Washout

The vendettas are nice rods, light and sensitive. I don't know of a finer rod in the price range. The veritas are nice as well, but that's a different price range. If you can afford one, I don't think you can go wrong.

For pond fishing, I'd have Craws, trick worms, fat alberts, a beaver tail and shaky tails. Based on the weather here in the midwest it was more of where I put it than what I put out there. Fishing into the wind and preferrably when the wind was out of the south. Try a variety of retrieves and speeds. I got more bites fishing moderately fast than I thought was likely given the temps.

I had big plans on working on mine as well, but if wanted to fish worse than I wanted to turn wrenches!

I've got a new (used) one that I'm itching to get wet, just haven't had the weather for it yet. Enjoy it, I've had good times on one!

4lb7oz?

Went to Jim Edgar Saturday for the whole day. Not a single bite on any of the lakes. I marked fish in 35' of water holding just off the bottom, but nothing I had made them want to bat an eye. Tried drop shooting a 3" minnow, tried swimming some worms just off the bottom, a z-drop, and even vertically jigged for them. Nothing... Went to a pond on site and caught a 3 pounder, so I didn't go home with nothing. I did get better at "feeling" some crank baits while I was at it. I'd say I ruled out about fifteen to twenty ways of catching fish in ice out conditions. The other highlight was, I was the only one out, so I had my own personal lakes for the day.

I raced dirt track modifieds and late models. Almost anything is cheaper than that, except for having a kid. That kind of changes everything and totally rearranged what I thought life was about. I want to do right by him, and if he wants to do the same, I'll support it as much as I can. We still hit the grandstands every Saturday night in the summer. I don't miss working 100 hour workweeks to make the racing possible, but I do miss the adrenaline buzz.

As for a first setup in specific, a medium action, fast tip 6'6" or 7' paired with a cardinal 30 or a Mitchell reel for boat fishing or a 6' medium same reel for shore fishing. The overhead limbs and bushes can make a six footer difficult to wield sometimes. I too would cheapen up on the rods/reels to make bait more bait purchases. The Berkley lightning or clearance items at WM make good equipment budget friendly if you are willing to work for the bargains. I have less than $60 my spinning outfits (minus the line) except one. I didn't get them all at once and I probably worked way too hard on buying them clearanced out.

Network with people that are smarter than you. By being on this site, you are ahead of the curve. If it's possible, meet up with people that are like-minded and have different techniques than you. Watch videos, read books and use the search function right here. Another great way to learn is to stay on the water as much as you can and perhaps watch someone scouting a lake before a tournament. If they see you catching fish, their interest is peaked, you are likely to swap information. I've never ran into someone that didn't love to talk fishing. I'll often ask about a different lake that I can't figure out to see what they say. If you are new and under budget constraints you may be able to get used equipment this way as well. The more people you have a relationship with, the better. The best way I've found to do that is keep a line wet. It's a constant education and more brains in the mix always speeds up a learning curve, especially when it takes you out of your comfort zone.

I've been out the last two days and zoom z-hogs and 4" dead ringers have been useful. I was just happy to get something that had waves on it, ice fishing ain't fishing to me. I got bored yesterday and was reeling back in to change baits, got bit. I fished a little faster and had two in the next 15 minutes. Nothing over 2 lb, but I was surprised at how fast I could get bites.

I use snap swivels sometimes. Not very often. They do junk up fast. I try to crank through schools and I am willing to miss some fish for the ability to change baits quickly. I'm not smart enough to know any better. I think our water clairty has a large bearing on my decision to do that. It's more about finding a cadence and a wobble for me. If I go to bigger baits, I always tie direct.

My wife is the one that found the boat we bought. She's also the one that finds excellent deals on my favorite baits. Sometimes she even gets the colors right. She was right beside me today fishing in 34 degree temps with 30 mph winds.

Thanks for the greetings!

Between Rangerphil and jhoffman, I'll try the timber this year. Any tricks to not snagging it in the timber when you kill it? How long/far do you let it fall? Worst case scenario, I replace them with something besides spinners I guess.

I'm a lurker that joined to pass on what little information I know to give back a small portion of what I've taken from here. About me. I'm a guy that grew up driving my grandpa crazy when he was catfishing. I'd constantly cast and reel, he told me we were going bass fishing! We did and I loved it at first bite. Grew up and gave up for more expensive hobbies and have came back to fishing again. My wife found a cheap Jon boat and we have pounded the waters around ever since. Spring, summer, fall and early winter. We were fishing until freeze over in 30 degree temps and in the snow. I'm kind of proud of my equipment. I have a 15 narrow boat with a 1959 Golden Jubilee 5.5 horse engine that is solid as a brick. It's got a nearly new 45 lb Minn Kota and I added the electronics myself. All told there's only $1,400 int the whole kit'n kaboodle. I just picked up a nice plastic two man for a bill and plan on using it on the waters we can't have gasser on. It's not like it would make sense for me to go bigger or fancier anyway. The closest lake with no hp limit is an hour away from us in one of two different directions. Almost everything close is a 10 horse limit. The rest are electric only. My "A-Game" of fishing is soft baits shallow and in the thick stuff. I am getting better at topwaters, cranks and wacky rigs. I suppose the important reason I'm here, I kind of alluded to already. My grandpa was a great man. He took everyone fishing that had one good ear. He loved to talk. (Wonder if I get that for him) He loved to help people out. I would love to be remembered the way I remember him when I go. So I'm here to learn everything I can and get my little one into it as well and help everyone I can in the process.

1. Jointed ShadRap In Chrome/blue 2. Zara Spook 3. G-tail Zoom in junebug. 4. Z-drop junebug. 5. ShadRap RS in firetiger. In the spring, our water is like creamed coffee. It's really hard to balance a wobble with a feel. The pauses are so boring, but necessary. I wouldn't know what to do with clear water. Post-spawn is considerably easier when our waters clear up to just muddy or stained/muddy on the deeper lakes.

I've never had a trailer hook on one, but I've not even been swiped at with one. You just named a good day fishing (for me) and where I'm fishing Texas rigs, I'll turn around and throw one climbing the point. When that doesn't work, I'll move and slide it down the bank. With the wind, into the wind, fan casting, doing what I've been told is slow rolling one, burning one everything in between. But I do hedge my bets with the weather. My perfect day is good barometer drops, pre-storm with mostly cloudy skies and into 10-20 mph winds. I end up tossing out Texas Rigs and craw dads, beaver tails, or a spook depending on where I'm at on the lake. I do decent with deep diving cranks too. I'm pretty new to the lipless cranks, but I am not discouraged with them. I know they work. Hard to concentrate that much on one, but I'm sure that's all in practice.

I see tons of people throwing them around me. I even see people hook up with them, but I can't make one work. I've even went out and added some more to the box to match what I saw. Still don't know what to do with one. I think I fish them too slow rather than too fast. But I've varied speeds and even tried cadences with one. I'd say I've fished it enough to know at least fifty ways to NOT make one work. I'll still play with it some more and see what comes of it. Another year of frustration and I'll just make more room for other things.

I use my box for hard baits and tools and use the smaller boxes for terminal tackle. I keep my most popular plastic in a binder and the remainder of them are tagged and organized in pencil boxes from the dollar store and loaded into a gym bag. Everything is to a varying degree of anal retentive priority. I break out wide gaps and t-rig stuff into three different boxes. One for a shore bag, one for the boat and one that is constantly stocked to refill the other two. I know when the "feeder" box is low, it's time to order up. Almost everything else is fed from the same system but hard baits. I keep the house clutter to a minimum by shelving stuff and dispersing it into the tackle boxes. I try to sort of replicate how bps displays their stuff, except mine are on shelves instead of on a wall. It's easier to copy their system than it is to reinvent the wheel. I'm sure they have more people on staff on how to organize stuff than I do. I also try really hard to stay as compact as I can with my most popular items and use the bigger trays and boxes for the lesser used stuff. I'm more likely to spill the stuff I mess with all the time by getting in a hurry than I am on things like crank baits which don't generally rush me like redoing a c-rig or a drop shot.

Swim jigs, spinnerbaits. Even tie for me. Zero success despite all my efforts.

$5 soft bait (and that's rare!) and $10 hard baits with some rare exceptions. I'd rather spend my money on launch fees and gas to get somewhere new. I don't have a problem with what anybody else spends on their stuff. I fish the clearance bins as hard as I do the water.

Good catch on that bucoo!

I sure don't want to spend $50 I don't have to for the same piece.

I love mine and thought others would like to have some decent rods on a Berkley budget. Just look for the sticker on the tag otherwise some people may accuse you of stealing.

I don't even own a next gen vendetta. What I had them correct was the first gens. There were four identical rods with three different prices on them. One had just a price tag, one had the corrected SKU and the other scanned 79. Would you not wonder what the heck was up? This particular wal mart is my local one that had them so screwed up, I've seen several others that had them at 29 and 79 for the same rods that's why you have to earn some of the deals. Sorry I brought it up. Welcome to bassresource huh?