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About 100 smallies while wading. Most of them were dinks. I was out there with a buddy who was wading beside me, and he did the same. 28-30 keeper largemouth while boating.

We'll see... People are going to like the new gear ratio options on the Citica and Curado. 5.5:1 and 6.5:1 for the Citica, and 5.5:1, 6.5:1, and 7:1 for the Curado.

Price?

For that very reason, I don't fish my favorite spots with other people around.

Interesting topic. Back in my teens, my summers practically revolved around river wade fishing for smallmouth bass. My "turning point" purchase around age 15 was a 7' 6" custom long-handle G. Loomis GL3 spinning rod. It allowed me to cover a lot more water than I had previously with mid-6' rods and it could handle the lighter lines with ease. I could toss light lures like 1/16 - 1/8 oz tube jigs, flukes, and mini 1/8 oz buzzbaits a mile. Instantly, I was catching more fish than I ever had previously, and my confidence in bass fishing grew immensely.

I caught one like that the other day. It also had some fin rot in or near the spots, but nowhere else. It was a healthy, well-fed fish otherwise.

I have a bad habit of snagging jigs into the rope used to anchor private swimming platforms. There is often quite a bit of play in those ropes, and sometimes you can snag them 10-20' to the side of the platform. When I snag those semi-loose ropes, they feel just like a bite where the bass just mouths the lure and all you feel is a little dead weight. These jigs are next to impossible to unsnag.

I'm very happy with my silver mirror Costas. They're easily the best fishing/driving glasses I've ever owned.

Personally, I would buy this and put the $70 remaining towards something else. There's always something else you'll need. Shimano Stradic 2500FI: http://cgi.ebay.com/Shimano-New-Stradic-2500FI-ST-2500-FI-Spinning-Reel-/170663537123?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27bc56e9e3#ht_1454wt_907

I imagine they're quite busy with hundreds of reels having been sold over a holiday weekend.

WOW! I didn't think I could possibly hate these contests any more. I was wrong.

I usually swap it out every year or two, or if it gets too short from retying too many times and I can see or feel the knot after a long cast. Sometimes I reverse it by reeling in onto another reel so that I'm fishing the fresh end. I put only a minimal amount on the reel (45-70 yds), so it's not much of a loss. I have gone three years before on one spool, but I didn't like that the line had lost most of it's color by the end.

There are a few lakes around me that pretty much only have docks for cover, and as expected, there are bass all over them. I use a 7' MH/F spinning rod for skipping those docks, with braided line and a heavy fluorocarbon leader. If you ever come across a MH power spinning rod with a stiff butt section, It'd be worth considering for skipping soft plastics like weightless worms, flukes, and Senkos. These are surefire baits for pulling bass from underneath those docks, and a stiff spinning rod is a much better tool for skipping than a baitcasting setup. For pitching, I use zero spool tension and very little brakes, and I lightly drag my finger on the spool during the entire pitch. That's what works best for me. If I have too much tension or brakes, I have a hard time keeping the bait close to the water during the pitch, which is key for a soft entry.

In one of the Dean Rojas videos about the Spro Bronzeye 65 he helped to design, he stated that the frogs have a little better walking action with shorter legs, and more of a chugging action with long legs because they have more drag. I prefer to trim about 3/4" from my Spro frog's legs right out of the pack. I pull the legs toward the front of the body, and trim them of at the hook eye. I have a few that have really short legs, only about an inch, and they walk very violently and create a lot of splash, but I haven't had as much luck on those compared to the ones that were only slightly trimmed. I don't shorten the legs of my Snag Proof frog. They don't seem excessively long to me.

1/4 oz is a good place to start. They also seem to sell out faster than the other weights in my local stores. I use mostly 3/16, 1/4, and 5/16.

Good looking jigs. BTW, I'm really liking those Spaz trailers. I'll make another order soon.

In rivers, I've found that you get the best action from your lures and baits if cast cross-current and slightly upstream.

The Curado 200E is on sale at $119 at Tackle Warehouse for those that are interested.

Ditto on the KVD Line and Lure applied after every trip. It works much better than applying it at the beginning of trips. If 15# CXX is too stiff, you could always downsize to 10 or 12# tests. 12# CXX or Yo Zuri Hybrid is my line of choice for spinnerbaits.

Yo Zuri Hybrid in 6 and 12 lb tests for spinning and baitasting gear, respectively.

Hybrid floats, but not as high as some floating lines do. With some lines, every inch of it stays above water, even the coils. Try clipping a three inch strand of Hybrid and tossing it in the water on a very calm day. It floats.

Maybe give 15 lb. Trilene 100% a try. It has less stretch than any fluoro I've tried.

If I think I had a strike, I will drop the rod tip so it's pretty much pointing at the fish or a little above it, and start reeling as fast as I can. If I feel any weight or see the line begin to straighten out, I'll set the hook, preferably before I feel the fish. If you tighten up the line with a frog in a fishes mouth, there's a chance that the fish will spit it out. I'll do this anytime there's a splash or swirl, or if the frog disappears.

That's what I noticed, too. The Caffeine Shad has a great action, in large part because of the flat underside to the tail that creates the Senko-like wobble as it begins to fall. They quickly became my favorite soft jerkbait after just a few good trips with them. They're also heavier than most and skip very well. The only downside is that they are not very durable. I could get away with just a few colors of soft jerkbaits: white, watermelon, and some kind of olive or Ark Shiner type color.

Those are nice rigs. I have a bunch of 'em. They work well with flukes and 5" grubs.