MIbassyaker

Because the Ned Rig is the essence of finesse, the "finessence", if you will...

I fish salted finesse worms on shaky heads and other jigheads all the time with success and never worry about them not floating. They don't have to float to catch fish.

The spinning rod I mentioned above is used mostly for weightless plastics, especially wacky worms and texas rigged stickbaits and flukes. Shaky heads and tubes/grubs work well with it too. I also have a 6'4" M-XF casting rod I use for topwater poppers, propbaits, and walking baits around 1/2oz, as well as jerkbaits.

Spinning: St. Croix Avid X 6'8" M-XF + Pflueger Supreme XT 30 Casting: Fenwick Elite Tech Smallmouth 6'10' MH-MF + Lew's Tournament MB Speed Spool LFS 7.5:1

I think it's one of the best books I own, although 120 seems absurd unless you're a collector. I have seen used copies go for 20-50 occasionally if you look around for a while. It is the definitive overview of bass physiology, and evidence of perceptual abilities and preferences. Some people think it's overrated because it doesn't get into fishing techniques specifically. And the perspective is primarily experimental, from tank studies, rather than ecological, from observations in natural environments. There's also the issue that the data reported in the book contradict some well-worn myths, which many long-time myth-holders don't particularly like to hear. I think so. It covers both kayak basics and bass fishing basics, with his personal tips and recommendations and an emphasis on gear and technique. Chad is pretty good in the book about separating the objective from the subjective, breaking down pros and cons, and then telling you how he prefers to do things and why. The book is already 7 years old, and although it's not out of date, given the explosion and advancement of kayak fishing over the last few years, I wonder if he'll eventually do a revised and expanded edition.

The current state of my home "Bass Shelf":

Small waters, no trolling motor, a stealthy craft, and a preference for being thorough -- all the incentives align toward fishing slow for me. If that's what finesse is, then that's what I tend to do, regardless of how heavy the tackle is.

I never got into chatterbaits until this last year. I had gotten it into my head that they were primarily a stained/murky water bait, and I fish mostly reasonably clear water. When I started really giving them a chance, I discovered bass (also pike and bowfin) have no problem hammering them in clear water too, warm or cold, sunny or cloudy, any time of day. I use flukes as trailers most of the time.

The FHABAQ214 code hasn't worked for me on any sales since the memorial day one last spring, although I did get it to work on a non-sale order in October. I didn't think of it this time, or I would have tried again. Oh well. It's hard to complain about not getting a free $5.

Love it. "Kayak: The stickbait of watercrafts"

With the LC RTO and KJ flat discounts, and the extra 10% on strike king, it's a good year for squarebills...

TW sale is live. FYI, Some of the excluded brands (pflueger, st. croix, Lucky craft)) are showing up with the discount once you put them in your cart and click to proceed to checkout.

and I was able to order a bunch of things two days ago, also at 20% off from Susquehanna fishing tackle, that would have gone into my TW cart today. I discovered I didn't have to wait....so I didn't.

Things will go out of stock, but it depends somewhat on whether you're looking for high-demand stuff. Things that are already on sale may or may not get snatched up quickly, but if they were really high demand, they probably would have sold out already. But the sale wont' go live until friday morning pacific time at some point. I'm on Eastern, so that translates to about 12-1pm or thereabouts for me. Last year the site got overloaded almost immediately once the sale was posted. You can also check Monster fishing tackle or Susquehanna fishing tackle to see if they have what you want. They also have 20% sales over the weekend, and both are already live.

Susquehanna fishing tackle has 20% off most items online through monday. Sale went live yesterday.

I couldn't resist -- I got one too, the 6'8" MH-F.

I like to bookmark the detailed rod and reel reviews I see around here for future reference. Here is a good one for an Ike spinning rod by fishballer06:

American Legacy Fishing has original tatula for that price. I have fairly small hands, and while the original tatula is bigger than my other reels, it is most certainly not too large for me to palm comfortably. I would say instead that it "fills" and "fits" the hand well; doesn't feel awkward to me at all.

I regularly use a 6'0" ML berkley lightning rod with a size 25 Pflueger president as my main Ned rig rod (braid+leader), and a 6'0" M Pflueger Trion combo (size 30) with 6-8lb mono for small crankbaits, jerkbaits, and topwaters. They are perfect for these applications. The Pflueger size 25 is similar to a Shimano 1000 size and the 30 is similar to 2500.

I also had to send a rod back to FFO for a cracked guide insert, although I saw it before I used it after having it only a couple days. They sent me a fed ex label to send it back, and I got a replacement a week later. So I had about as good an experience as possible with their return policy, but definitely check any rod you order closely when it arrives.

I can't disagree with that.

I am skeptical of many claims about bass attractant products, but there is no inherent reason why something that attracts or makes fish hold on longer would have to smell like anything to you. Your olfactory system is capable of detecting certain varieties of airborne chemicals. A bass olfactory system detects varieties of chemicals dissolved in water,. We don't know for sure the full range of olfaction sensitivity in either humans or bass, but there isn't any guarantee of complete overlap between the two.

I like jigs with any variety of black, green and/or brown (including pumpkins, ambers, whiskeys, watermelons, etc), sometimes with with highlights of purple, orange, and/or chartreuse. Oddly, I don't have nearly as much success with black/blue as most people.

mostly 3/8, some 1/4 and 1/2. But I feel like I could go all 3/8oz and just exchange trailers to adjust action and fall rate, and not lose much.