Banor

I use the Costa Del Mar Fluid Interchangeable-Lens Sunglasses. They've served me very well. B

Airrus. B

For pure mono required presentations I'm with RW. I am really impressed with Maxima. On a side note, their fluoro just didnt feel right to me. B

Agree wholeheartedly. B

Mech, The military pays me well And the wife is a nurse. I'm a lucky guy, it wasnt always that way though, I'm just making up for lost time. I think I mentioned before that I lost all my custom gear to a dog while I was deployed, so this year was a rebuilding/fine tuning year for me in prep for getting back into the competition. I've been out of it for 6 years(enlisted) so this coming year I just want to get back in and get my name somewhere on the map. I'll be fishing the Southern Opens (Bass) and the Michigan BFL this year. Maybe the Stren Northeast if I can fit it into the schedule. If not I'll fish an NBAA for a classic shot. Raul, I just dont think I'm going to get any Kistlers. I've compared them side by side with the Airrus (as recently as last week as a matter of fact) and the Airrus just feel better to me, especially at those pricing points. (It's all about preferences I know, Kistler could be 20 times better for everyone else.) I may pick up a Kistler to fill one of the gaps and use it for the season then make a more informed decision, but Airrus will be my primary. Ultimately I'd like to get a sponsorship (not sponcer,sponser) from Airrus, because I use and enjoy their rods so much. (I'm not actively seeking them out until I've put some more success under my belt.) As far as soliciting suggestions, I'm more looking for power/action ratings suggestions for the presentations I've chosen. I think I've got it in line but always willing to take technical advice. Gopher, That looks like a great suggestion for the senkos. B

Give me a moment to wipe the shocked look off my face! ;D B

I've been using fluoro for tops and jerks this year but I think I'll be switching back to regular mono next year for the reasons listed above. B

Ok so I've spent the last few days researching what I need for the tournament season next year based on the 2006 season. Darn baitmonkey wont leave me alone. This post is just about the rods I'm looking at. I am in love with Airrus rods but not all the specializations I need are available in Airrus. So, if Airrus has it I'll get it, if not then I'll go with St. Croix. I still need a good senko/weightless plastics rod but havent decided on rod power/action yet. Some will serve dual purposes (marked in parenthesis) Here's what I have come up with. Opinions? Suggestions? Crankbaits: Medium action needed AC70MHM St Croix 10-20 3/8-1 $160 AC70MM St Croix 8-14 1/4- 5/8 $160 Worming - light: fast action medium power AC70MF St Croix 10-17 1/4- 3/4 $160 (plastics) Worming heavy: MH power fast action AC761MH Airrus 12-25 3/8-1 1/8 $115.95 (jigs) Already Have Frog: Heavy power fast action (slop fishing) TBC70HF St Croix 14-25 3/8-1 1/2 $230 Already have Airrus 70 HF Jigs: AC761MH Airrus 12-25 3/8-1 1/8 $115.95 (heavy worming) Already have Jigs (heavy): TBC73XHF 17-30 ½-2 ½ Flipping: Long rod H power MF/F action TBC80HMF St Croix 14-30 1/2 - 2 $270 AC710HF St Croix 12-30 1/2-2 $190 ACM761XH Airrus 17-50 3/4 - 2 1/2 $125.95 (pitching) UXLC761H Airrus 14-30 5/8 1 1/4 $159.95 (pitching) Topwater: Medium power fast/xfast action AC68MXF St Croix 8-14 3/16-5/8 $160 (jerkbait) TBC68MXF St Croix 8-14 1/4 - 5/8 $210 (jerkbait) AC661M Airrus 8-20 1/4-5/8 $94.95 (jerkbait) Spinnerbait: MH/Fast Already have 7ft MH Fast Airrus C-rig: MH Fast Long TBC73MHF St Croix 12-20 3/8 1 1/4 $260 AC801MH Airrus 14-35 1/2-1 1/2 $115.95 B (edit for clarification) I'm only getting one rod per presentation - the ones listed are my choices. LOL I will not buy several rods for one presentation.

Why not? B

The way I see it is that the ABA isnt really organized nor is it consistent. Basically you can volunteer to be a director and run the tournaments the way you want as long as you mention their sponsors and adhere to some lose rules. The rest is up for each director's interpretation. This is fine for locally run circuits - NOT for a national circuit. The members are at the mercy of the integrity(or lack of) of the local director. From what I've seen, the ABA really has no idea what is going on with their districts. They just get the stats reported to them and that's about it. This is why it's great for some and very poor for others. B

I live in Michigan and will probably fish the Southern Opens. You are very right, it seems they have really ignored the North. Stren did the same thing. I was going to fish the Stren Midwest next year until the new regions and schedules for 2007 were posted. Talk about a crock!! No more midwest trail and Texas basically got another tournament trail!! Doesnt Texas have enough tournament trails? Looks like either way I'm going to be doing some traveling next year. B

Rock, I fished the Chiller Thriller tourney on Kent Lake on Saturday. My god the weather sucked. 18# won it. A combination of medium running crankbaits and jig/pigs was what brought most of the fish to the scales. Dont discount a crankbait bite and be sure to bounce it off of anything you can find. My partner caught 4 keepers on a trap. I caught a nice 3# on a bandit, white with a brown back, he actually chased it to the boat and hit it about 5 feet from the boat. All smallies. Find the structure... the fish are still hungry and are holding over it right now. Atleast on Kent. B

Sponsor.

I've written two very articulate letters to the ABA with no response. In Michigan the districts are very spread out and 2 of the districts are run by the same guy I wrote my letters of complaint about. This same guy is losing members for the ABA on a consistent basis. The district in my area got cancelled mid season at 5pm the day before a tournament I had spent 3 days pre fishing. I only got notified because I called him. Other members showed up not knowing. The list of my complaints goes on, just from a single season. The ABA will not receive any more of my money or waste any more of my time. From what I heard from a couple of friends that went down there, it was weather related. The bite was off and the weather was downright dangerous. I think the jury is still out on what happened down there though. B

If I order on Monday I will have it by Thursday or Friday. Sometimes if I order on Tuesday I will have it on Friday, Monday at the latest. I usually get an order confirmation immediately. I think that is autogenerated and not based on their office hours. The shipping confirmation however is obviously based on human interaction so you will not get that until it is shipped, which means if you order after hours you are not going to get one until the next business day. If you didnt get an order confirmation immediately or within an hour or so then I would say your order did not go through and you need to call them. Check your debit card to see if you were charged. That's a good way to know if your order was, atleast in part, processed. TW is a quality and reliable site, so I'd say a follow up call should clear up the issue. To answer your question about weekends, the answer is that shipping estimates do not include non business days, i.e. holidays and weekends. I agree with the above posters, I do not order on a day that will involve weekends/holidays. If I need it that bad I'll drive to a store to guarantee I have it. Remember that once it is in the hands of the shipping company it is no longer under the control of the place you ordered from. You and the dealer are at the mercy of the shipping company you or they chose. You can choose who they ship your order through as well as what priority the shipping is. B

Ok before you even respond to this thread, read carefully. I'm not interested in long esseys and arguments for or against this line. I probably wont even read them and if you have never used this line, dont bother responding please. All I want to know from the people who have used it is - Is it worth the money and would you recommend I try it? Simple yes or no. Thanks. I just dont want to turn this into another my line is better than your line thread because it's a waste of time. B

I'm not going to rate my year on a scale of 1 to 10 because it was a rebuilding year for me. As for the rebuilding, I would say it went great! I re-learned a few techniques, built on old ones and learned a couple of new ones. All in all a pretty good year. I am just happy to be back on the water after a long hiatus courtesy of Uncle Sam. My winter will be spent pouring worms, senkos, toads and beavers in preparation for next year. I've decided to step up to BFL's and Stren's. It's going to be an expensive winter spending money on equipment to meet the challenge. I keep chanting to myself "It will pay off!!" I have put a new addition up on my house complete with a set of bunk beds for the bait monkey and tackle monkey. B

It's been 45 minutes. I cant wait much longer, work is just about over. B

There are more variables here to take into account. Were these breaks new off the spool first casts? If so I would suspect the line possibly. If not, what kind of cover/structure were you banging against in your retrieves? How heavy of lure were you casting vs. lure and line rating of the rod/reel? Is the reel malfunctioning and stopping the spool mid cast? Do you have a nicked up guide that is tearing up your line? My point is, if it isnt the line then you are risking losing even more money by investing in higher dollar line only to keep breaking it. Vanish definately isnt the best line out there but it isnt the worst. I've said it before on other threads, it has a higher stretch factor than other floro's, although that wouldnt make a difference if it was brought to a screeching halt from 100 mph. If you do switch lines just do yourself a favor and eliminate other possibilities as well to avoid more frustration and lost money. B

Thanks for the input Ring. I have all the presentations pretty well covered. I've fished plenty of winter bass. I guess I'm just more curious what the bass would do in this situation. I fully intend to milk the stumps for all they are worth right up until ice over. I just dont see any place for the bass to go and it amazes me how good of a fishery this is for being so shallow in Michigan where it can really ice over hard core. So I guess I was just curious if anyone had opinions as to what the bass would do in this type of lake as far as migration during the winter. Thanks again for the input Ring. B

My comfort zone is 7 to 20 FOW. Any deeper than that and I lose confidence with each additional foot. Drop shot is changing that and I look forward to exploring deeper. I think I answered both questions indirectly at once? B

Alright, I've got this lake that I've never fished in the winter and actually never fished a lake of it's type during the winter, come to think of it. Here's the skinny on it: 600 acre lake about 4 to 5 foot deep throughout the entire lake weed choked and stumps as far as the eye can see. The lake is pretty clear. This particular lake is connected to 7 other small lakes by channels but the closest lake to it is seperated by about a mile of channel that is 100 yards wide with lots of bends and has 25 yards plus of lilly pads on either side of the boat lane. The channel is 3 to 4 foot deep at best. The depth of the other lakes are like a salad bowl with gradual banks to 20 feet of water in the middle. On the main lake that is about 4 foot max nearly the entire lake there is about 1 acre down in the SW area of the lake that goes to 17 foot and that is the only deep water on the main lake. This is the first year I've fished this lake so I've fished it pretty thoroughly in the spring, summer and fall seasons but not winter. This lake is just a great fishery. I've caught my personal best here and on any given day I can put a good limit in the boat - I know it very very well. Here's my question: Where do these quality bass go that I'm pulling off of stumps and weeds in 4 foot of water when the water gets cold and eventually freezes over? Do they travel the mile plus to get to deeper water on the other end of the channels? Do they all congregate in the small 1 acre of 17 foot of water? Or do they just sit and tough it out in the freezing 4 foot water? I've fished shallow lakes right up until ice over before but they had some type of deeper water close by even if it was only 10 to 14 foot. 4 foot of water over 95% of the lake is pretty extreme. B

How long do you wait? ;D ;D B

I'll give you an example of productive dead sticking. I was in a tournament with a non boater on the back, dock fishing. Several good docks had overhanging trees between them hanging over rocks and sand flats with about a foot clearance between the water surface and the branches. Simultaneously my non boater skipped under a dock as I made a perfect cast back under the trees. As can happen alot, the non boater got hung up on the dock. So I'm going through heck and high water to get this snag out from under the dock and completely forgot about my senko sitting under the trees. It took me a good 5 minutes to get this dock snag unsnagged. When I finally get back to my presentation I figure it's about time to reel in and cast somewhere else. To my shock and glee I have a 4# smallie just sitting there at the other end with my senko. I think that is called accidental dead sticking with maximum results. B

Cant agree more. I'm sure you remember the "Seeking people to sponsor" post that got responses months after it was dead. I dont know why but I couldnt stop reading the response, I read the entire thread. I didnt know whether to laugh, cry or puke the entire time. I have never tried a Mattlures lure (sorry Matt) so I'll use him as an example. I know he wouldnt but if he did advertise that he's looking for someone to sponsor I wouldnt bother to respond. Why? Because I've never used his lures!!! Why is this so hard of a concept for people to grasp??? When I hear a pro or pro-am for that matter talk up a lure and I even get a hit of insincerity I will not even give that lure a second look. Why? My integrity/ethics just wont allow me to. Could have been my best lure if I'd have given it a try, I'll never know. Back to the point... if you are dead set on sponsors, seek out the companies in whom you have the most confidence in their products and will genuinely promote them because they work for you! Being genuine is much easier and more productive than selling out. Great post and one that cannot be stressed or beat to death enough. B