the reel ess

Since Cabela's sold out to BPS, I think their Tournament ZX rods have may been discontinued, I guess due to overlap in the two product line. There might still be some in a store though. They were some technique specific rods in the $100 range. They were usually $80 when you could catch them on sale. I have the frog model and I would recommend them. Go with a Medium/Mod or Mod-Fast, 6'6" to 7'. Sensitivity is not necessary and can even be a negative for topwaters. I don't want to talk you out of a high priced rod, but, to me, this is one area where you can go cheaper. I would be most concerned with the right action/power and the weight of the rod.

https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/War_Eagle_Gold_Spinnerbait_Double_Willow/descpage-WEGSS.html Mine was a 3/8 oz. The 1/2 is probably best all around size, but using the 3/8 oz. allows you to slow it down a lot an still keep it off the bottom.

It sounds like you're getting bored. I would probably learn some topwaters (Pop R, Spook, Torpedo, etc.) and some medium depth lures (spinnerbait would be first). Then you'll have something for top to bottom. Read up on the best times and conditions to expect each to work. I didn't catch whether you were bank bound. When I was, I looked for someone with a boat to learn from. Just being exposed to other people will teach you a lot because everyone fishes a little differently. And you can probably teach them a lot about the Senko. interestingly, I don't do too well with a Senko. I like to power fish.

I'll be using 3.5" Rage Swimmers. What do you use or recommend? TIA

You're right about the others though. They're all I used for 15 years or so. Now the gold is almost always tied on, even when I fish a new place.

And then there's this

For the buzzbaits and 110 Plopper, I use my spinnerbait rod. Those heavy baits can load up a M rod a little too much. The buzzbait casts about like a spinnerbait and the backbone of a MH is ideal. I use a M/MF 6-6 rod for my other topwaters like the Pop R or Spook or the 90 size Plopper. A 7' might be a better choice to get longer casts and cover more water, but maybe not for making casts to specific targets like docks. It's an older Lightning Rod. By today's standards, it's a heavy rod (weight-wise, not action or power). I'll replace with a higher quality rod it if it ever fails me, but it just keeps getting the job done and the action for medium weight treble lures is just perfect. It was the best quality I could bring myself to buy for at the time and I needed to buy more than one rod. This is not a technique where sensitivity is required or even beneficial.

A previous PB of mine was caught on an old BPS Uncle Buck's spinnerbait. When I got into SB's I bought a bunch of different weights and colors and immediately got started catching fish on them. I still have several of them and caught that PB last fall. Cheap SB's can work and be very sturdy. Just change out the swivel for a good one.

I use a 1/8 oz. Rooster tail for dink bass in my buddy's pond. It's chock full of 9" to 12" bass as well as big bluegill, so this is a natural bait. I like the firetiger color with gold blade.

These are bass on the bed that aren't interested in eating. They're just trying to move the bait.

I made this bad boy up from a redfish spinnerbait and one of @cadman's custom grass jigs he made for me in gold shiner color. I figured it's worth a try since gold SB's work so well for me. I haven't tried it yet though.

When I got to the reservoir yesterday, my buddy had forgotten his phone. He asked me to take a pic of his fish, an 8 lb 3 oz monster (2nd photo) he caught on this bait. I caught the bass in the 1st pic on the exact same model spinnerbait at the same place in late fall.

It's a live minnow. ? But not for long. I believe Aruka Shad is correct. Interestingly, the Academy H2O knockoff is so similar, it could have been from the same mold or a prototype. Notice the rear hook placement. It's only $3.50. The Aruka is $8.50. I have one in gold and I mopped up one day with it. Next time out, my buddy outfished me with a Cordell Super Spot.

After reading up on it, the top 20 places pay more and it seems the board consists of pros. They claim it will be more family friendly. I guess that means more down time for the pros to spend with families. So I guess these guys are free to compete in the others if they choose. But it will certainly put a dent in the talent competing in FLW and BASS on the average.

He probably wasn't asked because it's known that he's too tied up in FLW. Viva competition! Well, I just read the list of those who have decided to join and almost all have been in one of the tourneys I've seen. I don't recall seeing Martin in any of them. Maybe that has been his choice up to now.

For the reel, I say FAST. You'll be using the rod for the lever. Then you'll need to take the slack line up fast. The idea is to get the bass to the surface, then ski it across the surface. I use a Lew's Tournament MB reel with 7.5:1 retrieve, but 8:1 would be even better. There are plenty of technique specific rods out there. I use the Cabela's Tournament XC 7'3" heavy frog model, but I think that line has been discontinued, probably because of overlap with BPS rods. Casting the frog is no problem with 50# braid. I usually use a Booyah Pad Crasher and this combo will bomb it out there. I usually don't cast it that far though. You really want to be dragging the bass up out of the mat, not horizontally through it, if you can help it. I fish from a kayak, so I can paddle right into the mat and reach my targets. There's really no need to cast light frogs. Dinks will eat the standard size Pad Crasher.

I don't even DVR MLF because it's pretty much on every weekend. If i catch it, I watch it. If I don't, I catch it later. By the end of the year, I'm watching reruns. But I do like the show a lot.

All the ones I see are too long or more than I wanted to spend. There is one that intrigues me. It looks like a PVC compression union. That might do the trick, be tight and be cheaper. But I'll most likely buy the new one. I was trying to avoid being one guy with three paddles.

Because I'm a cheapskate. But I could certainly do so.

I use the War Eagle double willow in gold/gold shiner. The skirt has some strands that are longer so it resembles a trailer. This allows me to use a trailer hook all the time without interfering with the trailer. If you're like me, you have some spinnerbaits in the box that the skirts have long since disintegrated off of. I replaced some of those skirts with War Eagle replacement skirts so I could have different blade combos with the same skirt colors.

Interestingly, this pond used to produce some big bass. My buddy has an 8 pounder on the wall that come out of it. The first time I ever fished there with him, 15 years ago, I caught one 6.5 lb. We weighed and released it. I've probably fished there 100 times since and haven't caught anything bigger than 2 lbs. I did catch one that was maybe 1.5 lb. with a 6" bass down its throat. That fish has a chance at reaching good size because it's eating the plentiful forage, small bass. I released it. I have used all the big bass baits to try to cull the dinks. But I still catch dinks on them. I keep all the dinks I catch in there and put them in his basket for him to eat, but it hasn't seemed to make any difference. Most of the bass I catch have a concaved stomach, like they haven't eaten in days. Even the fish i see on beds are dinks. That leads me to believe they're getting to be several years old, but stunted.

I got a wider kayak with an adjustable height seat a while back. I have a 230cm paddle and need about a 250 cm paddle. Is there an inexpensive paddle extender that can fit between the two halves of the paddle to extend it about 20cm (about 7.75"). I have seen a few but they're expensive and I doubt I paid more than $60 for my paddle. If I can't find one less than 1' long, I have another 220cm paddle I could use with it. I guess I could cut a little off the short paddle and drill another hole. But I'd rather keep it.

LOL. Yeah, monsters just ain't what they used to be. And it's not just that show. These guys on TV routinely call a 3 lb bass a monster. I'd just call that "nice". But in MLF, if you could stand there and catch 15 inchers all day, you'd almost certainly win. Numbers is the name of the game. You're quite spoiled. LOL. My buddy has a pond that has hardly a fish in it over 2 lbs. Sometimes I just tie a Rooster Tail on a really lightweight combo and have a ball on the dinks and big bluegills.

NM Please delete this thread. In the wrong forum

For about the first 5 years of fishing from a kayak, I sat down for all presentations. It was not a kayak you could stand up on. About the only presentation I feel I'd need to stand for is pitching, but I learned to do it sidearmed. I do like to stand during the spawn though.