snake95

Not to get off the OP's topic but just wanted to highlight this is very interesting that a Clackin' Rap was outfishing an XR50.

Great question. From a bass fishing perspective, looks like you are combining features of a drop shot with a Carolina Rig, so you'd have some of the benefits of both.

You did not get too much. I feel like I am king of the clearance deals. I shoot for finding baits under $3-4. You have me beat with Ochos for less than $0.50, Ribbit frogs under $1 and Senkos for $2. Nicely done and I'd check my closest Academy if it was actually possible to get there. FWIW some DSG's are really cleaning out now - but they are all still buy 5 get 5.

Think you've convinced me to tie a piece of heavy-ish line with a large cylinder weight to my hook and forget about ordering any wire.

True, I 100% agree. But I suddenly feel the urge to hang some weights off the bottom of some hooks on a wire. Not sure why... ? I'm just gonna pick a wire size and go for it. I'll let you guys know if it was a good one.

You are about to be deluged with a ton of different answers. As a relatively recent rookie, my simple advice is this: the popular and common baits work. Get a few lures out of the fundamental categories, in the standard weights/sizes. Take the time to go to a bass pro, or better yet a Walmart. Look at the lures. You will get to know them when you see them. Stick with common brands. You'll get too much advice about color. Basic colors are good. Pick colors you like. If you need someone to tell you what to get? Get green (it won't be called "green"), get blue/purple, get white, get black, get pink if you feel like it. Plastic worms. Mandatory: "Zoom" trick worms. 1 or 2 bags. Optional: 1 pack of Yum dingers. Optional: 3" Yum grubs. Spinner baits. If you are at Walmart, you will see Strike King, maybe War Eagle. Pick up ideally 3 in different sizes and colors. 2 is also OK Tackle: Hooks: 2/0 and 3/0. EWG or straight shank. (I know, the size/type debate will rage. Just grab two packs and go) Bullet weights. Maybe 1/4 oz or 3/8 oz. I'd get 1/4 oz. If you buy the grubs, get 1 pack of 1/8 oz ballhead jigs or "Z man" Shroomz. 1/16 oz ideally. Done. About $45. Learn to fish those and then next on the list are more classics: A Rebel PopR or Heddon Torpedo. No 9 Rapala floater in silver. A buzzbait. Senkos. From there it gets wild.

Whitwolf, you have shown me how to be a true tackle aficionado. My wife spells that word "h-o-a-r-d-e-r." Great post: the picture is worth a thousand words. Oh yeah: as far as brand goes, I have no loyalty to anyone. One of my favorite things about bass fishing is experimentation and learning. I love and fish GY, Kietech, Jackall, SK/Rage, Zman, Zoom, Yum, NetBait, Big Bite, RI, Missile (love Missile's stuff - smells great), Roboworm, Gulp, Powerbait, Berkley, yep... ALL of them.

Going to make my own Tokyo Rigs using spinnerbait wire with loops. Any recommendations on wire diameter?

Interesting, and "agreed" - I deleted "ploppers" from my list before I hit submit but I shouldn't have. All of those, plus prop baits, are my top producers of the best pond bass. Fun to fish and for whatever reason seem to draw out bigger ones in the ponds I fish.

Looks like lot of good stuff is already out of stock online by this point two days later.

Buzzbaits and toads. Doesn't take a lot of skill to be honest, but by a wide margin my top producers of good quality pond bass are all buzzed on surface.

I fish grubs for bass all the time. Unlike a lot of folks who fished grubs as a first lure, I came to grub fishing though a circuitous process. As a kid we didn't use lures much. However, as an adult returning to fishing after a long hiatus, I read about and got good with the ned rig. One day I tried a white 3" YUM grub in place of my usual TRD, and had great success both on a dead fall, and on a straight retrieve. Can work as a sort of finesse bottom bait once a mushroom head hits the bottom. Doesn't need much action to get scooped off the bottom. Now, when I want kids or others to catch fish, the 3" YUM grub in pumpkin, silver, white, etc is my go-to. As they say, they can't be fished wrong, and at less than $1.50 a pack, cheaper than live bait and keeps the kids active.

@A-Jay (and others) - interested to see Owner Mosquitoes and Gamma Octopus hooks in the mix. I am new to drop shotting and been thinking those two look like drop shot hooks so they should work like ds hooks. Mosquito and Octopus hooks are relatively common and economical, even in a place with few specialist store options. I'll give them a try. Any further comments on how Mosquito and Octopus hooks perform relative to other options that specifically say "drop shot" on the pack? ? FWIW I've been using the VMC sureset dropshot hooks that are sold all in big stores in Canada and they've worked well for my initial forays into the drop shot world.

This particular 5/5 sale has been ongoing since back in October, but they keep adding items and have added some recently. They put color coded dots on the times to represent a certain discount over the lowest price marked, and have a sign to say that for fishing "tackle." The dots are on lures, reels, all kinds of stuff. To me, the lures are "tackle." It didn't seem to be this way before, but now Dick's signs indicate you can no longer stack the "buy 5/get 5" sale with the dots - so you can pick one deal or the other, but not both. At least, that's what staff in the stores will tell you. Items with dots now never ring up at the sale price, so you have to ask for a pricing exception every time. Sometimes, the lodge managers just want to get the stuff out and will gladly back you up and tell the folks on cash to provide the discount. In the store closest to me, the "lodge" manager insists that the dots only apply to "tackle" meaning certain hooks and plain jigs, and oddly, old cheap fishing reels, but not to lures. In one store I went into in another state, the lodge manager proudly told me that he'd cleaned out most of the good clearance stuff himself before it got to customers. So, the mood/attitude/competence of the store managers and checkout person has significant bearing on the ease of getting a discount. Bottom line: yep, from store to store, and day to day, YMMV.

Thanks a lot, JC and WD. I will go with the 3000 and look at the rods you mentioned.

To narrow it down a bit: I fish New England rock jetties for stripers and blues every year, and now hope to branch out to some south Florida snook and sea trout. I like to use techniques that are similar to bass fishing with lures, just tend to use larger lures: where I might use 3/8-3/4 for bass, I'm using 3/4 oz - 2-1/2 oz for inshore fishing. For example, saltwater one knocker spooks, large saltwater rapalas, etc. I've been fishing a baitcaster: Diawa Coastal and a MH (more H) Fast AG Volatile. (It's a quality rod but a little too fast for my applications). Now, I want to try spinning gear, say in the 7-6 - 8 ft length range. - NOT surfcasting - Thinking about a Diawa BG 4000 for this - Maybe a MH rod for lures in the *** oz range - Nothing too fancy: I'm climbing over rocks in the pounding surf, and I don't know how to be gentle on gear in this scenario Any recommendations for a rod for this? Thanks!

Guys I've saved my pennies and looking to buy a new fishing kayak. What have you bought and been happy with in the last 2 years or so? Features I think I want: - pedal drive - stand-up capability - trailer I will fish in all kinds of waters with it; I live in North Georgia and think the primary place I will use it is small impoundments and creek arms of our larger reservoirs. If I had to pick, I'd fish everything from small ponds to coastal waters, but in reality I'll tend to fish the smaller places. Not sure if an electric motor mount is important or not. I plan to tow it for weekend trips to some of the bigger, better-known lakes. But in reality: 90% of the time I will be fishing small impoundments within about 10-50 miles of my home. Please let me know: - features you found out you are glad you have or wish you had - size of boat that has worked for you: pros and cons - where/when to go to get a "good" deal for something in this range I've seen nice looking boats by large and well-known suppliers like Old Town, Perception, and Hobie, but know there are lots of options out there. - what boats in this range have you been happy with? - do you need to spend $4k on a Hobie to have the right boat for the job, or can you get away with a boat half that price? I will want a dedicated trailer and I'm willing to pay for it. I know I will never find the time to make a "do-it-yourself" version. I need everything to be as simple and ready to roll as possible, I'm willing and able to trade money for simplicity and time. I think I have a decent budget for this, and I'm just starting to look at options. Where am I being delusional here? Thanks guys Snake

I've been reading and watching videos about the Damiki Rig, and looking for a little help understanding. I'm not so much hung up on what the "right" way to fish it is, just want to learn more about effective ways to fish it. I'm focused more on defining it by the lure than by the technique. By the Damiki Rig, I mean an aspirn-head jig with the tie at about 90 degrees to the shank, with a small soft plastic, typically less than about 3.5 inches. 1) I've heard about both cold/deep water "video game" fishing with it, and casting/slow hopping and dragging right on bottom, AND it looks like you could let it fall and flutter, then pull like a straight-retrieve Ned Rig. Are all valid approaches for fishing this particular "rig"? 2) Favorite jigs and weights. Seems like anglers used jigs in the 3/8-1/2 range for lots of the deeper water applications. But looks like at 1/4 or 1/16 would be fine for shallow water. What size(s) do you like, for which techniques? 3) Advantages of various bait styles? Seems like tiny Kietech swing impacts would work, but maybe too much action vs a tiny fluke? Thanks!

I am primarily a bank fisherman with boating whenever I can find the time (rarely). I base my system on a shoulder carry bag and many individual Plano boxes. OK truthfully I have several carry bags and also boxes, but the point is if you keep it modular with bags and boxes you have flexibility to grab and go. That way you just take what you need on a given outing. After a few months of bass fishing seriously, I found there was no way I can keep all my tackle in a single box. Prefer simple over the shoulder bags to backbacks because I like the wide top opening, and don't like to have lots of compartments because they confuse me and I can't find stuff, especially those deep ones!

In case anyone has been on the fence about picking up some Megabass lures you're probably never going to find a deal better than this. The 20% off stacks with their buy 6 get 2 free promo, which results in 40% off 110's, PopMax, Diamantes, and S-Cranks. I don't think it does stack...Hope I'm wrong though  Guys I tried it and did not stack. I used the DSG chat and they told me it wouldn't stack because of the buy 6 get 8 promo. $19/bait for 100's still decent, but would be way better with additional $4 off. Let us know if you found a way around this. The Jr's are on sale so it amounts to $15 bait if you buy 8. I jumped on this on Black Friday, essentially the same deal for those.

I fish a place that meets that description in Ontario. I also T-rig everything in there, but like to tick the top of the vegetation out further, and then pull up through the vegetation. In warmer weather: toads or craws fished as toads. Craws on a T-rig. Otherwise: weightless super flukes and larger Dingers, with a larger EWG hook to add a little weight, and also jigheads with paddletails: Zoom or Keitech. Yes they hang periodically but can be ripped out.

Dicks has buy 6 get two free and free shipping at the moment, which is 25% off if you are OK with bulk. Not sure how their base price is compared to TW and others at the moment. Historically, they have had some better sales on Keitechs, but who knows when the next will be.

Hard to beat the suggestions already provided. I asked this a while back, and frankly, haven't gotten around to implementing what I planned to. I've also used a mircometer in the past for braid before I got used to it (though that's not as convenient as having something on your rod or reel). You can also consider using something quick and color coded: electrical tape or zip ties: cold (blue) is your lightest line, yellow intermediate (maybe 10 or 12) and red is heavy. I've used different scales for spinning and baitcasting. Of course, close is good enough for me: I might want to differentiate between 10 or 20 lb braid at a glance on a spinning rod, but I won't really care if it is 10 or 12 lb mono on a baitcaster.

I'm glad you asked this question, because I'd like to know the answer, too. i'm pretty sure the same concept applies to using any straight shank, such as a Roboworm rebarb. Or does it? Don't want to hijack the thread, but the two seem to be related. Interested to hear more from the straight shank experts. Google "straight shank hook punch weight" [images] and you can see what @IgotWood is talking about: Maybe there is a video out there from @Glenn that I haven't seen on this.

Yes. DSG and Field and Stream are both offering 25% off all products including megabass. The 110 Jr's are "reduced" to $20 (same base price as TW), so they are going for $15 each. DSG has free shipping, F and S has free shipping over some amount. Selection is somewhat limited. For $15 each I managed to bring myself to try the 110 Jr to see what the excitement is all about.