FloridaFishinFool

Yes it is a shame this did not receive more coverage. $500k is a staggering amount of money for a fishing tournament. I am going to take a look and see where the over $1,000,000.00 came from. If this tournament can generate so much money why can't the pro tournaments also generate similar amounts? Why are they still at around $100k per tournament? Maybe because there are more of those spread out, and this is a one time event? I wish I had heard of this before the tournament. Thankfully it was all caught on camera so we can go back and watch most of it. Here is a link to the full list of fishermen and their rank in this tournament. Some well known pros in there. Edwin Evers did better than other pros in this event. Chris Lane was in there. Bobby Lane. Todd Faircloth and others. https://app.fishingchaos.com/tournament/AIVikqnHVZRXi685THnU/leaderboard/zj5LXtLTB5WdNT75PnbC This next link goes to the tournament rules which also surprised me that all fishermen in this tournament had to be members of "Unified Pros" in good standing, and provide proof of Alabama license and valid Alabama boater education certificate along with $300k insurance proof. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1J45e-XrWVH8WjV-yTiXnS-PgDA0dF7du/edit There are some interesting rules to this tournament: -All passengers in your boat must have their feet in the floor of the boat while engine is running in gear. 12. Sonar Use Forward-facing and 360-degree sonar are prohibited during practice and competition. 18. Marshal Responsibilities Observe the pro angler at all times and report any potential rule infractions. I wonder why the marshal has to keep an eye on just the pros at all times? It makes it sound like they expect the pros to break the rules???? 1st Place: $500,000 2nd Place: $130,000 3rd Place: $80,000 4th Place: $70,000 5th Place: $50,000 6th Place: $45,000 7th Place: $40,000 8th Place: $35,000 9th Place: $30,000 10th Place: $25,000 11th–25th Place: $7,500 each 26th–50th Place: $5,000 each 51st–100th Place: $1,000 each So with 183 anglers, it looks like 83 of them earned nothing. I was kind of surprised they did not have more rules on fish handling since this event is geared towards pushing conservation, they allowed fish to flop around in the boats. Seems to me if conservation was more important they would have included stricter fish handling rules that protect the "slime" coating. I am all for a rule or rules that prevents slime removal from fish so no flopping around in the boat. No laying of fish on measuring boards, etc. Handle fish only by lipping them, and no touching or handling of their bodies in any way. Either we conserve or we don't! I think this issue needs more promoting. Here is a link to an old thread about it here on this forum: Link to official website: https://www.theultimateangler.org/ And unified pros website: https://www.unifiedpros.org/ Thanks for posting this- and giving me plenty to dig into.

One more trip should do it! 2025 is in the bag! Congratulations!

https://www.gassettfuneralhome.net/obituaries/Herbert-Pat-Vinzant?obId=14996343 I recently visited MudHole, and for some reason every time I am there I have to pull out an old friend just to examine it closely and remember the man who made this custom rod. Pat Vinzant. One of the legendary custom rod builders who is no longer with us. Pat was known the world over as one of the best custom rod builders specializing in the use of natural feathers and real snake skins. This rod shows some of that work. Pat and I were friends before he passed. We were working on spiral wrap guide designs and this particular now "famous" rod was one that he had nearly finished before he and I got deep into spiral wrap guide designs. Pat was going to make more spiral wrap rods after this one which would have incorporated the progress we had made. Sadly he passed away before that progress could have made it to his next custom rods. So this particular guide design was one of his own that he came up prior to our collaborating on improving upon it. And this particular rod is a now a snapshot frozen in time example of a custom rod builder moving forward, progressing in guide designs. Pat was excited and eager to try out the new guide design. But it was not meant to be. Pat was also one of the authors and inspirations behind the published rules of custom rod building that I included in my 2020 published article on the subject of spiral wrap guide designs. When I wrote that article Pat Vinzant and Terri Cheatham were the only two custom rod builders that I named by name within the article. This particular rod along with several others made by Pat were originally put on display within the MudHole showroom for sale. But when Pat passed away, the rods that had been for sale became the property of MudHole, and to this day are still left on display in the showroom, but are no longer for sale. They are a memorial testament to one of the great custom rod builders who left a legendary impression on all who were fortunate to know him and his incredible influence on custom rod building. So without fail, every time I visit MudHole, I have to stop by and say hello to an old friend. This is the rod Pat was finishing up at the time of my writing of the article, and was the one he was working on at the time we were making progress on spiral wrap guide designs in late 2019. Pat died in February of 2020, and it would not be until December of 2020 that the article would finally reach publication. I made sure to include him in it. This one rod is now not only on display in the showroom, but it is often selected by various people to include into their videos on custom rod building including this now controversial MudHole video that can still be found online. This Pat Vinzant rod is prominently displayed in the video for ease of access, but is placed there because this rod is brought directly into the video at 29 minutes and 20 seconds into the video. MudHole is also honoring Pat Vinzant in their videos such as this one- which is somewhat controversial because it is ironic that suggestions contained within the video are not in alignment with the established published rules that Pat and others worked on for many years. I made sure to include those published rules directly into my article. Spiral wrap guide designs are all over the place to this day. There are many different ideas out there, and this video shows the digression of them, and is a source of endless chatter to this day even within the walls of MudHole, and online, and throughout the custom rod community. We are trying to reach a level of uniformity on this subject. It is slow to happen, but progress is being made. I think this rod should be given a name... "Old friend" because when any of us walk through the front doors of MudHole and into the showroom, waiting in there hidden among all the rods on the show floor is this rod- an old friend. One of the last rods Pat Vinzant completed before leaving this world. And for those who may not be aware, this rod also contains something else Pat was working on before leaving us- "Pat Vinzant's "New Concept" handle" which predates the industry bringing in the new custom carbon fiber grips. Pat was working on it before others were, and you can see these results here. One of a kind for sure! I make sure to pull out old friend every time I visit... its all we have left besides his legacy and passed on knowledge and experience. This rod is not just a rare Pat Vinzant rod, but this rod is one of a kind. RIP Pat Vinzant! -------------------------------------------------- Another legend I have to give credit to is another friend of mine named Don Morton. He was instrumental in developing the rules for custom rod building as published and agreed on prior to publication. Don and I worked together on guide designs as well, and he said to me that I finally "nailed it" on spiral wrap guide designs after reading my article. I am sitting on unpublished "secret" ideas and designs of Don Morton to this day which may see the light of day one day... Don Morton is a rod design innovator who is more like me in seeking performance over the artistic side which Pat Vinzant excelled at. One thing not well known about Don Morton is that he works directly with college students on campus in the engineering depts. He teaches and leads students to engineering better fishing tackle. Online search: "Don Morton" is not a brand of custom rods, but a renowned rod designer known for developing the "Equal Angle Theory" for guide placement, a technique used by custom rod builders like those at Classic Destiny Custom Rods. His methods help create a rod with maximum performance by determining the optimal number and placement of guides based on the blank's unique characteristics. Equal Angle Theory: Don Morton developed a specific technique for placing guides on a fishing rod blank to maximize performance and castability. Dynamic flex fixture: This theory is used in conjunction with a dynamic flex fixture to find the ideal number and position of guides for each rod. Rod building technique: The technique ensures that guides are placed correctly along the length of the rod blank, which has been spined and prepared to get the best performance from it. Community recognition: Morton is considered a highly respected and influential figure in the rod building community, and his methods are widely used by custom rod builders.

Eric, I have no experience on the Fishing 13 rods. But I just wanted to point something out about extra fast rods that may apply. Just something to consider. I built a custom baitcast rod on a MHX series 1 blank designed by Todd Vivian of Mudhole. Its a 7'3" or 7'4" MHXF or XXF maybe. Only the top 1/4th of the rod bends. The entire blank is stiff as a board. And it is a strange experience using a rod like this because most of the rod does not bend when fighting a fish. All the fish fighting bend is way out there on the tip and it is the strangest feeling to use it to have that tiny little bit of bend in the rod as all I have to work with. It is something I just can't get used to. It casts fine. But its the battle with the fish that is strange. Its like putting a 2' ice rod mounted on the end of a 6' broomstick. It really feels strange to use is all I can say- and I avoid it. Just way too fast for me. So if you get into XF or XXF rods, I am not sure if Fishing 13 would bend like this one does, but I would try them out in a store before you invest in something like this. Test the rod's bend if you can. This is the fastest rod I have or will ever have, and now moving back in the other direction. You can see in this old photo that only less than 24" of tip bends. All else is just way too stiff. I wish twice as much rod would bend than this. I could cut 5' of this rod off and not miss it. I would like to see how a Fishing 13 rod bends compared to this one. Hopefully its not as stiff unless this is what you are looking for. So make sure its what you want before investing is my best suggestion. Sometimes there is too fast and in my opinion this is it. Hopefully the fishing 13 rods are not this extreme.

If anyone is interested, here is a website that shows the spraying schedules https://www.saj.usace.army.mil/SpraySchedules/ And FWC website search for Lake O: https://myfwc.com/search/#?cludoquery=spraying lake okeechobee&cludopage=1&cludorefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fmyfwc.com%2F&cludorefpt=Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission | FWC&cludoinputtype=standard And an interesting history of spraying and historical timeline dating back to 1884 and the unfortunate introduction of invasive species https://www.saj.usace.army.mil/Missions/Environmental/Invasive-Species/Aquatic-Plant-Control-Program/

Florida does do some open water spraying. Not sure about Lake O though. They are spraying usually for invasive plants and overgrowth and maybe underwater plants we can't see on the surface. Emptying a tank is another story though. Definitely a fish killer for sure. They have sprayed so much across Florida that it killed off the plants the manatee eat and some were starving so they had to back off of it some after trying to hand feed some manatee to save their lives. The St. Johns river used to have eel grass all up and down the river. Not any more. All that spraying South of Palatka has flowed north killing virtually all vegetation in the river. I wish there was another way. This is from the Florida Wildlife Commission:

Same here. Florida has great diversity. Orlando has a fantastic Asian shopping area east of downtown Orlando centralized around Colonial and Mills Ave. Awesome shopping and restaurants. One does not have to fly around the world for it. Its all right there in central Florida. The world has arrived in central Florida. My kids have picked it up from me over the years. From loving sushi and Thai food to strange foods from all over the world like masago by the spoonful's. My 12 year old son's favorite sushi is bar BQ Japanese eel rolls fresh and hot right out of the oven. But for snacks a family favorite are the seaweed chips. Other than heavy on salt sometimes, fairly healthy eating. And good too. Not sure how they would "like" the squid chips. Maybe if I didn't tell them what it was- no problem! I need to go shopping now. I'll see if I can slip some squid chips in on them...

Very true! My 12 year old son told me a couple days ago one of his fishing buddies tossed about 10' of fishing line into the water as his method of disposal. My son said he stopped fishing and fished that line back out of the water and scolded his friend, and he wadded the line up and stuck it in his pocket to take home to cut up and put into the trash. He then asked me why is it again we do this? I said because you should not want wildlife becoming entangled in it and experience a slow painful death that is completely unnecessary. And that we cut it up before putting in the trash to prevent that same line from tangling up birds and other animals at the landfill for the same slow painful exhausting death. So our efforts at teaching the young does pay off. Hopefully my son's friend will also learn to be more compassionate towards wildlife. A case of my peer pressure going through my son to now peer pressure those he knows. It does work!

I think whatever chips Swamp Girl is eating has everyone else's chips whipped by far!! By at least one or two thousand fish for sure! Swamp Girl's chips win!

Yes sir it is Florida's most polluted lake. But I did not know it is the country's most polluted. Water toxicity levels are 6 times what is normal for humans. Dogs who play in the water can be dead within hours. Humans boating on the surface inhaling aerosolized toxins above the lake's surface can be hospitalized. The problem is the size of the lake makes it impossible to flush out. The bottom of the lake is filling up with toxic sludge from raw human sewage flowing into it constantly and endlessly. So the lake is getting more and more toxic by the second. I covered some of this lake's problems recently in another thread. https://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/267323-what-is-in-the-water-is-it-safe-experts-say-not-any-more/#comment-3173698 In order to try and fix that lake they have to stop building the dike higher and higher and raising water levels trying to contain it. Its not working. The experts are saying they need to reopen the river of grass to the South and let all that water flow through the river of grass as it was before mankind moved in and messed everything up. They have to move humans out of the way of the restored Southern outflow. They also have to find a way to stop the inflow of the raw human sewage flowing down the Kissimmee river into it. Step by step they are working on it but that lake is an overwhelming problem because of its size. For the article to say they are not willing to address it I don't think is accurate. They are addressing it on numerous fronts. They are drilling deep wells to pump dirty water thousands of feet underground and hope it does not resurface or poison the aquifer. They are constructing large vegetation filters. They are trying to address the sources of the human sewage by eliminating septic tanks by way of federal grant money. That lake is quite simply a bad case of humans overwhelming nature with too much of our human waste into a body of water too large to manage. I bet old Roland Martin is regretting ever buying land on that lake! He and his son now fish Headwaters and other places. https://captainsforcleanwater.org/what-does-send-it-south-really-mean-4-benefits/

I use this VMC weighted hook now. Works great on flukes. And the screw lock tends to hold lure longer than anything else I have found. The only issue I have had, and its not just with these hooks, but I use straight braid and sometimes it can get caught in the gap. So before I use them I put all the hooks on the workbench and close up the gap with a little bit of epoxy. Sure makes things easier and less trouble on the water later on. I also bend the screw lock tighter on the hook eye. I might try some epoxy on that as well next time because if the lure is not all the way on, sometimes the line can get tangled with the screw lock and costs me time on the water I could be catching fish.

You mean heavy metal hair bands all day long?

You are asking US how a bass feels? Hmmm. I'm not sure I am qualified for this! I have long considered bass don't care about "natural" because we throw lures at them that don't look like anything they see in nature and yet they still hit it. We throw odd looking rubber worms at them which don't exist in nature same as they look. So that's not natural. We throw round wobbling fat little lures at them colored like a crawfish but swimming like a fish. That's not in nature either. My point is, I am not sure bass "feel" anything or care about natural. I am a firm believer that the bass is a predator that simply sizes up potential food sources and decides whether or not they can kill it and eat it is about all they do. I doubt there is any thought or process of thought or reasoning going on in a bass. More like instinct and hunger and trying to fill their bellies is about the extent of it. AI says: "A bass' lateral line is a row of pores and nerve endings along its body that senses water vibrations and pressure changes, allowing it to detect the movement of prey or predators, determine the size and distance of vibrations, navigate, and avoid obstacles. This sensory system acts as an "underwater ear," detecting low-frequency sounds and water displacement, which is crucial for the bass to "feel" its environment, especially in murky or dark water." An underwater "ear" it says. Senses vibrations and possibly pressure changes. If this is true, then everything we throw at them that is artificial cannot truly resemble anything the bass sees in Nature. Not one single artificial lure can accurately replicate anything found in Nature. Not a single one of them. It is we the fishermen who try and manipulate those lifeless lures trying to bring them to life as if it were a natural food source. So that is us, not the lure really. But if this is the case, then I would say that the bass depending on how hungry and how aggressive may react to quiet more subtle lures more so than loud obnoxious lures. And when in feeding competition like schooling action, it does not matter any longer. Anything that moves is going to get hit on if within size and possibly shape range. Color does not matter so much in schooling action. So if I had to choose a lure that comes closest to replicating what Nature offers the bass I would have to pick the swimbait. I think this is about as close as I can get to what you requested: The side to side motion of the paddletail may be the closest thing to natural as I can envision for the bass to feel most natural. It surely can't be spinners and rubber worms and rat'l traps! Those aren't even close. I would also have to toss in snakes and frogs as strong candidates. Maybe mice, rats and birds too! Looking forward to reading how others see this.

The request for light to medium light rods with light line dictates to me all open water techniques. These rods and light line are not for heavy cover fishing and not for techniques like T-rigging or other weedless lures needing superman hooksets which is problematic on such light rods and light line. So I want to use lures that easily hook into fish. Let them set the hook when they hit. So keeping these rods & line specs in mind, here in Florida I would focus on three lures to cover different depths. And it also depends on time of day and amount of sunlight overhead so I will go with afternoon fishing as the sun is dropping lower in the sky and more fish are out roaming looking for food before sun goes down. I tend to see schoolies busting up around me so I would keep something tied on for them. Being so light I need lures that will move through water easily and hook into fish easily, so for me lures like rat'l traps, swimbaits, smaller spinners like inline spinners, and various jerk baits might suffice.

God bless all of you in this time of sadness, and thank you for your service. All of us here support you in this so you are not alone. RIP Smira

I switch as fast as seeing the next guy catching them on something I'm not.

Wow! You have learned the secret to life! So many of us stumble through life looking straight ahead and not paying attention to what is happening around us. And there is an old saying about it something about stopping along the way to smell the flowers. I think John Lennon said "Life is what happens to you when you are making other plans." Other plans we get lost in as they get in our way, and life throws at us unexpected problems and challenges trying to trip us up and even keep us down sometimes. Like you I believe we are witnesses to this world. That we are really here to experience life, and often get so wrapped up in the stumbling through it that we lose ourselves in the process, and lose sight of what is important, often getting lost in our plans while life happens all around us, and trapped within our egos blindly ignore it until we miss it, and by then it is too late. Some learn sooner than others, but it is always to our benefit to learn it before it IS too late! And some never learn. For those who do it is truly a blessing. And you have found it, and your life is blessed because of it! You have found the secret to life BEFORE it is too late. Getting back to thread topic... shaded shallows are my primary fishing targeted area. Here in Florida the bright sun overhead can be brutal. And since I fish mostly clear water the bass tend to run and hide from the sun. So I have few choices of direction to go in- one is down deep where the big bass live or two fish in cover. And I have to confess I have turned away from trying to fish deep and hoping a big one is going to bite one day. So I have turned my focus to quantity rather than quality of size of bass. I want to catch more than less and willing to catch smaller fish, but a whole heck of a lot more of them. And so this has had me fishing in the shaded shallows more than 90% of the time with primary exception of chasing schoolies over deeper water. Those can be a lot of fun. A lot of Florida lakes have a unique pattern to them of open deeper water, move closer to shore and around about 8 to 10 feet deep the lily pads begin to grow up from the bottom and other vegetation like eel grass and other. But quite often there is this open space behind the vegetation between it and shore. This area goes from the shore to about 3 or 4 feet deep. And for me that is the space I target for the magic of bass fishing. Sometimes in front of it on the deeper side is where the action is at, but its that clear space between shore and vegetation where most of the action is. And in the lily pads and eel grass as well. I think baitfish and other prey live in heavier concentrations in this water less than 8 feet deep. And I think it is all that food that is attracting the larger fish to move in to feed, and that is when I show up trying to catch them right in that feeding zone. So most of my bass are caught in the 2 to 6 foot deep range. Right in the shaded shallows. I prefer this to deep fishing because with deep fishing you have to wait until you see your line move or feel a tug on it. In the shallow waters where the bottom of the lake is forcing the fish to move up closer to the surface, I find the bass are more willing to come to the surface for explosive strikes. And I prefer this a thousand times over waiting for a boring old deep tug on the line. Explosive hits are what makes it all worthwhile to me. The next part of the fun can be trying to land that fish while osprey and eagles circle overhead looking down on my fish ready to dive on it, or a gator notices it splashing and swims quickly in trying to catch it before I do. I tell ya it is better than a virtual reality video game! Heck, it IS a virtual reality game. The best! And it is even better when we learn to appreciate it all and find deep value to it that satisfies the soul! ------------------------------------ Gonna add something here... Having a 10 pounder on the line is not all it is cracked up to be. One of my 10 pounder bass I choose to never count happened one day during the spawn. I walked up to the edge of a lake and looked down in the clear water and sure enough there was a huge bass easily 10 pounds sitting on a bed within 7 feet of shore. All I had to do was dip my lure in and move it slowly through the bed and she picked it up to get it out of her bed. I caught her once and let her go and she went right back to her bed. Less than a minute or two later I did it again. I caught that bass twice in less than 5 or 10 minutes. I tried for a third time but now she was wise to me and would not bite. What I learned that day was that I came to think and believe I was doing something wrong. Something I should not be doing. I should not be targeting a fish trying to spawn. And I have never done it since and will never do it again. Catching her like that twice was not fun really. It came with guilt. And I let that guilt be my guide to learn my lesson and let Nature be. Who am I to disrupt her natural plan? I believed I was doing something wrong and so I have forever stopped targeting the big girls on the beds and I wish tournaments would also ban it. That may be fishing, but is not truly what bass fishing should be about. She picked my rubber worm up not to feed, but to protect her offspring and nursery. Her actions were defensive. I took advantage of that. When I fish I want to trick bass into thinking my artificial lures are alive and something to eat. That to me is what bass fishing is all about. Me tricking them. Not taking advantage of them at vulnerable times with expected behavior easy to manipulate. That bass may have been 10 pounds plus, but I will never count her as one I tricked because I didn't. She was there to teach me a valuable lesson. And she did. I will never again target any fish on a bed. I actually reached out my rod and tapped her on the head and she did not budge. It just was not a fair situation that I took advantage of that day and I will never do it again. I will teach my own sons about it and hope they also learn to let bedding bass be. I know others won't agree, but that's OK to. To each their own.

Oh you told me you were going to church all right. Only you never said which one. So its still a secret spot for now. And you are right about the heavy metal. The fish would scatter quickly. But start jumping in the boat with some Skynyrd and Allman Brothers. Better than a hydrowave! I'm gonna have to follow you to church! I hope your tooth is doing better- and that you and the OP have both found some good new dentists. I am cringing now at the thought of those drills!

This is a great thread. I would like to ask for information about how to choose between floating, suspending, and sinking lures? In Florida because of the incredible density of vegetation I have to deal with, I primarily go with floating and suspending and avoid the sinking because it can quickly get tangled up in the vegetation. So I have generally thought keeping my lures from sinking into it was the way to go. And if I had to pick one, it would be the suspending lures first and floating second and sinking almost never. I was wondering how others approached this decision?

She lives in heaven! And has it all to herself!

Misinformation is funny. Its all the forum gives me to express dissatisfaction with misinformation. When I see misinformation, it is funny to me. OK?

lol! Maybe they WANT it to fail! Call it built in obsolescence. I remove grease from all AR clutch bearings and treat all of them the same with synthetic oil. But to each their own, including brands who WANT repairs and return customers!

I would say never use those round split rings. I remove them from all lures. The line under pressure of hooking a fish tends to flow into the smallest space which falls right between the two sharp ends of the metal. This can knick and damage line and cause one to lose a fish. As for the loop knot, I told my son just yesterday that if he is using a stiffer mono type of line then try a rapala knot. But if using straight braid that he could go with any standard knot tied directly to the lure.

Awesome post Swamp Girl! You really make this forum worth reading! I am amazed at how many fish you catch. I wish Florida bass were as cooperative. I went out yesterday with a guitarist in the middle of new album recording process, so it was part fishing, and part album review and discussion while fishing. Kind of cool listening to the new unreleased music before final mastering of album. And discussion on album cover graphics and marketing plans as usual. It was kind of a working fishing trip to some degree. So we were not really in "stealth" mode yesterday and did not really have to be as the bass were busting up all around on schools of baitfish and did not even seem to notice we were even there which was good thing to our advantage. Besides that, it was lightly raining which with all those drops of water hitting surface of lake creates a noise of its own underwater that kind of hides our surface noise which helped a lot. Some of the schools of bass hitting baitfish were right next to the boat. I did not even have to cast to them. Just dip lure in water and hang on. Schoolies hit anything that moves that even remotely mimics the baitfish they were chasing. Color not important. The baitfish were silver, and I took a 7'4" KVD Quantum medium spinning rod with a Shimano Stradic 1000FH on it and 6lb braid my son rigged up with a small 2 inch swimbait in the dark green color completely opposite of the baitfish and the bass could not have cared less and still slammed it hard. And that is in crystal clear water too where they could easily see it. We also were experiencing extreme low water conditions with new islands appearing in the lake. But we both noticed we were not getting any bites in water deeper than 6 feet. Almost exclusively our bites and catches were mostly happening right along the grass line closest to shore. So we followed the shoreline around the lake staying just far enough offshore so our casts could reach shore and bump into the water and work the edges really well was our best way to put fish in the boat rather than chasing the schoolies across the lake, we just worked the shoreline and were ready and waiting on the schoolies to come within range which they did numerous times. I did better on the schoolies than my buddy did. He was working the rubber worm really hard and was not always quick enough to switch over to a schoolie ready rod to make the cast in time as those schoolies move out really fast. I get a laugh out of watching his disappointment at missing the schoolies again. I guess I kind of "pressure" him to get in on the schoolies because I am the one usually alerting him to their presence. He does not scan the water like I do. He stays focused on what he is doing and completely misses the schooling action. So by the time I holler at him "schoolies" and he gets a rod read to cast, they are gone. Speed matters here. I've gotten pretty good at it over the years and would say schoolies are one of my specialities. My 12 year old son is learning it from me. While I was fishing in one part of Florida, my son was saltwater fishing in another part of Florida texting me photo after photo of the fish he was catching from sea trout, to redfish, and even said he hooked into a small tarpon that jumped as his reel screamed and it threw the hook on him. After that trip he starts texting telling me he wants ALL of my rapala type of minnow lures saying the fish were blowing up on them yesterday. All I could say was I told you so! But you are NOT getting ALL of them! I told my guitarist fishing buddy that you know as a kid I plundered my father's fishing tackle. I suppose its only fair for my sons to plunder mine! I don't care really. That's what its all about. Looks like I may be giving him some of his Christmas presents a little earlier this year. It just does not seem right to make him wait until just one day on the calendar to get the fishing tools he needs right now. His largest reel is a 4000 size spinning. I now have several in the 6000 and 6500 and even one 8000 and rods ready to go for him. Just waiting on line to come in the mail for them. So I may be an early Santa this year. I really don't see any reason to make him wait several months for what he needs right now. It would be interesting to fish with you on the same lake at the same time. You do your thing your way, and I do my thing my way and see how it turns out. I'd like to see if your adherence to stealth would make a noticeable difference in the catch results and or bite results. I used to worry about being stealthy, but over the years noticed the bass just don't seem to care too much. Besides I can cast far enough to places the bass don't even know I am there really. So honestly I just don't put much effort into stealthy any longer. Thanks for your posts! Really enjoyable to read lots of words well used!

The only high end products I care to invest in are rods made by Gary Loomis. As for reels, I am satisfied with midline.