Djman72

All 3 all solid. I only get pflueger spinning reels and I love them. Go test em out at a BPS or Cabelas and see which one you like!

Senko x1,000,000 Also, consider getting a few crankbaits to cover the water column. As for color, figure out what the main food source is in the lake and mimic that. Cast out, retrieve, profit! Good Luck

I'm more of a budget fisherman, and I purchased a Fenwick HMX for $100.00 at the beginning of the season and I couldn't be happier with my choice (over some St. Croix models). Extremely sensitive to pick up the soft bite, as well as a strong backbone for landing some nice sized bass. I'm starting to lean towards Fenwick for all of my rods until i really want to cough up some dough for a higher end rod. Good Luck!

I would throw a fluke through that in a heart beat. Also a simple weightless soft plastic (zoom trick worm, creature bait, etc) would be a go to for me. Anything that can be worked through that thick stuff.

Everyone above me has covered the "basics" of choosing a color in most of the conditions you will encounter. My one piece of advise that's different from the "match the hatch" and "natural colors for clear water & dark colors for murky water" is don't be afraid to try out a odd, unnatural color. One of my "go-to" soft plastic baits is the bruised banana zoom trick worm. Not a naturally occurring color by any means, but it flat out catches fish for me. Moral of the story, is you won't know if it works until you throw it out there!

Taking my new(ish) girlfriend out to a nice small sized lake for some shore fishing and some grab-ass'n. Then some heavy boozing with my good buddies, and eating too much grilled meat. Murica'

Depends on the lake/conditions but my tops are: 1) weightless zoom trick worms in bruised banana or watermelon 2) Rebel Pop-R 3) Baby Bass crankbait (depth depending) 4) Zoom brush hog for the thick stuff 5) Whatever the bass want to bite that day.

8+ lbs in 3-5 fow on a 1-2 diving baby bass crankbait. I fish mainly in water conditions that you described. Try to up the size of your bait, although large fish will eat any size lure. Keep at it and you'll land some larger fish, it takes time and practice! I catch a lot of large fish on zoom brush hog's and weightless 8-10 inch ribbon tail worms for whatever reason.

License while salmon fishing.... i was fishing for some Steelies up in the creeks of lake Michigan, and I had just landed a nice one that i was going to keep and cook up. DNR walks over and checks if it was foul hooked (it wasn't) and asks for my license. I dig into my bag and pull out my license and he says you don't have a salmon stamp, this is just a Indiana FW standard issue. I had left my salmon stamped license at home.... Luckily he was a nice enough guy and ran my ID tags and sure enough, I was approved, we shared a laugh and he was on his way. Could have been a heck of a lot worse for me.

I left my drop shot set up at home thinking I didn't need it. I'll be sure to bring it out in case they are real picky that day. Thanks for the input!

Hello! I'm sure this topic has been posted before, but oh well. I recently went out to a little lake I haven't fished in years a few days back and absolutely killed the bass. Pulled out 2 5+ fish (which are toads where I'm from). Caught them on spook's, zoom brush hogs, and rattletraps. I head out to the same spot yesterday, and I can't get them to bite on any of the above mentioned lures. All of the conditions seemed to be the same, and I must had tied on 15 different lures before I figured out what they wanted. Weightless Zoom Trick worm reeled in slowly with a few soft twitches. Point of the thread is, what is your "go to" bait that seems to get strikes that might be a little out of the norm. A little trick you picked up that you bust out when the fish are extra picky.

Tourney trail rods are solid for the price point. Its worth the money, and Berkley shock rods are good too. i own one but I feel the Tourney Trail is a better value. You can pm me if you have any questions between the two.

Catch my PB. 2nd time out I landed a 8 pound bass which bested my 6 pd 4 oz PB. Was about to call it quits before the toad nailed my crankbait.

Pflueger spinning reels under $150, you can't beat em. I own the President, Supreme, and Supreme XT. They are all amazing for me and the techniques I use, and I plan on getting a Patriarch here soon enough. I've caught salmon, pike, walleye, and ofc LMB off a President and the drag is smooth and never catches for me. Great Price, Great reel.

stick baits, wacky rigged anything, cranks, and surprisingly enough i get a lot of action of small jerkbaits fished real slow. The lethargic fish must like that slow erratic action i guess. When all else fails and the weather is somewhat warm i'll tie on a spook or pop-r and hit the shallows.

Spend a little more and get a President. They are phenomenal reels and I love mine. Any Pflueger reel is a great bet vs. Competition under the $150 price point.

Indiana Resident as well, Shallow cranks/square bills have been my goto. Also, weightless trick works and senko's are starting to work as it's getting warmer.

I've been skunked a few times.... That's the worst. In all seriousness i've had good luck in this regard while fishing, the worst thing is I caught a nice treble to the shoulder from a friend's back cast.

only one way to find out! Just use something that has a lot of vibration or makes a lot of noise. Once you find a few fish in an area you can slow down and use a more finesse approach

Arbor is nice, that size seems excessive unless your going for thick braid. President is probably my favorite spinning reel of all time for the $$$. I've used it for every type of application and caught salmon and pike on it with no issues. Drag is smooth and it casts a mile. Only probably is I didn't buy them soon enough.

This. I own a President, a supreme, and supreme XT. They range from $60, $100, and $150. All are fantastic reels that I have used for nearly every application and I have yet to have ANY issues that a thorough cleaning couldn't handle. Once you get to the $150 price point a new level of reels open up for different vendors. Under $150 get a Pflueg and thank us later.

that is a toad!

Very disrespectful to do that, and quite tasteless. I come across this more when I am salmon fishing and it drives me nuts. Plenty of water to fish and you don't need to be in mine. I agree with whipping a treble hook at them should get the point across.

fenwick

Life. Girls. Booze. Baseball/Softball Eating Work All back seat to them bucketmouth beauties.