flyingmonkie

Right? And don't forget the additional work required to reset the drag when you go back out! I don't do either. I also fish 12 months/year, so might be different if I had winters off. Drag washers are a dime a dozen and take 15 seconds to change if they flatten out. As for tension knobs: it depends. All reels are different. The spool can/will wear a little divot in whatever material it is pressed up against... some materials hold up better than others. Again, if this becomes an issue, pretty easy to add a shim to correct for any loss of adjustability. IMO, I'd rather fix mechanical problems as they arise vs. lose a fish because I forgot to reset things.

MHF is too much rod IMO. I'd suggest either medium power or moderate action (or both). Spooling up with mono will help if you go on the stiffer side. 7' MHM with 10# mono is my go-to cranking setup.

Lake Fork Lures has a pretty good orange in their "Bluegill", "Fire Perch" and "Sun Perch" colors.

If my wife can have 37 different colors of shoes, I can have both black/blue AND junebug. I have spoken.

Pretty solid granola bar technique. Raise your hand if you know how hard it is to yell "NET, NET, NET!" with a fat bite of PB&J.

I spend way too much time on YouTube. Hunter Shryocks "27" series is AMAZING! His newer "24/7" stuff is good too, but "27" chronicles his 2017 season of the Bassmaster Opens that ultimately qualified him for the Elite Series (He had 27 days of open competition to qualify for Classic/Elites). Palaniuk's videos are also at the top of my list. Not Bass/FLW, but if you're into kayak tournaments, Greg Blanchard has a great channel. Jon Boat tournaments? Check out SBFISHINGTV.

I'd ditch the Carolina keepers in favor of two or three bobber-stoppers. Easier on the line.

Light/finesse cranking... I'm thinking early season stuff like shad-raps, flat-siders, small-bodied medium depth plugs. I usually throw on a medium-heavy spinning setup to get better casting distance and use lighter line; with a good reel, you could accomplish the same thing with this rod. I grind my WWs pretty good and personally like a MH/M for that.

I see what you did there...

☝️

Another TNF fan club member here! @Paul Roberts is the Bob Ross of bass fishing.

I mean... those guys know their stuff. Fury is hard to beat bang-for-buck on the heavier end, but I'd take TB's word for it on the ML.

Another vote for their square bills - best bang for the buck on the market.

Damiki rig?

There it is! The ol' Jigger Pole vid - was about to go look for it myself.