ICast 2010- Shimano Stella FE

Heres a quick video talking about the Shimano Stella FE, one of the biggest products at the event. 

ICAST 2010

For those who don't know ICast is the biggest sport fishing conference in the world. It happens once a year and its wear all the big fishing companies bring there new products for the year. Here are the highlighted products from ICast 2010.

Overall Best of Show: G.loomis NRX.
G.loomis has always been a big freshwater rod producer in the past few years and they did not disappoint with there new NRX. This rod is there biggest advancement in rod technology ever.

Best Electronics: Lowrance Navico
Technology in the fishing industry is always evolving and getting more advanced. This can be seen most in the GPS and fish locating devices.

Best Freshwater Reel: Shimano Stella FE
Shimano is one of the biggest names in fishing and will be for a long time. There new Stella FE spinning reel was a huge success at ICast and by far one of the best reels on the market right now.

If you need a laugh...

I have always been a huge Bill Dance fan and honestly I don't know that many fisherman who don't like Bill Dance. But he has always been popular for his bloopers, along with his fishing. So heres a funny video I stumbled upon of one of his bloopers. Sorry this post doesn't really have to do with anything, I thought I would change it up.

Power Fishing

Alright my last blog post was about finesse fishing. So this time Im going to talk about something very different, power fishing. The name kind of gives it away. Its powerful fishing, fishing things fast and hard. Using heavy, quick falling weights and burning it back in. Crank bait fishing can  be power fishing. Its a good quick way to cover water and find where the fish at. Throwing out a crank and burning it back in and casting back out to a new spot, sort of the " run and gun " technique is one of the most popular kinds of power fishing.

Another very popular kinds of power fishing is flipping and pitching. Now just like the crank bait, this can also be used for finesse fishing but is mostly used for power fishing. Get a heavy action seven foot rod with some thick braid and a good baitcaster and you have a great flipping and pitching set up. Now all you need is a nice heavy jig or your favorite soft plastic bait with a heavy weight and your ready to go. It would be very hard to explain the actual technique of flipping and pitching but heres a video that will show you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBT0eZZi5k0


There are plenty of other techniques for power fishing but these are just a couple of my favorites, I might do another post with more techniques later.

Finesse Fishing

So I think for my next few post Im going talk about some fishing styles that I use a lot. For this one Im going to talk about finesse fishing, one of my favorite things to do! This is also a very misunderstood style of fishing. Finesse fishing in a nut shell is taking your regular lure and making it smaller. Right now when the weather is starting to cool off the bass are going to change with the temperature. A bass metabolism will slow down when it gets colder, making the fish more sluggish. So finesse fishing is perfect when the temperature drops. One thing I really like to do is take a four inch worm or some sort of soft plastic bait and  texas rig it to a thin wire hook and put the smallest weight I can on it so It just barely sinks to the bottom. After it hits the bottom you just twitch it a little and very slowly reel it in. This is perfect for cold weather if you know where the fish are. And for hard baits you can just use a small crank bait and retrieve it slower then you normally would. One thing that has just hit American bass fishers in the bast couple years is wacky style fishing. and what we have done with it is combined the wacky style of fishing with finesse. It can be very effective in waters that are fished very often because it is something the fish don't regularly see. It works best in not so deep waters but can effective in deeper water. The normal fishing setup for finesse fishing is a medium 6-7 ft rod with a spinning reel and usually around 8 lb line. This is a great style for the fall and winter and if you haven't tried it then your missing out on a lot of fish!

BPS Nitro Bass Rod

Okay so Im going to do another review for this post. On this one Im going to talk about the Bass Pro Nitro Bass rod. This is another really great rod. It has a nice long grip on it which I love because it helps with leverage and getting some nice long cast. When the rod first came out they hyped it has a really strong rod that is great for power fishing and fishing for really big bass. And they were defiantly right. This rod is tough!! Its great for flipping and pitching into some really thick brush. This rod is also a little different then most in that the models are made specifically for a style of fishing, which you don't see a lot. I have two of these. I have the flipping model and a carolina model. I love them both! I would most defiantly recommend this rod to anyone looking for a great rod for bass fishing.

http://www.basspro.com/Bass-Pro-Shops-NITRO-Big-Bass-Rods/product/97964/-1433582#prodDescription

Pro Qualifier and Rick Clunn XPS Baitcaster

Okay so for this post Im going to talk about something I use very often, my fishing pole. Now this is not my only fishing set up but it is one of my favorites. I have a Bass Pro Pro Qualifier rod and a Rick Clunn RCX baitcaster on it.

Pro Qualifier
Okay so like I said earlier this is one of my favorite set ups, but this rod by itself is one of my favorite rods I have ever used. Mine is 6'6, which honestly I wish I had bought one that was a little longer but this one works. It is a medium heavy action which is perfect for how I fish. It has a really good backbone to but is still very sensitive. And last nut not least the grip! It has the power hump grip on which i wasn't sure how I would like it before I bought this pole but now I love it. My hands don't get sore from gripping it even if I fish all day. If anyone is interested into looking more into this pole then heres a link for it!
http://www.basspro.com/Bass-Pro-Shops-Pro-Qualifier-XPS-Trigger-Rods/product/98314/-1432339

Rick Clunn RCX
This is also one of my favorite reels I have ever used. It has a 7:1:1 gear ratio on it so I can crank it as fast I can. It has awesome breaks on it, I cant tell you the last time I got a birds nest in it. I can throw out whatever kind of line I want on this thing and it works great. The only problem I have ever had with it was being able to flip and pitch with it. But that really isn't a big deal because I use a different rod and reel for that. But overall this is just a great reel, here is a link for it!
http://www.basspro.com/Bass-Pro-Shops-RCX-Power-Fishing-Baitcast-Reels/product/10205036/-1662560