BrianinMD

On the top water strikes don't set the hook until you feel pressure from the fish taking it. They will miss a good percentage of the time. Once you feel pressure set the hook hard, those big thick hooks take some force to get into them good. A good stout rod helps along with braid, for my tourney saturday I was fishing this technique. I used a 7ft 6in heavy action rod and 65lb braid.

Its not the move itself, come on living in Cleveland or Miami is it really a choice. But it is how he handled it. There is another player who was loved in Cleveland and left for Miami, Big Z. Is he hated in Cleveland, nope. He is still loved there because he handled it right.

Just won't stop, in the middle of the tourney i get a text my wife's grandmother passed away. Wife would not let me miss the tourney, finished 2nd by 1oz due to a 4oz dead fish penalty.

Its been a long week, spent most of it doing a 40 hour bootcamp training class for the PMP test (project management cert). Have to pick up my 13 year old daughter from the airport at 11:30 tonight and then leave at 3:30am for a tourney tomorrow. Came home early from work to get some rest, was only home about a minute before one of the dogs (Italian Greyhounds) my wife and I are fostering compound fractured his leg. After a couple hours at the emergency vet we had to put him down, the rescue we do the fostering for can't afford $5,000 in surgery on an 8 year old dog. He was a good dog, hate to see his life end early like this.

Not on plastics but I did get one on a lipless crank bait I was yo-yo'ing down a steep bank. They always put up a great fight.

The reason the "hate" started up so bad when he left the Cavs is the way he handled it. While in Cleveland he led the team, got his MVP awards at his old school, just doing things around in his hometown community. Then turned his back on them like he believes he was better then all of them. I don't think athletes should get a break because they are a 26 year old "kid". He is an adult and plenty old enough to handle himself properly. If you can't handle situations don't put yourself in them. He cannot expect to be paid millions of dollars, be the face of many advertisements, and the face of the league itself in some ways then not be responsible for his actions because he is a "kid". Heck, I am trying to teach my 13yr old daughter about being responsible for you own actions, but a 26yr old doesn't have to?? We can only hope that he has people around him who can get thru to him and make him realize what he is doing to his image. He is a great player and will most likely get a ring or two during his time but if all people remember are the childish behavior and I am better then everyone else attitude he won't get the credit for his skill/hard work to achieve them.

Made it out with Hellbenderman, fished from about 6am to 2pm. We caught a decent number of fish but couldn't find any big ones, best was maybe 15 inches. Have a tourney at Mattawomen this weekend, then with fathers day and trying to get ready for a PMP exam I will not any free time to fish.

It will potentially cause issues with the action of the frog and is unnecessary. While frogging I use straight 65lb braid, its usually done around heavy slop so the extra strength is far more important the adding a leader.

I can offer no input to this one but will be very interested.... Going to Black Lake for a week at the end of July....

Nice fish Sean, first good fish I have seen come out of that area for awhile. Hoping to get out Saturday if I can find someone to go with. Prefer not to fish from shore if I can help it.

Check out the Senko FAQ thread, the mods will lock this thread when they see it. Discussions about Senko's have been done over and over again.

In before Irene

One thing to keep in mind with jigs is watch your line closely, a lot of bites you will never feel but a slight twitch of the line, movement to the side, or it stopped sinking to soon to be on bottom are all indications of a strike that is easily miss. If any of this happens or the mushy feeling mentioned earlier happens set the hook, and set it like you mean it. Hook sets are free, there will be a lot of strikes to no fish but over time you learn the what was a good bite.

Tip heavy is when you are holding the rod as you normally would use it and feeling the tip pulling down as if a weight is hanging off of it. Normally "balanced" rods have a balance point right in front of the reel seat or somewheres close depending what each person prefers. A tip heavy rod will have a balance point several inches in front of that. There is no advantages, the disadvantage is a rod which loses some sensitivity and annoyances after long use. The weights of rods are only ounces but you will notice a big different between tip heavy and balanced rods.

To what I read Mr. Box may have died from an overdose of painkillers, after all the injuries he already had in his young life he was probably dealing with pain everyday.

Yes, you can bring your fishing gear. If you have one you can bring a trolling motor and battery to help get around. Once summer kicks in the the night fishing will go longer. Hopefully I won't miss it again. One of my club members was out yesterday during the day, got 9 with his largest at 20.25 inches. Most fish were on jigs, with a couple on sliderheads in 10-15ft of water. Said another boat was pounding the shoreline with spinnerbaits and getting a few too.

I am sure the weather this spring has messed up things, most of the reports I hear from the shore are slow fishing. But reports from boats are doing pretty well in shallow wood cover which is the norm. Seems to be you have to cover water fishing the shallow laydowns, stumps, or standing timber.

Unfortunately Fish Chris I am not surprised by your story, in addition to the two in my earlier picture my wife and I also foster Italian Greyhounds. Some of the stories we hear are just plain stupid. One of our fosters was 12 years old, the people who had him since a pup got a divorce and neither of them would take him so they just turned him into the IG rescue. How can someone do that to a member of there family for 12 years. The white one in the picture, Enzo, was abused until another family had enough and turned him into rescue before he was hurt. They made him sleep in a cold damp shower at night, and at least one person was kicking and hitting him. He was in a foster home for a year because no one would adopt him because he would just stand 10 feet from you and bark. He just didn't trust people anymore, took 3 days before he would come to either my wife or me after we adopted him. He was only a year old when turned into rescue.

Our current 4 legged children

Back from my tourney at Smith Mountain Lake, its a beautiful lake but the bite was tough. Ended up getting 2nd place for the co-angler side. Bright spot was a personal best 3lb 2oz smallie. Fought like a tank on 6lb test. With the storms being called for each night not sure when I will get out again. Next tourney is not until the first weekend in June.

Spinning or Baitcast? I don't have a BC so can't give input on that one, but have a 7ft M/Fast spinning. Very tip heavy, just got sent down to backup duty.

As far as a suggested setup, I would do with a Shimano Compre 7ft Medium Heavy/Fast action, with a Diawa Exceler reel. Will confess I do not have that exact rod but have other Shimano's that I like and they always seem to be popular. I do have the reel and it has performed very well. The rod is around 100 bucks, reel is around 80 but I imagine there are some deals available. The reel I have same with a 2500 and a 3000 size spool, suggest 6lb yozuri ulta-soft on the 2500 and 10lb yozuri ultra-soft on the 3000.

Especially with baitcaster's you get what you pay for, especially if you want to keep the reel for an extended period. Spinning you can get good equipment for cheaper. Honestly, if you are not planning to throw jigs, spinnerbaits or anything over 1/2oz I would stick with spinning gear.

I agree with Grey Wolf, hybrid on the bc. The ultra soft is better on spinning gear.

Welcome 301-fisherman!!!!!! Black Hills can be a tough place to fish from shore, but there are some really good fish there. I will put together some thoughts in an PM to you a little later.