blckshirt98

As a shore guy I cover about a half-mile depending on which place I'm fishing, since I usually know where to stop.. If it's a new lake I'll try to cover as much shore as I can, even if it means less time fishing, because I always try to use my first visit to a lake as an "exploratory" visit looking for spots/structure so in future visits I'll have some familiarity.

I use them nose hookd on a drop shot, they were my first high-end drop shot bait. They do float so be sure to fish them out and use Mend-It to glue the faces back together since those things are not cheap!

1) 3.5"-4.5" plastics that can be nose hooked on a drop shot, have a giant 90-quart Sterlite full of them, along with overflow into half of another. 2) Squarebills of all sorts,mostly Strike King KVDs - as a shore guy I don't really need deep divers so I just go nuts with squarebills that swim in the 0-3' depth range.

Yeah!! Basstrix Flash Trix!

At the Manteca BPS I had brought in my own reel but bought some Berkley Nanofil from BPS to fill the spool with. I asked the person working the reel area how much it would cost to spool the line and he said it was free! I guess if you buy line from BPS they'll spool it up on any reel you bring in, whether or not you bought the reel at BPS or not. I even tried to tip the guy for spooling the reel for me but he wouldn't take it.

I like the Picasso Double Barrel Underspins - the head aligns better with various trailers and you can work it really slow.

I stopped by my local tackle shop to support them for their Black Friday sale. I'm a tackle hoarder so I'm running out of things to buy there but I did grab a 6th Sense SplashBack 90 Popper, 6 packs of Keitech Custom Leeches, and a couple of Plano's to store yet more tackle. Looked for some Picasso Double Barrel Underspins but they didn't carry those, otherwise couldn't think of anything else I needed/wanted!

Nice! Curious about those XTs especially with the premium MSRP - how do they compare to a Stradic or a Stradic CI4 (or a comparable reel at that price point if you haven't tried the Stradics)?

Gander Mountain has some good Cyber Week deals - http://www.gandermountain.com/cyber-week/?cID=GE Fenwick Aetos rods $79.99 ($100 off), Pflueger Limited Edition President Reels $49.99, Pflueger Patriarch XT $124.99 (50% off).

UGH I read this too late and was adding stuff to my cart from Keitech...40% discount is over as of 10pm PST, no FAT Swing Impacts for me

My goal is to end up with a net-negative in tackle I buy vs tackle I use!

I use my BOGO all the time but I can see people preferring a digital scale for their fish, especially for bass when 1/4 pound increments might be too large of a margin.

I just checked the MSRP on that rod to see what would make people say $225 is a great deal...$575! Sweet deal indeed, nice find!

If you're not picky about brand wait for the TW 25 Days of Savings Christmas sale, they had some *ridiculous* deals on Powell Inferno and LuckyCraft rods last year, along with some other brands.

Can you share what it roughly came out to? If I had to estimate I'd probably be somewhere in the $15-20k range lol.

First time I ever fished a chatterbait it was an original D&M Piranha, and it was to that date the most expensive lure I had ever bought. LIterally the second cast from shore, got hung up on some deep rocks, snap, gone. It took me a while to recover from that one.

To WIGuide's point, I forgot to add that I'm a shore guy so I can't speak of using a DS from a boat. I have also used a 6'8" MXF Cumara and an 8' Phenix Elixir for a dropshot rod and both work fantastic, but as you can tell I'm not particular about rod length. The M1 is the most versatile which is why it's caught the most for me, and the Cumara and Elixir work because I use small hooks (#2,4, or 6) and nose hook my baits so I really don't need much of a backbone to get the hook in. If I were going to get a dedicated finesse drop shot rod I'd go with something in the ML neighborhood.

+1 billion for the Phenix M1 7'2" MXF rod - I've caught more fish on a dropshot on that rod than all of my other rods combined! You can use it for other things as well such as small crankbaits and other finesse presentations!

+1 to Texas Tackle. I tried using my fingernails and needle nose pliers at first but when I decided to swap out the front trebles on a lot of my squarebills I got a pair of split ring pliers. Never using anything else.

You don't need a fancy backpack, but one thing I put into strong consideration is how well the side/water bottle pockets will secure extra rods especially if you're going to do a lot of walking. When I want to bring 2-3 rods I don't like putting down my rods on the ground or leaning them up against things, especially if I'm trying to cover a lot of shoreline because I always have to constantly pick up the extra rods and move them. Look for a pocket with narrow water bottle side pockets and double side lashes to hold extra rods in place above/below the reel seat. I recall seeing an REI pack that had really narrow side pockets to fit ice picks that look like it would be the perfect size for a rod handle. As for stuff to bring, don't go overboard. Try to have a gameplan on what you're going to use especially if it's a familiar lake so you don't get bogged down with tackle. I've seen guys packing an entire trunk in their backpack and they seem to spend too much time dropping their pack and digging around and moving boxes to find what they're looking for. You should be able to open your pack and know where to find what you need in the dark.

Yamamoto Pro Senko Long - you can T-rig, C-rig, wacky, shakey, dropshot, anything it, and, can trim it down if you need a shorter length.

Sometimes it's good to re-post topics because it gives new people a chance to share their experiences with a bait/technique.

Do any of you insure your tackle in case of theft or a house fire? (Flooding wouldn't be an issue, it would probably be the only time most of my stuff would ever see the water.)

Huge fan of fiberglass crankbait rods. I have a Phenix XG3 I use for heavier cranks, and a Orochi Swingfire for medium cranks. The best benefit for me is how effortlessly you can recast your crankbait over and over again without getting fatigued or irritating your wrists/elbows/shoulders. The moderate action lets you lift the crank out of the water, whip it back, around, and out, like a slingshot.

For the regular dropshot weights go through eBay - ridiculously cheaper than retail, and some of the eBay sellers use a better crimp for the line.