Turkey sandwich

I agree. There's something about big smallies blowing up Spooks, especially an early evening bite on a sunny day. A 3+lb smallmouth will have no hesitation smashing them clear out of the water. I actually just ordered two Whopper Ploppers and a couple Gunfish and I'm very excited to see how well they perform compared to big Spooks and poppers.

New York State is huge. I would suggest NOT trying to cover all of it in a week. The Adirondacks, Catskills, Finger lakes, western NY, Thousand Islands, etc are all great destinations with great fishing - traditional and on the fly.

There are only two reasons why line is going to break low on a leader during a hook set. #1 is a bad line to lure knot, #2 is damaged/frayed line. This has nothing to do with the rod, or braid to leader. If your knots aren't the problem, I would suggest changing your leader/retieing more frequently and considering a different line. I like fishing finesse jigs a lot, and fish rocky rivers mostly. I like Inviz-X a lot for fishing very clear conditions without hard cover and rock. It's limp, handles well, and is very low visibility, but isn't as abrasion resistant as a copolymer line. If I'm fishing finesse on a rocky bottom, I'm using 8-10lb Hybrid leaders 85-90% of the time.

I use snaps on my crankbait rods and they've made changing lures much faster without sacrificing production. In a similar effect, and relating. To a post above, I also use Lefty's Loop for certain finesse presentations as well.

This season has been excellent and it was great seeing such a passionate local guy win. This series is still by far the best in tournament fishing and the quality of anglers in the final was ridiculous. Andy Montgomery is a young dude with a ton of upside, basically fishing in a crowd of legends.

If possible, save the line and spool your spinning reels with 10-20lb braid. It'll last forever and solve a lot of common line management issues with your spinning gear as well. Small diameter line is really hard to manage well on casting gear and can limited casting distance/accuracy, cause backlashes, and even cause the line to wear/break. I run 30-40lb braid on all my casting gear and have very, very few problems.

Yes, but the strength is seriously underrated. The 12lb test easily has the breaking strength of any quality 17lb test line. It's almost ridiculous. You really don't much heavier than 12lb test hybrid for 90% of bass fishing applications. P-Line's copolymer has a very similar reputation. All this said, I find it's best suited as a leader and not a main line due to memory. Some folks have had good luck with ample line conditioner. I solved it by spooling with braid.

Congrats, man!

I pretty much disregard the weight of the soft plastic itself 90% of the time unless it's something super salty like a Senko. Most of my jig and T-rig fishing is done on a MH Rage that handles everything from about 1/4-1oz pretty well.

For those of us who can't get on the water all the time... Yes, it does help to know bodies of water well from spending time on them, but you can do a lot with maps, Navionics charts, topo maps, etc on the computer before you even think about packing rods. Ultimately, relative water temp is the biggest indicator as to where fish will be in the spawning process, but it's easier now than ever to use off the water resources to figure out where they're likely to spawn, forage native to the body of water, etc.. I'm stuck in the group that doesn't get out every weekend, so I might spend a day on the water figuring out specifics about weed lines, bottom make up, etc before really putting together patterns, but most of the work I put in is done beforehand. Is more time ideal, especially for tournament fishing? Of course! However, you don't need it to be successful all the time if you do your homework.

I am ridiculously pale and the sun hates me. Luckily I've never had skin cancer, but I have had horrible sun poisoning. When I'm on the water I typically have long sleeve UPF shirts and pants, a hat, sunglasses, and while I don't use a buff, I will at times cover my face with a bandana (especially if I don't have a beard). With that, I'm typically applying "waterproof" sun block every hour or two on the places not covered. I basically look like the invisible man floating down the river.

Great cold weather fish! It's been killing me not being able to get out. Some of my favorite stretches have been giving up 9-11lb walleye and I've been too busy with everything else to get on the water.

It's already been said, the only way to build confidence is by doing. I learned to fish Texas and Carolina rigs and then jigs primarily in flooded farm ponds and reservoirs with soft bottoms. With fishing them, you'll learn to feel the bottom, vegetation, any hard surfaces, changes in depth, and a ton of other things. As as for hook sets and bites, you'll get everything from soft, almost impossible to feel bites where your line just starts moving to having your lure absolutely crushed. Having a fast or extra fast action rod will make feeling all of this much, much easier. The bite, and the level of slack in your line will determine your hookset. Generally, if you're fishing any kind of slack in your line or with a high rod tip, reeling down is a very very good idea. I generally favor an overhead hookset most of the time. If the fish picks up the bait and begins to run in a direction, I'll favor my hookset opposite of that direction. Once you you get the basics down, you'll start to see jigs and T-rigs especially as 'go anywhere baits' because you can fish them effectively in virtually any kind of cover and in almost any conditions.

Blasphemer

Pineapple and ham are delicious together. On anything. As for food, you should have just stockpiled scrapple and whiskey. Where you're at, those two things basically grow on trees. I wish I took before and after pictures of my car. It was covered completely in 3-5" of ice. You guys at least got snow. We got a horrible icyshitstorm. Also - spending a blizzard at a real awful strip club on a Monday night is incredible.

Now begins digging out my iced in car for work. Wish me luck. This is going to suck.

We've now made a roast. We're down a case of IPA and 3/4 of a handle of Tully and 2 cans of Cope. We're now watching Rambo. This snow storm has seen strippers, weird food, an absurd amount of booze, a dog that loves metal, and a drunk friend who just accidentally chugged a half full spitter. For only three of us, this has been a successful blizzard. 'Merica.

Here in Philly, it's been an icy doom storm. We've gone through several phases. First was bread and milk, and then came half a bottle of Tullamore Dew in the form of Irish coffee, and finally the glory of scrapple tacos. Scrapple is the perfect taco shell. You're welcome, Mexico. We're also on our second leg of an Indiana Jones marathon. If you're gonna blizzard, blizzard hard.

It's hard to beat fresh perch and quality time with your dad. Props for getting out, even in the cold.

I have an Avid X ML XF drop shot rod and run braid to leader. So long as you tie good, compact knots (I use uni to uni) and replace your leaders every 1-2 trips (which you should be doing anyway) you should have very very few problems with the leader knot. I feel that both the Avid and Avid X are both great rods for around $200, but the Avid X feels like a much more expensive rod. The one valid criticism (I feel) above is about guides icing over. Microguides will freeze up faster than traditional guides and probably aren't the most ideal for super cold days. I also feel most guides on most rods - be it conventional, fly, or trolling - all tend to suck to varying degrees once it gets icy. Unless you fish primarily during those cold conditions, I wouldn't hesitate with the Avid X. Under normal conditions, they feel more like a $300 rod than a $200 rod.

I have a Lure 13.5. The weight limit is something ridiculous like 450lb (IIRC). I weigh around 200lbs and even packed out with gear, electronics, safety gear, and all of the camping gear I would need for a week, it still wouldn't come near the weight limit. That said, paddling 450lbs would also probably suck.

Good thing so few of you guys mentioned rivers. Bass hate rivers. They especially hate the St. Lawrence, Niagra, and Susquehanna rivers. There are absolutely no bass in them. Might as well not even bother fishing them.

I think braid to leader is the way to go at least 80% of the time. Bank fishing also helped me learn to fish T-rigs and light C-rigs because weedlessness was such a necessity (and they really, really work).

If you're regularly fishing from shore, the shorter rod may make casting around trees, weeds, and other shoreline obstacles a bit easier. Generally, a medium weight rod will also be much more versatile. They both have a place, but it's rare that I don't have a Med Fast or X-fast spinning rod with me regardless of conditions - from shore, wading, in the kayak, or in the tin boat.

For durability and abrasion resistance, Hybrid has treated me very, very well. I also use braid main lines and rely on FC, co polymer, and mono for my leaders because in addition to its low diameter/strength, it lasts forever, is 10x more manageable than the other options, and allows me to swap out leaders for versatility. If you opt to just spool the Hybrid, line conditioner will keep you from losing your mind.