HPfishin

I'm pretty cheap with rods myself because I don't want to get totally hung out to dry if my dumb self manages to break it just putting it in the truck or something, but I'm a huge fan of Falcon, I think I'm going to start spending a little more for their rods every time. They are made in the USA and they are super lightweight and strong and sensitive, check out the buccoo series!

I'm a huge Shimano fan but if you want a reel as nice as a Stradic that won't cost you as much then try to find a Diawa Tierra, you can find them for about 110-125 now and they are my favorite spinning reel ever, silky smooth drag and great power, I've got two of them and I'm not even sure how I pieced together 125 dollars to buy them one at a time but I did because I knew they would be worth it. Three years later, still worth it!

I'm a big fan of the cheaper Abu rods, I'm sure some old guy with a budget ten times mine would run them down but trust me, Vengeance and Vendetta rods are super cheap at Walmart and they are awesome. Take care of them and they will take care of you. As far as reels go, I highly highly recommend the Diawa Tierra 2500 if you can find one anywhere, it's the reel that got me hooked on high quality fishing tackle. Smoothest drag on any spinning reel I've ever fished. I've got two of them, fished 19.5 hours this weekend and a Tierra was in my hand for 15 of them at least!

I have bought two Vendetta's for 29.97 at walmart in the past month, and yeah they have Buccoos here too but they're 90something, walmart's not that dumb here in NC yet I suppose. The Vendettas aren't the best deal I've gotten at walmart either. Two months ago I found a monster 1 dollar clearance fishing section set up randomly in walmart at the end of a totally random aisle, I couldn't believe my eyes when I looked at what was on that one little display. Hundreds of packs of trokar hooks, vmc spinshot and weedless wacky hooks, tungsten weights, diachi hooks, owner twist lock hooks, soft body frog hooks, Berkely fireline! Let me tell you I racked up biiigggggg time. I am stocked up with enough Trokar wide gaps and worm hooks in three or four different sizes to fish until Jesus comes back.

I'm a 100% real country music guy, my truck has a cassette player so that I can listen to my original George Straits and Alabamas, but my fishing music is a complete 180 from that. Favorite fishing song is definitely Intro by The XX, when I'm by myself anyways. Last summer I really liked Sail by AWOLNATION, Paradise by Coldplay, and Radioactive by Imagine Dragons, they get me focused and in the zone. Crazy but it helps me image myself making the perfect cast and setting the hook on a monster every time.

skeet reese 6'8 jerkbait/topwater rod, shimano curado e50, 8lb vicious pro elite fluoro, luckycraft pointer 78sp. wore them out on it too! wouldn't recommend the vicious in 8lb though, I found out it gets frayed very easily, I guess I will stick to seagaur or stren fluorocast for anything under 10 lb test

I have never had much confidence in a jerkbait until Tuesday, I got the chance to go to a lake in Raleigh, NC that is known for having some good size bass and I can tell you we absolutely smoked them on jerkbaits. I tried several of my Rapalas and an Xcalibur but I ended up borrowing a Lucky Craft because they actually work better, I was doubtful at first. The key is having a good setup, I was using my Curado E50 on a Skeet Reese jerkbait rod with 8lb Vicious flouro, I could make super long casts for such a light bait and a strong twitch (ON SLACK LINE) could make the bait turn a complete 360 and hook the line with the back hook, it was crazy. I definitely recommend jerkbait fishing this time of year, we saw water all the way from 50 to 60 degrees through the course of the day.

if you find a curado for around the 100 dollar mark you had better jump on it

football jigs and chatterbaits

so, you guys with experience fishing the chatterbait, would you recommend black/blue for stained water? because my only chatterbaits are white or white/chart but I'm looking to start fishing them a lot more in the next few months

got to be spinnerbaits, crankbaits, and jerkbaits for me. I have a sweet jerkbait setup too, great action and casting, but I struck out hard with them this year, probably because of the muddy water but oh well