the reel ess

It depends totally upon where I'm fishing. In Florida, a 6 Lb. bass is pretty routine. IN South Carolina, not so much. I think in SC 5 lbs. is my lower range of a "really nice bass". There are some places I fish where 2 lbs. is a good fish. There's one place I fish where 1 lb., or even a fish with a gut, is a good bass. But I keep going there and taking small bass out of it. I'll take 1-2 lb. bass all day long though. It holds your interest. If you're fishing a place with bigger ones but catching dinks, you're just putting in the work to get one of them.

The Zoom Trick Worm. It stays tied on my MH spinning combo even when I know something else will probably work better in a certain situation. Topwaters and frog come to mind.

I use the M spinning for light trebles. Sometimes I'll use it for a light topwater like a Pop R. It's perfectly balanced for it. The MH spinning is for lighter finesse lures. It usually has a weightless Trick Worm tied on. They're both 7 footers. As for the 7.5:1 reels, I have 4 of them. They're almost the standard speed nowadays. And no apologies necessary. I got your point.

Keep the two 7.5:1 reels. IMO the two best baitcasting rods are a MH/MF for single hook baits and a medium MF for trebles. Length is up to you, but somewhere between 6'6" and 7' would be average. If you just left it open-ended and asked me for the two best bank combos, i would have said a MH BC and a MH spinning would cover the most bases. I know there's a need for Heavy for the frog. But the MH would do in a pinch and you limited it to 2 rods. I use 7 or 8 bass combos and have one dedicated for frog.

Haha. I take 8 rods when I go and sometimes use 5 of them before I get a fish. There is a place full of hungry dinks I got to where you can see what they won't bite. I caught one on a sour gummy worm there once. I made a lure from small shiny wrench after seeing a YouTube video about it. Sort of a jigging spoon type bait. But I haven't used it. I may just put it back on my tool box. It's more useful there.

If the place is managed by DNR and there's a limit and the guy isn't exceeding the limit, there's nothing you can do about him keeping a 3 pounder. Honestly, if DNR is checking the population and average size keeping bass is good for a small fishery. I won't keep a 3 pounder. But some will eat that fish.

Spending a day with a good guide would be a great investment that he won't forget.

I don't usually eat bass, but I will from time to time. usually, it's when I've fished at my buddy's dink factory pond. You SHOULD keep a lot of bass you catch from a pond even if you throw them over the dam. High population will make them smaller. There are places where that's not legal or it's frowned upon by the owner or the HOA. So you do whatever they want. They do taste a lot better when taken from a clean body of water.

Thanks guys

Their action is the BEST and they're easy to rig to run straight without a weighted hook. The most bites come when I fish them like you would a T rigged worm.

That's what I'm reading about most of them in the reviews. I've used the Zoom Super Swimming Fluke with some success. But T rigged, they don't stay upright. It's the nose that's getting ripped. They work fine on a jighead, but they're fouled with weeds just about every cast.

I've been using these little jewels (3.75") lately and can't keep the fish off them. I've been rigging them on an EWG hook with a 3/16 oz bullet weight. But they're only good for one fish usually before they're too far gone to use. The last place I fished warmouth wore them all out. Is there a more durable alternative?

You can look up average weight of bass by length. If 20" it looks like it should be about 4.68. And that rounds nicely to 5 lbs. ? Nice fish. Congrats.

I'm very sorry for your loss. These are tough times to lose a family member because you can't get the normal closure. I lost my mom almost 8 years ago and my dad almost 3. What's so odd is my parents were 10 years younger than my wife's and in good health. My wife's mom had MS and dementia and her dad had dementia. They both outlived mine. Nothing takes the wind out of a your sails as an adult quite like losing parents. You finally have life by the tail. Then BAM! you lose a parent. It's hard to handle but you still have one and they serve as the link to the other. Then you lose that one. I'm not over mine yet. But you've had to deal with an entire other level of grief most people don't. I told my wife after my dad died it felt like getting kicked in the stomach every day for months. If I may suggest something. My parents named me the personal rep of their estate. That only served to prolong the grief a couple more years. It's another weight hanging over your head when that's about the last thing you need. Knowing what I now know, I should have handed it all to a lawyer and let them do the legwork. I would recommend that to anyone unless there is nothing left in an estate. Anyway, hang in there and remember all the good things you shared with them. In time that's what you'll hang on to.

Years ago my buddy that I carpooled to work with called to tell me I had to drive to work that day. He was going to put his car in the shop because it wouldn't crank. I brought my tools and showed up early to see what was the problem. It was an RX-7 with the Wankel engine. I knew next to nothing about it, but it uses fuel and air and spark to go. I figured I would check the plugs, wires, distributor, look for a fuel filter, etc. I took the air cleaner off and tried it. It cranked right up. C'mon man! Learn a little something about cars if you're going to drive an old one. He was so put out with that car he just wanted to be rid of it.

Now that I look it up it may have changed. Reading the law now it appears there's a lower weight limit of 3000 lbs. where only reflectors are required. That may be why my dad was never affected. Most boat trailers come with them now anyway-probably all of them.

I'm sure we did as well at some point. That's another thing about SC. Even the cops are big on personal liberties and look the other way a lot. We always tried to keep it wired, but you know how old wet trailers are.

We don't even have to have lights on the trailer in SC as long as you don't tow it in the dark. I love SC.

nm

Bass react slowly to warm air temps because the water does. But we react quickly because we're dying to get out there. In the spring, when planning a day off to go fishing, I'll look for the third or fourth day of warm temps. They still sell something like these in my local hardware store. my dad and I used to make them, minus the propeller.

IDK why anyone would post good fishing reports from their favorite lake. I would only say "I tried Lake X again today and not even a sign of a fish. I think there was a fish kill. I would not recommend going there. BTW, the fish in all my social media pics came from elsewhere."

I grew up in a town of about 1300 with no large cities around. the closest small cities are 20 miles in opposite directions. I moved away to get closer to work. Got divorced and when I met my current wife she was living right here in the town I'm from and where my parents still lived. So I moved right back. We have an active gold mine that has added a few hundred to that number but I doubt it will ever grow much in my lifetime. It's a great place to live, but you have to drive a ways to find good work unless it's the mine. I work from home now, but the company I work for is in Charlotte, NC.

The first Christmas my in laws knew me my sister in law gave me a clemson tiger whipping a SC Gamecock Christmas ornament. On the way home I told my wife I don't understand why she would give me that. What made her think that was a gift idea for me? The wife said "From the look on your face I doubt she'll ever do something like that again." And she hasn't.

I'd like to supercharge or turbo one and put that to the test. There's a Dodge short bed pickup manual transmission in my neighborhood with a slant six that's begging for the ratty sport truck treatment. I was interested in it for a project until the owner told me it was a 6 cyl. Fav: My '08 Silverado 5.3l has been the best engine I've owned. Completely trouble free for 12 years. I work from home now and it only has 114K miles. I'll likely keep it another decade. Runner up: 1981 Toyota Starlet 1.3l. It averaged over 40 MPG when I was driving it 40 miles each way to college. It was a hand me down from my sister with a lot of miles but it kept plugging along until I wrecked it. A mechanic told me it didn't make enough compression to wear itself out. LOL Worst: 1978 Chevy 305 2 bbl in a Camaro. It was worn out at 80K miles and so weak I got outrun by 4 cyl Mazda truck. I'd still like to have the car back now that I could afford to wrench on it..