MassYak85

I'm all for saving money so if the time was worth it to you, no you are not being cheap. I will say this though. If you get mono or fluoro into a big mess like that it can get pretty messy and a lot of times in the process of untangling it unless you are extremely careful you can kink the line in certain spots, this can happen with bad backlashes as well. If I think I damaged the line in the process of trying to salvage it I usually just cut my losses...literally, and toss the line. I backlashed pretty bad with sniper last season and got it all untangled. Well later that day I made a long cast and felt a bite, set the hook....and TINK. Lost the fish and about 25yds of line.

If I had a dedicated wacky rig rod it would be a MXF but currently I go back and forth between a Fenwick Elite Tech 6'10" MLXF and a BPS Tourney 7'0" MHF. Depending on the cover I'm fishing around and the size of the soft plastic I am rigging. Casting around trees and docks I want to get the fish out of there are will opt for the MHF for that. The MLXF I got as a finesse rod mainly for dropshots, ned rigs, and light shakey heads but if I am fishing wacky rigs in open water I will use it for that too. And again back to the actual soft plastic. Thicker stick baits I will prefer the MHF since I want a good hookset and need to move the bulkier plastic through the fishes mouth. 6" straight tail worms I opt for the MLXF. I really like the Elite Tech and would recommend it, very light and sensitive IMO. And you could find one pretty easily within your budget.

Personally I think a 35 size Pflueger reel is a little large for what you are doing. I use a 30 size President and 30 size Supreme and can't imagine needing anything larger for LMB or SMB fishing. I am partial to using braid with a leader and I never go less than 15lb braid for a mainline.

Unless you fish rivers, ice fish, or have a warm water discharge near you. It's over.

Normally I don't buy into lure hype but when me and my dad went out a few times over the summer, I was using that, and catching them 5:1 over him and he was throwing literally every topwater he had at them and could not replicate the results. The lure earned a permanent place in my tackle box cause of that. The ability to pause it really sets it apart from buzzbaits IMO. Even though I love throwing buzzbaits too. IMO the 130 size shines when the wind really gets blowing. The amount of commotion it throws stands out more than most topwaters when the waves really get going.

I'd have to agree here. I'd go 20lb braid for a finesse bait casting setup. As for the swivel leader, I would personally shy away from that but if it's been working for you, more power to you man.

The 130 will catch absolute dinks. Don't let the size scare you away. I have a lot of trouble getting the 90 to run correctly in anything except dead calm water. The 130 is much more versatile IMO. Even smallmouth will crush the 130, and not just big smallmouth either. I caught 12" ones on it. I had so much success on the 130 this summer I might eventually get the 190 just to see what happens.

I feel you man, one time I waited 10 hours to set the hook. Turns out, by that time the bass had already eaten and pooped out my lure and when I went to set the hook my braided line sawed the fish clean in half.

x ∞ Honestly ice safety is nothing to joke about. Bring a chisel, bring safety picks, if you can bring a friend, wear a flotation suit or even a life jacket if there is any doubt about ice conditions. There is no such thing as safe ice. Ice can hold a semi truck and be unfit to hold even a small child on the same body of water. Things like underwater springs, flocks of birds, and many other factors eliminate the certainty. That being said if you take safety precautions and test the ice while you are out there you should be fine and have many safe and dry years of fishing ahead of you. As for targeting bass and pickerel, I personally use tilts (tip-ups) 95% of the time. I would recommend getting at least a few. I don't have a flasher either so it helps to fish places that you are familiar with during open water season. A lot of advice you hear about targeting bass in winter open water is usually that they go deep. But you will be surprised how shallow you can catch them under the ice. Biggest bass I saw come through the ice last year was in 3 feet of water. What I try and target are weed lines or drop offs. Like open water you want to be near some type of structure where bass can easily target prey. That goes for tip-ups or jigging. As for bait it depends what you want to target, bass will hit shiners of any size. If you want to target trophy bass or pike, you should check your states bait regulations but I've seen guys use 10" golden shiners and suckers, and also live perch and bluegills. These will probably require some slight modifications to your tip-ups if you want to use them as bait so they don't trip the flag themselves. As for jigging lures, swedish pimples and lindy darters are a pretty common staple that will catch you lots of different fish. You can try tipping them with wax worms too.

A few days at 40 shouldn't do too much harm to the ice other than maybe the edges on rocky shorelines that heat up quick, especially with nights dipping slightly below freezing to freeze up whatever thin layer of water accumulates during the day. I checked locally today, found 3.5 inches of solid black ice and there were a couple guys out skating. Fingers crossed it survives until the weekend. I would go out but I'm having surgery tomorrow for my wisdom teeth and probably won't feel up to doing much for a few days. I'm feeling the itch though! Hopefully I'll feel up to going Friday or Saturday.

Alright update guys. After rigging all my leaders for ice fishing I think I can safely say that the issue was either the line I was using. I rigged up all my leaders with fluoro leader material and Gammy Octopus hooks and had no issues. So I suspect it was probably the line I was using to practice the first time around that was causing the issues. It was some field and stream mono and I think it was kinking easily and that was causing the breaking issue.

I checked locally this afternoon and it seemed like the edges of the ice got trashed by the weekend weather and had only just recently re-froze. They were probably less than an inch and I couldn't get out on it at all. Further out seemed to be thicker and potentially 2-3 inches but that's just a guess. I'll probably check some other places tomorrow. This week doesn't look like there will be a whole lot of ice forming going on in my area but maybe by next weekend I'll be able to find somewhere, fingers crossed. I hear you hamma, first season that me and my dad went out I managed to get one of my legs straight through. Luckily I didn't fall completely in so I may have just punched through a 10" auger hole. Still pretty scary though. And the cracking always gets me haha.

Like others have said one companies ML could be another's medium. Now if I wanted to get a rod for those applications I would personally prefer a "true" medium in fast or even extra fast since I want a very quick and responsive tip to work those types of lures, and the medium to be a little more versatile, but others will have different preferences I am sure. A lot of companies ML's that I have felt in person I wouldn't want to use some of the larger jerkbaits I have.

Yea same I like 832 the most but really have no complaints with spectra so I have no reason to spend more or switch. I actually tried some stren braid I realized I had lying around and I was impressed with it in the short time I got to use it before the season ended.

It was getting pretty close before the snow but this weekend did a lot of damage. I think a lot of smaller places stayed locked up though which is good.

I like the standard spectra power pro much better than spiderwire. I've tried power pro super 8 and had a bad experience and will not be using it again. If I want 8 carrier braid I go with 832. I used spider wire in the past and honestly it wasn't bad but power pro feels a lot smoother casting for me.

If I feel the conditions dictate their "should be" fish in the area, I will usually stay and try to figure out what bait they want. Or if I see definitive fish action. But if I am clueless and just looking for fish I will usually stay with something versatile and move around.

Guys in western mass have already been out on the ice for about a week now haha. But those are the people who consider 2.5" to be fishable ice. I like 4+ of good ice myself.

Yea I haven't really seen anything so far that is going to force me to make an order by the time it's over. Has anyone used that Sunline FX2 braid?

The bargain cave has some great deals. I got a BB1 Pro for 100 bucks this summer.

I haven't done any in depth testing of line (though I would like to at some point, that kind of stuff interests me) but couldn't you make the same argument when running straight fluoro? I mean I know that the line does do this over time but enough to worry about when a leader might only be on for a day, or a few trips? Straight fluoro might be on an entire season for some guys and I don't hear about this being an issue that much. And usually a leader is tied on for the desired properties of the leader line being near the lure, whether that is abrasion resistance or line clarity, not usually strength. And again, I haven't done line testing and can't back this up, but I don't think that for the time the leader is going to realistically be tied on before a new one is necessary, that you would notice that affect to any degree in which it becomes a problem. Using the FG knot I've had the same leader knot tied on for what was probably thousands of casts, going through the reel every time. Never had a failure. I know Matt Allen runs very long leaders on some of his set ups. I think he said 15 or 20 feet for cranking. Again this is all anecdotal but until I experience a failure or a test shows a significant decrease in strength I have no reason to stop doing what has worked.

I disagree with the people saying your leader is too long if it is going into the reel. Is a 3 foot leader enough....probably. Is that 3 foot leader now down to mere inches after you retie throughout the day and now you need to tie on a new leader...yes. If you tie a low profile leader knot going into your reel shouldn't be an issue. I do it all the time.

x2 Or find flowing water

I'll give my votes to the FG and the Albright as well. I personally do not like the Uni to Uni for several reasons, one of which being what you are encountering in that it is bulky and I don't like how it comes through guides.

Haha, took me a couple reads