Dwight Hottle

Well if you keep fishing without a scale you will keep getting new PBs. The trouble is you will never know how much they weigh. Looks like a river smallie with that long tail, about 4.5 lbs.

I'm 71 and & I have noticed the extra attention & helpfulness offered to me when launching & retrieving at the ramps. As we age we don't really acknowledge how old we are but everyone else does. Good post & food for thought.

When you are catching steady five pounders your first six will be showing up shortly. ?

Dean I would just get her a mhf spinning rod that covers 3/8-3/4 weights. Let her tell you when she wants to upgrade if ever to a casting setup. There are plenty of competent anglers who only use spinning tackle & do very well with it. Most bass fisherman think of spinning tackle as a finesse presentation delivery system but it can cover all the bases for bass fishing.

Kistler Helium3 and you will wonder what took you so long.

Try loosening the cast control knob completely and then rocking the side plate as you try removing it. I know the bantam has a rubber o ring inside that makes the side plate hard to remove.

I use 10 lb braid with a mono leader rather than fc to avoid the inherent problem of bad knots breaking. Use as light a leader as possible without creating problems with bigger fish. 6-12lb range should work well. Keep the leader on the short side like 18” to 24” if the leader knot hangs up in the tip or guides other wise you can use a leader up to the length of the rod. It’s good advise to keep the leader knot out of the reel. Like already mentioned the braid will greatly help you detect bites. You can use high visibility braid if your a line watcher.

Congrats on the new PB. Don't forget to change your profile pb to 5-6.

Welcome to BR Ronald.

Welcome to BR Nick.

Typically when Shimano introduces a new reel the right hand models come out first then the left hand models follow a month or two later. Japan tackle a JDM tackle site is taking preorders for the 19 Antares. They list both right hand & left hand models.

So far everyone has given you good advice. Is it possible the roller & winch assembly need adjusted on the tongue? Most of them are adjustable/moveable. Yours could be too close to the boat.

65lb braid on a heavy action rod should not be a problem. I have a heavy swimbait rod rated for 40-80 lb.

Call St Croix and ask them what size the running guides are. Size 5 or bigger should not present a problem for a connection knot. They have always answered my phone inquiries with helpfulness & accurate help.

Yes you can vertical jig a plain spoon. Best not to add anything to a spoon but you can add a grub on a single hook replacing the stock treble. Try it plain to start. The grub sometimes gets foul hooked during the jogging motion so beware. When your using a plain jig you want to add some kind of attraction to it. Like a grub or paddle tail. If your using a buck tail jig you fish it as is or add a trailer. Remember a jig is nothing more than a weight attached to a hook.

Steve 38lbs. For spoons you can use Hopkins spoons or any other spoon like an Eppinger husky devil or husky jr or a Gibbs etc. Tipping a jig refers to adding a bait to the jig like a crawler or minnow. Also adding an artifical bait like a grub or paddle tail. Remember the color white is preferred. Also pinks, chartreuse work well. Spoon colors use silver/nickel when sunny. Switch to brass or copper when cloudy. White spoons work too.? Lake trout like flat fish and other banana plugs like Kwik fish. Also luhr Jensen dodgers if you want to troll. If you can fish for Lakers early spring or in the fall when they spawn you can find them shallow & cast got them. I would catch them in the fall on Lake Erie using white jerk baits 15-20 fow. Another thing to remember is Lake trout prefer 48-52 degree water temps. That’s why they go deeper as the water warms and they are usually only found in deep water lakes. They will vary from those preferred temps to find bait if it isn’t present in 48-52 degree water.

If the trout are relatively deep you are better off trying to jig them than casting swimbaits. Try vertically jigging just above the depth you are marking fish at on your graph. Then try jigging below them and retrieving your bait above them. The will sometimes respond to a bait that is retrieved quickly back up to the surface after being at their depth. You can jig with a spoon, blade bait or a jig. Lake trout love white colored baits so tip your jig with a white reeper tail, grub, or plastic paddle tail swimbait. If you jig below the transducer cone you should be able to track your baits on the screen.

The bantam took the typical five piece frame and reduced it to three pieces increasing the structural integrity of the reel. The increased rigidity of the frame contributes to an extremely smooth handling reel. The new bantam is the conquest equalivent of the low profile reels. It’s a major design improvement. The reel is smooth as silk and a true workhorse design. My first water test of the reel left me wondering about it’s casting distance. After talking to a reel tech I found the answer to better casting distance. I always set my shimano reels up with one or two brakes on. This was not the right way for the bantam to achieve maximum casting distance. I was instructed to employ all four brakes on and set the braking dial at 2.5 then fine tune the dial a .5 adjustment at a time until I was happy with the outcome. That advice turned it into a distance casting machine for me. I have had Antares, core, metaniums, Calais & metanium dc, essence dc & Calais dc and curados. I like the bantams the best of all the other non dc reels.

Buy the bantam & then you can decide which other reel to sell next to fund the 2nd & 3rd bantam. I sold three metaniums to get more bantams.

X2 Good advice.

Great looking PB. Congrats. Get a scale & you won't have to guess.

Welcome to BR

I don't fish for bass for eating purposes. I'll keep perch & walleye to eat along with some saltwater fish as well.

Pick the He3H70XF that’s a 7’ heavy extra fast rated 3/8-11/2 oz. You can use it for frogs, jigs, light swim baits, pitching & flipping & t rigging worms etc. For the spinning rod go with the He3-SpLMH-70F. It’s a 7’ light medium heavy fast rated 3/16-7/8 oz. it’s an all purpose rod great for just about everything. I especially like it for treble hook baits because the tip helps keep them pinned once hooked. If you want a second bait caster get the same rod in a casting rod model He3LMH70F. I have all three rods so I’m speaking from personal experience.

There is no scientific proof that holding a bass by the jaw vertically causes any damage. Holding a bass horizontally by the jaw without supporting it's mid section/belly area does cause stress to the jaw. Bill Dance has promoted improper handling with his shows because he jacks the jaw by trying to hold the fish horizontally without supporting the fish with a second hand. His horizontal hold is more of a 35-45 degree hold. Maybe if someone told him his attempt to show the fish to the camera with one hand was causing a problem he might change his ways.