papajoe222

An affordable, but accurate scale is a luggage scale. Along with a sturdy hook, many come with a built it handle. Check one out on eBay and you can pick it up for under $10

A large shinner on a plain, ball head jig about 6-8ft. under the ice. I don't ice fish and it isn't a 'lure' but the guys at my club say they slay 'em on that and I gotta believe them.

Big Bite Baits Chunk, but for unbeatable action I just cut down a RageTail Craw to chunk size.

Welcome to the board. You'll likely get many replies recommending going to bigger lures that give off more vibration and sound to 'get the bass' attention.' That is sound advice, but I'd like to add that even in murkier water, bass will still use their sight when attacking prey the majority of time. Reguardless of the style of lure, or the vibration/noise it gives off it needs to be close enough to attract the fish to it's location. In clear water a fish can see your presentation from a distance and that is often all it takes to get their attention. Many anglers have difficulty making the transition from clear to colored or murky water and these same anglers also have difficulty catching fish in clear water under cold front conditions. The obsticle to their success is not presenting their offering close enough to the fish under those conditions. Any conditions that causes fish to reduce their strike zone, be it murky/muddy water, bright sunlight, cold front conditions, etc. need to be addressed with presentations within that zone. Even a big Colorado bladded spinnerbait run three feet away from a stick-up won't draw a bass out if it isn't willing to go more than a foot or so. I'm sure you've had smallies explode on a topwater from 30ft. in those clear lakes you left in NY. They may not travel 10ft. in stained or murky water to do so. Work on getting your offering as close to the cover as possible and I'm sure you'll see improvement. Do it with a bright colored/noisy bait and you'll up your odds.

Welcome aboard. The hardest part about fishing, especially during cold water periods, is determining the fish's activity level and you can rest assured that the majority of the time it's neutral. I would base my game plan on that assumption and adjust it as needed. One presentation I rarely see discussed is suspending a small hair jig under a slip bobber. The bobber stop can be adjusted for depth changes and you can 'work' the jig up and down, or swim it short distances. It's a very similar presentation to a suspended jerkbait, only smaller.

Unless you plan on tearing down the reel completely, DVT hits it on the head. If you do, you may want to invest in products specifically marketed for fishing reels. I own and maintain over a dozen reels and most of them get a complete cleaning and re-lube twice a year. Ardent's grease and oil along with Cal's drag grease have served me well. I'm sure you'll get many other recommendations.

Along with Merry Christmas wishes to everyone, I wanted to extend a special thanks to Glen along with all of the mods and advertisers that keep this great site available. Their time and efforts into, not only keeping us informed, but in keeping the site updated along with the constant improvements is greatly appreciated. Also, their spouces deserve our gratitude for the time that these guys spend on the site rather than with them and their families. Thanks Guys and Gals. I hope Santa has a little something extra for all of you.

This and the fact that you should also downsize the line you'll be using. The only downside that you need to address is whether or not to contunue using baitcasting gear or switch to spinning gear. Either way, it looks as though you'll be purchasing one or the other. I throw FatBoys and some crappie cranks with a baitcaster. I give up distance and deal with backlashes in order to do so, but it can be done.

Two techniques come to mind immediately, dead sticking and C-rigs. It's more of a love/hate thing with C-rigs, because it's a productive technique for me. Dead sticking is like bobber watching. The only time I do it is when I'm with someone else in their boat, never in mine.

I've been using a 6'6" rod that I built on a Baston med blank and a Daiwa Sol spooled with 10lb. Yozuri.

There is and there is also one for vets. I was thinking more along the lines of school age kids, but I know where you guys are coming from. I've given some of my used gear away rather than attempting to sell it with the end result being disapointing. Hopefully, with neighborhood families, this attempt won't be. If nothing else, I'll purge some of the excess equipment I have. I can't believe I've accumulated twenty five rods and sixteen reels, but if I plan on adding some new items, this beats tossing them.

My boat only has a 450lb. capacity. If I take someone with me, I have to remove about 100lb. of tackle! I do bank fish, however. I just prefer to fish from my boat.

Most pros would answer 8-12lb. fluorocarbon and tell you that the 'low stretch' abbrasion resistance and the fact that it sinks are the reasons you should. Fluorocarbon stretches, monos like Big Game and Original Stren are just as abbrasion resistant and the fact that fluoro sinks has no bearing on the performance of your crankbaits. It is, however, a thinner line by pound test than most monos. I don't think the benefits over a quality mono are worth the expense, especially because I re-tie frequently when cranking and a bulk spool of Trilene or Stren goes a long way. I use 10lb. Stren and tried out some Yo-Zuri Hybrid last season with good results. I'll go a little heavier when fishing rip-rap and a little lighter when I need the benefit of a little extra depth.

IDK, I use a 5' MIcroLite and have no trouble casting small, 1/16oz. jigs and Beetle Spins. What size reel and lures are you casting? The only time my distance and accuracy become an issue is when I suspend a jig or small tube under a bobber, but that's just the nature of that animal.

Only have one question about your 'first aid kit' What's the lighter and screw dirver for? :scared:

Like a lot of the members here, I'm looking forward to finding some fishing goodies under the tree on Christmas morning. When I do, I'm faced with a dilema (notice I said when, not if). What to do with the gear that it replaces? Small items like lures, line, etc. are a no brainer, but whether or not to sell off rods, reels, etc. always puzzles me. For one, some of the older items I have have some sentimental attachment and there isn't much of a market for six or eight year old technology. The answer I came up with was also a no brainer, but seeing as I have either a pea brain or mine is so small shoving it up a fly's butt would be like putting a BB in a box car (my wife's analogies) I didn't see it. Every year around the time I get my income tax refund, I donate new gear to a few different organizations. So why not donate my used equipment to those that will not only appreciate and use it, but possibly become dedicated anglers as a result? Where I live, there is an abundance of single parent households with both parents and children that, given the opportunity, could possibly become just that. Many of them can not afford to spend their hard earned money on anything but the necessities in life. It won't be difficult to locate a new home for the two combos I plan to replace, or some of the 'extra' gear I have that sees little or no use year-n and year-out. Won't you consider some similar act rather than let perfectly useable equipment sit after Santa, or a friend/family member lights up your Christmas?

When that reel becomes memorabilia to you, then you can put it on a shelf. I have several that I've used over the years that will never see use again, but I display with pride. Using them and recalling the good times you had are what make them worth displaying, not how much you paid for it. My Mitchell 300 was the first reel I ever purchased (1965), It sits on the shelf above my computer and brings a smile to my face every time I look at it.

Maybe these will help

I use a palomar also. You can't rig a straight shank hook the same way you do an off set. Enter the nose of the bait on a downward angle rather than straight in, it should exit the plastic about 1/4 to 1/2 of an inch back. Twist the hook 180 and pull the shank through the bait until the eye is in the plastic. Now lay the hook alongside the bait and make a mental note of where it would enter and exit the bait, this will be on an angle toward the nose of the bait. Insert the hook point to where it's almost exiting the top of the bait. You can insert a piece of heavy mono, or a toothpick through the nose and hook eye and then trim off any excess to keep the bait from slipping down the shank.

Chris, have your charger checked out if you don't know how to do it yourself. What happened is an indication that the auto shut down on the charger failed either due to a fault in the battery (deteriorating plates sometimes make contact), or the charger. It isn't uncommon for a two or three stage charger to have one bank go bad. I'd have it checked out before hooking up another battery to that bank.

Until I first heard the term being used by fishermen, my understanding was 'dink' was a reference to one's male part. My assumption after hearing it used when fishing was that a dink was anything shorter than that person's 'dink' until a guy I was fishing with caught a 14in. bass and refered to it as a dink! On a good day I don't even get to double digits, even in my dreams. To this day, I never use the term and you can guess why. (can you say LIDS?)

Here's one I proved wrong right after I first heard it; Your crankbait will run deeper with fluorocarbon than it will with mono because it sinks.

See Matt's post

A Mafia Don calls his only son over to his death bed and says: Tony, lissin a me' I wanna givea you dis chrome plated revolver befor I die. It was my Papa's and now itsa youz. But Papa, I dona like da guns, howz about you gimme your Rolex instead. Lissena a me, some day you a gonna run da bizziness, you gonna have lotsa money, a beautiful wive, a nicea houz and maybe a couple of bambinos. One day you gonna come home and finna da wife in you bed wit another man.........What you gonna do then, huh...Pointa to you watch and say 'Timesa up!"

Slightly thicker line diameter goes hand in hand with abbrasion resistance in most monos, this is one reason many anglers prefer flouro as it is thinner without sacrificing abbrasion resistance. I still prefer mono in the summer and Original Stren and McCoy are my choices , I seem to re-tie more often with Trilene XT. I did try out Yo-Zuri Hybrid (the nylon/fluoro) at the end of the season and was impressed with the performance, but I didn't fish any rocky or timber filled water.