MassYak85

Looks like a good start! I am also eyeing a gantarel in that same color.

If I feel the fish are hitting on the fall and not when I'm twitching the worm around I will opt for the wacky rig. If I am working the worm faster or am fishing around really heavy cover where snagging is likely I will go texas rig.

To be honest I've never had great luck in the mornings, not sure why. Evening bites have been good to me but like Team9 said, you have to be there to catch them so just go when you can. Some of my best fishing has been in the afternoon.

Usually what i do is I make a cart of things I want, then after a few days I'll sit down with what I currently have and cross check it with the cart, and see if it is truly something that will fill a hole in my arsenal, or if I can get the job done with something I already have. I still splurge sometimes but it helps keep me grounded. The hard part is when you come across a sale

I believe I read that same article a couple days ago. It didn't make sense to me either. I think I set mine too tight a lot of the times especially with treble hooks and light wire hooks but I don't see how you can have it always locked down. The guy in the article said that he preferred to press the thumb bar down and use his thumb as drag when a fished surged...claiming it was more reliable for him to do that than to rely on a mechanical drag that could fail/lock up. I just shook my head because no matter who you are we all have reaction times and by the time you realize a double digit bass is surging, you react to it, and then manually press down the thumb bar...you've already bent out your hook because the drag was locked down. The whole article seemed highly illogical to me but the guy claimed it works great for him. More power to him, I won't be trying it, ever.

I usually fish brad but I'm also a fan of 16lb sunline sniper.

Texas Tackle gets my vote as well, I have the orange and green ones and they are great.

How is big game for memory, CXX is a slinky even with line conditioner. It gets better after a few long casts but backlashes with the stuff are quite nasty as it already seems to want to uncoil off the spool. I've heard people on SU give praises to P-Line PF original as well and have been tempted to try that.

That's what I was a little afraid of, I launched my kayak in sandals and the water felt cold but my feet didn't ache at all, like they usually would if the water was in the 50's or lower. I didn't have a thermometer so I really have no idea. If they did spawn that would explain why all the fish I've caught the last couple days were skinny. That being said I didn't see a single bed while out there, and their tails weren't beat up like they should be if they had been fanning beds, so who knows. Maybe they will wait for more consistent weather to spawn. This week is going to have them confused for sure. Days in the 40's with some cold rain at the end of the week after almost 90 yesterday.

Went to A1 today with my kayak. The wind was some of the worst I've ever seen on that lake. Whitecaps on the launch side of the island...the other side which I didn't even attempt to fish looked twice as bad. I spent most of my time doing battle with the wind, so I can't say with confidence what the fish were doing. There were a couple other people out there with me but they left when the wind started getting bad. One guy came and tried to launch a canoe and fish....tried. He didn't make it 50 feet from the launch before deciding it was a bad idea. I started the day off paddling around and there seemed to be some bluegill up shallow, and I definitely spooked one bass but they didn't seem to be in the shallow feeding frenzy they were yesterday. I'd guess the cooler night and full stomachs might have turned the bite off a bit. The one spot sheltered from the wind wasn't producing so I spent most of my time anchored to my stakeout pole in the full brunt of it. I did manage one dink who bit on a t-rigged sweet beaver. Poor thing had eyes bigger than it's mouth because I set the hook hard expecting at least a decent fish and the little guy flew out of the water lol. It Was probably only 8 inches. I was out there in total only a few hours before deciding it wasn't worth it. The only way I was able to fish was stay in one spot and given I didn't establish a pattern at all made it pretty frustrating. I had something hit my hudd gill but I missed it on the hookset. Closer inspection showed it was some sort of toothy critter. I let it load up a decent amount before setting the hook and it had some weight. Unfortunately the internals of my cardiff reel crapped out the next cast so my swimbait rig was out of commission the rest of the day (honestly I'm growing to hate that reel). I also had a smaller toothy critter follow my swimjig back. I can't say for sure but it almost looked like one of those small tiger muskies I've heard they stocked. The marking looked different than pickerel of that size. The one good takeaway was my home made stakeout pole worked great during one hell of a trial run.

I'm right handed and every spinning and casting setup I own has a right hand retrieve. Never had a reason to switch. Ultimately what's going to help you out in fishing is fine motor skills so whichever hand/arm you get used to is going to be the best one to use.

Nice one! I stopped by A1 today before Easter Dinner for about an hour. I get there and conditions couldn't be better, upper 80's and STRONG winds blowing right into the dam, they were very active. I got 4 on a swimjig pretty quick and then moved down the bank looking for more action, all my bites came left of the spillway though. There was a dad with his two kids, and a group of guys fishing live bait near the spillway. Seemed like everyone was catching them. All my fish were cookie cutter 2ish lbers. They were all a little skinny which I thought was weird for how actively they were feeding, I would think they'd be stuffed with bluegill. The wind was brutal and whitecaps were smashing into the shore, I ended my hour with the whopper plopper to see if they had any interest in topwater yet. Got one to go after it and saw him do a halfhearted jump after it but he missed. Had to go after that, wish I could have stayed longer but I'll be out tomorrow in my kayak. Might jump around a few places but I plan to be out all day.

I hear you, I actually got a little ram mount for my phone on my kayak last year because the way I had to take pictures before made it pretty dangerous. Also, I should be able to take my kayak out for it's maiden voyage Monday if nothing comes up. Looking forward to some nice pre spawn (spawn?) fishing. Speaking of which how is it progressing for you guys locally? Are the green ones starting to move up on beds or is it still full fledged pre-spawn?

I've pretty much settles on 15lb braid for my spinning setups (mind you I'm only talking bass fishing) and use anything from a 6 to 15lb leader depending what I'm fishing and the water and structure I'm fishing in. I think you'd be fine with 10 or 20 as well, and I would probably go no higher than 30 depending on your local conditions.

NICE!!!! Any pictures? I'm getting anxty now that the conditions are getting good.

Oh man I didn't know you got the 6.9 on a topwater. That must have been incredible.

I have two and I can't tell you 100% because I don't have them with me right now but if I recall correctly they do not have an insert, I think they are straight aluminum. That being said I have not noticed any scratches on my reels when I take them off and do maintenance.

Look for a Shimano Cardiff it's a solid reel and what many start out on

Sounds like they might be spawning by the time I get home. Good luck guys, catch some toads!

I do it, usually an 8 foot leader of 12lb yozuri hybrid for cranks with 20/30lb mainline braid. More so because I don't have a dedicated cranking setup but it works.

Did you buy it new or used? If it was new I'd call them and see if you can get it exchanged because the 22lbs they advertise is fairly accurate.

I'd have to imagine having a forward facing blade like that will make it much more susceptible to snagging weeds and being pulled under by waves when the wind kicks up. My main issue with the whopper plopper is how easy a stray piece of grass or weeds can foul the rear blade and ruin your cast....the way I see it that problem only doubles with this iteration.

At any given point not all the bass will be in the same group. Some will be spawn, some will be pre-spawn, and some will be postspawn. If you can't catch spawning bass try targeting some of the other groups.

Nice job guys! Nice to hear of bass being caught. Two more weeks for me and hopefully I'll be catching some too. I tried from shore at the Merrimack today but the river is so high that I could only find like 2-3 places to cast from where I could even get my lure past the treeline that is usually the shore! I was using an old bomber crawfish crankbait. I need to give it some attention because I snagged it like 3 times. Got it back every time but both hooks are pretty bent up now and need to be changed.

That would be my guess too. I have the reel and the drag is more than adequate unless you got a dud.