IamSpartacus

ESPN - World-record class largemouth bass "Dottie" dies There you go

They really found her dead, theres a link to the news story around here somewhere Mike

Those look amazing, and thanks for sharing! Mike

Looking forward to some hand painted beauty! Glad to see you're back in the game, should be a good one. Mike

Wow Vman, what is your day job? I love reading your long, technical, and indepth posts but most of the time I just can't follow. Keep them up though, I do pick up smidgeons of insight each time you unload vast amounts of knowledge in a post. Maybe if I read enough of them I will understand vortices a fraction of how well you seem to. By the way, good looking baits, let us know how they swim! Mike

Amazing as always! You never cease to impress. On a side note how many things of microfibettes do you go through on a lure, must be a fair few. Anyways, outstanding work! Mike

I think they definitely should! Make sure to post pics when its finished. Mike

Probably a pretty valid point. Mike

Yeah I agree with the braid in rivers though. I don't know how many times I would of lost my favorite buzzbait yesterday if I wasn't using the 14lb braid. The stuff is tough. Plus it does make the hook setting from distance much more successful.

One more and you'd have to be Fatfinger:lol:... I thought it was funny, reading it now Im not so sure normal people will think so. Oh well

Thats rough about the closed season, but it will give you some time to paint and finish your bait. As for around here, bass season opens saturday! Good luck, Mike

Looks like it swims awesome. How long is that bad boy? Mike

No doubt about that! If I could just go a semester without one of these three things I would have a lot more money for fishing. Maybe next semester I'll go without books (only joking... sort of) Anyways thanks for all the suggestions. I do have a 6'6" MH Cabelas Fish Eagle II. Will that be heavy enough? The only experience I have with Muskie is the two times I've hooked into one while ice fishing with an UL pole and 4lb test. I love 10 minute "fights" and trying to figure out how to make a 6" hole big enough to fit a Muskie through only to have your line snap and lose your favorite ice jig:angry: Thanks again for all the help Mike

Good advice, been trying the double palomar knot for a cumulative of 20 hours fishing without fail. Sure is nice catching the fish I set my hook into. Thanks, Mike

Thanks for all the replies so far. Spike-a-pike what brand braid do you use? Does anybody know if the color on the braid really matters when your using a leader anyways? and if it does which color braid seems to work best? Sorry for allt he questions, but I really am brand new to muskie fishing. I'd go somewhere else and ask, but I trust all the advice on here more then other places Thanks, Mike

My friend and I are planning to take a few trips this summer in an effort to catch our first muskies. I was wondering what kind of line you guys would recommend. I figure its going to be a braid, but I don't know which brand or poundage I should go for. We're both pretty poor and I was wondering if you guys could recommend a fairly priced braid and poundage to go with. If it matters we will probably be tossing fairly large cranks (Super Shad Raps and some homemades) and I have a Cabelas Protige reel (I know its not ideal, but once again poor college student). The rod I'll be using is up in the air at the moment, if anyone has suggestions for a decent yet fairly cheap muskie rod I'd love to hear them. Also I was wondering about what leaders you guys use. I was looking at the Flourocarbon Stealth Leader's (I found the link on MuskySnax's website) and was thinking about using them. I was wondering what pound test any of you would suggest. They ran from 100lb to 150lb and I thought 150lb might be a bit over the top, but then again I've never caught a muskie. Thanks in advance for any help, this has been a heck of a long post... Mike

They look real nice, I river fish most the time too... Its fun trying to figure out what your lure is doing when the current switches every few feet. Hope they work as good as they look! Mike

I got some from a little food tent I bought at Wal-Mart (supposed to keep out the bugs) and a different pattern from the bags that onions come in... Lots of fabric stores sell mesh that works, but I hate the smell of those places. Good luck! Mike

Yeah I had my braid (14lb Fireline Crystal) snap on three hooksets in a row... I was fishing a zoom salamander weedless and three times in a row id set the hook and it would snap instantly. I should have learned after the second time, but apparently I'm not the brightest of the bunch. I looked at my line and it appeared fine each time... Not really sure what was happening. I cut off like 15ft of my line and tried it then, it worked and haven't had any problems since. Anybody have any idea what might have caused this?

Those are pretty sweet! I don't see why those wouldn't work on musky...

I did some digging, he answers some of those questions at the bottom of http://www.tackleunderground.com/forum/hard-baits/10115-2-new-baits-2.html Sorry John, I felt like a creeper going through all your posts, but I remembered seeing it somewhere! Cheers, Mike

The worst about this, as I'm still a believer, is I just got a call from one of my friends today saying that there was just a 12lb 24" LM Bass caught out of the pond I fish in quite often. Not sure if it would be a state record, but still a massive fish. As the kids who claim to have caught it are both young and relatively unintelligent I do not fully believe the story. Just reminded me of this way too much... weird as it is I still believe this one way more then the one from my neck of the woods. Id post pictures but they say they must have gotten deleted off their cell phone somehow. I hope their both true, and your son catches it again, and I catch the one in my pond

Yeah, he does. I look at his website a lot wishing I wasn't a poor college student and he's got a link to it. Here it is... Video of Trout Swim Bait - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting