SirSnookalot

Not a bad idea to check your shoes before you put them on.

Any time "A Face in the Crowd" is aired I won't miss it. As much as I appreciated his comedic roles in "No time for Sergeants and Onionhead, I most enjoyed his dramatic work.

Although many people use Ugly sticks for a various types of saltwater fishing, they aren't my choice, if interested I will give some options that are in the same price range as the Ugly sticks, I personally think you will have more fun with them. I would stick with a mh rod 10/20 rod, 7 -7'6 with a fairly wide range in lure weights, like 1/4 oz to 1 oz. Don't hook your shrimp in the head, put the hook thru the tail, I like a 1/0 or 2/0 circle.

20# braided line would be my choice..........I wouldn't over look using a gold spoon for redfish.

Had another nice cuda this morning, 2 in 4 days is pretty good for fishing them with artificial, considering before Sunday my last one was over a month ago. Hard to express in works on awesome the strike is and the fight they put up.

I grew up in the fish business so I hardly notice the smell. After a day of using live or cut bait for saltwater fishing, a good washing is all I do, it doesn't remove the smell but it does dissapate in couple of hours. The only smell that is really offensive to me is barracuda, they stink like no other fish, and they have a terrible slime too..................but are they great to eat, not good to eat, but great!!

I have 8-10 inshore outfits, I use the appropriate one for the species I'm fishing for and the location (beach, boat, pier jettie, etc), so recommending the perfect rod and real is difficult. I inshore fish just about everyday, my observation is the most popular all around set up is an ugly stick with 4 or 5000 series reel, I see more Penns( the Penn Battle is becoming very popular) than anything. My first suggestion would be checking a saltwater forum in your geographic location and see what those anglers are using. For the freshwater fisherman making the occasional trip into saltwater, freshwater gear is ok, but it isn't if inshore is the sole focus. As Bassn suggests Redbones are an excellent choice, I own 6 or 7 of them, I have a few others that I like very much too, but I don't like to get into specific brands. If you buy something on my recommendation and don't like, I have to live with it, so I don't spend other people's money. Yes for an all around set up a MH 10/20 7 or 7'6 rod would be my choice too, but pay attention to lure weight parameters. Shrimp and most lures are fairly light, but if you fish live bait like greenies or pilchards you need a heavier rod. About the closest thing to bass fishing is snook fishing, I don't know if they are in your area, but as faint as the bite can be with them you won't need a super sensitive rod. Backbone is very important, you can just as easily hook a 30# tarpon, jack or redfish as 1# blue runner. I can't emphasis enough about getting local information.

Don't be misled by the name, a grass carp is not a carp at all, but a minnow called a white amur. By nature they are vegetarians, out of thousands of casts I've caught only 2 on artificial lures. Yes berries are the ticket, I would try strawberries (they will hold on the hook well), I would avoid wild berries as some are poisonous to humans.

Attaching your leader via knot and running it thru the guides is not mandatory. I only tie line to leader when target certain species like spanish mackerel and cero mackerel, I attach my leaders using a swivel.

For me it's time of year and body of water, being summer I don't always catch a bass on each outing, other times of the year catching bass poses no real problem. Some of the other species I fish for it's not uncommon for me not to get a strike in a month, and that doesn't mean the fish is hooked.

For a smaller spinning reel thinner line manages best, that's one reason why I use braid with a leader. I don't dispute this for a second, many members have said that using straight braid with no leader works great for them, I kinda question the need for FC lines. I have never been too concerned over line or rod sensitivity.

I only use live bait when the bite is tough, I've done it more this year than ever, maybe 10 times. I can honestly say bait is the equalizer, I've scored almost every time I've use it. Sabiki does the trick, if the bait may be a little scarce I'll tip my sabiki with squid and try and catch a spot, croaker, sand perch or a little jack, they make great inshore baits.

The numbers printed on both rods and reels generally reference mono lines. A Pfluegar 35 reel is in between a 2 & 4000 reel, a med rod is usually no more than 17# mono line diameter, depending on the brand and model. IMO 40# braid is overkill, on a similar set up I use 15# braid, 20# would be the max I would use. On a normal day with little or no breeze fishing at or near water's level I doubt too many casts are going to be more than 35+ yds, sure you can cast twice that far from a 15' pier with a 15 -20 mph wind at your back and a thin profile spoon. The backing is irrelevant to distance, the point Chris at Tech made about the knot going thru the guides makes a lot of sense to me, personally my leaders are shorter tied with a swivel. Only time I tie leader to line is fishing for certain species, none of which are caught in freshwater.

Up until the freeze 2 years ago I had peacocks all over the place, this year I've caught only 1 in my area and it was tiny.

X2..............if it persists.

All of my saltwater boat fishing is offshore, so no snook, my friends aren't into it. I do fish snook nearly every single morning from shore, I have some excellent spots ranging between Jap Rock and Hobe Sound. If I boat fished them, I know some super places within 15 minutes of my home. Now is the time for snook, until the end of the year, the sign of a good snook fisherman is catching them in the winter. I can't get serious about any other species, except barracuda, too bad very few redfish in my area.

Not that there was an abundance of fish, there wasn't. I started off before dawn and nailed a little tarpon in the rip rap. We had a west wind what there was of it, not a ripple on the water and it was a clear as it could be, with a tide change at 7:00 am, a cuda fisherman's dream. To preface the activiity I have to say barracuda are the most wary, skittish fish I've tried to catch on artificials, you can go for weeks without getting a hookup. Sunday morning was not a disappointment, minutes before the tide change I get hit on black cuda tube, and game on............within seconds the cuda was probably 75 yards away, I knew that because my reel only holds about 100 yds of 14# mono (cabo 30), after one of my more epic battles we measure this dude, right out at 50".....my biggest to date. Look like I'm in the market for new reel with more line capacity.

Right.............That said any spinning reel is braid ready, wrap electrical or masking tape around the arbor first, I even do this when I'm spooling mono line. For bass fishing you don't need more than 50 or so yds of line, backing first is good cost cutting measure.

I never tried wacky until a few months ago. Quite honestly I did not enjoy it and probably will never do it again. I happen to try it when the bass fishing was very active here, catching fish was not the problem. I used a senko with a circle hook thru the middle, since I didn't have to set the hook that did remove some fun for me, I did notice that the same sized fish didn't seem to fight as hard as they may have with another technique.

If it's different lines and different reels sounds like user error. Is the line breaking when you first tied your knot? I don't understand why line would break at the spool if the line was already loaded up. I've used a number of different spool knots, arbors, unis, a few overhand knots, even just tape with no knot, I have never had the problem you are experiencing. Could there be a sharp edge someplace that you are rubbing against?

I seldom go bass fishing in the summer only because the quality of fish isn't the same as winter. The action gets a bit slow this time of year in my area, I don't mind the heat but I don't like be bored catching small fish. I am at the ocean every day, I only cover up if the no seeums are out, otherwise it's shorts and a t-shirt. I used to walk and carry my clubs a few times a week, much preferred it to a golf cart, that kept me in real decent shape, I do notice the difference as I don't do that anymore.

Yep, those houndfish were big, I've never seen a needle any where close to those, same family of fish for sure.

Same here and when I do it's 3x or 4x saltwater hooks for freshwater fish. I've been know to replace with single hooks instead of a trebles.

I'm not trying to convince anyone should change, just saying the clinch and improved clinch knot do the job.

That stealth is a really nice boat. Not sure unless it was a calm day if I would want to venture into the open ocean with it, unless you have some flats in your area, which we don't have here, for ICW it's a killer. Brst of luck with, really nice snook too, you can tell by the color it's an ocean snook, not a river or icw one.