hatrix

Why the islands for smallies? I have others things to do when I go out the the islands that don't involve fishing. There are better places for the brown ones but right there on the mainland around marble head and all that has produced some nice large mouth for me. It is one of the places where it is more ideal for them with the the land not being 30' above the water like it can be and all the vegetation that will grow out there. But I would like to hit one of the places in Mexico and pitching on Okeechobee would be a blast.

A longer will always give more distance considering all things are the same.

Cast past your target and thumb the spool to slow down. That is how you make it land soft and not under shoot your target. I will make a lot of roll casts to a spot someone might pitch. It makes no difference how you get the bait there as long as you achieve what you wanted to do. Or I make a half roll half pitching underhand flip type thing on something super close if I don't want the bait screaming towards a spot like i can with a roll cast.

I wouldn't really go by a TW review any ways. Lot of them a contradictory of a product to begin with. I am also pretty sure that this (xxx) bait is the best ever and 4th cast i caught a 6# or my personal best ect. Also that this rod/reel is junk because it broke or whatever in week. Actually it is proven that the majority of people who make a review on places are ones who are disgruntled in some way because the people who are happy with something are exactly that and happy people are busy enjoying what they bought using it and not making a review.

I would also go with 3 decent setups over 6 crappy ones. I think your making it much more complicated then it needs to be as lots of the things you have listed are all done with the same rod any ways. The cover your fishing and type of line you use also matters but any decent M/H 1/4-1 or around there will cover lots of what you have listed. A spinning rod will cover all the light baits or finesse presentations you have listed and the top water like spooks or jerkbaits you can also get away using a M/H or the spinning rod with those. Are you throwing squarebills or fishing diving ones down 10' or more for cranks? For your pitching I doubt your fishing at okeechobee so a H or a M/H depending on the weight you use is fine and the H will cover super thick vegetation if your frogging in that other wise a M/H works fine. Swimbaits is also super vague as those probably have the widest range of any bait but I will assume you mean a hollow or a trailer+head and not that you mean a 8" hudd or something. Again that M/H is the rod and swimjigs are the same thing and the spinner chatter baits are also thrown on the same rod. If you felt you needed less power you can use the spinning rod or if you needed more pick up the extra heavy. You can pretty much change the power of a rod by what line you pick. If you could get a extra spool for the reel you put on the H then you would be golden as you probably might not always want to run braid or copoly/flouro. I would go with a 6:3 and 7:3 Tatula for the casting and a President for the spinning and pick up a Fenwick HMG for your M/H and the spinning rod and figure out what you have left on the heavy maybe since those don't come in H. Having extra spools if you can get them though can almost be like having another rod. I don't think presidents still come with 2 spools any more but the wood handle ones use to.

I will exceed the recommend weight on a rod with spook type baits and have no worry. I am not trying to bomb the bigger ones and would never want to walk one back to me that far as it is. You could spool a reel with those since they are basically the most optimal shape you could have. It like a bullet going through the air. Of course a 8" punker at 3.5 oz is waaayyy beyond the suggested limit of the GLX I use but really its a tank of a rod and it doesn't take but a little toss and its more then far enough since they are so heavy and dense. I know thats not what your talking about but if your trying to whip those baits your probably doing it wrong and will wear your self out. It depends on the rod you use really since rods rated exactly the same all handle differently. I will throw the G2 6" punkers on a M/H crucial that I think goes up to 1 1/4 and those are like 2 oz and I can whip those out there like nothing. To me it depends on the drag a bait makes when you work it if your rod is totally bent over then you probably don't have much room for a hook set. That's not really the case with a walking bait that also have a treble so its much easier to drive a hook then a big single hook. They also cast so well you don't really need the power to be able to crank it back and whip it out as far as you can. Who wants to walk a spook back to them that far any ways when you spool the reel cause I personally don't Also I don't know that's it is really the case but I feel like braid makes a overloaded rod feel even more so since you don't get that little bit of give in it and it seems much easier if you don't run braid. I don't use it any ways with those baits but if I did it would have to be with as good stiff leader as the bigger ones with super wide glides will just run your hook over non stop.

I had said I will watch my self turn the handle and use that as a gauge on hoe fast I am reeling.

Yea its tuff at those places. Most of the metro park places that have shore access or city lakes are a tuff bite. The crazy thing is that I rarely see any one who actually fishes at these places and it its 99% of the time someone with a bucket yet they still make it hard for everyone with the bucket. Most times though there is no one fishing or maybe 1 person. It just a million people who walk dogs at like every one these places. The parking lot can be packed and its all people walking there dog or off on the trails somewhere.

Yep it's that's good IMO. I have down sized my lines with it now that rods that ran 20 now have 17 and 25 is 20 ect. It's ridiculously strong and sensitive. I still change my line more then I ever did before even though I use kvd on it. Just buy the big 3k yard spools of whatever they are. I think there like around $70 depending on the size. The savings is huge if you add it up. Buying little spools will eat you up on what you can save.

A CD case works well and is not all bulky like spinner boxes. I don't own 72 spinners or buzz baits but I have 2 of the single slot books with some In it. You could use the big ones that hold 4 per page if your have tons.

I don't doubt in any way you know what's up and probably do fish slower then most. It is just a little trick u can use to make sure your moving the bait at the speed you want or to direct your focus into fishing the bait totally. I am sure watching a tip would work also. It is much easier to block out everything and only focus on what the bait is doing and the feel of it. Of course to each there own and what works for ones dose t always work for everyone.

Almost every rod I own has some kind of p-line on them now and a vast majority are CXX. Memory can get really bad in like a week but kvd works like a champ. It's probably the strongest line you can buy and some of the most sensitive because its so hard. It's also has the least stretch of about any line I have used. You don't really need the same test you would normally run and can go smaller and should side it's thicker then most I think for the same test. Even 12 is very hard to break.

Trebles I did not do the same as it won't really work so I came up with something else but that I will not be sharing. You can maybe get it to work if you tried hard enough and your hardware and live could make a jerkbait suspend again but changing it. I have ridiculous amount of the twist locks since a vast majority of my hooks are those unless its a straight shank for flipping. I also buy them cause I think I need more but in reality they are in a bunch of cases inside a bait so they pile up. I have no idea on what the straw is but I don't even use those any more as I have made it even better now but they worked amazing. The straws for coffee at the gas station should work but they are bigger and red. I know for a fact the speedway straws that come wrapped work all day. It doesn't actually have to be as flimsy as you think if you see in the pic with the hammer how very little covers the hook. If you can't get it to pop off when a fish bites Then you set the hook like a girl and should put your purse down next time before you go to swing if you use the baits I posted. Maybe the senko since that's a different kind of set but I could make it pop easily with my hand and I don't ever fish those any ways but there is no reason it wouldn't work easily. I can honestly say it is hand down the best weedless whatever you want to call it I have ever used. The only thing that comes close is a texas rig. Even those the hook can pop though or your bait get beat and you don't have a good spot to skin hook any more. Happens all the time with swimbaits or buzz frogs to me and I find my self trying to angle the point a little to grab some meat. They shouldn't even be called weedless lures as none of them really are. They should be called semi or sometimes weedless lure. This is the only thing I ever used that is actually weedless 100% and never had trouble with a hook set yet. Nothing even compares really. I have already used lure I could never dream of using in spots. Even jigs are out of the question and your only option would be to throw a punch skirt at best if you want to resemble a jig. I don't care how stiff the guard is its a joke in thick grass. Now I could toss one any where I want and not even think about it.

I throw my big topwaters on a old GLX flipping stick with the recoil guides. It is a BCR (xxx) I have no idea on that since I never remember them. It is a Heavy and 3/8 - 1 1/2 I think and it is ehh 7' 2" I think. LOL I really have no idea right now but regardless I know it works like a champ for me and I didn't need a new rod to throw the big topwaters. I use it to throw the big punkers and its not a problem even though it over loads the rod. I can easily cast them farther then I would ever want to walk them back to me and hook sets are a breeze since its a treble and I don't actually need the power like you do on a big top hook swimbait to drive it home and move the bait. My swimbait rods are to long and so are the handles. With the long handle you can only work it towards your body since it tucks under your arm and if you work it down you in the drink with the tip. It might be ok if your always on a boat so you can always face that way but I still wouldn't pick it over the GLX.

Let it sit out before you toss it right back in the box. In the summer you can watch the condensation build up on the lid. Any ways though you can get some silica packets or fill a compartment with rice if your super worried about it and it will absorb the moisture.

Well I don't have those days like you where I bag 20+ over 4 or 5# Then I might not care as much. Those fish flop around less any ways but when they do it's with a lot more power. You will learn me someday i'm sure Also if you do lip just go deep down past the joint and tear that part up. It's not bad if that's where they tear you up.

There is nothing hard about actually casting a baitcaster. If you have fished before and have fairly decent casting technique that's not all uncoordinated or like someone who has never fished and casts from a dead stop right out there there is nothing to it. Assuming someone always fished a spinning reel there first cast would they probably think I don't understand as it goes way of to the side or dive bombs in front of them since the release is different. If there reel has centrifugal brakes or like the or Diawa breaking it will be a breeze. Obviously you shouldn't start out by trying to cast a spinnerbait into the wind or a trickworm with a 3/16 weight. I am 100% a with those brakes can be set to where you never have to even put a thumb on the spool and still cast plenty far. Also with using 0 spool tension since that makes it much less effortless and I don't think is hardly any benefit ever. If you have like a speed spool or another reel with only external mags im all for it and use some tension but if you have dual breaking there is no point. I know everyone loves there tension and seems like people will always set it with any lure as habit or something like its the most important thing you can do. The best thing is to have someone who knows actually there to show you whats up but there is good info on here to get anyone casting in no time or they should. I can't even tell you how many people I have had casting in literally minutes and in like a hour they are bombing lures like nothing. Like everyones wife or girl knows how to cast them now. They would want to fish and all there is would be like 5 casting rods they can use and they only ever used spinning and that's what they want cause they know how. Now they go straight for the casting rods because there "nicer and it feels better" then spinning. They don;t even fish and its maybe a couple time's a year if they do.

I am not a fan of using any tension ever and avoid it like the plague. It makes you cast harder to achieve the same distance while lowering your accuracy and also can defeat the purpose of having a super smooth reel. Cast lighter and use more thumb. It amazing how far you can actually cast with every brake shut off and just a tiny flick if you can control it.

I am not sure I have ever actually fished a sinking jerkbait but suspending and floating I have. The water temp and you line can change how they suspend but you can tweak them with hardware suspend strips/dots or using different line. As for a lipless there is nothing to be scared of and your missing out huge if you don't fish them. It funny in a way your talking about jerkbaits and lipless cranks since now is when they shine and are probably the best choice you can make as the temps drop.

It kinda impossible for me to know what my first combo was but I know what the first one I ever bought my self was. I bought a Mitchell spinning reel back when it was made in the USA and they were good reels and then I paired it with a St. Croix worm rod. It had yellow inserts and I am pretty sure they were glass actually. It was I guess tech specific since I am pretty sure it had a picture of a worm on it. It was so long ago and I was like 8 or 9 so I can't totally remember. But I dropped some serious coin that day on fishing stuff and I was just a little kid. I had nicer stuff then lots of the adults I would see fishing.

Even though everyone disagrees braid is the way to go when learning to use casting gear. It is rough so you naturally will thumb a bit harder and can fell it going by and it can not really be ruined by backlashing. A crazy mono backlash will get loops that stand up and are all over as it wants to spring off the spool and that can be more difficult to pick out for a beginner. I would recommend getting heavier braid as #20 is pretty thing and even #30 would be a stretch for a beginner maybe. Also you can always cut your lure off and pull the backlash out from under and be able to pull it out if your having trouble.

I am not worried about cool since that comes naturally in everything I do and it looks even cooler when you grab it like a boss really quick and throw it back like nothing. The guy waiting for it to stop spinning or shaking so he can get his thumb in his mouth looks lame. Also you would feel much different about them tearing your thumb up if you were down in a shaft tying #8 or #9 bar all day long. That alone would eat most people and having a tore up thumb doesn't make it any better.

I can't believe they let you use your phones in basic. I would of guessed you would of been at relaxin jackson and not sill. I guess maybe they all do now. I wish I they were gave us anything let alone a phone. Don't worry though buddy because lots of posts have lake on them that are well private since its military and are usually never fished. Some even have multiple and are good size. I wish I could go back again and fish the places I fished in Georgia. I put a hurt on some fish and all I had to use was the junk they sold at the PX on post. There is some giants out there for sure that no one knows about since no one fishes it. Get a map once you go to AIT and you might be in for a treat. There is no guarantee it will be easy to get there and you might have to make your own way since it might be in the middle of woods but its could be a gold mine.

Wow that's pretty extreme and I would think its a case of probably just being very unlucky or having a very compromised immune system or very poor hygiene overall. As for your bass thumb lipping fish is for the birds even if they only have a jig or something in there mouth. Grab them by the shoulders and let them know whos boss when you grab them and they wont even resist. I rarely lip fish anymore sine all they do is struggle any ways and its just more hassle. When you grab them good behind the head even the smaller ones that are notoriously a pain hardly ever move and it makes life way easier.

Because it is a way to actually force your self to slow down even slower when you need to. I don't fish a crank like that but I do often when creeping big baits along the bottom. It can really make a difference sometimes since you can get extreme focus you probably don't have normally since its super slow and just boring your mind and attention can start to wander. I will look around or just be thinking about something else since it is just so long and boring waiting for that bite. It is not as if you need to watch it 100% of the time but it is not a bad thing to watch and see what your doing and try to zone in on it. I don't see my bait when its down on the bottom since I wasn't blessed with x-ray vision so I will watch what im doing. You can look at your bait up close but you probably won't reel it that speed all the time even if you think you might. If I watch it up close and find the speed I want and see how fast the handle turns or the spools spins then I can match that when it is on the bottom and now I am totally sure it is moving at that speed.