Joel W

OMG !! What a pig !!

Like most have already alluded to, clear water go with more natural color combinations. For stained water I go for bright loud colors. Chartreuse and orange work the best for me.

I limit my use of horny toads to a alternate lure for frogin'. So I wait until the mats, lily pads, or weeds are there. Topwater lures for me are 8 out of 10 times a Super Spook jr, followed by a Popper, then every once in a while a Cavitron Buzzbait.

Local Long Island lakes are and have been ice free. NYC Croton reservoir system is ice free and ready to go for the opening of the boating season 4/1.

I bed fish with immediate C & R. Personal favorite lures are 4 & 5 inch stickbaits wacky rigged. 4 inch tubes with a 1/8 oz internal wt, a 6 inch Lizard, and a 4 inch Ugly Otter or similar type creature bait.

Great interview. I really enjoyed it.

WoW! what a salt loaded diet. Being a heart attack survivor, I'm on a salt restricted diet. Besides, all that salt just makes you even thirstier.

Gotta disagree. While Drop Shotting puts fish consistently in the for me, it's not a big fish presentation like jigs are. Drop Shotting is a finesse presentation for me. 95% of the time I use a Zoom 4 3/4 inch Green Pumpkin finesse worm. Catches tons of Bass. For shakey head fishing it's with a 6 inch Zoom Finesse worm, and I Tx rig Berkley 7 & 10 inch worms. Like I said, my biggest fish consistently come on jigs and or tx rigged wt'd plastic creatures. I'm betting that you are not using 8 and 10 inch worms and bulky creature baits on your drop shots.

While I'm still using Power Pro is does have its drawbacks. Number one is it's tendency toward tip wrapping in the wind and it does make some weird noises going through the guides.

Gotta disagree. While Drop Shotting puts fish consistently in the boat for me, it's not a big fish presentation like jigs are.

1 oz jigs. Also Jerkbaits up shallow during the early spring will put some mighty nice LM in your boat.

I'm still using Power Pro which is a 4 strand braid. Next up will be Sufix Braid which is a 6 strand braid. But from what I've heard is that the more strands, the less abrasive resistant the braid is.

Early spring and fall I never go fishing without my thermos of hot coffee. For the majority of the season we pack gallons of ice water. Snacks are usually Honey Wheat pretzels. Post fishing finds us at a 7-11.

For those that mentioned jigs. You need to dedicate yourself to learning how to work a jig by pitching and flipping. Just pick a few days out on the water and bring only one or two setups for flipping & pitching jigs. You need to learn what your jig feels like, and when it doesn't have that feel, then set the hook. If you have problems flipping and or pitching, practice those presentations prior to your days on the water. Practicing by pitching & flipping from the shore into a pond or lake will allow you to learn how the jig feels as it falls through the water column. Practicing on dry land will force you to thumb the spool to a complete stop just as the jig hits the ground, so you're missing half of the learning curve. By forcing yourself to work only jigs it will give you confidence in them, especially when you start to finally boat some quality Bass. After all, jigs tend to catch big fish. And when your working a jig along the bottom, work it with the rod, not the reel. By doing this the jig stays on the bottom where you can detect and feel everything it comes in contact with.

That's fine if he's only going to throw big cranks, but he wants one rod for all cranks. In that case a M would better serve him.

As a Yankee & New York sports fan it would really help if he "lost" all that Boston sports stuff he constantly wears. Then again, what can you expect from a guy who spends nearly a whole show being obsessed with Chuck Worlery's hair? ;D

One rod just won't cut it. I really can't cast shallow cranks with the same setup that I'm using for DT10-16s. But if you want just one rod for most of your crankbaits, I would suggest a 6'6" or 7'0" M baitcaster with a med action tip. A specialized fiberglass crankbait stick would be the way to go.

I only jig in and around weeds, & laydowns. My line of choice is 30 lb Power Pro. If I know that I'm going to be pitching into mats then I go with 50 or 65 lb Power Pro. The stuff will cut through the toughest of weeds. The few times that I get hung up using braid, I reel in so I can point the rod tip directly at the lure and pull backwards. 9 out of 10 times the lure comes free. Some times I've straightened a hook. If I can't get the lure out this way without applying a "ton" of force, I will just cut off and retie. Most of the time I'm pitching into 12 ft or less of water so I'm not loosing a lot of line.

I don't C-rig much, but when I do it's to cover a lot of deeper water quickly. It's also a excellent presentation on windy days. For shallower search presentations I much prefer crankbaits and spinnerbaits. Tx rigged plastics are mostly used for pitching into specific spots.

You really don't want to know :

The only thing that I've found that Red hook catches more then a regular hook is the fishermen who buys them. Reaction lures are just that, the Bass react to them, by their movement and bouncing off of things. There is no proof that Bass ever key in on the hooks, just the lure itself.

Guys, C-rigs and Drops shots are presentations not lure types. As for me my weakest and or least used lures, Buzzbaits and poppers are right on the top of my list. For topwater I tie one one and the next thing I know I cut it right off and tie on a Super Spook jr. Spoons/Silver Buddy's are my other not used enough lures. In hind site I missed a lot of opportunities this past late Fall by not jigging them enough.

Nice collection of DTs. 90% of my crankbaits are Rapala DTs. The rest are Mann's -1s and a few shallow Wiggle Warts. DTs run true right out of box and are tough enough to take a beating banging into rocks and trees.

I couldn't have said it better myself. Even if the Library gets one copy of it, I still wouldn't waste my time reading it. Just too much solid fishing info out there I'd rather read.

No problems with BR loading once I tweaked my system's web Browser. Firefox at 1st didn't like the upgrade so I opened this site with IE. Now I've got Firefox working just fine. BR typically loads as fast or faster then most other fishing sites I visit including NY BASS.com As many have alluded to, your problems are most likely your ISP and or your system. Are you on dial up, DSL, or Cable ? What are your computers basic specs? Anyway, try to jump in more often then once per year.