jace

a rod doesn't need that "protective" coating since it isn't there for any protection anyways, it's only for looks. Besides that, some of the top blanks on the market have no finish, only a bare polished blank including some GLX's.

a standard metal trap and bread for me too. toss it in just about anywhere if you've never done it. you'll be surprised by some of the places that hold healthy minnow populations. My father and i used to trap in a stream no more than 5' wide and 8" deep so, yeah, the top of the trap was exposed sometimes. This was a spot a few miles down an old logging road where we picked blueberries so we generally left it overnight. By morning you couldn't open the trap into halves without minnows overflowing, that's how stuffed it got from this tiny stream.

In this country, you tip what you want, when you want, if you want. Every person should follow their own standards. I'm sure that if you didn't tip them, you wouldn't be the first nor the last. I personally tip well when the person puts out effort to make sure everything is good with me whether it's a service or product. It's the same reason i shop locally for most fishing gear, the personal service is worth that extra cost. Do you have to tip the charter, no. And i wouldn't if the guy just sat on his ass and ignored me the whole time we were out. But if it was good service, i would tip well, just as i would in a restaurant. A friend and i frequent a local restaurant going back to our university days. (Mel's Diner heh) Some of the wait staff is amazing, some are mediocre. The best ones we eventually got to know well and tipped them accordingly, sometimes up to 25%-30% of our tab. I don't have a problem with that, especially knowing how certain jobs pay less and they're busting their butts all day. 2 other comments on things i read in this thread. -it's a myth that tips is an acronym for "to insure prompt service" ...more importantly, it would be wrong even if it was it should be "ensure" -people who think the charter boats, with rates like those, must be raking in money hand over fist couldn't be farther off. I personally know about 5-6 serious charter people and guess what....they all have full time jobs. Like others have said, it takes a whole whack of money run a full service charter boat. If you think you're going to attract a lot of charters by tossing clients into a 17' open skiff with no amenities, you've got another think coming. My friends who do this run boats between 26' and 36' with a full head, heated cabins, bunks, full instrumentation and they all tell me that the chartering basically keeps their boats in the water for free most years. i.e. it pays for itself + maintenance and not much more.

From what i've read, consensus is that the bells don't do much because they are too high pitched which means the sound doesn't carry nor will an animal associate a high sound with something large like a human or predator. I have a lot of friends who have remote cabins in bad bear areas and none recommend using bells. They say you should talk to someone or yourself, step on a lot of sticks to break branches, and carry spray. They all carry handguns themselves...of course this is in the US.

I don't like the looks of them in any style, way too big and goggle-like. It's the kind of stuff you basically won't ever wear in public places. 4 years ago, i finally went with Rx Maui Jim sunglasses. I'm on my 2nd pair now and won't ever look back. For the longest time, I went with contacts and regular sunglasses. Then i tried the kind with magnetic "clip on" that are a perfectly matched shape that sits in front of the clear Rx lens. These are good but from certain angles, light gets in between the 2 lenses and bounces around creating glare. And of course there are the transitions type and the curse of those is they take too long to clear up when you go indoors on a bright day. The other bad thing about "Transitions" is they don't darken except in direct exposure to sunlight so they won't work when you're driving or if you're on a boat in the cabin looking out. A new product called "drivewear" (I think) remedies this as it darkens with simple exposure to UV so they will work in the shade while driving or sitting on a covered porch or boat or whatever. I would seriously look at any of the alternatives leaving cocoons as the very last option. ...come to think of it, i'm not sure transitions are even available with a polarized option because polarizing tints a lens by design. ...so scrap that choice.

the general rule of thumb applies to the don as well....2 heads is the cutoff

omg. talk about effecting branding power. All i see is gloomis and "fear no fish."

being seen and talked about in any context will help sales. Even if it's background noise. For example, product placement in movies is huge money. Even though Rapala might be one of the biggest, the market share and consumer image can shift very easily if a company goes about it the right way. One brand i've noticed lately is Storm and it's from nothing more than their product flood of various events such as the sportsmens shows. You could never convince me that they're not dumping their products on every vendor at these events. Just seeing the brand and logo over and over will lead to product recognition even though you've never bought one. ...all it takes is a few people to talk about x-rap's on forums and it will get spidered, word will get around and this will move product. tons of covert maniuplation out there.

cool. almost matches the pacific halibut. The largest i've personally seen are in the 350# range. the largest I've brought in myself is only 135#. Although I've never seen pictures, I've heard atlantics several 100#'s heavier are around and have been caught, just not on a rod and reel.

simple answer, no. just like you can't calculate torque from the HP rating. generally speaking, the physically larger engine will have higher torque and much more push behind it which is why a 600HP 4cyl is useless for real get up and go off the line. For electric motors, it's comes from the amperage and, like gas engines, the physical size of the motor.

the jigs look great. I can offer 2 tips to you. - unless you want a solid line where 2 colors meet, tap on the highlight colors with a dry brush. they'll look airbrushed like factory jigs. - to make the colors pop and smooth out the whole look, use clear coat powder when you're done. you'll wonder why you never leave it bare colorcoat again. It looks like you have about 5 colors. If you have big containers, do you want to trade a few? I have maybe 25 colors...enough of each that i'll never use it all.

the only consistent performers for me have been spoons. I fished pike more than anything else up to the end of highschool because the were close to where I lived. eppinger "daredevles" in either red or black.. they have long slender body rather than the rounder more oval shape that imitations have Lucky Strike or Eppinger "redeyes" spoons with the 2 plastic ruby eyes, standard silver Williams, 5 of diamonds from either Len Thompson or Eppinger

Strangers must call you that thinking it's your name, eh? It's bad luck to rename a boat anyways.

How about the different glow in the dark, light stick, etc lures. did you have any of those in the water?

...sent to that taurus email. let me know if you need the view moved around or whatever.

What a weird way to bunch the stuff together and rank them paired. I think a better review would be for rods and reels separately and why they thought so. I trust tackletour because they don't ahve much stake in their review results, although i do see a lot of personal slant to shimano, they are clearly beaten out by Daiwa in many shootout type reviews. I can personally vouch for the Luna and St Croix Avid reels as I own 2 TD lunas and 1 stcroix avid reel (which is actually a rebranded Daiwa Cv-Z millionaire). As far as the lines go, i don't have too much to say about any of the brands because most seem to be about the same. I've tried about 1/2 the ones listed. What I can say though is I prefer the braided products over the fusions whatever the brand is even though braids are noisy. I'm surprised jerry brown lines aren't in the list.

If you're not getting tangled anywhere, I'm willing to bet your line release jolts the rod and/or lure. i.e. not a smooth casting motion. As everybody has said, there's next to no stretch in this line so a very hard and sharp jolt will snap it. There are also some knots not recommended for these lines because they cut into themselves and basically cuts itself off at the knot after continuous tightening.

didn't read the links but i know for a fact that braid will cut up some modern guides if you fish them hard enough...which is why a lot of people have switched to specific types to avoid it. The titanium nickel wire RECoil guides will groove with heavy use but that's the price of having near weightless guides. RECoils are the guides found on some higher end factory GLoomis rods, both spinning and casting. and flyrods

will try to do it tomorrow afternoon before work if i get up "early".

checked it out. At full detail it's going to have to be 3 screenshots because the bay is too far south to get it all in 1. ..unless you just want an overview from chart with general info and some details missing like rock dangers and some contour lines

might be able to do screenshots of Garmin bluechart if you know what area you want.

I've never gotten any that are blue as in the one picture above but i've taken many that are dark with no golden shine to it. I woulnd't mind catching a big blue lingcod some day, they look pretty cool. (not the freshwater burbot that many mistakenly call a ling) like this guy http://orioncharters.com/Blue%20Ling%20Cod%20-2.jpg

always and do so much online that i would be lost without it. -2 cells, never off regardless of where i am. -a blackberry that will replace a cell soon. -10 PC's at home that are always running and fully accessible from anywhere -various shell accounts always logged in when i'm home so i hear a beep the instant a message hits the mail server. -msn and skype on sometimes...they are not the best way to reach me. -never travel without a laptop which is great now that most airports have free wireless. 19" laptop so it's not exactly portable. a few computer forums i go to have had threads of people's computer desk and setup. I always found those interesting, especially once i got to "know" the person.

cool pictures. I grew up near there and havn'et been back in a very long time....since leaving for school in SWO. How far south of timmins were you fishing? I used to have so much fun catching specks not much bigger than a perch in tiny streams and lakes down logging roads. and that ruffed grouse is best photographed when wrapped in bacon.

yeah, they get them. so do a lot of other fish. a lot of saltwater fish get worms about 1mm diameter and up to a few inches long that burrow through the meat. it's disgusting to see. In both cases though, cook it and you're fine.