drew4779

How do you have your graph set? I mounted my side imaging transducer to my TM and hate it. I've been meaning to move it and just haven't gotten around to it yet.

Dads Ole Tackle has bailed me out a time or two as well. Great shop!

100% Agreed.

I love St. Croix rods, except for the premier series. For one reason...the rods handle nicely but I'm missing guide inserts in all of the three I own (two crankbaits and one ML/F). I take care of my gear. There's no good reason they separated from the guide and I haven't had that issue on any other rod, except a cheap bps rod that I had no expectations on in regards to durability. I've never fished a dobyns rod, but hear good things and i really like all my other St. Croix rods.

X2 I got some for my mom's dogs this 4th of July and for the 1st time they stayed calm during the fireworks. It also seems to help the 14 year old lab's joint pain.

Yes. Kayaking is big there, but as @Fishinbuck07 said, float tubes are more efficient. Some ponds you can drive right up to and some even have ramps but those tend to be the ponds that are highly pressured. I've seen guys in kayaks at some of the more remote ponds but their kayaks must be a lot lighter than mine or they're in a lot better shape than me.

@1Man I don't know anything about kast king except that some guys here like some of their reels. I never handled one of their rods or reels myself. Dodgeguy mentioned the bps carbonite rods. My brother had one that I got to fish with a few times (before he shut the car door on it) and i was really impressed with it. It felt lighter and was more sensitive than i expected and balanced well enough. He loved it.

A MH St. Croix Bass X would probably fit your needs. I believe they make a 7-2 and 7-4 and St. Croix usually runs a little heavier than other brands MH (kinda like inbetween heavy and MH). I've never used a Bass X but I've been happy with all other models of St. Croix rods that I own. Good luck.

I wouldn't say "frustrated" is the right wording for me, because I definitely view fishing as therapeutic. My wife will even tell me to go fishing when she starts to notice stress getting to me. But when I hit the the water, my approach is to catch one out of the gate, then i fish for that one big bite. I've caught thousands dinks. I'm always looking for a new PB. There are ponds and lakes that I've abandoned because catching fifty 9" bass a day just doesn't do it for me anymore. The exception to that is if I'm taking my kids or someone who doesn't fish a lot with me. Then it's all about quantity. But any day spent fishing is a good day.

I'm in Cincy. I would agree, Ohio is not a bass fishing mecca by any means (except maybe for Erie and/or AEP). However, I will say that the tough fishing in Cincy has made me better when I travel to other parts of the country.

My love of fishing comes from my dad. I caught my first fish (LMB) from a pay lake near our home when I was 5 on a bobber/popeye/wax worm. My mom still has the picture of me proudly holding it in my favorite Johnny Bench t-shirt. My dad loved crappie fishing and would take me and my little brother along to his friends farm ponds from time to time. When I was about 10 - 11 years old, at one of these farm ponds, I was pointing out a water snake that was sunning itself on a patch of duck weed to my 6-7 year old brother, when my popeye touched the surface of the weeds and 3 pound bass devoured it. I was hooked. No more crappie for me. When I got to college, my friends took up golf. Golf was expensive and I was paying my own way through college. I already had fishing gear and one of my friends parents just bought a house on a golf course. I had an open invitation and started fishing the course lakes after classes (still had to pay to play, but fishing was free). Never looked back.

Both awesome. Pick one...can't go wrong with either. I'd give a slight edge to shimano but only because I sometimes alter the external brakes on the daiwa's mid cast due to the way I palm reels. I've owned many brands (daiwa, shimano, bps, lews, Abu, pflueger, quantum, browning) and I reach for shimano or daiwa 90% of the time. IMO, shimano and daiwa are the most versatile.

Length? Shorter rods tend to be more accurate. Longer rods tend to give you more distance.

That's stupid (the LFS, not you). Fishing a jig from shore is what gave me the confidence in a jig to begin with. I've had some special days throwing them from shore. Find yourself a ledge, and its on.

I've had issues in the past, trying send items to my dad's and/or brother's house using my account (TW is not a fan of differences in billing vs shipping addresses). I understand though, they're trying to eliminate fraud.

Works fine for me.

Could just be your setup. The proper setup is critical with frog fishing.

I don't know this but I don't think you can swap those. You can swap an E series Curado and an E series Citica but I don't think you can from G series to E series. I could be wrong though. People switch out the citica spool for the curado spool because the curado spool is lighter. I have an E series citica with a curado spool. There's no noticeable difference in my opinion.

I've caught more bass on crickhoppers and rebel wee crawls than I can count. I lost my PB (at the time) on the side of the boat with a crawl in the late 90's. Since then I rarely pull out the ultra-light, I can still see that last head shake that snapped the line. I miss it though. Nothing more fun than catching a big ole' bass on an ultra-light.

Walking baits for me. I can get the cadence and be effective, but only with certain brands. Other brands I can get to walk for the first half of the cast, and then it evolves to a rolling/spitting mess for the last half. Also lipless cranks. I try them every spring and then a few more times throughout the season and have never caught a fish on them (I've been doing this for around 25 years... I'm determined to a fault). I took 3 rods with me last weekend, one with a jerk, one jig, and one with a rattle trap. I fan casted that trap for hours without a bite. I finally lost it on hidden log off a point in about 8' of water. Tossed the jig 5 times to it and caught 2 instantly. I'll probably throw that trap for another month or so but have no confidence in it.

Having lived in Cincinnati my whole life, loving the Reds, and loving bass fishing... This makes no sense to me and yet makes perfect sense to me all at once. My mind is spinning from this post and can offer nothing except... at least the Reds will be interesting this year and the bass have already started biting.

Sight fishing = good Jerks = bad

#1 - Chronarch E series (super-tuned) followed closely by the daiwa sv105 (also super-tuned). I inherited a lew's hyper mag slp but haven't put more than a couple of months on it yet. Nice reel...time will tell.

Fellow buckeye here... You can catch them with 8" swimbaits here, but don't expect tons of bites. Keep the mentality of looking for one bite (easier said than done... at least for me). If I plan on using the big swimbaits, I now start the day with a confidence bait, get the skunk out of the way, then I'm able to focus on that one bite. However, I seem to catch a surprising amount 8" to 10" fish on the 8" to 10" swimbaits.

I have never tried green, but between grey, amber, and blue... I prefer amber.