Turkey sandwich

I tend to stay reasonably close, and the rod's suggested line weight is based on diameter and not actual breaking strength. example: if 20lb braid has the diameter of 8lb test line, from a rod/reel performance standpoint, it's the same as using 8lb mono.

I keep mine spooled with 4-6lb mono. If you remember to play fish and relax the drag, they can be a blast to catch panfish on. I'll even keep one on the boat rigged with a grub as a follow up bait while smallmouth fishing.

Check the St. Croix site. Last year's Legend Elites are in the bargain bin for under $250. And they are great feeling rods.

Welcomes on the prime! If you use the search feature, you'll find a ton of info on this.

I've cursed Hybrid as a main line before (though, at the time I wasn't familiar with line conditioner), but have grown to love it as a leader coupled with braid. I like fishing it as a leader versus mainline for a few reasons. - it's still pretty low visibility compared to mono - with braid, it still provides a lot of sensitivity but with a bit of a cushion for reaction baits and can help keep treble hooks pinned to the fish. - it's d**n near indestructible. 12lb carries a 17+lb breaking strength and can be fished through sandpaper covered in razor blades. That said, as a main line... it's memory can be crazy and without aggressive use of line conditioner, you may be pulling backlashes and birds nests for days, potentially damaging the line and your patience. Also, it's not going to cast nearly as well as braid.

Soft plastics - 3-5" tubes (VMC's tube jig heads are great anywhere from 1/8-1/4 oz), 2.5-4" grubs ( 1/16-1/4 oz ball jig heads is pretty standard), flukes/soft jerkbaits, soft plastic swimbaits (think 2.8-4.8" Keitech). Drop shouted roboworms and craws can also be really effective. Crankbaits - I like the DT and Fat Free series run deep enough to rip up gravel through the entire retrieve. Lipless - it changes all the time. Top water - Skitter pops, spooks, X-pop, Pop-R

Good luck, man! I was in an accident 2.5 years ago and have been recovering from back surgery since August. It's not an whole lot of fun, but I'm looking forward to being pain free, back in the gym, and back on the water a lot more in 2016. How how badly were you hurt? And do you have a good lawyer?

Lots of us have been there. It's going to suck. Your motivation is going to be awful and you probably just want to drink until it stops being crappy. If you do, you're going to stay a mess because you aren't changing your situation. You can't control how you feel about a busted relationship, but you can control how you actually respond to it. Seriously, don't worry about a relationship because a relationship shouldn't define you. Set goals for yourself. Get an education and a legit career. Get in the gym instead of the bottle. If you depend on yourself to make yourself happy, you have control over your happiness. If you rely on other people's bullsh*t, you're going to have a lot of bullsh*t ahead of you.

Lure size and presentation tend to be much more important to me than color most of the time. The closer your bait comes to mimicking forage or (when appropriate) just p*ssing them off, the closer you are to being consistent, I believe. Matching things like sound and color to conditions is also important, but only if presentation is on point first. As for for mimicking shad/alewifes in lakes full of them... Unlike when tossing flies for trout, I don't typically want my lure to look just like all of the forage around it. I want a jerkbait that looks injured/dieing/struggling in current or cold temperatures. I want a crank bait that's fleeing a predator and swimming confused/clumsily and making a racket. I want my jig bumping into cover and kicking up dirt like a terrified crayfish. Yes, there are some incredibly realistic looking lures out there, but most of them are out performed by a spinnerbait (essentially a jig head built on a safety pin with metal blades). If I ever see a live spinnerbait just swimming in a lake, I'm checking myself into rehab.

Bingo! Even fishing heavy cover, I don't lose that many jigs to trees, rocks, Lilly pads, etc. you just can't always be an elephant in an antique store in your approach. Even from just a fish catching perspective, every bump that jig makes against branches, stumps, weeds, etc gets amplified through the water by the surface it makes contact with. Just a little less tap can go a long ways.

It would seem like South Florida/New Orleans/any non-terrifying or retirement community dominated stretch of the gulf coast would be pretty incredible with all of the fresh and saltwater options. Washington's coast seems really badass in terms of fresh and saltwater fishing. Areas like Sacramento seem to have a huge variety of options ranging from tossing flies on small streams all the way to killer large and smallmouth fisheries within a few hours.

Hoosier- As for the other lures, think of them as tools in a tool box and nothing more. A hammer is pretty useless if you're trying to remove a bolt, and a socket wrench sure as hell isn't going to cut through a 2x4. Part of having them is knowing how and when to use them. Also, there's a big difference in how a master craftsman uses his tools versus a cheap contractor.

Almost any heavy vegetation means you're going to want a more "flipping" style head or swim jig style (for fishing over or through the weeds versus on them) than football or round head style (which will do nothing but collect weeds).

Good info. I've not yet had the pleasure of fishing LOTW, but I think a lot of topwater fundamentals apply everywhere. Light- fish don't have eyelids, so bright sunny days with clear water typically make feeding up difficult for them. Light is a big key for effectively fishing topwater. Mornings and evenings tend to be great oppprtunities, but also pay attention to cloud cover. Cloudy days may provide consistent topwater fishing for most off the day, but even things like brief periods of cloud cover or shoreline shade can provide really hot topwater bites. Lures - I like Spooks, Skitter Pops, Pop-Rs, X-pops, torpedoes, and even balsa minnows depending upon the time of year, how active the fish are, weather, etc. Also, don't be afraid of throwing big topwater baits for smallies, I've caught plenty of 8-10" smallmouth on 5+" spooks before.

I'm still learning the electronics game, but side imaging has some pretty sweet benefits, especially if you start fishing new water. My brother has one of the high end Lowrance units with side scan/side imaging on his center console, and it's crazy how much more efficiently you can learn a piece of water.

I picked up the drop shot this past year, and it's grown on me a lot. It's a great finesse technique on a medium or medium light fast/extra fast action spinning rod. Here are the basics to rigging: Hooks - anything from a size 2 - 2/O drop shot (VMC makes one built on a swivel to reduce line twist that I like), circle, or octopus hook. Certain lures work great on a light wire offset worm hook. The size of the bait, conditions, rigging preferences, and type of cover determine my hook choice. Weights - I typically use the cylindrical tungsten weights since they tend to be the most snag free in vegetation, rocks, and current. Because I fish rocky rivers, I tend to prefer the lightest weight I can get away with and rarely go over 1/4 oz. If I were on the Great Lakes, or fishing deep ledges, that would probably change. Lures - you can use almost any soft plastic. I like Robo worms, but craws, paddle tails, flukes/soft plastic swim baits, grubs, floating worms, etc can all be effective. Some folks on here also swear by Jackal's Ishad. Line - high vis braid in 10-20lb run to 5-7' flouro leader, with the weight rigged anywhere from 9-18" below on the same light flouro. For the flourocarbon, I usually run 6-8lb Sniper or InvisX since they're super limp. The high vis braid makes line watching easy for dead sticking, slow presentations, and for controlling drift in current (think about how bright fly lines are). Rivers - I've grown to really like this rig in current. On rivers, I'll almost always keep a tube and a drop shot rigged on my spinning gear.

The classic fat free varieties have been great for me along with Rapala's DT series, and a pretty wide variety of square bills. Until you get into the designer brands, virtually all of these are under $7. As for colors, i think it's good to know the bait fish in your lakes. Here in PA, I keep Shad/alewife, perch, bluegill, brown, red, and orange craw patterns that run from 2" all the way down to 8-10" for shallow running branc baits. I also keep colors like black/chartreuse, black, clown, chartreuse, fire tiger, etc in the same depth ranges for the days where the water is stained or there's low sunlight.

Care to describe it/show photos?

Here's a whole thread running right now on choosing visible lure colors. The general rule, is to go either bright, or with a dark black/purple/blue profile as visibility becomes more limited.

Find a tackle shop with a very large selction (cabelas comes to mind) and handle them. I like St Croix primarily, but I also have Abu rods that I like and wouldn't mind owning Loomis, Dobyns, Powell, etc, either. (I have no idea which brands were banned from the forum) St Croix just updated their Mojo series blanks and I may be considering them for some of my next rod purchases in that price range. The SCIII blank is awesome, and I really dig it on my Avid X and Rage rods. Other things to consider are your handle pans guide preferences. Also, mind that one manufacturer's MH or fast actions are another manufacturer's heavy and extra fast actions.

Good information on here. I fish tubes a lot for river smallmouth and the biggest gripe I have about most brands is that the hooks are ridiculously undersized. My favorite brand thus far has been VMC. They have great, large enough hooks that I can set with a spinning set up and 8lb line or on a casting set up with braid and 12-17lb copolymer (or whatever we want to call Hybrid) and not worry about losing fish or bending hooks. And as for weight, I'm typically an advocate of "lighter is better", or at least the lightest I can get away with. I fish mostly shallow rivers like the Susquehanna, and 1/8oz-1/4oz weights are the standard. Sometimes, I'll go to 3/16th if the current is super fast and deep, but otherwise it's asking for trouble. On the flipside, if I were fishing deep, clear lakes with aggressive fish, I'd probably keep 1/2oz jigs in the box, too.

There are a ton of topics on this, but in summary.... Tough, super abrasion resistant lines like Yozuri Hybrid are really good for anything you'll be banging off of rocks, docks, she'll beds etc. it's a great choice for Crankbaits, jigs, C-rigs, T-rigs, and virtually anything else you'll be dragging through hell. 12lb test has approx a 14lb diameter and 17lb breaking strength. The stuff is super tough, but not the most limp or easy to handle. Now, I also really like limp, lower memory, and smaller diameter lines like Seaguar Invisex or FC Sniper for more finesse applications, or for fishing areas with fewer rocks, docks, clam shells, mussels, etc.. They're good choices for swim jigs, jerkbaits, drop shot rigs, tubes, and a ton of clear water applications. These aren't exactly hard set rules. If the area I'm fishing is particularly nasty, I may be using Hybrid leaders on almost everything I throw. If it's super clear, I may be throwing almost everything on 7-12' leaders of 7-12lb Sniper or InvisX. This isn't a perfect breakdown, but I hope it gives you kind of a good Cliff's Notes on flourocarbon leaders.

Bass are primarily visual predators, so I think understanding the basics of what is and isn't seen at depth is super useful. Even outside of shallow water species, the book has a ton of great information that has application for fishing deep water species as well as saltwater.

Good summary. Also, as a note, anyone having trouble with quality flourocarbons breaking needs to check their lines for damage, or learn new/better knots. The improved clinch is my go-to for flourocarbon and I very rarely have problems with knot strength. uni knots have also done me well.

I fish hybrid as a leader pretty often, but not typically on my finesse rods. When I think finesse, I think small diameter and super limp. Hybrid in 6-8lb is comparable to 8-12lb lines in both diameter and strength, and while it's super abrasion resistant, it's not very limp. I use 7lb Sniper as my typical go to, but Seaguar Invisx is also a great option and not super expensive.