Choporoz

I'm a bit surprised by all the short rod recommendations. I found a lot of times that accuracy isn't critical, but backing off of bass in clear water less than 12 feet, is critical. Having a longer rod to launch a jerkbait can be huge. That saud, I primarily use med, med/mod rods.

This is my first full season with Gliss and I have another lesson learned for fishing in the wind; - when using very light superlines (such as 12# Gliss, or 10# braid) take inordinate care to trim your leader tags as close as possible. It does not take a whole lot of wind to push your leader knot into a guide on your cast and send a quarter spool of line out between two guides. This is particularly true on spinning gear in the wind, but you can backlash baitcaster with micro guides fairly easily, also. Was never a problem for me with heavier lines, but I've become a lot more careful cleaning up loose ends lately, so to speak.

Posting...simply to keep an eye on this thread. Looking forward to hitting them hard up here in the Occoquan. Just got a big package of darts from Mr. Russel in NJ. Great guy and great source if you're in the market.

Couple good days this weekend, but it has been strange. My wife and I have been on the same small lake four times this month. Day 1 - fairly dramatic cold front previous day -- over two dozen good bass on jerkbaits Day 2 (following day) - one fish on lipless...they wouldn't touch a jerkbait -- weather the same as Day 1 Two weeks later: Day 3 - 30 LMB, almost all on lipless, but scattered all over the lake Day 4 (next day) - 9 bass - except for two on flukes, I think the other seven were each on different lure/presentation (lipless, bladed jig, jerkbait, finesse worm, lizard, etc.) Not much sense in fishing memories at this time of year...the fish make you change it up daily

Rod covers are an absolute MUST for me. I keep 8-12 rods in my car/boat at a time. The covers save an immense amount of time previously spent untangling them. I've used about a half dozen different brands. You get what you pay for. You can get the BPS brand cheapest. They work....BUT...they have the loosest weave and you WILL get hooks in stuck in them at some point. Ones with tighter weaves, like Stick Jacket and Rod Glove will cost a couple bucks more, but will snare fewer hooks. The downside is that the tighter weave means that when you do sink a barb, it is much harder to get out. I strongly suggest you take a look at Rosie's Rod Covers at fishyaker.com. Young gal makes 'em herself - probably going to put herself through college. She gets $10 shipped per. The huge upside (besides helping an entrepreneur) is that these are solid cloth -- No snags! They really are a better product. PSA: All the mesh ones I've ever lost over the side do NOT float. Not sure about Rosie's....haven't dunked one...yet As to reel covers, I've only ever owned one -- and my wife uses it as a spinnerbait case. Never saw the need for them, myself.

This reminds me of why I struggle with these 'brand' discussions so much. My first Daiwa anything was a spinning rod that I bought while on a business trip without my own gear -- bought it for $18 and proceded to snap it the second time out. My mind was affected for years and I didn't buy anything Daiwa for a long, long time. Now, some of my very favorite rods and reels are Daiwa. I had similar experience with entry level Quantum gear. (Right at this moment, my very favorite baitcasting reel is a Quantum Smoke. But that doesn't mean that Quantum is better than Lews because it is better than my Speed Spool.) What it has taken me 50+ years to learn is that making broad statements about an entire brand are useless. Unless, perhaps, you have extensive experiences with all levels of their product - both of the brand in question and all of its major competitors....and even then, the discussion of one brand over all others is rather pointless.

I own reels from the following companies: Mitchell - now retired Shimano Quantum Wright and McGill Daiwa Pinnacle Abu Garcia Pflueger Shakespeare - retired Lews Ardent I've owned the absolute cheapest models you can buy -- and some of the mid-higher end (nothing MSRP over $300, however.) So, I have a little bit of cross-brand experience. BUT, I would not even consider answering the OP question. When it comes a time that I am asked to make the world-wide decision to have only one reel company on earth for eternity, come back and we'll talk.

I like Quantum...lots of people do.

reminds me of this

I have a Tourney Trail spinning rod -- heavy use...nothing the least bit gentle...it is as good as it was when new a few years ago. Can't say that I've boat-flipped 8 pounders, or high-sticked snags, but it is rugged and hard to imagine thinking about it as fragile.

That Pflueger/Tourney Trail combo is a tremendous deal. I have never handled an Ugly Stik Elite, so I can't properly compare (though, I have owned (reg) Ugly Sticks in the past, which were like fishing with length of rebar.) However, I bought a Tourney Trail / Pflueger President combo (7' MMF 1/4-3/4) 3 or 4 years ago and both rod and reel are as good as the day I bought them. Fantastic deal. The rod fishes a little heavier than listed, but I would not hesitate to recommend it to anyone.

Hmmmm....maybe we could pool our resources and commission a thread titled "Stik-O: 73 different presentations."

Just this past weekend, I was watching Bob Izumi on a Lake St. Clair charter, trolling for muskies. All the rods on that boat were Ugly Sticks. They seemed to handle some massive fish perfectly.

I guess you can tell from above that it doesn't matter what you (or anyone else) calls a particular rig. Mojo weights are not required for any particular fishing situation. However, I suggest that you do give them a try at some point. I never peg them, but I do like them a lot when pulling flukes and worms through grass or across shallow points. They come through vegetation extremely well. ...oh...and btw, Mojo weights have become a little harder to find in the last couple years....BPS has finesse cylindrical weights; and TW carries Phenix brand (search for Vengeance Finesse.)

I am a big YZ fan, but I don't use any over 12# any more. The issues with memory and line management are no longer mitigated by line conditioner with 15#. I should think you would do fine with your 12#. I use that, or more likely, braid, for trigs and jigs.

most of my shakyheads have a med to light wire hooks, so I'm not crossing their eyes. I do have some heavier ones, but I generally throw those on a bit heavier line...that said, I think you solved this yourself when you mentioned going "too long between re-tying" -- I'm not great about retying, either, but I've gotten better....I think this is likely a bigger problem than your rod or hookset

I use Texas Tackle split ring pliers After reading hundreds of posts on here recommending Texas Tackle split ring pliers, I bought a pair....count me in as another convert...

well....as my fishing buddy from my youth some 40+ years ago used to tell me....every single time out....."the bigger the bait, the bigger the fish"

could be...or could be that they're just ******* *****

interesting perspective....looks like that lure is about 7 feet long....lol

I've considered it a few times...may still get some. Babied my Wildy for quite a while and when I noticed that the cuts and scrapes were very superficial, I got a little more careless. All last year, I dragged her across rocks, beaches, roads, gravel parking lots....and she doesn't look any worse than at the beginning of the year. I've decided that hull is a lot more durable than I gave it credit for initially.

@wdp, The issued you mentioned are, indeed, still tradeoffs. While worth it to me...I fully understand why they wouldn't be for others. I use KVD L&L every day. From my perspective, it completely eliminates the memory issues. The line will become brittle when kinked hard. Slobbered, careful terminal knots have never been a problem for me. However, I can get issues on certain leader knots, or on backlashes that get kinked.

My dexterity is such that I can operate a Norman 'Speed'? Clip in about 12 minutes. Takes me upwards of 30 seconds sometimes to tie a SDJ knot.

With YZ, I use only SD Jam -- My wife uses only improved clinch....never had any problem with either

You handled it right, IMO. I experienced similar....My wife and I rented a big Carolina Skiff with a trolling motor on a big lake we'd never been on. Same situation, we were meticulously working back third of a narrow creek; pitching laydowns. Couple guys in a beautiful Z21 roar into the bay and proceed to troll right on through us...between us and the bank...My blood was boiling and simply yelled "excuse me!"....the back seat said "Oh...are you guys fishing for bass?"...Like they didn't know...and even if they were too stupid to figure, what difference would it make??? My reply was clipped by my better half. She proceeded to engage them very loudly with a non-stop stream of questions, comments, ect. MUCH better approach...they didn't last 3 minutes of that barrage....she and I laughed our ***** off as they motored on out