Johnbt

"but for jigs and 10 inch worms, I put them on a conquest" Thanks. I've been fishing moving baits on my Conquests - we like throwing spinnerbaits, chatterbaits and frogs a lot - and I sometimes find myself wanting a much larger bait and/or trailer and a little more horsing power. This 22-inch 5# 1oz fish tied me up good for a couple of minutes yesterday on a MH Conquest with braid, but I finally got it unwound from the stems. And there are some parts of this lake that have thicker rafts of pads. , Have you met the bait monkey's cousin, the rod ape?

I caught another skinny fish yesterday at noon. This one measured an honest 22 inches, but only weighed 5 pounds 1 ounce. It went to the bottom and had me all wrapped up in pads for a couple of minutes. I thought I was going to have to cut the braid at one point, or go in and get it.

"Conquest vs the GLX" i have a question. I have 3 Conquests and 0 GLX. The Conquests are all MH, the 783 and 843 with a Met MGL and a Steez, and an 843S with either a Shimano or Daiwa 2500 on it depending on the day and whether I want 10# Invisibraid or 10# green braid. Fwiw, the Invisibraid breaks at 23 pounds. Here comes the question. Should I just go ahead and order a Conquest 844 or make a road trip somewhere to look at the GLX 844? (For jigs, 10.5" worms, frogs, and my favorites... spinnerbaits with 6" grubs, etc.) My idea of finesse fishing is not using a trailer.

"This year's MLF format has become kind of a bore. Just turn and burn and catch as many one pounders as you can." I'd never watched a bass tournament on tv before and I happened to see about 30 minutes of a recent show and you are right, it was a snooze fest. They should try using some of those 1-pounders for bait. I enjoyed the Bassmaster Classics when they held them here in '88 and '89, but live is a lot different than watching on tv.

Well, I previously posted a pic of 5 new War Eagle copper spinnerbaits. Then I was paid another visit by the monkey. He whispered in my ear, "Buy more copper blades, they're discontinued. Get more of the clear copper peach skirts. And different sizes, too." Then the little beggar stole my credit card and went wild. But then he started ordering new outfits. You can't trust the bait monkey !!!!!!!

I have one of each, both 2500's. I like them equally for bass and think they work just fine. Except sometimes, especially on very windy days, I like having the anti-reverse switch on the Daiwa so I can let out a little line as the boat drifts. I like having the switch and that's all there is to it. Opening the bail is a pain so just call me old and grouchy and set in my ways. Fwiw, I've been fishing them with 10# braid on a MH Conquest.

I can't help myself when I see War Eagle copper blades for sale. And chartreuse skirts are a favorite, of mine and the fish. Too bad there were only 5.

I've surf fished some, mostly on the Outer Banks, since the mid-70s anyway. It's possible, but a lot of folks use a higher test shock leader. I'd have to know if he's lobbing his casts or snapping them far out there. And what length rods he's using. See what you can find out. I've done a lot of fishing with 17- or 20-pound mono and 3 to 6-ounce pyramid sinkers, plus cut bait. Also thrown a lot of 3 and 4-ounce Hopkins lures on the same outfits for 10 to 18-pound bluefish in the surf. At Cape Point at Hatteras they usually have 8 ounces plus bait and serious rods and reels and line. It's fun fishing in the dark for big red drum, but I'm getting too old and too lazy for it.

"when i learned to use a baitcasting rig 20 years ago there were very few lefties on the market." I learned in the mid-50s. Now that the good reels are also available in lefty models that's all I buy. Fwiw, my father was righthanded too, but he golfed and batted lefthanded. So I suppose I could be a little ambihanded, although I was a mediocre switchhitter.

My old Rapala is still accurate, but the past couple of years it sometimes turns on in the kg mode. Rather than make the fish wait while I try to get it to switch to pounds, I just use my iphone to multiply the reading by 2.2. So I'm interested in a new scale and looked up the Accu Cull. When I googled it I clicked on the link for the same scale at TW, except it was called the Connect Scale. For $25 more you get... "The Connect Scale is the most innovate solution to weighing and tracking catch data ever created. You catch it, you weigh it, and the app logs it. Using Bluetooth low energy technology, the Connect Scale wirelessly transmits the weight and air temperature data to the integrated app on your iOS and Android mobile device. By simply weighing your catches you will be able to automatically log weight, air temperature, date, time, and GPS location to the Connect Scale app. The Connect Scale app is currently available on iTunes and Google Play stores. It features a simple and clean user interface that allows anglers to capture key data and save them to a cloud database." Um, no thank you, I don't think so. I fish to relax. Never fished a tournament, don't take notes when I fish, just pics and memories.

I caught this skinny one yesterday morning around 10:30 in a private 40-acre lake west of Richmond. The kind of place that has a muddy bank for a ramp. Length was 22 3/4”, but it was just 5 pounds 15 ounces on my Rapala digital. Fought like crazy too and I was using a MH Conquest & 14# green Trilene XL. Went 12' left, 12' right, left. right, left again & then under the boat, then pulled away and jumped a couple of times , but never made it back into the pads. I was using a copper-bladed spinnerbait with multicolored-flake pinkish? skirt and a 4” curl tail grub in chartreuse silver flake. These War Eagle spinnerbaits are growing on me. My mentor isn’t laughing quite so much now about my color selection.

My buddy convinced me to buy a $5 chartreuse spinnerbait. We went fishing and I caught a 9.25# largemouth. Then I bought a boat.

"Boy did he smell rotten for a few hours" Oh boy, marsh gas aroma. I have a heavy 1648 and fish a lot of small ponds and lakes that don't have ramps. I always take my rubber knee boots and quite often take my insulated camo chest waders, just in case I need to help the boat onto the trailer. Or if it's gale force windy or the water is really cold after the ice melts. I keep them in an old red metal cooler with rusty hinges. It rides really well in the boat on the way home. I hate stinking up the truck almost as much as stinking me up.

I have lots of MH rods, some stiff, some not so stiff. How about spinnerbaits with big trailers, jigs with trailers, frogs, 10.5" worms? I love MH rods of all types. And almost all of them are 6.5' or 7'. We fish out of tin boats mostly and use anything from 10# braid and up to over 50# depending on what we're doing. We spend a lot a time in the pads and back in the woods. 10# Invisibraid breaks at over 20# fwiw.

"Same with Quantum. I know a lot of people aren't going to like my next statement but the line between crap and quality is a LOT thinner than most will ever know." Funny you should say that. Sometimes if you look hard enough you find a jewel in the junk bin too. Five or six years ago my bass fishing mentor and I were at a local fishing expo and he latched onto a Quantum casting rod at the $25 rod/$15 reel booth. He's a former semi-pro, etc. who got me early Baitrunners at near cost for my surf fishing trips. What's it been, 30 or 40 years ago? Anyway, I bought a $25 Quantum rod too and it's turned out to be good crankbait rod and all around bank beater. He fishes his every trip and uses it almost exclusively a lot of the time - sometimes with a 1st generation Steez on it. He uses it for spinnerbaits and chatterbaits. I finally found 2 more of them on the Quantum site, but only as combos with the cheap blue reels we threw away. They were $19.50 combos - less than we paid for just the rod at the show. I gave him a second one. Quantum Ultra IM7 6'6" Medium made in China. ULC661M. Full cork contoured handle and full cork foregrip, exposed blank, and a hook keeper. No it's not perfect, but it's just right. I think they made a mistake on the pricing. I'm not selling my 3 Conquests or any of my other rods, but they should have kept these in the lineup and charged more for them.

"At what point is the lake or river so full of hooks that you can't step in them?" I worry more about the broken glass. It's everywhere, even if fishing isn't allowed. That's why I wear shoes. I've never found a hook embedded in my shoes or waders. Broken glass lasts a long, long time in freshwater. Nearly forever in still water I suppose, unlike hooks.

"but you aren't boat flipping a 10# channel cat" I've never boat flipped a fish in my life. If fish were meant to fly they'd have wings. I don't lift cinder blocks with my rods and don't use rods that will lift cinder blocks. Although, some of my surf rods might lift one. I guess I'll never know. For their weight the Conquests are strong and supple with great feel. If you think they're brittle that's okay. I don't think so and don't care. If I break one I'll buy another the next day. You think fishing is expensive? I have a 28 ga. O/U and don't reload. I'm just a country kid who grew up in a rowhouse in Baltimore. I love spending the money I worked hard for.

I need expensive rods. They're lighter stronger and just generally feel good. I fished with cheap stuff my whole life - well, except for an 11' surf rod I had built by Red Drum tackle in Buxton NC 30 years ago. A month ago I finally threw away the 2 freshwater rods I used as a child. I had kept them to remind me how bad they were. One was a metal rod and one was some newfangled fiberglass rod that wasn't too good even 50 or 60 years ago. The round metal reels still worked. Sort of. I love my 3 Shimano/Loomis Conquest rods. I think I should buy another one. I need them.

I love Trilene XL. I use it quite often in freshwater and saltwater. So I put 2 1000-yard spools of 17 in the cart. Hmm. Got ready to hit the buy button and went wth. Went back and put 2 1000-yard spools of 12 in the cart. Went to hit buy and said wth. Went back and got 2 1000-yard spools of 14. Couldn't use the promotion code, so 6000 yards cost me $41.06 including shipping and tax. I'll share it when it arrives. But right now I need to stop celebrating the sale because I'm going to pick up my buddy to go to his 35-acre lake and load over a muddy bank. We're meeting 2 friends on the way pulling another 16' jon boat. I have a ****** strap in case we need to double up the trucks to pull a boat out. At least it won't be crowded.

Not about me, but I was there about 5 feet away. About 30 years ago I was with my fishing buddies on the end of the Virginia Beach pier casting live spot for cobia. The end of the pier has a wide T and we were shoulder to shoulder with all sorts of guys. Underhand casting with fairly short boat rods was required. Behind us were some built-in benches and there were plenty of spectators, wives, kids, etc. After a couple of hours this old guy (probably younger than I am now) made his underhanded cast and tossed the entire outfit in the ocean... Not a word was said. People were turning blue trying to stifle a laugh or comment. There were workers from Newport News Shipbuilding, government workers, my buddy the loudmouth lawyer, and not a word was said. Then, from behind us, an older woman said, "That's the second time you've done that this weekend." Yep, his wife. Everybody had a good laugh and a supervisor from the shipyard put a 4-ounce Hopkins on and dragged the bottom until he snagged the line. As he pulled in the first 100 yards he turned to the man and asked, "You tied it on the spool, right?" Everybody had another good laugh, the rod and reel were recovered and we went back to fishing.

I don't know the spacing. There are a number of places on line in addition to Walmart that sell tire/wheel combos with free shipping. I ordered 3 from etrailer and they were delivered in thick boxes to my garage door and were partially inflated. Okay, mostly inflated. I bought 12 x 5.30 on white wheels for about $55 each, but here's an example of 13" load range D. "Loadstar ST185/80D13 Bias Trailer Tire with 13" White Wheel - 5 on 4-1/2 - Load Range D Item # AM3S331" - $92.69 each. Free shipping if you spend $99. www.etrailer.com/Tires-and-Wheels/Kenda/AM3S331.html

My 71-year-old brother-in-law had the same diagnosis and had a tennis ball sized tumor removed from his brain last April. He had radiation and chemo for a month and now takes chemo one week per month. His memory comes and goes, but he's is living independently - with some help with scheduling and calling the insurance company, etc. - and still travels some by plane to Florida and Ecuador to visit friends. You just never know how the doctors' predictions will work out. Good luck to your FIL and you and yours.

I think you'll love the 6' length. I have an older 6-foot Premier MHF that I use fairly often even though I have 3 Conquest rods and a bunch of others from various makers. There's just something about the short rod and handle I like.

I let my friend drive and catch the 10# fish. I need photo editing software so can quit using screen shots.

5 years ago I bought a 1648 Grizzly for ponds, electric only and restricted hp reservoirs. Glued down some red carpet, installed a Maxxum 70, cut an aluminum piece to cover the rear well and got a merc 9.9, and a 12v 35# motor for the transom, etc. Mhmm, bad pic, but you get the idea.