fishwizzard

I have a few of the "amateur" IMXs and if the Pros only just as good as they are, I would pay $200 for on in a heartbeat. The one I have my eye on are the 820S DSR Spinning Rod, which, if it's like the Mag-Light/XF IMX I have, could be a great ned rig rod.

Guys on the River Smallies forum are saying that Gopher is dead and gone. No idea why the website is still up, but my last order took five months to fill, so I would look elsewhere for your heads.

That thing is gorgeous!

Interesting. The lake I was at on Saturday was around 40' on top and maybe 37-38 at ~7', the deepest straight drop I could find. I was behind a tall dam however, so the spots I was measuring were very sheltered from wind. I found a warm-water discharge a few weeks ago that had thawed water when everything else was still inches of ice. I am going to try to head back there next week with a new thermometer (that I will teather to myself so I don't walk off without it again) and see what the water there is up too.

I have looked around for a breathalyzer lock-out for my computer, but the market for that is very underserved.

This is pretty much where I have ended up. I am going to give 15lb braid one more chance on a shallow spooled finesse casting reel, but other then that, I am sticking with floro or mono on my casting combos.

I believe Tackle Tour is going to do a review of some of them any week now. I have not gotten to fish the Pros yet, but did get to handle a few at a store. They seem well balanced and light in the hand. At a quick look over the build quality was good with not flaws to be found in the three that I looked at. The price point is a killer for me though. At around $350 msrp they are so close to the GLX that it seems silly to not just save up another 50-100 bucks. If the new Orochi XX line is still at $300 I don't see myself getting too excited about the IMX Pros unless they come down in price.

What part is slipping? Like is it unscrewing itself or is the reel seat moving? I have heard good things about Backyard Custom Rods in Walkersville, but I have never used them for anything. That is a bit far north though.

Yea, seeing the baitfish moving around was more exciting that then little bass. Did you get a water temp reading by any chance? I bought one of those little fly fishing thermometers the other week, but have already lost/abandoned it. I am itching to get my yak out, but I have no desire to wear the waders/dry suit anymore.

I have really gotten into these two hooks; http://img.tacklewarehouse.com/watermark/rs.php?path=SFH-1.jpg&nw=302 http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Gamakatsu_Aaron_Martens_TGW_Drop_Shot_Hook_6pk/descpage-SFH.html http://img.tacklewarehouse.com/watermark/rs.php?path=GHSM-1.jpg&nw=302 http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Gamakatsu_Finesse_Heavy_Cover_Hook_4pk/descpage-GHSM.html Both are stupid expensive, but they both have been almost flawless on hookups so far and the Finesse Heavy Cover (a very awkward name imho) has the best keeper I have ever seen. That Robo was still catching after like 5-6 good sized bass, with the Robo hooks I was getting maybe 1-2 fish per worm.

I managed my first bass of the year today. I have spend every moment I have been able the last few days slowly dragging a jig, slow-rolling swimbaits, and dozing off between jerks on a pointer 78. All for nothing. I was at it again today but started seeing baitfish moving around in the shallows and then saw some small bass suspended in maybe 3-4' of water. They would not even turn around to look at a jig, so I ran back to my car, grabbed a spinning rod, tied a ned on, and within two casts I caught this monster. Also, in sadder news, there was a fish kill at the pond I saw all those frozen fish that I posted earlier. I went there the day after it started thawing and there were dozens of nice sized sunnies floating and I even saw 2-3 nice sized dead bass. It's a tiny tiny little spot, so I hope there was not a larger kill-off then the fish I saw.

https://www.tackledirect.com/stormr-r710mp-01-fusion-bibs.html TD has the Fusion bibs for $99 in Small, XL, and XXL. I have either a pair of these or a pair just like them I got on clearance last winter. I actually bought them for wet/cold weather hiking but they are way way too warm for anything that active.

I just picked up a Megabass Hyuga 72H with an eye for using it for both frogs and swimbaits. Being winter, I have not actually fished a frog on it, but it casts and walkes them well enough that I think it will work. It works great for swimbaits up to 2.5-3oz. As for a reel, right now I have a 7.9 speed on it, which is a huge pain to slow creep a hudd on. I think I am going to buy a 5.4 speed to put on it this spring and just crank it fast when I need to get a frog back in quick for a followup cast. I am more excited about swimbaits then frogs thou, so that is coloring my decision.

From the bank, one combo with maybe *** others in the car. From the kayak, four combos max.

This works great until you forget to wipe your fingers off and then they slip off the handle knobs when your jig gets grabbed right as it hits the water. It only happened once, but it was a real slapstick moment. I have been throwing Hudds a lot this winter and like to lube them up with MS. The cold weather makes it thick and hard to spread. I took an old beer coozie, a handwarmer, and a rubberband and made myself a nice little MS warmer.

I use 7lb Sniper on my DS combo amd I fish it with a drag-pause-shake retrieve.

Right now I am pretty sold on a 6" Robo t-rigged on a 1/0 Gammy finesse heavy cover hook as my "big" dropshot lure. I am still working with "small" 3-4" baits and am going to fish the following this year and try to work down to a "minnow" and a "creature". I compulsivly buy tiny plastics so I have way too many options in the box right now. 3-4" Contenders: Cross Tail Shad Shad Shape Worm 3' Easy Shiner Bubbeing Shaker Thin Finesse Tubes Tiny Zoom Lizards Sexy Impact 4" Kut Tail worm

It was these guys; https://www.amazon.com/sp?seller=A2NW867PPB0HSV

I have one of those as well, it was my first second stab at heavy/versatile. I like the rod a lot, it does have a lot of power but it will still cast into the lower end of it's range well enough. I mostly use it for chatterbaits, spinnerbaits, and some jig/trig stuff. This season I am going to see how much it and the Hyuga overlap, if they do end up with a lot of overlap, the TV would be on the chopping block before the Hyuga would.

OP, I have this rod, bough for the same uses you are looking to fill. It is an excellent rod within it's rating, but the length was too much for me. I moved to a megabass Hyuga 72H, which I am really liking. It is over your budget, it is very reasonable as MB rods go. It is hard to find a shorter rod like we both want without going to jdm rods.

Nice! A man after my own heart.

I believe it is around 2.5', but I have not looked at those gauges in some time. I seem to recall that 3.5 allowed some rock-hopping, but was too fast for real wading. But my last trip there was last spring so my memory isnt fresh.

This will be my first season with swimbaits, so I am sticking with mass produced lures for now. Swimbait related, the only lure I will hesitate to throw is a bbz rat that I bought, fished for three days (and did great on!) but then lost when I got cocky and made a sloppy cast into some pads. Like 2-3 months later I found it floating on the far side of the pond. That rat proved it's loyalty and gets a place of honor on the Christmas tree.

I am trying to stick to a "no swimbait over ~$10 unless I buy it for at least 20% off MSRP". I stocked up this past black friday and I hope to make them last until the next one.

The small ones from this brand fit ok, but they are not as tight as I would like. In any case, I saw the light and started using shrink tubing and could not be happier.