Garry2Rs

If it wasn't for OFC I would have descended into a life of Sex, Drugs and Rock N' Roll!

Thanks TJ.

I assume that you want to stay with broad categories, so your list is missing Top-water...and you need to say "in-line" spinners.

Todd Faircloth was neck-in-neck with Kevin VanDam into the last event of the year, and should have won Angler of the Year.

He's my pick to win the Classic.

Unless the weather changes things.

There is rain predicted for today and then a huge cold front for the weekend. There will be rain and snow to the north, and according to the experts, the Red River could muddy up fast.

If conditions change, everything that was learned during the practice in December might go out the window...

In that case, in my opinion, the only safe bet is KVD. He's the thinking man's angler, he won't get frustrated, or have a melt-down. This is doubly true if he gets an early lead...There will be a huge intimidation factor at work if he does.

I doubt that Le-Baron could dictate to the big multi nationals.

What's Le-Baron going to do when they decide not to stock Shimano, or Pure fishing, who own Abu Garcia, All Star Rods, Berkley, Mitchell, Fenwick, Penn, Pflueger, Shakespeare, Spiderwire, Stren, Trilene, and Coleman???

Without them Le-Baron might as well close their fishing department.

The big names have all signed up for the Sportsmen Show in a few weeks. I suspect that is why they weren't at this show.

According to the article, Sufix is/was a family owned business in China, that did 10 million dollar worth of business last year, mostly in the USA. They produce many private label brands as well as their own lines.

Here are a couple of fishing line notes of interest:

Rapala has bought Sufix and will now distribute their products world wide.

Shimano has bought Power Pro and will market their products world wide.

I have heard it said that "The first sign of Spring in Ontario is the Leaf's are falling." HAHAHA!

For 40 years, in my world, that first sign was the Sportsmen Show.

In more recent times we have had the Spring Fishing Show and now this new show in February.

It's true, I suppose that the shows have become smaller, or less fishing oriented.

Others have already pointed out that the Inter-net has given us access to the latest baits as fast as they appear on the market. Years ago your first look at new gear came at these shows.

Good or bad, most of us will keep going, because we need the reassurance that Winter will end and that we will soon see another open-water season.

Don't worry, everyone with a home on the flood plane will rebuild and be ready for the next time.

I have used Tuff-Line (Western Filament) products in the past. The company makes everything from thread to the ropes used by tug boats...

This line looks like an 8 strand braid, around a mono core, with an outer coating...

The price is right, why don't you buy a spool and let us all know how it works?

I don't know about line twist, but I recommend always closing the bail by hand and pulling the line into the roller bearing. That way you keep the line tight on the spool and avoid loops jumping off. It also prevents those line-wound-on-the-front-of-the-spool screw-ups, that happen when the bale doesn't quite close or the line rides just off the roller for a couple of turns.

On the other hand feel free to do it anyway you like, there are no laws.

I have used all the brands of superline mentioned and a few others.

Until now I was a Tuff-Line/Power Pro fan, but this year I bought the new Fireline Tracer and really like the feel and the visibility.

The smallest diameter I have found is 15 pound = 4 pound mono and I am using it on my spinning rods.

This is an 8 strand braid, so it should be even rounder that the 4 strand T-L & PP lines.

If your PP is full of curls, I suspect that you put it on backwards.

Just like mono & fluoro lines, superline needs to be wound on so that it is coming off the bulk spool in the same direction as the bail is turning.

Superlines do eventually get twisted, but because they are not a single strand, they absorb the line twist for a long time before showing it.

Dragging them behind the boat like you would mono, will straighten them out, this will also work on Teenagers ... wink.

Three tips for spinning reels with any line are:

Don't over fill the spool.

Close the bail by hand.

Place the line on the roller of the bail by hand.

Here's something that you might like to know.

The Clacking Rap is on sale at BPS in Vaughan, for $8.99. That is the same price as in the USA, but the US exchange rate is runing about 20%...I would snap them up at the sales price!

In a recent post I mentioned that Rattle Trap type lipless crankbaits were very popular here in the southwest. Since this fishery only exists because of catch and release, and because most bass anglers down here have more lipless cranks than shoes, it stands to reason that every decent Bass has seen dozens of these baits and been caught on one at sometime or other.

Fish aren't smart, but they can become conditioned and weary. This must have been a problem on other heavily fished water because, about a year or so ago I started to hear about a one-knocker lipless crank made by Xcalibur. Last summer Rapala started advertising their new Clackin' Rap on their web site, but it has taken until now for the bait to reach the stores. Both of these baits feature a single large weight in them, instead of a handful of BB's. As the bait vibrates the big ball bearing thumps back and forth. The idea is to offer fish that have seen and heard every lipless on the market something new.

As soon as the BPS web site indicated that they had stock available, I ordered the smallest Xcalibur One Knocker, the 2.5 inch 1/2 ounce model called an x50, and the only size Rapala available, a 3 1/8 inch, 7/8 ounce bait.

On Saturday I recieved my new baits and went straight to the lake to try them out. I started with the smaller bait, but nothing happened, so I switched to the larger Rapala. On the same spot where I caught a Bass on the Little John, last week, I hooked up again. This fish was 15 inches long, an inch smaller than the 2.5 pounder Igot last week. In my rush to try the baits I had gone out without my camera so I don't have a picture to share.

On the weekend I like to stay away from the local fishing hot spots.

So, after our weekend fast, last Monday Buck, and I were heading for a local Reservoir called Mittry Lake.

It's winter down here, even if it's 75F and I'm wearing a "T" shirt.

The Bass seem to like to wait for the water to warm-up, so we launched at around 10am.

Last week we caught a 3 pounder off some green reeds in the north-west corner of the lake.

We cruised down to that area to start fishing Monday.

This time the wind was calm and the day was warm.

We threw the Yum Dancing Eel from last week, a Spro Little John that was lucky once before, a Cotton Cordell Super-Spot (rattle-trap) and a white and chartreuse spinnerbait...but we couldn't find anyone home.

Repositioning the boat up wind, we drifted over a large 4 foot deep area.

On the way to the reeds, we had seen a couple of fish hit the surface on this huge flat.

One of the local favourite baits, at this time of year, is a Rattle-trap type lipless crank-bait.

These diamond shaped baits are cast across shallow submerged weed beds.

When you touch/hang up on the weeds, you rip the bait free and hang on...

The ripping action often triggers a strike.

The water was very cloudy so no weed beds were visible, but I made long casts over the flats and when I felt the Super Spot touch something I gave it a rip.

On one such tug I hooked up with a 16+ inch 2.5 pound bass.

Since Buck is clumsy with the camera I tossed the fish in the live-well, until I could find someone to take a picture.

The next couple of hours were uneventful as we continued from the shallow flats to a deep canal.

When I reached the deeper water I was ready for a change and selected the rod that was rigged with the Little John crank-bait.

This bait runs at between 3 and 5 feet. I have had luck with it along the edges of the deeper canals before.

Along the 3 mile gravel access road, that follows the shoreline from the end of the paved road to the boat ramp, there are a series of key shaped shore-fishing location built out into the lake. Many are black topped for wheelchair access.

Between these keys are bays and at the back of one of the bays, I saw another stand of the green reeds that had been good to me last week.

On one side of the bay was the shore fishing spots, on the other side was a rugged island. I positioned the boat half a cast from the island, as far from the shore-fishing spots as possible. My casts were diagonally toward the heavy growth on the island's bank. This kept my bait in the strike-zone longer than a 90 degree cast directly to shore would have.

At the back of the bay, in the water between the island and shore, and continuing across the back of the bay, were the sparse green reeds that had drawn my attention.

On the corner where the reeds met the island's shore I found a 2.5 pound bass who liked the Little John.

I now had twins in the live-well...GRIN.

We found a couple of guys, to help us out with a photo, on the main part of the lake.

In another post I mentioned that I liked the new Fireline Tracer braid, and that the alternating light-dark pattern was easy to see on the olive-tan water down here...Sorry that the focas is soft, but this will give you an idea what it's like in use...Take a look.

Tomorrow my 15 pound Tracer should arrive and I look forward to trying it with weightless Senkos and other small baits on a spinning rod.

Two cautions...

First, the DHSV has a 7 to 1 gear ratio which means you will wear yourself out cranking big baits.

It's great for worms, flipping and pitching jigs and other light baits, but not big or deep diving baits.

Second this is a left hand model.

That's fine if you are left handed, but take it from me, I have both left and right handed bait casters, right handed caster are better served by right handed reels.

I was thinking the same thing, but I couldn't imagine that the weather could be that bad in Southern Missouri...

I had occasion to call them back and, you're right.

Evidently the had freezing rain followed by a big snow fall.

I suppose that they don't have proper snow plows etc. and things seem worse than they might up north...

When I got here in October the weeds were so thick you could almost walk across.

The first cool nights knocked them down.

By-the-way...

I just called BPS to place an order...They are short staffed because of severe weather

Does anyone know were their call centre in the USA is?

I'm thinking Colorado.

Anyway, I thought I'd let you know that something big is coming and it won't be rain...grin.

You can see here that the water in this reservoir is stained a light brownish-green.

This seems to make the fish much paler in colour than I am used to.

The main forage in this spot is Sunfish.

Here's a little one that fell out of a Bass I caught. This is a fresh kill not half digested.

Notice how light the markings are.

That's probably why the most popular bait colours for this lake are chartreuse and white.

Chartreuse seems to work well everywhere, so I bought the #14, Chartreuse Shad.

For fishing in the clear water of the North Kawartha area next Summer, I might choose

colours like the grey #12 Dancin' Shad, the dark green (Baby Bass looking) #15 Tad Pole.

Maybe a #13 Golden Tiger, as a Perch or Sunfish imitator and there's the new #99 Foxy Shad.

This is a dark back over tan sides with a white belly that looks sort of like a Rock Bass to me.

These colour numbers were taken from the BPS catalog and their web site.

When selecting bait colours, the rule of thumb is to match the hatch.

If you're not sure what your target is feeding on, it's always a safe bet to match the colour of the bottom.

The forage, in a given area, will always camouflage itself to match the bottom colour.

Yes, I have had plenty of hits on pink Flukes, but sandy browns, chartreuse, watermelon green, silver, grey and white are my first choices.

So my buddy said "It's too cold and windy to fish today!"

"Ask your wife if you can have your Man Card back and let's get going." I retorted.

I was a windy day for sure. There were white caps on the reservoir.

It was only in the 60's this morning and we didn't get down to "T" shirts until we got off the water around 2:30.

We would have carried on longer, because it was getting nicer every minute, but I was running out of trolling battery after fighting the wind for 5 hours.

For lures, he was tossing a Storm swim-bait and a Rattle-trap.

I chose a DT10 in Bluegill and a Yum Dancing Eel.

We first tried drifting down the lea-side of the main canal, casting with the wind, and retrieving back across the deep water.

Then we drifted with the wind across the open lake part, concentrating on weed and reed beds, but also casting to open water as we went.

Finally we followed the west shore around until we were going north, headed into the wind.

In this section we were casting to shoreline reeds, toolies and scrub palms etc..

On a small point of reeds, I hooked up with a nice three pounder on the Eel...

I switch back and forth between wacky and texaposed, so I just use the 3/0 EWG that is my standard worm hook.

I don't think the hook has any effect on the fish or the hook-up rate. I like how easy it is to remove

I did try some weedless hooks last summer and they worked okay, but unless your deep in the slop, a bare-naked EWG hook is good enough.

Tinbanger...

The key too the "O" ring trick is to buy the wacky worm tool from BPS or your local bait store.

It's almost impossible to pull a worm through a small enough "O" ring without damaging it.

The tool is simplicity it's self. You could make one out of an oversize knitting needle, but the store bough one comes with a supply of "O" rinds and a screw to hold them on the tool.

Congratulations Jaden!

I bought 40 pound test to use on my bait-caster and that's what you're seeing in the pictures. If you think that on a casting reel the Tracer feature is of questionable value, I agree, but the Tracer and the plain dark green are the same price, and I wanted to try out the Tracer.

Both the 40 pound line spool and box are marked as being equal to 10 pound test diameter mono, but no actual measurements are given.

So far the heaviest weight of Braided Fireline shown on Cabela's site is 50lb, equal to 12lb mono. and the lightest is 15 lb, equal to 4 pound mono. These equivalent diameters are the same as given for Power Pro. Of coarse with no actual measurements you only have their word for it...grin.

The reel is supposed to hold 150 yards of 12 pound test mono...I was able to put all 110 yards of the Fireline on it, but the spool is over full. I was anxious to field test the new line, but was only planning to put half of this line onto the reel, over cheap backing. Therefore, I didn't want to cut any off for the "test run." Anyway, if the reel manufacturer is honest about the reel's line capacity, that might indicate that the Fireline is actually closer to 15 pound mono. in diameter. But all of this is hair-splitting because everybody might be fibbing...HAHAHA.

Time will tell whether the colours fade away and if the slick finish wears off or the weave loosens up.

Last year I used 10 and 20 pound red Power Pro on my Senko rods for the higher visibility. This year I will definitely be using 15 lb. Tracer on those rods.

Yesterday I received a package from Cabela's containing my most recent order.

There was a Quantum Accurist reel, a spool of the new Fireline Tracer BRAID and a couple of Spro's Little John crank-baits.

This morning I loaded the line onto the reel, tied on the Little John and went fishing.

First, I have to say that even as a longtime Power Pro fan, I think that I like this new Fireline Braid.

In the past, Fireline was thicker for a given pound test than Power Pro, and it tended to delaminate with use.

The cross section of the old line was quite flat and because it wasn't woven, hooks could slip between the fibers quite easily.

It was still a very useful product and when I couldn't get Power-pro I bought Fireline without any regrets.

This new line seems to answer all of those old concerns and more.

For those of you who like trivia, Power-pro is a four strand braid.

A four strand braid produces and oval thread.

The eight strand braid, that Fireline is using, should in theory produce a much rounder line.

Some other Braids that I have used are quite loosely woven.

This causes problems when hook points penetrate the weave when you hook a lure to the hook keeper on the rod etc.

This was only one day of fishing, but so far the new Fireline seems to be a good tight weave that hook points don't easily snag.

The Tracer feature is alternating chartreuse and dark green sections of line. Each section is 2.5 feet long.

I think this feature will be great for bait fishing and weightless Senko's etc. where you are trying to detect any line movement...

The water down here is an generally an olive tone.

Today the dark green sections of the line were invisible against the water, but the chartreuse was easy to see.

Against clear water the opposite might be true.

At any rate, the light/dark pattern made it very easy for me to see any movement in the line.

My new reel is currently on sale at Cabela's for about $60.00 US...that's half price...because it is now discontinued in favour of a new model.

It features an interesting flipping switch, that I like.

This switch disconnects the handle, so that when you release the thumb button the reel is automatically in gear.

If you don't flip or pitch, this won't mean anything, but for those who do, it's pretty slick.

The Little John is a Japanese (Spro) bait that was designed by USA Bass Pro John Cross. It is a flat sided 2" bait that weighs 1/2 an ounce!!!

It has the typical Japanese oval split-ring and the lip is of the so-called "computer chip" material.

In reality this is a hard, thin plastic similar to that used for computer circuit boards.

The bait uses a silent weight transfer system, much like the Rapala "long cast minnow'' system. It casts like a stone!

There is no rattle on the retrieve.

The bait is flat sided...John Cross basically described the bait as a mass production version of those hand-made crankbaits that are much sought after by Bass Pro's in the southern USA. The problem with the hand-made baits is that only about 20% of them (one in five) work right!

Plus, as hand-made pieces of art, they cost about $20.00 a piece.

Another problem with these hand-made baits is that they are very fragile and a collision with a rock or dock can render them useless.

The Spro bait was designed to be durable, easy to cast, bounce off of timber etc. and catch fish.

It worked for me...what more can I say.

Garry2R's

Raf...Twenty-seven years of shift work in steel-making at Dofasco...grin.

Brian...You have mail!

Blood is salty so that taste is often given as a reason for using salt in the plastic. Salt also reduces the buoyancy of the plastic and makes the bait heavier. The original Senko has a very high salt content and was designed to weigh 3/8 of an ounce. That weight is important because it allows the "good-old boys" down south, who don't use spinning gear, to cast them with their bait-casters, without using a sinker.

The loose salt in the bags of some brands is only window dressing in my opinion.

The Senko's are known to tear easily. I believe that this is because of the high salt content. They were designed to be just slightly heavier than water, that slow fall is what makes them so deadly.

Garry2R's