blckshirt98

Casting light lures on a baitcaster is a pain in the a** in my opinion and since I can cast light stuff on my spinning gear with accuracy just fine I have no intention of spending the time to get comfortable with it on casting gear. I'll throw crankbaits up to a KVD 1.5 squarebill size on spinning gear with no problems. You might want to get a dedicated glass/composite crankbait rod if you like to fish crankbaits/chatterbaits/etc. At first I wasn't sure how I would like it but now a glass/composite rod is always the second rod I grab when I go anywhere, with a lighter spinning setup being the first. Reels, you're really only talking a few ounces lighter for an extra $100+. It looks nice and you may feel more confident with a Stradic CI4+, but a high end spinning reel for freshwater fishing is absolutely a luxury purchase and not a necessary one. $50 spinning reels will get the job done.

If my placed burned to the ground and I only had $400 to spend on fishing gear to replace it all, I'd start off with (as a 100% shore guy) - $175 Phenix M1 MXS72M $30 Shimano Sienna FD (would upgrade this later as funds allowed) $17 15# PowerPro Braid $22 10# Sunline FC Sniper (for leader) The rest would go to whatever tackle I could find on sale, but would start out with some 1.0 and 1.5 Strike King squarebills, and weights/hooks/plastics for dropshotting, since those are two techniques I'm most comfortable with. This will differ based on what/how you like to fish and what you are the most confident in, but don't feel like you need to have to cover everyt technique out there.

Might want to pull a little out of the water and take a close up picture, esp of the leaves.

First pond can be anybody's guess why it was drained, but that second lake looks like a nice spot. Unless it was also completely drained and refilled recently there should be some fish in there!

If you're bank fishing you're bringing wayyyyy too much tackle as it is. Backpack for sure so you can stay mobile, and cut down on what you bring.

Owner ST46 and ST41 are built like tanks but pricey. Gamakatsu G-Finesse trebles are supposed to good too but also pricey. The Mustard KVDs in the 11 count packs are best value IMO.

I was looking around through Google searching for a more "national" and active message board involving bass fishing as opposed to just local or regional boards. Bass Resource had the most activity so I signed up and it's been fantastic.

The KVD 1.0 stock hooks are wire thin and will bend, I switch out the front hook on the 1.0 one size up to the Mustad KVD 1x Strong 2x Short trebles in a size 4. For the 1.5 I'll do the same except with a size 2. KVD switches them both out one size up, but for the sake of not spending all that extra money on trebles I'm going to see how it goes with just the one. It actually saved me a 1.0 this morning because the stock hook in back got snagged and I was able to pull the line to bend the hook straight to set the lure free, before there was a line/knot failure. If I had upgraded the rear hook, that would have been a sure loss.

Rat-L-Trap has a really narrow, tight, straight, fast-vibrating action to it...it's almost like a chatterbait.

http://www.boatus.com/magazine/fishing/archives/doctor-frankenbass.asp Not a fan of private lakes like this, it's almost like someone raising deer on feeders then sending them out to a small parcel of land to get high fenced as a trophy.

Cannot emphasize dropshot enough if you haven't tried it before.

I'm wondering if any of you that have used lures with the VMC Sure Shot treble hooks can speak of them, pros and cons. Do you notice a better hook up rate with them? Have they ever failed you, or do they dull easy?

All of my local SAs got rid of their fishing departments a couple of years back. The closest Dick's is about 45 minutes away, but they have much better fishing sections than SA ever had.

http://folbot.com/

I wouldn't want to bother a pro before they're about to launch as they're prepping for their day, that's just common courtesy. From all accounts BASS pros are some of the nicest people you will ever meet, and I believe a good amount of the ones that don't make the cut on Saturday or Sunday make themselves available to fans in the tournament area to promote their sponsors' products and interact with fans.

Tackle Warehouse should have 15% off almost everything, I'm guessing the sale will be this weekend so just sit tight!

My expectations with soft plastics is actually one fish per bait, anything more than that I consider a bonus.

Missile Baits are fairly durable and seem to last through more bites than other plastics. I still however fish plastics that are not very durable because I feel they havre more action on the water.

I also break them down roughly into reaction(hardbait) vs finesse(softbait). There are a handful of baits that are an exception to that rule such as a jerkbait worked slowly back to the boat, or, a soft swimbait being burned through the water. I have more confidence with softbaits as I think they look more natural in the water and often have scent. With hardbaits, if I'm not keeping it moving I think it looks like floating debris instead of food to a bass.

Neat idea though I'd stick with a plastic lure in the mouth instead of live bait! Now we need a major bait manufacturer to make a crankbait with a retractable jaw that you can stick a plastic lure into

A chatterbait is fished basically like a crankbait - I use a Phenix X3 glass rod with 20# fluoro for my chatterbaits and it works great!

15# braid, regular PowerPro. Tie direct to reaction baits like squarebills and spinnerbaits. Use an 8# or 10# fluoro leader when going to a finesse technique like a dropshot or texas-rig.

I'm taking being in CA for granted after reading some of these posts. I'd lose my mind if the local reservoirs were frozen over for 5 months out of the year. I've also lived in the midwest/southeast and know how brutal the humidity can get, I'd never go fishing in that 100% humidity unless I was catching fish by the hundreds.

When a lot of the local reservoirs got low here in NorCal fishing actually improved for me because I'm a shore guy and I had much more shore access. In some cases I had 100% shore access and could walk around the entire lake. The fish were still the most active early morning/late night, and were in the same spots you'd expect if the water was high - cover, structure, points, dropoffs, stumps, creek channels, etc. Part of it was having to "re-explore" even a familiar lake to see what became exposed with the lower water levels, since a lot of prior structures were now bone dry.

Check with Russo's Marina for any upcoming Delta tournaments. As for the Bay Area itself I haven't seen a tournament fished outside of the Delta in a couple of years. Coyote Bait and Tackle used to run a local tournament at Coyote Reservoir but cancelled it last year because of low water. Unless it's a small club tourney, I just haven't heard of much going on if it's not in the Delta.