aqualkinbush

Sorry for the double post but I wanted to update with what I ended up getting. I picked up a Pflueger President and I was going to buy the Fenwick Smallmouth rod (still am actually) but i went to dicks and they had the Abu Garcia veritas line on sale for $20 off so I ended up getting one of those instead. However, a miracle has happened and the Fiance has given the go ahead, without me actually asking for it, to purchase a fenwick small mouth rod and a quantum smoke spinning reel so I'll be purchasing the fenwick rod and putting the pflueger on it and when I get it putting the smoke on the veritas.

Can you provide a link to what your referencing here?

thanks a ton for the advice guys. Can anyone give me any tips on what I should be looking for in a spinning reel that can help me determine if it's a quality reel or not?

Hey so I'm looking for a spinning rod and reel for finesse fishing. I want to keep the price for the rod and reel at around 100 bucks at the most for each. I don't know squat about spinning rods or reels. I can use them, but I don't know what really to look for to be able to determine the best bang for my buck. I know I want something that I can throw a bait as light as 1/8 oz on. I know I want something that is fairly lightweight and sensitive but beyond that I don't honestly know enough about the various manufacturers out there to make an informed enough decision and I have found the information available on the various "budget" rods and reels lacking. If you guys could make some suggestions or provide some tips that could help me make a more informed decision I would be very grateful. I don't have a huge amount of money to spend on fishing gear atm but I really need another rod and reel combo to be able to fish more finesse baits and rigs. I currently use a 7ft med hvy Abu Garcia Veritas Casting Rod paired with a Quantum Smoke Baitcaster and would like to own a rod and reel that is at least somewhat comparable to the quality I am used to from them.

i bought one of those kermits as well the other day and it sinks like a stone on the first cast out of the box. I was thiking about returning it and just dropping the extra money on a spro frog.

I'm thinking about getting one of these as well but I am having a hard time finding any good reviews on them have you found any decent reviews?

I love my Veritas and have had absolutely no issues. I have lifted fish up to nearly 6lbs out of the water with it no problem. It's super sensitive and light I have mine paired up with a quantum smoke and I can cast it all day with no problems. It is currently my only quality rod (fixing that soon) and I fish 2-3 times a week for 4+ hours every outing normally around 7-8 hours a day. I have owned it since early April of this year. I have no experience obviously with the other rod just thought I'd give you my experience in hopes it will be helpful somehow.

Hey guys I have been planning on buying a Quantum Smoke and Abu Garcia Veritas spinning setup however the fiance doesn't want me to spend nearly 300 bucks on another rod and reel so I'm thinking about buying A Daiwa Ballistic Spinning rod and Quantum Catalyst PTI spinning reel from tackle warehouse during the 4th sale and the sale on the ballistic rods that is happening right now. I'm looking to buy this spinning setup for lighter presentations. Any thoughts, experiences, or opinions with this gear would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks went out Monday and hammered them on the same pattern. Went alone so I didn't get any pictures but it was a really good day. Rained heavily on and off though so It looked like I had been swimming after the first hour lol.

Figured I'd tackle one of your questions real quick. 19. What can I use in weeded areas where I know fish are without get caught in the weeds? First off, NOTHING is ever truly weedless. However, there are a number of baits that can be fished in and around weeds without being completely unbearable. Spinner baits are fairly weedless and can pass through cover pretty easily due to the position of the hook and the arm. Buzz baits can be fished in weeds as long as there isn't too much sticking above the water line. A weedless Jig can also be fished in weeds increase the weight of the jig based on the thickness of the vegetation. You can also fish many soft plastics in weeds if you Texas Rig it and peg the bullet weight right at the hook, once again increase weight based on the thickness of the vegetation. Also don't be afraid to fish the outside edge of the weeds. Often times bass will sit just inside the weed line and will dart out to snag a bait as it passes by. If you fish the outside edge you can fish that XRap you seem to be confident with. One additional piece of advice, don't be afraid to lose a lure. Many people, myself included believe if your not getting hung up now and again your probably not doing it right. This definitely holds true when fishing a crank bait. Definitely take the time to read the articles on this site. They are Incredible. Many of your questions can be answered in the Bass fishing for Beginners section.

I really love my Abu Garcia Veritas casting rod, so much so that I'm planning on getting a spinning rod in that line as well. You can get them on sale right now at http://www.another site.com/ they are 20% off which puts them at roughly $80.

Nice congrats. I don't know what conditions are like in Murfreesboro right now but if they are like they are here, in and out cloudy threatening like it's going to rain but hardly doing so, I think it has a big part on why they really started biting yesterday and it looks like it's going to hold this way for another day or so. I think I'm gonna get out and fish some more before it changes.

I finally defeated the skunk! Went out today around 10:30 (intended to leave around sunrise, this is what happens when the fiance attends the trips lol) intending to do some catfishing, and after about an hour of only getting a short hit on the catfish bait I looked to my fiance and said "man it looks bassy today" reeled in the catfish rig and tied on this new crankbait I got from BPS on friday http://www.basspro.com/Bass-Pro-Shops-XPS-Professional-Series-Hardbaits-Flat-Crank/product/74322/ First cast I made is parallel to a rocky shoreline I reel it close to shore and bang it off some rocks along the way. The wobble on this thing is huge, It swings out so wide it appears to almost flop up on it's side and boy the rattle in this thing is fierce you can hear it coming through the water about a foot away even from the shore. Anyway, About 3 feet from me It's slammed from behind by this 1-1.5 # large mouth. The very next cast I have moved off in the opposite direction and cast basically right along the shore where I was sitting while catfishing and this little bugger wacks it once again from behind. (I know because I saw them both strike and the hooks were in the roof of there mouths. After that it died off for a while and the fiance was ready to go so I agreed to head out after taking a couple casts to the shore further left of where we were and on the second cast absolute quality 3-3.5lber absolutely engulfs it and gives me a nice aerial view before I land em. It had that crank nearly swallowed, got it out without doing too much damage snapped some shots and after a couple tense moments that led to me standing knee deep in the pond for about a minute and a half trying to get the bleeding in his gills to clot and for it to recover. Thankfully we got fully recovered and it swam off just fine. So this 3 hour trip successfully washed off the skunk and I think I figured out a good pattern that will hopefully hold for a repeat trip tomorrow.

This to me says one of two things, either color change to something that contrasts with the water better or GO BIG. Possibly even both. Black, Blue, Chartreuse, or Red, any combination of these colors should improve strikes in those kind of conditions.

1/2 oz or 3/4 oz Spinnerbait chart/white with a red hook and dual Colorado blades.

i usually fish a pond about 20 minutes from the house but I have no problem driving 1.5-2hrs to go fish one of the 5 big lakes/reservoirs near me or even the 6 or 7 80-150 acre lakes.

I look at them but I don't put much faith in them.

Fishing with my dad when I was small. Pretty much my best memories of time spent with him. I didn't fish much from about 10-23 then suddenly decided I wanted to start fishing again. Went out caught some good fish bought some good gear caught some better fish as of the last year I go out 2-3 times a week. I'm fairly addicted now.

Let me give a little bit of background info on this water. It's 10 acres, usually stained to muddy, water visibility is usually about 1 ft with my cheapo polarized lenses. You can take a look at an older shot of it by going here: https://www.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=215149613406625210540.0004e024fb06969f7e1e0 This was back when they were constructing the park around it. It's much nicer now. The visibility is why I have been throwing larger baits here, plus I simply like to thrower larger baits to be honest, always have. Not to mention before this long stretch of funk I was catching quite large bass for a pond. Nothing under 2lbs. with the biggest being 5lbs. I have even landed some really big crappie on a 1/2oz spinnerbait in mid april. I also honestly have zero confidence in soft plastics I fish them nearly every time I go out and have never caught anything on them. I'm sure I'm doing something wrong but I have watched countless videos and read soooo many articles on them that at this point I don't know what it could be that I'm doing wrong other than possibly the set up I'm using. 7ft MH Fast Abu Garcia Veritas rod with a Quantum Smoke 7:1.0 Baitcaster spooled with 20lb PLine Fluorocarbon (I Love PLine it's casts so smoothly and is thinner diameter than the other fluro's I've used). I only have the one good setup and I also like to ocassionally fish the river and there are some big stripers in there thus the 20lb test. Plus I had some bad luck with throwing lures into the drink when I was casting with 10lb mono and I just feel better having 20lb fluoro knowing I won't throw my bait away and I can normally get anything back when it gets snagged. Hell, I reeled a huge downed tree all the way to shore once to get my favorite spinner back lol. I want to buy a lighter setup but I have yet to convince The Fiance to let me spend the money on spinning gear. She is much more worried about saving money for the wedding than me buying new rods and reels lol. The senko was 5 in. I do plan on getting something on the lower end of my gears line spectrum 12lb and trying that for some drop shotting and carolina rigging but it's probably still a bit on the heavy side for those techniques if I understand correctly. Do you think 12lb fluro will be ok for a drop shot rig or will I have to wait until I get my light gear setup?

Can't be afraid to lose a lure. But to save yourself some cash I would go with kylek's advice and get a retrieval system.

I could see some sort of map app with fishing reports from members, saveable/shareable spots, uploadeable pics, etc.. being pretty nifty and useful if enough people took part.

I fished from about 6AM to 4PM I was out there over 10 hours or more.

Spinner baits ranging from 1/4 oz to 3/4 oz a wide spectrum of color and blade type combinations. Crank baits some with rattles, some without, various sizes and depths, craw colors, shad colors, wide wobbles, narrow wobbles, Scatter Raps minnows shad firetiger pattern. Buzz baits red/black, white chartreuse. Football jigs, regular jigs, swim jigs with swimbait trailers in shad and sunfish colors, PBJ 1/4 oz to 3/8 oz finesse jigs, craw patterns. Weightless senkos, Zoom 10in worms rigged weightless and texas. Hand Poured Finesse worms. Yum mud minnows. tube baits. soft frogs I even threw my small BPS flash mob imitation ARig Dipped the plastics in JJS and fished them without. Fished them slow fished them fast and everything in between.

Well I went out just after sunrise this morning and fished till about 4:00. I covered nearly every inch of this pond with pretty much every kind of lure I had at the time and nada. I did however see something huge swipe at my bait twice but never actually ate it. May have just been a carp or catfish fleeing my bait but it looked more like a bass than either of those so I don't know. sunfish and shad were all over the place but I saw very little bass feeding activity. Conditions were great for most of the day too. cloudy, sun didn't really get bright till at least 10am, and there were scattered showers. I'm starting to think either these fish are just being very very stubborn, holding deep and only feeding in the evenings when the area is locked down due to the heat and the pretty constant pressure. I think I just need to find somewhere else to make my regular weekend trips too and save this place for fall winter and early spring fishing when there isn't so much pressure. Thanks for all the advice guys now if anyone knows a good bank friendly place for me to fish within an hour and a half of Clarksville, TN I'd be thrilled to hear about it.

Mine got shipped today and is estimated to arrive on the 22nd