hatrix

There is actually 6 lakes south of me that are if you counted it as 1 is probably the biggest in the whole state. Even though its all connected they are all known for something different like type of fish generally and are not all on equal fishing. levels. It the same as the great lakes. they are just on the worlds biggest scale. Actually though I am pretty sure russia has a chain like that and its bigger then ours but its in the tundra and frozen over.

For a Megabass? I wonder what people are doing for swimbaits? I would dive for a 250 or a mother no problem at all if I thought i could possibly get it. I am on the shore and they lure is for sure gone I pull till something gives. I don' t ever cut it. I will cut it on the water like if i can get over it and not loose much line rather then pulling it and stretching it out. It is easier and if its not a huge loss of line no worries. Also if you fished some decent test braid you will just bend hooks out till it comes free. Or that bush is going coming to the shore if the hooks wont give. Something will give and it is probably not 50# braid.

My favorite rod for sure even though I don't use it very much any more. It was just such a good rod for me and i loved it right from the start. I don't know if your talking about the newer ones with the cork but I am talking about the black EVA foam one. Also 7"6" GLX something something since I don' know numbers for any of my rods Then a M/H Elite Tech Spinning for whatever I don't throw on those 2 Or maybe a the M/H HMG since it is a stiffer rod then the Elite Tech

If you are talking like some kind of pay lake or place where they are pros at raising some monsters then I agree. With that being said I would not eliminate places that you don't consider to some big body of water or because you think it might be any less challenging. On the contrary some ponds or smaller lakes can be very rough to fish and it seems even more so when you know they are there but you just are not getting them. There are plenty of ponds that can be way more difficult then whatever lake and it might even have bigger fish. There are lakes or ponds that get fished every day all day and just produce and there there is total opposite. A place might rarely get fished or even never and it just doesn't produce for whatever reason. There is also plenty of other challenges that can come into play you will never even face on a boat in the middle of a lake. Where is the place? Can you even get there? If so how? Or so now what when you cant hardly cast any thing. Then do you even have any room where your at to work a lure or even set the hook? I have missed so many fish and nice ones because i hit a little tree or branch setting a hook. It can be a real adventure are challenging to get somewhere you have never been. There might be some good places that are a breeze to cover but the really good ones usually are not and don't always come easy when everything about it is new. Also boots and a machete can really be game changers. Mostly the machete. I can deal with wet and muddy shoes if I really have to. I am not scientist on this one here but it seems and so I like to think most places will be a certain water type a lot of the time or almost always. Fish develop according to it and that becomes there natural way. Super clear places they use sight more or if it is dirty they use the lateral line more. Again I have no scientific data on this but it is a really good bet . Also clear water a hard bait will work better a lot of time and soft stuff in the dirty. It is kind of weird that when they see the best they go for the one with all the hardware hanging off it. Lots of the better places around me are really clear and have tons of weeds. Most of the places I even fish have a good amount of weeds or I try to find them. They are usually better for me then a place with low vis and some rocks scattered around and no weeds. I fish the heck out of some glides now a day over most other types and they draw fish like crazy. Lots of companies have come out with some sort of glide and quite a few of them are really good and the fish just love them. Not only that but they are the most fun to fish. You control everything it can or will do depending how you turn the handle or slightly move the rod. Just knowing how to fish them effectively is kind of a skill of it self and none of them are the same even though they might be similar. They really shine in the clear water where fish will see them from far and come right to it. Fish will literally follow those things the whole cast when that would of never happened. Out on a boat or something when you can see pretty good down I will get giants schools of bluegill and stuff following them. Sometimes there is like 30 of them just hanging out with my glide bait. I am pretty sure Savage Gear makes a lure exactly like this. You might already know that but i am just throwing it out there. I am sure I have seen it on there website before and I don't recall if it is on *** or not. It has a hollow type lead head and a swimbaits goes inside it. It is hearing shape and I actually think it has hearing its name also. It might be just the ticket unless this is old news.

That would be amazing and would beat the state record here by more then a pound with it at like 13.23# i think. To bad that is like almost every day for someone like Butch Brown or every week for sure.He has something silly like 130+ fish over 10# so far this year. That's just so sick. His fish would literally be able to eat my fish.

I don't cast in my yard. But about the cats thing. My uncle had a spincast I think it is really called like a zebco 404 type. It had a little cloth bag of catknip tied on it and we would cast it across the house and reel in my cousins cats when I was little. I was actually tons of fun when you are like 8 or 9. They put up a good fight.

As for time of day night time might be the best and for the best odds at a good size one but I like early morning. You can see somewhat maybe or soon you will be able to and that always helps and its usually cooler out. I can't see anything at night and if your like walking a bank casting along it in the pads with a frog or something is way hard for me even if you can cast with good accuracy. I am not even sure where it will land half the time and there is a good chance it could be the bank or something if I am trying to get close.

I totally agree with that 100%. I know for a fact for some reason I have caught a lot of the biggest fish in that time frame for whatever reason. You can kill them early them it gets slow and slow and then you hook a giant one.

the Gamakatsu weedless wacky hooks are a total joke. Its a plastic guard and it is tied around the shank of the hook and that slides up and down the shank. It is not even locked in place to keep the guard from coming off the barb. It makes no sense and I think who ever came up with that one should be fired for wasting people time and money. You need ones with a real old school wire guard. I am not actually sure about wacky hooks but I have hard some really serious ones on things like jig heads. You actually need to grab the hook with pliers and bend it towards the guard while you squeeze the guard to make it as long as possible and get it over the barb. They are on there good and wont come off. Sometimes it could almost be to good where you would miss a fish if you tried to swing on it with your purse.

I did a complete clean of the thing before I even put it on a rod and only really did it with the intention of like a goof not expecting much. But as it turns out it cats great and is still super smooth. I think a lot of it has to do with the rod it is on right now then what the heck. I will keep using it. When i am holding it though I kind of feel like if I squeezed hard enough I could just crush it like a egg or something with it being all graphite. I am also sure it does not help its lifespan using braided like and hauling in fish with 5# of crap totally covering them so you have to dig the fish out. Then having all the crap soaked in your line and getting all over the reel. My braid reels get tore up quick and super dirty since it all sticks to the line and makes it way back to the reel.

I do not have that reel any more and forget how many I used with it but 1 or 2 pins on and you will be fine. All my Lews reels right now have 1 brake on and the mags are at like 1 or 0 and no tensions. With 2 brakes on you can basically cast whatever you want and never even thumb the spool. I like never change the brakes unless its some extraneous circumstance. As for opening it up and turning off all brakes then adding tension and changing brakes and on and on I mean I guess and I am sure plenty of people will do that or something similar but that seems silly to me. I will never even use any tension unless I 100% have to. Just don't cast so hard and you will still get the same result or better and with less effort. Also tension will wear down as you fish and you have to turn it up again. Does that mean I would start all over with no brakes and add tension then brakes and and less tension?... that seems terrible to me. If i am unsure about something I will work into and not start out trying for max distance it only takes a couple cats to get a feel for what you can do. If for some reason it does get out of hand in a bad way quickly just cut your losses and thumb the spool hard and stop it. Or when you know you can pull it out or d**n close thumb it decently and let it go so it evens out the speed and pulls out the loops. It almost seems like I fish my reels different then most everyone one does but I know I am not alone. Everyone I fish with all set there stuff the same way. We all fish as loose as possible and instead of adding brakes somewhere just dont throw so hard. Brakes are always a last resort.

Ya it seems pretty good for what it is. I am by no means singing its praises and about to change all my reels over to black max any time soon or ever lol. It just did much better then I had anticipated it would. i thought there was a good change it was going to be a dog right from the go but so far it cats and reels great. It also has quite a few fish under its belt already. I am sure it would be fine for some a little fishing here and there but anything much more then that and i am sure durability will becomes a issue. I am sure I will end up destroying it but then again i might try to put a little care into it and see what it will do and if it will last till winter just for kicks.

That is really totally subjective in a way and all depends on the place your are fishing. A good bet though for any place though is always "Low and Slow". If you want to catch some fish in even say a place you have never been plastics will probably be your best best to start. Also try to start off as small as you can like Ultra Lite status. The smaller it is = more fish can fit it in there mouth = more chance at catching one. Early in the morning though top water is a alright bet. it does depend though what you consider early. I mean like as the sun is coming up or before early. Maybe a small popper or something or a little buzzbait might grab a few. Every place is different though even if they share a lot in common. One lure or even down to how they want it like rate of fall might be super hot at one place and totally strike out at a place right down the road. There has been plenty of time I have been somewhere and for example like I said rate of fall has been different. The first place maybe 3/8 was getting them good but then we go somewhere else and nothing. Switch it up to say 1/4 or 3/16 and all of a sudden your catching them again. Its a puzzle that you are there to solve. It is not that there is just tons of tons of places that are really good I just have weeded through a lot of the bad ones. The majority of places usually suck. Don't get me wrong here. You can catch some fish and some of them even decent size but it is not always great and some days it might only be a couple or even none. As for color I don't really get into that much and just stick with natural colors usually. You really cant go wrong with natural colors no matter where it is. Although I have seen it make a difference in some instances more then others I don't get much into it. I am not one who will have 8 of the same model crankbait in all different colors. That's just not me. I will say thought for plastics even though its not natural purple is a hot color a lot of times around here. Purple power worms or baby brush hogs or whatever seem to catch fish and quite often. My step father swears by purple power worms no matter where he is and they work Thats about it for un natural colors. Well things like jigs black and blue or even creature baits like a sweet beaver its good. Chartreuse is super common for things like spinner baits and tails of plastics and they work. White I guess also on things like spinner baits or chatterbaits. Natural colors are never a bad bait really. But going Low and Slow if your best chance at catching something and downsizing as small as you can.

Like I said though it is weird how it works sometimes. You can say a place is over fished and that why its hard but there is places that are NEVER fished that are even harder? Why is that it really makes no sense. Then there is those places that get fished regularly and it is just a place you know you can go and stick some fish regardless of how much pressure it gets. A perfect example is this place I had always wanted to fish off the side of the highway you can see it just for a few seconds and its of good enough size maybe 1.25 acre. Good enough that hey maybe I can pull a 5#er or 2 out of here. No one evvvveerrrrr fishes it. You have to stomp through this field of prickers and hitch hikers just to get to and all the stuff you go through is like 4' tall and its like a 10-15 min walk because of all the crap you have to get through. There is not a spec of garbage around it and I have driven by it 5897590285 times and never seen anyone ever. There is fish and I have been there like 5x and put in some time but only ever caught like 4 fish and I threw it all and threw it everywhere. They on the other hand take my mothers house for example. It is like almost 7 acres and gets fished constantly. I fish it my brother fishes it my step father goes out there like almost every night for a little. He will just cruise around slowly on the boat toss some plastics or whatever maybe drink a beer or something and will catch fish. Then there is all the family that fish there. There is also 2 other houses on it and they fish it sometimes and if there is a little party or get together people fish it. It is not super big and over the years has been fished like crazy and these fish have seen some lures for sure. I have worked the hell out of it with everything and know every tiny little spec of that place yet I can go there and if I really really want to or have to I am 100% I will catch fish. Generally we just go there and goof off and throw whatever we want not really caring if it will catch fish or be the best possible choice just because I have caught thousands of 2# fish out of there and chances are you will catch something if you stick at it. I know other places that are exactly the same as both of these but I used these as a example because they are such polar opposites yet and contradict what you would think it would be like. You can fish big lakes or resis and say yea its super pressure and its a hard lake to get bit and that may be true and that might actually be the reason for it. But I know for a fact that places like that and places I fish there are fish that have never seen a lore and for sure not every kind of lure or presentation. Now my mothers as a example. There is no way there are any fish in there that have not seen a lure and most of them "the bass" have probably been caught at least a few times. You catch a fish there and there is a good chance it will have a hole in its mouth. It is not like they are hungry either. The place is swarming with BG all over and no one ever fishes for that except kids rarely. You can go out in the boat and literally see schools of like 50+ just chilling near the surface or something in the sun. You don't really see the bass to much though since they are down in the weeds waiting to grab something.

So I had this reel lying around from a friend who bought it to give baitcaster a try and never really got into it. Well I cleaned that bay boy up super nice and put it on my 6' 6" Falcon Bucco Micro M/H that Wal-Mart basically gave to me just for kicks. I did not really have high hopes but it proved me wrong so far. I have been using it to throw stuff like spooks, poppers, buzz frogs/baits, even some hollow body frogs ect. Even though it only has the mag brakes it is a casting machine and I have literally been able to throw whatever I want and it keeps up with my other reels in casting. There is not really to much of a difference overall in distance yet. I have even thrown things like those Rebel poppers that weigh like nothing and baby spooks and mini buzz baits all with ease. I do have to use spool tension with it even though that is something I like never do except sometimes with the big swimbaits depending on the bait. The setup literally weighs almost nothing its like holding air in my hand. The Bucco is easily the lightest casting rod I own if not it really feels like it and the Black Max seems like it is the lightest reel even though I am not sure of the weights and it probably actually isn't. I think the graphite is tricking my mind into thinking it is because of the feel. So far I have not had any complaints with it except the thumb bar is hard to push down now and I will have to pop it open real quick and maybe clean it up a bit and add some grease or something but that is no biggie. A few times though I did smash a hookset and I for sure felt something twisting and I highly doubt it was the reel seat on the rod but I don't know since I have not tried another reel on it. I do have my doubts on how long it will really last with how I fish but I will try to give it extra special maintenance just because of what it is and see what I can get out of it. I would say for someone who doesn't fish a ton or maybe even someone who wants to get a first casting reel it is not a bad reel at all. Although maybe if this is your first casting reel it might be a bit of a challenge with only the mags but they almost seem to work different then if say I only turned mags on with one of my Lews or something. I probably only cast so well with it just because of my thumb from doing it for years. Either way once you get that knowledge it will really bomb some baits and light ones at that.

I would just try to find another place if at all possible to go besides there. Even though they stock it and lets just say no one ever fishes it hypothetical. Some places even though there is fish and never see any pressure just suck. I know a lot of places like that. They are never ever fished and there is fish for sure and some decent ones in there I would bet but they are just crappy and fish just don't bite well. Then on the other hand I know places that get hit pretty hard on the regular and you can go there and catch fish after fish. I can't really tell you why that is but both types come in every variety like clear or stained or weeds or no weeds ect.

I would say with what I know now. If I could pick a rod for $300 or less it would be a LDC M/H Production. They are absolutely amazing rods. I think M/H is 7' 9" and rated for 1-5 oz. But don't let that rating fool you. I can cast anything on my M/H plenty far enough just because of the rod itself. I have thrown it all on that rod with no issues and it absolutely launches a bait. Put it next to another rod that is "of equal standard" and I say it in quotes and it will smoke it. Not to mention the spiral wrap rocks on big time when you are fighting fish. They only bummer is that it comes with no hook keeper and tears up the front foam if you hook the back treble of baits on top of your reel. But it is no big deal since I don't even do that any more and hook them to the holes in the handle. That also prevents crap from dripping down inside my reel when it is wet. Or so I like to think and would assume happens. Another thing is they are not a super stout rod because they have that sort of moderate taper so if you are using mono or something that has some stretch it can be tricky to get a good hook set on the end of a cast with like say a weedless 68 or a deluxe or any kind of big single top hook bait. But regardless they are well worth it and will do a lot more then any other rod you would get. If you ever wanted to step up to some bigger baits you already have the best rod you can buy for it. Just a little edit here. Since I only have the 1 LDC I don't really throw hollow belly swimbaits with it much because well it always had the big stuff tied on like all the time. But when I do go out and throw them you better believe I put one on it and use that and other rods all at the same time. Also I will throw the crap out of some weedless shads on that bad boy like there is no tomorrow.

I have actually been using glass rods for a lot of those same things for quite a long while now. I am positive that my hookup ratio has also increased because of it. Some days I would start to wonder how it is even possible that I never got a hook in that fish even though they totally slam right into it. Sometimes it would happen to me constantly with things like buzz frogs or well basically any moving bait.They hit it so hard its jarring and they feel that impact just like you.The glass rods give you more time to react when you get that hit and the fish really inhale the bait better . Get some braided line and a glass rods and its on for any moving bait. It is the same principal pretty much as why you would use a glass rod for cranking. I almost never ever miss fish anymore on buzz stuff or small swimbaits when I use a glass rod

I tried those once and they sucked for me. They would never run straight no matter what I did even though I had heard people say they catch fish on them. They even come on the packaging so the tails dont get all bent. The only way I ever caught anything was lightly jigging it along the bottom. I was the only way I could even try to use them though since they didn't run true.

I actually messed a around a while back trying to figure out a way to really work a trap in some pretty thick weeds without getting fouled every time. I even tried replacing the trebles with some crappy Eagle Claw weedless single hooks I grabbed at Wal-Mart really quick. That might of worked but those hooks just sucked and so did the weed guard. What actually worked the best even though it made no sense was to remove the back treble hook. I don't know why but I was getting way less weeds with no back hook and just removing the front one seemed to make no real difference. Another thing that worked pretty great now that I think of it and should do again sometime was to rubber band the trebles together. I was flipping the back one up top and the front one under the nose so the points are facing away and hooking them with rubber bands. You miss some fish sometimes but you get bites that you would of never gotten because you can really get in there so I guess it doesn't matter since you were not going to get that fish any ways.

Well you are not to far off from me since I am 31. I fished forever but then stopped in my late teens till my later 20's. I was a kid like maybe 10 and someone would ask what I wanted for my birthday and the answer was always $ so I can buy fishing stuff. LOL That's kinda messed up for a little kid to say they want fishing stuff over toys or whatever it is. I did rock a Zebco Rhino way back in the day and that thing was a casting master but that is relative to what I knew or saw back then. I always used spinning gear though or fly rods. I started using spinning at probably around 6 or 7 and I would say around 10 or so with fly rods. Back then I just fished to catch anything I could. Didn't matter if it was bluegill rockbass crappie or whatever. I used tons of little grubs with like a 1/16 or 1/32 head beetle spins those crappy little wooden poppers then sell in the round cases split shots come in. Those things actually tear up some panfish on a UL. I also use to fish at this pond with a guy who tied his own floating water spiders and those things were absolutely amazing. He is the one he even got me into wanting to learn to use a fly rod just because those things tore it up so much. Even big bass would hit those things and I caught multiple in the 3-5# range on those spiders.

I would also agree that frog rod or the TZXC-76HXF 7'6" Flippin X-Fast 1/2 to 1-1/2 H depending what you like the throw the most. I am sure even with the flipping you could still throw a 1/4 weight no problem.

I fished tons of frogs on my MH/ E/F 7'2" Crucial and it always worked just fine. I fish lots of frogs on rods people might consider under powered and have no issues. Even my favorite way to fish a buzz frog is on a spinning reel and glass rod if i can get away with it. Also a lot of times I throw the small frogs on spinning gear even though it is pretty stiff as far as spinning might be concerned.

My brother had a Eagle GT but he rolled it up in the back window and snapped the tip off. Well he got that fixed and then shut the back hatch on the handle like a week later and the rod was done. It wasn't a bad rod but it did have the all metal guides with no inserts on it.

Pistol grip with a round reel! That sound tuff to me but to each there own and I personally would of went with a Cardiff for the same price but everyone is different. congratz