lmbfisherman

I've never fished with the E6X but I have with the Savvy. The Savvy imo has terrible sensitivity vs a lot of cheaper rods. Since sensitivity is key for bottom contacts I wouldn't purchase a Savvy. If these were my only two choices I'd go with the E6X as I hear they are pretty good. However, if it were me, I'd probably go with one of these Shimano Zodias, and Fenwick Aetos or Elite Tech for that price range.

Nice Hootie, glad you are keeping it up. I've been skunked the last two times now. I can't seem to figure out how to catch these bass that are suspended off the bottom 4-5 feet.

I live in Ontario and agree with Senko_77. Three weeks ago I was up North at a cottage. The lake reaches 100+ at the deepest and a majority of the deep areas are 20-30 feet. I caught most of my bass in water below 10 feet and the biggest was a 4 1/2 lb largemouth bass that was hiding in a root system of an old tree. The water was about 1 foot deep.

I hear good things about reel. The rod I'm not sure, but my experience with combos like these the rod usually is the cheapest of the two.

Sweet nice Hootie!

Crankbaits have been the winner this year for me. Spinnerbaits which usually is the winner the last 3 years has failed miserably this year.

Hrm that actually looks pretty nice. I'm thinking of buying a new kayak for my or daughter probably in 2016. The 11.5 might be the ticket.

I dunno if I would've dove in after something that could take your hand off. hahaha! To the OP: That sucks but hey a lot of the fun is the fight. Sounds like it was a fun time!

Brilliant, instant tips/hints when the fishing is slow. That is a great idea!

I was going to say something along those lines....and I wanted to say something politically just look at Maryland as whole "demographic wise".

So I was out kayak fishing for smallmouth bass on a beautiful northern Ontario Lake. As I was patrolling a shore line with a lot of stumps and laydowns. I see this ideal lonely stump that was really close to a drop off (4-5 ft to 12 feet), it definitely looked like a "BASS SPOT". I was throwing a Strike King KVD 1.0 in sexy shad color. So my bass sense told me. There has to be one. I aim and try to cast at least 15-20 feet passed the stump. I cast out and a dead on perfect cast, wait a few seconds and then start reeling the crankbait. As I sense the lure gets close to my target I did a quick change to my retrieve and reeled a few turns faster. As I slow down again, SLAM! Fish on. I was being dragged around, I was like OMG this is a biggun. I kept the pressure one, tried to keep it from jumping while also making sure no boat was coming as it was dragging me out towards an area where boat traffic frequent. I finally wear the fish down after a good 30-40 second fight as it was close to the starboard side of my kayak within reaching distance. A thought crosses my mind, I should grab my net?? I said nah, he's right there. I had him, he was huge. Like one of those smallies you enviously see held up in pictures on the forum. All I can think of is sweet, time to brag on the forum. As I reached down thinking the fight was gone (the fish was half out of the water). It did one last jump and poof it was gone. It would've been easily my new PB. (4.04 lbs) Easily 5lbs or over..will never know now. I was just in shock. I literally just sat there for 10 minutes floating around in my kayak and my rod laying down with my lure floating in the water. I was like WTH man, I should've used the net. Especially since it was a treble hook. It haunted me the rest of the day and night. I literally replayed the event over and over, especially the part it spit my hook. I even had a vision of the fish laughing at me while it spit the crankbait and a dream that the fish said "You should've used the net, dummy." So I hope this is a lesson for you all at my expense. Use that net! If you don't own one, get one! I now use the net for everything except pike. PS - I do have a GoPro video of the event to remind myself of the loss.

I second the spooks. Really crappy hooks.

Depending on the brand. I found the stock hooks from Strike King pretty good. I found Rebel and store brands pretty crappy.

Thumbs up to this advice.

Nice congratulations!

Not sure if I'm too late or not. KVD Squarebill 1.0 or 1.5 Sexy Shad Spinnerbait 3/8 oz Popper or Spook Jr.

ME ME ME! FC Leader.

I didn't even realize that, not only that one is a spinning and the other is a casting. I guess I should've paid attention.

I would go 7'.

This sentiment exactly. Don't get me wrong I like my higher end rods too, but the Fenwick Elite Tech Small Mouth 6'10 M/F has been my go to rod this year (casting). Always in the boat Fenwick Aetos/Elite Tech Smallmouth spinning rod (M/F and M/XF). Always are in my rotation. I use these more than my GLXs, Cumaras and Cumulus.

MTB, LTB, Rage Tail and Megastrike.

I kind of know what you mean. Some of my rods don't get much use because certain techniques work better one day or one week or on month or one year etc. But I noticed every year since I started bass fishing certain techniques just shine that year. This year it has been the year of the squarebill cranks. I think you limit yourself if you go that route, in the end though it really is your choice.

Congratulations on the new job!

Deep water for me.

No fished it texas rigged weightless not like a fluke. So worm.