RecMar8541

nice job there on san juan hill there teddy, while you were playing around out there I was kickin rommels *** on the desert LMBO

I am none other than George S Patton lol! Ole Blood and Guts himself. Pretty interesting test.

I have also caught several twice, and have had the experience of catching 2 smallies on one cast of a stickbait(dont remember brand) the first one hit it, then when it was within site of the boat, the other came from nowhere and grabbed at it trying to take it from the first....he got the hook as well. One was 3 pounds the other was 4. was not during a tourn.....but was horribly fun none the less.

The lake here is a soupbowl, with very little depth variation. and a solid muck bottom. At first glance that makes the water look really murky, but its actually quite clear. A bit tanic acid stained, but just a slight tint. The bottom is about as muck filled as you can get. I try to match the bottom, using junebug, watermelon or just about anything else that isnt to loud.

I grew up on the st joe river in michigan busting smallies. I like to use the Gary Yamamoto twintail skirted grub. Smallies love them. I had the best luck on watermelon with copper flakes, clear with copper flakes, and black with copper flakes. Also dont be afraid to try tube jigs.... Good luck and enjoy!

I am sorry to hear about your loss. It is a rare thing in life when we have a tried and true friend, and a definate loss when one parts from us. I have lost a few really close friends in my military career, and I believe basschaser hit the nail on the head. Take comfort in the fact he was doing something he loved. recon

Funny I should read this today. Night before last, a friend and I went out striper fishing on the st johns river. We set up under a bridge piling, and were casting against the current and cranking the bait with the current next to the piling. Sure as hell here comes a speck fisherman, and pulls his boat up to the row of pilings not 20 feet from us!!! I said "hey bud, thats right where we are casting." He replies"Oh hey Im sorry, I thought you guys were speck fishing right over the side, Ill move." Very nice guy named Gary. He Pulls his boat around to the other side of ours, and out of the kill zone, next to another spec fisherman named Ralph. Well ralph tells him to tell us to f off we dont own the river. blah blah blah blah. to prove his point he pulls his 80 year old butt right where gary had been fishing, right on top of where we were casting lol. The sad part is he did it just for spite. He had actually been catching nice 2 lb specs where he had been before he moved, he and gary were slaying them. But he had to "show us". The rest of the night the old man, who sat his dumb butt on out spot only caught 2 specs, gary on the other hand absolutly killed them!! The nice guy who moved for us was on the fish, and we whooped and hollered with everyone he caught!!! We caught stripers anyhow, even shared a few with gary, and gary caught himself a boat fulla nice spec. The cantankerous old man just sat stewing LOL.

just remember the white ones are only good for spring, if you are still wearing them after june 21st you are officially making a fashion boo boo (according to my wife). I think she just uses that to go shoe shopping LOL hehehehehehehe : : :

Rod tip high and a steady crank. The problem for me isnt the jump, its the landing. when the fish is going up the reel will keep the slack out, but when he comes down, if the rod tip is down, that can give them just enough slack to throw ya. If that makes any sence. I have a pretty good hookup/landing ratio and lose few. Keep that rod tip high, and the weight of the fish will keep him hooked, just my opinion.

Ok this will be an unusual post for me. I dont know lane, however that has no bearing. My prayers will be with him and his none the less. When a person needs this it should be given whole heartedly. Bucketmouth you are right. Gods will. He always knows whats best, even when we dont. I lost a son who was just short of his 2nd birthday a couple years ago, it was heart wrenching, and I firmly believe prayers got me through. In my career in the Military, I prayed more than most would realize, those prayers got me through. God dosent always give us what we want, but he does do whats best, even if we dont see it. Please dont delete this, it isnt a religious preeching or debate, it is simply my opinion and view, and is ment to comfort. I firmly believe that as fisherman we have an unusual bond, its odd in a way how fisherman just seem to click moreso than most other hobbies/sports. Recon

fedxpress, thanks for the info man. like the old saying is dosent cost anything to set the hook lol. I will give that bait some trigger time today!

teamhillbilly is right on the money. the one thing definitly NOT to do is tell them yeah I can do this or that, and not be able to. Be straight up and say, hey guys I am new and dont know how to back a boat, etc etc, they will be pretty willing to teach as long as you are straight with them.

I bought one of these a couple days ago from bps. havent tried it yet, but will give it a shot today. Do you fish these just like any other jig?

14 lbs 4 oz, when I was 15, I dont have pics of that one but it was caught on a chart spinner bait. and the one in my avatar, 12 lbs 4 oz caught on a junebug zoom fluke.

The first thing that catches my eye here is the lighter line. Lighter line takes a bit more practice with a bait caster. Can be a bit more touchy. Sounds like you have the basics, just work on the fine tuning of your reel and you should be screaming along in no time! Good luck with your new reels!!! Recon

Well i never tried the helicopter, nor most of rolands stuff. In my opinion, his stuff is ment to catch fisherman not fish. I would concur with the buzzbait, I have caught very few on it. But one of those goof lures that I still have, and use often, is the Banjo minnow. Ok stop laughing at me....Im telling you guys...I have killed the bass with that dang thing. and by the way, I actually caught a bass on the budweiser bait....um....course I think that day they would have eaten an anchor!

When I get into a slump, the first thing I do is go to confidence baits, as mentioned earlier. The second thing I do it fish like a maniac, warp speed times 7 because I am frustrated and am looking for a bite. So I put the select fire button on my reel to full auto and giver her hell.....this is completely unproductive of course....but I seem to do it anyhow. I then get to a point where I say ok.....tuupid....slow down, concentrate on presentation, and enjoy the water. Look around the lake for signs of feeding, try a new area( as we as humans are as predictable as anything) we tend to say well they were here last week, then refuse to leave a no longer productive area. Finally things just come back together some how as the great gods of bass smile on us once again. I believe this is something that noob, and guide, go through time to time. Keep the chin up, slow down, and use your favorite baits! Best wishes, and let us know when you get that biggun! Recon

Probably the number one thing that really roasts my nuggets is people who just dont know how good we have it here in the old US. I spent a number of years in the Military, and well quite frankly alot of things that used to peve me just dont seem so important anymore. Now I am not looking to incite a riot here, but I get so sick and tired of hearing people ***** and complain about this and that, and the gov this and the gov that. Is the US perfect, certainly not, but it is the best thing going. The best part about freedom.....if ya dont like it you have the freedom to LEAVE!! Bucketmouth, you now must come over to my house and clean my laptop. thanks to your post I just spit coffee all over it. Buddy that was some funny stuff, the real killer was the eating of the apple. Mainly because I generally eat an apple every morning, and in point of fact, have one cut up in a bowl in front of me right now. I would refer you to one thing you may have missed, worse than farting in church......my dad. When I was a kid my dad, who is 6 foot 7 and weight 285, would lock the friggin power windows in the car, then let a gut buster.....trapped, and in reasonable fear for your life, I learned at a young age to fear the death penalty, the gas chamber in particular. He who holds the remote, and controls the power windows is master of the universe, if only for a short period of time! Regards Recon

Just my 2 pennies here. We worry about bait color, rate of fall, size of bait, presentation, etc etc. I think to say that the fish just dont care about seeing the line is only as accurate as the aggresiveness of the fish. I believe a very aggresive bass wouldnt care, however, I believe Bass spend a very short part of the day in the "frenzy" mode, and for the most part are oportunistic feeders in "neutral" Mode. Having said that, I would want to stack every odd in my favor. I tried a bit of an test myself on old joe...who is actually old josephine lol. She lives by a lillypad at the end of my doc. I dropped a rubber bait to her about 15-20 times with some washed out braid I had. She swam up, and swam away. Then I dropped her a bait with mono, she grabbed it the first time. I didnt set the hook, as I kinda like the old girl there, and its her home. But it did prove to me that it makes a difference. I wont be giving up my braid, but I will be using a leader ALWAYS. If it made a difference in this one strike, that I could see and control, then how many other times does it have bearing on a fish during the day, when you cant see?

Funny little story here. Had a favorite fishing hole when I fished up north, and on weekends the petas would come out on jet skis and buzz the bass boats, running between the boats and shore. basically right over where you are fishing. You talk about ticked.....after several confrontations at the ramp, some involving law enforcement, and usually ending in the peta getting an unsafe boating ticket, I devised a plan. I figure if a law enforcement agent an shoot someone for trying to run them over, in the line of self defence, then ehy shouldnt I be able to do the same thing? I mean hell after all unsafe boating means they are being wreckless and endangering others, am i right? Well obviously shooting them was out of the question....so i came up with the next best thing......paintball...... So at any rate, needless to say....that first peta that buzzed the boat left in a hurry. I was then shortly visited by the lake deputy, who ask why I shot them with a paintball gun....well officer he was heading straight for me, i was afraid he was gonna ram me, so I only fired to get him to alter course.....purely defending myself officer......well the officer scratched his head, and said well not much i can do about that......but why do you have a paintball gun in your boat in the first place. Simple I said. When I find the fish I just shoot a paintball at a nearby tree to mark the location, because I have poor memory.....(noone lives on the lake) Needless to say the officer busted a gut laughing, then went and wrote mr peta a ticket for unsafe boating, AND endangering others. For a long time after that whenever I saw that deputy on the lake he always waved and said "hey dirty harry...hows the fishin?"