the reel ess

I own 3 Lightning Rods. And while I really like them and they're durable, I don't consider them sensitive. I use them for treble lures and moving baits like spinnerbaits/buzzbaits. I'd think you'll like the Daiwa offering more. Enjoy.

People who keep everything are not educating fish. It's actually the strictly catch and release crowd that do that. I'm not judging either group. But the places I usually fish, there aren't many people fishing anyway so it doesn't matter what I tell them.

The problem is we get too excited and the cart outruns the horse. I lost a pair of Ray Bans for a year in my boat. I eve used the boat, but where I dropped them was not very obvious.

Left the plug out when taking off from the landing. Once we discovered our mistake we tried to run it out at tops speed, but there was too much water already in the boat and it wouldn't plane. Barely made it back to the ramp and had to pump it/ hand bail it out in public. Accidentally pulled the kill switch on my fish/ski boat and didn't fish for most of a year because I didn't have the $ to take it to a mechanic. My dad called me one day out of the blue and asked if I'd checked the switch. GRRRR!!!! My dad and I were out fishing in his aluminum bass boat and we ended our trip up at a stump. We pulled up the trolling motor and my dad cranked and took off...right into the stump. We ran up on it and slid off the side. We both almost fell out and it loosened some rivets on the hull. At the time I thought the boat was going to flip. I've fallen out of the kayak by setting the hook on a fish that was no longer on the hook. I just kept on going and slid out of the seat. I didn't lose anything and it didn't turn over. I had my PFD on and got line wrapped around one leg. My daughter will never forget it. Wired my hand controlled bow mount trolling motor (backwards), checked it and it spun. Went fishing and had to use it in the three reverse speeds all day. My dad had an old Glassmaster boat with the cable steering setup. The cable broke at home and he rigged it so that the motor turned. He was satisfied and took off to go fishing. Well, it turned backwards all day. He said there's nothing more confusing that trying to steer like you're backing when you're going forward. My dad was very absent minded about trolling motors, anchors, etc. He was known to drive his pontoon with the anchor out. Both of the welded lugs on the front of the pontoons were bent from it. But I'd sure LOVE to take a boat ride with him again.

Same here. I could take one rod between Dec-March.

If that is bass, you should be able to catch one. They won't spit it that fast. I have the best luck with the frog when I observe bass chasing bait or bluegill in the shallows or weeds.

Nice bass though.

A lot of bass fishing is learning the water. Every pond has a different personality. Some have different forage than others. Some are barren bowls and some are flooded stump fields. I fish one where the owner says they won't bite when the wind blows. He seems to be correct. I fish one where 20-plus fish is expected and one where I might only catch one, but there's a chance for it to be a 5 pounder or better. And the best tool I have for pond fishing is my kayak. I have access to almost every fish in the pond with it. You know what they say. It's more important to have the wrong lure in the right place than to have to right lure in the wrong place. So getting to the fish is most important. The next best weapon is a bottom bumping bait like a T rig. It will show you the depth, bottom composition and structure/cover on bottom. That's the poor man's electronics. And as a bonus, it catches bass! If you're walking the bank, be stealthy, especially if it's open to the public. When you approach, take some casts before you get to the water's edge. There might be a bass right there. When you get to the edge take some casts parallel to the edge. Pond bass love the edge, especially in the low light periods. That reminds me, pond bass are more likely to bite topwaters, so get a few like a buzzbait, Pop R and and Spook, Jr. Try to carry lures that cover the water column from bottom to top. And lastly, my secret weapon for ponds (don't let this get out) is the Zoom Trick Worm. I haven't found the pond where they won't bite this bait. You can use it weightless, on a T rig or a C rig, or you can wacky rig it. It's my Senko. And I have some Senkos. Next best is the hollow body frog, but that can call for some specialized equipment like a hvy rod and heavier braid line.

Bass jump, big bluegill fight to get down and their head snaps are short, crappie fight a little on a level plane and make straight glides, but give up pretty easily, catfish fight hard in short runs and will roll before giving up, stripers peel off your drag for 10-20 yards before they know they're hooked.

Every bass I ever cut open had shad or some other kind of minnows in its stomach. There was one I helped out by removing a crawfish claw from its nether regions before I released it. Didn't even get a thank you.

It's pretty easy to remember and I can't see all that well anymore. I could do the surgeon's knot without looking.

Anybody use the surgeon's knot? I decided to experiment with leaders as I've been using either straight braid or mono. I went with a mono leader all this year tied with a surgeon's knot. Not one breakoff at the leader knot.

Under harvesting might be the problem as well. You have all these people catching fish and releasing them. Fish aren't bright, but they do know what's not a pleasant experience to them and they will try to not repeat it. Too many fish in an ecosystem equals smaller fish. And smaller ones are uneducated. People want more choices among gamefish, so you introduce stripers, hybrids and blue catfish. Actually, blue catfish have popped up a lot of places they weren't officially stocked. So this has to have an effect on bass and crappie.

Buzzbaits, topwaters and poppers! But if you know there are still fish there and they won't take a topwater, try the spinnerbait.

Let's define "necessary". They ate what they killed. And wild game was a nuisance to crops. But where I live, wild game is at it's best numbers in probably 100 years. Fewer and fewer people are hunting and the ones that are have the best lands leased, which doesn't help attract new hunters to take up the tradition. Fishing seems to be the exact opposite to me. More rude and inconsiderate people everywhere I go.

My dad and his buddy caught 180 crappie once jigging docks and only stopped because the sun went down. That lake has probably 3X as many people living on it now and 5X as many fishing it. It's downstream from a few cities and dirtier than ever. I stopped bass fishing it because I couldn't ever seem to be left alone on it, even on weekdays...even in winter. I'd find myself on secondary or worse spots just trying to get away. That said, I've had 50+ bass days in a friend's pond and caught more bass over 5 lbs in the last few years in a local reservoir than I did my whole life before. The good ol' days can be looked at different ways. I can't go fishing with my dad ever again and that's sad. And my daughter's not interested in fishing so I can't pass it down. Maybe she'll have a son or sons and I can pass it along to them. But I can keep doing it until I'm too old to enjoy it. In many ways, these days are the good old days. To quote Iron Maiden: "So understand, don't waste your timeAlways searching for those wasted yearsFace up, make your standAnd realize you're living in the golden years"

Nasty...but true. Only I'd try the bubble gum color first. If they won't take that or lime, I'd go to the old watermelon. On second thought, with the water so clear, I'd go with watermelon. And I might try to get there early or late and try the frog.

I cut grass. We had lots of pines around so I raked and sold the straw (needles). But my sister was the one who wanted and got clothes. She didn't even work. So my mom was usually willing to buy me something when we were in a store. I went fishing with my dad so he bought me stuff. But he certainly didn't believe in the adage "Buy the best equipment you can afford." When I turned 16 I got a real job and never looked back.

If you like Lew's, why switch. I have three of their LFS Tournament MB's now and one old BPS Johnny Morris reel. I'll replace the BPS before much longer. I'm replacing all with higher speed reels. It's funny how a 7.5:1 reel is now just a normal speed. I have a BPS XPS Rick Clunn edition reel that's maybe 8 or 10 years old that's 7.1:1 and it says on the reel "SUPER HIGH SPEED".

You got some good stuff here. You're off to a great soft plastics start. The biggest adjustment for me when I started using worms (many decades ago) was the hookset. I was just used to reeling in a crank or Trap and tightening the line. Fish hooked themselves. I had to buy a MH rod and practice to get better at it. Feeling that bite and setting the hook is one of the best feelings in all of fishing. Sounds like you're fishing for aggressive fish. There will come times when the reaction baits won't work and you'll be set.

Depends. Around here a summer low pressure front could be ignored. If you know it's coming, you can jump on it as the barometer drops and sometimes the bite will be awesome. When confronted with bluebird skies, I usually try to fish all the cover with a T-rigged worm or craw. I'm getting into the jig thing. I'll also throw a frog along the edge. Fish will sometimes hit it when they aren't hungry because it had the unmitigated audacity to plop down into their cozy living room. Anywhere two types of cover or structure and cover converge is a pretty good target when there's full sun. When all else fails, I'll bust out the wacky rig or Finesse Worm and hit every piece of wood cover. If I go out and get skunked or very close to it, I'll pay a visit to my buddy's farm pond. It has the hungriest small bass I know of and some very large bluegill.

I had one straighten out an EWG hook once that would have been a PB I've never felt a fish this strong My buddy got to the side of the boat to help land it and said he thought it looked like 9-10 lbs. I didn't get any sight of it. I had been fishing with a frog on that rod and the drag was cinched down. I switched to a t-rigged Hula Grub and didn't reset it. It was really disappointing because it would have smashed my PB. I sat down until my nerves settled and just started fishing again. I can't possibly catch a new PB without a hook in the water.

There are Rat L Traps, a Spook, Shad Raps, Some Rapala and maybe Rebel minnows. I don't see much "junk" in there. Meybe a few of the smaller cranks. I might yard sale them and the box, but I'd keep most of this.

Well, we drove about 20 miles to lake Wateree, SC and observed the 99.9% eclipse with no clouds. I took a rod and a Rooster Tail. I didn't see a sign of a fish, except for a school of shed, but it got pretty dark and cooler. We heard the cicadas and a whiporwill start up. It lasted maybe 3 minutes and it was over. But it looked dark on the horizon for another 10 minutes or so.

I forgot this one. My dad and I were fishing a flat one day and he hooked a catfish basket. He reeled the thing up and there was a big turtle and some rotten catfish in it. The turtle thrashed around and soaked us both with disgusting rotten catfish stench as we tried to unhook the basket. The fishing day was over at that point.