BASSPATROL247

I have a abu max series reel that if i spin the handle and push the thumb bar then turn the reel handle up it makes a clicking sound, almost like the pinion gear is trying to engage the spool shaft pin. Any ideas whats causing this or could it be something else??

Low qualifications?? What do you mean?

Ive never seen a lightning rod or lightning rod shock with a mod. Action... i will say this though, ive had two spinning and one lightning rod shock and had all three of them break between the last two eyes before the tip when fighting fish, no abuse,wasnt trying to swing them in the boat they just broke. I will never buy a berkley rod as long as i live! I sent all three in and berkley would not replace them because they said the blanks broke due to misuse and not normal use whatever that means.. total BS on their part, normal use is not landing a fish??? I love fireline and the nano line but will not buy it anymore...thankfully i have a bunch i bought previously....

Just wondering if theres anyone who fishes the missouri river impoundments in south dakota? Primarily upper third of francis case and lower third of sharpe?? Walleye is king there and not many people target smallies. Ive had many many 50-100 fish days with fish averaging 2-3 lbs and a real shot at several five plus every outing....from the area and i miss it bad!

Caught mine pulling a lindy rig or spinner harness and crawlertrolling for walleye. Guessing it was a hair over 3lbs

Yes i have two rods im going to build soon. Hey DVT, do you mean krylon in a can??

Yep i will try to get some pics tomorrow, he said he made them for under 40 bucks and he has 14 of them. I'll post pics, very easy to make...

I dont think we have spots or blacks wichever you call them in nebraska, very few waters have smallies wich i love... man i miss home

Yep we have them for all species, our walleye is 28" or 8 lbs if i remember correctly. I think its more of a recruiting deal to get young anglers more interested. I have a few for walleye and bass from when i was younger, but ive caught too many 5lb bass to count, ive probably forgot about more than i remember...if you dont keep the fish(wich is encouraged)you just need a witness and if released i think you get a pin or patch now..have a couple applications need filles out for my boys but havent got to it yet...

I wouldnt call it drop shotting but ive tied on say a 2 oz sinker on drop shot rig and fished it from the bank, the heavy sinker keeps the bait stationary while i shake the rod, it works well sometimes when theyre holding tight to bottom on a flat...

Look for irregular features along any stretch of rip rap,weedlines etc.. and fish will key on them...

I would use SI to see how they are positioned on it and go from there, but if i didnt have SI i would throw cranks over the top and then use a jig to probe around and in it, our bridges were all broke apart and the left the rubble there when they impounded the lakes...

X2 i fish them once in a while, they are a blast and fight like a freight train!! Now about carp affecting the bass bite, carp are spawning here now and for me that means any shallow(5ft and less) coves that taper off slowly to deeper water do not get fished, ive never been able to catch bass in that scenario but if its shallow with a drop off close by i will fish the edge of where the carp are spawning, i beleive the bass sit right inside the muddy water stirred up by the carp to ambush prey...

When game and fish build new lakes around here ive seen them use cinder blocks and build pretty much a 6x6 foot box 4 feet high with no roof, ive had some luck on them but theres one lake thats about 200 acres that probably has about 100 tire piles and let me tell you they flat out hold fish around here. Most of the lakes by me were built for flood control back in the early 70's and were not intended for fishing so most of them have little to no structure/cover in them. Theres been a few built in the last 10 years or so that have so muchan made structure in them that it can be intimidating for most guys. In the older lakes ive gone out at night and cut trees down and drug them out and made brush piles that hold lots of fish but with modern SI they are no longer a secret and gwt fished hard. Tires tend to hold fish better than brush and other stuff and they will last forever..

Bass see darker colors better at night, anything that puts off vibration is good, topwaters along shallow weedlines can be killer sometimes..i love fishing at night, usually have the whole lake to myself,its cooler and i beleive bass feed more at night on smaller heavily pressured lakes, all but a few of my bass over 7 have all been caught night fishing with hardly any if no moonlight present. I slow waaay down and try to be as quiet as possible only using the TM to get to a spot then putting the anchor/anchors down. Alot of times i'll fish a spot for half an hour or so with no bites but i know the fish are there and then bamm! They start biting. I beleive their senses are on max power at night to better hunt and therefore any little non natural disturbance puts them on red alert but if your quiet and dont bang the boat etc.. they let their guard down and will carry on feeding or doing whatever they were before you got there...and dont beleive the myth about shallow water being best at night, its no different than daytime fishin, sure the shallows may be productive but there will always be bass shallow,mid depth and deep and where you fish depends on what your presentation is, myself i kind like fishing deep at night rather than trying to cast to the shoreline or a peice of shallow cover because you dont have to be as accurate with your casts...but i will always start shallow and work my way out until i get bites and find a pattern..

Very good point! Wind will determine how fish will set up on structure, as a general rule of mine say im fishing a point, i will always start with the boat positioned on the downwind side of the point and cast into the wind and bring my bait across or over the point with the wind direction, not always true every time but ive did the opposite before and didnt get a bite and then moving to the other side and catch fish. That being said regardless i will hit any structure from every angle i can starting with what i stated above...flat calm days for me spell tough fishing for me most days, high pressure and blue dog skies are not ideal conditions... 5-10mph and partly cloudy days are what get me excited...

One thing wind does is creates a surface current so to speak and that pushes plankton and other micro organisms into the downwind banks and concentrates them, therefore the baitfish tend to concentrate and where theres food theres hungry fish..makes shallow fish less spooky also, at least i think so...

I was curious if other states have a master angler award program or something similar. Here in the cornhusker state you can receive a certificate/award for reaching a length or a certain weight for each species, for largemouths that is a bass 20 inches or longer or 5lbs and over. Our bass dont get huge here,i think our state record is 11lbs 4oz but could be a few more ounces. I consider a 5 a really good fish, 6-8 a hog and anything over 8 a giant. But in all honesty if you catch a 5plus in any body of water besides a farm pond/private lake you have a really nice bass, for 95% of people anyways... on a side note ive always wondered why the further south you go the bigger bass get when they only live about half as long as they do in the north, i know the growing seasons longer on top of other factors for southern bass and a zillion other reasons but i would think they would get as big as their southern cousins but just take longer to grow to that size....

14"s are considered small here too.

We have a 21 inch minimum to keep a bass here in omaha...was always 15 until a couple years ago, i dont see how its gonna help but i dont have a fisheries biology degree...

I know theres no exact period of time but how long do their tails take to heal up? And do both male and females tails get beat up?

Ive caught all my bass 7lbs and over at night, most of the lakes i fish are from 50-300 acres in metro omaha and most of them see alot of pressure. I think they are not as spooky at night...

Ive heard you can paint a blank, what would you use to put a clear coat on it? Rod finish? Clear gloss in a can??

Was at a buddys today and instead of rod socks he used some very thin plastic tubing with this rubber stuff that has a slit in the middle on the reel end of the tube to keep it from scratching the front of the reel and a small elastic band attached to hold the tube from sliding up the rod..pretty cool i thought, he doesent like the socks he said because he uses reel covers and these i guess u could call them handle socks, this way with a glance he knows wich rod is wich...

x2!!