fishwizzard

I just stick the rod butt in my pocket when trying on new lures. I carry a sling pack with a fold down semi-ridged pouch on the front that makes a little table when I slide it around front. The sling holds a single 3600 and the front pouch can hold a few loose hardbaits. I have a small scale/grippers and a basic first aid kit in there as well. My only "hack" is that I carry a rock climbing chalk bag clipped to my belt. I can throw lures in there to dry before they go back in the pack.

Yea, I fish trickworms rigged on a 3/0 offset or round bend hook with a Light/Mod-ishFast casting rod spooled with 6-8lb stretchy floro. I only tend to miss hooksets when my mind is wandering and I neglect to get all the slack out before I set. When I want/need to make a long cast or keep my line more slack then ususal, I take the hook point and skin hook it into the side of the worm. This still keeps it mostly weedless but takes almost no force to pop it free.

I didn't realize you could bank fish there, I got the impression somehow that it was boat/kayak only.

In the summer I wear short shorts, I mean like 70's basketball player short, hiking boots, wool socks pulled up to my calves, and a hooded sun shirt. I look like a lunatic but with all my clothing treated with permethrin every 3-4 washes, I stay pretty tick-free. I do get hit by a nest of nymph ticks about once per summer, but they don't carry diseases at that point so it is just two weeks of itching. By the middle of the fall my legs look like hell, more scabs then open skin, but I cannot stand to be hot so I am willing to do what it takes for comfort.

I will warn you that when it is hot out, MS comes out of the tube with a quickness, it gets far thinner then you would think based on how thick it is in the winter. I wasted about a quarter of my first tube by giving it too hard a squeeze on a 90f day. It makes it a ton easier to apply a small amount though, I can easily get maybe a match-head or twos worth onto a worm or jig for most of the year. This past winter I made a little warmer for the tube out of a beer coozie, two handwarmers, and a hair-tie I stole from my wife.

It took me embarrassingly long time to accept that. I was 100% sure that I would never get a hookset with the point buried in the middle of a worm. I also wondered why my worms kept ripping at the nose...... I still look at a worm rigged on an offset or straight shank and think "this is never going to work". but it most always does.

Would like to see that data. I use MS but not as much as I want too, I really dislike the greasiness on my hands. Whatever it's merits as a fish attractant, I am sold on it as swimbait lube and I think keeping them slicked up is going to force me to get over it and use the stuff more. I do use it a ton when wading to coat my Ned rigs. I have landed a few sunfish that refused to drop their hold on the tail of my lure until I got them in hand.

I think I am the only person in the world who likes the rubbery Daiwa knobs. I put them on a few of my reels this winter and it was amazing how much better my grip was with cold hands and damp gloves.

I don't mind expensive poppers as, unless I get too cocky casting close to cover, I almost never loose them. Except for the one I lost this fall, a pick grabbed it, ran into some brush, managed to pop himself off AND snag the popper on said brush. That was kinda annoying.

The only MB hardbaits that I own are the PopX and PopMax. The X is the only tiny popper I have found that I can get to pop reliably and the Max is great as its a perfect "goldilocks" weight so I can throw it on more or less whatever rod I have with me at the time. A Max and a WP90 are always in my tackle bag for most of the year. I would love to try a Vision 110, but I have no intrest in triple treble lures and I don't feel like messing with trying to blalance it if I removed the middle one.

I switched to stright shanks for most everything last season and it was remarkable how easy it was to make hooksets with thicker/tougher plastics (Rage Menace) with a light and soft rod (Light/ModFast BFS). I still use offset round bends and Owner Twistlocks for some things, mosty lures that get ripped through grass or for small swimbaits like Fat Impacts. The only thing I still really use EWGs for is flukes. I like the VMC long shank ones as it puts the weight of the hook near the middle of the lure so it falls mkre horizontally. I do use stright shanks on them as well and the hookups are better though.

I hit one at like 2pm on Friday and the sale spinnetbaits were almost gone. I resisted buying any and walked away brisky while chanting "it's not a deal if you dont need them" to myself. The Suffix braid was all gone by the time I got there though, there was maybe one spool of 10lb left.

I like the Daiwa Alphas reels for most anything under/around 1/2oz. The sv105 is pretty easy to skip with and it very light weight for the price.

I think it depends on what type/weight of 4-5" worms you are talking about. I throw 5" senkos (~3/8oz) on a 3 power Loomis and a M power St Croix, both of which do a good job of it. But for say a skinny worm like a Trickworm (~1/4oz), I prefer a Light or Medium Light rod.

It's always going to be sort of a loose definition, but in my mind I think that I am "finesse "fishing" when I am "fishing for bass with lures/tackle that I could also effectivly fish for panfish with". So like a ned rig counts but sneaking a 1/2oz jig around a beaver hut does not. I'm sure 1 million holes could be poked in this definition, but it's close enough for me.

I've been using the hook bonnets since I posted about them when the thread was new, and I have absolutely no complaints with them. My favorite thing about them is that it makes it so easy to let my cranks dry before I put them back in the Planos. I can't remember the last time I got a rusty hook or split ring.

Hah, ok, that makes sense. I was like man, after keeping the same worm alive for three years I would feel too attached to the little guy to use them as bait.

Wait hold on, youve have the same worms living in your fridge for three years?

I just picked up an Avid M/XF for jerks and poppers and am really like it more then the Fast/MBR action that I was trying to use for them before. I am also going to try it with small squarebills to see how it does.

I just picked up my first round reel, a Daiwa Ringa SSS; I am really liking it and it is surprisingly comfortable to palm, even with my tiny hands. I am thinking about picking up a Calcutta Conquest 50 to use as a saltwater BFS reel and kinda want one of the new Ryogas, but I think that might be a little too large for me.

The Zman heads seem pretty brittle in general. When ever I try out a new hook or head I sacrifice one to destructive testing. The old Gophers would bend almost flat without breaking, the Zman's will break with very little bending. I still think they are the best option out there for light heads, but River Rock has a new mold and is selling 1/32 heads with #2,4,6 hooks. I am going to pick some up this spring and see how they do.

Honestly, I feel pretty confident that with a 3.75 inch Keitech fat impact in literally any of the baitfish colors, rigged on a 3/0 1/8oz Monaer swimbait hook, I will stand a decent chance of catching a bass in almost any reasonable condition. Whenever I embark on the necessary bit unpleasant task of cleaning up my little home "office", I do get the urge to try to pair down to just a handful of lures. The aformantioned paddle tail, a green senko, a shad color spinnerbait, and a black/blue jig seem like all one really needs for 90% of the waters I would ever fish. Link that article. My buddy has a "1001 Cocktails" bartenders bible and we spent most of our 20s and some of our early 30s trying to make and drink everyone of them. I feel like I should try to rig a senko all 78 ways at some point as well.

Ned-1/16-1/20 Slider-1/16-1/8 Shaky-1/4 I like my Neds light and my Shakys heavy. Sliders I go both ways on, it depends on what plastic I am using and if there is current or not.

The tails on Keitechs seem to find the "V" in a pad and get popped off far to often for me to fish them that way much. It's an effective presentstion, but I use cheaper/more durable paddle tails for it. The slow and subtle wiggle of a Keitech is kinda wasted if you are fishing them around pads imho.

They really are amazing hooks, I have a few packs in 1/0 I am going to try nose-hooking flukes with this spring.