buzzed bait

really good looking fish there man!!

^^this is the only reason i use a leader

Is this what it looks like when you take your crew fishing with you?

i see a ton of jon boat tourney guys around here with a couple of few batteries rigged to one or two trolling motors and they flat out move. my brother has the bassraider 10' version. he has a 9.9hp that we've ran before, but honestly i had my life jacket on the whole time.... same boat with 2 batteries and 2 motors was money. also, not sure about up there but around here we have quite a few electric only lakes that you wouldn't be able to hit if you had the gas motor... just a thought.

WHOA!! what's crazy is how the rods/reels you have in your trunk seem to match the ones in the ebay listing.... you and that seller must really think alike! and fwiw, $2.54 shipping on a .99 item is crazy.

Although the OP may think it's the reel, it could have been a rod guide that got damaged somehow and is causing the issue. I wouldn't dismiss the rod so easily.

s**t sounds like you've won if you ask me bill!!

that's typical for the kayak tournaments to only measure and not weigh.... sometimes misleading like this situation probably was. i floated the southern stretch of this once in the NC area of the New River and the thing was darker than chocolate milk yet it hadn't rained in weeks! May have to head back up there and look for these basketball smallies.

to each their own.... "cheap" is a relative term. backlash it bad enough to cut it out a few times and you'll be down $35. or you could get a $5 spool of 10 or 12 lb mono to "practice" with. once you're proficient, strip off the cheap mono go get the power pro and knock yourself out.

panther martin in line spinners are my go-to. black with yellow dots and the gold blade is the ticket for me.

that is unreal man. i'd be afraid the fish might explode if i handled it too much!

listen to rippin's advice here..... spool up with some cheap line and practice, practice, practice. that's a great reel. i have all sorts of brands and like them all frankly, but the TP is a really smooth little reel. I really like the braking system on it too. once you get dialed in, you'll love this reel.

bill, let me know if you need my address to send all the surplus to.....

those are some studs man! nice way to spend your break and thank you for your service!

i don't think you'll even open the reel up. you'll take the handle assembly apart and should then be able to work that line out of there. but that may depend on the severity of the issue. PAY CLOSE ATTENTION to how you take it apart (photos will help). Don't lose any pieces and if possible, get the schematics out that came with the reel to help you get it back together. Good luck!

^^ that thing is so bright i just lost my eyesight for a minute....

a small size topwater popper usually does well for me in smaller ponds where the fish aren't all that big. a small white/bone color popper should do the trick. lots of options to try out, but this time of year i'd definitely be throwing a popper out there at least for a few casts

that second fish is a stud! nice going!

a 10+ pounder flipped? i might have slapped you if i were there with you.... a fish of that size could have put you in the record books in many New England states....

no experience with the revo, but i absolutely love my chronarch ci4+ by far my favorite reel i own among my collection. lightweight, smooth, easy to palm.

i'm so lonesome i could cry - THE hank i've been on a real hank sr kick lately thanks to this stupid apple music i'm hooked on....

i like that man!! i'm a TMNT head from way back when so this is right up my alley!!

bluebasser's blades really do thump! i got a few from him a while back and they are noticeably "louder" on the thump!

I was up in Western NC visiting with my brother and I went out for a few hours on Saturday despite the call for rain. It started out with a drizzle and then poured on me, i mean i got soaked. BUT after a bite or two, seems like you forget how miserable you really are!! Air temps were at 56 and the water temp was a constant 60 all day. I've been really lucky lately with the spinnerbait and it was the same story on Saturday. All strikes and fish landed were on the spinnerbait, EXCEPT for one guy that fell victim to my new Siebert DockRocker jig! This lake had been drawn down for about a year working on it and filled up back in early August. This was my first time back up there and was very glad to see the draw down hadn't impacted the lake like i thought it would. Anyhow, good day even though i was cold and wet when it was all over with. Biggest one of the day went 18.5" A few pics:

i really like power pro myself. also have some 832 which i like, but haven't used enough to offer a good opinion yet. i've tried some other braids (trilene, spiderwire, etc.) and it's not that i didn't like them, they're just sub par compared to the power pro. i really hate that wax feel coating that some lines seem to have on them (power pro super slick kinda feels like this to me)