fishballer06

My go to crappie setup. 1/8oz jig and a fathead minnow. My go to deep walleye setup. 1/4oz jig and a leech.

I don't have a preference. Both work great and are easy to operate.

Next comes the chatterbait... The bait monkey welcomes us all with open arms.

I prefer a fast action, myself. I understand his philosophy, but generally whenever I am fishing a swim jig, I'm in/around aquatic vegetation, so I need a fast action rod to rip the jig through the hangups. If in the event my line goes slack, I'm probably thinking its a bite or I'm on a piece or grass, so I will rip the rod (set the hook) in that scenario. If you've fished a swim jig enough, you know how to detect a bite.

The Quantum Tour MG is 5.3 oz., Revo MGX is 5.4 oz, Shimano Stile 5.2 oz. There are lots of reels these days in the sub 6oz. category.

Aldebaran Stile Curado/Chronarch 50 or the new 70 i series Brenious Tour MG Pixy

We have many of the same baitfish here in PA as well, Francho. We only have a few lakes that have shad in them (2 that I have personally fished). Lots of the shad will die with the ice, sometimes they even get frozen in the ice. In the spring whenever the ice starts melting, the eagles, hawks, and other predators can often be seen out of the ice scooping up all of the dead shad. Here's an interesting report on Lake Wilhelm and how the gizzard shad have taken over that lake. I've heard that the PAFBC has been electroshocking the lake and harvesting the shad in order to get the numbers down. Wilhelm can be a tough lake to fish, but there are big bass in it. Our club tournament on it in 2015 had a 26 pound, six fish limit for first place. This year, another club I'm in it took 19 pounds on a four fish limit to win. https://www.fish.state.pa.us/images/reports/2011bio/2x05_03wilhelm.htm

The white spinnerbait. Ahh... If I had a dollar for every bass in the world that has fallen victim to a white spinnerbait...

Are you sure they are shad, and not some other type of baitfish? Shad aren't too common in the northern states because cold water kills them. Regardless of what they are, it could be possible. But fish are just like people. They get hungry, they eat. Then they get full and they get lazy. Eventually, they get hungry again and have to eat. And just like how you keep food in your kitchen, the bass will keep their food sources close by too.

Throwing oil on the bearings might not do much. Chances are there is grease packed into the bearings, causing this issue. Hence why they need flushed, sonic cleaned, lubed, and reassembled.

I wouldn't base my opinion over which brand is better after only owning one reel from each company. Especially if you aren't overly experienced or familiar with how casting reels work. I have a Chronarch e5 and it probably casts further than any of my other reels in the small/mid size category (large swimbait reels are a different story). Having a reel properly cleaned/lubed, proper braking, line, lure weight, and rod type would all greatly effect your casting distance. You mentioned shopping at Gander Mtn. I know that Shimano is notorious for packing their reels full of grease from the factory. I've seen it from the cheap Caenan, all the way up to the high end Metanium/Aldebaran line. They do this so the reels can sit on the shelves for years, and then be taken out and used upon being sold. I know last summer I found a DSG selling a Curado 201G on clearance for $50. I bought it, took it home and opened it up, and the grease inside was caked everywhere and was all dried/gummed up. I'm guessing this reel had sat on the shelf around 6-8 years (I peeled off 5 different clearance stickers from the box). I cleaned and re-lubed the whole thing and it was slinging lures like a champ. If you feel like your Chronarch is a dud, I, along with many other members on here, will assure you it is not a dud. I highly suggest sending it in to Mike at DVT for a good clean/lube if you are not familiar with how to do this. I've sent him numerous reels over the past few years and he does an excellent job for only around $20 per reel.

I can't foresee them dumping the Cabelas name and stores completely. The name is too well known and valuable (hence why they wanted to buy them out, I'm sure). It will be interesting to see what they do with their in house brands, Redheads/Herters.

Who would oppose $5.5 billion??? This has been in the talks for over a year now. I'll be curious to see how this turns out in the long run. Both places are already very overpriced compared to most online tackle places, however the Cabelas clothing has always been decent quality and fairly priced. Regardless of pricing, the stores are always fun to visit. It would be a shame if they close some of the Cabelas stores and all those people lose their jobs.

I would be willing to bet that St. Croix keeps track of the serial numbers on the "broken" rods that they sell for this, and doesn't allow people to take this loophole to get themselves a shiny new rod... But I could be wrong.

Google search your town/city and bass club. I'm sure you have some small local clubs in your area. See if you can join even though you're under 18. You could probably join as a co-angler.

Braid has come a long way in the past 15 years. I've got quite a few that all work great for me. 832, TCB 8, FX2.

I've been trying to think when and where a 9-10 foot rod would be practical. I can imagine for pitching and flipping it would be nice. You could basically just drop a bait in there. It might also be nice around docks because you could quickly pull the fish away from the dock. Other than that, it would be beneficial for throwing some of those huge swimbaits that are on the market and that are coming in over the 5-6oz. mark. Similar to what the musky guys use. One point I brought up to my buddy whenever we saw this last night was "What boat out there will hold a 10 foot rod"? I'd imagine these long sticks will be left on the decks all day. Another concern to thing about is can you imagine trying to boat flip a fish with a rod that long. You'll be on the front deck and flipping the fish onto the back deck.

Well, this should certainly shake things up a bit in the bass fishing world. BASS is allowing competitors to use rods in length of up to 10 feet next year. The rule has been 8 feet maximum since 1976. What are everyone's thoughts on this? http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_123/bass-rod-length-92616.html

I've had terrible experiences with Red Label on spinning gear. It just springs off the spool for me. Switched to multiple different Sunlines fluorocarbons and I've had no issues like that at all. For me, I use either straight fluoro or braid with a leader.

Don't get too frustrated. Keep at it. The water being 85* is half the problem. Fish just don't bite well whenever it's that warm. Soon the water will be dropping to 70* and below and the fishing will get better.

I've never heard anyone call a walleye a pike. Maybe that's a New York thing? Around here, pickeral refers to a chain pickeral, as in an offbreed of a northern pike. However, the Canadians call walleyes "pickeral". This can lead to a confusing conversation if you don't know that someone is Canadian. However, I can usually decipher what they mean after I hear them say "eh?"...

I bought a spool of this whenever it was released, then I saw a few bad reviews, so I decided to give it to my buddy. He is using it now. He gets a lot of tip wraps/wind knots with it, but other than that, it's been fine so far.

This should help.

Hackney, Van Dam, Ashley, Swindel, Gribsby, Biffle. They've certainly got a great pro staff and those guys win with them. Like I said and many have probalby noticed, I'm pretty much a through and through Shimano guy, but last week I snagged a Tour MG for a steal of a price on the big auction site. This reel has caught my eye ever since it was released and I've been wanting to try it, and for the money I picked this reel up for, I couldn't go wrong. I mean, if Quantum is going to charge $280 for a reel, it can't be that bad, right? So I got my Tour MG in last night. I spooled it up with some 12lb. Yo Zuri Hybrid, set the tension knob and drag and mounted it on a SC LTB 7'1" M-F and went to a local pond to test it out. First cast, poof. Terrible backlash. Second cast, poof. Third, fourth, fifth... I knew I had to figure out how to open the side plate and adjust the brakes. Couldn't figure it out on my own, so I had to search YouTube. Got it figured out. Why on earth Quantum ships these from the factory with the brakes on 0 is beyond me... But I set it to 3 and started throwing a weightless Senko texas rigged. It handled this lightweight rig well and the reel felt good in the hands. I ended up catching one small one doing this. I switched over to topwater right before dark and threw a Pompadour Jr. No luck on that, but the reel casted well and had no issues. Now that I've figured out how this thing works, I'm curious to really test it out and see how it holds up. I doubt I'll be selling all my Shimano's, but it seems decent so far. It bogles me that Quantum's flagship reel doesn't have an externally adjustable braking system in 2016... Maybe once I put this reel through its paces I'll post up a full review.

When in doubt, downsize your baits. Best advice I can give for smallies.