AlanM85

Storm makes great lures for the price in my opinion. Their Wiggle Warts are one of my most productive cranks, I've also used their soft plastic Wild eye shiner I think it's called (soft plastic swim bait) and it worked pretty well for me.

They must have improved stealth since I used it last. I bought 2 spools of it a year ago. I spooled up a couple rods with it, went fishing... came home 45 minutes after I got there, and cut the stealth off my reels. My experience with it was that it wouldn't cast for crap, lost its color, and the braid would loosen up after a few casts.

Jigs, jerk baits, and swim baits are my favorites.

Wow, nice fish. Congrats!

I can't help but wonder what exactly you're doing when the rods are breaking halfway up? Pretending they're horses and riding them around the boat? Staging sword fights with your buddy? Most of my rods are All Star, for one reason... They're great rods. I've never had one break.

Megabait LA slider has been great for me. http://www.extremelures.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=54

I'm pretty good at 'reading' the water and other factors, and determining where the fish will be. I'm extremely accurate pitching and flipping (long hours of practice in the yard). Strongest lures - Swim baits, jerk baits, and jigs. I'm very stubborn, which can be a strength or weakness, rarely will I give up on a 'fishy' spot, or a bad day. Although not asked, now that I'm thinking about it I want to put it in words, . So hopefully I can work on these weaknesses. I tend to stick with only 2 or 3 colors, rarely moving out of my 'comfort' colors. I am very timid when setting hooks with soft plastics, no idea why. Spinnerbaits, I rarely use them, lack confidence in them. Sometimes I have a short attention span for slow retrieves. Mostly with plastics.

There is no other way to learn really, than to fish. No one else is going to hold the rod for you, and retrieve for you. One piece of advice is to not try to learn too much too fast, when you're reading about a particular technique go out and try it, learn it. When you're comfortable with it, learn another one. Also, pick a good spot to learn. A smaller, out of the way type of place where you're not having to not only learn technique, but learn where the fish are going to be.. Pond or creek, something like that where you don't lose confidence thinking there aren't any fish here or something like that. Get a good lure, one that's simple to learn to build confidence. I'll not try to give advice on lure selection as it would just be an opinion, but if you're hearing of a lure that is super productive in your area, give it a shot. Ask a lot of questions, etc. Good luck... and don't get discouraged.

Old Hickory Lake for sure. Been fishing there since I was old enough to hold a rod

Yeah, heh. I've read through the tackle tour test 2 times now. Kinda surprised at the knot strength test mainly, would have thought fluoro would hold up a little better. Thanks for the info dodgeguy and surfer. Maybe I'm just biased, when I switched to fluoro I was hooked on it, just gave me a better feel overall, pitching a jig for the first time with it felt like I was under the water with it. Seemed to improve my presentation greatly being able to feel everything so well.

i am also using flouro but let's get some things straight.it has as much or more stretch than mono.tests have proven it.it is not invisible in all circumstances.it is less visisble than most mono.it is not stronger than a good mono and once stretched to it's max it does not recover where as mono does.tests have proven this also.it is abrasion resistant and much more sensitve than mono due to increased density which is why it sinks. I was just stating my opinion based on use of both types. I would really like to know what mono this is you're comparing to fluorocarbon and what # it was, cause I've never seen these characteristics myself. Mono from my experience is more prone to breaks, stretch stress (although every time I've seen mono stretched to it's 'max' it was followed by a snap), and memory problems. I use P-Line Halo fluoro exclusively, I have not seen any stretch problems, and it seems pretty darn invisible. I'm basing this off of use, nothing more. I don't mean to argue, I'm really just curious what mono and fluoro these tests were done with. Maybe I had been using some really crappy mono. >

Nice looking stuff you got there. rofl "mysteriously fell into my box". My dad used to have the same problem with his lures. Now when we go fishing together, my lures fall into his box . I'll try to get some pictures of some of my stuff, but i gotta do a little *cough* cleaning and organizing before I try that :-[

Welcome! This is a hard transition to make when you're comfortable with shallows and shorelines. Try finding a good contour map to put you on potential spots before hitting the water with the electronics, will save some headaches. There are some really nice maps like this out for most likes, 'fishing hot spots' maps or something like that. http://www.utmaps.com/main.cfm has them, but I've never tried their maps just a suggestion.

Awesome fish! Congrats to both of you on a great day fishing, and a PB.

Oh yeah, and congrats on the new rod and reel! Bet you're itching to use 'em huh?