fishwizzard

I base my leader on sink-factor alone. Floro sinks so it gets the nod most of the time, I will even bump up to a pretty thick leader (like 12lb) when fishing tiny inline spinners just to get a little more depth on the retrieve.

Yep. It's what makes getting tackle-obsessed so much fun, every new rod is a surprise! I am willing to bet this is it, combined with going from a MF to a F action rod. It seems crazy at first and like you are asking for a backlash, but I would guess that 90% of my reels have SV spools in them and this is how I run them all. Set the spool to a light wiggle, just enough that you can tell it's moving, then set your brake at max. Start casting and lower the brake on click every cast. Once you get about half way it should start opening up and from there just work down until you lose faith in your thumb.

A drag upgrade is almost a no-brainer, I buy a lot of reels used and it's always the first thing I do. Bearings can make a difference, but a good clean is about 80% of it, unless you are looking at BFS stuff, where I do believe the HH Air bearings make enough difference to be worth the money.

Switch to a cheaper worm. Mann's 6" Jelly worms are amazing neco rigged, as are Trickworms if you don't need them to float.

No problem. The OMTD line has a lot of interesting looking jigheads as well. If you are willing to wade through JDM sites, there are more lead-free options out there.

https://www.siebertoutdoors.com/Moaner-The-Weighted-Stroker-Lead-Free-1509.htm The selection is pretty thin at the moment and they are not on Moaner's website anymore, so they might be discontinued. http://www.omtdhooks.com/en/catalogo/products/hooks-en/oh1500-2/ These are pretty good as well, but I wish the hookgap was a little bigger.

Hah, oh yea. I have a bunch of the 4” Kut-tails and while I love them on a small Slider head, they do get bit off constanly if I am fishing them around panfish. It’s even worse if I dip the tails in Chartreuse JJ’s.

I have a somewhat similar thing with my “regular” pond. It’s maybe 2-3 acres and I would be shocked if it ever hit deeper then 8-10’. This season the milfoil has gone crazy, maybe 3-4x the ususal density. It’s been a challange as they don’t allow boats so it’s hard to get vertical enough to punch through it for most of the shoreline. I have adapted by finding some novel ways to fish the weededges, in a few spots I make a short pitch to the edge, then if I dont get a hit, let out line while walking out to a point where I can make a retieve paralleling the edge. It’s a pain but I have gotten a few nicer bass that way. I have gotten very very few hits trying to fish on top of the weeds, it’s like the bass don’t know they can feed up there yet.

What do you use from the GYCB line as a Trick/finesse worm? Pro-senkos or the small Kut-tails come to mind, but they are both heavily salted, right?

That is dedication to a combo! What presentations do you run on them?

I have an old model GLX 782 MBR and it has a crazy light tip. I have not tried anything lighter than a Trickworm at like 1\4oz but I feel like it could go lighter. Not 1\16oz by any means, but it's a very light feeling rod. I think TackleTour did a review of the new vs old GLX but I can't find it for some reason.

I like swingheads and catch on them, but they seem to hang up way way more often then a jig or t-rig. Cover and bottom compasition does not seem to matter. I wish I had access to an underwater camera so I can see whats going on, I cant figure it out.

Hah, well, the “ideal” rod would be a Moderate on the cast, XFast on the hookset, and ModFast for the fight, but I don’t think graphite tech/magic is there yet.

It’s odd to me how big the devide is between guys who like an XFast rod vs a ModFast rod for spinnerbaits.

I ran into one on the water a month or so ago. It was a currentless lake on a pretty still day, but at full speed it easily out paced my Native Propel drive at any reasonable peddling speed. It was really slick looking and the owner was over the moon about it. He had a tiny little lawn mower trailer rigged up to haul it and he was loaded and driving off while I was still un-rigging my yak.

A Menace on a 3/0 Slider Head is a great presentation, it slides through cover and the plastics have a great lifespan. Rigged on a 3/0 Stright Shank hook with a 1/16oz steel weight as a nose-cone, it gives maybe the most consistsnt hook-ups of any plastic presentation I have found. The plastic life suffers, but as the noses get ripped up I just toss them in my pocket and reuse them as jig trailers.

I have a ball cap with a short brim, I can pull my hood over the brim which helps hold it in place. I have resorted to using tiny binder clips on occasion when the wind is really strong.

If you have any solder laying around you can use it to add weight to smaller lures. I will sometimes use it to add weight to these 1/8oz spinnerbaits I throw for white perch.

Maybe if they shorted the name a little they could lower the price with all the ink savings for the packaging;) It is great line but the lack of filler spools is annoying as is 11lbs being the lowest weight it’s offered in. Other then those nitpicks, I have no complaints with it. I fish 12lb Invizx as my “standard” bass line and the Defier Armilo handles very very close to it.

Most of my wardrobe consists of short sleeve button up hiking shirts so generally for fishing I rotate between two of them that have acquired stains or small holes. For days when I know I’ll be cooking in the sun I have a long sleeve hooded shirt from Cabela’s that I’m totally in love with.

Hah, this works with every lure! I had a bass come up and hit a squarebill as it was floating on the surface while I was taking a little bio break.

$25!?!? I swear they used to be like $7-10 a few years ago. I was awful about taking care of glasses so I bought like six pairs of Knockarounds. I think I have one new pair left in a drawer somewhere and one pair in my car for emergencies. They were great for the price but did scratch very easily.

A $200 GLX is worth saving up for. Hell, a $200 GLX might be worth gping back to highschool for.

How to the two of them compaire in sensitivey and action/power? I am going to rededicate myself to finesse next season and have been eyeing them both as a do-most finesse rod. Right now my favorite spinning combo is a SJR 720 IMX w/ a Daiwa BG 2000. It’s a super fun rod and fishes enough over it’s rating to be a good DS rod for like 3/16oz weights and small plastice.

The smallest size Keitech Little Spiders get hit by everyting. They are pretty fragile though.