Hammer 4

12 year old thread...walking dead lives..

Rod prices are good, but the 25.00 shipping is tough to swallow..At least for me.

52 % of the bass are caught on worms..

I know that feeling all to well. So, for the most part, it could be which spawn cycle the bass are at in your lakes. If they are spawning, that could be the reason for not bites. Pre spawn would be a better time, but the timing has to be right, we are past that time now. If they are post spawn, chances are better, as they start to feed again. I can't tell you how many days I dedicate to throwing only swimbaits only to come up empty. Timing and location is key. What I would suggest is, take you most weedless bait, and Slowly crawl it on the bottom, I like the Hudd weedless 68 rof 12, but a 5 will work, just takes more time to sink. Lastly, get some Megastrike (craw) and smear on the bait, bass tend to hold on longer doing this. Time, and more time on the water will get you more in tune with how your lakes fish behave, just hang in there. Good luck, and welcome to the forums.

I would agree, with 1 exception. During the winter here in So. Cali, we used to have regular trout plants, that was the time for the Big swimbaits to come out and play. For most of the country, Mike L is spot on.

Agreed re: the 806..With the right reel, my old 806 would cast a 6" ROF 5 hudd a country mile, yet I still used it for 8" Hudds too, and some hard swimbaits.

Yup, and the Calcutta starts at 350.00..Great reels, but maybe a bit spendy for those who have a limited income. Wrong side.?????????? ?

I have noticed this too. As I use lefty reels. Seems about the only reels I can find are the high price round reels in 5:1.. It maybe that the 6 to 8 speed reels are so popular now, compared to years ago, that they may not sell to well, and the manufactures have stopped making them.?

I buy baits that I think will catch bass. But I try to buy Quality made baits, so brand isn't always a factor.

I had Shimano reels some years ago with the anti reverse. I fished them 4 to 6 times a week, and usually 2 of those days were in Salt water, over a 4 year period. Never had any issues, I did have them serviced when needed. I don't see the problem, as Diawa has them..

I don't think there is a technical term for learning to wait, ya just have to practice it, over and over, kinda like practicing a golf swing..Takes time..

San Diego jam knot, or uni..depending on lure weight, ect..

Same here. I use wait until the frog disappeared, but sometimes the fish just grabbed the legs and took it underwater. When I waited until I could feel the weight of the fish, is when my hook up ratio improved.

While the XT is stiffer than some rods, I wouldn't say it's quite stiff, compared to rods I've used in the past. However, being that the rat has treble hooks, I would agree that possibly a softer tip may be what you need. I personally like a stiffer tip on my rods.

The XT will do the trick. From my past experience with Dobyn's rods, I found the tip to be a tiny bit softer than the XT's. Don't know if that's still the case, or not, but I went with the XT anyway, and I'm happy with the rod, plus I have 2 other XT's..

Just to add for the sake of info..If anyone is wanting to throw the Spro Rat 50, I would suggest getting a rod rated up to 4 oz..The rat 50 should fall just about into the sweet spot.

Any kind of fishing to me is all fun. I let my Son who is 6'7" 260 lbs do the hard work..lol

You may be right about that.

Yup, sometimes the toolies are so thick you could actually walk on them, I keep weights up to 1 1/2 oz for those. If you can't get the bait down to the fish, your wasting your time..

Back in the 60's...I used spinning gear to fish for Bonita in the salt, these were schoolies sometimes weighing up to 12 lbs..The deal is, they Fought really hard, and I was using 10 lb stren, so back reeling was something I had to learn If I wanted to land the majority on my fish. The old timers taught me this, but I rarely do it these days. Still, I like a anti reverse on my reels.

I've had the Champion's years ago, I just e-mailed Dobyns re: a Sierra spinning rod. Just can't afford the Champion's on a small pension..sigh..

If I understand you correctly, yes the XT would would work for 1.5oz baits, which imho would be at the upper end of the XT's sweet spot.

Nice..Thanks..

It's just to bad Shimano stopped making some of their spinning reels with out the anti reverse.. Good video. thanks for sharing.

I wouldn't mind grabbing a 703 sierra spinning rod, but I don't do facebook...