RPreeb

I don't suppose I could get anyone to post a couple of photos or a clear explanation of this. I'm not really all that sure what is meant by up locking and down locking. I guess that I don't understand if it is up or down from what????

Actually, I still have 4 or 5 of each. I bought 12 of each color when we lived in the Bahamas and took them down with me, as such things are non-existent on the islands I had easy access to. I sold half to a bonefishing guide friend down there, and kept the rest. They were very effective fishing the tidal channels between the bonefish flats for mutton snappers and jacks, with an occasional barracuda joining the party.

Yep.... gotta feed the bait monkey!

I'm interested too. Going to watch this thread. I love topwaters, I've got a few that have caught bass (and some of the the same ones have caught jacks and mutton snappers and barracuda in salt water), but I'm always looking for more. These that I bought from BPS a few years ago have been good, but the exact style doesn't seem to exist any more. I don't know if the little slits around the mouth increase their effectiveness, but they do catch fish. The one in the upper right has caught quite a few bass for me.

I would have very few issues with telling what I could, but I don't really know that much myself. How much detail I give out as to locations would depend on the circumstances. I would certainly be a lot more specific with an enthusiastic young person who is just trying to learn the sport than I would with someone older who just appears to be too lazy to try and work things out like I am doing for myself right now (with a lot of help from Bass Resource ). I feel that in the right situation I would love to meet someone who is as clueless as I am so that we could practice and learn together, passing our discoveries back and forth to each other. At the moment, I have no fishing friends, so I'm a shore fisherman who is strictly on his own.

My wife and I lived on Long Island in the Bahamas for 2½ years. We sat through the eye of Hurricane Sandy in 2012 (cat 3 when it hit us dead center) in our great room (and that only a year after Irene hit the island just before we moved down there). We were without power for 3 days (parts of the island didn't get power back for 3 weeks - we were lucky) and the island took several months to replace the many roofs that were blown away. We had built our house well and it weathered the storm okay, aside from being sand blasted from the beach 100 feet in front. The saving grace was that Sandy was a fast mover and only really took about 5 hours to pass. Then 2 years ago, Joaquin camped over the island for 2½ days and truly devastated the place. Now Irma has them in her sights. Part of our decision to move back to the States was the weather, and I thank God that we left when we did in 2014. Anyone in the path of this storm who has the opportunity to run away should really do so, run early and far. Sandy had 125 mph winds when it hit us and that was sufficiently terrifying - I can't imagine 180 mph. Most residential structures can't be built to be livable and still able to take that sort of punishment. The island of Barbuda has been more than 90% destroyed. Virtually 100% of the buildings on the island have suffered damage. That's what's in store for anyone in the direct path of this storm. Please heed the warnings and get out now!

Got to use my Tatula CT100XS for the first time yesterday, also my first time using a bait caster in over 50 years. I was amazed at how easy it was. I started a bit tight, then backed off and it was really nice. I'm sure that I wasn't casting very far by the standards of an experienced user, and using too much thumb pressure, but I was throwing a light popper, about 25 yards - more than halfway across the arm of the pond where I was fishing - and that's all I really needed to cover the whole thing. I'm happy with my decision to buy this reel as my first foray in to modern baitcasting. Now I need a better rod to match up with it.

A lot of years back, fishing the Swan River in Montana. We were in a buddy's '53 Ford 4 door sedan with the flyrods in the back seat. We got parked, I jumped out and grabbed my rod, slammed the door and turned to walk away. When I reached the end of my arm, I realized that my thumb was still in the door. About then the pain began. I opened the door and my thumbnail was already turning black. Put a real damper on the fishing that day.

Finally got an evening with light enough wind to run down to the town pond and try out my first baitcaster, Diawa Tatula CT100XS. It wasn't as difficult as I had convinced myself that it might be. Set it a little bit tight at first, but backed off on the tension knob and the magnet after a few casts. I was probably a bit more heavy with my thumb than I needed to be, but I didn't want to spent the whole time messing around with backlashes. I started out throwing a light BPS popper (the one in the upper right in this photo) with no problem. I got one small backlash, not even enough to call a bird's nest, and it was just a lousy cast on my part. I pretty much knew my herky-jerky fling was in trouble the moment I released the spool. It only took a minute to pick out the tangle and be back fishing. Biggest issue for me was accuracy, or lack thereof. I wasn't even close to my target most of the time. Gonna have to practice a lot more. I landed 3 largemouth and lost one when the drag was too loose and by the time I got it cranked tighter, the fish gave one flip and was gone. Too bad, because that felt like the biggest one of the evening. They were all what you guys call dinks, but then I didn't expect much more in a 1½ acre pond. The first one I thought was just a weed, about 4". Then a 7" and a 10". Got a few more hits that missed getting hooked. Switched to my spinning rod for a bit with a Senko, never even got a nibble. Went back to the baitcaster about as the sun set, tied on a Scatter Rap 05 and that was what I lost the biggest fish on. Pond has a lot of weeds, so I had to pick my spots and keep the rod tip high to force that lure to stay shallow.

I don't have as much bass experience as most here, but for me, if something is catching fish, I'll keep using it until it stops working. I'm not going to take the risk of angering the fishing gods.

Never waded for bass, but I waded a lot of creeks and rivers for trout. Just a couple of things to add. I always had the best fishing when wading upstream. I've done both, and both are feasible, but when moving in a river you will dislodge stuff that then flows with the current. This tells fish downstream that something is going on above them. Sometimes it can actually be a help if you are sending tasty morsels down on the current, sort of like chumming, but it also warns them of a disturbance. Watch current and depth. In a fast current, knee deep water can sweep you off your feet, or at least make it hard to maintain your balance. Go slow and keep to the shallowest water possible if there is very much current. I never owned waders - always waded in sneakers, even in icy Montana streams. My brother and I waded the North Fork of the Flathead River on the west boundary of Glacier Park, cold and fast and we were probably taking far more risk than we should have. It makes your feet ache until they get numb, then we were always good until we left the water and started to warm back up again. Never got hypothermic, but we mostly did that kind of fishing in good weather, so it wasn't a huge threat. The best thing about not using waders is that you never have to worry about falling and having them fill up with water, dragging you right to the bottom. On the Swan River in Montana, I fought and played a big tail-dancing rainbow for 100 yards or more downstream in fast water (on a flyrod with a 2X tapered leader) before I could land him, and that got a bit dicey. I bobbed through a 6' deep hole where I just bouncing off the bottom with my tiptoes after an overhanging tree forced me off the bank. That was one of the most exciting moments I've had when fishing, finally dragging that 4½ pound trout onto a rock bar.

My cousin hooked a 10 pound carp on a worm and cane pole on a Minnesota lake when he was 8. I had to land it for him ( I was so much older at 11 ), working it around the boats and pontoons moored on the dock. He carried it hugged to his chest for the 3 blocks back home to show his Mom. She acted appropriately proud, then hustled him straight into the bathtub, clothes and all. Point being that no, they are not exclusive feeders.

It's pure guess work out here. Yesterday it was 99°. Today its forecast at 87°, and tomorrow 72°. Then back into the 90's by the weekend, and high 80's most of next week. Typical late summer in NE Colorado - we could have temps in the 80's right through til October. I just go out and try stuff (usually just try to work a weightless Texas rigged plastic), and I mostly stick to the small pond here near home. Once I get my canoe and can get out on the water, I'll go farther afield.

I have a Tatula on an Ugly Stik, so I guess I'm not too concerned about mixing and matching. But then I'm still just trying to get a handle on this modern age bass fishing stuff, so what do I know?

About 55 years ago I caught a 3" largemouth on a 3" jitterbug. He could barely get one hook of the treble in his mouth, but he hit that sucker anyway. I thought I had hooked a weed when it stopped wobbling. It was a solid one, if that matters. I don't think there were any jointed ones yet then, at least I never saw one.

Keep in mind that those videos are usually shot with a wide angle lens by someone sitting in the same boat with the angler. That makes it look like they are casting/pitching a lot farther than they actually are. Photos and videos can be deceiving - with a wide enough lens, you can take a photo with a big puddle in the foreground and make it look like you are shooting across a lake.

I grew up in the "plug" era too. My first plug was a Bass-O-Reno redhead - big old heavy wooden thing designed for the old casting rigs of the time (mine was a 1930's era casting reel and a steel casting rod). That plug ran shallow, even left a wake, and I did catch a few bass on it before I discovered the hula popper. I'd say that I have to be a generalist, as I'm just beginning to get back into bass fishing. I like variety, even if I'm not that accomplished as a bass angler. If I feel that my technique is okay, but I'm not getting bit, I'll change to something else and fumble with that for a while. My real preference though is topwater, and if the conditions seem right, that's usually how I'll start.

I got this for $2 on the sale rack at Cabelas a week ago. Supposed to dive to 3', but I'd imagine that would be controllable by holding the rid tip higher. Haven't used it yet, so I can't say more than that. It was an impulse grab when I was there buying my Tatula CT100 reel.

Walmart here is sort of hit or miss... I've bought a few things there, but they really don't seem to have much of what I look for. I have the Cabela's headquarters store less than an hour away, so maybe they don't feel that there is a market for fishing gear at Wally World.

You needed one more option to make it easy on us... I would have checked "All of the Above". I can fish most of those, but I can't say that I'm always doing it right.

I like weightless too. Just seems like a more natural presentation.

25 (edited) as I count them: Trout - Brown Rainbow Cutthroat Dolly Varden Brook Rainbow/Cutthroat hybrid Golden Trout (edited in) Bass - Largemouth Smallmouth Rock Bass Sunfish Bluegill Punkinseed Black Crappie Yellow Perch Walleyed Pike African Pike (on the Kafue River in Zambia) Channel Catfish Northern Pike Bullhead Sucker Carp Whitefish Squawfish Sheepshead (edited in)

My "good old days" were as much about the situation as they were about the actual fishing. I spent my first 16 summers at our cabin on Balsam Lake in western Wisconsin. I clearly remember the billboard sized sign that said "Welcome to Balsam Lake, one of the top ten bass lakes in America. Now, I take that claim with a grain of salt, but it was good fishing none-the-less, and great for a kid trying to learn the ropes without a father to help him out. We started just digging worms to catch sunfish as soon as we were old enough to hold a cane pole. When someone was nice enough to supply us with a dozen or two minnows, then we could be more adventurous and go for crappies. I was probably 13 or 14 (1959 or 1960) when I first targeted bass with artificial lures and got hooked. (sorry for the pun, but it was unavoidable ) The point was that it was so easy to "go fishing". All it meant was walking down to the water, flipping over the canoe and sliding it into the lake, and we were fishing. Now it's a lot more work, walking the shore and not catching much, or loading the canoe on top of the truck, driving to the lake, then unloading the canoe, putting all the stuff in it, and finally getting out on the water about 2 hours later. In any case, I'm more than ½ hour from the nearest actual lake (North Sterling Reservoir or Jumbo Reservoir), and I don't know the topography of any local waters so the fishing takes some planning and a little guesswork. It's not as relaxing as it was back in those "good old days". Don't get me wrong, it's still fun, but takes a more concerted effort to get it done.

No different from a horse thief back in the Old West.... Hang 'em all.

While a Kevlar canoe would be great, for me the price is prohibitive. At more than 2 times the price of an Old Town 3 layer poly (used to be called Royalex - don't know if it's still the same material or just similar), I have to go with the heavier but much less costly one. If I was planning on doing some serious tripping involving portaging, then I'd shell out for the Kevlar, but not just for a fishing canoe. I had an Old Town Pathfinder back in the '80s, and I can till you that it was tough as nails. You could run it up on rocks and all it ever did was just leave cosmetic scars, never had any deep scratches or gouges - certainly nothing that threatened it's seaworthiness. Getting a canoe on top of a vehicle isn't all that difficult if you have a good roof rack (I would recommend Yakima or Thule), even one that's pushing 100 pounds. Get one end up, then slide the boat up on top and strap it down. I'm 70, and I'm not particularly concerned about loading or unloading a canoe from on top of my F-150 Supercrew 4x4.