MIbassyaker

I'm a pretty cultured person, but I must admit, a coherent interpretation of this particular piece of performance art is eluding me.

That's exactly what I thought when I saw it -- "where am I going to put a thing like that?"

Beautiful rods, aren't they. Even more so in the sunlight. I also love the rubberized cork grip. Mine came thursday (7'2" MH-XF), ordered late Monday night. It's my second Aetos; I got another from FFO last winter. I got a size 90 whopper plopper in bluegill a couple weeks ago and got to try it yesterday morning -- I thought it worked just fine. Actually, I was impressed at how well it could be "popped" in place, and how slow it could be retrieved with the tail going. I'm definitely going to get a 130 as well, but so far I haven't experienced the problems others have reported about the 90.

I thought of that too, but decided It was worth the extra $20 at most to get a model I wanted right away and avoid a 4 month wait. Ordered the 7'2" MH-XF caster monday night, supposed to show up Thursday.

Well, I can tell you there's one less as of 3 minutes ago...

I don't worry about the visibility of faded braid at all. When I worry about line visibility (and I usually don't, even in clear water), I put on a leader (and I usually don't). 90+% of the time of the time I'm fishing in and around vegetation. Bass that live in vegetation spend their lives hunting food surrounded by greenish-brownish-whitish-blackish tendrils, leaves, stalks, whorls, and fibers that look....basically exactly like faded braided line. I simply can see no rational basis for concern about line shyness in this sort of environment. Maybe hi vis braid is different, maybe clear water without vegetation is different, I don't know. But otherwise, I can't avoid the thought that if this "tip" is not just a superstition, it does an awfully good impression of one.

!!!!!!!! OK, BR horde, help me out -- which model do I want for a frog rod? 1) 7'0" MH-F, lure 3/8-1, line 10-17, 4.27oz 2) 7'0" MH-XF, lure 1/4-1, line 12-20, 4.3oz 3) 7'2" MH-XF, lure 1/4-1, line 12-20, 4.73oz 4) 7'6" H-XF, lure 3/8-1, line 12-30, 4.8oz leaning toward 2 or 3...what say you?

I'm having a hard time processing the question. Are the most successful kinds of topwater lures in the history of bass fishing necessary? Well, technically no I suppose. I can't imagine why you wouldn't want a few anyway.

x3 on the baby brush hog. but just about any kind of worm or creature is a good choice. For an eye-opening exercise, try to think of a plastic you would not use on a mojo, and then tie one on anyway and see what happens...

I use a 3/0 with the 5" ones. Yup, best type of hook for a fluke that I've found.

I prefer to catch a lot of big fish (a thing that doesn't happen with any regularity). Failing that, I prefer to catch a few big fish along with a lot of smaller ones. Failing that, I prefer to catch just a few bigger fish over more fish that are all small ones. Failing that, I prefer to catch a lot of little ones over just a few little ones. Failing that, I prefer to catch just a few little ones over nothing. Failing that, I prefer to be out on the water anyway instead of staying home.

I think the only japanese topwater I have is megabass pop max I grabbed from DSG earler this summer on a 2 for 30 deal...I'm generally skeptical that most hardbaits over $10 have much advantage over other things i can get for 10 or less, but these are the bomb. Only problem is I'm afraid of throwing them where there are a lot of pike, which unfortunately is most of the places I fish... Ah, now that's exactly what I needed to hear!

I pinch down barbs regularly for exactly the reasons mentioned, and I don't believe I lose more fish in the end because of it. It's possible I lose some I would have landed otherwise because the hook slides out more easily without a barb. But faster unhooking means more casts, and more casts means more bites, and more bites means more hookups. Additionally no barb means less diameter to penetrate to the bend, making hooksets more reliable, as well as potentially a smaller hole in the mouth sometimes. I am convinced these advantages, if anything result in a net increase in the total number of fish I land, easily offsetting any fish I might lose by a barbless hook falling out...which can be minimized anyway with careful play and proper drag setting.

Generally: bulk, vibration, noise, bright/dark contrasting colors Specifically: Bladed jig, colorado blade spinnerbaits, noisy topwaters, rattling crankbaits, bulky jig+trailer, big worms, ribbontail, curly tail and paddletail plastics; Blacks, blues, purples, reds, oranges, yellows, gold, chartreuse Fish slow and close to cover or close to the bottom.

I thought I'd buy a boat sooner or later. Then I started kayaking semi-regularly. Then I started bringing a rod with me when I saw somebody else fishing out of a kayak. Then I bought another kayak specifically for fishing. And all of a sudden, I found I didn't need or want a boat any more... Pair of 3s this morning:

The size 30 LE is .5 oz lighter and has 5 inches greater per turn retrieve rate than the size 30 president. That is, the LE is slightly lighter and faster...is that along with the aesthetic differences worth an extra $20? Only you can answer that for yourself. But either reel, you're making a good choice.

Outlet Bait and Tackle order. Did not need; bought anyway:

4"-5" straight tailed worm: Creme scoundrel or charlie brewer slider worm But my favorite overall worm that size is actually a curly tail, rather than a straight tail: 4" berkley power worm:

What you're feeling is not line stretch, just too much slack. You're leaving yourself too much to pull through the water, and It's the water resistance on all that line that makes it feel like stretch. You don't need a much slack at all to twitch a fluke effectively.

I would be looking for BPS house brand stuff or exclusives, which will make $30 go a little longer way. To me, heat = worms fished slowly. BPS 7" ribbontail worms come 16 in a pack for 3.50. I would also get BPS stick-os rather than senkos if I was looking for a stick worm. BPS also carries cylindrical finesse weights for mojo rigs that can be otherwise kind of hard to find. I'm probably not going to fish a crankbait at all for at least another month, but if I was heading to BPS, I might grab one or two of their exclusive rattling KVD 1.5 squarebills while I was there.

You can thread a hollow bodied tube on a jig head the same way; it doesn't need to be solid bodied. I put hollow bodied tubes on VMC rugby jig heads sometimes, with the head outside the tube. There is also the GYCB Fat Ika, which is a fat solid body with tentacl, although that's usually fished tentacles forward weightless on an EWG hook. Also the Z-man hula stickz has a solid thin 4" worm body with smaller tentacles at the end, which people fish on mushroom heads all the time. Another thing you could do if you wanted is take a double tailed hula grub and cut the curly tails off; you'd be left with a solid cylindrical body like the fat ika with tentacles on one end.

Another fan of the super spook jr here -- it's one of those "just right" baits on performance vs. price. The Sebile Flat Belly walker is also pretty inexpensive and both sizes walk well. The sebile does sit funny though, as mentioned above, and thus gets fouled with weeds a little more often than the spooks if you've got vegetation just under the surface.

Decent one this morning, 19", 3.92lb, plasmatail on a shakyhead: EDIT: Actually, now that I look more closely, I think it's the same fish as this one, from June: If so, in a month it has gained 4oz and moved north about 1500 feet along the same shoreline, but a little deeper; the fish was in good shape and I couldn't even tell it had been caught before.

Now that is an interesting answer, and one I haven't heard before or thought of.