Darren.

I've wacky rigged almost all styles of my soft plastics at one time or another. Fat Ika, minnow baits, creature baits, jig trailers Most successful non-senko rigs for me: minnow baits (specifically yamamoto shad shape worm), Zoom Finesse and Trick worms.

While I live in the kinder-winter of Virginia, I do store all our kayaks outside with exception of my Native Ultimate which I store in our car port, hoisted to the ceiling. It is there year-around. As for your shed, take your pick, though I would take the seat indoors if you worry about mice. May not be as much an issue if you hoist it. You can either buy a hoist kit or DIY it like I did with pulleys from Home Depot. Works great!

Congrats on the PBx2! Haven't tried that bait, but I remember when Larry Dahlberg was introducing it years ago on his show. Perhaps one of these days I'll give it a shot...

Welcome aboard, Brad! Are you fishing from shore, or boat/kayak? I've fished a small community lake in the past that has yielded some excellent days, and some days were skunks - after throwing the kitchen sink at 'em.

Welcome aboard, and welcome to the addiction!

Welcome aboard, Ben!

Fictional? Your last sentence concerning construction, grip, etc., are true, and do influence balance. But when you add the reel is where preference comes in. There's tip-light, tip-heavy, tip-neutral. Rod length? You can have a tip-heavy 6 foot rod just like a tip-light 7 footer. The reel plays a critical part in the balance. Where do you hold the spinning reel? Is the balance (where the rod, with reel, resting on your finger, balances parallel to the ground) 8 inches above the reel seat? or almost where you rest your index finger? Ever heard of fisherman's elbow? Just like tennis elbow. A rod that is heavy in the tip, by my experience, exacerbates the injury for soft plastic techniques which involve shaking the tip. So balancing a rod isn't fictional, it's got practical use, and is very much a "to each his/her own" type of thing.

Welcome aboard!

Welcome aboard! With learning to fish the Ned rig this year, I'd probably stock up on various size and weight hooks and plenty of TRDs. Other than that, lots of Senko/Stik-O baits for wacky rigging, and a mess of drop shot baits. These are bread-and-butter for me (incl. Ned). Not much of a hard lure guy, though I do throw some on occasion. That said, I'd also have a stock of light to medium heavy jigs some frogs, cranks, a few lipless cranks, and maybe a whopper plopper to try out.

Well done. Beast of a lad.

I agree with @J Francho, drop the $30 extra on the CI4+. The FK is no slouch, a great reel. I've got one, but I also have the new CI4+ and wow. For $30 more, I'd take it every day. I own 2 FI, 1 FJ, 1 FK, 1 CI4+ (all 1000 models).

Welcome aboard! Braid, fluoro, etc., tends to be a personal choice. What one finds awful, another loves it... So for me, Power Pro original in 10# and Power Pro Super Slick 8 in 15# test - both of these on my spinning setups. Power Pro original in 20# for my baitcaster. I've used TufLine, Firelines, Sufix, and other braids. I like PP the most. Just my .02.

Mick, I had trouble with the Alberto (mod'd Albright) when using a thin, slick leader of say 4 or 6# test - specifically P-Line Floroclear, and 10# Power Pro. What I found that fixed it was more wraps up, and a few more wraps back down the line before putting the tag end back through. For example, if I normally did 10 wraps up, 4 wraps down using 6 or 8 lb test, I'd go 15 up 7 down for 4lb... Experimentation is key. That was a rule of thumb I read (not here) that if you're having trouble go more in both directions. This all without glue, as well. Mostly use the Uni-to-Uni these days, though Alberto on occasion.

Welcome aboard, Eduardo! I'm sure some California folks will chime in soon.

Another cast right/reel right guy here. Spinning all lefty. Like @Bluebasser86, I've tried to do spinning righty, but no way. Only messed with lefty baitcasters in-store, and another no way for me.

Welcome aboard! Plenty of choices in the $100 range, but I'd probably go for a Daiwa. If a Tat can be found for the $100, grab it. I haven't used one, only used a Lexa (gave to a son). Currently use a Chronarch 50e, and lots of Stradics. So I'm a Shimano guy for the most part, but with my Daiwa experience, you can't go wrong.

I use a leader for both. I just keep a tight line on the horiz. Use horizontal a lot in my reservoirs as there's not a lot of deep water. As said before, a heavier weight helps keep my line taught, though I do tend to use 1/8 oz a lot (got a mess of 'em).

I'm known as a wacky guy (right, @A-Jay?) but after using the Ned rig this year, wacky rigs have been less and less for me (though I always keep one rigged). I also use the TRD and you're right, it lasts and lasts...

Haven't used Fenwick, but often look at them. Not carried in my local BPS, so usually get hands-on when I travel. They're definitely nice rods for the $. When I went to northern MN, I took my 5'6" Light BPS MicroLite travel rod (which loads more like a ML) and boy did I have fun with smallies up to and just over 2 pounds. I've used it since here in VA and caught some hefty largies. But I'm a guy who prefers shorter rods, I don't use any over 6'6" for freshwater, and mostly use 5'9" to 6'. Just my pref. You'll definitely like the better hook setting with a stiffer rod.

If one flies off during a cast, not much you can do, but for worn ones, I, like @Bluebasser86 throw them to the front of my kayak, out of the way. For me, no bilge pump to worry about, and no scuppers in mine, either.

Welcome aboard!

Welcome aboard!

Welcome aboard! Since you're starting out, I'd try out what you've got, but upgrading the reel to a President is a fine choice. What is the power of the rod? Medium, Medium Heavy? As for spooling up the reel, I'd go with braid + leader, but you don't need to go too heavy. I'll let others chime in on the casting setup as I've gotta run. Good luck!

Don't think there's any "standard" as much as confidence-opinions on "best" line(s) to use. My M.O. is braid + leader on all rigs, and for drop shot, I'll typically use 6 and 8# gamma edge fluoro, as well as 6# Yo Zuri Hybrid. If I were you I'd try a longer leader length. Some have experimented with 20' sections as did Gary Yamamoto years back. His reasoning was that when fighting a fish near the boat he wanted the leader knot on his reel so there was one less possible failure. I've never worried about that, and not had any problems at all. Will other stuff work, absolutely, as testified by all the responses.

As far as Jose, all the models I've looked at have it looping around, brushing the East Coast, maybe, and heading out into the Atlantic. If you look at the graphic here, (use your arrow keys right and left to progress thru the map) you'll see the current GFS thinking. https://www.tropicaltidbits.com/analysis/models/