the reel ess

It's a 2013 Wrangler Sport soft top. It has the bars to the windshield and past the back seat. It's a 2-door. Spare on the back, trailer hitch. I have a 12' Pescador Sport sit on top kayak. I'd prefer not to have to go topless while carrying the kayak because I son't want water and grass and dirt falling on me. Thanks.

It still is. And I have a pool cue for a frog rod. When Hurricane Hugo hit here I lived at Lake Wateree with my parents. The lake level went up about 8 feet for a week or so. My dad was sitting up the steps to the dock, which was way underwater and hooked a bass. It went under the dock steps and got him hung up. I came to the rescue by putting on my swimsuit and going diving for the chunky little bass.

I have the older generation of Pescador and it's been a good one. The main issue I have with it is the seat gets uncomfy after a couple hours on my old butt. But at least it has a padded seat and back support. It also doesn't lend itself well to standing. I'm not he most coordinated guy so I don't even try. My next one will have a frame seat. But I'm looking at a higher end one next because I want it to get me into my retirement, which I expect to be about 10 years. If i were to get one right now it would be the NuCanoe Frontier fishing package. They're just so customizable.

Check this out: http://kayakfishingblog.com/2016/03/value-battle-pescador-pro-120-vs-pelican-catch-120/

I have a bait I bought years ago called a Frontrunner by Blakemore. They were on a closeout endcap at BPS. I bought two of these the same day I bought the bass colored Spook. I think they stopped making it, but I believe it was bought out by War Eagle. You tie it on your main line, tie a short leader, then tie on your Spook or other walking bait. As you walk the dog it looks like a baitfish running from your walking bait. It zigs as the Spook zags. It is supposed to allow for double hookups. So far, it has never produced a double. I think that's because the rear bait is big baitfish size. Most fish would go for the bigger bite. I think I'll tie it on next trip.

My dad had a Jeep Wrangler when he passed away and I've decided to keep it. I love driving the thing for many reasons, not the least of which is it was his. Who on here uses one to carry a kayak? How do you do it? Show me what you got? I've been doing it with my truck and that's always an option. But I'd love to be able to take the Jeep to the beach and carry my kayak.

I'm not about to say it's better than a Curado because I've never owned a Curado, but I have two Lews LFS Tournament MB reels. I loved the first one so much that after a season I bought a second. And I'm seriously considering asking the wife for a third for my birthday. It's a helluva reel for the $120 range. I have to replace a worn out BPS Clunn reel for lipless carnks and topwaters. For our birthdays, we usually just put what we want in the Amazon prime cart and wait until our birthday and act surprised. All that said, I've been considering the Curado too because of its reputation.

I had one particularly magical May morning where I slayed the bass on a Spook. I motored into a cove and sat on my favorite spot of all time at the local hydro lake. I caught 5 bass on 5 casts with another fisherman watching me while he trolled up the bank in my direction. I got a 6th bite, but it broke me off because I'd gotten so excited I had forgotten to check my line. I only had one Spook, so I tied on one of the few other topwaters I had, a Pop R. I didn't get another bite, even after switching to other baits.

No, but I wasn't prepared to and would have sunk up to my knees in the pond bottom. I was sinking standing on the ground. If I only had one, I might have considered it. Actually, this is it. And I got this off BPS and they still sell it! I was wrong! Problem solved. Crisis averted.

Yeah, they probably make them better now than they did then. I feel certain the hooks are better now. I had to sharpen the hooks on that old one. Back when I bought this one, there weren't so many options.

I went to my buddy's family's pond last night. I walked up to where I normally throw a frog on lilies. There was a clear spot near the bank and a 3 lb bass was in maybe 6" of water there. It didn't move though I was clearly in its field of vision and talking. I told my buddy "there's a 3 pounder right here." It was 6 feet away and seemed to be interested in me. So I flipped my frog about 5 feet in front of its nose and it slowly swam over to it, sort of stalking. Then it crushed the frog. I set the hook and pulled it out of the sparse lilies. I weighed it and it was the 3 lbs. it looked like in the water. that has never happened to me, even during spawn, where a bass has been that easy to catch or that eager to eat something, especially a good size fish. My guess is it had been chasing bluegill at the edge and saw motion and got interested. I asked my buddy if they feed the fish there and he said no. It was a cool sight to see. i didn't get another fish for 2 hrs and it was another 3 pounder, this one on a white buzzbait.

I was at a pond that the owner didn't want me using my kayak in. I cast over a stump and when I yanked the Spook to flip it over, it went into another cypress tree and wrapped a limb. The line was 15# Big Game. It broke off and I had no way to get to it. That's been a good lure and they don't make that color of baby bass anymore. It's more of a gold/black color now. Not that that matters much on a topwater. I still have an old sort of silver shad color one. RIP green baby bass Spook. You fooled many o' good bass and some schooling stripers. On the bright side, I did catch 2 bass around 3 lb. on a frog and a Hart Throb white buzzbait with the clacker thingy.

It's more weedless than you imagine. Of course it's not totally weedless, but was surprised. And the hookups are great with it. Apparently the fish take the bait head first.

In my younger days I worked in a manufacturing plant with some guys who, for whatever reason, had a hard time pronouncing my last name so they shortened it to a nickname. "Ess" or "The Ess". Then another guy came to work there with that same nickname so I jokingly called myself "The Real Ess." And since this is a fishing site, I changed the spelling of Real to Reel. Thus, TheReelEss.

Well, someone I use to work with 3 years ago gave me one root beer and two chartreuse metal flake. Since I was into Zoom, I didn't use any of the Mann;s until last fall when I started trying the nose hook method. There's one place I fish where they just love shades of gold. The fish loved the chartreuse this spring around the spawn. I still have one root beer tied on. I have noticed they aren't in every store, but I believe I've seen them at the local Walmart. I have some Zoom in bubble gum color that bass bite. If you have an Amazon prime account (my wife does) you can get them in certain colors with no shipping. I've bought a lot of baits that way. Just be careful. I've bought some the wrong size because I didn't do my research.

Hey, I like this! I'vebeen nose-rigging flukes for years. It helps the action out a lot by getting action throughout the entire bait and the hookup ratio is better. Plus you don't need to swing for the fences on the hookset. Just tighten up and reel. Have you tried the Mann's Hardnose jerkbait? It's extremely durable in the nose area. You won't need anything but the hook for it. But I understand brand loyalty. I've caught a lot of fish on the Zoom as well.

I started out with 65. But then when I was not using my frog rod for frogs (about half the year) I was using it for jigs and soft plastics. I didn't use any leader at that point, so it was hard to thread thru a bullet weight. I needed a mono loop to pull it thru. I went down to 50 and have never broken that, so I'd say 50 is as high as I'll ever be going. But I hear that smaller will dig into the spool. In fact, the higher tests dig in. Another reason I think 50 is right size for me. I read that braid is not rock-abrasion-resistant. I have no experience with that because I fish places that are full of lilies or old wood. Again, I have never broken straight braid. Not even 20#. I'm sure I'll get around to it someday.

Might I suggest you try a new Booyah Poppin' Pad Crasher? Out of the box, it's the best I've useed, but I did bend the hooks out a bit and trimmed the legs. If you want to walk it, it walks easier than most regular frogs, I guess due to the shape. But you can stop it every now and then and pop it, then start walking. It's two frogs in one. It's great o the pads, but seems to get open water strikes a little better. Frog hooks won't stay sharp forever. The roof of a bass's mouth is a pretty tough surface.

I want a pair with 1.5X readers in them. I'm not going to order any expensive ones without trying them on. So I'll just do without until I can find a place with some good ones. BTW I was in Sunglasses Hut the other day and they had no glasses with readers and didn't offer to get me any. But the did tell me there were "stick-on" readers I could try out if I wanted to give them a go. Has anyone tried these?

I have the exact same combo. I use 20# PowerPro braid. I use cheap mono as backing line to lower cost. I just think 6# mono is almost too light for bass if this is your only combo. There will be lures that you need to get a good hookset on and that 6# is going to stretch. You usually have a good bit of line out when you use a C rig. You're going to have to lighten your drag to avoid breaking line and it will eventually cost you a big fish. If you feel the need to go light for visibility, you can use a mono leader. I do this when I make a light C rig for this combo. I use an 1/8 oz. bullet weight and 10 lb. low vis green Trilene leader below the swivel. Then I'll use a 4" Zoom Finesse Worm. I would only ever use 6 lb for crappie or if I was in a place with extremely clear water. And I never fish a place like that. well, I also have a light combo I take to a pond with stunted bass and good bluegills that has 6 lb on it and I miss some bites because of the stretch factor. If you think braid is prohibitively expensive, consider that it lasts longer than you'll want to keep it on your reel. You can use cheap mono as backing to fill half your spool. Then if you reel it from one reel to another, the other end will be like brand new. It also has less line memory and less twist issues.

I ditto the 15# Berkley Big Game. I use a 6'6" Medium for this as well as other heavier treble hardbait presentations like lipless cranks. This is a pretty good all around line for trebles. It floats (at least for a while), it's cheap and reliable and it has some stretch to help keep the trebles hooked up. I think copolymer is a version of the same idea. I'm actually thinking of switching to it, but i still have hundreds of yards of Big Game to use up. I can see the braid argument though because there are some walking baits like the Spook that you can cast a country mile and not be able to reel up the slack enough to get a good hookset, taking into account the mono stretch factor. Especially when you're trolling along searching for fish. You have to consider that stretch of mono can be 10% of the length you have out. If you cast 60' and set the hook, that could mean you move the rod 6' and don't get any real pressure on the fish. You might even just take the slack out with your hookset.

That depends on the line. For mono, which is my choice for these baits, I use an improved clinch. I would assume the improved clinch would be a good choice for copolymer as well. But I think I'd use Palomar for braid/fuoro because that's the only one I know for braid. Not quite sure about the fluoro because I don't use it and there are other personal preference people have.

Here's a handy chart showing the difference between shellcrackers (redear sunfish) and pumpkinseeds, among others. And I understand shellcrackers get a good bit larger. They also have a different diet as one's name implies.

Yeah, I never caught one much bigger than 5" in my whole life.