Banor

One man's junk.... as the saying goes. Mark me up another one in the "I'm with RoLo" column. I find it hard to believe someone could give Power Pro a fair shake and hate it with all things being equal. While I dont have RoLo's years of experience, I have tried just about every main stream line out there this season and have concluded that Power Pro fits me best in situations where I just have to have braid. Personally I would never rely on store brand line. But that's just me. I do have to raise the BS flag on this one though. I'd wager your experiences had other variables, seen or unseen, that caused your Power Pro problems. I know I'm asking for trouble but I've gone days without retying Power Pro and not had a break off. I would guess the knot slipping through the edge of the eyelet is suspect in some of these occasions. I've said it before on these threads, I've had some pretty beat up Power Pro land good fish. I'm rambling now but the point is, I would accept that any given person prefers another line over Power Pro out of personal preference but to try to say the line sucks or it breaks all the time in my opinion is just bunk. B PS I would agree that there are better options in that # test and line diameter than braid. 50/65# is the lowest braid I would use for the situations that call for braid for me.

Welcome to the boards! I live in Michigan now but was born and raised in NW Ohio (28 years). There is no comparison between Michigan and Ohio. Even when I was IN Ohio I would make long drives to Michigan to fish. The closest waters of any size to me in Ohio were St. Mary's Lake and Indian Lake. Let me tell you I hated them. I only made it down to the big muddy river twice and do not look forward to going back. I didnt get to the east side at all but I've heard Alum Creek isnt bad. Supposedly there are some decent lakes around Columbus and toward Pennsylvania. If you can find a pond/lake managed by the DNR/State fisheries I would fish those. They hold fish up to 3 to 5 lbs and manage them well. Most if not all the ponds are small and are electric only. If you get a big enough boat I would definately make trips to Erie. It is a wonderful fishery. There are some good lakes in Kentucky if you are from Southern Ohio and can travel to them. I'm not fond of Ohio fishing if you couldnt tell, I love my Michigan fishing though!!! Just wish the season was longer!! As they say though, a bad day on the lake is better than a good day at work... unless you work on the lake of course!! B

Sponsor. Living proof you dont have to spell it right to get one, eh? :-/ Had you used their rods prior to? B

Sponsor. B

Huh?

If this was your wife's family's gathering, that would be priceless!! B

We ARE talking about a nice enjoyable day on the water, right? Why stress yourself in the first 10 minutes of the day and set the tone for the rest of your day? Did it bother you the rest of the day? Obviously it did, you are posting about it 2 days later. I try not to let things bother me that I cant control. In this situation I would have launched, started fishing and if they showed up, I have a cell phone they can call. I'll give them my location and they can swim to the boat. ;D If they dont show up, I havent lost anything. Now, tournament day... or tournament practice days, you show up late you are going to be at the dock with your thumb out. Even so nothing is different than previously stated, I'll be out productively fishing and taking advantage of my God given right to enjoy the outdoors - NOT dwelling on it and let it distract me from the task at hand. B

Good luck man. Watch your six. Watch your bro's six. Enjoy the sand box but stay focused. Get the job done and get out. SAFE! I've been there, I dont *** you, but I'll appreciate you. Get back ASAP. B

I skimmed most of the replies and may be repeating what someone else mentioned but... If a fish is suffering from bloating due to being caught deep, waiting until after weigh in and pre-release most likely will be too late. If you are going to fizz it needs to be imediately or the damage will most likely be done by the time weigh in comes around. Just IMO. B

Have to agree with St. Clair and add Erie to it. Lately there have been atleast one 7# plus smallie coming out of each tournament. Sheer numbers you can catch smallies all day long on either lake in the 3 to 4# range with 5# being common and 6# not uncommon. These are just great fisheries and they continue to get better with no peak in site. B

Oh NO I'm in the Air Guard. We dont use test equipment. We get outdated stuff brand new. By the time we get technology there's already a newer version out. B

Ya me too Glenn. Are we supposed to admit we understand?? Computer geek isnt what it used to be though!! The pay is good and then there's all those cyber women!! Err... I heard there were cyber women... dont know first hand! Welcome back senile and good to meet ya. I'm the network manager for a National Guard base. So I'm only about 3 years behind whatever you are doing now. B

While I completely agree with the RW on this, I need to make another point. I'm up here in Michigan and fished a tournament on your classic definition of reservoir - Wixom Lake. This is a river impoundment that only gets water pulled on the weekdays. They dont pull water on the weekends... crappy eh? Anyway by anyone's standards we are deep in a fall pattern up here. Water is 65 degrees on the main lake, temps getting cold at night, and the leaves are turning. The tournament was won on a toad pattern in the pads (a summer pattern) on a limit of LM. Only one smallie was weighed in for the entire field. No fish were caught on cranks and the only spinnerbait bite was if you completely killed the spinnerbait and let it drop on the breaklines. They'd either hit it on the fall or after it hit bottom(I'm not disputing this makes perfect sense for any time of year ;D ). No topwater bites were reported. I threw X-Raps and pointers with not even a follow. I caught several 13 7/8's smallies on a T-rigged hula grub in 20 FOW doing nothing but let it sit. My partner caught a couple on drop shot in 25 FOW. I caught 2 on a chatterbait but only if I mimic'd the spinnerbait pattern stated previous. Senko's deadsticked produced as well. I spent most of my time at the mouth of feeder creeks, points in that general area and further into the canals. There was also a decent dock bite going. I said all that to say dont rule out the slower patterns and "cookie cutter" summer patterns. They can still produce when nothing else will. It didnt help that I didnt get to prefish this lake and didnt find out until too late that they dont pull water on the weekends. B

I've seen and heard both schools of thought on this and have a question since I'm not a big jig n pig fisherman. Either way you do this it seems like a catch 22. I firmly understand and believe that if you trim the weedguard down shorter it makes it even more stiff and in my opinion the end of the fiber guards can redirect a fish's mouth to miss the hook. On the flip side, keeping them long but thinning them out to make them more flexible would defeat the purpose of the weedguard. By being more flexible wouldnt it just be more apt to have the fiber guards pushed back by weeds and snag up on the hook? B

Is there a big bass in the area you are casting? Is that big bass hungry? Is he fooled/annoyed by your presentation? These have to be answered before an accurate answer can be given to your question. B

That's great to say and I somewhat agree, but the fact of the matter is he's out there to compete and represent himself on a state level. While you can be a good loser and keep a positive attitude it's still no fun to lose! Ok off soap box.... definately spinnerbaits and cranks, that's great advice. I would do a search for Roadwarrior's responses to fall and/or river fishing. Those threads have some really good advice in them. As for missing the bass that were crushing the shad, try to present a bait in a way that is a bit different than the shad or might look like an injured shad/bait fish. The wiser (and generally larger) bass are waiting for the fall out from the junior bass feeding frenzy. Dont count out senkos/knockoffs in these situations either. B

Disclaimer: I'm not being sarcastic or insulting. If you read back about 3 pages of posts to the most current ones you will find in depth and detailed answers to your questions. Particularly pay attention to any posts by Earthworm77. I dare say the guys are not going to want to repeat what's already been said on this particular question for the 3rd and 4th time. It's a very good question, but it's been answered several times. B

Remind me in the spring to introduce you to a couple of my buddies up here in Michigan who kick my butt on the beds tossing a lizard. I need to give up my pride and succomb to the peer pressure. Bait monkey will visit me in the spring with a couple of bags of lizards in his hand, I can see it now. B

While I agree with the theme of the worm comment.... I dont throw a senko to mimic a worm Back on topic, a lizard is one of my no confidence baits but I know a couple of guys who have great success with them even up here in michigan where "we dont have lizards.". Mostly during the spawn on beds lightly T-rigged and shakey head. C-rig I've heard works really well. B

Heavier presentations. Line drive casts. In a boat if I'm not fishing shallow I'll drop shot, C-Rig or tubes and drift fish. You'll have to upsize your weights to keep contact with the bottom if you are using weighted presentations. I may be a glutton for punishment but I still like to throw weightless stuff in that, just cast with the wind. Buzzbaits and walk the dog baits can be productive in the chop. Definaley want to be throwing a heavier spinnerbait in that situation. Remember, the chop is your friend. Less visibility for bass making it easier to get right up on them or throw noisier baits. It's been my experience that a good wind (not associated with a cold front) can turn on the bite. Again I might be insane but it's my PO. Think about that overhang you couldnt get under if you are bank fishing!! Side arm cast and let the wind toss a curve ball under it!! Or is it a slider? I hated baseball anyway. B

Right on the money again RW. Getting the easy fish quickly to fill a limit takes alot of pressure off you in the tournament even if they are a limit of 14 inchers. Confidence and a bird in the hand beats 2 in the bush. I guess I'm in the mainstream philosphy of get the shallow easy limit first then go deep for the kickers. I guess I prefer dawn since most tournaments start at dawnish. If I fish at dusk it's a bonus because it means I've been on the lake from dawn to dusk enjoying the time away from that evil thing called life! B

IMO what we consider a "silent" entry is still enough of a splash to attract/excite an aggressive bass even at a distance. Great advice RW. When you are losing confidence or not producing and getting frustrated it's time to get back to the basics! I will probably find myself getting back to those basics this weekend in a tournament. I generally fish the senko and any soft plastics for that matter in the way you've described but sometimes catch myself lacking the patience or getting in a hurry and not staying slow enough when the pressure is on. Thanks for the reminder! B

My very first trip with my first boat ever I had a good day, caught a couple real nice fish. The first fish I caught was on an X-Rap and I was so excited that I reached over hurriedly and lipped him to get him in the boat because I sure didnt want to lose my frist good size keeper on my first boat trip. He did a head jerk and bam the X-Rap is no longer in his mouth but I am feeling this really sharp pain in my wrist that almost feels like a snake bite. I dont recall there being any snakes in the boat recently so I shrug it off and continue to snap the picture with my 360.00 Sony digi cam. After I snap the pic I see the problem. Hrmm... so I remove this X-Rap from my wrist and continue fishing. I ended up catching a couple other good size ones and snapping pics. The day is over, I'm proud of myself. I dont know anything about operating a boat but I had a successful day so I'm happy. I head on in to the launch area and beach the boat up in the sand on the shoreline then walk up to my Jeep to bring it down to the launch. I make a flawless entrance into the water and get out of the Jeep. I walk to where I beached my boat and to my great surprise as if a genie magically snapped his fingers there is a digi cam sitting in 6 inches of water in exactly the same spot where my boat was. For some reason I recognized this camera. In my peripheral I see my boat beached about 30 yards down the shoreline as if nothing had happened. Long story short, I have no idea how the camera ended up in the water but I have a pretty good idea how the boat relocated. I'm guessing the look on my face when I first saw the camera would have been priceless. As a side note, you'd be amazed how much sand a Sony Digi Cam can get in it in 6 inches of water. B

I only keep a culling beam and a golden rule. B

Any of you ever been paramedics, cops or firemen? I was a deputy sheriff for 10 years prior to enlisting in the military. In our department our call signs were our car numbers. We had 3 shifts so 3 officers shared the same car number and call sign. In my off duty time I would as a general rule have the scanner on at home. I can recall countless times where I would be in a dead sleep at night and wake up out of the blue when my car number was called. Even when on duty I could be listening to a woman screaming in my ear about a domestic dispute with her man and have my radio turned down but when my car number was called it was like hearing a KMart blue light special announcement over the PA. This same phenomenon happens to me when bass fishing. I can be in a heated discussion about aliens landing or doing the pee pee dance cuz I've been holding it for 2 hours or you name it etc. etc. but when that tap hits the line I'm there 100% fully alert and on point. I said all that to say, nothing really distracts me when it's me and the fish. B