papajoe222

I look forward to somehow getting together with RW, he didn't stick around last year. From what I've heard and seen, he's a real character. A joint outing could be beneficial to us both; He could learn a little about men's fashion sence from me and I might remember something I forgot about angling from him.

I'm in the process of building a casing Rod for the same application. My choice was a Baston Rainshadow blank. I believe they discontinued this line of blanks, but I've built six rods with different Baston blanks and am very happy with their rating and performance.

please explain what 'line stacking' is as i am considering a spiral wrap on my current build.

Just picked up a PRD10LTE and am really impressed with the lightness and overall quality of this reel. The one thing I am wondering about is whether or not I should clean out any excess grease and maybe flush the spool bearings. This is my first Pinnacle, so I don't know if they pack a lot of grease in their reels. I've purchased a few brands other than Daiwa that do this. Anyone familiar with this reel that can give me a heads up? Also, is there an easy release for the palm plate?

Norman's and Bomber Fat Free Shad. The FFS won't get down to 20ft. but will hit 16ft. on a decent cast using 10lb.

The heavy current is going to both help and hinder you. It helps in positioning the fish (more in a second), but it hinders you because that warm day isn't going to have much of an affect on the water temp. If you'll be doing your fishing in the main river, I'd be targeting deep pools and the eddy areas behind the downed trees. Really, any current break that results in slack current, those are just the most common. I can't help with the 'lakes' or pools as the rivers I fish don't have them. As for lures, I'd choose ones that the current will take into those slack water areas. A spinnerbait or crank may get some aggressive fish right at the current edge, but if they're tucked back, or down in the slack water areas, a jig just heavy enough that you can work it into those areas with the current would be my pick. Once you get into slack water, vary your retrieve the same as you would in a lake, until you get results and stick with it until it no longer produces. Don't be afraid to dead stick, it takes a lot of patience, but sometimes it's a killer technique.

This time of year I would concentrate in the dam area where the drop is 45 or steeper.

As long as you're pouring....d**n that monkey!

I'll use a shakey head in cold front conditions, or when I'm confident about a spot. I like it in timber vs. brush or around boulders vs. gravel under those conditions. The T-rig gets the nod when I want to use a faster presentation or as a search bait.

Lately I've been hanging out with the bait monkey and checking my PayPal account for funds . It's weird because by balance is zero, but I've e been buying a bunch of stuff. Hope PayPal doesn't figure it out for a while.

No, just because fish are shallow does not mean they are actively feeding. "There are three areas where we can target bass, their home, their feeding/spawning area, or the breaks/break lines connecting the two." Spoken like a true student and practitioner of structure fishing. Our reasoning is the same, you and I just go about putting it to use In the opposite direction. You could say that I'm literally 'bassackwards'.

I don't know of any guides that target bass in that area on the big lake. There are a f ew small lakes in the area where you may find a guide or a place to rent a boat. I do fish the big lake farther north for smallies in late April, but it's a two hour drive from Holland. If you'd like I can put you in touch with my guy up there and he may know of someone. PM me.

I'm sorry to say that I won't be able to make it this year. Medical reasons, or I'd make the drive in a heartbeat. Just the anticipation of the trip got me through the winter last year. To help get through this winter, I'm planning a get together for some of the guys up this way in May. Hopefully it will all come together. Have a great time.

I ended up doing a single thread trim band on all the guides. A little extra work and time, but they really draw your eye to the thread work. Kind of like adding extra chrome you your car. What can I say, but I'm all about eye candy and not just when it comes to the ladies.

If they have forage available, of course they aren't and yes they do. What I'm refering to and the way I use the system, is in search of fish that travel from deep to shallow in their search to feed. If you don't locate fish actively feeding in deep water, do you stay there or move? If you do move, don't you have a system that you follow or do you just randomly move around in your search? I've seen pics of some of your fish and I seriously doubt that.

I'm not talking about deploying your PowerPole to hold you in position as you fan cast an area. Not that there is anything wrong with that, it's their intended use. I'm talking about, dropping an anchor (two in my case) and sitting on a spot. I revisited doing this after reading Bill Murphy's 'In Pursuit of Giant Bass' which was a complete turn around from the ' stay on the trolling motor until the batteries give out' approach I'd been using for the past two decades. The biggest benefit (for me) was that it got me to not only slow down, but to pick apart an area of the lake top to bottom. Do I still run and gun? Yes, when my time on the water is limited to a couple of hours. Do I pick up anchor(s) and move to a different spot? Yes, but rarely more than three or four times during the course of a day. Memories of fishing a saddle between two islands on a big lake in Wisconsin (big for Wisconsin at least), anchored so my dad and I could reach the shallows of the island nearest our end of the boat and also the deeper water to either side of the saddle, were dusted off and revisited during my reading. We rarely didn't have a good outing and if the wind was blowing we often limited out. There was no running from spot to spot with my eyes glued to the old Hummingbird only to abandon a spot after a few casts. We'd sit and methodically work the area until we "stumbled" upon the depth the fish were holding and the presentation that got results. Now, my son-in-law and I will anchor on a breakline of his favorite lake where the depth changes from 8-15ft., or the end of a small point for three or four hours, fishing, telling stories, downing a few beverages and catching fish. Guess I've come full circle. Now I'm wondering if any of you have either revisited anchoring as a way of boat positioning like I have, have been doing it all along, or are considering it as another option?

Yes, if you work from shallow to deep, but not if you work deep to shallow. If, like me, you begin your search shallow and work your way deep you may or may not run over the top of fish that are holding deep. Two things I keep in mind. First is that I don't approach the destination of the fish using the same route from deep to shallow that they would (or I think they would). Second I'm looking for active fish first. If I'm lucky enough to find them shallow and active, there is no need for me to continue my search. It's over. If not, I continue my way deeper along the structure until I contact fish. At that point I would stop as my search has ended. The only reason for me to move once I've located fish willing to take my offering, is if the fish move. When they do, I know that their next stop will either be a spot just shallow of where I am, or deeper along the structure (which is normally what happens). Starting deep and working shallow also works, but in doing so you may be missing out on actively feeding fish even though you are catching less active fish. Either way you are using the structure as the basis of your search.

Reelnm The feeding area depends on the major forage the bass are targeting. In the example you described it would be different for shad than for, say minnows or bluegill. If you consider the forage, the route or structure the bass use can be different as well as where the 'dining room' is located on the point. Structure fishing, although it may sound difficult, is no harder to understand than considering which docks will be most productive along a shoreline of hundreds. You are basically using a simple, fundamental fact that is the basis of structure fishing. The main difference is structure fishing is more relevant to bass that use deep water as their 'home' or area of rest and travel to an area to feed and less to those that stay in the shallows even when they aren't feeding.

The great thing about custom rods is they are built for exactly what you intend to use them for and they are built to your specs. For instance, you want a specific length and action. Once you decide on a blank, the guides reel seat and composition of the handle are also up to you. You don't have to settle for a split grip cork handle just because that's the only Rod you can locate in that length/action/power.

I only use ribbon tailed worms when I'm looking to cover a lot of water more as a search bait. I'll swim it with a handle turn, pause until it contacts bottom and repeat. I also use it at night slow rolling it like a spinnerbait. In either case, I'll switch to a G-Tail oe a paddle tail once I contact fish. They are baits I also fish fast, but not as fast as the ribbon tail and I use the Rod, not the reel to move them along.

This is a bit off topic, but something I feel that needs to be pointed out is location of fish on structure. The majority of these discussions seem to focus on different types, or location of it in different types of lakes. One thing that Murphy, Perry and Hope all point out is the movement of bass from deeper water to the shallows or feeding grounds and the importance of structure to those movements. Mr. Perry referred to those movements as migration routes although the term more accurately is a description is seasonal movements. Dining room to living room, or however you care to describe that movement, keep in mind that the bass' objective is to get to that feeding site. Their location, along with their activity level, at any given time could be anywhere along that route or path. As anglers, we use the information about structure to give us a place to start our search because we know the fish will use it in their movements. The key, I believe, is knowing that the stops the bass make along the way will be the areas of concentrations of fish and the closer to the 'dining room' the more active those groups will be. A typical milk run for me will start at the feeding shelf or area where I target active fish, then work my way down the structure or 'funnel' stopping at the breaks along the way until I contact fish.

Don't be fooled into thinking that fluoro doesn't stretch, it does. What you should look at is the rod you'll be using for the application. Many anglers use the stretch in mono to counter using a fast tip rod. The rod isn't 'forgiving' but the line is. That same line on a rod designed for cranking would result in poor hooking. Although I have a hate/hate relationship with fluoro, it is a much better choice for cranking for a couple of reasons. I just prefer mono and use a rod with a faster tip. Many anglers use spinning gear for cranking purposes and pair it with braid and when you look at the bend in their rods from this perspective, you'll see why it works for them.

On my first outing to one of the TVA lakes, what RoLo says was a lesson I learned, or should I say reminded of. We fished a bluff wall with a shallow shelf. I would have been searching for fish suspended off the edge of the drop, but we found active fish on that shelf that wasn't much wider that the boat in some places. It was a lesson I had learned years ago fishing the strip pits in my area with similar features. I just hadn't fished them in decades, so the lesson was forgotten. The basic principles of using structure to locate fish still applies, I just didn't take my own advice and apply it to the water I was on.

As with most soft plastics, many different retrieves will work at one time or another. My personal view is that different plastics have their own, most productive retrieve. A ribbed worm or craw are killers when dragged along the bottom, so I'll use them when I want more contact with the bait than say a C-rig would afford me. T-rigged worms are no different when it comes to my decision to use them. I consider the style of worm. Curly tails shine when used with a lift/drop retrieve that moves the bait fairly quickly along. A paddle tail is awesome when jigged or 'stroked' of the bottom. Senkos are great when moved with the reel. I'm not saying I don't recommend using any bait only one way, just that some baits seem to perform better for me when presented one way over another. I would suggest starting with a worm that has a little action built in. Use just enough weight to stay in contact with it and mix up your retrieve until you find out what works.

That's why I'm calling mine skunk repellent. I thought about callin it MARx (mobile angling prescription box), but asking one of my co-anglers to hand me Mark's box may get me some quisical looks. I've added a couple of Pond Magic and Beetle Spinners and I'll be picking up some small stick worms before ice-out.