Team9nine

Actually the reverse for me. After nearly 30 years of tourney fishing, almost exclusively with baitcasters, I had a chance encounter with Ned Kehde (2011), and by default, got introduced to his Midwest Finesse mindset, some of which I had already been employing in my offseason pursuits of crappie and bass. Now days, spinning is probably 75-80 percent of my fishing via various finesse presentations.

1. Yes, the spinning outfit 2. Yes, yes 3. 15/8 would be a good starting point 4. Likely 5-6 ft., usually having the leader knot somewhere just outside the spool to start. Suggestion: Start with just the spinning outfit first and see how you like it before moving on. It’s the easiest and more amenable of the two setups.

Just a guess - Paw Paw Wotta-Frog Wood Jointed

As you can tell from the responses, it depends on the angler. Personally, I’m less worried about gear ratio and more focused on overall IPT with my spinning reels, with faster usually being better in most cases.

Maybe two bad knots, especially if you used the same knot each time ? Also possible you had a bad spool. I use a lot of InvizX without issue, partly because its knot strength is on par or even better than some monos (nylon).

Lol, that is my only gripe with them, though some individual heads are much easier than others. I take an old worm hook and make the eye as open as possible. Using a Pitzen knot, which is just a SDJ knot minus the lower through the loop crossing. Have used both 8# mono (as braid leader) and 12# fluoro without issue, both lines falling in the 0.011-0.012 range.

I know you already mentioned it, but I spent the past few days using the 1/16 oz VMC Finesse Rugby Jighead on some local ponds and had no issues either catching or hooking/landing bass. I used it on both M baitcast as well as my usual ML Midwest Finesse spinning outfit with equal success. Might consider giving it another try.

Pretty common in some areas around here. I have a couple ponds I fish where it is pretty prolific and well established. Neds work great for fishing it - bass often eat it off the stalks or when ripping the bait free of them. Jerkbaits are good over shallow flats, as is a wakebait type lure (I use Minus-1). Any surface lure will work on the heavy shallow stuff. A great winter location also as it tolerates cold weather/water well in deeper depths.

You can generally never go wrong by getting a larger battery as long as weight or size isn’t an issue. I’d rule out 24s. Group 27s are pretty standard, but you might opt for the next size up, group 29/31s, especially if you are just going with a single battery setup.

Mushroom jighead paired with a Zman soft plastic bait

Did a more thorough search this morning. It appears the companies started marketing/promoting spinning reel models that featured the ability to either close automatically or manually in the late 1970s. This Garcia ad was one of the first I found from 1977. Over the next 5-6 years (77-83), you could find this manual close ability being advertised as a selling point by most all major reel manufacturers. However, you don't start seeing articles specifically recommending you close a bail manually to avoid line management issues (outside of a temporary work around) until the early 2000s, which matched with what I found in my earlier search.

I did a quick search last night, and it appears to be a recommendation that started showing up “in print” beginning in the early 2000s, though many claimed to have been doing it for some time. I’ll try and do a more extensive search in the next day or two.

Not much. If you have tied/anchored the mono backing to the spool (arbor knot, etc.), it shouldn't take much wrapping to get the mono to cinch on the spool. I'd agree with the 30 ft. you mention. For a standard 7:1 reel with about 31" IPT, that would translate to a dozen turns of the reel handle. I would think that should be plenty. I'd personally probably do just enough turns to get a nice even base layer down without being able to see the spool arbor through it.

Threw them some the past couple weeks and found similar, about half a dozen or so fish per bait (6-8) for me using a double wire keeper jighead setup. Haven't tried gluing yet (good idea), but like RoLo, cutting the nose down a bit and rerigging gets you a couple more fish each time.

Ran one on an old bass boat of mine, believe it might have been the StingRay, but regardless, it definitely worked. If you can't get the hole shot/planing thing figured out by getting the engine height and prop setup right (pitch and blade configuration), or even changing load distribution, then it would be worth a shot as they aren't that expensive.

How deep of water were you in when you took this picture? The picture posted above is cut off on the left side where an auto depth might show. If it was deeper than 60 ft there, you wouldn't be reading a bottom since it appears you have it manually set to 60 ft.. Maybe a couple other full screen pics to help diagnose.

If it's a nice clean break, and you still have some decent spacing near the tip to allow a new one to be put on, then do it. Have tossed several broken rods over the years due to very bad breaks/shatters, but still have one that was a 6'10" rod that had a very clean tip snap and was saved (minus 2.5 inches). A little stiffer than original, but still works great with certain baits. Just used it this past week again to land a few dozen fish.

Yep ^^ I’d gladly take my chances with Berkley Vanish before I’d ever try fluoroclear again, if that tells you anything ? Exact same issue as MDTX - 2 different spools of 2 different pound tests. Do a search on the site and you’ll see it’s a love-hate thing.

I’ll throw another nod to 12# Big Game. At that price point, just spool the entire reel with it, then if needed in the future, just use the Big Game as the backing.

Go for it. I'd suggest 15# Seaguar InvizX or Tatsu depending upon your budget.

Speak for yourself jk, but I'll never buy a spinning reel without the AR switch unless they're simply phased out and not available any more. Some things you simply can't do without one if you're a dedicated backreeler (knowing there aren't that many of us left - lol).

Faster, yes, but the lure still has to travel a certain distance for the lip to have time/pressure to work, so not deeper/steeper than the normal dive curve. They’ve also tested stop and go retrieves where the bait pauses, or even rises, and the bait always goes back to its normal depth curve once a steady retrieve is maintained. I believe they explained it because any increased pressure from faster retrieves is offset by increased drag against the bait and line.

I believe that’s a typo. Think what he meant to say was that frogs offer a lot of nutrients to the parent guarding the fry since they typically don’t eat during the spawn/nest guarding phase.

Depends on how much line was on the spool to begin with. If it truly was about 120 yds., and you've lost half that (60 yds, leaving 60 yds left), you just obtained some expensive backing line In that case, I'd remove another 20-30 yds, then reconnect and respool fresh line on top ("Chop a little more off and THEN tie on a new line and just use old stuff as backing").