the reel ess

If I told you I'd have to kill you. Two people can only keep a secret if one is dead.

Ours is in Fort Mill, SC, just over the state line from NC. It's been good the few times I've been. I've found what i wanted. It beats everyone around except BPS, but it's easily 45 minutes closer. Since we have Amazon Prime, I usually look there first for things before I drive somewhere.

I see nary a split ring on any of them. they all look like Chinese infringements of patents. I wouldn't pay $2 for the lot. If you buy them expect a good many of them not to swim or run true. Just MHO.

It was a Strike king black/blue spinnerbait with a single black Colorado blade. I caught a small one shallow on about the third cast, then no more. As the sun came out, I started getting bites on the gold rat L Trap. Caught 4. Last time I went it was to a small pond and only could get bit on small, slow lures. Caught all my fish on a weightless Zoom Finesse Worm, watermelon/red flake. I have a spot that always produces on this pond and I called my shot. I told the owner there's always a fish on that point and I caught two on three casts.

You should be OK eating smaller fish that don't necessarily relate to bottom. I ate everything I caught for the first 30+ years. Catfish, carp, bowfin and most really big fish will have the most contaminants. Crappie, bluegill and other panfish tend to have the least. I was told by a chemical engineer once that you'd have to eat the mud to get a dose of PCBs large enough to cause cancer and then it would take longer than you'd live to develop. Most of the advisories will be in the major rivers and lakes because that's where all pollution ends up. Upstream you'll be dealing mostly with nitrogen runoff from fertilizers. If your place is first in a stream or spring fed, you should have no known issues whatsoever. I fish a few very clean places now, but I rarely eat any fish I catch. I'm too lazy to put them on a stringer and drag around on my kayak all day. As mentioned above, our polluted waters have healthier fish in them than do sesspools where swai and tilapia are raised. Fish that are farm raised no not have beneficial omega 3's that wild fish have because they are not fed fish or shellfish. And they're captive in their own filth their entire lives. You're eating fish poop when you eat a farm raised fish. Sadly, most governments prefer you eat farm raised because it's sustainable. You won't hurt world fish populations if you eat tilapia. But you also won't if you eat from your local pond.

Yeah, I was looking at the warranty info.

Hey, the BPS Tourney Special is on sale for $9! http://www.basspro.com/Bass-Pro-Shops-Tourney-Special-Casting-Rod/product/2241080/?cm_sp=Display2014retar_DIS#desc-tab

I have always believed that, but I have learned on one body of water I fish that it can make quite a difference. When you sit in the back of the boat and watch your buddy slaying them with a gold Rat L Trap and you only have silver and craw that can't buy a bite, you'll go get a few gold next chance you get. The same goes for spinnerbaits in this place. But they'll bite black craws there.

I don't know the answer, but I have a ton of black/blue plastics and I try to buy everything I can at least in black/blue and some natural looking colors. Purple is another killer color for soft plastics. But there are times fish will snub them and I'll have to reach for the pumpkins and watermelons. Usually, when I have to do that I also have to downsize and that tells me they're just getting very picky and discriminating. Light or bright blues and even reds don't work well for me around here. I've caught fish in the middle of the day on a black/blue spinnerbait with a black blade. Hey, why do fish bite 6" worms? I don't know, but they do.

I kayak and have taken it down a creek and some rivers. In SC, if you can get down a moving creek by boat, and a kayak is considered a boat, you are not trespassing up to the high water mark. A man about a year ago got tired of people getting out of their kayaks and canoes on "his sandbar" and he shot one. He sits in prison now because he was ignorant of the law, plus he shot an unarmed man. A stupid waste of life. But on the other hand, when I go down a river or creek, I see tons of trash people carelessly leave behind because they don't own the property. Water gets high and it ends up on people's property. It's wrong for property owners to have to clean up after others.

I have no idea. They seemt o have changed the guides on their Eos rods so they might be in the middle of an upgrade. But there's a M saltwater Tournament Choice still on the website for $15.

Absolutely. I fish a place that is landlocked and it's a public water supply. the landowners own all the rights except to take the water.

I think it's harder to make a fiberglass rod with a different action at the tip than in the rest of the blank. For that reason, I feel fiberglass rods are usually more moderate through the entire blank than a graphite rod of the same power/action. I know that's no help, and there's no rule about it. It's just how I perceive it to be.

I'm in SC. My niece and her hubby live in a place like that where there are landowners everywhere except one corner where it's right beside the road. People have a right to fish from the road corner (which they do and they leave trash that homeowners clean up) and that's all. If they're caught on the water or any of the other people's property, cops are called, they're notified they're trespassing and the next time it's a fine (trespassing with notice) The third time, it's a punishable by imprisonment. People who don't live there and don't pay fees to keep the pond up or help pay additional insurance have no rights to the water that's landlocked. The reason being, those people who owned the land at the bottom of the pond before it was a pond still own it. Ask a landowner for permission to fish, then you'll be all set even if you come in from the road. Just be sure all your ducks are in a row. Don't assume anything.

Zoom Finesse Worm

Bill dance did a show with it in a small pond just slaying the smallish largemouth on it. That's probably where it would work best.

Cha-ching! Plus I have 2 Lightning Rods that the foregrip cork is breaking off of.

I started seriously targeting bass with a Rebel Deep Wee R crankbait, which had a max depth of maybe 8'. But if I was looking for a bait that will produce year round it would be the 4" Zoom Finesse Worm, weightless with a straight shank worm hook. I think this gets the most bites of any bait I've fished. I caught a few on it yesterday in cold water. Just toss it out and let it slowly sink, which it does with the body horizontal, then slowly drag it back a couple feet at the time. You also need to fish it on spinning gear (or a spincaster will do) si it's kid friendly in that respect. Really young kids might need some practice at hooksetting, but my kayak buddy, who rarely fishes, can do it so they could too.

I have the equivalent Ugly Stik and I wouldn't want to whip that heavy, limber rod all day long. I have it mated to a 6500C Ambassadeur reel with the idea that it's a good catfish or striper live bait setup, but I've never used it for that. I just looked that rod up on their site and reviews are good. Now I'm considering one for my new "spare" topwater combo. I always keep a spare rod or reel or a mismatched combo so i can justify a new reel or rod.

The cool thing about the flipping stick is it doubles as a good frog rod if you get a heavy/fast. I use my frog rod for jigs when it's too cold for topwaters. It's a Cabela's Tourney XT Frog model rod, 7'3" hvy/fast with a Lew's Tournament MB Speed Spool 7.5:1 reel, spooled with 50 lb. Power Pro braid. But some people like a bit more tip on their flipping rod.

I have the preference for double willow most of the year. I like at least one gold blade. 1/2 oz will cover most situations. My favorites are old Uncle Buck's that I bought years ago, but they're no longer available from BPS. I caught my PB on one.

As with almost any topwater bait, they'll almost certainly do better on smaller, weedier or woodier, shallower bodies of water. I fished a big, barren lake for years with very few topwater bites from bass. The window of opportunity is smaller on the lake than the pond. Since I fish a lot of ponds, I like goofy topwater baits most of all. They're just plain fun. The Whopper Plopper looked goofy to me too, but I see video after video of people catching big bass on them.

Well, I'm glad you asked. They are really too big for what I wanted them for: Chigger Craws and Hula Grubs. I have discovered shakey jigheads are better for the Hula Grubs. The BB jigheads are good for big to monster size worms though. And I think they'd be good for fishing soft plastic swimbaits down into weedy cover. They stay in the box because I know there will be a time they're just what the doctor ordered.

Well, he probably has to wear the same clothes for 6 days to film some episodes. On the Arbogast site there's an article about a pro catching an 11 pounder on this bait. http://www.arbogastlures.com/articles/dudleys-new-personal-best-bass/

I love topwater fishing. The bites on topwater generally increase toward evening. In the morning, they generally decrease as the day goes on. So there's that.