gulfcaptain

Normally if it's soft I'll drag a dropshot to keep it my bait out of the mud and muck.

Fish the D-Bomb and the Baby D-Bomb. Both work great for flipping/pitching grass.

They don't need to be 7lb's to eat a swimbait. Those 3lb fish have no problem sucking down an 8" swimbait although the smallest I've caught on them is just over 4lbs. The 68's will catch all sizes. Have seen 2lb fish try and eat a Deps 250. The bait was almost as big as it was but I guess he didn't know that. Think about how many times we have all caught little bass on cranks and thought to ourselves "what was that fish thinkng"......well I'm guessing it was "I'm going to eat you!!!"

If they are fishing trout and catch a few bass it's not going to hurt the population. Once the fishing slows, they leave. If the bass eats one of those stupid Power Mouse baits, well then he needed to go in the bucket. Saw a guy today who had a 1lb buck bass on a stringer. It happens, he was in aww when I threw back a 3lber (wanted the 7lb female he was with) and continued on my way. The harvest of a few will improve the fishing by removing some and freeing up the food for the others to grow bigger. I would look into a swimbait though and when they all show up to fish for trout, well then I'd fish a 8" hudd and smile.

Like stated, have fun, keep an open mind, and most important thing......go fish the way you want to fish. Don't over think. Some of the best advice I ever had was this simple statement......Keep it simple stupid. Fish your tournament and have fun. That's what it comes down to. I over thought the last one I was in and took myself out instead of just fishing the way I new I tried to find something new to catch them on.....not a good thing to do. Should have kept it simple stupid. Good luck.

I'm still waiting for mine, but a buddy got his and got one on it Thursday. Good advice and tip for stinger rigging though.

I have a few jigs myself as well as using tungsten jig heads for my A-rig baits.... just sometimes you need that smaller heavy jig. Is there such a thing as the "tungsten monkey" now? I know for all my flipping weights Siebert has one of the best prices.

Never had any squeal. Bearings may need a drop of oil. Check the ACS, I always start a off, and adjust the tension knob slightly. I just like a free spooling reel so hardly every use the ACS systems or any of the brake systems on any of my reels. I'm almost bet you got one off Ebay as I saw them listed for that price so they may be new but may have sat a while so a light cleaning and lubing should help. I know each reel I have has a "brake in period" before it's where I want them. Then again it could be the line just getting broke in and laying correctly on the spool. And if I don't use the reel in a few weeks or a month or two, I always retreat the line with line conditioner as well as lightly wetting it before casting to help. But I have been in that boat where I was excited and hurried to fish a reel only to be disappointed because I rushed and skipped one of my steps only to find my rush caused me more anguish then pleasure. They are solid reels, but they are different then a Tatula so may get some getting used to.

Owner screw lock flipping hooks. I'd look at seeing if I could find someone put a welded eye on them for you if possible or some split rings so they sit right. Now you have me thinking of possibly tinkering around where I'm at and seeing what I can come up with.

Good to know they have different layouts. Have Android systems and looking at those two pics, I think I'd prefer that one anyways.

Ever think it might have been the new 14lb FC? Have 4 or the 150's, no issues. Only issue I have had this year was I didn't put any line conditioner on one of my reels after spooling it up. Well it wasn't good. Put it back in the car went home, treated the line. Next day no issues. Sometimes it's not the reel, but us being overly excited to try it out that make the mistakes. I know I have been guilty of this, but can't blame the reel, just myself.

This ^^^^^ reel gear ratio's vary depending on size of reel, spool dia, and make. Some of my 7:1 reels have the same pick up as a 6:6.1.

He wants to powershot. You can have really good success fishing a "dropshot" rig where you would normally flip. Gives the fish a different look. Look at it as fishing a 4/0 size hook with a 4-6" creature bait on 17-20lb fc flipped or pitched along the tullies/reed lines or into timber or brush and having your bait 6-8" off the bottom in the fishes face. Works pretty well at the right times.

This time of year I normally throw an Umbrella Rig. So far nothing, but happened to be fishing a jig one day and although I have about as much faith in a jig as I do jerkbaits, happened to swim it in and got slammed. Ended up with 5 fish eating a a swimming jig, not a swimjig. Happened to be a 1/2oz regular jig. Also shallow cranks do really well for me, something that is going to swim 1-3ft deep. Being your a jig fan, I'd try swimming your favorite jig and see what happens. Time to mix it up and try something new. Great thing about our sport, there are no rules just guidelines. Sometimes stepping out of the box will yield big rewards. Learn from what you saw and apply it to the next outing. Once you get them dialed in you will be posting as well about how you killed them. Good luck.

I looked at the Sonarphone from Vexilar as it's rechargeable and uses wifi. Believe they even make an attachment that can mount to a boat or in your case a kayak. Send the picture back to a tablet or smartphone. They are a bit more then the $100 price point you are looking at ($130). Here is a link if you wanted to check it out. http://sonarphone.mobi/easy-buy/

I started early, since January I have added the following 1 Quantum TourMG100 2 *** 6:6.1 1 *** 8:1.1 1 *** 5:3.1 2 Quantum Smoke 150's 6:6.1 1 Smoke 150 7:3.1 1 Smoke 150 5:.3.1 1 BPS Extreme Spinning EXS10 Yeah, I think I'm good for till at least August.

Not the best way to "punch" mats with a dropshot. Maybe fish the holes and the edges, closest way I could think of to "punch" with that sort of idea is the jika rig. But not really a dropshot. Problem with mats is you need to power your bait through that mess with the weight, you may have to go to heavier torpedo style sinkers made for ocean fishing to get through there and look at fishing a 2oz weight.

Wish you the best. Will be looking for your return post in the future.

I carry lead in 1/8-1/4oz sizes. Fishing light line.....4-8lb I'll fish lead. Also only fish lead when I dropshot as I don't feel their is a benefit for tungsten in that application.

I'd fish for them if we had them in CA, but we don't. Think they look very cool and just because some don't believe they are a game fish sounds like they pull and fight harder then the bass we pursue. Not a fan of killing anything just because I think it shouldn't be there either. No point in taking an animals life just for the pure pleasure of it, then leaving it in the lake or tossing it in the woods. Caught many carp that would pull our dearly loved bass backwards. I give them a thank you for the great fight and then a gentle release. May have a few 4 letter words when I first find out what it is though.

Nice fish, there are a few places like that around me. In the winter they are muddy/stained......but come summer they clear up nicely when the grass and weeds start to grow. So this summer you get some weed growth it may clear up quite a bit.

yep.

Quantum fans are Quantum fans. Those of us who fish them love them, those that don't bad mouth them and tell us to buy other brands. I fish many of the PT reels (Accurist, Kinetic, Smoke 150's, EXO, TourMG) all of which I still fish even though I've moved to the 13 Concepts, none of the Quantum's have EVER have given me an issue with line getting caught between the spool and the frame and that says a lot since all are filled with 20-40lb braid. Cheaper reels will eat line, (sub $40) including Quantum reels that you buy on that combo for $50 when you don't know any better. But quality reels the only way you are going to get line between the spool and the frame is if you have your spool tension knob loose causing spool slop which will let line get between. This would not be the fault of the reel, but the fault of the USER.

Pre spawn fish, and then you get post spawn fish which are both much easier to catch then spawning fish. Always fish somewhere to catch other then beds. Think some people fish for spawning fish simply because they can see the bass they are trying to catch instead of looking to locate those fish that aren't.

You can medicate just about every illness, but you just can't fix stupid...... guy at the fuel dock in Fouchon LA. I'd rather be lucky then good.....Me There's no crying in Baseball.....Tom Hanks And lastly one I used to use all the time on the charterboats...."Get your thumb off the spool. That's why they put drags in that shinny gold reel of yours." Was even better when they burned their thumb from the fish running.