BrianinMD

What do you mean by "over the outside tops of the spools"? thumbing the spool shouldn't be an issue, I do it all the time myself and never had an issue.

I wouldn't use mono, not very abrasion resistant. For flouro, you will get a few different answers on what to use. but almost everyone will say get rid of the vanish. My personal experience is to use Seaquar Invizx on spinning and Abrazx on baitcast gear. I have had extremely good results with it. unlike mono sunlight will not breakdown flouro.

I am almost exactly like Felix, except all of my baitcasters except those for topwater have Abrazx (12 to 20lb). The extra abrasion resistance comes in useful fishing around heavier cover. A spinning rod with 8lb is just not going to hold up very well.

Joe Bonamassa John 5 Flea (yes this is a bass player..)

I have switched all of my non-topwater rods to flouro, the biggest thing to me was the slack line bites. The density of the line transmits the bites better then other lines, and I fish a lot of baits which have a pause in the retrieve. Before I did this I had several trips where my boater (using flouro) would be beating with several fish to each of mine. I would also go to move the bait sometimes and something would have it. by the time I got a hookset in the fish was gone. Since I have switched I can keep up with my boater and have greatly reduced the lost fish due to not feeling the pickup.

A chatterbait is not a bait you want to fish to get a good look at, its a reaction bite bait. Once the bass gets a look at it they won't bite. I would have tried a couple casts in the same area trying to bounce the bait off any grass or cover. If you knew where the bass went after turning away a senko would have been a good option also.

Every body of water will be different in how it responds to the addition of other species. Cover, food, depth, and other factors play a role. Two bodies of water close to each other can be opposites in what survives. Here in Maryland the invasive species in the news is always snakeheads, but there are other species like some catfish which are also invasive and changing the ecosystem but do not draw near as much attention.

As a co-angler in tourney's I have gone out of a few different brands, to me the champion hulls ride the best especially in rougher water. Next would be the Rangers. But you can tell a lot of difference between boaters too. The bigger the boat the better it should be, the upper bay can get rough pretty quick. Would stick with at least 20 feet.

the bite from first light to when the sun hits the water is some of the best times during the summer. Once the sun hits the water the bass will either go deeper or get into shallow cover. This makes the bite harder but not impossible. Look for some thick vegetation, or laydowns. Get baits either in the grass or right beside the laydowns on the shady side.

I am along the lines of the other responders, have a crew cab with the short bed (2013 F150 Ecoboost). The short bed does cause some issues but not enough to warrent putting up with the longer bed. Not sure about your area but parking lots and some streets are not made for full size trucks even with the short bed. The crew cab with full bed trucks are very difficult to get around a lot of places. I don't have a cap on mine like Tom, I went with a hard cover which sits flush across the bed. Keeps things dry and a little more secure with the locking tailgate. But easily folds out of way when space is needed.

Don't care, have both and it doesn't make any difference.

I use up to 65lb braid, when you are fishing heavy grass you need this strength to get fish back out. Either frogs across the top or punching thru it means whenever you get a fish it will bury in and if you don't have the right line it will not come out.

if there areas with lily pads and hydrilla today start there, a frog over the top of a t-rigged craw or creature bait in the holes in the hydrilla.

For the applications you mention on one setup I would go with flouro, the biggest reason is the plastics. With these bites you end up with slack line as you work the bait. Due to its density flouro will allow better detection of these bites than other lines.

Speedbead, they did and its already done they picked Andrew Wiggins. They will be a good team but not a championship team without some additional help.

Obviously Cleveland will be better with him but 3 to 1 is a huge over reaction. They still have a lot of holes. Will be interesting to see him playing with Irving, not sure who else they will be able to pick up to provide depth/balance. Miami is mid pack at best, without Lebron most likely Bosh will leave. Wade was good but he is to beat up to be the man, and they have nothing else. It is interesting to see in all the reports of Lebron and Bosh nothing was being discussed about people pursing Wade who is a free agent also. Sure he will most likely stay due to his history there but you would expect some teams to at least take a shot.

The week of August 3rd i will be on vacation in North Myrtle Beach, was thinking about trying to find a one day charter. Also found out a friend from high school will be there and she is looking for a charter to send her husband and kids on. Any one know any good charters to go on in Myrtle Beach?

IBTL

2013 F150 Ecoboost

Just a quick heads up, this Saturday is my clubs tourney at Black Hills. Difference for this one though is its from Noon to 8pm. Not sure what to expect, first time we have done and afternoon/evening tourney. At this point i just hope we can get our boats in the water and trailers parked without a ton of hassle.....

I agree with Raul, only time I peg is fishing heavier grass or wood where there is a chance they would separate. For fishing anything else it remains unpegged.

SirSnookalot, its a complete fake. The images are pulled from legitimate sites to make it look real but only to scare of the affected person more. If you are using an administrator account the malware can do whatever an admin can do making the damage worse and harder to correct. Using a regular user account reduces what can be done, my wife got the FBI one before. Only took 15 minutes to fix since it was a user account.

Russell D, I love fishing Conowingo but usually only get up there in spring. The pic looks like Cono, definitely looks like one of the great smallies that place has. Otherwise only place I fish the Susky is about Harrisburg where the Juanita comes into it. For bass boat friendly places in Maryland, other than the upper bay. It would have to be the lower Potomac, most places in MD are electric only. You can still use you bass boat but not quite as fun as the places you can run full motor.

I use 8lb Invizx on my 2500 size reels, works great.

Rule number one with any computer, never use a administrator account during normal use. Always use a reguler user account, greatly lowers the amount of damage these would cause.