the reel ess

Does anybody use the surgeon's for fluoro to braid? I love it for mono to braid because it's so easy. My near sight is getting bad and I can tie that in the dark. But you can't use it to join two long lines unless you want to feed the new line spool thru the knot. In that case, the double uni is my choice.

It's funny because even though we heve Prime, the wife, whose idea it was to get it, will say "I need to run (40 miles) to get (fill in the blank)" I'll say "Did you look on Amazon?" We live 20 miles min from the nearest WalMart, Lowes or Home Depot. We live 42 miles from a Target. We don't even have a big chain grocery store here in town. The beer selection sux here! We probably spend less paying the Prime fee. Even if we don't, it's better than running the road to shop.

Amazon Prime does charge a yearly fee. But the wife already has it so if I don't use it, I'd be throwing money away on services that charge for delivery. We do most of our Christmas shopping with it. It saves us the hassle of the mall and running around before the holidays. Also, when birthdays roll around, we'll go find something we want and put in the cart. Then the other will order it. That way you get what you want. Also, we watch some streaming TV shows and movies on it. The downside to it is you can't find just any and all fishing equipment on it yet, but it's getting better. You also can't buy the store branded merchandise. When I can't find something there, I can usually come up with a $25 min Academy order.

Spend all the time you can with him. It won't be enough.

My daughter doesn't like to fish. She's 13 and into volleyball, clothes, shopping and makeup...not boys yet. She says they're all stupid. She would go kayaking with me when she was younger but she says I fish too long, which is true. Now she would only go if her other option was staying home and doing nothing. Maybe she'll have a boy that I can turn on to fishing if I live long enough. I went with my dad and I ended up much more the fanatic than he ever was. But he kept going with me until he said he was too old to really enjoy it. We went last fall to his buddy's family's pond and he caught a few. he got tired and went and sat on the tailgate with his bud. I'm glad we had that time because he passed in May rather unexpectedly.

Funny. My dad died in May and I still haven't been able to get all his mail diverted to my house despite visiting the post office twice.

Does that mean stopping the spool with your thumb? (A digit). To stay on topic, I like the ones that aren't worn out. Earlier in my married life, I couldn't afford good BC reels, so I'd buy them secondhand and they'd become worn out quickly. Then I'd need to have them worked on. By the time I had a decent reel, it was almost as expensive as a decent new reel and there were still old parts on it to wear out. I don't have one I'm using that's older than 3 years now. So they all work.

I have a Cabela's 30 miles and almost an hour closer than the nearest BPS due to traffic. And there's an Academy 20 miles closer than the Cabela's. Od course, Academy will ship most orders over $25 for free so they get most of my business. But wait! Amazon Prime ships free and usually quicker. So I usually check there first.

Here it is along with a Remington 514 .22 bolt action single shot that my dad had when he passed away. It's nothing nice, but it belonged to my grandfather, so it's a family heirloom. And it hasn't been produced since 1978. I have no idea how old it is.

Given those choices, probably Monkey Butt. But really, how much of the bait can be seen? The bottom half of all of them look pretty similar.

They probably aren't completely gone. But consider this. If they were overharvested, the ones that wouldn't bite are the ones left. And they're the ones that can discern between real food and a lure. Now there are fewer fish for the same amount or more of bait. They don't need to bite a fake lure. I used to know a man who ran a nearby state DNR hatchery. He said you can't fish a pond out. Some of them just won't bite. Even if you put a major dent in the population, they would get bigger on average and eventually rebound. But them getting bigger on average might mean there were more experienced fish. It might just mean they had more forage. Also, if the small pond feeds the big pond, some fish will probably take a ride to the big pond after a really big rain. Fish also aren't smart. They don't think much. Everything they do is from instinct.

I have a Palmetto State Armory AR15 with a couple enhancements like nicer fore rail and a 3X Sigtac scope. I traded up from a canoe to a Browning buckmark to this rifle. The person that sold it to me built it and said it's only been fired 20X to sight in the scope. I haven't even shot it in the 2 years I've had it. It's the cleanest AR around. I just wanted it because some political powers told me I didn't need one. Well, I don't NEED to own my house, truck or boat either. I don't need 5 baitcasters or a huge HDTV. In America we buy what we desire. I bought a 10 round mag and some hog ammo for it. It's my intention to actually hunt with it.

To that I add, as I always do, weightless Trick Worm. Drop in those holes and just let sink on a slack line. But you'll have to go get some of those fish because they'll bury up in the mat and a MH spinning rod ain't gonna drag them out.

Well, our winter came really late, with a vengeance. We even had "hard water" on all the ponds. There was ice on the big lakes in certain areas and on moving creeks! I've never seen that before and I have a few years on me. So I just kept fishing the same things until it turned really cold. Then I didn't fish for a few weeks. Went Sunday for a couple hours and caught one on a jig. I got two bite on it and one on a weightless Trick Worm. My fault that I only caught one. In bigger waters, the lipless crank has been good to me in the coldest months.

I finally got to use the reel yesterday. I can't imagine what more you'd ask from a $100 reel. It operates pretty much the same as the $130 Lew's Tournament MB's I own. It doesn't have the mag brake, only the centrifugal one. But it casts just as well. I can set the cast control so the bait slowly drops and cast fine with no backlash even if I don't stop the spool. It's quiet and smooth. There's only .5 oz. difference in weight, but the TAC-40 just feels a good bit lighter. It also feels smaller in the hand. I used it with a 3/16 oz. jig and did catch my first bass on it. I even practiced skipping the jig with some success and no (major) overruns. It's just the first outing, but I see zero cons, only pros. I would certainly recommend it. I would buy another later if this one holds up, but it should be a long time before I need another one. I have three of the Lew's reels.

If you'd hate to lose it, that means it works. I Have a gold Trap I'd climb a tree with a hornet's nest in it to get back. I have three more like it, but they aren't it.

I don't. I usually kayak fish and would hate to lose it. Stowed away in a waterproof box is the same as not having one if you actually needed one quickly. And, normally, I'm on a private reservoir or a friend's pond. If I still used the big boat on public lakes, I'd probably open carry. I looked at that pic for a good 30 seconds before I saw the fish. Nice piece. Are those morels? Is that the correct word?

There was a period of 5 or so years that Mann's Jelly Worm was the only bait my dad would use. When we discovered purple, he didn't buy another color. As for the topic, I don't have any baits I'd be afraid to use. It's only $$$, right?

Second that motion. And I get what I can off Amazon Prime. it's easy to get a lower price there if they have it.

I hear you. My PB was caught on a BPS Uncle Buck's spinnerbait two Novembers ago. I'm certain it was bought for about $1.50. I still have it. Most everything about it is cheap, but it has tandem hammered nickel willow leaf blades, which you don't see as much these days. In response to the OP, my favorite is a War Eagle 3/8 oz in gold shiner pattern. It has replaced most of my other SB's.

This is about a pound and a half bass that had another bass down its throat when i caught it. I weighed it after I pulled the little bass out. It looked like it swallowed a softball before I pulled it out. So smaller fish will eat bigger baits. You can see the small bass was getting digested but it had to be around 8" long. This is at my buddy's pond that is full of small bass. It's actually the fattest fish I've caught there in a few years. I threw it back to grow some more. What he said. I've caught a bunch of small fish on the size 40 SPRO Rat. So there's no need to worry about going without a bite.

edit:Never mind. I see this has been discussed OP, as for color preference, I don't think that matters much. I would use darker colors in thick cover and lighter ones in more sparse cover. But I don't think bass think these are really frogs. They're just being territorial and attacking what's in their zone.

Poppin Pad Crasher is my favorite. It walks easily and disturbs the mat well. But I caught a previous PB on the one in my avatar and it still catches them.

Well, I haven't fished yet. It's been too cold and I've been too busy. Honesty, if it wasn't so windy, I'd go. I did take it out in the back yard and toss a small spinnerbait around. It seems very smooth and casts a light lure well. That's all I can report yet.

I have three of that Lew's reel and it's a great reel with a lot of features at that price point. But yeah, Daiwa has so impressed me with customer service I'd buy their reels if I could justify the cost. The sent me free parts three times on a very old Procaster reel. They didn't even reply to the emails, just sent the parts free.