blckshirt98

It's not so much a matter of "does it catch more fish" because any decent fisherman can catch fish with a $1000 JDM reel or a $10 Barbie spincast. The difference is will you get more enjoyment from ownership,which is an intangible thing. It might just be a piece of art/conversation piece you keep at home in a collection that you never use on the water and play around with your hands, or, it might be a reel you use on the water regularly that just makes your fishing experience more enjoyable. Sure there's more refinement, better materials, unique colors/badging/stamping on high end reels but you can't really say it'll give you $x hundred dollars worth of more fishing success/enjoyment than a lower end reel, since it's mostly subjective to the individual.

First things first, make sure those new ponds you try have bass in them! Whenever I try a new place I don't go in with the expectation of catching, I see them as mostly exploration trips where I try to walk as much shoreline as possible and make as many casts in different spots as possible to get a feel for depth and bottom, and any structure or cover. After a handful of trips you should be able to find productive water or at least eliminate unproductive water, so each subsequent trip increases the number of quality casts you make. Eventually as you become more familiar with the lake you'll have more success. Don't let tough initial trip or two get you down and just keep trying to figure the lake out.

Sweet looking setup, can't wait to read the review!

For the record all of us here in Northern California hate people in Southern California for not conserving water and sucking up all of the water from the Delta.

You can get a new Curado I on the 'bay for about $130!

100% shore guy here too and I dropshot 75% of the time - BobP is right where you don't want to be shy about having a long length of line between your hook and the dropshot weight because your line will be angled sharply so a 12" distance may only end up being about 4" off the bottom because of the line and upward slope of the bank. Also any bait you use, drop it in the water in front of you and see how much action you can impart on the lure with a twitch or tap of the rod - you should notice that *barely* twitching the rod will make your bait dart around, so keep that in mind and don't overwork the bait.

I buy stuff on sale and have bought all kinds of hooks here and there, but I always seem to go back to Owner Mosquito/Gamkatsu SplitshotDropshot hooks for dropshotting, Owner TwistLock hooks with the centering pin for C-Rig/T-Rig, and either Gamakatso Weighted EWG or Owner Beast for swimbaits. I've tried Roboworm Re-Barbs, Skip Gap, Offset Worm, Straight Shank Worm and a bunch of others, but still seem to go back to the others.

You're not allowed to transport fish in CA from one body of water or another. Unless your local County Park/Water Agency can work something out to transport fish, they're pretty much going to just let them die. I believe many years ago when they had to drain one of the reservoirs here in Santa Clara County they were able to move fish to another reservoir, but there's another reservoir that needs to be drained for dam retrofitting and moving fish is out of the question. They're instead considering leaving a small section of reservoir filled with water to hold some fish.

I haven't hired a guide yet but have been thinking of getting a CA Delta guide, and one thing that's a strong consideration of mine is the personality of the guide. If you can catch seminars or YouTube clips of the guide you can get a feel for his/her personality. Some guides come across as "I'm the expert and know it all, you should be able to do what I teach you" some are more humble and take more time explaining things. If you're going to spend all day on a boat with them, this might come into play on how much you enjoy your time on the water.

When considering weight also don't forget the trailer you plan on using - some of those trailers out there will add a good chunk of weight to the final package.

As for color, Andy Cuccia is a jig fisherman up on the CA Delta and in his seminars he repeatedly says the only colors he uses are basically black(black/blue) or brown(brown/purple) with those secondary colors mixed in now and then.

#2 is my most common size for largemouth. Don't know anything about walleye but I'll use a larger hook if the bait has a thicker nose (like a fluke). The Owner mosquitos are the best hooks for dropshotting IMO

Buy one and be the first to use it and post up a review here!

Grats on finding success with the drop shot! Most of my fish are drop shot fish but I started using more crankbaits and chatterbaits last year, and have caught a decent amount of fish on them. I seem to have better luck with a reaction bite in the late spring/early summer, though I'll catch fish on squarebills from Spring through the Fall. Just keep flinging the crank out there and maybe try to change up your speed. Sometimes you need to burn it, sometimes you need to reel it kind of slowly. Also reel the crankbait all the way up to your feet...As a shore guy I've caught quite a few fish when the fish hits it a couple of feet from shore right when I'm about to lift my lure out of the water for another cast.

Kistler is having a sale on their Magnesium 2 rods. No coupon needed just add them to your cart. Pretty sweet deal if you can get 3-4 rods, though a few of the sturdier sticks are already out of stock - - ORDER 1 - GET 25% OFF - ORDER 2 - GET 30% OFF - ORDER 3 - GET 40% OFF - ORDER 4+ - GET 45% OFF

I fish small cranks on spinning gear and my typical setup is a 7'2" Phenix M1 Medium-Extra Fast rod, with a Shimano 2500 sized reel with 15-20lb braid. I don't think I rely on the rod loading as much as getting a good whip/snap of the wrist to fling the crankbait out. Also having a full spool helps a lot with getting more distance. I can't speak much for throwing small crankbaits on casting gear because I tried that and got too many bird nests.

I shipped a rod recently in an 8' long tube re-purposed from Tackle Warehouse. Cost me $40 through UPS. Also makes me wonder how some of these mail order companies make any money off of rods (like when TW sells a rod for $50 on sale then has free overnight shipping in CA).

You can always buy packets of desiccant in bulk and put them in any of your tackle boxes to help with moisture/rust, especially if they charge more for the Zerust feature.

Mustad KVD Triple Grip 2x Short for crankbaits since the short stem lets you go up one hook size without worrying about the hooks fouling up.

Overstock bait has Kinami Flash senkos on sale for $1.47 for a pack of 7, so that's only 20 cents per senko. They had some decent colors in shades of green this morning but this morning from the time I checked the website at home to the time I checked the website at work, someone wiped out all the good colors and they only have black/red and black/gold left. Still, 20 cents apiece. http://www.overstockbait.com/Kinami-5-Flash-7-Pack-p/k9-07.htm

+1 to Texas Tackle. I bought a cheapo pair of split ring ring pliers the first time around, should have spent the extra money for the Texas Tackle pliers from the get go.

I've never used mineral oil so don't start dunking your plastics in mineral oil without testing it first lol. I only mentioned that because someone said vegetable oils might go rancid, so I just figured mineral oil might be a possible alternative since it can't really go rancid.

I'm a die hard believer in the original D&M Piranha chatterbaits, if you see any sold on eBay there's a good chance it was me that bought them! But since hte D&Ms are no longer made I have tried a few other brands, Picasso Shock Blade, Strike King Rage Blade, ZMan Chatterbaits, Molix Lover. The Rage Blade is built like a tank and maybe my favorite of the bunch, the Shock Blade I actually think it works better when fished slow because when I try to burn it it seems to want to roll on me. The ZMans seem to get the best vibration at any speed, but the coffin blade is also the thinnest of them all. The Molix Lover is a weird bait, not really a true bladed jig, more like a bladed crankbait hybrid.

I'll try to use a dropshot with a similar size bait and try to cast it a bit farther out from the main bait balls, and work it really slow like it's a baitfish that's injured or got lost from the main pack. If the fish aren't taking the slow presentation I'll throw the smallest sized squarebill and run it parallel along the shoreline and try it both fast and slow.

Split ring pliers are a must when changing out hooks! And yes I have issues with some of the smaller split rings as well, just part of having short fat fingers and minor astigmatism. One thing that helps me from getting stuck by the trebles is sticking a hook bonnet on any trebles that are not being replaced.