MassYak85

same

The original ones has pretty terrible hooks, the newer ones have much beefier hooks but the hook points still don't seem that great. Hooked one fish with them and 2 of the 3 points rolled. I switched them out to st-56's.

Lily pads are my go-to, not just during dawn or dusk either. Somedays when it's the middle of a hot afternoon they get really cozy with those pads and it can be very effective.

x2 130 size was responsible for 2 of the 5 fish I have caught over 4 lbs this year. Runner up is the swimjig but my 2 4+ lbers were caught in the spring (including my PB at 5.4). Other was on a spro rat.

Thanks for the replies guys! I'll definitely take a look at all of those when I get the chance.

Are there any specific articles/videos/DVD's that you guys found especially helpful to better understand bass behavior. I've really only been serious into bass fishing for the past few years, that is I took an effort to better understand all the different techniques and the basics of what the bass do under different conditions. Whereas before it was pretty much: Go to the lake....are they hitting on weightless worms? No?------> Are they hitting on spinnerbaits? No? -----> Clueless. And it was pretty much just me beating the bank, fishing deeper than 10 feet was completely out of my comfort zone. Right now I feel I have a better grasp on tackle and technique selection, and have a basic feel of seasonal patterns, but there are still days I feel lost and just can't make a confident guess at where the fish are. What helped you out the most in understanding bass behavior? (Besides time on the water obviously)

I still prefer spinning for "finesse" presentations but casting is much more comfortable for me to use.

x2 I've had some great days in what would be considered awful conditions (fish shouldn't be biting well). Hell, one of the better fish I caught this year was during the busiest weekend of the whole summer at a lake we fish a lot. Pleasure boats and jet skis everywhere, the lake looked like there were 30mph winds with all the boat waves. I also had my best couple days last year during bluebird sky's, hot as hell, middle of the summer, middle of the day. Fishing has too many variables for me to rely on an app to know when they should be biting.

I didn't know there were pike in Brimfield. I did catch two pickerel last time there that were 2-3 pounds that somehow managed to choke an 8" savage gear line through trout.

Oh that's right I forgot they connected. I've heard great things about fairhaven bay, haven't gotten around to going yet though. Anybody plan to fish in the morning before the storm picks up? Me and my dad were on Quinsig today....SLOOOOOWWWW. We managed 5 dinks between us, all caught on finesse carolina rigs. Guys we talked to weren't fairing much better.

The rubber they use just feels tougher to me, and doesn't compress as easily I feel. It doesn't seem to tear as easily. Now that being said, I have had my one single pad crasher for years, and it still works great. It has tears, paint is half scraped off, looks like hell. I've probably caught more fish on the spro at this point though since I only recently took frogging more seriously. So I guess each is more durable in it's own way if that makes sense. The spro seems to be harder to damage, but the pad crasher seems to be able to take more damage.

Beavers suck sometimes. I was fishing topwaters in my kayak and hear what sounds like a cannonball hitting the water, turn and see an explosion and I'm thinking an 8lber just killed something on the surface. Heart was going real good. 10 minutes of casting to that spot and I see the suspect pop up and swim away, only to duplicate what I heard, this time in plain sight. You can imagine my disappointment.

I don't currently use a rod under 7' and I fish out of a kayak with all of them. Now, the issue of reaching the end to untangle is kind of annoying when it happens, but it's not so impossible to deal with that I feel I need to buy new rods.

Pad Crasher's and Spro's are my favorites I've used. Spro's are more durable in my experience and are heavier (cast better), pad crashers are much cheaper and despite being softer still float after taking a beating. Plus the softer body I feel is better for hookups.

I'm also thinking about grabbing one or two and would be interested what other have to say here. I know duo's get a lot of love, but has anyone tried the LC screw pointers or jackal iProp? I was going to use my ML spinning rod and 15lb braid to a 6lb leader.

Actually my mistake, I was thinking the concord river. Nice pike in there though. I also share your frustration with the frog sometimes. There are times where frogging or a punch rig are really the only viable ways to fish shallow thick stuff, but there are times when they just spook the fish and I am left stumped.

Congrats on the new PB's guys! LOL Janderson, everytime I fish that spot on the Sudburry I don't catch squat. Good job.

I've been using braid to fluoro leaders for a few years now with the FG knot and I can't say a single bad thing about the setup. Haven't had a single knot fail, and the leaders did their job.

First time (I've caught two the exact same weight) was towards the tail end of the spawn, in a channel that leads out of a cove that they spawn in. Wacky rigged Stick-O right in the middle of the channel. Second time was pre-spawn, in a flat that we expected them to move up and spawn on, but we hadn't seen or caught a bass all day besides a few dinks that were 6 inches off the bank in some thick brush. Made a long cast to the side of the flat nearest where it drops into a deeper channel, swimjig with a paddle tail trailer. Both fish were 5.40 exactly

I've found a ton in varying condition, but the three that stand out in my memory are a couple jitterbugs, an XCaliber lipless crank, and a KVD Sexy Dawg. The sexy dawg was a little challenging to get. I was in my kayak and I see it hanging from about 10 feet of line out of a tree. I had to stand up, grab my stakeout pole and reach up and snag the back hook and pull to snap the line. Almost went swimming but I got it.

If the goal is to teach him how to cast with it, I think most of the budget should be going towards the reel, and then get some store brand rod for cheap. If he ends up liking the baitcaster you can always upgrade the rod later. But a cheap reel to start might make learning more difficult and possibly discouraging. I'd try and keep an eye out for some deals and get a 100 dollar reel for like 70 if you can.

Fished the Merrimack from shore today. Started out with a Whopper Plopper 90, no interest in that (other than some seagulls eyeing it debating whether it was food or not). Switched to a 1/8oz swimbait head with a 4.8 paddle tail. Not much interest initially but I moved down the bank a bit and hooked into a decent smallmouth. Fought pretty well, got him close to the bank and he did a 180 and the hook popped free. A few casts later I hooked another one in the same spot (might have actually been the same fish, both were about the same size). I landed this one though. Not really big enough to break out the scale, probably a little over a pound. But I'll take it!

As far as bass fishing goes, tournament and guide fishing are the top.

If I was using those things you mentioned it would be a medium fast, just the inline spinners I might go ML but a weightless senko is probably best on the medium. But it also depends how you are rigging them. T-rigged you need a little more power to get the hook to bite, wacky rig might be fine on a ML.

I usually fish poppers kind of slow. To me it just seems like it is imitating something that is barely alive and just twitching there on the surface.