Big Hands

I would suggest both of you consider that you may be experiencing symptoms of carpal tunnel.

Does this morning count? It's gonna rain here this weekend, so I got on it and had a great morning on the Carolina rig.

My grandfather owned a garage and had a barrel of old spark plugs. I took several of them to use as weights when I was a kid and didn't have much money for tackle. They worked better than having no weight at all, even if they were not all Champion brand ;~) We used discarded flywheels for anchors with a rope up to an old bleach jug if we wanted to leave it there while water skiing.

While I don't have 'giant hands', the hand I palm a reel with measures 10.5" from the tip of my thumb to the tip of my pinkie finger when outstretched (I am a size 11 in glove sizes, or at least an XXL to be comfortable). Interesting that someone would feel a reel is too small to be comfortable. In spite of my 'big hands', I love the lower profile on the SLX MGL 70. It's on an SLX casting rod, so the reel seat doesn't have it perched up high.

I have the Ike Special from Flambeau. It holds four 3700's and that is the main reason I went with that backpack. I can cram a 3500 in with the four 3700's if I want to. It's surprisingly comfortable, but I don't use it that often as I have a boat to fish from most of the time and use my Daiwa bag for that as it holds five 3700's. I didn't want to switch back and forth between 3600 and 3700 and didn't want to use 3600's for everything, so this works for me (in spite of not being especially heavy duty) for hiking and biking excursions. I don't know that a perfect 3700 capable backpack exists, at least not one I would spring for.

I am in my experimental phase with braid, and the pendulum has definitely swung in that direction across the board with me. I have braid (with either fluoro or mono leaders; no straight braid at this time) on more outfits than straight fluoro and mono straight combined. So far, I like quite a bit about braid for most applications, especially on the spinning outfits. I'm pretty sure I'll stick to that for the long term, but not as sure with the baitcasters.

It was harder to wait through it than it was to wait for it ;~) Thank you for your hard work and thoughtful consideration on the utilization of the available features. I tried to increase the font size of user submitted content (I assumed this meant posts in the forums), and it appears to have stayed the same size or changed very little.

I haven't kept a largemouth bass in over 25 years. If someone else catches one, it's theirs, of course, to do with as they please. But I was fishing so much, that I would have needed a freezer just for the fish I was catching and that wasn't something I wanted to do, and I certainly didn't want to clean fish when I got home at the end of a day. Largemouth are far from the tastiest freshwater gamefish too. I have kept a catfish, striper, bluegill or crappie, but only occasionally. My daughter has started fishing with me a lot this year and she has mentioned that if I was keeping fish, catching them probably wouldn't appeal to her. That is an easy call for me.

A friend told me his wife was fishing crawdads and broke off a fish. I fished the spot a couple days later and one of the fish I caught had a hook in it. I took the hook (and a short section of line attached to it) to him and he said it was the type she was using. I once hooked what I believe to be a pretty big fish for as few seconds in a small nook in the bank. I was prefishing for a tournament, so I just left the area. I returned to the area the morning of the tournament, and right in that small nook in the bank, hooked a dandy. We fought for a while, and then it snapped my 4 lb test line. I don't know how many green meanies could hang out in a cut in the bank the size of a dining room table, but I would wager that it was the same fish both times. That was the last time I used 4 lb line fishing for bass. There are some interesting telemetry studies coming to light here recently that track bass after they have been caught and they are finding that many of them immediately swim right back to the same piece of cover they were caught from.

Best I can tell, the KDS 110 Sexy Shad is a knockoff of the Vision 110. I haven't tried them, but know someone that has and recommends them.

That's not necessarily a bad thing.

The line sizes I use are generally at or near the smallest line sizes recommended for the rods they're used on. Maybe that's why I don't have enough issues with the 7/7 Alberto to worry about having to tie an FG knot. If I was feeding my family with money earned from how many fish I could land, I might feel inclined to use it when fishing for money, but sadly, nobody is paying me to fish ;~) If the Alberto was giving me regularly occurring problems, I might consider learning to be proficient with the FG knot, but that isn't happening either. As ridiculous as the Bimini Twist is to tie (not that I would use the Bimini Twist to join lines, and it's been a minute since I have tied a BT), I think I could tie one easier than an FG knot. If the FG is what you need, then more power to you, but it's 'knot' for me.

I have the 6'10" Medium SLX rod paired with the SLX MGL 70XG reel that I use mostly for jerkbaits. Very nicely balanced combo that I could fish all day with.

Pretty sure that when you get up into that territory when bass fishing that there are other considerations you must account for, like hook strength, rod strength and how much force you can put on a fish before some aspect of the connection fails. But you knew that already ;~)

Tribal knowledge is a wonderful thing. Thanks for sharing. Everybody knows where 'Bob' and 'Danny' used to hang out, LOL. Should I act like I didn't spend a fair amount of time last night looking at historical google earth photos of the lake? ;~) The 'OFH' looks like it could be just a little ways from where 'Dick' and 'Don' used to hover. . . .

I have a Tranx 400a on a Phenix PSW869H-Deck Hand rod for throwing swimbaits from 2 to 8 ozs, and still wonder if I should have went with the 300. I started with 30# line, then 25#, and now use 20# line. The 25# and especially the 30# line were just too stiff. They didn't act right with slow swimming swimbaits. If they had the resistance of a bill, they might play better with heavier mono or fluorocarbon line, but they don't. The Tranx 400 is much smaller than the Daiwa Lexa 400, but it's still a decent size chunk sitting on top of a rod. If I was ocean fishing, then the 400 would be a no brainer.

Octopus hooks and octopus circle hooks are not the same hook. I would put mosquito hooks in the same category as the regular drop shot hooks and octopus (non-circle) hooks, as in if I can get the wide gap finesse hooks, I would much prefer to use them, YMMV.

I like the #4.

The light came on for me when I was first experimenting with the dropshot. I was working it like a texas rig or slipshot worm, slowly crawling along the bottom. Couldn't get bit to save my soul. Then I set my rig down to take a few bites from a breakfast burrito, and when I picked the rod back up, an angry 2.5 lb smallie was on the end of it. I don't totally leave it in one spot, but work it slow and methodically with long pauses. On the other hand, I have been bit several times right when the rig pulls loose from being snagged, enough to make me think about how to emulate that sudden movement on my own. I think they must be staring at it and when it pops loose, they just jump on it instinctively. I went two to three times a week all summer and caught fish every time out, mostly on the DS (some nose hooked, most were wacky rigged). I went through well over 20 bags of the 4.8" Jackall flickshake worm in pumpkin pepper on a #4 wide gap finesse hook. The lake recently turned over and the fish are not relating to bottom like they were, so that bite has cooled off, but they were all over it all summer long. Also, you'll see the Gamakatsu drop shot hooks and octopus hooks for sale that look like they would do well, but I would pass on those in favor of their wide gap finesse hooks. I had a much better chance of getting and keeping those stuck in the fish. Grand hooksets are also a good way to pull those small hooks right out of the fish's mouth. Just reel down and lift while still reeling.

Time and a place. Not that I would look forward to using one, but. . . . . one of, if not THE most knowledgeable fisherman I have ever known swears to have caught many great bass on the Pocket Fisherman when in stealth fishing situations. The right tool for the job. There are anglers that can outfish most people using monofilament wrapped around a pop bottle. A Pocket Fisherman might be an upgrade for them.

So, I'm confused. Does color matter, or doesn't it?

I bought a reel that was a JDM model from ebay . . . . in Croatia. Bought it on a Friday at noon and it was at my door mid-afternoon on Monday for a $15 shipping fee. Unbelievable, but true.

I'd pass. It will be a completely different rod with 6" of the tip missing. Yes, you can quote me on that.

I have the SLX MGL 70 and put 30 lb braid on it with 10 lb fluorocarbon leader on a medium SLX casting rod. So far, so good. I decided against 20 lb braid for fear of it digging in as well.

In California, having alcohol in your boat is the same as having it in your car. I have no desire to do either. I have fished all day without eating a thing because "I didn't have time to eat". Sometimes I wouldn't get a nibble all day, but still didn't want to take the time to eat anything. If I fish with someone else, I adjust my expectations accordingly. Very few are quite as serious as I am about fishing, some not serious at all. If someone just wants to get hammered, they can do that on their own time and dime.