Hook2Jaw

The Predator is faster and I don't like that Hobie is continously raising their prices.

@Tizi, let me know how you like it! I'm trying to sell my PA14 as we speak to sidegrade into an OT Predator.

I held a fish in 50 degree water this past Saturday for 20 minutes until the fiancee arrived with a scale. Probably not the best way to treat a fish, but probably not worse than a livewell. Congratulations on a new personal best! That is a pretty fish!

Goodness, man, you're a wild man if you think you're capable of fighting off any gator that -thinks- it's capable of making a meal of you. A danger log that has aspirations of being a man eater is gonna be 10' or longer, you'd be surprised how small a 6'er actually is. Yeah, a 7' gator got that kid at Disney and rest in peace, but that child was two. I've been run out of a slough by a territorial female, and had quite a few scare the tar out of me in South Georgia that I nearly stepped on. You won't have to worry about a girl defending a nest or young, that happens around June. More often than not, an alligator is going to disappear and stay away from you. All of those that I've startled up walking transmission lines at work have. If they don't, experts recommend to fight like hell. It's going to grab you and roll, trying to tear off meat. Attack the snout and eyes. I would not recommend trying to stab one, the time it's gonna take you to access your pocket, open a knife, and secure a grip on it enough to not have your hand slide down the blade when it stops in the hide is far too long. I recommend you pick up a big stick if you want to fend off an alligator. I don't think you'll have to, though. You should be more worried about Mr. Noshoulders. Just watch where you walk. If you just have to walk through some high grass or underbrush, use that stick I just brought up to slap out in front of you and hopefully startle unsavory reptiles out.

It'll lob out there fine on a MH, and with the weight of a waver you'll get distance without issue. I, personally, wouldn't try to really load a cast on that stick. I prefer not to modify my rods into 2 piece sticks. Man. It is. I need to order another bill worth of Huddlestons.

3/8oz with my Fuegos that are on my Aird-Xs.

Personally, I have trouble casting 1/4oz squarebills on my 7' MHF Aird-X, but it's doable. I imagine the 6'6" and 7' MF could do it pretty well. Keep in mind that after you add lead or tungsten to many soft plastic presentations as well as the plastic itself you've typically exceeded 1/4oz by quite a few fractions. A senko, for instance, is a heavy bait, so keep that in mind when you're selecting your Aird-X. They're fine rods, an excellent budget offering, and I own two. They're good sticks for moving baits but I would put braid on whatever reel you're using if it's for bottom contact. The sensitivity has been pretty poor in my opinion. Your mileage may vary.

Man, spotted bass are beautiful. They're a nomadic, hunting fish and I'm glad you guys got on as many as you did. I try my best to focus on the bait as you did, but my spots are on blueback herring and they make for a topwater bite nearly all day long. I would have given a paddle tail swimbait a go if they're on shad as well as an underspin.

I'm better at finesse than power, and only have a tad amount of drop shot experience, probably 50 fish or so. Some of my favorite baits for it are YUM Kill Shots(these guys are a slayer. 2.99 a pack and they get bit.), the YUM Sharpshooter, both sizes, and the YUM 4" Dinger, wacky rigged. I pretty much exclusively use Lunkerhunt Dropshot Hooks, and don't knock them before you try them. They are sticky and pin fish. Water Gremlin Dipsey Sinkers because man, tungsten is expensive and I'm not willing to take a dollar hit everytime I lose one. Dropshotting is a less is more technique. Allowing slack into my line to allow my bait to slowly fall has gotten me most of my bites. Shaking it lightly also gets bit. I use these finesse approaches for shallow and deep water, and keep it away from grass and laydowns. Alternatively I use a 7' MHF with trick worms, full size stick worms, and paddle tail swimbaits. The tricks and sticks are worked like previously mentioned. The swimbait is slow reeled along the bottom. This is done on a 1/0 EWG, rigged weedless, with 3/8 to 1/2oz weights near and in cover. 12-14# fluoro for this one, personally. Dropshotting can be as finesse or power as you want it to be, and can work at any time of the year. It seems to be the Ned rig of the past. It gets bit. Good luck!

Getting the stuff from Mudhole to build myself a 6'3" MXF and a Daiwa Tatula 100 6.3:1 to put on it. Also getting some Frogg Toggs Pilot II rain gear. I hope it's not terrible.

She is a good looking girl! She swam off really pretty on the release. I should have taken more pictures, she had some old scratches from bumping into cover I'm guessing and a single black dot on her head. I'll know her when I catch her again.

Thanks, @NorcalBassin! Man, there's a lot of Norcals in the @ tag! Yep. Trying to make memories. Hoping to turn that young man into a machine before he discovers running the roads and women.

I refuse to conform to your 5 rod rule.

Fishing line has been designed with your saliva in mind. Spitting it reduces the consistency -- the only way to make sure your line of choice does not burn is to swish your splish through your teeth until it's of foamy consistency and then threading the line between your lips. The fish gods smile on those who ***** their face flesh with trebles before cinching.

5.7 pounds. .725 if I wanna squeeze what the scale said. She gave my finesse jig a tick and I was able to get in an eye crossing hookset before landing her on the 13 Fate Chrome 7'1" MF with the Daiwa Fuego 7.3:1 strung up with @J Francho's favorite line, Berkley Vanish. That YUM Craw Chunk keeps putting big fish on the end of my line.

I made it out for a couple hours today. Georgia winter, so I actually had to wear pants and a jacket. It was windy, overcast, and the tail end of a front and that led me to have a good feeling on the way out to my bank busting spot. I really wanted them to be on the jerkbait, but it seems my air temperatures and water temperatures have my bass acting like it's late fall. They seem to be smacking bait. They were certainly smacking the H2O Xpress lipless crank I was throwing in sexy shad. I caught 6 off of it, with four being between 2-3 pounds. Good fish for the pond I'm at. I was having a good day. Then I went down the side of the pond where a creek feeds it and starting tossing a finesse jig, a 5/16oz Boss Finesse Flip with a Boss BlackBrownAmber skirt on it, finesse cut all pretty and such. On the back of it is a 3.25" YUM Craw Chunk in Craw. One side looks like a turd, the other like a pumpkin. Oh well. It caught my PB. It also caught this one. She went 5.7 pounds. My son's was $19.99.

I've been fishing at least once a week for the past 3 years, and I'm 32 now, but I've known how to cast and catch bass since I was 7 or so. I'm probably as good at it now as I was then, but that's besides the point. Yes, it is normal to be obsessed or even addicted to fishing. I get depressed when I end up at home - I try to go fishing at least once a week and make two runs a month to my closest lake. Juliette is two hours away and frequently beats me down, but I love it.

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Come on man, design me some horizontal rod storage that'll connect to a kayak crate lid.

For guys interested in adding a drive to the Shearwater 125, I would -seriously- consider just slapping a Hobie Mirage drive in it, be it of the v1, turbo, or 180 variety. It'll accept all those options, and all are proven. Why? Pelican's Hydryve has been a piece of junk so far. While I'd trust Vibe to put a serviceable hull on the market, as they have done time and time again, I would not trust them to get their own Mirage Drive right the first few times around.

I've caught plenty of fish as a kid with Rapala original floaters, black and silver, and as a young man, several on X-Raps and Shad Raps. On @Dwight Hottle's recommendation, I'll be giving the Down Deep Husky Jerks a go. That many giant smallies is amazing.

@Dwight Hottle, thanks, man! I'll probably add them to the box, then. I would need a heavier jerkbait rod to try the 14, but that gives me an excuse to build another short stick and stepping up to a MH will let me double up and roll cast some spinnerbaits on it. Now I need to make room for the Rapala Licky Reindeer as well.

Thanks, @roadwarrior, it's nice to know the reindeer can catch snowflakes.

@Dwight Hottle, I seem to recall you talking about Rapala Husky Jerks in multiple threads. Have you fished the Rapala Down Deep Husky Jerk any? Specifically, I'm wondering if they suspend well, get bit, and how deep they get. I'm looking for a few baits to round out my deeper jerkbait arsenal and the DHJ12, 4 1/2", 1/2oz, 8-19'(I realize the upper end is trolled) has caught my eye. I can probably touch 35-40 yards with my other half ounce jerkbaits, and more with the wind, on 10# fluoro, if that helps any.

I stick with EWGs for pitching heavy cover as well. I haven't had the bend catch on anything that I've noticed, and it helps my plastic stay on the hook instead of sliding down the shank. The bait keepers on a lot of flipping hooks are nice and I'm sure they do the job well, but I like to keep it simple. I like offset round bend for worming, but as far as pitching to cover goes I've normally got a 4/0 or 5/0 EWG tied on.