Steveo-1969

I fish a lot of bottom contact baits as well and experience exactly the same thing. The elbow of the arm holding the rod gets very sore. Fortunately I usually have a week to rest between fishing trips and the soreness goes away. If I fish every day on a vacation I will switch between a baitcaster (hold with left arm) and a spinning rod (hold with right arm) to give each elbow a little rest.

That song contains my all-time favorite Jim Morrison lyric: "No eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn"

My favorite too! I have the Doors logo tattooed on my right forearm. My 12-year old grandson heard "Hyacinth House" the other day and thought it sounded pretty weird. I think he's weird...... For something different sounding for your girlfriend how about Type O Negative's October Rust album?

Same for me. I wanted to turn the handle to close the bail just like I saw on the fishing shows I watched! But it was too hard so I learned to close it by hand. I was very disappointed that I couldn't close it the right way! Years later I saw someone give a tutorial on how to close the bail by hand, tug on the line to remove any possible loops, and let the line bounce off your extended index finger when you start the retrieve. Now all of these things are automatic.

I used to backreel in my teenage years because the couple spinning reels I had were so cheap the drags didn't work at all. I backreeled when fighting fish and got really good at it. Now-a-days I don't backreel when fighting fish, I set the drag and let it do it's job. But I still won't buy a reel without an AR switch. I want the ability to back the line up when my bait is too close to the rod tip or when I have weeds or something on my bait and I need to clean it off. I don't want to get used to not having an AR switch.

"IKE-Approved"

I use an appropriate-size Owner Twistlock Light hook and a pegged bullet weight.

Type O Negative is my favorite metal band. Would this be "Goth Metal"? RIP Peter...

I use the same rods/reels for LMB and SMB. I choose a rod/reel based on presentation and lure weight, not fish species. Are you fishing in a creek? A river? A lake? What size SMB can you expect to catch? Spinning - I don't see the need to spend a lot on the reel. I have a Shimano Stradic CI4+ that retails for $230 and it's nice, but I'm also using an Abu Garcia Elite Max that cost $70 on another rod and am very happy with it. Shimano and Daiwa are the most popular reel brands. Choose one in your budget and you should be happy. I always spend more on the rod. Lots of great choices in the mid-$100 range to keep your total combo at $200. Casting - for me it would be more difficult to keep a rod/reel combo under $200. But Shimano and Daiwa are also the most popular casting reel brands and they each have a casting reel option for about $100 which would leave you with $100 for a rod.

You joined Bass Resource on Tuesday (3 days ago), made the above post and didn't get any replies. So now you re-posted the exact same thing again? Well here's my reply: If you really have 40 years experience fishing with spinning rods you should have known by looking at a picture of the reel seat that it was going to be uncomfortable for you to fish with. I bought a spinning rod last year and any rods that had exposed threads above the reel were automatically rejected, including the BPS Patriot rod you are whining about. I was surprised to see your location as Chicago because you sound like a Packer fan.......

What's your budget for each combo?

We use swingheads a lot on the ledges. I really like the Strike King Jointed Structure Head with a Strike King Rage Bug on it (they were originally called Rage "Structure" Bugs and were made for this head). Another creature that does well for us is the 4.4" Keitech Crazy Flapper.

I do not own a boat or canoe or kayak and wade fishing is my jam! 12 months out of the year if the water level in my local river is safe for wading, then I'm wading. The rest of the time I'm shorefishing. In warmer water I wear shorts and tennis shoes. In colder water I have breathable stocking foot waders with wading boots. I only carry one rod, either a baitcaster or a spinning rod depending on my mood. I carry my tackle in a small over-the-shoulder tackle bag.

In a later post the OP mentioned he caught it in an Eastern Massachusetts reservoir. And he promised to learn how to take better pics and selfies in the future! ?

Good points Tom! With that being said, I agree with the guess of smallmouth.....

I get it! Eastern time zone here and I've already had 3 cups......

Ummm 5/16 is MORE than 1/4..... ?

Jig weight only considers the jig head, not the hook, skirt and trailer. I would guess if you put your 5/16 or 1/4 ounce jigs on a scale they would weigh more than 3/8 ounce.

Really? This thread was from 2011-12 and the Ned Rig wasn't called the Ned Rig yet.

I met Mr. Uhrig at a sports show about 5 years ago, introduced myself as a Bass Resource member and was asking him about his crawfish scented Megastrike. He gave me a BOGO free deal and we ended up talking for 30 minutes about fishing. He even name dropped Roland Martin and showed me a picture of a giant bass he caught a couple months before while taping an episode of Roland's show. Great guy!

Last week I dropped my Costa 580G glasses in a river and they sunk and were swept away before I could grab them. I cried. I just ordered a pair of Solar Bat Floating Bat 1 glasses, should have them by next week.

I haven't seen any line fraying at all and I've only respooled once in the past year because the amount of line on the spool was low. I check my line constantly while fishing as my river is rocky and snaggy, but haven't noticed any fraying. And it's fairly abrasion resistant. Certainly not any worse than the 10 other fluorocarbon or nylon lines I've tried over the years.

If I could only use one line my vote would also be Sufix Advance Monofilament. I've been using 10# on a baitcaster for the past year and the hype is real. It handles like a soft mono but is more sensitive than any monofilament I've tried and has significantly less stretch. This line replaced 10# fluorocarbon on this (mainly) bottom contact rod and I haven't given up any sensitivity.

I am no expert on Kentucky Lake but we used to spend a week there every summer. There will be some bass near shore all summer long but the majority will be out on the ledges so that's where you need to fish. I don't own a boat and would rent one from the resort. The only electronics we had were very basic depth finders that showed temp and the depth under the boat (no electronic maps, no waypoints, no side scanning, no 360 scanning, no live views, etc.). And in the small rental boat we couldn't go very far so we fished a very small portion of the 160,000 acres. We would drive straight out until we found a ledge and drift along however the current or wind would push us, always fishing within a cast length of the ledge. Then we'd reposition the boat when we drifted too far from the ledge. When we caught a fish we would throw out a buoy to mark where we caught it then we could drift that section of ledge again. We had a paper map instead of an electronic map and that helped a bunch. This is a far cry from what most of the anglers on the lake were doing with their hi-tech electronics. We were fishing the ledges. They were fishing the fish!! But by fishing on/near the ledges we always lucked into some fish and through the years caught some really nice bass too.

@Lane44 Look a couple posts up to the post from Delaware Valley Tackle ^^^^^^ @Delaware Valley Tackle is a sponsor here and a rod builder. He built a custom baitcaster for me a couple years ago and I was super happy with the whole process of discussing the project with Mike and the final product!!