Bluebasser86

That's 3 trolling batteries plus a starting battery for 4 total.

What's the point of having braid on the spool at all if you're not going to get any of the benefits of it other than your spool holds more line? 15lb braid is just fine on a spinning reel, I have 20 on a few and have zero issues (it's 8lb diameter afterall). The problem you're having is 12lb fluoro, from any company, is going to be too much for a bass sized spinning reel to handle. Knock that leader down to 5 or 6 feet and I bet your problems go away. I'd still suggest going to a little lighter leader though so you don't have a big knot clunking through your guides every cast. As for the pros using only fluoro, you might want to check again. They can say they use straight fluoro all they want, but all you have to do is listen to them fighting a fish on spinning gear, that whine don't lie. I have braid on all but 1 of my spinning rods, and I couldn't be happier.

Find a lake with too many bass and let him eat until his heart's content. There's a few lakes around me that I wish people would keep more bass out of. Heck I wish I liked to eat them, but I'd rather go hungry.

Can't say I have, but I've had some pretty vivid dreams of fishing, usually after a really good day on the water. I've scared my wife when I set the hook in my sleep more than once. It didn't just recently start though, there was a hole in the wall by my bed at my parents house from a particularly vicious sleeping hook set.

Welcome!

Single Colorado blade is a killer in spring time for me. I use a larger size so I can reel it slower. It's also great in dirty water.

Yes it works, it's called a jigworm.

I tie my own but I prefer the finesse style jigs or football jigs for spots. Usually going to be dragging a pretty heavy one in the middle of summer.

Yes, I throw the smaller Keitechs when I need a bait with more tail wag or to be able to retrieve very slowly. I fish the Grass Pig on a football head or a keel weighted swimbait hook and I use the Jr as a trailer. It's a more subtle bait. Looking at it you can tell it's not going to have that pronounced side to side wag that some baits have. Instead it's more of a body roll and softer tail kick. The ribbed baits catch more water and allow them to have that greater tail wag than a smooth bait like a Grass Pig or Cane Thumper. Sometimes the fish will want one over the other like anything else. My mistake on the pricing, I was thinking the Grass Pig came in an 8 pack as well. They're $1.99 all the time at the local Academy stores here though, so I have a few dozen bags already on the pegs in the garage. That combined with their durability has kept me from buying any for a long time.

Catfish are one of the most prolific and widely distributed fish in the world. If there's fish living in a body of water, there's a good chance there's some catfish in there. I always opt for either live bait, or fresh cut bait. Prepared baits and store bought baits are primarily targeting small, channel cats or bullheads while I prefer to target the largest channel cats, flatheads, and blues. While there may be some in the deepest portion of the lakes, those are generally your inactive to neutral fish that are going to be much harder to catch (which is why a lot of folks have to wait so long for a bite while catfishing). Find an area where smaller fish, crawdads, whatever a catfish might like to feed on are holding and place a bait near that area. Around here, that's usually about 5-10 feet from the bank right against the edge of the water willows in 1-5 feet of water. I prefer an appropriate sized Kahle or beak hook (usually 1/0 up to 8/0 depending on the size bait I'm using). With cut bait, I'll rarely use a sinker, occasionally a bobber, but I prefer to go with just the weight of the bait and a barrel swivel to avoid line twist. I do what I call "bass fishing for catfish", where I basically cast a chunk of cut bait at the weeds and do a very slow retrieve like I'm fishing a T rig for bass. Strikes are violent and unmistakable. For the live bait, a simple C rig with enough weight to anchor the bait to the bottom is sufficient for most situations. I like to keep my leader pretty short to prevent the bait from being able to swim into snags. The equipment I use varies widely depending on the body of water I'm fishing, the bait I'm using, and the size fish I'm targeting. It goes from MH spinning gear with 20lb braid with 30 size Okuma bait feeders for channels in lakes, to 7' XXH custom built fiberglass/graphite blend rods with a Penn 309 and 130lb braid for flatheads, to 8-12 foot H surf rods with 65-90 sized Okuma baitfeeders with 65-80lb braid for blues on the rivers.

Megabass baits have a reputation of being fragile. It's the plastic that they use that also gives them the unique action that everyone seems to love so much. I've broken every Megabass I've ever owned and none of them were broken doing something that would break a cheaper bait. I haven't bought a MB for a long time because of it until just last week when I bought 2 Trick Darters, but I got those for half price so it won't hurt as bad when (not if), they break. I hope they send you a new bait, that white python is just a wicked looking color.

Slow and steady is my favorite, even bumping the bottom if possible. Just like anything, they'll prefer it other ways at times though. Sometimes I'll burn it, stop and go, snap the rod, stroke it off the bottom, lots of retrieves that can work, but usually I just reel it as slowly as I can keep the blade working.

I like the Grass Pig, have had great success with the full size and junior. A dollar cheaper and I get the same number of baits is going to make the Pulse a hard sale for me.

A couple of my different colors that have been proven fish catching colors. The all blue is just deadly around here.

I always save sinkers I find, especially larger ones. A big bank sinker can make me a few jigs each.

Are you doing it at the same time and same place every day? Catfish don't regularly feed on the surface unless there's a known food source available. You have to get them into a routine of coming to the top to feed. My grandpa used to do it at his pond, same time and place every day. Every catfish in the pond would be there and they'd be on the top in a frenzy once he started getting close to the pond (they felt the vibrations of him walking). I've seen people who tried to do it in other ponds but weren't on a schedule and it never worked very well.

The pins are cheap so I grind them down as close to flush as I can get and pour with them in place. Pouring and cutting off the excess is too time consuming for me when I'm pouring a bunch of heads.

Get with @Delaware Valley Tackle and I'm sure he can point you in the right direction.

Send the OP a PM to inquire about buying baits please.

I have 4 or 5 E7 Curados. Every time I see this kind of stuff, it makes me think I should see what I can get for them since they're all well taken care of and super tuned. Already have one that doesn't even have a rod to go on anyways.

Zebra mussels are going to claim some of your baits, so it's up to you to decide which ones you don't mind losing. If you have some inexpensive craw or shad colored shallow to mid depth baits you might try those. If it were me, weightless plastics, drop shot, ned, or grub/keitech on a light jighead.

Rage Menace

I have a Speed Spool that I bought when they first came out (5 years ago maybe?), and it's still going strong. I haven't treated it well. It's dirty, never been serviced, maybe I'm hoping it will die so I don't want to buy another one, but it keeps on going. It has a little squeak during the retrieve, and rattles during cast if I don't get the thumb bar depressed all the way, but if I'd taken better care of it I doubt I'd have either of those things going on.

I'm going to guess that frog body is too buoyant so it's floating on the top and keeping the blade from being able to catch the water correctly.

Welcome!