Zeeter

The last two times that I've spent the better part of a day fishing I've had problems with the ring and especially pinky fingers on my casting hand. Pinky gets very sore right around the first knuckle and I cannot close the finger all the way. Ring finger doesn't hurt, but I can't close that, either. I can push them closed with my other hand and there is no discomfort in doing so. This may have been happening for much longer, but I only noticed it the last couple of times out. I'm in a club this year and am making far more casts than I would if I was pleasure fishing. Has anyone else experienced this? I assume that it's the act of casting which is causing it and am wondering if taping them up will prevent the problem. Or it could be the start of arthritis as I'm about to be 50.

Going through my rods just now, I noticed that one of them is an IMX 892 which is medium power. Typically I want med-heavy. So that said, I am in the market for a new rod regardless of any wacky rig situation, so why not get an IMX PRO Heavy/Fast rod? I need something to get my jig out of the weeds when there is a 4#er on it. Seems like a heavy would be the way to go there. I can use the medium rod for my wacky rigging.

I was a member back in the early 2000s and read it quite frequently. Eventually I came to realize that the magazine was an outlet for driving sales to BPS. They would use the same artwork on the great cicada hatching as BPS did on their catalog. It wasn't even near subtle. I also found that the articles were not that informative. They would tell that a guy fishes a certain technique but didn't tell me how to perform that technique. One guy likes to fish a jerkbait. Well what is a jerkbait? It wasn't made for newbies and seemed more like a means for pros to promote their sponsors. I've since renewed my membership after about 14 years so that I could join a bass club. most I do with the magazine now is look at the lunker page.

I have a spare mag bass rod that is MH-F. It was kind of going to be my quick-change rod, keeping more or less the same thing on all my other rods and using this to switch out from crankbaits to swimbaits to whatever else I didn't already have rigged without unrigging my go-to baits. I'll try it out and see what's what with it. Fluorocarbon 12# ought to work. I'd prefer 8# but I don't happen to have any at the moment.

I just think that spinning gear would give me a bit more versatility for casting short, casting long, skipping, etc... I'm good with casting gear, but probably not quite as good as you guys are.

So I'm looking for a wacky rod. G. Loomis is my brand of choice. While I'm open to other brands, that door is only slightly ajar. First, I cannot imagine being able to consistently cast a wacky rig on a casting rod as it looks like it would be way to light. Yet I should ask if people are able to consistently do this. If it is a possibility then great, as I wanted a 3rd casting rod for jigs/worms. My suspicion is that I will have more success with a spinning outfit. What am I looking for as far as strength and action? And what size line? I'm thinking 8-10# fluorocarbon.

This is great. Not exactly what I want, but I can cut them to shape. Thanks! I'm really surprised that nobody picked up the slack on these. Maybe Uncle Josh is waiting for pork prices to go back down and then will start the run again. Since posting this I've found a few instructions on how to make them. Need salt pork and have to follow a fairly simple recipe. I think I'll try tonight and see what happens. Lord knows I have enough empty bottles of UJ to use. I can't even begin to tell of the confidence factor with these baits. Plastic just doesn't cut it for me. If I'm not putting on an impossible to get off again pork trailer I feel like I'm fishing with half a jig.

I bought whatever BPS had in stock of Uncle Josh last year, which wasn't much. Now I'm running low. Was trying to conserve, but this is my confidence trailer. Seems every time I switch to the pork I catch a lunker. Does any other company make pork or other meat trailers? What can I make them out of? Pork Chops? Is that legal in B.A.S.S. tournaments?

Another question: On my flipping stick I have a Curado 71 XG 8.2:1. Is there any concern with getting enough 65# braid on there? I have about 25 wraps of 10# mono backing on it. I haven't looked inside the spool for a while; it's possible that it has an eye for tying the braid directly to the spool like the Chronarchs do. Though I usually use backing anyway to save braid.

Can't hurt to try, and I'm not hearing anyone say there's a problem with it, other than maybe some casting accuracy. Thanks everyone.

I have a G. Loomis flipping rod that is seldom used. Am now getting a bit into frogging, which seems to have similar characteristics, as far as power and taper, to the flipping rod. Is there any reason why I wouldn't want to use the flipping rod for both applications? They're both heavy/fast rods and the frogs fall into the lure weight range of the flipping rod.

I wound up with two, both caught on a purple/blue jig. Hit into another one but he got off somehow. Both of mine were at the edge of docks, between the pilings and the grass. I had a bite on this jig early but it got off before I could even call "net". The boater suggested that maybe my trailer was too big, so I put one of my few remaining Uncle Josh pork trailers on it. Within one or two casts I got my lunker. Got my 2nd a few minutes later, and then an hour later I was reeling in the third, boater ready with the net, when the fish got off. I don't think it was a huge one but might have put me up to 3rd place. Boater had the same luck. I came in 5th in the tournament with a 6.7 or so weight including a 4.5 lber. 2nd place in the lunker pool, which I'm still curious about because the lunker winner's fish was dead.

10:30 low tide should be good. Any advice for technique?

Fishing the Potomac tomorrow. It's around 90 today, but won't get above 70 tomorrow. Is this enough to knock the females off the beds? Also, 10 mph winds from the east. I'm thinking they'll either go deep or take cover in wind-protected areas on the east bank. Thoughts?

I think selling it and starting over is a bad idea. Even if you keep your most productive gear. Just because you have all these lures and equipment doesn't mean you'll never use them. When I got back into it I went on a spending spree. Now I have too much gear. Yet I'm a rider in tournaments and the boater suggested I try chartreuse baits because it was overcast. I'd never used them because they didn't look natural. Thankfully, I had something on hand and managed to get some bites. Point is, you never know when you'll need it. Maybe scale down on trips, but have a little of everything just in case.

Yeah, PA is almost exclusively inland lakes with a couple of rivers here and there. I grew up in PA and especially in SE PA there are few places to fish. Most of them are electric-only lakes. Out in western PA and the Poconos there's tons of places.

Most of the rivers here seem to open into the Chesapeake and are pretty well mapped.

I really have no idea. I'll have to look into it.

It depends on how hard the hookset was and how she broke free. I've seen fish go into a state of shock after being caught even if the hookset wasn't particularly troublesome. Pulled the hook out and put the fish back in the water - less than 30 seconds between catch and release. She just sat there and didn't move until a turtle came by and ate her. Same thing happened with a pickerel, though that one was out of the water longer. Not sure if anything got the pickeral as we had to move on but she was hanging at the top for around 15 minutes before we left.

I have a Lowrance HDS-7 Gen2 non-touch screen unit now. Can anyone think of a reason why I might want to upgrade this? The only reason I can think of is that my trolling motor has iPilot on it which works with a Humminbird unit. I've never seen a need to use the iPilot, but on the other hand if I had the Humminbird I may try it out and wonder how I ever got by without it. The Lowrance unit works fine - no issues.

This is why I practice in a walmart parking lot and also why I launch after the morning rush. No matter what there's going to be some DBs out there who are impatient. They need to deal with it. If I was trying to launch while other boats were waiting on me to start their tournament that would be a completely different scenario and I'd be the yahoo. This is not the case. Some guy giving me dirty looks when I'm just trying to learn during non-peak hours is the jack-off in this case.

I was going out of Tydings. I've helped launch another boat out of there. When we got back later I asked if he wanted me to bring his trailer down. He said no, because I kind of suck at it. But he said it in a nice way. Trouble with this guy's tow vehicle was that it has a very sensitive turn radius and I overcompensated. He did let me back it down from the ready position last week and I did ok. Then he let me do the whole thing on retrieval and I did alright there, too. Not perfect, but ok. Guess it takes some getting used to. With my boat I really think a big part of the problem is that one tire pulling me off to the left. I know which way I'm supposed to turn to correct but in the heat of it I turn the wrong way and all hell breaks loose. This will just take more practice.

So don't use the mirrors right off. I seem to recall having better luck in the past when I turned and looked rather than using the mirrors.

So the first video you're saying DON'T turn around and to use mostly my driver-side mirror, checking the passenger side periodically for safety. I was planning on only turning around next time and not using the mirrors at all, but now after looking at this I'm rethinking it. Though it is what I had mostly been doing - looking at the driver side mirror and keeping the boat wheel in the same spot. Neutral seems to be the key, here. I'll try that next time along with the side mirror. Plus the aforementioned trailer tire that might be low and pushing me off to the right.

I'll turn my head next time. Right now I'm using the side mirrors and the backup camera and yes - it can be disorienting when switching.