Darren.

For me the habit of taking too much tackle has taken years to break. It began with a reasoned and logical look at what I was doing, and asking myself if I *needed* those baits or colors in order to catch bass *today*. So basically, I have several colors of Senkos, Trick and Finesse worms that I carry with me at all times, as well as Yamamoto Shad Shaped worms. I've found over the years that certain colors work most of the time, while some colors work some of the time. Others get no bites at all... So I take the baits that work most of the time and on occasion, when a color catches my eye as I rustle through my worm boxes, I'll take another color. The bait monkey wants you to take everything, and when something isn't working, he says, well THAT color in the Bass Pro flyer seems to work for THAT guy...maybe it'll work for you! And you get sucked in. LOL.

She's a beauty!

Welcome aboard, Ray!

Honestly, sometimes they like that extra little flash of color, other times not so much. I've tried the Senkos with that feature...not so successful; however, the Zoom Finesse and Trick worms with the chart tail have done well.

Big-O, you must have a bunch of traps under the water for all these ladies to find your hooks. LOL Another beauty.

Nice Reds! I know we have some around here in the Tidewater area of VA, but I'm 100% freshwater. Well, okay, 98% LOL. I would love to fish for Reds.

Josh, it almost looks like a J-Knot...

Welcome aboard!

The Bait Monkey has, and forever shall be, your friend.

Welcome aboard, Eric! The ladies are in waiting. Waiting not to far away from the males and the beds. They're waiting for the males to get hooked by us bass fisherfolk first, before they move in

Great catch, and yeah, what's with Nessie photobombing your catch!? Duuuude.

Haven't fished live worms in a while, but I will do it on occasion. I like to throw out a split shot rig with a juicy crawler tied on. @Fish Chris caught quite a few of his massive bass on live crawlers -- and on light spinning gear.

Welcome aboard, Ethan!

My St. Croix LT is MLXF and rated 1/16 to ⅜ and I have used it for up to 5" senkos...it has performed flawlessly. Has plenty of backbone, and when the spinning reel's drag is set properly, it'll land some good bass. 4# is the biggest I've caught on this rod thus far as I've not fished it too long. That said, I've got two previous gen (cork) Compres that are both M power. They are fantastic for most soft plastics....

Sounds like a mojo rig or quite similar. I'd fish it the same way as a split shot rig. As far as advantages, you have to retie your hook if you want to change to a "weightless" presentation, whereas with the split shot rig you just take off the weight. I normally use Bull Shot weights for split shot, and I never fully crimp it down. I squeeze it with my fingers just enough to keep from falling off or sliding. If I take it off, there's no crimp damage to the line.

Oh that's a squatch den, no question about it. Right guys?! Hello Animal Planet?! Hello!!??

Welcome aboard! Make sure the images are saved as JPG and perhaps reduce their size...? I've not had problems with JPG files...

Dang. Well, I'm not advocating this in the least, but an old friend of mine shot a dog that once growled at his daughter. It was w/in a town limits. The other thing is a friendly letter along with a legal notice and the amount of vet bills needed to be covered...happened to my neighbor who's lab got loose, roamed around and made a chew toy of a very annoying Jack Russel. $3000 in small claims court for medical bills for the JR.

Wow. Do you guys have a law against roaming dogs, or is it allowed? Here in our parts of VA, there's leash laws and dogs must be fenced or chained, or e-fenced. Glad its getting stitched up, though. Hope for a speedy recovery.

Sounds like you've got a solid idea. If you are more comfortable with casting gear, then that is what you should use. I find spinning gear just easier to use as I face a lot of wind and got tired of dealing with the usual issues. I'm quite efficient with BC gear, and was even on my way to casting-only but decided otherwise. Anyhow, that doesn't mean anything here

Game plan? Hm, probably formulated one over the years for each of the reservoirs I fish. I tend to follow instinct (game plan) now since I'm so familiar with them. But there are still areas I've not explored but want to. In terms of how I'm going to fish, that's gotten pretty straight forward. Wacky, drop shot, TX, split shot rigs with wacky and DS the mainstays.

Welcome aboard! It really depends on what you are wanting to fish - technique-wise. I'll usually have a MLXF, MF spinning and a M or ML casting rod. Or I'll take 3 spinning setups ML, M and M. I fish soft plastics predominately, a lot of wacky rigging and drop shotting. Some TX rigging and very little in the way of hard lure fishing.

I'm infinitely impressed with the Legend Tournament series from St. Croix, and I only have one spinning in the 6'3" range (in the LT). If I had another $250, I'd drop it on a second LT from St. Croix no question. Just me, tho.

Not that I know of, but perhaps a Moderator can give us more on that.

FYI: http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/guidelines/ Why does the site or product name I posted show up as "another site" or as ***? First it has nothing to do with competition. In most cases, it has something to do with the points above - site owners not abiding by the rules of the forum, or over-zealous pro-staffers spamming the forums. In some cases, however, the site owner specifically requested that we do not link to their site. If your post contains ***, then that means you may not discuss that brand here. Your post will likely be deleted, and you may get banned (see the next paragraph below).