the reel ess

Daiwa makes the Fuego in your price range. Some people really like them. I bought one when they were $100. It's noisy, like sandpaper. The guy I fish with can hear it. I've disassembled it and can't see anything wrong. I lubed it and still noisy. It's several years old and hasn't let me down yet, even with big bass, so I guess I can't complain for $100. But it's now $159 retail, so I wouldn't buy another. I use it for trebles, so the drag does most of the work. At least the drag is smooth.

A while back Lew's was selling a reel called the Tournament MB for $129 retail. I slowly amassed 5 of them and I'm still using 4. Smooth drag, quiet, smooth operation. Hard to beat. Alas, they don't sell it anymore. The one I wore out was abused as a pitching rod for the better part of a decade. I sent it to BPS to be fixed and they said they didn't have parts for it. They offered a comparable refurbished BPS Johnny Morris Carbonlight for $50, which I accepted. It was so comparable it looked like the exact reel in different colors. It also looked brand new. I have since bought one $100 LFS. The drag on the LFS is a noticeable step down from the MB. I know they're still selling a mid-level reel like the MB that has the same features. I think they call it MP and the retail has increased to $159. If I was in the market I would look for that reel. Overall, I think Lew's has a good product that's probably very similar to BPS. The BPS Carbonlite is a pretty good deal at $139. It's most likely made in the same factory. That's $.02 from a Lew's guy in the middle price range.

Gama is my go-to for superline T-rig hooks. Very strong, last forever and I've never had a fish bend one out. I caught my PB on a Gama EWG superline hook. That said, if I buy a lure advertising another premium hook, I'm very unlikely to change them out. I'm not going to buy a Gama hook for every possibility. And if I'm standing in a store and they only have an Owner of what I want to do, I'm buying it. I'm thinking of a big weighted hook for a soft plastic swimbait.

I have 2 fly combos, assorted poppers and flies. Very rarely do I use them. They just feel like a bass fishing handicap. They wouldn't if I used them more. But I just enjoy "guerilla" bass fishing in the heavy stuff. I have caught a few bluegill on them and that's fun, especially when they're bedding. I'll use them in open water or places I know the are full of dinks.

Jointed Rebel or Rapala. The original swimbait. $6.99-$7.99. https://www.basspro.com/p/rebel-jointed-minnow I also have a River2Sea S Waver and an Academy jointed bluegill bait, neither of which has ever produced a nibble. I have actually caught fish on the Rebel.

I feel your pain. I had a major abdominal surgery in late Feb. So the surgeon said no heavy lifting for 3 months because I'm a candidate for a hernia. He also knows I like to hit the gym. I decided I was feeling good enough to fish two Sundays ago and used the kayak as well and fished for 4 hours. The wife took this as a sign I was ready to help her do some yard work. Well, I paid the price for all this by being sore in my gut for a week. I told her I was off limits for another month. I am feeling much better after a week, but I have to be careful.

Noisy topwaters like the WP. Pop-R or Chug Bug, Trick Worm, fluke, spinnerbait. I'll also try to pitch a T-rig to every piece of wood and weeds. I'm always going to try the frog from now until the water cools in the fall.

If I were looking for a rod to do both, I personally wouldn't go longer than 7'. I have a 7'3" frog rod and a 6'9" pitching stick. The frog rod is far too fast in the tip and a little too long to have a good pitching touch. Just my $.02.

I like gold where there are no shad. Fish eat it up in a pond. Give it a try. Most people aren't dedicated t throwing gold, so it's a little changeup. Gold spinnerbait blades, gold lipless cranks, etc. I'm not really sure it looks gold to the fish through the water clarity. Come to think of it, I also like gold where there are shad.

Take just the one lure you want to learn and hit every possible target around the whole body of water. I did it with the jig because I just needed to get the feel of it. I was missing strikes I didn't even know I was getting. I still see more strikes pitching than I feel. I'll admit, I did sort of trade in the jig for a T rig after I realized I was getting hung up in woody cover and ruining the spot for no good reason. But the lessons I learned with the jig carried over to T rigs. I also did the same with a Whopper Plopper. I swore it was a gimmick until I threw it for 4 hours I had a couple of big mamas crush it in shallow, warm summer water in broad daylight when nothing else would bite. Nothing to lose and everything to learn.

I look for anyplace where the vegetation changes as well, a point or a dip or a hole, or there's more than one type of vegetation, or there's a stump, twig, piling or any little thing. But, yeah, the vegetation tells the story of the bottom.

I fish a 30 acre lake and several smaller ponds. I use all the same lures, but sometimes use lighter weights unless it's windy. I can get around the 30 acre in 3 hours in my kayak, paddling-I don't have a motor or pedals. I like frogs, toads, soft swimbaits and ZoomSpeed & Trick Worms for the vegetation.

I got out about 11:00 and fished the better part of 4 hours. I did take a break and eat a snack. I caught 9, missed a few and got this 3.0. Looked like an already-spawned-out female. Looked like I was just a tad late to the spawn. There were beds, but I only saw one male cruising them. I saw what looked like another male guarding fry. It was the best 4 hours since November.

Funny, I caught one over 7 on a topwater in November, after I knew the diagnosis, but prognosis/treatment was uncertain. I took that fish as a major good omen, as it turned out to be.

Well, I still have 3 chemo treatments, 2 weeks apart and 10 more immunotherapy infusions after that, once a month. But the surgery is in the rearview and I can see light at the end of the tunnel. I'm in late 2nd week after chemo, which is the time I feel most "normal". And I'm coming off 4 iron infusions. So I'm feeling pretty frisky. April is for the most part the bass spawn month in SC. I'm planning to get a few hours in Saturday and/or Sunday at a friend's pond that's known for the good spawn bite. Lots of 2-4 lb fish there. I have caught a 6.5. I haven't fished since November, so I'm itching to get back.

Pros swear by the straight shank flipping hook. It's probably a better hook if you fish grass. If you're flipping/pitching wood cover, you're going to be getting hung up a lot. For that reason, I just stick with the Gamakatsu EWG superline hook. I've been using them a long time and I don't lose many fish on them.

And I don't keep many fish, and never the bigger ones. But when I do I feel more a part of nature. The cool thing about fishing is you don't have to kill the resource.

I like to feel like I'm part of the natural order of things. I don't hunt, I only fish. So this means occasionally keeping some fish and enjoying my place in the food chain.

What are some of your fav wakebaits?

Topwaters seem to work better for me in a body of water that's all or mostly shallow. Fish simply seem to be looking up for a meal more when they can't get deep. I'm constantly amazed at how shallow they can be. Smaller topwaters seem better in skinny water unless the bass are really aggressive. Don't get me wrong. I'll fish all day for 2 big bites. But for numbers, downsize. The loud ones generally work better for me in low light. I'll fish them all day, especially in the shadows or on an overcast day. But they will get fewer and bigger bites. Wind or deeper water calls for noisier or bigger baits. Easier for bass to hear and locate. I like poppers when there's a chop. I like the Super Spook Jr or regular Spook for deeper, but calm water. Fall generally calls for smaller topwaters because the year's fry are coming of age and they're as small as bass forage will be all year. This is a big generalization because we have golden shiners in some waters here an they are all over the place in size-2"-7". And some waters, it's just bluegills and fathead minnows as well as other species of small fry. During fall you can catch big bass on small lures.

As soon as you think bass are staging for spawn start trying the plopper. I caught one in February on it last year. And it will likely be a good female. They just can't stand a plopper. It's a bait that I'll throw when nothing else is working because, eventually, a big bass will smash it. And it will be a surprise how shallow that big mama will be.

I fish small to medium private waters. In a pond it's best to remove 20 lbs. of bass per acre a year of small bass to help the overall average size. Also, these are mostly very clean waters. They taste better and are healthier to eat than the crappie from big lakes with boat motors, fertilizer runoff, water treatment plants and sewage spills. One landowner makes me keep whatever I catch. So yeah, I eat them. I never keep one larger than about 3 lbs. Once a bass gets to 3 lbs. it's much more likely to break through to the 5 lb range. And once it's 5 lbs it can eat whatever it wants and can be the largest bass in the body of water if some fool don't eat it. And that's what I want to catch. It's a numbers game at that point. So I do eat them and I am interested in conservation. Getting dinks out of water so the 3 pounders can grow is management.

It would be a total flip for me to be fishing at all at the moment. But I like to power fish. I don't enjoy finesse and won't resort to it unless I must to catch anything. So I would probably do OK flipping the script in that respect. I know I would probably get more bites. They would probably be smaller on average with some larger ones mixed in. It would keep me busy. I enjoy her content as well. FL looks like heaven.

I've had a few good days with them in winter. Here's a tip. After losing several baits to brushpiles and stumps on mono, I switched to straight 30# braid. I haven't lost one since. And fish don't seem to care, even crappie.

If you are not from FL and you go with a guide there during winter you may not learn anything that's useful at home. It's a different world. I fished with one 2 days in So FL in late December, one day for largemouth and one day for peacocks. I caught about 50 each day. Then I went home all hyped up and zeroed twice because it was winter here. I did get some practice pitching/flipping shallow weeds. But I mostly walked the dog and used a jerkbait. I did ask the guy questions as I thought of them. He told me it had been a very long time since he had someone fish two days without a backlash. 😀