Darren.

Greetings!

Welcome!

Gary Yamamoto has some great info out on the web if you Google it, as to what colors he primarily fishes. That said, Watermelon Gold Flake is one of those. BPS carries it. Others that I've found good success: Watermelon Magic, Greenpumpkin Magic, and I'd love to try some of his GP with chartreuse tip. But recently I've been experimenting with Bass Pro Stick-O worms and having great success with Pepper Frog/Hot Orange in 4 1/4" and 5 3/8". I've been slaying bass rigging these wacky, Texas, and split shotting them.

Short strikes can be yellow perch, sunfish, bass, etc. I've watched decent sized bass short strike, though not the norm as they tend to inhale and take it with those big mouths. If using a circle hook, you'll want to wait a little longer and let the bass take the bait, then reel down and easily sweep your rod, don't do a hard hook set or the circle hook won't set. Circle hooks were designed for saltwater (required in many places now) so as to make the fish hook itself in the corner of the mouth. Better for C&R survival, less gut hooking, etc. There are a lot of wacky-specific hooks out there. I actually use non-weedless most of the time. Favorites are the Gamakatsu Wide-Gap Finesse in 4, 2, and 1 sizes. I caught my PB on a size 1. I'm not a believer in using big hooks for wacky. That's just me. Anyhow, Gamakatsu and Owner are my favs, with Gammies used majority of time. As for making your worms last longer, a very short piece of heat shrink tubing (as Chris said) is better than an O ring (IMHO) if I use anything at all. I always hook my wacky worms perpendicular thru the worm, never parallel, though some do that and have success. I am not one of those people.

Great stuff! Enjoy these times with your Dad, and pass them on!

Welcome, Dan. You'll find a TON of knowledge from the vast experience at this site. Enjoy discovery.

Down here Ice is in the freezer, not on the water. Well mostly. I just never could do ice fishing when I lived in the Rochester, NY area. More of a warm weather guy. Good luck, though!

I regret that there are no smallies down in my neck of the woods. Have to go north to the Richmond area. Loved catching them when visiting PA. Anyhow, welcome to BR!

Welcome aboard, Ryan!

Beautiful spot, would love to fish it.

Done...

x2 If you want to put fish in the boat, live bait always helps with the "smaller" species when the bass are more or less dormant. I had tons of success with Panfish Assassins + a 1/16oz jighead dipped in JJ's Magic when I used to fish the local docks during the winter. My boys caught plenty of crappie, yellow perch, not to mention a few nice pickerel on these. Ditto on Senko, or Zoom Finesse worms fished SLOWLY near structure. Fish slow. Yep.

1) You have options... If you want to pair the Saros with A $100 Compre, you'll have a great combo. The Compre has a lifetime over-the-counter warranty... I like the Compre with a extra fast tip, medium power. My Compres are both M-XF and used primarily for soft plastics. Pretty much do-it-all rods for me. You can go with a ML rod. Buddy of mine loves his Shimano paired with a St. Croix Premier and likes it better than his other paired with a Carbonlite rod. Says the Croix is a lot more sensitive. Got it at Dick's on clearance for well under $100... 2) 10lb braid will work just fine. PowerPro's is 2lb diameter equivalent and it's what I spool my Stradic 1000's with. I tie a leader on and the braid lasts a LONG time. 3) Personally, I think a MH is a bit stiff of a rod for a light reel like a 1000. But you can make it work if you want. Keep in mind that some rod manufacturers are conservative on their ratings. Case in point: St. Croix tends to be stiffer than their rating. You can search the forum on that and find plenty of reports. So a M Croix may tend toward MH... 4) Since I fish mainly soft plastics, I can't really answer that. I don't have a H setup for flipping/pitching, and I don't fish cranks much so don't have a softer action rod, etc. Well, I actually do have a H rod, was MH, broke tip, rod repairer said it was now more of a heavy rod. I use that for jigs and such.

Good gravy, that's a tall pup. George the Dane ruled for his season, now Zeus! Hail Zeus! Love dogs. My "dream dog" is an English Mastiff, but my wife says "no". Labradors and a mutt rule the roost instead. And they're awesome lads.

Thankfully, no. But when I read your title I was hoping for a monster fish spooling you, not a boat. Bummer, man.

Sorry, man. Such is life in the great northern states. Vacation awaits in the south, eh? Lakes open year around.... May your wait be short!

Excellent show.

This is one reel I've been anticipating for a while now. Eager to more details on usage.

Cool. Filed for future reference. Love Megastrike squeezed into a bag of worms...

Bingo. I read your question and thought you implied TWO reels for $150 and TWO rods for $150... If that's the case, I'm a Shimano guy and highly recommend the brand. Obviously there are plenty of Pflueger guys who love their reels, too. Will you be fresh-water only, or desire to do fresh and salt? I see you're a New Englander, so you've got both fresh and salt (presumably) near you. If so, Shimano or Daiwa. All Shimano reels are ready for both. As for rods, there are so many to choose from. I was gunning for a St. Croix Avid, but bought a Shimano Compre and love the rod(s) with lifetime over the counter warranty as opposed to sending in to St. Croix with shipping $ and all that. But St. Croix makes some incredible rods. Your $150 would barely land you an Avid, but could land you two Compre's, or a couple Veritas from Abu, etc.... And do you NEED to learn bait casting? No. Is it worth learning? Yeah, IMO. Doesn't mean you should go and dump a load of cash on a rig now. If spinning is your gig now, then rock n' roll with it. When you are ready to spend some cash on a quality baitcasting setup, then do so.

Fantastic! I probably need to try one of those Wallyworld spinnerbaits, too.

X2, and use a leader, then you'll have best of both worlds. Braid is FAR easier to manage on spinning gear.

I'll chime in with a different take, and not to diss St. Croix, because I'd own an Avid if I could. Before I'd look at a Mojo, I'd consider a Shimano Compre. And not just for the lifetime over-the-counter warranty. I've got the previous gen Compres and love them. I was amazed when I compared the Avid with the Compre at BPS up in Richmond. The price differential was big, and I've not been disappointed. However, if $160 were at my fingertips, I'd buy an Avid just to have one, but I love my Compre rods. And the new models are upgrades to IM9 over my model's IM8. And I do use my Compre's for "senko" fishing all the time. Just FWIW.

Welcome to the site, Cullen!

Hey, it's a fish! And a toothy one that puts up a decent fight. Congrats. When I don't target them, I don't like it when they steal a bait. But that said, I've caught two big picks at a couple of my favorite laydowns the last two times I've been there. Both times I thought they were bass at first, and each was hovering at the 3 lb mark, so nothing to sneeze at. I prefer to unhook 'em and let 'em go from the net if I can. Handled enough to hate the slime. Not as bad as the American Eel slime, tho.