Bluebasser86

I'd highly suggest looking into the Ned Rig. It's inexpensive, doesn't require fancy tackle, catches all sizes and all species of fish, and it is very effective even in very pressured bodies of water.

I believe that vibration is as important, if not more important in low light conditions. That's why a lot of popular baits for dirty water and night fishing give off lots of vibration (spinnerbaits, bladed jigs, buzzbaits, cranks). Of course the only way to tell what is really most important is to ask the bass, and they're not talking!

I want to raid this guys freezer.

First time in the kayak. Wish it wouldn't have gotten wrapped up so I could have got the full experience.

Have you taken the side plate off recently? I've had a few reels that would do that if I took the side plate off and didn't hold the thumb bar up while replacing the side plate.

What techniques do you use for those fish? Braid may or may not be a good idea depending on techniques and where you're fishing for them. I'm certainly all for braid for catfish and muskie, but it's more dependent on the situation for the other fish.

The space in between the spool and frame sounds like you have the spool tension extremely loose. You might be able to add/change drag washers to be able to tighten the drag down without cinching it down, but as long as it is tightening I'd probably not be real worried about that. I've had very good luck with Okuma reels, but haven't tried one of their more inexpensive reels, so not sure if those are known issues with that reel or unique to your reel.

50lb is my happy place for frog fishing.

What a monster! Great fish!

I throw my 130 on my frog rod, 7' 3" H/F with a 7.1 reel and 50lb braid. Some of the most vicious topwater strikes I've ever seen are smallies crashing into this thing.

I can say that I'm glad I didn't. My wife is a couple years older than me, thousands of dollars in debt to student loans, and makes less money than I do. Granted, it all depends on what you choose to major in and if you're able to find a job in that field, but with the way the economy is, I'd have a hard time doing it.

They're my main stick worm of choice, especially if I'm using them with a weight and fishing cover because they're more durable.

I'd go with the Okuma RTX 25. I bought one this year for my drop shot rod and it's been great so far. It's very lightweight but it's very solid feeling, like it everything fits together very well. I like the nice, big handle that's easy to find and comfortable. The fast retrieve was a big factor for me too. I didn't want to be spending a bunch of time reeling up my DS from the depths to make another cast, and it is indeed very fast for a spinning reel.

Have not used mine but just know that a good portion of the underside of the bait is just plain, unpainted lead, but any birds flying over should get to see that really nice bluegill paint job!

4 pounds

I use 10lb a majority of the time.

Make a local thread. There's some very long running threads in the Central forum for more localized areas, even specific lakes.

I had an auto Mustang that went off on me 3 different times from either rain or humidity. I sold it and bought a manual. That was several years ago so hopefully the problem is fixed because there's obviously some serious benefits to the automatic ones.

The big ones will dig into the mud or weeds pretty good, but none of them are a very good fight. Softshell turtles are much faster and put up a lot better fight. I used to know a guy who loved to eat them so I'd catch them on setlines and give them to him. They'll knock the fire out of a jig or worm though.

It's a great color in our stained water lakes.

I just made a pole out of an old telescoping lure retriever and tried it for the first time today, worked great. I have a dumbbell that I use sometimes, as well as one of the folding anchors the OP posted. The folder works better on hard bottom, the dumbbell works better in mud and weeds.

I have a lot of the colors and they all work. Just like anything else, sometimes color makes a huge difference, and sometimes they could care less. I wish they would make a TRD in Purple Haze because it's a killer color in a couple of our lakes.

Frogs have a lower hookup ratio, but I usually get about 75% of the bites. The trade off is it seems to be a big fish bait.

Frogs are super easy to fish on a baitcaster if you're using standard sized frogs. They're easy to skip as well, just takes some practice.

Welcome!