the reel ess

Most people use their lap for the paddle. About the only way I could see needing a paddle holder is if you had a pedal kayak. They make rod holders as well. But a fishing kayak will make everything easier. Mine has 2 flush mount angled rod holders. I took a milk crate and zip tied a bunch or PVC pipes inside it for 5 additional holders. I put it in the rear well and use the bungee that came on the rear well to hold it in and down. I can take up to 7 rods without holding one. And the crate holds used baits and empty bottles, etc. until i get back home. I usually just put several bags of soft plastics behind my seat. It is a little awkward to reach all the way to the bottom of the crate from the seat.

It's an evil larg mouth spawned from Hades! Be careful. I used to see fish way more beaten up than that one-bleeding even. Now that I mostly fish private waters I see way fewer beaten up bass.

None. I like how anise smells the most. Fish seem to like whatever Berkley Powerbait is called.

Or a junkie

Don't drink coffee before you go. Take 1 bottle of water to sip. Don't drink beer. Leave if you have to. As I get older, I pretty much know when it will call again and plan for it. I usually have only 1 cup of coffee then visit the facilities before I leave home. I won't start drinking water until a couple hours later. That usually will buy me 4 hours with no bathroom breaks if I'm in a really public place. If I'm going later in the day I'll not drink anything for a couple hours before I go so I can have water when i need it. As an older friend told me some years ago, "I used to walk into a bar and check out every female in it. Now I look for the restroom."

I haven't used a 7'1" for frogs, but I do use a 7'3" XH. I guess the idea is to have a longer fulcrum because the power is all in the rod when you try to drag a bass to the surface. The longer it is and the less it flexes, the farther you can move the bass by lifting the rod. So, given two rods that are identical except for the length, I'd take the longer one. I kayak fish, so I'm already at a lower angle. Every little advantage helps.

Super sharp hooks and braided line have greatly improved my hooksets.

Yes, I have when the first was mushy. Sometimes they're just coming too fast in your direction for you to catch up, reel down and get a good set. This has happened to me with jigs and T rigs, but more often with spinnerbaits. That's another reason I like the trailer hook. I bought a hook sharpener a while back and put a good point on a lot of the lures I use regularly. It helps.

You need to persecute those small bass and large bluegills. You probably can't reset the balance on your own. Bring along others to help you out. Pond experts recommend feeding the bluegills because it helps them spawn more, thereby adding smaller bluegill for the bass to eat. They've gotten so big that they are competing with the bass for the same minnows. I have a friend with a pond that is out of balance like this and I fish there a lot. He's more of a hunter so he doesn't help matters with the pond. 15-20 bass with none or maybe one over 1 lb. is a normal day there. I have caught 50 small bass in a day there before. I went yesterday and caught 10 and missed several, mostly because I decided to only fish topwater because it was overcast and misting rain. I went back today with another friend and we caught about 25 bluegills and a couple bass. We even discussed us rigging up a shocking device to remove a lot of bass.

3/0 is the perfect size for these, T rigged. 2/0 is a better size for the smaller Zoom Finesse Worm. But you could probably get away with 2/0 for both.

For the Trick Worms, grab a bag of bubble gum color. No, make that several bags. I catch more on that color than the others combined and I have 5 colors. I just checked. But the two you mentioned are good. I also like limetreuse. You can always tell which colors work by going to WalMart in the spring and seeing what color they're out of. That's bubble gum.

A friend of mine has a pond and his daughter has caught bass on strips of bologna. This is not really weird by any stretch or a pattern but it was odd. I walked right up to a fish that was a few feet from the bank. It could obviously see me because it reacted by turning to look my direction but it didn't spook. I said to my friend "There's a 3 pounder right here that doesn't seem to mind me." I tossed my frog several feet in front of it and it smashed the frog. He was amazed because it's his pond.

Not yanking the topwater away from a bass is one of the hardest skills to acquire. I will still occasionally do it. You have to consciously decide that you aren't going to do it. It helps some people to look away while they retrieve. You wait to feel the weight of the fish on the lure. It helps me to keep the rod tip in a position that's hard to do a hookset from. That makes it a little harder to overreact. I don't know if you used a trailer hook, but I've caught a lot of fish on the trailer. I can think of no good reason not to use one.

I walk through pawn shops all the time hoping for some little gem I can get a deal on. I ran across this one about a week ago, still sealed in the original package, at my local pawn shop. Note the price. $20. That's half the Cabela's, BPS and Academy price. It took me 47 years, but I finally scored a good pawn shop deal on a reel. I already had one in the 40 size, but this one is much lighter and balanced on the rod. And I just completely wore out an old BPS Viper reel.

Berkley baits and Pfleuger reels are the only ones I'd miss here. And I doubt they'll simply disappear. I think Pfleuger's spinning reels are one of the best bargains on the market.

That was going on before he did it though. During good economic times, people from established boat mfg's would branch out and start companies. If timing was bad, they'd eventually fold or get bought at a bargain by the big boys. If timing was good, they would prosper and often get bought up by the established companies at a decent profit to either be dissolved or maintained. I remember when I was a teen, OMC Group bought up several manufacturers and many disappeared. During economic downturns, only the big boys can afford to keep going and even buy up the competition.

Well, he already knocks off everything they make in some way.

I agree. Many of them die young because they're more concerned with looks than health. I know one whose liver quit on him at 30 and he was dead in a few days.

Amen. I rarely wacky rig stick baits anymore since I tried a Trick Worm. I always have one tied on in some fashion anyway so it's easy to get to. So a T rigged weightless Trick Worm is my answer. Just toss it to every piece of cover I can find, especially wood.

Do you ever notice that when people ask you a fishing question, you answer with so much detail and qualifying information that their eyes glass over and they change the subject to sports? You're that guy and he's a casual angler. I'm that guy too. Toss him a T rigged Trick Worm and tell him to throw at every piece of cover. Color doesn't matter usually. Sometimes he'll outfish you. My buddy has 1 rod that I rig for him when we go. That's the only bait he uses and he usually catches enough to stay interested. If you want to still hang out with him just tell him what you think will work. If not, push him out of the boat. LOL Skips every other leg day. But to give you an idea of how dedicated I am, I quit the gym because it was taking up too much fishing time.

You think your local rivers are more polluted than the Mekong River? At least you know your local river. I don't eat fish from our local rivers and reservoirs either. Maybe crappie, but they're on the list of safer fish, considering PCBs and mercury contamination. Farmed fish are lacking in omega 3 fatty acids and aren't healthy either. The "steelhead" sold in Sam's has to be dyed pink because it's grain fed. You might as well eat a lean steak.

Honestly, I don't use a small frog anymore since I bought a Hvy frog rod. I don't really see the purpose because small fish will bite the standard sized frog. It seems like you'd just be fishing for small fish. But I'd still use the spinning combo for the Snag Proof Original Frog because it's only 1/8 oz. I have a Pad Crasher Jr that I think I could cast on my MH BC combo. It's 1/4 oz.

You probably already have a MH spinning combo around 7' long for soft plastics/small jigs. That's the rod I've used for this. I use 20# braid on my spinning combos anyway and I'll tie on a leader of mono if I need to.

I have a buddy with a maybe 4 acre pond that is badly out of balance. We've discussed rigging up our own shocking method to remove a large quantity of fish. The bass are almost all under 3/4 lb and the bluegills are too big for them to eat. Both species are competing for the same prey. It has advantages as well. The fish are so hungry they're really stupid. And you can target both species with a Rooster Tail and a lightweight spin combo if you like. I've caught 50 bass there in a couple hours before. I try to cull the smaller fish by only using big baits, but the dinks will still bite them. I was introduced to that guy by my wife and the first day I fished with him I caught a 6.5 lb bass, which I put back, on a frog. But I haven't caught more than 5 fish over 2 lbs there in the last 14 years. That's how badly it got out of balance. While on the other hand, I have another friend with a pond that has much better average size bass in it. A 13 pounder has been caught there! The state record is 16 and change. And almost no one ever keeps fish there. I always use that as my ploy to get into a place. When I ask permission, I'll say "Hey if you're worried about people taking too many fish, I won't. I'm only in it for the fun and to catch a monster."

That's mostly correct about major public impoundments. But it's really not the case with ponds. They can become so overrun with dinks so quickly you can't take enough fish by hook and line to reset the balance.