MIbassyaker

My 6'6" MF St. Croix Premier can do all of these pretty well.

To be honest, I can't think of any baits that (1) I have spent a lot of time trying, but (2) I haven't successfully caught fish on. There are some things I haven't tried very much (wakebaits, neko rig, hard swimbaits). There are also some things that don't seem to work for me quite as well as other people -- lipless crankbaits come to mind. I catch fish here and there, but I'm not anywhere near as successful as their reputation suggests I should be. A few years ago I could have named several lures that don't produce for me: chatterbaits, buzzbaits, drop shot, paddletail swimbaits...but with some perseverance, I've gotten the hang of them and some have become real confidence baits. For instance, I now find it hard to put buzzbaits down, even when I'm not catching anything.

Whaaaaat....?! Cast--> feel tap--> set hook--> reel in fish!

Please tell me you ran back inside for a rod and a jerkbait immediately after taking this picture...

Relax. Tackle collection is a lifelong hobby, but unnecessary if your goal is just to be an effective angler. There is no such thing as being "way behind". Master a handful of techniques to cover the top, middle and bottom of the water column, buy replacement baits when you need to, expand your arsenal when you can.

I've been using the Gamakatsu g-finesse wacky jigheads. Actually on sale right now at TW for the Classic.

Eh. One top 10, one top 20, and three who missed the cut.

6'10" MH-MF, 15lb big game 7'5" MH-F, 15lb big game

Depends on the type(s) of grass, the density, and time of year. A few common situations: 1. Any short-range target-based flipping situation to specific targets (technically, I pitch rather than "flip") -- holes in slop, edges of arrowheads, mixed weeds and wood -- a texas rigged worm, creature, or craw will do the job: A great all-arounder, any time of year. I like lizards and worms if the cover is light to moderately-thick, or a compact creature like a Beaver, Berkley Pit-Boss, Missile D-Bomb, Biospawn Vilecraw, Gambler burner craw, or similar on a pegged t-rig if it's pretty thick. A wacky rig is a good option for pitching to targets when the cover is pretty light, especially early in the season. 2. Shallow (under 5 feet) flats with scattered, submerged weeds are a good situation for a "mojo" or split shot rig -- a finesse version of the carolina rig with a light (1/8oz) weight ahead of a bobber stop set 18" in front of a worm or creature. This is a horizontal finesse presentation: cast and drag with spinning gear to cover an area. Great in spring around spawning flats where new vegetation is starting to come up, and also effective in summer where there is shallow vegetation below the surface. Having the weight a foot or more ahead gives the bait a weightless look, but at depth. Rather than peg the weight, I like to let it slide freely above the stop (e.g., a "slip-shot" rig). This permits the line to be pulled through the weight when the fish strikes, and I feel it improves strike detection...which is important, because this presentation is vulnerable to gut-hooking. A mojo-style rig can be problematic if weeds are too thick, where separated weight and bait can get tangled in vegetation in two different spots at the same time. If mixed subsurface vegetation is a little thick for a slip-shot, A 4" paddletail swimbait rigged on a belly-weighted swimbait hook can do the job nicely, as long as bass are willing to chase down something moving. 3. Cabbage beds on flats or drop-offs, as in the picture above, get a texas rig or jigworm. This is more of a summer pattern. Pure cabbage is brittle enough to use an open hook jigworm presentation (think Ned rig, but with a worm of any size) where you get strikes from ripping out of the weeds when the hook catches. I use this when I can get away with it. But these days, cabbage in many places is mixed with invasives that are harder to rip out with an open hook, so I use the the Owner ultrahead finesse ball heads which permit weedless rigging. Another option for cabbage beds is a weighted wacky rig --cast, let fall, twich it up, let fall, etc. A couple lakes I fish have these big 8'-15' deep cabbage flats where just casting out a weighted wacky worm and letting it fall vertically between the cabbage stalks is more productive than anything, and some days almost feels like cheating. 4. Lily pads have a couple options: I'll flip a t-rigged creature or worm into open areas, or run a t-rigged plastic across the top. cast, drag slowly from pad to pad, let it fall into water in gaps between pads. Any plastic body can be fished as topwater in this manner, from a craw to a stickworm. Actually, stickworms like a senko are very effective as topwaters. But my recent favorite is the Zoom Ultravibe Speed Worm, which seems made for this sort of thing: a light bullet weight pegged in front of the worm, texas rigged. The weight is light enough to drag on top of pads, but will pull the worm down into openings as you drag it into a gap, and the tail waggles like crazy whether dragged on top or falling through the water column.

Buzzbait on the middle rod? I admire your optimism.

I think the only one I have in bluegill is a Strike King Red-Eye Shad. I wouldn't call it a "go-to", but I've caught fish on it in the spring.

Did a little scouting this week during our warm spell to a few little lakes that usually warm quickly -- still mostly covered except right on the bank. Walked the riverbank for an hour and a half where it wasn't too muddy and made some casts with a hair jig, a little keitech swing impact, and a SK rodent on a shakyhead. Lost the hair jig, had what looked like a little walleye follow the keitech up shallow, but no strikes. Still pretty early for bass here.

Mepps is a high-quality spinner, and the silver blades are actual silver, not nickel, meaning they flash much more brightly. The shallow-running Mepps Aglia and slightly-deeper running Comet and Black Fury are dynamite bass lures in sizes 3, 4 and 5 for both largemouth and smallmouth. They will catch many other species as well.

I've been fishing since I was seven, and I remember the first time vividly: Dad took me down to the river to fish nightcrawlers under a bobber. He caught a little channel cat, and I hooked a bigger one that got away right at the shoreline. It was still very exciting, and I was hooked. From then on I fished the river many times every summer growing up. We didn't fish for bass, but caught almost everything else swimming around in there: channel cats, rock bass, walleye, sauger, goldeye, suckers, drum, and occasionally pike on live frogs.

Your request is pretty specific. I would suggest just buying a few single-spins of the weights you like and experiment with replacing the blades. You can get a 5-pack of Hildebrant blades from Barlowstackle.com.

I fish about 20 or so different small bodies of water in my area each year. I don't fish the best big-fish places in my area by reputation (they tend to be more crowded than I will tolerate), and I don't fish all that many hours per year total. So I don't have any expertise as a "big fish hunter" for my area, but I can share something that may be useful: I keep track of everything I catch, in every place I fish, and have been doing this for 7 years. What I've found is that is there are 7 or 8 bodies of water that consistently outperform the others in terms of average size bass. All but one of these have something in common: healthy northern pike populations...not too numerous, not too rare, and keeper-sized. I know about the pike because I've caught them. The only one that doesn't have pike has gizzard shad, which is very rare up here. I found out about the shad from a lake survey I dug up online, and subsequently have seen little baitballs of shad swimming around, and dead adult-size shad on the shore. That shad lake -- a small natural lake of just 100 acres -- is clearly the best of the bunch, and I expect my next PB will more than likely come from there (as did my next-to-last PB).

The President: http://www.pfluegerfishing.com/pflueger-reels-spinning-reels/pflueger-president-spinning-reel/1430660.html The President XT: http://www.pfluegerfishing.com/pflueger-reels-spinning-reels/pflueger-president-xt-spinning-reel/1405300.html Compare the specs for size 30, which is a good all-around size: President: Capacity: 130 yards/8lb Drag: 10lb Weight: 8.8oz Retrieve rate: 25.3" per turn President XT: Capacity: 130 yards/8lb Drag 10lb Weight: 7.6oz Retrieve rate: 31" per turn So the main advantage of the XT at size 30 is you get a reel that is 1.2oz lighter, and about 6" more line pick-up (inches per turn, or IPT) per turn of the handle. It also says the XT has "an aluminum main shaft, aluminum pinion gear, sealed drag, carbon fiber handle and a rubber cork knob". I have a couple Presidents and I think they are one of the best spinning reels you can get for the money. That said, I also think more IPT is a serious advantage worth considering.

I understand why he turns so many people off. But there's nobody else who radiates pure enthusiasm for fishing the way he does, and I find it infectious.

I have 27 rods, and can use about 5 at a time on the Kayak. But I bring different ones each time depending on where and when I'm going. Sometimes I want both a chatterbait and a spinnerbait rigged up at the same time. Or both a drop-shot and a ned rig. I only get rid of rods once I no longer use them for anything. Currently, I have three that haven't seen any use over the last year, so those may be the next to go, but we'll see if they end up being needed at all this season.

He also has a book on finesse fishing -- it's actually pretty decent, but it's short and almost half of it is pictures. As for autobiographies, Shaw Grigsby has a book that combines his biographical story with techniques and tips: Bass Master Shaw Grigsby: Notes on fishing and life.

Is this useful for something? Or just obsession compounded by free time? I'm not sure what, exactly, I would get out of keeping a count of every lure.

Fish a lot during Spring and Fall.

I don't drop shot much, but I've been using straight 6# Izorline Copoly when I do.

Yeah, actually, I called it seaweed as a kid too. I think the adults just said "weeds", or it got shortened to weeds at some point, because that's what I call it now.

The majority of my rods are Fenwick and St. Croix. In general, I find Fenwicks tend to have a little stiffer tips than st. croix, although for overall quality, the various lines seem priced appropriately. I don't have the current Elite tech, but I have two of the older Elite Tech Smallmouth rods, and they are truly great. However, I have heard the current ETB line is a bit of a step back. How it compares to the mojo, I don't know. Of the models you're looking at, it is listed as slightly lighter than the mojo (3.38oz vs. 3.6oz): http://www.fenwickfishing.com/fenwick-freshwater-rods-fenwick-elite-tech/fenwick-elite-tech-bass-spinning/1363840.html#specifications https://stcroixrods.com/collections/freshwater/products/mojo-bass-spinning However...is there some reason to compare the two in the first place? Why not just get the ETB and have both?