Darren.

Welcome aboard! I won't give specifics, but I'd have 4" Senkos or Stik-Os some Shad Shape Worms (Yamamoto), various hooks wacky, TX, Ned jigs, TRDs. All soft plastics. Oh and some drop shot weights.

I normally will use a weighted wacky jig, but I have used a bullet, a split shot and other stuff when I didn't have any on hand. Much prefer the jig. Just feel it performs better, guess you could say I'm more confident in it.

I, too, prefer 7.1:1 ratio for baitcasting, good all-around gear ratio (IMHO). Your setup thoughts look good otherwise, though I have no experience with Dobyns. I can recommend Bass Pro Carbonlites, St. Croix Premiere, among brands I use....

Welcome aboard, Greg!

Welcome aboard!

And welcome to the forums!

Banjo minnow among many other purchases before I "figured out" the baitmonkey thing...

Welcome aboard! Do you mean a "no boater club"? I'm sure Oklahoma folks will chime in soon.

My 2nd oldest boy caught a gorgeous 4 pounder from shore when I was teaching him to drop shot. Can't quite remember how young he was, but he was in elementary school (high school junior now). His very first cast with a drop was that 4# bass. Awesome.

No experience in the area, but welcome aboard!

Well, to wet or not to wet... @Team9nine mentioned proper tying and slow cinching. The slow means less heat generated by friction of the line tightening against itself. So yes, done that way, you can skip the wet. I've done it, too. Just that for me, wetting the knot is habit, and I still go fairly slow when cinching down, but not as slow as when I don't use saliva. So @RoLo, the credit goes to the one tying the knot, wet or dry!

So many good rods in the $100 range. In addition to those mentioned above: St. Croix Premiere Bass Pro Carbonlite I own both and really like both in the ~$100 space. I prefer shorter rods, so 6'6" is the max I use. My Premiere is 6' MLF, Carbonlites are 6'6" MF. Carbonlites are lighter than the Croix, but both are very sensitive.

Senko BPS Stik-O Yamamoto Shad Shape Worm Zoom Finesse Worm Zoom Trick Worm others... Quite the versatile technique.

Not me, but to me it would be the same as saliva, i.e., it'd work fine.

Some really nice bass, Kevin. Nicely done!

Welcome aboard, Ernest! I had trouble with several packs of Daiichi hooks having a not-fully-closed-but-closed eye, and did suffer several breaks using a snell knot. I ended up going back to my trusted Gamakatsu brand and haven't had issues. Tying a palomar, or uni knot on the Daiichi was a cheaper solution, but at the time I was snelling everything, LOL. Snelling Gamakatsus was not a problem as the eye is properly closed with no sharp edges.

I suggest a fishing vest with pockets. I'm using the Bass Pro Ascend model, but it is $99. Goes on sale often. But my first vest, and one that will be just fine to get you started is a Field & Stream model pictured below at $59.

Welcome aboard, Gage! I'll be fishing wacky, drop shot, and now, a lot of Ned rigs! All year, baby!

It's that time! Find your happy place, find your happy place!

Welcome aboard! For me, I busted a string when my newly upgraded St. Croix Legend Tournament spinning rod broke as I was pulling the truck out of the car port en route to our vacation on a great bass lake. I don't swear normally, but I did then. It was a stupid mistake, the rod(s) were laying down in my kayak, but that rod was propped up a tad over the yak (which was mounted on my truck), when I pulled forward, the rod caught on the straps I use to hang the kayak. SNAAAAAAAP! *S*%$%^$$$$ Took me a while to recover while driving to the lake....

Yeeouch! Thanks for the tip. I've been pondering getting into making my own jig heads...not real serious, mind you, but pondering.

Long time no see! Welcome back!

Not as big of a deal with mono, but fluoro heats up with the friction of cinching down the knot, weakening it quite a bit....

$199 sale and normally $550? Not bad! I'd jump on it as your first yak. I started out with a $300 Pelican and it sufficed. Caught many nice bass from it. Still used by my boys in salt and fresh. But realize you will *need* a good PFD that you will wear all the time you are on the yak. Don't play games with your life. Please. And you'll want a good paddle. Plan on another $100-150 for the two.

Agree, something is amiss with your knot, it seems. A properly tied palomar, or uni should hold fine. I mostly tie the uni 5-6 wraps. Either will need lots of saliva and careful, slow cinching. Don't go fast. I'm assuming you are talking about the terminal knot and that the entire leader + lure isn't flying off?