Preytorien

When I can't get bit, I put on a weightless fluke...but not a Zoom Fluke. I exclusively use and recommend either the Strike King Caffeine Shad or Missile Baits Shockwave....both in pearl white.

Even with proper lubing they'll make noise. I tend to use a bit more/heavier lube on the drive gears to keep the geary noise down, I like it silent, and like mentioned above, that noise actually gets transmitted down the line. Think about it, we're using the most sensitive rods, reels, and lines on the planet. You can feel a 3 inch grub tick a pebble from 50 feet away with a line that's several human hairs thick.....you're silly not to think that the same vibrations we want to feel can't also be felt/heard in the water from our reels. Can you catch fish with a geary reel? Yes, but in finesse applications I'm sure a silent reel is just one more thing to your advantage.

Last year, I found a gorgeous section of our local river with some deep pockets, yet still clear enough and shallow enough that from an overhead bridge I could see fish in there. This is a very good smallmouth river and I figured I had just found the motherlode of smallmouth pockets. I threw everything in my tacklebox at those guys, with no bites. Now, this past week, I see those guys in there again. Stacked like cords of wood, all facing upstream, sitting there motionless. Well yesterday the water level got low enough that I could wade out to the very spots they were holding, I figured I could be quiet enough to at least get close to see how big they were. I was able to get surprisingly close before a few scurried away....and.... What a surprise....they're NOT smallmouth!!! They're carp!! Which is why I had so much trouble/lack of success catching one with conventional smallmouth tackle. The bridge I could see the fish from was a good 30-40ft off the ground, and since I catch so many good smallmouth in this river, I just assumed they were staging in that pocket since fall is approaching. So, that makes me feel a lot better. These fish had me stumped. I couldn't get a bite, it had me questioning the very reasons I even pick up a rod/reel. Ha....not really.

Nice deal! Like Christmas in Jul---er....August!

Nope. It's totally loose. You won't see any coiling. Looks just like braid

I'd like to give the BioSpawn ExoStick XT. They claim its very durable, and the Cabela's that just opened near me has them. I'll probably try them sometime soon.

It floats on the water like braid. It quite literally feels like dental floss, kind of slick like that. I even used white, since I mainly use it as a finesse on soft plastics, and it looks just like floss, kind of comical. It's very thin, and thus is wispy so the wind will bow it like it would a braid, however, SINCE it's so thin it's able to cut the wind and I fish weightless (I usually fish weightless senkos and flukes) without any problems I almost exclusively fish it in very weedy ponds. It doesn't have any issues. I'm using the 24lb and I've hauled in my fair share of salad along with fish. That said, I've fished over logs and over rocks in the river without breakoffs. But be mindful of fraying. Like with any other thin braid-like material, check it every so often. I've not had one wind knot surprisingly I've fished Slick 8 for a few years, which I get a lot of wind knots on, but Gliss has given me no trouble. Even with jerking style retrieves that put varying loads on the line while wrapping it, I haven't had a single tangle, it's very very manageable. On a side note, I fish a weird pond that's very weedy and shallow, and the fish here are unusually skittish, so I often use a finesse rod with a smaller (1/8oz) frog, and even when using topwater, where a decent hookset is needed to action-ize the hooks, the Gliss pulls very well since it has zero stretch, I get some great topwater hooksets.

I fish mostly weedy ponds. I keep looking at the Jika Rig, but something tells me I'd get a HUGE mess of salad with it. On the other hand, it might do really good in the river I fish. Shallow with a lot of gravel/sand on the bottom. The thin weight would enable it to get un-stuck from rock hangups

This wins the internet

A buddy of mine is a sponsored TFO guy. He seems to think they're great, and he's coming from a strictly St. Croix lineup. He's also one of the smartest engineers I know. So I'd say I trust his opinion pretty well. I haven't given them a try personally, but it sounds to me like they're a good rod, good quality, and some excellent pedigree in their background.

I don't seem to have much issue with the bluebird sky condition. It's the calm that makes it tough for me. Even with downsized baits, I'm still spooking fish from the shoreline at the onset of my lure even subtly hitting the surface. It's really frustrating to see a big swirl just as your weightless fluke or Ned Rig hits the water. That's why I'd rather have bluebird but slightly breezy conditions. Luckily, that's far more the normal here than totally calm.

No problem guys. A-Jay got the ball rolling, and his review convinced me to try it out. So a big shout out to his excellent review. I've been using it for a while now. I feel like I've got a good handle on the goods and bads. The goods outweigh the bads, trust me. Good... Very long casting - it's literally shocking Smooth and noiseless - a welcome thing since I seem to always end up using a 4 carrier braid Seems to be at/very close to rated weight specs Inexpensive - $15 from Ardent and TW No coating - notihng to rub off and cause discoloration Bads... Slick-ness of line means you have to find a strong and no slip knot. Fail to do this and it'll break your heart. I found a 10+ wrap SDJ or double Palomar to be the ones I don't have slippage with Prone to fraying after several fish, I Just re-tie after every other fish. Again, fail to do this and your heart will ache and you'll probably say bad words Things I've not tried... This line on a casting reel This line + leader This line for any kind of saltwater application I'll keep updating as I find more details on this line.

Man i read and read and watch videos, I even work out the ideal scenarios that I'd use it then make an informed decision. I rarely buy a Duo Realis crank without some serious contemplation.

Great video Glenn, thanks!

I like Bass Pro. I shop Bass Pro. If it weren't for me getting their catalogs every other week I probably wouldn't have strayed into the deep end of fishing "seriousness" That said I have 2 rants with Bass Pro..... 1. Their sales. They may be good prices and such, but look at the items, I bet in any given sale they've advertised 70% BPS branded items. Now I'm not a guy to get hung up on name brands, and being in retail management, I understand house-brands having generally better profit margins. But jeez guys, put more name-brand tried and true stuff on sale. It wouldn't kill ya. 2. Their shipping. I've used everything from their 2-day shipping to the free stuff, and none of it even comes close to TW. I don't know if it's because they use FedEx or what, but I can generally count on it taking 2-4 days longer than a comparable order from TW, another half-country away from me (Central IN) Rant over.....now....to place my BPS order

I find that in the rivers around here I fish, they're pretty well set with Smallmouth. They prey on smaller smallmouth, which are a bit copper-ish in color, so about the only thing they'll hit at at times are a gold blade Mepps or Rooster Tail spinner. It's a lot of fun.

All my waters are the same. I've had to downsize and go pretty much straight finesse lately. I'm ready for the fall fishing temps

For me, as a frequent river/stream wader, I have an app called RiverCast that allows you to look at river stage height for locations the USGS has such stations set up. By default it shows you the flood stages and such, but since you can create custom assigned stage levels, mine has levels such as "Too High for Wading" stage, and "Very Shallow to Wade" stage, and my favorite "Go Fishin!" stage. It's very helpful and provides stage information in a graph form every few hours. Check it out. I also use an app that gives me the exact sunrise and sunset times. I like to know when to start fishing and have enough time. Other than that, I use the weather....particularly Dark Sky since it will push rain/precipitation notifications to you that are freakily accurate.

I don't know why I do. I just know I always do. Try popping a jerkbait without palming, it'd probably be pretty tough to do.

Ahhhh! Wish i could do that. My Stradic FJ is the best spinning reel I've ever used, I'm sure a Stella is even better

Fished a pond I frequent. The bass here rarely see people, so they're spooked easily. Seemed like every bass in the pond was hugging the shoreline. Every cast I threw, didn't matter how near or far spooked a fish or three away. I could barely catch any they were so spooked. Tried downsizing to see if a smaller profile would help, didn't make a difference. It was a tough night, only caught a few since I kept spooking them, even from 40-50ft away. Any tips for situations like this?

I never seem to have luck with any Rapala DT cranks, also no lipless crankfor me yet has produced, not one.

Nice fish! Neighborhood ponds can be great places to catch fish.

If you can get your bait to the outer edge (and back), run a fluke or buzzbait parallel to it and get ready. On my lakes with similar algae blooms like yours they're tearing this method up.

Here in Indiana you can make as many copies as you need. Nothing special. I have one in my wallet, one in the tackle bag, one in the waterproof bag with my boat registration in it, one in the glove box of my car, and the PDF on my phone. The few times I've ever been stopped by the DNR they just pull up in their boat or truck and ask my license number. Maybe there's a pre-fix that changes year to year that tells them legit licenses vs. fakes? Either way I've never been hit with any kind of fine. They even pulled my brother-in-law's up by his state issued drivers license. The DNR officers that have stopped me have been more than courteous. Great guys, and will often give you pointers they hear from other guys offering up advice.