derekxec

get the cheapest mono you can find....take your reel and go to a field or lake or so and practice casting a lot and take a knife/cutters with you and the spool of line...if you cant remove a backlash cut off and try again if you run out of line respool after you get confortable remove all mono and get some power pro braid if your spool has a place to tie line tie the braid to that if not leave like 10 yards of the mono on and splice the braid to it and fill spool

lighter guides make the rods action more like it should be and also lower the weight a bit and a little more sensitive

i like some weight on the back also especially cause some poppers its not easy to get a good "pop" every time but when you add some weight it gives it more dig for a nicer pop

weighted slug-o or fluke

i agree hit the same spot again...i do this to my friend all the time he misses a fish i throw there and catch it lol

you shouldnt have to loosen your drag if you get a big one on it should already be set for that but if you needed more drag i just put mu thumb on the spool a little for baitcaster or use my hand on the spool for spinning reel to create a little more drag

white double bladed buzzbait ftw!

ive got some 8 year old plastic culprit worms that have been behind the seat of my truck the whole time lol i think i used maybe 2 of them so far and they look at feel brand new i check them out once in a while but i never take them out of the truck haha...but they are greasy as hell

5/0 wide gap owners with the horny toads and poke the hook through the back of the frog and barely put the tip back in and i mean barely and you shouldnt have a problem

i used to use the 20lb big game and also ande 20lb as backing only but tossed both of them and now i use Stren high impact and ive found it to be soooo much better...i use saltwater around piers and such and the big game and ande lines all broke really easy and let my 300-500 yards of braid take off the stren line on the other hand i have reeled it up with all kinds of cuts and frays and nicks and still reeled back in all my braid to land fish that were wrapped along pilings and such

hey you dont need to spend a ton to get a durable reel...those $25 heavy beast shakespears at walmart hold up awesome even when being dropped in saltwater and never cleaned (not sure about the other cheapies there) but if it wasnt for the fact of it being god awful heavy i would use them haha

double bladed buzzbait in white everywhere on the lake

color like everyone else said but you have to factor watch depth also as to which colors they will see...they can see the colors but the deeper you go the more the water filters out certain colors in the spectrum like i believe red is the first to be filtered out this is not just for fish but for anything thats why divers who take pictures at 60 and 100 ft etc have to use artificial lighting

if you look at flat bottom boats look to make sure the braces that go from one side to the other are still there and not cracked in half...this will cause the boat to make a crack in the floor which is how mine is although before we fixed it we welcomed the crack...sure we had to bail water every hour or so but it made a nice livewell just grab a bait at your feet and go hahaha

i second the tip glue over the epoxy....when you do it you want to heat it only enough to get it on and done if you heat it too much you can break the tip off the rod blank(ive seen and done this before)...i also second the keep a stick and lighter or so in your box in case one comes loose too

if shes really into it you should also take her rod to a custom rod shop and put her name on it...then she will happy to use hers and leave yours alone hahaha

if you are set on buying it maybe you could ask the seller if they could try to get it titled as a home made boat before you buy it?

if you get one without a title you could try what i did...im in florida though so not sure if it will work there i didnt have a title and had no one way of tracking down the person who did..so i went to get it registered you can do it as a home made boat which is what i did and it worked fine ps. i got my boat for free so if they turned me down i had nothing to lose anyway so keep that in mind if you are paying for a boat

that boat looks good i have a 14ft john boat but its a flat front not a v hull and me and my friend fish it both sitting or standing no problem we just keep the tackle and cooler and such in the middle of the boat so we both reach it easily we fish the flats a lot for bonefish and redfish and such and i stand up on the very front without feeling like i will fall in or tip the boat you just have to get used to it...i had a 12ft before and its doable but 14ft seems like its a lot bigger also the aluminum boats have a lot of hull slap (flat front not sure about vhull) but we took some of that spray on bedliner and sprayed the bottom of the boat with it and it removed the hull slap we also use a trolling motor only cause it was free and im too cheap right now for a gas haha but we use a deep cycle marine battery and it will last us atleast a couple hours oh sorry with 3 people fishing you could do it i guess but you have to beware of what everyone else is doing so you dont hook them or their rod or so when you cast....ill take a pic of my boat so you can see in a min(just dont laugh haha we got it for free)

just some info in case anyone didnt mention this but to help with the confidence a bit (not sure if they still do this but i guess they do?) each military survival kit comes with a jig and has been for very many years that said i use jigs all the time i either reel them in extremely slow and let it drag the bottom or i bump it up and down a bit then drag it that is also excellent for catching snook too (which is what i primarily fish for) but ive been more on bass fishing lately really i have found thats its hard to not work a jig the right way

sandpaper?

i only use custom built rods now (because i build them myself) and mid/high end reels right now but if you take durability out of it there is still a lot of difference to me...i have used low end stuff and i can tell you that most high end stuff is a lot lighter and stronger and also tailored to the kind of fishing you are doing when i was using the low end stuff i would be wore out at the end of the day just from the weight of the rods casting them 12 or so hours a day and the higher end stuff is a lot more sensitive but if you put in durability the high end stuff kills the low end for example ive had a shimano trinidad since 2000 or 2001 ($420 which isnt even the top end) but ive used it in saltwater maybe 4 times a week since i bought it and have never rinsed it off or cleaned it, oiled it or replaced anything on it and it feels brand new still (besides a bunch of scratches on the outside haha running down the beach after it before the ocean/fish takes it)