the reel ess

That's usually how I detect my jig strikes. It weighs nothing and starts moving on its own. Sometimes when it doesn't get to the bottom, you start to retrieve and the fish will fight you for the jig.

I feel you. I have a medium spinning combo loaded with 20# braid that I've been using for Pop R's because I like to have several rods rigged with topwaters. A lot of the pros recommend braid for poppers. It has cost two fish and one of them was BIG. I thought I should set the drag a little looser because I didn't ant to yank the trebles out. The big one simply took drag into the lilies before I could slow it. I just can't get the hang of fishing braid for topwaters except the frog. But you bludgeon the fish in with the frog combo. I always thought of fluoro or braid as getting an advantage on feeling the strike. The issue with mono is it stretches. But I don't think the fish is stretching it with the strike unless they take the rod out of your hand. IMO, keep trying it if seems right for the technique. You'll get better.

The box my TAC40 came in says Made in Korea. I'd wager they're the same basic reel with upgrades as you go up the line.

I've had days they want that Pop R walking all over the place and days when they only wanted it sitting still.

Right on! I bought reel dirt cheap off eBay only to find it very well worn when it arrived (most likely a trade-in). I sent it to them and ended up with a like new reel dirt cheap. I believe they only charged me the min. of $19.95 at the time.

The box mine came in says 6.2 oz. It looks like the one online has been redesigned a bit. They don't say what the newest model weighs.

You never know what a crazy ol' bass will do. Their brain is pretty small.A couple of times lately I've had bass chase my jig back to the boat as I reeled up for another pitch. I caught one. Burning the flipping jig is not the usual presentation. I usually get some of my biggest or best bites while distracted or picking out a backlash. Go figure.

I'm certain they're made in one of the name brands' factories. Academy doesn't make anything. Therefore, they are almost certainly interchangeable with some brand. A good reel repair guy would know or be able to figure out which one. I've emailed back and forth with BPS rod and reel repair and they assured me they have parts for all mass produced reels. The Mettle has been on the market long enough that they should have stockpiled replacement parts.

Here's an idea. When you fish from a kayak, you can't take your whole tackle arsenal with you. I got a free milk crate and zip tied in 6 pvc pipes and I put it in my rear well. It's held in by the bungee that came with the kayak. That and the 2 flush-mount holders means I can take 8 rods. I take combos with all the lures I think might work at a particular time and don't need to retie all day. I'll usually take a couple packs of soft plastics and one utility box of topwaters/cranks as well as pliers and a scale.

You can finance a boat for 20 years. How many times would you pay for that $50K boat over 20 years. 5 years later it's worth 2/3 what you paid but you have no equity in it.

And yet, the thread that's always recurring on this board is "What's A Good, Cheap, Fill-In-The-Blank That Works?" That's how Shakespeare stays in business. We're fanatics, but a lot of people just dabble. A friend of mine told me he was going to the beach and wanted some cheap combos for his daughters. He has money but didn't want to throw it away on what he considered disposable combos. I told him to go to Walmart at the beach and get two stout Shakespeare combos and be sure to wash them down with freshwater after use.

Here's a secret. You don't have to walk them. I fish a couple of places with a lot of lilies and this is where I get all the bites. Just toss it on top of a mat and give it short jerks across it. Almost all of my bites come on the mat, not in the open water where you would be able to walk it. Of those bites I do get in open water, most come as soon as the bait hits the water. They will get a few bites in low light periods in open water, but near vegetation. But not many. I'll probably get some haters for that comment. But that's my experience. I do pretty well with the frog. Good advice on the Jackhammer.

Take the tiny one to a creek.

I fish from an 8 year old kayak, have decade old Lightning Rods, use Berkley Big Game and wear Magellan. To all but one of my friends, my arsenal is still overkill. That one friend has a Tracker with about 20 rods in it. He gets it. Full disclosure, I have 4 reels and 2 rods that were over $100 new. And I use PowerPro braid for single hook applications. I use quality hooks and have several $15 lures. I order several lures a week and try like hell to not run out of the plastics I use the most. I believe in putting money where it matters most.

I like their lipless crank, though it doesn't catch as many fish for me as the CC Spot. Neither does the Rattle Trap for that matter. There was a thread about it somewhere on here and someone told me it looked exactly like one of the premium bait maker's old mold. So it' porbably made in the same place with some cost cutting measures. Problem I have with it is I've caught a few dinks and the gold finish is almost gone. I have that bluegill swimbait of theirs. It seems to work fine, but I have yet to get a bite with it. I got one of their hollow body frogs because the price was so good and it was a color I didn't have. The material was too hard and it doesn't walk easily. Sort of like the first generation SPRO frogs. IDK that it won't work though. I've considered that. The Mettle has been around a while so BPS Rod and Reel Repair probably has some parts. The TAC 40 was brand new when I got it. But I figured their return policy was so good I could exchange it if it broke early. I've been using it long enough now that i doubt that's possible. I wonder if the internals, though made of different materials, can be interchanged with the Mettle or newer Ethos. Thy look to have the exact same shape.

I just realized they have a TAC40 line of rods as well. Though it appears most models are out of stock.

I use an older 7' Falcon MH rod that was advertised as the Trap Caster back then with a Lew's Tournament MB reel spooled with 15# Berkley Big Game mono. That's the primary one. I also have another combo with a 6'6" Berkley Lightning Rod M action, same reel, same line. It's a cheaper rod with a beautiful action for topwaters with mono line. If I want to fish three topwaters or I want to fish a really light one, I'll also use my M spinning combo, Pflueger Trion reel and 7' newer Lightning Rod, spooled with 20# braid. This is not my preferred combo for topwaters, but it'll do in a pinch. Sensitivity is not critical for topwaters. But the right action is and light weight is very nice as well.

I don't know for sure, but I believe the TAC40 is smaller and lighter. Also, the TAC40 claims 20 lbs of drag, whereas the Mettle claims 13 lbs. When I bought the TAC40, I was considering the Mettle, but it didn't have 7.3:1 retrieve then. Also, the TAC has carbon fiber drag, Mettle does not.

When I started bass fishing, baitcasters were de rigueur for bass fishing. This was the 80s. Spinning gear was looked upon as unsophisticated. Everyone I knew had one MH combo and one M combo. That covered the basics. We only power fished. Finesse meant a T-rig to most of us. It was assumed if you only had spinning combos you didn't know how to use a baitcaster. What did we know? I usually take two spinning combos with me. But they've never felt natural in my hands compared to BC combos. I'm not very good with reaction baits on spinning. So I try to limit them to a few finesse techniques like weightless Trick Worms and flukes.

I like the regular one when the water is a tad cooler, like around the spawn and later in fall. I like the popper in between. When you throw it on the mat, you want to make some disturbance. The popper makes a little more commotion. It also walks more easily for me. At least, the Booyah brand popper walks more easily than the regular one. Also, the Booyah is extremely durable for a frog that soft. I always have the regular one to fall back on when the popper wears out.

I have one that I don't use. But when I have, it's been my 7' MH spinning rod with size 40 reel and 20# braid. Braid won't dig into the spinning reel spool, so heavier line is not strictly necessary unless you just want it for the heavy cover. I don't want to respool the reel just to use that one bait. Honestly, I catch dinks on the regular size Pad Crasher and popping model. I have a dedicated XH/XF BC combo for frogs.

I bought this Academy Sports and Outdoors store brand reel to put on my jig combo. I gave it a positive review when I started using it. Now I've been using it for around two full years. I've had braid on it almost the entire time and pitch jigs into the gnarly stuff with this combo. I usually have the drag cinched down. I've caught several bass in the 6-7 lb range out of cover with it. It has worked flawlessly the entire time. IMO, you can't go wrong with it for $100. If there's any issue with the design, it's very compact. Thus, it's also quite light. It took me a while to learn to get a good grip on it because I was used to larger reels. It also only holds about 50-60 yards of 50# braid. It has an unusually larger diameter spool. So instead of using backing mono line I just tied the braid on the spool and put some tape on it to keep from slipping. 7.3:1 retrieve is great for flipping/pitching. Looking at the reel now, it appears it got a facelift and deeper spool. https://www.academy.com/shop/pdp/h2o-xpress-tac-40-baitcast-reel-120744101#repChildCatid=7813506

Tubes, Senko, deep diving cranks, all for different reasons. Tubes produce no bites, deep diving cranks wear my elbow and shoulder out and Senkos just aren't my thing. I'm thinking hard about giving up the walking baits. I can fish these for a couple hours with no action, take it off and replace with a Pop R or Chug Bug and catch a few. Could have been catching all the time I wasted on the Spook. I have a Sprinker and think I've used it once with zero bites.

I'm mostly done with it myself. I'll slow roll a lipless crank and even resort to a C-rig sometimes. Most places I fish now are shallow and weedy anyway.

Well, I went back this morning with big things in mind. No big slobs this time. I did catch a 3.6 and a 3.0, total of 8 fish. But those are pretty good numbers on the way to the next big bite. It's not unusual to only get a couple bites at this lake in the dog days so the bite is pretty good there right now. I try not to downsize and go finesse there if I can help it because I know there are big fish.