Bluebasser86

I fish mine on the same gear, although I rarely use toads (the soft plastic style frogs). Your combo will work fine, but skip the leader, there's no need for it and it will hamper the action of your bait.

Of the rods you listed, I'd go with the Shock.

The Lucky Craft Spazz is what I use when I need a shallow running jerkbait.

I still don't know sometimes. I usually just lean into it if I'm not sure. If it's a fish, I got him, if it's not, maybe I trigger one with the speed change.

Sounds like you need to slow down. No idea about the Daiwa, but that BPS reel is a piece of junk, my brother in law has one and it's constantly getting major line twist.

I like a red craw crankbait anytime the water has a heavy stain to it. I've done very well during the summer months with a red craw crank in muddy water.

Ned rig or a Wacky rig. Been catching a lot of fish on a homemade micro jig lately too.

Probably a mockingbird, blue jay, or red-wing blackbird. They all get pretty defensive about their nesting areas this time of year.

I had a guy get an attitude with me in a tournament last year. It was a little tournament, 18 boats on a 2,500 acre lake for a few hundred dollars and a trophy. Me and @gardnerjigman were boat number 16, so a lot of the good spots were covered up by the time we got to go. We only had 1 spot that we'd even caught a single fish in prefishing, so we started near there and started fishing towards it. We caught a few fish and about the time a boat we hadn't seen rounded the corner fishing the same bank towards us, I put our first keeper in the boat. Pretty jacked to have a good fish first thing on a really tough lake, noticed the guy was fishing with we assumed was his son. We both commented on how cool that was and if we wanted to get beat by anyone that day, a father and son team wouldn't be bad. Then we went out and around the guy as we crossed paths, he said something to the affect of we must not fish tournaments often because if we did we'd know not to cut people off like we did. I was pretty shocked, my sentiment about losing to them flew out the window in a hurry. We'd been so far from him that I didn't even see their boat (at least 2.5 football fields of shoreline according to Google I later determined), but apparently that was too close for this guy. I spent the rest of the day doing my best Tommy Biffle impressions, and we put together 2 more keepers in the last 30 minutes and ended up winning, about 2 pounds in front of, Mr. Biffle Jr and Biffle Jr III. He even made a comment at weigh in if our fish had actually measured or not (they measure them at weigh in just like every other tournament ever). Still fires me up now because I take a lot of pride in my reputation as a fair person, to have it questioned like that really torched me. To the OP, like others have said, that guy is a jerk regardless of what he's doing you can bet on that. Most tournament guys are good people. I've run into far more casual anglers that were either poor sportsmen, or just didn't know any better (but there's lots more casual anglers than tournament anglers so odds are it would work out that way). Being in a tournament gives someone no more right to the water than any other person, and the way he acted was ridiculous.

I catch my biggest bass of the year during the winter months almost every year, November-early March. Numbers of big fish is usually March or April, prespawn or the fall coldwater period right before winter, usually late October into November.

I tried switching once, it was awful, and I can cast with my left hand, so I'm not really gaining anything by switching. It's a risk I'm willing to take to get the 9.1.

Correct, the larger ones are fine, although still stiffer plastic than similar baits.

I like mine, but I haven't used it for flipping and pitching. All my use with it has been casting hard baits.

Got my 110's a couple days ago. Saw about an inch off a 130 and you've got a 110, not exactly what I was hoping for but I'm sure they'll still catch plenty of fish.

They're too stiff, tail barely moves if at all. The Berkley and Storm versions are much better.

I own zero 2.5's. I have some Lucky Craft 2.0's that I use pretty often, but I don't fish crankbaits in general very often so take that for what it's worth.

Savage Gear Shine Glide. I'd still suggest the gold/black, but with your shiners being that color, you might also take a look at the Hitch color.

A new toy on the way from The Land of the Rising Sun. The one I ordered isn't wrong handed like the one in the picture though.

@RUSS9999, it took 26 pounds to win at Perry a few weeks ago. Perry is the best for largemouth on that list. Melvern is usually a killer smallmouth lake, but it has been plagued by high, dirty water and a state that doesn't give a rip about bass fishermen. They are still there and can be caught, but it's tough going. Clinton is coming around for smallmouth, and has big largemouth, just few and far between. Pomona is perhaps unfairly considered a poor bass lake because of the lakes around it. I've fished it once in a buddy tournament and took second with 14 pounds, first was 16 pounds, both really solid bags of fish for Kansas. At this very moment in time, I'd rate them; Perry Clinton Melvern Pomona

I haven't but I'm very intrigued by them as well, especially since I started reusing old plastics to pour swimbaits. Would be a cool way to get a more realistic finish and still be way cheaper than buying store bought ones.

Yep, that'd be a largemouth. Used to catch a lot of bass on a Wally Diver the same color as that one.

Welcome! I suggest reading some of the great articles that are posted here. https://www.bassresource.com/how-to-fish/

Welcome!