Darren.

I will sharpen hooks if they need it. But in my experience, Gammies, Owners don't need it much. BPS hooks need it a lot more, IMO.

I assume he's talking light baits, light line. It is an art form, and one can "finesse" a bait with heavy gear. But I think the confusion comes in when manufacturers specifically call their gear suited for finesse fishing... Just my .02. With that in mind, I happen to "finesse" with a Quantum Accurist 570PT. I spool it with lighter line (8lb, etc). However, if I could buy a "finesse" reel, I'd go for a small reel like the Daiwa PXY, PX Type-R, the Lexa 100, or Shimano Curado 50E that is geared for light lines and light weights.

There are so many anchoring options from home made to purchases. Couple of thoughts: 1) Not sure the regulations (if any) for coral protection in your area, BUT, a plastic-coated chain (or plastic-sheathed) of a few feet in length might work best. 2) A grappling anchor is good for sand. Folds up neatly and stores easily, comes in different weights. If you are in high winds, you might want something heavier to hold you better. With chain, you can hit a hardware or big-box hardware store and buy some pretty hefty stuff. Of course the heavier the anchor, the more problematic it can become. That's why most kayak anchors are 1.5 to 3 lbs. In heavier winds I'll either use my 7' Stik-It anchor pin, or my 8lb mushroom weight. Lighter winds I'll use my Stick-It pin or a 3lb weight I bought at Dick's.

Nice to have you aboard!

Welcome!

Largies. Spots, aka Kentucky Bass are not as prolific throughout Virginia, I believe. But we've got 'em. Then again, I have to look through my pictures to see if I've caught any spots. Maybe I do need to know more about 'em...

Awesome records there, man! Welcome aboard fellow kayaker.

Yup. I stand corrected. Thought he also made a cameo in one...regardless, he was still a fine actor.

LOL. Unfortunately the reservoirs around here are sun up to sun down, no night or early AM fishing, otherwise, that'd be me.

Welcome aboard, Joe. A lot (perhaps all) of us started bank or dock fishing! When you have the time and money, consider a simple kayak or canoe as your first boat. You'll love it.

Depending on the size of splitshot, I'll sometimes let the shot hit the bottom, then I twitch the rod tip, reel slack and so on, then cast and repeat. I actually imagine a bait fish (the worm) twitching about after a food source (the split shot), if that makes any sense. So that kind of helps my retrieve mentality. I'll also use a Zoom tiny fluke hooked thru the nose and work it the same way. Have found some nice success with this method.

I was throwing 8lb Trilene XL on a 5' Ugly Stick Lite (ultra light) using an Abu Garcia underspin reel and a tiny 1/16 oz jig head with a 1.5" minnow tied on. Hooked a 24" Pickerel, fought it for a short few, got it to the dock, reached down got my hand under the belly just as it snapped the line on a tooth. Yeah, 8lb isn't UL, but the rest of the outfit was. The Abu reel came with 8lb on it, not exactly ultra light, but the drag on the reel is horrendous. Might as well not have it, LOL. But the best UL fishing are the guys who catch sailfish on 2lb test. That's gotta be fun.

He was a darn fine actor. Enjoyed him in Mission Impossible, too.

I simply didn't find it necessary on PowerPro. Didn't make much, if any difference, that I could detect. On mono or FC, yeah, makes a diff. I've read it's great for all lines, even braid, but just didn't seem to live up to the braid claim in my experience. Thought it a waste of a $9 bottle of KVD to spray it on braid. But I bet there are some guys on this forum that have a different opinion. Perhaps a different brand of braid responds differently. Pretty much just use PP any more.

Fantastic for the little man! Memories to begin a lifetime of great catches.

Awesome catch! Love it when the log moves. Makes a hang-up so much more enjoyable :-)

I used KVD's brand when necessary. I used to use it on braid, but no longer, and since I've spooled my spinning gear with braid mainline, I don't use it much at all except on baitcasters w/o braid. I've only bought one bottle of it and still have plenty left. But I do believe it works as claimed. Buy at least one bottle and give it a try, only then will you really be convinced - or not.

Curious case there. Just by chance, this isn't old PP spooled on your reel, is it? If it is stripped of all the coating, I've found it prone to weird behavior from time to time, though not consistently at all. Assuming you close the bail by hand and all that. If so, you could be right that the reel is not laying down the line correctly.

Man, I'm boring. It's all about thin-crust pepperoni (Neopolitan/NY Style) with drippy grease and stuff. I'm hungry now....

A lot of great answers. Every time I go to BPS I pick up rods for feel. I have a previous gen Compre, and the new ones are pretty nice. It is hard to argue with Shimano's over the counter warranty, FWIW. I like the feel of the Abu Veritas rods mentioned above. Don't own one, but always pick one up... A buddy of mine has a 6'6" M BPS Carbonlite spinning rod and loved it - until he bought a St. Croix 6'6" ML Premier rod on clearance at BPS this past year. Says the difference between the rods is big, in favor of the Croix, which he bought for well under $100, normally right around +/- the $100 mark. Beyond that I don't have much experience with big priced rods other than hands-on at BPS, etc. I'd agree the Shimano Cumara, and even Crucial are great rods, and just about any St. Croix from Avid on up are hard to beat. I do like some of the Loomis rods I've picked up in-store, too. Since local retailers don't carry some of the models mentioned above, I can't comment on them.

I feel your pain. Biggest bass I ever hooked (at least I think it is) was about 6" away from my 7 year old's outstretched arm holding the net when it tail danced and spit the hook back at us and laughed all the way back to the depths. The mouth was the biggest bucket mouth I'd ever seen and to have it that close and lose it was painful. Mouth was so big we coulda gone spelunking, LOL. But hey, it is what it is. We got to see a huge bass and that was cool. Yeah, much cooler if we landed it. I can only guess that it was between 8.5 and 10 pounds. My PB is a 7.5, and this was significantly bigger.

Well, personally I don't fish many reaction baits. I have in the past, had some success, but not nearly the success I have with soft plastics. Not even close, which is why I fish soft plastics almost exclusively now. So during dog days of summer I usually throw Zoom finesse worms, wacky rigged. I throw them at laydowns, various hiding spots, etc. None of this is to say a reaction bait specialist won't have great success fishing dog days. This is my M.O. based on my experiences.

Between those two I voted YoZuri; but if it was vs. P-Line Floroclear, I'd go P-Line.....

BEAST! Sweet catch, man.

Have to agree here. But then I don't fish a lot of slop like some of the guys here do. And I see plenty of use of 50 and up on TV to pitch/flip into thick cover, but I caught my PB on 10lb braid + leader in slop, so....