Banor

You only have to turn in what you didnt "aquire" ;D You'd be surprised how much gortex you can accumulate over the course of your career. I'm only 9 years in and I think I could open my own surplus store. Hey guys there havent been a whole lot of really detailed reports on patterns. I'm heading down to Kentucky next week. Never fished it before. Is there a predominant color pattern? I'm pouring my own plastics in preparation and could use some clues on color. B

Agreed. You are adding a point of failure with no net gain. Absolutely no need for a leader. B

I'm in for Michigan. B

Douglas Lake, Tennessee - April 2007 I had a great practice, executing perfectly during the tournament. I'm in the top 5 going into the last day. As it turns out I would have only needed 11 pounds to win the tournament. I blast off first boat in the second flight and get 5 miles down the river when my powerhead blows. I'm nowhere near my area and the wind/current are pushing me 10 times harder toward open water than my trolling motor on 100% can keep up with. I manage to momentarily get into a cut sort of protected from the wind and catch 2 good fish for about 5 pounds. About this time I'm blown out of the cut and into open water. The waves are 3 foot and the wind is brutal. So I call for a tow and within a half hour it arrives. The launch is right up by the dam so I figure if I can get towed near the launch I may be able to fish the dam for the rest of the day and maybe luck into 3 more fish. So an hour later I'm on the trolling motor fishing just out from the dam. There are 3 other boats in the area so I figure I might actually be around some fish. About 5 casts later my trolling motor shaft drops straight down and the shaft and motor are dangling from the head by 3 wires. Meanwhile, I have no control and I'm quickly moving toward the dam!! I start screaming at the top of my lungs for help and this idiot about 100 yards from me just waves at me. Fortunately I fish the Great Lakes alot and have an emergency flag and flares stowed in the boat as required by law if you are fishing a body of water where it's possible to be so far out that you cant see land. This idiot finally gets the idea that I may be in trouble.... might have been the emergency flag and flare I've got waving in my hand. So he tows me to the ramp and my day is officially done with 2 fish in the livewell. As I said at the beginning of the post, I would have only needed 11 pounds to win. I ended up 1 spot out of the money and actually $6000.00 in the negative with the new powerhead and trolling motor. I hope for my sake that this will be my worst tournament ever. B

I'm almost feeling bad for you guys going down. Snow showers on Monday. 18-21 mph winds. Post cold front conditions with bluebird skies after the snow passes. But, alas... I dont feel sorry for you because I wont be able to make the trip. I just *** you. Plus it's impossible to get a guy from Michigan to feel sorry for anyone fishing in the cold and snow. Enjoy down there guys!! B

I tried and tried and tried to find any reason why I wouldnt buy from TW exclusively. The extremely rare occassion they dont have what I'm looking for. I have a stack of free TW stickers on my desk because I'm always ordering 50 bucks at a time. B

For those screaming the cheating mantra... your beloved pro's are pretty adept at planting brushpiles. I reference any number of articles anyone of you can find by googling it. Planting brushpiles is common practice. If planting brushpiles is cheating, so is Biosonix, and for that matter Side Imaging. I have 2 of the 3 going for me so I'm a cheater. As for whether fishing someone else's brushpiles is sportsmanlike or not... I think I've weighed in on this whole spot stealing ethics question before. Simply put - if you find my best spot I know like the back of my hand and you whoop my butt on it, then you are the better angler and deserve the win and vice versa. IF that doesnt work for you then I'll just simply say - I dont see your name on the deed to the water. Get back to me when you can produce it. I've seen and heard stories about tournaments where you could walk from boat to boat to boat 8 to 10 boats deep and never touch water all fishing the same rock pile. It's just the way life goes. B

There really is no need for a leader when frog fishing. Save yourself the trouble and tie direct. B

You wont be disappointed. I would use the InvisX for shakey head though. InvisX for finesse/clear/open water situations. Carbon pro for when you want some abrasion resistance and moderate cover areas. I use Seaguar almost exclusively with the exception of spinning. B

Speak for yourself! B

I'm not really trying to start an argument, I'm just having trouble with the math/physics, whatever it is. The distance between the hook and your rod is the same. There is no break in contact. Both are direct contact. I get the same tension pulling on the pre-rig and the slider weight. I'm all about feeling more bites and catching more fish. So that's why I'm asking for a little more explanation. If there's something I'm missing beyond that I'm open to whichever is going to get me more fish. B

A little personal experience that decided it for me: I was fishing a BFL last year on Erie. My co-angler and I were on a solid drop shot pattern. We were throwing identical baits, identical weights and identical leader length. We were working the bait the exact same way. 8 hours of fishing I had 3 bites and he had over 30. We were around fish the entire time, obviously our baits werent but 15 feet apart. We even went so far as to drop our baits at the middle of the boat so they were about 2 feet apart. He got bit, I didnt. He was really getting concerned and feeling guilty because none of his fish were culling weight and I needed 2 fish to fill a limit and cash a check. The 3 I had were over 12 lbs for 3 fish. He quit fishing at lunch time and I never did get the last 2 fish. For the life of me I could not figure out what the problem was. It bothered me so much I called him up that night and we talked about it. It finally dawned on me that I was using Power Pro braid and he was using fluoro. I respooled immediately before going to bed, went back out to the same area the next day and had a limit by 10 am. I took the advice RoadWarrior has always given on this site and spooled up Yozuri Hybrid Ultra Soft and havent looked back. That's enough evidence for me. I can't for the life of me figure it out because I was using a fluoro leader so the braid shouldnt have been a problem right? Unexplained but I still refuse to use braid in open/clear water. B

Could you expand on this line of thought? I'm missing something I think. I dont understand how the sliding weight enhances the feel of the bite. Burley, I'm with you man. Once you use Tungsten you'll wonder how you ever survived without it. I used to use braid also. I dont anymore for that reason. I do miss the advantages of braid when carolina rigging though. B

I am a big fan of InvisX so this is not a negative comment, but I would not use InvisX on spinning personnally. I'd go with RoadWarrior's favorite Yozuri Hybrid Ultrasoft on Spinning. Line conditioner aside I think you'd see more benefits on spinning with the Yozuri. B

RW, I have been following it closely and have PM'd a few members requesting post road trip info. I'm just being impatient. I'm here in Michigan you know and havent seen soft water in over 4 months. Kentucky will be my first trip of the year. You know I'm dying from anticipation here right? So I'm doing more research out of boredom than necessity. As for joining you guys. It came down to a choice between the road trip or the Annual Air National Guard Tournament. I'm guessing I dont have to tell you where my priorities are. If I didnt already have that trip I'd be joining you guys in a heartbeat. It just comes down to limited vacation time and funds for the year. B

What knot do you use? Palomar. B

I would say that the MG "can" be used for all of those applications but I wouldnt suggest it. I would try to limit it's use to the weightless plastics, texas rigs, light jigs and light spinnerbaits. I'd use the 7MH with 201E7 for the carolina, heavier jigs and frogging. I've never used a SOL but from what J Francho described they are pretty similar in targetted application. I'd go with Dink's suggestion and use it for the lighter cranking and treble type baits. It sounds like you have 3 reels ideal for lighter applications and one for the heavier duty work but you have a 50/50 split in your required workload. That makes for some tough decisionmaking!! Bottom line is that your MG's can handle the heavier tasks - it will just require some adjustments on your part. I'd say Dink has you pointed in the right direction. B

Seaguar InvisX is my choice. Very good line. B

If you have trouble managing 6 lb. line from any manufacturer, you're doing something wrong. Very well said. B

I use Seaguar Invisx and Carbon Pro, Yozuri Hybrid Ultra Soft (spinning), and Gamma Copoly. Tyrius is correct in that I could have worded my statement as he suggested. In fact I agree with him wholeheartedly and that's my argument. The very limited and short lived benefit is outweighed by the wasted effort. I've used KVD and other line conditioners. To achieve the benefit you get from it on the initial cast you have to continuously reapply it. I've found once the conditioner has dried or evaporated away my line was worse than it's original state. Wasted time and mess if you just use a nice supple line that is manageable to begin with. B

I fish the Great Lakes (St. Clair and Erie) quite a bit with Gulp baits on a dropshot. It's killer for smallies. I have success with the leeches, gobies and minnows. It's amazing how one can outproduce the others on any given day. One day it's leeches, the next it's gobies and then all of a sudden the minnnows are it. Good baits. All of them work, which ones depends on where and when you are presenting them. B

I really like the Snack Daddy tubes and Poor Boy's tubes but I thought I might just try these SK Coffee tubes this year. I've heard good things about them. B

Speed clip should take care of this. I dont have any problems with the hooks catching. If you are consistently hanging your front treble hook on the line or snap then you might consider replacing the hook with the next size smaller. B

Unless someone has some advice I'm missing I would think the pre-rigged vs. non pre-rigged is just a matter of preference. If you use your own seperate components I guess you can mix and match the type of materials you want. For example, brass vs lead vs tungsten and glass or plastic beads, etc. etc. B

x3