keagbassr

I try to get up every year around this time,( going up tomorrow)and find the smallies to be fairly aggressive as would be expected. I mostly fish the penobscot and use spinnerbaits, buzzbaits and poppers. Also like tiny torpedoes zara puppys and have mixed in some ploppers the last couple years.

Wow. Great pic. Thanks for the clarification.

Agree with post above. A cheap reel is more likely to fail/break than a cheap rod.

Just to confuse you a bit more, while fireline is a 'superline' it's not braided but rather the fibers are fused in a linear manner.

Got a 3-15 yesterday and a 3-14 today both on a double wide beaver.

40 lb. Spiderwire stealth.cant tell you how much i dont really keep track.i just wind it on til it's full.

Jump on it. I 've been using a 7 speed on my 7' mh/f buzz bait rod for 3 years now. it has no problem handling,casting,hooking or landing fish such as this one I caught on thurs. Around some fairly heavy weeds.[edit:should read 6 speed not 7]

I actually had this happen to me a few times with the old style mustad grip pin hooks while punching. I believe the weight flopping around can pull the knot to the gap. 1st time thought I broke off but went to retie and saw my knot still there. Figured it was a fluke then it happened again. At the time these were the only hooks with the shank keeper so I wasn't going to change hooks. I did both the 'dummy knot' and the super glue and found the glue to work better. Don't have this problem with the newer style hooks.

Made a lot of casts for not a lot of fish today. But they were all decent. Got a 3-7and a 5-7 on buzzbaits and a 3-6 punching. Also dropped 1 about 3.5 punching when it cleared the weeds. Here are the buzzbait fish.

If your gonna buy all those stackable codes posted a while back for rapala still work. Just ordered this and got it for $31 shipped. Codes: 15rapala ,fish10 , welcome10, thanks10. Couldnt get freeship25 to work maybe will work for you.

Believe me there's no shortage of confusion on the water for me this year. This one came on my 4th different bait I tried on my punch rig. Over all I threw at least a dozen different baits today.

Got out 7:30-1:30 today. Boated 9, 1 on jig 2 on a toad 5 on a buzzbait and 2 punching a double wide beaver with this one weighing in at 5-8.

Never trailers always trailer hooks for me. I never want to give the fish a reason to strike at something behind the hook.

I've been throwing mine on 40 lb. Spiderwire stealth. The best,I don't know but it works for me.

Never music but back in the day before all this digital crapola I would bring a portable t.v. and watch football while I fished. Never noticed that it hurt my catching.

I throw pretty much everything on braid. Right now I have 30 lb. 832 on my spinnerbait rod and 40lb. Spiderwire stealth on my buzzbait rod.

If I remember correctly the 1st lure I bought was a fleck weed wader spinnerbait. Then one day a co-worker gave me a bps catalog and it melted my brain.

The best way to figure out what you 'should' be doing is to hold your rod like a baseball bat; the top hand should be your rod/casting hand and the bottom hand your reeling hand. I once read that leftys who cast left and reel right were in the lucky minority in that they could do what comes natural with the more readily available right handed reels.

Larry

I have caught and had hits on baits with weeds on them though I still think overall it does deter fish most times. Last week in Maine I had a smallie slap at my 90 while I was reeling it back with a 16" strand of grass trailing off the rear hook.

For single blade/arm i make (Not pour) my own with stuff from L.P.O. For double blade I was a fan of persuader but TW doesn't have them anymore so I've been using buckeye lures double buzzbaits and like them. And y'all need to remove those beads from in front of your blades. They're useless weed catchers.

20+ years of straight braid for me. Don't see a reason for a leader.

Got out for a short 3 hr. Trip. Finished with 4 bass, 1 on a popper and 3 on a buzzbait with this one at 3-9

All star and falcon. Never had one that didn't feel just right in my hands.

I usually spend the first 5-6weeks of the season tracking which hat and or shirt I'm wearing when I have a good or bad day to see if any have some good 'mojo'. Also back before smartphones when I had a camera on a tripod i like @Pickle_Power would never catch anything if I had it at the ready. Was always fun trying to set it up with one hand while holding a bass in the other.