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Everything posted by mixermarkb
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Forgot to say good job on the fish...
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I love Shoal! It's a long ride from Theodosia, but it's a great creek! I need to drop in at Protem at least one day next time I get down and head up to Shoal. Farthest I've been up lake this year is Big Creek.
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Ok, I'm a champion guy from way back, hard core. My belief is that late 80's, early 90's champs were/are among the best built, best performing boats on the water, with a steady decline in quality though the years past that, as the company started suffering from poor management. However, as much as I like to poke at ranger guys, Nitros have come a long long way in the past 10 years. Ranger owners really have nothing to worry about, because the current Nitros are as well put together as any of the mass market brands, except Bass Cat, who is really ahead of the game with their vacuum bagging technology and other little details. I don't care for the nitro designs, I like a nimble boat, not a dock with a motor on it, but they are decently well built boats.
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I like plain jane rods. It's a tool, not a showpiece. Solid black guide wraps are fine with me.
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Guides seem like something I can handle, reel seats seem like a great way to screw up a bunch of fairly expensive parts...
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Did you guys catch any stripers on Norfork?
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Let me guess Dave, you happen to have just what I need, barely used, and that's the special deal price? Lol
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I've thought very hard about trying to build my own rod. Right now I don't have time for another hobby, but I appreciate the offer. How much does the basic stuff to get started cost?
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How did it go?
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Sounds like an awesome stick RPS, but i have to point out that the blank on that Falcon has a significantly more moderate taper than the Loomis MBR-783 that I'm guessing the mudhole blank you mentioned is modeled on. The Falcon is more similar to a popping rod kind of action. It's closer to a PR-845, although it's honestly right between the two, which is where the magic in it is for me. I don't know how Ham feels about grips, but on this rod I really like the split grip, because it's balanced with a slightly tip down balance point, which is how I retrieve a spinnerbait, and also helps with the way it feels with a roll cast. I don't mean to nitpick, or criticize, because it's a truly awesome offer, and the pics I've seen of your work really make me want to learn how to wrap rods. I'm just talking about the finer points of what makes that rod my favorite spinnerbait rod of all time, and maybe giving a little food for thought as to what you might want to incorporate for Ham.
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Water temps 58-62 in a couple places at the end of the day, a little tiny bit of a green stain even on the main lake.
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Fished from about 10am til 5ish today, put in at Spring Creek and went as far as Music and back. Looking for places with a little wind but not so much that the 10 year old couldn't fish. Put about 25 in the boat, with Sid getting 9. Mostly smallmouth, no giants, half a dozen or so 16" keepers. The kiddo was fishing the Ned and a 3.3 keitch, I was mainly throwing a jerkbait looking for bigger fish and trying to leave the Ned fish for him. It took a little while to locate some places to fish with the right wind conditions and start getting bites. I don't think we had more than one fish on before noon, but that could have been me getting the kiddo sorted out, and not the fish. All in all a good day, could probably have really smoked em on the stickbait if I had been fishing the windy windy spots, I just didn't want to dump the kiddo in the lake fishing the surf. All in all, it's still spring and it's still way fun out there...
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That 6'8" AOY model Cara roll casts super well. I just love how little effort it takes to shoot a spinnerbait way out there, and it's got a great backbone for when you get a good'n on. Love that thing.
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I gotta disagree about the Falcon stuff. I'm pretty much a Loomis guy for bottom contact stuff, but for moving baits I really like the Cara reaction stuff a lot. I have the 6'5" jerkbait rod, the 6'8" angler of the year, which is the best spinnerbait rod I've ever used, 2 of the 7' medium crankers, a 7'3" deep cranker, and the 7'5" super duty. All of them have really nice actions, didn't seem any stiffer than expected, and perform really well. I have broken one of the jerkbait rods, and one of the crankbait rods, both on hooksets. To be fair though, I'd boat flipped fish with both rods, and could easily have stressed the blanks. Falcon was easy enough to deal with, and for $80 shipped I had new rods. I much prefer the Falcon crankbait rods to the old brown Loomis CBR series they replaced. They have a little more backbone, and stick the hooks and keep them pinned much better for me than the CBR rods. I haven't tried the Falcon spinning rods, I like my GLX and NRX rods too much for grubs, shaky, tubes and mojo rigs. I'm playing around trying to find a cheap ned rod I love, but I picked up an Loomis e6x "0" power dropshot rod that felt exactly like what I'm thinking in my head a ned rod should feel like, I'm just 2 kids, a wife, and $180 from buying it...LOL anyway, the Cara stuff is hard to beat. Not sure about any of the other lines, but I wouldn't say any of the rods I have are overpowered from the ratings.
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I do see the same thing at Bull, but I don't think it's happened yet. Always just seems like the big females vanish for me just before they show up on beds. I have gotten a little better at catching bigger smallies with jerkbaits once the little guys show up on the gravel, but it's something I have to have wind for.
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Any storm damage around? I was watching it in the rear view the whole way home. It looked ugly, and too close for my comfort!
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Don, I was talking about the weights at TR. I had 17 pounds in about three hours on Monday, and a couple big smallies mixed in with great numbers in Tuesday. I'm just going by what I've been reading in the forum on Table Rock and what Wenners and Quill have posted in their reports, along with personal experience over the years of big bass in March, and numbers in April...
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About the time the male smallies all show up on the gravel spawning areas, I seem to lose track of the bigger bass I've been catching all pre-spawn. Sometimes I find a few of them again, and the sight fishing guys for sure can catch a few, but it's typically well into post spawn topwater before I get into big fish again. Tourney weights dropped off big this weekend, and usually do, so I'm guessing it's not just me. They aren't on beds yet, so I'm asking you guys- where are they, and why are the so hard to catch the week or so before the first big wave of spawning? Btw, I'm a Bull Shoals guy for those who don't know me, and I've seen this at LOZ too, so it's not just a TR thing.
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About the time the male smallies all show up on the gravel spawning areas, I seem to lose track of the bigger bass I've been catching all pre-spawn. Sometimes I find a few of them again, and the sight fishing guys for sure can catch a few, but it's typically well into post spawn topwater before I get into big fish again. Tourney weights dropped off big this weekend, and usually do, so I'm guessing it's not just me. They aren't on beds yet, so I'm asking you guys- where are they, and why are they so hard to catch the week or so before the first big wave of spawning? Btw, I'm a Bull Shoals guy for those who don't know me, and I've seen this at LOZ too, so it's not just a TR thing.
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A big ned rig, bout three times as long, a lot harder, floats, and more hooks.
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I won't tell anyone else on the blue team. Promise.
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Is this some secret Republican code that they don't tell us liberals? What is C.T.G.???
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Fin, well, actually it's the rapala waker, is already tied on. Loomis PR844c Sammy is tied on, and caught a spot yesterday. Loomis MBR782c Plopper 130 needs to go on the Falcon Super Duty, the Plopper 90 is already on the other 844c. I'm a bit of a topwater fiend. If they are at all catchable on top, I'll stick with it until I make it happen...LOL
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Anyone try the Falcon Bucoo 7' "cranker spin" for the Ned?
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The only thing I'd be worried about is making sure it has enough backbone to set the hook. Soft tip, but it's got to have something up the blank in the way of power. I'm sort of back to the drawing board as well on a cheap rod. The Okuma Reflexion medium light fish more like a medium shakyhead rod. Not enough tip.