Airman4754

It's such a mental challenge. What worked yesterday might not even get you a bite today. It's extremely simple, yet impossibility complex. You literally have no control over any part of the equation except your gear, which essentially means you're at the will of everything above, below, and around you. That makes having success all that much more rewarding. Ultimately there isn't anything else I can think of where if I'm out in the pouring rain, snow, high winds, or extreme heat and I'm not accomplishing what I set out for I still want to do it all again the next day. I think everyone needs that with something in their life be it stamp collecting, photography, or whatever.

He hammered it!

I use a spinning setup with braid and a 10lb CXX leader. The shaking slack thing is a good method. If you run your rod handle down your forearm and slightly shake your arm when the line is taught you will get the same action and the bite detection is much better.

Right. Do you think Dobyns and ALX are the only two rods companies that match action to technique? If you're throwing a 6XD on a Med/Mod it's going to keep fish pinned if you have any clue of how to land a fish. If you're fishing a 7'8" Med/Mod you're going to pin fish better than any 7' Med/Mod rod. That's not an opinion, that's physics. You're saying you like high end blanks. That's pretty much all of us that do this a lot. They are nice. Check out Lamiglas sometime if you like Dobyn's the blanks are very similar, like the same, the exact same.

That has nothing to do with the company. That's matching your hook size and diameter to the fish you are catching. Rod length makes a big difference as well.

Magazines with ridiculously good looking women either fully naked or basically naked barely even sell. Magazines with out of shape white guys trying to catch fish definitely aren't going to sell.

I have them on my Abu's and spinning reels. Not great, not terrible.

For their price tag, yes.

I won a big bass tournament on a $70 baitcasting combo I bought at Walmart right before it started back when I was a broke college kid. Would I ever go back to lower end equipment? Not a chance, but it can be done.

I fished a tourney today on a super pressured lake with the Custom Leech and finished 3rd. I threw them all day, never changed, and caught around 40 fish ranging from 4" to 2.5lbs. They are cool little baits, but they are very very little. My thoughts are if you're on pressured water throw them, if you just want to catch a big number of fish, or if you're taking kids out throw them.

I've caught more smallies on the Rainbows, more big mouths on the Lite.

Yeah, it doesn't look much longer than 24" but I would image the girth is close to that same number.

Power Tackle Football Jig Special.

I let them use my gear. I have the same deal with everyone. They pay for gas and can use the entire arsenal of gear and tackle, which is basically endless.

It's the middle of summer, dangle the worm. Run a drop shot weedless with an 8" Robo with a 3' leader. 1/8oz if it isn't windy because that weight walks around through the weeds like magic, 1/4oz if it's windy. It won't cooperate nearly as well in the weeds but it needs to get down there. Keep your emotions in check. When you hook a fish mark a GPS or get visual landmarks from two different angles so you can remember where you caught fish. Then when you have your spot on spots get excited and catch a lot of fish. Spot on spot is critical in the summer. You usually get an area about the diameter of a kiddie pool to be really successful.

The 4.4" on a swing jig and jig rig are ridiculously productive.

One add on, run a trailer hook up your line before you tie on. It will slide freely and increase your hookup percentage. It makes a really big difference on small mouth.

If it's not raining I use skate board shoes. They have a completely flat bottom which matches the deck of the boat. My rain shoes are Adidas hiking shoes, AX2's I believe. The Gore-Tex versions.

Overall it has to be at least $5k. I have at least 60lbs worth of plastics. Glide baits are on the menu this year and they aren't cheap.

For this time of year find fish holding onto structure or suspended. If they are suspended hover over them and jig at their depth like you would Lake or Brown Trout. If they are on structure cast to them and rip it off the bottom. Like vertical jigging watch your line as it falls. A hair jig usually gets bit at the top of the motion a flutter spoon gets hit at the bottom. I throw the 6" on a Duckett Micro Pro 7' H/F and it works well. Some guys like really long rods for it.

Survival? An in-line spinner.

Witness protection bass fisherman?

I agree. The last 5'er I caught along with the 3.5's and 4's were all in a flat right on the edge of a break. They weren't there first thing in the morning, but they were there at noon. No kicker size bass lives in an 8' deep weed flat where the weeds are only 8" tall and there is zero cover or structure. They came up because that's where the perch and fry are. I agree there are deep fish that are always deep, but if there is food up shallow in the summer there will be bass up shallow.

I bet it was pace that made the difference. Vertical is essentially dead sticking, where a casting retrieve even if you don't mean it to be is moving a lot more.

I use Kalin 6" Mogambo grubs on my chatter baits and swim jigs. I don't catch as many overall as I used to, but the size of fish has increased greatly.