papajoe222

I have two, and although they don't get used much anymore, I did polish the gears and spool shaft and upgraded to Boca bearings (I believe ABEC 7). I'm very happy with the results. If you do your own 'super tune' don't be aggressive with the spool shaft ends. Too much is a BIG no no.

I use braid on my spinnerbait/buzz bait combo. I don't concern myself much with the line visibility factor unless I'm slow rolling in clear, shallow water. In that case, I'll take a Sharpie and break up the outline of the last foot or two of the line by marking it every few inches.

It took some searching, but I just picked up my second Daiwa Sol. I never realized how difficult it is to find someone willing to part with one. Wouldn't you know it, two days after I bought this one a guy I know in GA lets me know he has two new ones in stock and was I interested. Duh, interested yes. Do I have the finances, not nearly So if anyone is interested in purchasing a new Sol, but is running around in circles looking for one, PM me and I'll hook you up with him.

I just finished my first rod build and I can tell you that although it may not be the best rod in my collection, it's the one I'm most proud of. I started out adding custom wraps to a few of my rods and jumped in and got one of their kits. It's a great way to start out, but be forewarned, it's addictive. I just ordered a couple of rod blanks, guide sets, etc. to keep myself busy over the off season. The wife and daughter will be getting one of a kind rods for Christmas this year

I like to add my own keeper to a straight shank Gammy worm hook. I use my fly tying vise, wrap an angle cut piece of finishing nail a bit below the eye. A drop of super glue and I have a keeper that works much better than an offset. Don't know why I don't use this hook for all my plastics, but I just use it for flipping creature type baits.

Great post! I remember using Jelly Worms almost exclusively back around that time period, Grape/fire tail was my most productive. It isn't any wonder that the tackle market follows the pro circut in terms of marketing. I, like many others tended to follow the trends believing that a particular lure could be the difference in catching the fish of a lifetime, or just putting more fish in the livewell. I'm older and wiser now and although I still try the 'new kid on the block', I love catching fish on stuff that I've had or techniques I used that are 20 or 30 years old. Although I don't have any plastics that are that old, I still have a couple of packs of Grape Jelly Worms that I break out when the conditions are right, and a big white jig with a 4 or 5in. grub gets the nod over a swimbait this time of year for me. I've been filling my livewell for many an autumn on those two baits.

That isn't an inexpensive rod and unless you don't mind the chance of ruining it or loosing a fish, go ahead and use it. The missing guide will end up taxing not only the other guides, but the rod in the wrong places. Guides are placed along the spine of the blank and spaced according to the power curve of it. When one is missing, it changes the bend of the blank under load. My advice is to leave it home and go with the spare. Getting a guide replaced isn't a big deal, but have whoever does it check out the others. Whatever caused the loss of that one, may cause the loss of others down the road.

That 50E should do a good job with the Senkos and such. I wouldn't go with ceramics though, ABE7's will give you exceptional performance without the excess noise. The 50E is about the same as a Daiwa Sol when it comes to the light stuff. The Pixys, although more expensive, aren't any better with the light stuff. Just a lot smoother and a fraction lighter. For $200, I'd be hard pressed NOT to grab it up, but I'm a Daiwa junkie.

Unless you're using a really stiff rod, you should be able to cast these things fairly well. I use a BPS cranking stick for all but my really deep cranks and although I'm not getting the distance I would out of a bigger bait, I don't have any problems throwing them. Cranks are a great tool for both covering water and giving you a good 'read' on what's going on down there, not to mention darn good fish catchers. Spinnerbaits were never one of my confidence baits until I went out one day with just a handfull of them. By the end of the day, even though I didn't catch a lot of fish, I became comfortable with them. Now, there's always one tied on to one of my rods. Give it a try with cranks sometime. They may become one of your favs.

Using braid for this technique is almost a given as mono and fluoro may stretch too much to effectively clear the bait from and of the weeds. What you need to be careful with when it comes to using braid, is keeping your drag setting on the light side and sometimes that means dropping your thumb onto the spool when ripping the lure out of the weeds. You can still take advantage of the reaction strike without letting the lure get hung up in the weeds. As long as you can feel the lure ticking the weed tops, you can give it a rip. You won't be attempting to clear the bait, just trying to trigger a response. I do this when using my regular cranking set-up. Just don't forget to let that bait fall back down to the weed tops. There isn't a better crank out there for doing this than StrikeKing's RedEye Shad. That bait really shines when it's falling. I've lost track of how many times I've had fish hit it as I was counting it down to the weeds.

That's what I love about the forums here. You guys are always asking questions. Mikey could have just gone back to throwing the 1/2oz. and catching fish and left it at that. I don't have a definitive answer for you either, just speculation that it's likely a combination of size and weight difference. I know you said those fish will hit a swim bait or big worm, but I'd bet that if they are hitting a six inch swimbait and you upped the size to eight inches you'd likely experience something very similar. Just as color sometimes makes all the difference in the world, so does size and as a couple of guys mentioned, fall rate. If I were in that situation, I'd try a 1/4oz. and see if I didn't up my percentages or if they'd also drop.

Pick a weight or size in your mind, say 18in. and 4lb.14oz. Now add a couple of inches every year from now until your 18th. birthday and that's the story to stick with until you catch something bigger that what this formula says at the time. At 15, I caught a 16in. smallie that grew to almost 20in. by the time I reached 18. My problem is I've never caught a smallie over 20in. and over 40yrs have gone by!!

I've fished a lot of strip pits and a few quaries in my day and one thing is common among them all; they're clear and deep. Fall fishing, although the waters are vastly different, is the same in the north as in the south and the common factor is the bass will follow the baitfish. Where I am, that's bluegill and fry sized bass. The minnow population has been fairly well depleted to wintering size and the bass know (don't ask me how) that bluegill are rich in nutrients. You will be tempted to fish deep, but don't unless you know for sure that the gill are there. If you know the depth of the water, concentrate your early efforts on the upper 1/4 of the water column. If not, start shallow and work your way down. Once you've covered that part of thw water column with fast moving baits like cranks and spinners, go back over it with something slower like a stick worm rigged weghtless or a jerk bait. Small, natural colored baits will get you the most bites,but if you're after that elusive fall hog, a single bladed (big blade) spinnerbait can cover the whole water column. If you know of a section that the bass use for spawning in the spring, Check it out in the fall as it is attractive to smaller fish, and that's what the bass are looking for. You can get into some real numbers this time of the year in a quary as the bass in these waters are rarely loners. Once you find the activity level, stick with it until it stops producing and have some fun.

I've found myself going back to the good ole round bend worm hooks like the Gammy 48114, mainly because I throw a lot of big worms and this hook has a longer shaft than most EWG hooks. My second choice is a regular offset for the same reason. I do like EWGs for tubes and smaller worms. Just personal preference though. I've caught fish on a 10in. worm and a 4/0 EWG and getting the hook into the fish or keeping it there was never an issue for me.

#1, White jig/Kalins grub #2 Shallow running crank. I like to swim that jig combo and give it a pop of the rod tip now and the. Both the Bandit and KVD cranks can be moved along at a pretty good clip without 'blowing out' or rolling on their sides. The lakes around here are natural, so the creek arms and flats associated with fall shad movements are replaced with bays and slow tapering points that the bluegill and bass fry migrate to. I won't hesitate to fish a top water prop bait, especially if I know there are active fish in the area. This seems to be the only time I can work one aggressively with decent results.

You did better from shore than I did from the boat last week-end. Four hours and a couple of pike were all we had to show for our trip. I may just leave the boat on the trailer and fish from the shore by the launch next time. Glad to see you putting all the great infor here and elsewhere to good use.

I know what you mean about a nice fish pulling you around. I fished from a 'belly boat' (inner tube) for a few years and It only took a fish of three or four pounds to get me tubing accross the water. Nice fish. Congrats

Simple answer is within casting distance to the spot. The complicated part is determining what type of cast you'll be using. As I said: "within casting distance" and that distance will be different for the different types of casts you could use. Flipping or pitching would put you a lot closer than an underhanded roll cast and an overhand cast could put you 100ft. from your target. Light penetration and mood of the fish are factors you consider when trying to determine what type of cast you should use. Overcast skies, stained water, windy conditions, etc. all reduce light penetration and cold front conditions, although often associated with clear skies will put fish tight to cover and not willing to chase down your offering. These are conditions where you'd want to get closer to or farther from your target . For a verticle presentation, that would equate to flipping or pitching. For horizontal presentations that would mean possibly casting past your target to get your lure to the desired depth as it contacts or passes by your target.

That's up to you, but one thing I don't do when starting someone out is attempt to fish myself while instructing someone on their first outing.

I have the MinnKota three bank on mine and love it. I even left my batteries in the boat over the winter (with everything but the charger disconnected). I tried BPS model and ended up replacing it after the second season of use. I have a 24volt T/M and the cranking battery also. BTW, that's a good price on e-bay.

Well, it's officially fall bite time on my home water. According to my logs it normally happens once the water temp. drops to 68 or below. Got out today and the surface temp was down to 66 and the fish didn't disappoint. The water is clearing and the O2 leveles are up. It took me about an hour to zero in on a pattern of sorts and within the next three hours I boated over 30 fish, including a 20in. football shaped hog and three others over 18in. You can catch some real pigs in the spring when they're full of eggs, but I'll take fall for numbers and size. Plus, they seem to fight harder. At least this beauty did. I know, it's a poor poto, but I'm just learning how to post pics. Both these beauties were caucht on a KVD 1.5 in a bluegill pattern as were the majority of the fish I boated today.

I thought choosing lines was confusing

X2, but keep your tackle selections limited as this will force you to stay concentrated and will eliminate some clutter which is a big no no when fishing in the dark. Oh yea, keep your vest on. You never know where a stump will suddenly appear where you swear there wasn't one in the daylight.

Like the others, I get a map before I ever hit the water. If that isn't an option, I choose where to start by observing visible clues once on the water. Take into consideration the stage that the fish should be in at the time (pre-post spawn, summer, winter) and use a search type bait to probe those areas you feel would hold fish under those circumstances. I'll leave the rods on the deck for the first hour or so, or until I find, with my depth finder, what I feel is an area that should be holding fish. Then I just go about eliminating water until I hopefully contact fish. Your best bet in either situation is to pick out a small section of the lake you feel should be productive and pick it apart rather than running from one area of the lake to another and using only one or two approaches in one or two depth zones at each.

Just wondering how much tension to put on the spool when wrapping guides? Is it different for decorative wraps? I noticed when soing some practice wraps that if I put a lot of tension on the thread, I had difficulty with the finishing knot. I'm assuming quite a bit of tension is beneficial, but won't the epoxy saturate to the guide foot and rod blank to keep everything together? BTW, I added a RodSkinz to one of my favorite rods to dress it up a little and finished it off with a couple of coats of PermaGloss. I think it came out fairly good. as soon as I can figure out how to add a pic here, I'll show it off