, this could not be easier to recognize. Lighter rods ? Kind of, sort of. I have always used lighter action rods than most guys anyway, I guess. I kind of prefer a rod to have a slower, more parabolic bend, which theoretically should be better / more forgiving, when used in conjuction with a non-stretch braided line...... but a well set (read: lighter) drag, will do much more to protect you from straightened hooks, hook rip-outs, broken line, broken rods, etc, than anything else. For smaller treble hooks, or for fish with softer mouths, run a lighter drag. Anything else ? Peace, Fish

Hello 0119. I know that braided Spectra has been out for at least 15 years, but maybe longer. Interestingly, braided dacron and polyester lines have been out for like many decades ! The first stuff I used was called Gorilla braid, and being braided Spectra, it was really thin, really strong, and non-stretch...... But, it screwed up a lot. I then went to Fenwick Iron thread for a while. Less problems, but pretty expensive, and rough through the guides (although it never caused any guide damage). Then Spiderwire for quite a while. Good stuff, but too expensive. After that, I went on this search for the ultimate braid. I actually had like 4 different companies send me sample spools. I ended up settling on TUF-Line about 4 years ago, and now that's all I use. Yes, I think braid (or the braiding processes) have gotten somewhat better over the years...... But I also just wish I would have found TUF-Line about 10 years (or however many years they have been making) earlier ! :-) Peace, Fish

Hey Dane, you are absolutely correct. I think everybody is assuming that everybody else knows that braid has almost zero stretch, and very high sensitivity. Even the guys that don't like braid can't argue with that. So here's one that I almost never hear mentioned (unless I mention it :-) Did you guys know that braided line will make a drag system perform 10X's better than mono ??? Here's why; Mono, having so much stretch, will build up a whole bunch of energy as it stretches, then, when the drag finally breaks loose, it will slip a whole bunch as the stretch takes itself up. As soon as it does, it will stick, and the stretching will begin again. This buildup, and letting loose, then building, then letting loose again, is called "drag surge", and it is virtually non-existent with braid. Geez, I use to hate drag surge. Peace, Fish

Of course I'm a braid guy...... But I do use Seaguar Carbon Pro as a leader material, and it is very abrasion resistant ! I have used 2 lb test for a main line for Crappie too. Of course it was really limp, and casted a 1/32 oz jig great ! .....but then its 2 lb test, so what would one expect ? :-) Peace, Fish

ya' know, back in the day, I used to use a lot of 8 and 10 lb mono for Stripers which usally went 5 to 17 lbs, but I did catch a few bigger ones. The thing is, even as fanatical as I used to be about changing my mono every other trip, or even "every trip" if I had caught a few good ones on it, I still use to break fish off..... Like every 5th to 10th one or so, to the best of my memory. Sure, I could have gone to 15 or 20 lb mono, but I hated the coils and kinkiness of the best 8 or 10 lb mono I could buy, as it were, let alone stepping up to something twice as stiff and coily ! It's funny, nowadays I probably worry about my tackle (in general) as much as I ever did..... but I don't worry about my line very much anymore. Kind of hard to when you just 'never' break em' off anymore. BTW, can you put your finger on what you did not like about the braid in fast moving water ??? Braided line, being much thinner than mono, creates less drag, and should give you less problems in moving water. I know I can certainly fish in deeper, tidally affected water, with less weight because of this. Peace, Fish

first off, I never tell anyone that "spinning gear is better, and that's what they should use". I use spinning gear 95% of the time because I am lousy with a baitcaster. Cart7, you said you were'nt sure why people had problems with baitcasters. Well, I can't speak for them, but as for myself, I was born left handed and forced to be right handed, by old school parents who thought life would be easier that way. Huh ! All it did was completely whack out my hand-eye coordination. Heck, I can only use a spinning reel because I have practiced all of my life with them ! Even so, I'd only consider myself to be a mediocre caster, at best. Doesn't seem to have hurt me too much though. Anyway, I swear one of these days I'm going to right an article on braided line. Granted, it will be the most opinionated article which has ever been written, in the history of mankind ! ;-) Knots slip ? Geez, I tie bloodknots, improved clinches, and palomars, none of which EVER slip. Braid can cut you, or break rods ? Not if you are smarter than your braided line. A sharp hook can stick you too, so be careful. Braid is not as abrasion resistant, and is much more visible ? So use a high quality fluorocarbon leader to eliminate either of these potential problems. Braid is hard to break off when you have to ? Not any harder than my 10 to 25 lb fluorocarbon leader makes it. Braid floats ? I have flylined a night crawler in 20 feet of water, without so much as a split shot. This should tell you something. Braid damages guides ? Never have any of the several different brands of braid that I have used in the last 13 years, damaged any of the rods I have used. Interestingly, some of the newer, super duper, titanium nitrided zirconium... (or whatever they call them) guides have caused some damage to my braided line. Replacing the tip guides with some of the more old school ceramic guides cured this. Raul, you often to point to the big bass that I catch...... but remember, I fish for everything from Bluegill to Sturgeon. Plus, I catch a lot of smaller fish of each species too, not just the giants that I'm really after. So anyway, sorry if I failed to adress anyones particular concerns about braided line..... "Anyway it is my personal opinion" that braid is the best choice for 'nearly'* all fishing, for all species, from small fish up to giants, in freshwater, and even salt. It is also my belief that many of the people who try braid, and hate it, simply never gave themselves enough of a chance to get over the hump..... which is probably a much bigger loss than they will ever realize. Braid = fishing line Mono = rubberband Peace, Fish * the only situations in which I have ever found mono to be better than braid, is fluorescent mono, for black-light night-fishing, and 2 to 4 lb mono or fluoro for Crappie fishing. PS, Again, please understand that this is simply my personal opinion...... albeit, probably the strongest opinion I have ever formed about anything fishing related.

that their have been more than 30 posts for this thread, yet nobody has mentioned the single most critical factor in hook setting !!! "THE LINE" !!!!!!!! Sure, if your using stretcho-filament, you had better swing your arse off, because much of that energy will just be absorbed by your line anyway, and this will produce WAY less pressure at the hook point, especially if you get hit farther away from the boat. With braided line, on the other hand, not only is a hard hook set not needed, but if a guy can't control his swings (and run a lighter drag), he is actually much more likely to rip out hooks, straighten hooks, break the line, break the rod, etc. It's just a matter of physics. Something has to give. BTW, I guess I would have to say that I have never been an outrageously hard hook setter (compared to many of my friends anyway), so switching to braid did not require too much of a change in my hook setting agressiveness. It did however, increase my number of hookups substantially. Peace, Fish

Those are some pigs ! Good job. Makes me want to sneak in a bass trip one of these days soon..... Like a warm day between fronts, on the off tide week for Sturgies..... Now you got me thinking :-) Continued success to you ! Peace, Fish

first off, this will probably be most interesting for guys who use mostly, or "nothing but" spinning gear. Okay, so this is kind of a "two part" idea. In case any of you haven't heard me say this before, I'm lousy with a baitcaster. Therefore, I rarely use them, except for Sturgeon fishing, where I might battle a big one litterally, for hours..... and I need something that won't build up twists, over time. So today it dawned on me.... A big part of why a "typical" right handed retrieve bait caster feels so awkward for me, is that I have used almost nothing but a left handed retrieve spinning reel for nearly my whole life ! So, I pick up my Okuma catalog, and find that they just came out with a couple of left hand retrieve baitcasters ! Cool ! I'm sure those will feel WAY better / more natural to me. So, I'll just make a call tomorrow, and have them send me a couple. That's the easy part. But now here's the other half of my brainstorm; I've been using this bait casting rod designed for Kokanee trout. Lightest BC rod I have ever seen. But recently, I have been very intrigued by the spiral wrapped BC rods, which, when loaded up with a big fish on, force the reel to the top ! So how cool would it be, for me to have a bait casting setup which not only is a left handed retrieve, but also, a set up in which (at least with a fish on) the reel will "want to stay on top" without me having to keep it there ! Only thing is, this rod is odd-ball enough, as it is, let alone finding one like it, that was spiral wrapped ! So, I guess I need to have one built for me, huh ? I can't see this idea replacing my spinning reels, but for certain applications (like the Sturgies on the micro-light BC setup) I think this could be awesome ! What do you guys think ??? Peace, Fish

Thanks guys, but like I said, that was just a baby ! Wait until you see this 75 to 100 lb'er that I stick tomorrow :-) BTW Syfer420, did you know that the "2 lb test line class IGFA world record for Sailfish is 102 lbs ! So, a 100 plus lb Sturgy on 2/10 micro-braid..... Piece of cake ;-) Well.... maybe a 2 or 3 hour battle..... But I know I can make it happen ! Will keep you guys updated. Peace, Fish

I just new from the start of my trip today, that I was going to stick a dino-fish (Sturgeon). Pulled up on the far side of the river, from where I intended to fish, and no sooner than I got my trolling motor deployed and looked over that way.... Whooosh ! A 100 lb'er does this big, graceful arcing jump. It went back in so straight, it hardly left a splash ! Just a little bit intimidating though, when your planning to use a Kokanee trout rod :-) So I shoot straight to where the fish jumped, and gently lower my anchor in 25 ft. I sit back and start baiting up with Salmon Roe. Just as I get ready to float out my bait, I look at my graph, and there is a good Sturgy straight underneath my boat, with its face buried in the mud ! Drift my bait back about 25 feet, and sink it. It's there for about 5 minutes, when..... womp... womp... womp.... my bait starts getting sucked on. I swing, and the micro-light bends over doubled.... but it doesn't really run ??? So I real down, and slowly pick up.... real down again, then slowly pick up. I could see my line swaying side to side as it came towards me, and I knew it was a fish, but "the fish didn't even know it was hooked" ! So I made about 3 or 4 more long pumps, and then I started to see the bloodknot in my 12 ft leader. I was thinking, "Well, whatever it is, I'm fixing to find out" ! Just as I started to see white...... This things sees sunlight, leaps 4 feet in the air, crashes back into the water, and pours it on ! ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ :-) Didn't take too long to get it back to the boat, but as soon as it would see light, it would bolt off again. It did that about 4 X's, before it finally wore itself out. Turned out to be a healthy little 50 incher. Didn't bother to weigh it. Probably about 25 or 30 lbs I guess. Just a baby, but a great way to warm up, with my first Sturgy of the Fall 06 season. Oh, and yes, it was a legal keeper, as the slot limit is, 1 fish, between 46" and 72"....... But their ain't no way in heck I'm going to stop fishing and go home after the first 30 minutes, because I have my limit ! So, back it went after photos. That would have been a nice eating size too...... But their will be plenty more :-) Ended up missing at least 4 more Sturgy bites also, that picked up my bait, and came straight in at me, and two that I missed on the swing. Can't wait to battle that 100 lb'er on my micro-light :-) Maybe tomorrow ? Or the next day ? Sure glad to see them back :-) Yeeehaaa ! Peace, Fish

Yes, those hydro-foils are great....... But I'm telling you, you really need to make sure your getting up to 5500 RPM's. The cheap little tachometer I mentioned, might say that you are, and then you won't have to go any farther..... But otherwise, ya' gotta do something about that prop. BTW, I know a place than can repitch a prop (another cheap, effective option), up or down by at least a couple pitches, for only $25 or $30. If you, or anybody needs a link to this place, let me know. Peace, Fish

just out of curiosity, do you use your Cabelas Rip Cord on spinning or baitcasting gear ? I used it on spinning, and it certainly had a lot of the great features of a true braided line. Very thin. Very strong. Very sensitive. I remember though, that I did have more unexplainable knots develop in it, and also knots seemed to slip easier. I was using the super micro stuff though, 2/10 lb I think. But anyway, it was 1000 X's better than any mono on the market. I'll give it that :-) Peace, Fish

Sorry to hear about your brothers accident, but glad to hear that he hasn't let it stop him ! Gotta' do what ya' gotta' do ! Speaking of which, the reason I am so lousy with a baitcaster.... and could never play any kind of ball sports worth a $#%^, is that I was born left handed, and forced to be right handed, by old school parents who thought life would be easier for a right hander....... Not realizing the fact that you are born, with your brain wired to your body in a particular way. So now, every physical thing I do is somewhat like a left hander trying to use his right hand, or visa-versa. You should see my hand writing ! Doh ! I've never really complained about this though. You can only go forward in life. No way to go back. This is why I don't push people towards spinning gear. I mean, yes, it works great for me, but I understand that exceedingly few people are in the same boat as I am, when it comes to hand-eye coordination. Peace, Fish

Yes, out of the 18 or 20 reels sitting behind me here, all but two are spinning reels. Nothing against baitcasters.... in fact, they are admittedly better than spinning reels in some respects like the non-twisting aspect...... But I am just flat out lousy with a baitcaster, that's all. So yes, I use braid on all of my spinning gear, and it works just absolutely great ! BTW, I know some guys use braid for certain techniques, and mono for others, but personally speaking, that would just mess me all up. The thing about doing that is, when I set a hook, or fight a fish, etc, I don't have to stop and think, "Now wait a minute.... am I using braid right now ? ....or mono" ? Because to be quite honest with you, setting a hook and fighting a fish, is something that comes 100% naturally to me. I don't have to contemplate "how" to do this. It's just a purely automatic reaction. On the other hand, if I were switching back and forth between braid and mono, I would always have to stop myself for however many fractions of a second, to ask myself, "Am using braid ? .... Because I don't want to swing too hard"..... or, "Am I'm using a monofilament rubberband.... Because then I need to swing like a maniac" ! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The only two things I have ever found a monofilament line to be better for are, 1) Nightfishing with a fluorescent line under a blacklight, and 2) Crappie fishing with 2 lb test fluorocarbon (and yes, fluorocarbon is a "mono" or single filament line). Peace, Fish