jomama

one man's dink, another man's lunker - nice couple of healthy looking fish you got there!

SU sweaters? i'm in for one!

you can pay a guide and not stick a thing, like ltrain and i did. can you do THAT in MN?

i'm pretty new to the game myself. i made a decision that i wanted a pretty good setup from the get go so i don't end up spending even more money upgrading. here's what i've bought and what i spent: ldc production xh - $200 (+shipping in most cases) lexa 300 - $160 (shipped, ebay) pline original 25lb test 1/4 spool - $15-20 (shipped, amazon) as for lures, you can browse the black market for some deals. you can find some good deals on soft baits like hudds and the such. hard baits get pricier, and tend to hold value a bit better, especially some of the more limited production ones. the ldc was a no brainer for me. i've seen people resell their ldc rods for upwards of 95% of original value in the black market. so if spending $200 on a rod doesn't force you to have to eat ramen for a month, then it's a good idea.

bro, i'll take 7s all day, everyday, if i could! nice catch!

ridiculous prize package! love the cork split grip!

ROF5 8in hudds dont come with the jig hook, or any hook for that matter.

ROF125

so far i've thrown hudd 68s up to wake jr's and 8" fs trouts with my ldc production xh. i'm pretty new to swimbaiting and this is my first swimbait rod - so far so good tho. takes a little bit of time to learn the sweet spot for casting the different baits, but that'd be the case with any rod. i fish from shore 99% of the time myself, and when you load the rod up properly, you can hawk it out there pretty good.

nice fatty. =)

would it be better to just swing that puppy into the boat rather than using a net? that way, you maintain constant pressure.

sippin' dd coffee, huntin' for dd fish - nice haul!

good to know! now i need to see if they're available in any of the frames that will fit my fat head. i pretty much always wear a cap, otherwise there's way too much light that leaks in from the top making it impossible to see. surfer and fisher, eh? looking to pick up a longboard myself. former east coaster here trying to learn the ways of the west.

do the shallow blues work well in bright sun as well? they're not too darkly tinted, if i'm not mistaken.

oakley vr28 polarized lenses on bright sunny days ftw! i haven't tried the angling specific shallow blue polarized lenses yet, but will prob get them at some point.

better call saul!

nice work!!! looks like a short haired doxie!

the addiction began a little while ago, but it's definitely taken a step towards the deep end! next up is the ldc and lexa 300, after i pick up the second swingbait i can't throw until i get the new stick and reel.

ironic that i can barely catch anything in CA. then i come out east and have a decent night in just a couple of hours on the lake. ltrain didn't post a pic of his lunker! swimbaiting is definitely addictive!!!

unfortunately, i'm well aware of the expenditures that await me, haha! ltrain warned me of this early and often. i'm not even gonna start counting. i have stuff in the my tackle box that i can't even throw with my current setup! =) as for swimbait, i guess that's why i had it in quotes. i prob should have qualified it as my first fish on a jointed hard swimbait - but that's too many qualifications. =) it starts sounding like one of those stupid sports stats (first triple double at 9:15pm during a full moon). interesting enough, i never caught a bass on a hard bait until about a week ago. it's been soft plastics all up until now. either way, as evans_usmc69 said, nice to get this one out of the way. i'd like to gradually throw bigger baits and catch bigger fish. and i'll do my best to stay out of the black market, and off the tackle warehouse website as well.

thanks man! i'm gonna need to find some new waters to fish soon. sounds comical right now, but i'm sure it won't be long until it becomes a reality. at least ben's local to me! the rod might not be the most expensive part - i'll need a bigger car to transport that thing around! sadly, hundreds if not thousands of casts were made and several lures were lost to catch the few fish i've caught. the ratio's gotta be up there in the neighborhood $XXX per fish right now, haha! i guess that's how it is, or at least that's how it starts.

i've fished on and off (mostly off) for the better part of my life, but have recently become quite intrigued/fascinated by swimbaits. ltrain came out to socal for a visit not too long ago and kindly left a baitcaster behind with a new rod for me to keep. since then, i've been trying to do that stick some justice. while not quite a fish to write home about, the significance of this fish is that it's the first i've ever caught on a swimbait (unless you consider the trash fish a swimbait). ltrain had sent me a lite trout s-waver to play around with, and i proceeded to get that thing snagged on the second day i fished it. not to be undone, i bought a couple more last week and fished them earlier this week. the below fish was caught on a 120 size party crasher s-waver. i tossed it out in front of a wolfpack of about 10-12 and boom! looking forward to (hopefully) catching bigger fish on these s-wavers.

stop stealing all my fish! jk. i haven't had quite the same luck there. in fact, i've been losing way too many hooks there - keep getting snagged on something out there!

google chrome, ftw!

there was more in there to be had! my one and only trash fish got snagged after i caught the second of two, so i rigged up a keitech paddle tail and had at least a third bite that got off when i was reeling it in. that was all within a 30min window. ltrain told me the dropping barometric pressure and somewhat overcast skies would make for a good bite. he was right. btw, ltrain's fish was taken in the same spot turned around 180*,but a couple of days earlier.