blckshirt98

I buy Sniper FC when it's for sale online, and wiped out Sports Authority of all their Seaguar InvisX and Pline CFX when it was 50-75% off. All three work fine for me though some of the lighter InvisX seems to be a tad iffy on hard hooksets (8# and heavier is rock solid).

Are there any local bass/fishing forums or local tackle shops that can give any info on the local lakes? I'm wondering if some of those just have really low/nonexistant bass populations! For just numbers, dropshotting in the Spring has always been when my numbers spike like crazy, places where I'll catch 3-4 fish in a few hours will spit out 20+! I started out fishing again in the surf so all I knew was a Carolina Rig. When I started freshwater it's all I knew so i did that until I read up on a wacky rig. Lots of 0-1 fish days, it took me about a year to pick up other things and gain some confidence and find some good spots in the local lakes. And of course once I started to dropshot, my catch rate skyrocketed where skunk days are harder to come by.

IT COUNTS!!

I read the Fishing Reports forum specifically to find your posts, CybrSlydr. You started hitting up the local lakes at maybe the worst time of the year (bone chilling cold), yet skunk after skunk still go out and stay positive and just enjoy the time on the water with your brother, which is something I admire. Keep it up, Spring is just around the corner and I'm looking forward to the posts when you start crackin' em!

Find the brand/color that gives you the most confidence and that'll be the best one for you! If 20 people respond to this thread you'll probably get 20 different answers whether it's brand or color. I personally have more confidence with the tighter water Rat-L-Trap in colder water, and the LuckyCraft LV series in warmer, though I did grab a few Red Eye Shad's on sale that I'll try because it's a less painful hit on the wallet if I get hung up.

If the pros can catch fish using 3-4 colors, color is probably not the most important factor to a fish looking for a meal.

Hatch can usually be found just by being observant (newts/salamanders in the water, crawdads or crawdad carcasses on the shoreline, schools of fish on the surface, etc), or just by knowing what time of the year certain species of fish spawn. Ultimately though bass are predators and hungry bass will eat anything that fits in their mouth, so don't stress out too much over matching the hatch.

I'm a shore guy so I'll play along - 1) CL8 Mighty Mouse 2) D&M Piranha Chatterbait 3) Strike King 1.0 Squarebill 4) Strike King 2.0 Squarebill 5) Black Dog G2 Shellcracker 6) Molix Sator Worm 7) Yamamoto 5.5" Kut Tail 8) Rat-L-Trap 9) LuckyCraft LV Lipless 10) LuckyCraft Flash Pointer Jerkbait At some point a jig needs to make this list, but not yet.

It's a bad situation because there's more rain Thursday through the weekend, and not sure how/when they can make repairs and make the call that it's safe for people to go back home. This evacuation can drag out for weeks.

I read that if the top 30' of the emergency spillway fails, pretty much every town along the highway 70/Feather River corridor will be gone because of the water - Oroville, Oak Grove, Marysville, etc. I also read they have helicopters dropping rocks into some of the erosion pits to help out. Friend of mine has parents who live in Oroville but they're east of the dam and above any path the water would take. They currently have 15 people staying at their house, and they're on a septic tank system.

Pretty much all of NorCal is out of drought status and the snowpack is almost double normal averages - https://cdec.water.ca.gov/cdecapp/snowapp/sweq.action

I have some Columbia fingerless gloves and a pair of Phenix (rod company) branded ones. I tend to use the Phenix ones more for aesthetic reasons more but they get the job done.

Just saw this story shared on my Facebook feed - http://www.***/outdoors/***/story/1754270-gander-mountain-preparing-bankruptcy-filing No Gander Mountains out West where I'm at, but I do buy things from them online time to time as they can have some pretty good sales. Out here the last remaining sporting goods chain is Dick's, and they just opened a new store nearby last year. I think it's a matter of time before Dick's also declares.

Jig is arguably my lowest confidence bait.

When it comes to actual gear, not a whole lot of credence if it's one of their sponsors because it's a part of their profession to sell and market the sponsor's gear. If you think about it, every major equipment company has had pro anglers they sponsor that have been very successful so it's probably not the equipment that makes them all so successful. I give more credence when they talk about technique/location/patterns/etc because that's really where the expertise of a pro can help, not in the equipment they use.

Interesting post Tom, I was considering pre-tying my trout rigs but using 2# line I can't afford to lose any knot strength. For bass I've always been prone to just leaving my leader and mainline connected together and will store it that way until I fish next time. I think going forward I'll start to cut my leader off at the end of the day and just tie fresh next time I go out.

After the spawn go back and keep your eye out for bass fry, that'll let you know if there's a viable population of bass in there.

I mostly stayed with popular picks this first tourney - Swindle, KVD, Mullins, Walker, Wheeler...Walker was supposed to be the ringer because he guides Lake Cherokee but so far he's the worst of my picks! Hopefully he'll get his limit!

+1 to using PayPal if the seller takes that as a payment method and has a verified PayPal account. I've never lost a dispute on anything I've paid for through PayPal - and I'm not just talking about eBay either, this applies to paying for stuff I found on Craigslist.

http://www.tntbaitco.com/ordinance.html

Molix Sator Worm on a dropshot is my bait of last resort. If that doesn't get bit by anything it means it's time to pack up for me.

Phenix M1 7'2" (MXS72M) - dropshot, wacky, shaky head, c-rig, t-rig, small crankbaits, I've caught the most fish with this rod more than all my other rods combined. If I could only have one rod, this would be it.

I've gotten a couple of reels on eBay, main thing is to check seller Feedback, and if you have any doubts, don't be shy about emailing the seller and asking questions.

The difference might be slight and not very noticeable unless you go into the extremes and do something like try to crank a 10XD on a Revo Rocket.

FYI FLW has their Fantasy Fishing site up now - https://www.flwfishing.com/fantasyfishing Can an admin or someone set up a group for us? PS - Ugh, FLW already had their first event Feb 2-5, the fantasy site must have just gotten activated a week or so prior.