Fishinthefish

Depending on the heaviness of the cover dictates the braid strength and leader strength I use. I however always use braid, or braid to flouro leader

Knock on wood, never gotten so much as a cut from a hook. Worst I've ever cut myself was 5 home done stitchds on my palm from a fillet knife. Never filet a salmon with zero light at 3am after half a bottle of expensive imported Scotch. Great video though.

If I can't find fish, a stick bait, or a worm texas rigged under a dock will always get me at least one fish. No reel on this planet is nearly as good as a Shimano Core The NRX is over rated If my wife is okay with me going for a long period of time I will most likely end up getting skunked

Pull enough line to rig a drop shot, cut it, and tie both ends of flouro to a swivel. Tie your drop shot and enjoy the day.

Everyone says 5.x or 6.x for crankbaits, various other applications, 7.x for worms, 7.5 or whatever for buzzbaits. I just use 7.3 or 7.1 reels with the except of one that is an 8.0 and thats for burning lures when im cranking as fast as possible even with the 8.x reel. Honestly having different ratios is more of a a perfect world type of thing. And I'm unfortunately a rod and reel snob so coming from me might be my three cents instead of two.

St croix, kistler, gloomis rods and I'm just now stepping into the custom rod world. Hopefully within the next two years all of my rods will be replaced with custom rods. As for reels, shimano core 51 and 101, 13, mgxtreme. Hopefully ordering an antares or steez this year.

Every single treble hook with every single lure of mine gets switched for a mustad hook before I fish it, period end of story. I will never lose another fish to cheap hooks because a company wants to save money.

Braid is power pro Flouro is Tatsu Mono is whatevers on sale because I only use it as backing

Second this.

Go into this knowing that 400 dollars is your NOW budget. An impatient man will spend double because he will have to buy twice to get it right, and impatience won't catch you any fish. I would personally allocate 250 to 300 for a rod and a reel, so as I aggressively dive into the sport I don'tfeel the need to basically get rid of my old stuff for higher end stuff. Start with the basics, two or three spinnerbaits, one or two top waters, one or two cranks, worms, craws, grubs, flukes and terminal tackle. I also listed in my opinion the soft plastics I'd buy first. But hey what do I know?

I downsized a lot in terms of bank fishing tackle. If I'm only going for a couple hours I use one of those two string nike backpacks made of mesh type material. Light and more than I'll need for three hours.

I've caught four fish on them since I bought them. I tore one taking it out of the package. I'm not joking.

They're both older casting rods.

No idea what your budget is. Shimano core, diawa steez, shimano antares. Anything short of those three reels and I'd buy spinning gear. Nothing is more frustrating to me than not having the right tool for the job.

Scroungers are always an over looked option for keitech baits. Just my .02

I use 3/0 ewg hooks for a minimum size in my texas rigging.

I'd run it until it's dead unless your series is connected for some reason. With that said I'd test it every time before I went out and expect the one time I said "I'm running late, it should be fine without me checking this time" to be the time it's dead for life.

I always told myself when I can buy a Steez and not feel guilty about testing it out, or even better the Megabass tuned version I would have made it both in my career and marriage. Congratulations.

Mustad EWG hooks for anything rigged texas or weedless. Flukes, stick baits, craws or creatures. I have a lot more confidence in my hookups and in deep cover I can slam a hookset without fear of pulling it out of the mouth. The EWG hooksets also make me feel more confident fishing under docks.

I use 15lb mono just because I have it laying around. I use just enough backing, to fill a single layer from end to end of the spool, tie on my braid and go. I know I could get away with more and use less braid but if I'm being honest I am lazy and prefer to not have to refill my spools regularly. I don't have too many issues, 20lb power pro is the lowest I go for baitcasting though, and on windy days sometimes I wonder if it's worth it.

I fish illinois, wisconsin, indy. I use biospawn pro and plasma tail depending on what the fish tell me they want. I also use Yamamoto senkos. The killer colors I've found for my area in particular is junebug, motor oil, peanut butter and jelly, and black with blue or red flakes. With that said I also use JJs magic when I'm texas rigging worms, either in clear or chatruese. I can't prove scientifically it works, but if you out us in the same boat I can show you. In this area I almost always peg my weights as well. Small conture chanfes, brush, or rock piles seem to make a huge difference between which docks do and do not have feeding fish. If I'm texas rigging one of our many rivers I use rage craws, menace grubs, or biospawn crawsm

12lb fc sniper

SX for me hands down if that is all you're torn between. Personally I'd rather save for a bit longer and grab myself a shimano stradic fk. Retails for if I remember correctly 40 more and blows both of them out of the water handa down. Just my .02 though.

Using 6lb braid on a baitcaster is a poor idea that I cannot possibly stress enough. All backlashes are usually caused by very specific things, the end result being the spool is spinning too fast. The first problem is usually too light of a lure for the rod, and a baitcaster to begin with, the second is wind, external variables deciding they don't like you. The third, and most common is an inexperienced angler taking a lure and throwing it with a rod as hard as they possibly can, not understanding you're not going to get further with a rough jerky slam cast than a smooth controlled cast. For beginners on a baitcaster you start at 50 to 75 percent mag or central brakes. You also adjust the spool tension so that when you release the bail while holding the rod at a 45 degree angle from the ground the lure will just slowly slither to the ground. You MUST readjust this when you tie new lures on as a beginniner. After that you're just working on straight, smooth casts, while gently thumbing the spool as the line peels off. My shimano core will throw weightless flukes, worms, and ned rigs flawlessly with one central brake on and the spool tension dial nearly off entirely. I've also been fishing with this exact reel, and 20lb braid for 6 years now. (Edit notes, list wrong brake for my own reel)

Depending on where you are located the river or creek might give you a better shot at small mouth than large mouth. So just to be safe I'd also keep 2 inch and 3 inch twister tail grubs in a few colors in your bag with 1/8th jig heads with a calm current. I'd also get some 3/0 ewg hooks to rig them texas style if you have a lot of weeds in the water with 1/8th or 1/4 bullet sinkers. I'd also recommend 1/16 to 1/4 size inline spinners. These are the catch all in the river world. You will hit bass, pike, walleye, musky, blue cats, flat heads, all species of bass etc. Add a swivel and a leader to your in line apinner to avoid line twist and breakage issues.