Missourifishin

Three. Bank fisherman.

I have a box that is all square bills, and other shallow cranks that I'm pretty confident in. But I'm afraid that if I really kept a "confidence box" I'd never try new things.

I couldn't agree more. This is why I'm still using mono.

There's no reason not to pursue what you love. But, like people always say to yonugsters who want to go pro in any sport - Make sure you've got something to fall back on.

was a pretty decent one at about 5PM today. I had my baitcasting gear out for the first 2 times last week, but I happened to catch all my fish on spinning gear. Finally got the first one on casting gear today using a KVD 2.5 chartreuse with black back. All of my fish so far this year (in the past week) have been caught on chartreuse and other yellowish green type colored lures. It took me some time to figure out what the fish wanted. At first I was trying natural looking colors like shad, which is what I had a lot of success on last fall but I wasn't getting any bites. This was caught at a conservation area near Columbia, MO.

Yep. 12 bucks here in MO. I don't do the trout stamp either.

Nice

Lots of good advice here. I think a Trion spinning reel would be great, along with a 30-50 dollar rod, and then maybe help him pick out 20-30 bucks worth of tackle. Do you, or any of your friends/neighbors, have any yard work or other work he could do to put some money towards it? I'm not necessarily saying make him pay off every penny of the cost. But at least a little work he could put towards it. It would probably make him appreciate it and take care of it better, as Jason Short pointed out. Either way, it's good of you to mentor a young fisherman.

While you're at the store you might want to see how you like the feel of a St. Croix Premier (although it might be $10-15 more than you want to spend) and an Abu Garcia Veritas, which is a great value right now at $80.

I don't have any experience with any of that equipment. But what do you think? The best way to find out if you like it is to fish it.

So, in other words, having something like a 1/0 hook in their mouth might not even slow them down?

and is just lip hooked with a single hook, do you think it'll be able to shake it out and not have it cause any problems? I'm just curious because it has happened to me before, and I'm sure I'm not the only one.

I just found this place online: http://www.osagebeachbaitandtackle.com/index.htm It looks pretty cool. I might have to stop by next time I'm down there.

I thought I had gotten some kind of mistake from the factory the first time I got one like that too

That's a pretty tight budget. I like Pflueger spinning reels. And you could get a Pflueger trion for that price. If you could spend a little more, you could get the Pflueger president, and have a pretty nice reel that could last years with proper maintenance.

I'm also a fan of Rapala's DT series of lures. I like their CRR-5 squarebills too. I also like Strike King's KVD 1.5 and 2.5 squarebills. I'm relatively new to jerkbaits, but I like Smithwick Rogues and Rapala HJ-8's.

The first post in this thread explains exactly what you need to look for in rods: http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/130634-rod-selection-the-basics/ I'll leave the specific suggestions of brands and models of rods and reels to others. Welcome to BR

Usually, but there are exceptions. I've got pretty big bass on small baits. I've also caught a 3 inch bluegill on a big crank.

Today was my first time this year. Got skunked.

Any day I get to go fishing is better than a day when I don't. As for the fish, all I really care about is getting a good sized one. I have a lot of days where my numbers are low at my local lake. Occasionally I don't catch any at all. But catching one quality fish is better than catching half a dozen tiny ones, in my opinion.

I met Rick Clunn February 28 at my local bass pro. He gave a talk on square bills and jerkbaits. He mentioned using the same type of rod for all of his cranks and jerkbaits, but I can't remember what power and action for sure, other than the fact that he likes glass. I also remember him talking about using mono line for everything.

I've also had my eye on that rod for a while, to use for square bills and other shallow cranks. I've only been hesitant to buy it because I've never used a glass bass fishing rod before.

Final update. I just got off the phone with a very helpful and courteous guy at Lews. He said they'd take care of it. Didn't even hesitate when I told him I got it on ebay. So I'm pretty happy with Lews right now.

I'll keep that in mind. I contacted the seller, who said they would give me a full refund and reimburse me for return shipping if Lews doesn't take care of it. I will be very hesitant to buy any expensive fishing gear on ebay in the future.

I love my Avid. I have no experience with the Loomis.