SirSnookalot

Congratulations..................any barracuda in that lake?

Only advice I have would be for lynyrdsky1's parents.......b*tchslap this kid and knock some sense into his head.

Look at some of Fish Chris pics, my aren't shabby either,all caught on spinning. nuff said !

I like the look of a warrior that has seen many battles.

Quantums have great drags, my cabo 30 has handled dozens of fish well over 20# where other reels of the same class have a bit more difficulty. One of the best in it's price range. Quantums get a lot attention down here.

The water, birds, weather tells me what I need to know, then I go with my gut feeling.

My first stop would be the local tackle shop. They can guide you to areas to fish, what you can expect to catch and the best tackle suited. Treat fishing as a hobby or activity by not being too intense, you'll catch as many fish and get a whole more relaxation with that attitude.

I had another one on the line for a very long battle, only to lose it to a hook that was broke in half by the fish 6/0 circle. My arm is so sore this morning I am targeting snook, don't want to handle anything bigger. Update : When your on your on.....after a rather lackluster start I get hit by a tarpon off the jettie, tarpon goes similar size as the AJ 40ish, pounds. Trying to fish on the light side I'm using an under powered with only a 10/20 rod and Soron 40 reel. I get it in.......child's play compared to the amberjack. A few minutes later it's cuda on, only 36" but a nice little fight. The amazing thing was cudas seldom hit jigs and don't hit in dark water on the outgoing tide, this one did.

Well said .ghoti, personally I wouldn't even own a B/C, for me there is no reason to, I can do anything with spinning gear. The list of people is endless just on this forum alone of people that have caught most types of fish using spinning gear. The only merit I see to using b/c gear for bass is fighting the vegetation, not the fish, but the same can be accomplished using 10/20 spinning rod.

Inshore bite is just starting to happen, snook and tarpon busting everywhere.

Went offshore today and things were fierce, we got several amberjacks,some kings and maybe 10 cutoffs. Some big blue runners, rainbow runners and 15-20# bonitas. This guy was caught on a Redbone 30# boat rod, Penn Conquer 7000 on full drag and yes clinch knots hold just fine. Your guess is as good as mine on the weight. Hard to imagine a harder fighting fish.

Just get the line on the reel, then before you fish troll it out and reel back thru your fingers.

The Penn fierce is not overkill, the 4000 & 5000 have only 13& 20 max drag. I love Penn but not the fierce line, Penn is not known for heavy drags except the torque of conquer. I would look at a shimano sahara 3000, bit more drag and much lighter and plenty of line capacity. Roadwarrior is absolutely right, all you need for bass and the occasional pike is 2500 or 3000 reel, I catch bigger stronger fish than pike on 3000 size equipment. Those spinfishers are intended for pier or saltwater offshore use, those are way overkill.

If budget is important and even if it isn't there are many great choices out there for $150. For freshwater I like a floog supreme 30 or 35,(don't need the xt ), shimano clarus or my new favorite a calico jack, which I'm using about 80% of the time.

A lot factors determine what kind of equipment I'm going to use. Open water, bass fishing I can use much lighter equipment which is preference. Fishing a high banked canal I need a rod with more backbone just to lift them out. A heavy weeded area or lily pads, gotta have a stout rod, I use my offshore bonita outfit. IMO regarding bass fishing, lure weights, live or cut bait, boat or bank, pond, lake or canal all determine what I'm going to use. Probably about 80% of my bass fishing is done with a 7'med inshore spinning rod, 2000 reel with 15# braid.......covers most of the bases for me.

I know I'm usually going to get some action and it's fun to have a nice sized bass jump a couple of times on you. I know at anytime my rod is going to get a nice bend in it, that keeps my interest high. For me bass fishing is relaxation.

Seldom carrying a camera and never toting a scale around the possibility of recording a record fish is remote and it doesn't matter to me, I wouldn't go through hassle. Just knowing I caught a great fish is reward enough.

I fish braid and imo it's much stronger than mono, plus i dislike the stretch. For bass I use 10 and 15# braid, I feel anything stronger than that is way too much. If using a leader of less breaking strength than your main line, that's your breaking point. I use a heavier leader,(20#mono)gives me a solid chain both for fish and snags. I won't use anything but spinning gear, I'm not a fan of drag & hoist with heavy gear and line.

A quick inspection and common sense will guide you. Change or retie if needed, or do nothing if not needed.

Past experience narrows my field down a bit, from a performance standpoint to customer service. Today most companies make very good equipment, it's getting hard to go wrong.

Glad it worked for you. It's best top soak your filler spool before putting it on the reel. I have really never had a use for an over the counter product when there are simple fixes around that require no extra expense in money and time. In fairness I have tried them but the gains were modest at best and not worth the effort.

I'm not fussy on my hooks, I use what's ever on sale.....haha. The problem is operator error. Anyone can drag a fish in, not allowing to jump using 65# braid, not a whole lot of talent there. Letting that fish jump while keeping a tight line is where talent starts, you don't land them all. If I were obsessed with weights, photo ops and tourney fishing I'd probably drag them in too. I have seen the hole enlarged many times using all different brands of hooks.

Bass will hit my mother's old garter belt..........bass are aggressive, they hit about anything.

Twist and memory are 2 different issues. KVD does work, but if you don't have it use water, the results will be the same. I would place the spool in the sink with warm water, let it soak 15-20 and you are done with no harm to the spool. Now the twist, before fishing troll your line out all the way to the knot and let it float in the water for a few minutes, then reel in slowly and grasping the line, you should have no twist and your line will be supple. I would use a ball bearing swivel to prevent line twist. I'm not a mono user but I spooled up with mono today to use with my barracuda tubes. These lures rotate 360 degrees constant and will put lots of twist on your line. After about 2 hours of solid casting this morning I had zero line twist and my line is perfectly supple, using nothing special trilene xl 17lb. Mono will only be used on this outfit it's still like fishing with a long rubber band, who can use this stuff...lol. For general fishing it's braid. The cuda tubes were creating too much line twist on my braid which does not troll out.

Honestly I'm not crazy for fish, after my Dad being in the fish biz for 40 years and me cleaning everything under the son, I'd rather go to Morton's......lol. But I just love catching them........