Hammer 4

Blue, sounds like a fun weekend, ect. always fun to see you and the family catching some nice fish, especially the young'uns..

As for a rod, might check out the Diawa Tatula XT rods, priced $ 99.99 to 119.99. The 3 that I bought, I'm very happy with. They do come with EVA grips.

Back in about 2009 or so, at a local pond/lake we use to fish at, during the spawn everyone was using white jigs for bed fishing, and as I recall there were several good sized females caught on them. I still have a some in 1/4 3/8 and 1/2 oz sizes.

For me, the SD knot works good on all types of line. Nowadays due to the meds I have to take, one side affect is my hands tend to shake like crazy, so a knot like the cinch or uni is much easier for me to tie, I just have to check them more often.

Older 5 speed reels are also great for fishing Big swimbaits. From what I see these days is guys fishing them a tad to fast, which usually means the bait is in the upper part of the water column, which isn't always a good idea.

Ravox, why not give braid a try, if you catch fish, stick with it, if not, then go to whatever works for you.

10 lb would be fine. I fished with 10 lb mono on my old Chronarch for about 2 years. I wouldn't fish it in heavy cover though.

Yup, no worries. Fish the way you have fun doing it..

Fishing with mono for more than a few decades with various brands of mono, and then using braid and fluro for about 10 years, I'd have to pick a top quality mono If I had to choose.

^^^^ This. Also when I use to fish big glide baits, or a jointed floater, I'd kill the bait, then do a side sweep with my rod, no reeling, then crank really fast. Doesn't work 100 % of the time, but your percentages will go up.

I don't cast under boats, I do cast along side of them. Been doin it for years, early on, I did hit 1 boat, I went over to see if there was any damage, luckily there wasn't any. Practice and practice, plus Confidence and staying Relaxed is the key. You can do it, just takes time..

Love skipping. Whats cool is when you get good enough that you can skip a lure 20+ feet under a dock that's about 1 to 1 1/2 ' off the water. Even better is watching guys toss baits at the pillars, they get frustrated and leave, I then go to the same spot skip a bait way under the dock, only to catch some nice fish, and they can't figure out why they didn't get any fish.. Get good at, it's a ton of fun..

Same line as Tom, but in 19 lb ..For baits up to 3 oz.

I also use a 1/0 octopus or a 1/0 circle hook. these keep fish pinned. Never gut hooked a bass with these.

My rods are all rigged up. I don't put any plastic's on until I'm ready to fish. I do always have a spinnerbait tied on though. Also, my swimbaits get tied on when I get to the lake.

Only time I use a palomar knot with fluro is with a drop shot.

Hank Parker is gonna be a Mod..???

I'm in this camp too..Unless I'm fishing for strippers, then I use a scrounger head to get the fluke down deep.

Don't use leaders. All my knots are San Diego jam knots, unless I forget my reading glasses, then I tie a uni knot, which I haven't had any issues with.