papajoe222

If possible, I prefer to pre-fish it twice under different conditions. The closer to the date of the tourney, the better. I do more searching with my electronics than actual fishing. I'll attempt to locate at least three spots with decent numbers and check those areas again on a subsequent outing to see if the area still holds fish. If it's a small body of water and I have concerns that others may sit on those spots, I'll look for subtle spots close by that the fish my retreat to if pressured. If it's a big lake, I'll do my homework with a topo map marking spots similar to the ones I physically checked out While on the the water. I don't like to actually fish for any length of time, just enough to confirm the fish I'd marked are indeed bass and decent size. My reasoning is that I don't want to have too many preconceived ideas about what will actually put fish in the live well on tournament day.

Disappointing finish for this one, but not for the year. Only boated four keepers, but one just under 6lb. Gave me a total of 34lb. 14oz and a third place finish. Not my best finish this year, but with an avg. weight over three pounds I'm very happy. There's always next year, God willing, if I decide to continue competing. If I decide to hang 'me up I'll be doing so on a positive note. Best of luck to those of you with upcoming competitions. For now, this tired old man is going to take what he considers a well deserved rest.

Well I ended up telling him how I do it after dinner. He appologized for going off on me, said he was just frustrated because he feels he doesn't have a chance now for AOY. I told him there's always the big bass trophy for the season. That fish could be caught later today. He's going to check out my rigging for the crank, but he doesn't fish a C-rig much and that's pretty much the way I get that shallow crank to the bottom of the water column. I'm hoping to get a decent limit with a couple of hours left to cull. I had one dink to fill out my limit yesterday and am in 8th 14oz. behind the leader. Haven't finished first yet this year, but I'm still confident especially because I've had a full day on this lake and the weather looks to continue to be fairly stable.

I love my Daiwa reels ,but the low geared ones leave me wanting my Curado back. I prefer brakes over magnets for that application. I'm thinking that is why I can get the cranking model so much cheaper. Thanks for the replies. I don t care what the reel appears to be as long as it lives. Up to the performance I've come to expect after the swap.

I started using circle hooks when my kids were new to the sport. They were either gut hooking the fish or forgetting to set the hook. Circle hooks eliminated both problems when using live bait. I transitioned them and the wife to fishing plastics, but continued using the circle hooks. Now I use them for most of my finess worm presentations from wacky rigs to drop and splitshotting For the big stick worms I've been using cat fish. Circle hooks when wacky rigging. I have to remind myself that it's a circle hook so that I just raise the rod and reel, but it's getting easier to remember as I only use those presentations with spinning gear. I have tried them when Texas rigging, but found it difficult to rig, even when skin hooking. A hook with a pronounced bend above the barb comes through many snags fairly well if you use the rod to maneuver through them. Reeling with the rod tip high will get you hung.

I prefer Deep Middle N's, the Raps don't have the bouyancy I like.

I've been looking into getting a Zillion, but they're just a bit out of my price range. I was wondering, If I did a gear swap on a 100PH to 6.3:1 wouldn't I end up with basically a 100HA??? I mean, all the specs look the same except the gears. I can get that reel and those gears for about $50 less than the 100HA/ What do you Daiwa guys think?

I started out as a kid fishing for walley and crappie at my folk's summer cottage in Wisconsin. The first fish I caught on an artificial was a smallmouth that coudn't have been much over a pound, but it fought like no other fish I'd ever had on. I was hooked on artificials and bass.

I just finished up day one of my club's last tourney. I weighed in 18.7 which should put me somewhere in the middle of the pack. Tomorrow I'm looking to bag in the neighborhood of 20lb. which should put me in the top 10 hopefully. To get to the subject of this thread; after weigh-in I was approached by a long time fellow competitor and asked flat out what was I using. I don't have a problem with sharing knowledge, competition or not. I replied that all but one of my fish was caught on a Mann's 1-minus just off the bottom in 18-20ft. where the sandgrass wasn't very high. Before I could explain how I accomplished that feat, he started trash talking in front of a bunch of the guys loud enough that it drew a bit of a crowd. Personally, it didn't make a d**n bit of difference to me if he believed me or not. In most of the tourneys I've participated in over the years, there are guys that will give false info in an attempt to mislead fellow competitors. I have never been one and at my worst, I just don't share until after the event. For some reason, I feel I owe this guy an appology. Not because he felt I was BS ing him, but because he misunderstood my intentions. The guy really isn't a jerk, but he was in the running and only weighed two fish today. Guess I'll wait until morning and tell him the whole story, or should I just kick his tail with another good sack tomorrow and leave the set-up on my deck?

I like putting as many odds in my favor when I'm out chasing the big girls and the more I can up the percentages, the more confident I am. Mono was all I ever used because that's what was available. I had to go with 20lb. mono when I first started fishing plastic worms deep to eliminate some of the stretch seeing as I was using a 5'6" broomstick of a rod. A lot of changes have been introduced into this sport over the years and I imagine there are more to come. Improvements in things like line, lighter and more sensitive rods, lighter and more user friendly reels, not to mention advances in electronics. All of these and more have made my quest both easier and more enjoyable, which is my goal. Mono has a solid foothold as a tool for me, but when the need for a box-end wrench arrises I'll use it if I have it rather than an open end. If I don't have it, you can be sure I'll go out and get it before I tackle a similar job.

I used up a bulk spool of the copolymer I had and was happy with the performance, but I wasn't familiar with this particular hybrid. Even though it is thicker for the lb. test, I'm choosing by the diameter as I have a good knowledge of the running depth of most of my cranks. I'm giving up on fluoro because of line breakage issues. I get a little over zealous attempting long casts with my deep divers and just recently purchased a reel with dual braking to help avoid the minor backlashes I would get as a result. The fluoro would develop a kink and even after removing it, would eventually break at that point on a subsequent cast.

I find myself using older techniques more when fishing gets tough. Swimming a jig for example when a spinnerbait isn't producing, or a small crankbait behind a C - Rig to get it deep when a deep diving crank is killing my wrist. I do have a tendency to start out with some of the newer baits that are more presentation specific, but I think my confidence isn't in them as much as in the history of production of some of the older stuff.

I have two favorites for the shallow rivers I fish. A #7 Original Floating Rapala-Gold/Black and a Squirrel Tail Mepps. I can keep both of these up off the bottom to avoid getting hung up and they're easier to 'steer' into productive areas than bottom bouncer's

I've totaly given up on Fluorocarbon and although I still use mono for my topwaters and on the backside of my C-rigs, I'm looking for some kind of compromize. Mono is a poor choice for me for cranking which is what I was mainly using the fluoro for. I noticed that Yo-Zuri offers a Hybrid Fluoro/Nylon and was wondering about your thoughts and experiences with it. Supposedly it has less stretch than mono, which is what I want to accomplish with a cranking line.

If I want a big profile, I'll trim the skirt to the back of the hook bend and use a full size trailer. If I want a compact one, I'll trim the trailer so the action tails stick out just past the skirt. If I want to go small, but still use a heavy jig, I'll trim both the skirt and trailers as mentioned.

I recommend purchasing a rod building kit that contains most of the materials for the the rod. Most kits will give guide placement measurements. You can add a little customizing by using whatever color thread you like. Tool kits are also available as are individual tools. Check out e-bay for a dryer. My first was a single speed motor and chuck that I mounted to a homemade stand for under $20

Scent dips like JJ's and SpikeIt are made for soft plastics. They not only add scent, they change the color of the plastic, so you only need to purchase the colors you want. If you're strictly talking about adding scent, there are quite a few to choose from in both liquid and gel forms and in a number of scents (craw,shad,garlic, worm). Those can be used on both hard and soft baits.

IMO, a spinnerbaits is a better option than a square bill crank when conditions are favorable for using a movie bait. Those conditions would include cloudy or breezy days, stained to muddy water, low light conditions, etc. And before all the square bill fan(atic)s chime in, let me just say one thing.......You can cover the entire water column with one spinnerbait

Two answers here. Bass tend to school by size and many schools that follow bait schools are in the size range you've been catching. Big fish rarely waste energy chasing forage. If there are bigger fish there, likely they are positioned under the fish that are feeding on the surface, feeding on any injured bait that falls below the school above. There are two ways I target those bigger fish below. A 1oz. White jig with a trailer that has little or no action and a deep diving suspending jerk or crank bait. Give the jig a few pops of the rod tip after it clears the school. Catching a fish on the jig will give you the location of the fish's depth and you can cast past the surface action far enough to get your crank to depth before pausing or jerking.

I could state that I've caught more quality smallie a on a SuperSpook than any other top water, but that would be misleading. A Spook is the ONLY top water I catch them on. BTW, it's also the only one they catch me on. My last outing netted four SM over 3lb. and two hooks in my hand

Without mentioning the brand, I recently had the worst day jig fishing in terms of having fish come unbuttoned. I throw white jigs all year and tied on a 3/4oz. one that day that I'd never used, straight out of the package. Normally, I'll trim the weed guard on an angle. I must have lost four fish before I realized that it wasn't the hook's sharpness at fault. Between the guard's poor angle and numbes of the fibers , I just couldn't get a good hook-set. Prior to loosing those fish I had found myself impressed with the jig's performance coming through brush and laydowns. Rather than trim the guard, I spread it out. That solved the problem, but got me to wondering if this particular company did any field testing prior to releasing these jigs. I know that I'm at fault as much as they are, after all many companies use inferior hooks, split rings, etc. and I rarely use them straight out of the package. So this post has two purposes. The first is a reminder to check your jig's weed guard PRIOR TO USE and the second is to elicity sympathy for this forgetfull old codger. Feel free to respond to either.

There is also the possibility that the fish only had the trailer in it's mouth when it moved off, or it may have been bream messing with you. I can't see a little fish moving off with that much weight, but I've caught 6in. crappie on a 3/4oz. swim jig so......

Over the years, I've used a lot of different brands of mono and this one is by far the best. It combines low visibility, abrasion resistance, limpness and lower stretch compared to other lines of equal strength. I haven't been fishing a lot of mono lately, but my experiences with flouro have left a really bad taste in my mouth. I've been switching back to mono on the reeels I've had spooled with flouro and McCoy gets the nod for under 10lb. test.

Thanks guys. Awesome sites and the bait monkey is busy with his girlfriend, so I'm going to check them out now.

I'm looking to upgrade my two Daiwa Sols and am looking for a supplier. I have already added spool and worm gear bearings, drag washers and polished applicable parts. What I'm looking for now is handles with bearings. Please point me in the right direction as I don't trust Flea-Bay even if I could find one there.