BigBendFishing.Net

Well it's been a while and it still ain’t much of a report, but it’s all I got to share. It’s taken me a couple of weeks to finally get two new starting batteries installed and all the gremlins extracted from the electrical system in my boat. The problems were left over’s that resulted from the visitors who removed my two starting batteries and my 7 spinning combo’s. In order to finally eliminate all the problems, I ended up having to replace my old fuse panel with a new one, reconnecting everything, removing the battery switch and reconnecting the correct wires. I wanted to test all my work and also evaluate how my backup fishing gear was going to work to prioritize what replacements would be made first. The backup gear was stored in my garage when the theft occurred, which is why I still have it. On the other hand, there was a reason it was in the garage covered in dust…. I sure do miss my old equipment!!

The wife and I took off work at noon Friday and by 2pm we were on the water headed out of the lighthouse pool. The parking lot looked like labor day weekend! The weather was beautiful and as we headed out I saw a fellow, who was wade fishing the bar, catch a nice trout which was encouraging. There were a bunch of boats drifting to the west of the river channel but I had already decided to head east so off we went. Stopped just west of Stony in about 5 ft and drifted in a easterly direction with the wind towards Black Rock. My wife was in her favorite spot sit’n on the pole’n platform and fishing a Cajun Thunder with a slurp. I put out another CT trailing from a rod holder and then started throwing various top water and suspended hard baits. The wife caught a nice trout but it was just barely short and went back. We had a few short Sea Bass come on board but nothing special. I had a lizard fish attack my super spook and put up a pretty good fight. Went back to fishing and then heard the wife say….â€

Glad you got the electrical demons out of there. Sorry to hear about the back-up gear, just wait Christmas is around the corner and I hear JT buying everyone a couple of new combos.

High fives for JT ,,,,Make mine a Abu Revo and challenger rod

I suggest you use some expensive powerpro...

If you want some cheap combos that work well, check out the Penn Silverados and Captivas (but not he "Live-Liner"). I carry one of each - the silverado was $50 with a graphite one-piece rod and 4000 reel, the Captiva I have was about $75 for reel and one-piece 7' graphite. I've been fishing with mojokoko for a long time, and he has 3 sets of Stradic 4000's on pricey All-Star rods...his cast slightly better and reel slightly smoother, but with the same line on them, they are remarkably similar. I actually prefer the cheap ones cause I have big hands and the Stradic reel handles feel a little awkward to me.

There's definitely better stuff out there, but they're dang good for the price. I catch most of the fish you see in my reports on those two...I used the Captiva 4000's and carry the Silverado as a backup. Stay away from the "Live-Liner" combos as they have a 2-piece foam-butt rod. The 4000 NOT live-liner is a cork 7 foot one-piece made specifically for 10# line.

I'm sure some people will disagree, but if anyone has suggestions of something better for the price, let me know so I can try em out

Can't stand a thief. Way to make the best of it and your boat's working.

That was a great report. Just becuase you didn't bring anything home you still provide an entertaining story, as always, and some good info. Like when fishing with the wife let here suggest what she wants to use. That way she'll feel like your not pushing her. Once she gets the feel,that we all feel when fishing artificials,on her own, she'll only become a bigger supporter of your fishing experiances...even if you will have to bring her along more. So I guess this lesson was a doubled edged sword!!!

Thanks for the replies and Mook, I appreciate your suggestions. I'll check into some of the equipment you mentioned. I've always found the Pfluger and Diawa combo's in the $50-$60 dollar range to be very good (for me!) One of the rigs taken was a Pfluger president combo that I had purchased at West Marine 1 1/2 years ago and was preforming very well. One was a older penn 450 combo which was one of my favoriate's but would be more along the lines of $90 + to replace and the newer penn's don't seem to be as good in quality(imo). And, I know you won't get many oohh's and aahh's when folks see you using them but the $30-$40 Shakespeare combo's are really hard to beat for the money. And if you can find an older Zebco One.... I know a fellow in Shopchoppy who'l be excited for ya

[quote="Sir reel"].......... Her comment about then was….â€

SR, Just to fill you in on what I did after seeing y'all at the light, I was turning to go BACK TO WORK!

I had to chuckle to myself and cock my head a notch, wishing I was following y'all to the fort. It's good to see you're back at it

Sir-

Glad to hear you did your own electrical work. Sorry to hear about the stuff that was stolen. Glad to hear you took Ms. Sir out for the day. Me and Ms MJ went out a few weeks ago and had a similar experience but east of the river by Patty's Island. She loved the topwater action

Keep after em for me

Sir Reel - It is good to hear a fishing report from you! Sorry to hear about the theft. What a drag. Have you checked out http://www.ffo-tackle.com ? Fisherman's Factory Outlet. I've bought a lot of stuff from that sight. If you keep am eye on it they usually have pretty good deals on Abu Garcia.

You might even find something for Mrs. Reel.