the reel ess

My fried took me to a pond a while back and we fished from his 10' jon. he had a floor in the bottom between the benches and seats on each bench. He sat in the back and used his tiller trolling motor to move the boat backwards all day. I had never fished with anybody who did that, but it worked just fine. And you could stand if you needed, but we didn't.

It's stained here so i throw black and blue as a rule. I won't usually throw another color unless I run out of black/blue. The old rule the old timers used to have was you can catch bass on any color worm as long as it's black. That still works for me. I do try other colors on the rare occasions that it doesn't rain for three weeks and the water clears to a visibility of more than 2 or 3'.

Me too! It's the most educational tournament show there is. And I like the format, how they just weight the fish and release them. I could do without the penalty for dropping a fis or flippin it over the side. But all things considered, it's a great show. I don't even fish from a bass boat, but I've learned a whole lot from it. I have wondered sometimes if he caught the big fish first and they had to edit to make it later in the show. Sometimes he fishes more than one day. WFN got moved to another package for Dish Network and I would have to pay more for just that one show. So this is my favorite time of the TV season-when the fishing shows come back on the outdoor channels.

generally speaking, yes. Fish some shallow water near deeper breaks in the afternoon. Skinny water will warm quicker. But if you get a warming trend that lasts for days, the fishing could get very good. The fish start thinking "spawn" and they'll start to move shallow and feed up. But then the weather will turn nasty and they'll run back deep. If you see three days of 70's in the forecast and can only choose one day, choose the third day. Or just go every one of them.

A black chatterbait can work too.

This has worked for me in stained water. Mine is black/blue. You can reel it extremely slow. If you like willow leaf, I'd use a light spinnerbait so you have to reel it slowly to keep it down. https://www.sportsmans.com/fishing/hard-baits/spinner-baits/strike-king-tour-grade-night-spinnerbait/p/1289366?gclid=Cj0KCQiAmafhBRDUARIsACOKERO0CTp0M38DiW0zZWGL346X0T_fnuq47P18FiMVZjW6zSMoJa2Z1bcaAoK_EALw_wcB

I just realized we were discussing a spinning reel. Sorry. Yes, the 2000 size reel would be a better match for a M to MH rod.

NM

Hmmm...I only own two rods that cost $100 or more. Maybe a Falcon Boocoo. have a 10 year old Falcon rod and it's very good quality. I also own a Cabela's Tournament XT rod that's good quality, but they seem to be offline right now I think that's because they've been bought by BPS and there is overlap. You might look at Tackle Warehouse and Academy and set your price range between $75 and $100 and see what you can find.

Match the rod to the technique. If it's an all purpose combo I'd say a 6-6 to 7' MH, mod-fast rod.

It doesn't have to be expensive. You can make the weight wire with a paper clip and use a bullet weight or two. After looking at this thread and searching how to make the rig, I wondered if this would do instead. I have a box full of these that my late father had. It's a C rig kit with these weights instead of egg sinkers. These have rattles but they aren't very loud.

But the high end ones have frames made of some solid metal alloy, right?

To me, the solid frame is the minimum for a reel. I've owned two composite or graphite framed reels and both were junk. Maybe they're better now, I won't know. They're the reason I bought the first Lew's Tourney MB. Then I liked it so much I bought two more. But I ain't married to Lew's. I've bought another reel since.

I have three Lews Speed Spool reels of a different model. They range from 4 to 1 year old and I have yet to experience an issue with any of them. And they get some heavy use. But then they cost twice what a Mach reel costs. Send it back for a replacement or credit on another reel. Quality issues will occur from time to time with any manufacturer. Mine has a Korea sticker on it. What reel did you replace it with and where was it made?

Bama Bass is the best pet bass channel on YouTube. And he also fishes for and catches some monster bass. Hands down, my favorite YT channel. Bluegill are pure savages. Bama Bass has one on his channel named Sheriff. It's a stone cold killer. It would eat the bass if its mouth was bigger.

@jrwerner310 There is a widely held belief that straight braid is too visible and bigger (more educated) fish will shy away from it. This may or may not be true all the time, but why take the chance. I use a surgeon's knot to join the leader. Dbl-uni works great, but surgeon's is easier and quicker. The water is not clear enough here for me to use FC. The mono will also allow you to break off the jig if you get hopelessly hung up deeper than you can reach. Big Game is cheap and strong. If I were fishing in some really heavy vegetation, I would use straight braid. I usually use 3/16 or 1/4 oz. jigs with grass heads because I fish some grassy places. But the Arky head is the all-season head for almost all situations. The all-terrain jig. I have some plain weedless Arky heads that I sometimes rig with a plain Chigger Craw or a Yamamoto Hula Grub. You asked someone else, but I find it best to use the jig around wood. Overhanging brush is killer as well as flooded timber. Whenever you come across weeds or lilies and some wood cover or structure, that's a killer spot. I just do better with it hitting specific targets.

Welcome. My sister lives in Mooresville. They call that lake the dead sea. If you have a boat, I'd head over to Badin Lake or Tuckertown. I've fished them a couple times with my dad and my uncle. You might not catch a boatload of fish, but you'll probably get to be alone. Tuckertown has almost no development on it. Very pretty lakes. If you want to travel a little ways, follow the Catawba R chain down to Fishing Creek, Stumpy Pond (my fav) and Lake Wateree in SC. We had a house on Wateree when I was young. It's a pretty good bass fishery. All 3 of these are great crappie lakes as well. There are trophy size catfish on Wateree and as well as stripers.

There are many ways to skin that cat. Here's mine: 7' casting MH-M/F rod. Reel is your choice, but I keep my drag set tight. I'd use a quality reel just because this is guerilla warfare. You'll hook some bruisers in heavy cover. 30# braid with a 5' or so leader of 15# Big Game mono (leader is not strictly necessary around here, but might be in clearer water). It's very strong, but will allow you to break off if you need to. An Arky headed jig in black/blue and one in brown should do the job almost all the time. Whatever trailer you like, really. I'm partial to the Chigger Craw. Get lots of practice and set the hook very hard. Harder than you think is necessary. They'll still come off sometimes even when you think you did.

I bought the bass boat (a very old used one) only to discover it was more complicated than it was useful. There was always something that needed to be fixed or replaced. It's sitting there with a new(ish) tire that won't stay inflated now. I then bought the $500 kayak and used it for 5 years and caught more and bigger bass than I ever did before. And I am able to put it into places I could never put a boat in. Some places I fish are so small, if you put a boat in, the water level would rise noticeably. And they have areas in them you couldn't take a boat. But they have better fish on average than the nearest hydro lake. Before the kayak, I never knew big bass could be so shallow, year-round. No competition, bigger and more bass and exercise. It's a no-brainer for me. I just bought a better kayak, pre-rigged with a fish finder. I can use it year-round without ever getting wet. It seems like it would be more work to lug the kayak, but it's way less work. I kept the $500 kayak for when company comes along (rare).

I like Lew's and own 3 of the Tourney MB model. I can't say that I've used them all and neither can most people that will swear by one brand. But the Lew's reels are very good quality for the cost. The only other one I've bought in the last few years was an Academy H2O brand that has been a very good reel as well. I'm not into spending $200 on one reel. I would really think that the upper half of the lineup of all reel mfgs would be just as good or better than what I have.

You're so vain, you probably think this thread's not about you, You're so vain!!!

Take one cast with it. If it works, keep casting until it stops working. If it doesn't, don't waste another cast on it. It was already marginal. That's my motto.

Come to think of it, same here. Some of them have been right on the bank. So close, I'd spook them if I walked up from the other side. The thing about the boat is, even if you just beat the bank, you can beat all of the bank from the boat. Most of the time, you can't beat all the bank if bank bound.

I just watched this a while back. It seems the trick to catching giant bass from the bank is to go to a private pond in FL where the bass are enormous and have never seen a lure. AWWW SON! Who'd've thunk it?

When my dad and I started bass fishing, it was with a friend of my dad's who knew much more than we did at the time. We had been mostly crappie fishing. That guy would always use a T rigged worm in that situation and it often worked. He said the bigger bass would be near the bottom mopping up, letting the dinks do the chasing. This is quite a challenge sometimes. I've thrown the kitchen sink before and never caught one..