Tpayneful

That is actually a picture of the next coach of the Washington Redskins. He was also spotted at Morton's steakhouse having dinner with Dan Synder last night.

Last year I noticed that Greentops got ran sacked during Bassarama. I stopped by and looked at the sale items. They have a bunch of Berkley Frenzy crankbaits. It looks like they didn't sell that many last year because they have a bunch on clearance. I will stop by the Richmond Fishing Expo on Sunday.

Flippin4it, Two years ago I hurt my elbow in April trying to cast farther than my equipment would allow. It was a case of tendonitis. I never saw a MD and it ended up hurting the rest of the year. It hurt most when I pitched. I hope they can do something to make it better. I suspected that the doctor was going to suggest rest and ice. I didn't want to hear that!

I have 5 baitcasting combos, 4 spinning combos and two spincast combos. I know, I know what you are thinking but I have two boys. I will have up to 5 combos in the boat at a time. I would have more but I don't have enough room in my boat for more. It may seem like I am crazy but I hate to retie new lures when I want to make a change. It is easier to pick up another rod.

I put the trailer in the water and climbed on it to pull out the winch strap so that I could snap it on the boat as my buddy drove the boat on the trailer. Of course I slipped and fell in the water. My buddy almost wet his pants because he was laughing so hard. In another incident we were just getting up on plane on the potomac in my partners boat. I saw a stump sticking out of the water and pointed to it so that my partner would turn right or left. He didn't see what I did and we hit it at 30 MPH. It wasn't a stump but a log! The motor kicked up and broke the cowling when it hit the back deck. I should have yelled at him to avoid the obsticle!

Don't tell anyone because I don't want the secret to get out but the Bandit Footloose is a much better bait than the Mann's -1.

I caught one 2lb bass in a pond on January 11th. I was using a Baby Brush hog in Watermellon Candy color with a black 1/8oz bullet weight. I pulled it over a downed tree in 3' of water. When I tugged it over the branch, the one eyed fish hit it on the fall. That was what I needed to complete a goal of catching a fish every month for a year.

I have always cast with my right and cranked with my left. I have tried a friend's righty reel and I couldn't properly set the hook. I missed every fish that bit. I am slower and not as strong setting the hook with my left hand. Its a no brainer for me

I would stock up on the Bandit Footloose. It beats the pants off of a Mann's -1.

I need to stop by Greentops and pick up a Mattlures Bluegill and Baby Bass. I need to start buying lures for my annual trip to Florida!

I fished with spining reels for quite sometime before I started using baitcasters so I was kind of stuck on casting with my right hand and reeling with my left. So I have only purchased left hand retrieve baitcasters. Since most companies make them, it isn't a problem to get the ones you like or as in my case "need" ;D I couldn't figure out why someone would want to cast with one hand and then switch hands to reel?!?! Of course most of the right retrievers started before lefty reels were available.

I attached a picture of a Horny Toad and a Ribbit. The Horny Toad is rigged with a Zoom Horny Toad Hook. Twist the corkscrew into the nose of the bait. Line up where the hook needs to penetrate to go all the way through to the other side (eyeball side) and push the hook through the bait. Then skin hook the point (on the eyeball side). The Ribbit on top is rigged with an Owner 5/0 twistlok hook which is almost identical to the Zoom hook. I rig it exactly the same way. The only thing of note is that the groove for the hook is on the eyeball side on the Ribbit and on the belly side of the Horny Toad. Using these hooks most of the time these baits come back with the hook riding on top. You need to keep your rod tip high to keep the line out of the water. The Horny Toad has to be retrieved fast to make the legs kick and the Ribbit can be retrieved at a slower pace. Some days they want one and other days they want the other. I caught a lot of fish on these two lures over and around hyrdilla. I used the SPRO frog some but have had more sucess on other two.

I think $80 is the cutoff for baitcasters. Anything less than $80 will cause a beginner problems. Now if you can catch the expensive reels on sale then that makes life better. The best baitcaster that I have is my Johnny Morris signature reel that I got on sale for $134.88. The other important thing to know is that you need to set the spool tension for each bait with the magnet backlash set to zero. If you change the bait, you have to set the spool tension again. Hold the rod at 2 o'clock, push the spool release button and watch the lure fall. Do this over and over until the spool stops turning when the lure hits the ground. Once this is set turn your magnetic backlash control to 4 or 7 and start casting.

I have the CMC PT130 and have used it on a 115HP Evinrude originally and now on a 70 HP Evinrude that replaced the 115HP. The installtion was easy and I did it myself on a Saturday night after the kids went to bed. The one thing that I would recommend is that you have a chain hoist or engine lift. I connected my engine to the chain hoist and put the outboard under tension and removed the engine from the back of the boat. Then I installed the tilt and trim and bolted the outboard to the tilt and trim. I have had the unit for 6 years. Here are the problems that I have had with the unit. 1. The switch isn't water resistant. It has a cap but water can get around the threads and into the switch. This happened to me and the water shorted out the switch and the tilt and trim ran until the hyrdralic motor burned up. I got the motor replaced once under warrenty and then I had to buy the second one before I figured out why it was happening. I replaced the tilt and trim switch with a marine rated switch and caulked around the switch. 2. If you remove and install the motor enough times you will strip one or more of the threads because the threads are tapped into the aluminum. 3. There are two pressed in spring clips that hold the hydralic pump to the brackets. I had one come out on the way home from the lake in December. The motor falls down when a spring clip comes out. Make sure that you use a transom saver with this unit. If I had to do it all over again I would buy the CMC unit. I would also have dealt with the switch and used a transom saver. Those two things would have probably saved me a lot of time and money.

I know from experience that you need to put a bunch of holes in the corrugated pipe if you use it. I tried to sink some and it was very difficult to get the whole thing to fill up with water. I had to take my pocket knife and punch a bunch of holes in it to get it to sink. Burlizzle has posted a better version that has big holes in it. Whenever I hear about a tree falling I stop by and pickup the braches. I tie them up into 4' by 2' bundles. I attach two cinderblocks to the bundles and sink them. I also save my Christmas trees and sink them. I have caught fish off of all six of my brush piles at one point or another. It has worked well for me. I am thinking about tying 5 car tires together and sinking them. I would have to drill holes in them to ensure that they sunk. It would be easier than the brush piles and I could get a bunch of them for free. I don't know if I would have to weight them down though.

Last Summer I traveled on Southwest and took my rods in a Frabill rod case. I read all of the Southwest guidelines which stated that oversized items from 62 to 80 inches could be brought along for a $50 fee. Since the limit was 80 inches I didn't bring any 7' rods. When I dropped the case off at curbside checking flying out and returning, I didn't mention anything about the rod tube being oversize and they never charged me. My rods didn't get damaged and I didn't have any problems.

I have a camera and I used it last year. I would never ever ever ever, did I mention ever? Use it during a tournament. I hope everyone else in the tournament uses their camera during the tournament because I would beat them. I have no problem with anyone using a camera during a tournament. It takes a good bit of time to get the camera setup and it is hard to use effectively. I found that the camera had to be within a few feet of the bottom to see anything. It is a waste of time during a tournament. I would use it in conjunction with a depth finder to understand structure and maybe fish location on the structure in your prefishing. I think that the side imaging sonar from Humminbird would be the best instrument to find fish and structure. If I had an extra $1000 I would buy 797si!

Tin, Thanks for the suggestion. I am going to need to scroung up cash for another rod I just spent a few minutes casting my new Johnny Morris signature reel in the back yard and WOW that reel is sweet! I couldn't get it to backlash on a cast. I had the magnetic backlash control set to zero and it still cast perfectly. I had two pins set on the centrifigal control. I think I am going to go broke on rods and reels now :-/

I have 5 baitcast reels, 2 5.4:1, 2 6.3:1 and 1 7:1. Right now I have the following setups: 5.4:1 on a 7' ML IM6 Allstar (small crankbaits) Mono 5.4:1 on a 7' M IM6 BPS crankin stick (medium - large crankbaits) Mono 6.3:1 on a 7' M IM6 Diawa light & tough (spinnerbait - chatterbait) Fluoro 6.3:1 on a 6' 6" M BPS IM7 (Worm & Jig) Fluro 7:1 on a 7" MH BPS Extreme (Frog, Jig, Swimbait) Braid I have the feeling that I really should buy another MH rod to switch out the Jig & Worm rod on occasion or permanently. What would you do? What configuration would you have with those 5 reels?

Avid, The Citrus Shad color in the fat free shad is Chartruse on the bottom, White side with a holographic scale pattern and an aqua colored stripe on top. The dot on the side of a citrus shad should be aqua matching the top, if the dot is black, it is not the correct color. Bomber has confused the heck out of a lot of people on this color. I have encluded a picture of all of the Citrus Shad crankbaits that I have. The deep diver on top is the odd ball. It doesn't have the holographic scale pattern and the dot on the side is black. The three on the bottom have the same color and pattern but the one on the left is a Bill Dance series. I looked on BPS website and have figured out what you should buy. If you buy only the Bill Dance series Fat Free Shad in Citrus you will get the correct color. That is the one that Tim Horton used to win that tournament in an hour last year. I have the same lure, it is the one on the right and it is dinged up because it has caught more fish than the rest combined. Here is the BPS website: http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10151&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&partNumber=15524&hvarTarget=search&cmCat=SearchResults

My wife and I have two boys 5 and 7. Over the years taking care of them has sometimes been a challenge. My wife has stayed home with them and took on the brunt of the hard work. On weekends I had my hands full helping out and I just didn't fish much. As the children got older I got more opportunities to fish but I always negotiated the time with my wife. Whatever time I wanted, she needed to get equal time for herself. Three years ago we negotiated a yearly trip for each of us. In February she goes on a 3-4 day cruise with her friends and in April she goes on a 3 day spa weekend with her friends. In return I go on a 7 day fishing trip to Florida in February. Now that the boys are older and easier to take care of my fishing opportunities have increased dramatically. A friend of mine used to give me a hard time about "negotiating fishing time". We had an argument about it one time and I told him that I didn't feel that it was right to not take my wife into concideration. He told me that you had to lay down the law and do what you want to do. Well he is now seperated and on his way to divorce.

Here in Virginia the stores get stocked in December and January and by July there are empty shelves and pegs for popular baits, hooks, weights, etc. You may have trouble finding some baits from mid summer on. Then next January the shelves get restocked and new baits are brought out.

I like the Horny Toads and the Ribbit (Non-floating). The Horny Toad is for a fast retrieve and the Ribbit is for a slower retrieve. I find that some days they want the fast retrieve and some days they want the slower retrieve. I do not like the floating Ribbit. It is too light and I can't cast it very far at all. I use the Horny Toad hook or the Owner 5/0 twist lock keeper hook. I used fluorocarbon line last year but this year I got a new combo and am going to string it up with braid. Fish the toads and you will love it!

vaparrothead, What club are you in?

I ordered a Johnny Morris Signature baitcast reel with my BPS gift cards that I got for Christmas. I bought it for $134.99 and had been watching it for months to see if it dropped any further. I noticed that they came out with another Johnny Morris reel that isn't the "Signature" reel or Elite reel. The introduction of another Johnny Morris reel that is entry level doesn't fit the product category. It was a bad decision and causes confusion. It didn't affect my purchase but I did notice it.