buzzed bait

nice catch man!

you'll also find shoal bass in the chatahoochee! i tend to catch them or largemouth, but not a ton of spots out of the river. the largemouth tend to hang out in the brushpiles and backwater areas where there is little to no current. shoalies are in the shoals and also in the inflows. the few spots i tend to catch seem to congregate around the areas where the inflows are.

i like the spro bronzeye, but for the price and availability, the booyah pad crasher is hard to beat.

also, spinning rod guides tend to require more diameter than casting so take that into account. if you do alternate their direction, i'd be sure to tape/secure the butts on both ends. i'd secure the butt end no matter which direction they're facing though, that will eliminate them sliding back and forth in the tube and possibly breaking a tip on them. and i always bubble wrap the rods, and use a pretty ridiculous amount of duct tape on the ends.

i'd look hard at a pflueger patriarch. i've had about every level of pfluegers and the patriarch is a really smooth, VERY light reel that has suited me well. regardless of what you end up with, CONGRATS on the record, that's phenomenal!

Would it be a bad idea to use 15lb braid on a Yumeya BFS Magnesium spool? i have one in my curado 51e and was considering spooling it with 15lb braid and using it on my senko rod. BUT i don't want to risk damaging the spool with the braid if that's a bad idea! Right now i have 8lb copolymer and it works fine. But i would like the hi viz yellow to aid with line watching and i also would be able to get a little more line on the shallow spool with the 15lb braid smaller diameter. Thanks!

you'll be surprised to find that most states actually require you to register anything once you add the electronic propulsion to it.... i had to register mine for the TM i have on it here in GA

what he said.... motor in the front is crucial for steering that thing around sometimes. my brother does have a little 9.9HP motor, but i've never run it with him. we always fish a smaller lake that doesn't allow nor require a gas motor.

wind is a problem and a fact of life in the kayak. BUT if you just look for protected coves out of the wind, you'll miss a lot of active fish during that time frame! a rudder can be a fine addition to help "navigate" the wind, but it still won't solve the wind problem altogether.

the regular tatula (not the xt) is an awesome rod. My 6'10" MH/F tatula is one of the most versatile rods i've ever used. It out performs some of my higher priced rods.

the rod will be sweet, no doubt about it. i may be the odd man out, but i wasn't blown away with the chronarch ci4 casting reel, not to say it was bad at all, but for the $ i thought it would be a little better honestly. i have and have had other shimanos that were all very nice reels and performed well. i have zero experience with that quantum so i can't offer much there.

they don't have black or silver that i know of, but JJ's magic dye is FAR better than a sharpie on soft plastics. as A jay said, that sharpie will smear, smudge and fade in no time.

i try to use an offset worm hook (one like the owner version shown below) until the plastic is just too thick. then, and only then, do i reach for the wide gap. and at that, i like the owner twistlock hooks as they have the hook point a little bit above the eye, more so than a EWG hook (i think).

terminator t1, ain't cheap but it works

I guess that's the funny thing is how different everyone can be in terms of the way they fish and how they want the rod to act so to speak.... you guys have officially made this 0% easier than when i started!!! thanks for the info and opinions though, much appreciated!

if you throw it on straight braid and get a backlash you'll watch s waver #3 sail off into the distance and to the depths of the lake...

i honestly do all of those on both! i personally prefer the baitcaster, but i will use spinning too. i really prefer spinning if you're talking about skipping anything though because i can't skip consistently on the baitcaster to save my life!

i could do that, but i didn't exactly like how the 3 power i have now handled the lighter side of it's rating no, i meant the 843MBR since it's the fast rather than x fast i wondered if it might load up a little easier with the baits i was intending on using. i think the 842MBR would be a little too light/soft for what i'm wanting. but maybe that train of thought is wrong? i don't really know...

So I recently picked up a 853c for 3/8 and 1/2oz jigs and really do like it. I'm now considering a second NRX for my t rigs and lightest jigs. Usually a 1/8 - 1/4oz bullet weight plus plastic anything from a mini d bomb to a 10" worm. I also like the rods a little lighter than most, don't like to fish a stick that's too heavy. One other caveat is that i do not like longer rods, the 853 is the longest one i own all others are around 6'8" - 7'. So my question is what are the real differences between the 852c JWR and the 843 MBR aside from the obvious differences of specs. Would one really excel over the other for the t rigs application i'm looking for? I'm sort of leaning toward the 852, but not quite sure that's the right move or if it might actually be too light for me. Any first hand experience is appreciated! Thanks!

i like both to be honest, i know that doesn't help, but truly both. it might help too if you really provide some details on the baits/weights your'e talking about as everyone's definition of "finesse" can vary a bit.

kind of sounds like a severe "dig in" where you got a little too tight with it. did you get hung or snagged and pulled on it really tight or something like that?

there's truly not a whole lot of lines that i flat out dislike, but that's one of them. whatever coating they use on the line just made for a somewhat sticky mess to me. i may have had a bad spool or something, but it was not for me. it's honestly the only braid i'd never buy again.

Really nice setup you got there!

offset worm hook on everyone i can get away with. if the plastic is just too bulky though, i'll go with a Wide Gap.

if you really want to keep them away, go all house of a 1,000 corpses on them.... kind of like a dead crow in the garden type of approach...