MassYak85

When I was really young, probably like 8, me and my dad were fishing a causeway, I think I was using worms on a bobber. Anyways, I hooked a bass bigger than anything I had caught up to that point. It just seemed huge to me. I know we took pictures, although I'm not sure we still have them. Bass was probably only like 3ish pounds but at that age I was stoked.

What are their shipping times like?

I think I'm going to regret clicking that link, thank you though. I have a HF Tatula and love it, that might be too good to pass up....kind of like the reel. Oh well, a 350 dollar setup for 210. Have you ordered rods from them before? I'm just curious how well they package them.

A Pflueger President on a 7' BPS Tourny Special Rod. I use the combo myself when I am alone but it's easy to teach someone to use a spinning setup fairly quickly, and it's hard for them to mess it up like on a baitcaster. Plus an errant cast that damaged the rod wouldn't be a huge blow.

Thanks for the replies guys, I will take the 733C Fury into strong consideration. As far as line goes, is 15lb co-poly a good all around choice? I have never spooled a baitcaster with anything besides braid and on one reel, sunline sniper. What's a good manageable copoly you guys like?

I use barbs always, but I am considering pinching down the barbs on all my ice fishing rigs this year to help release them faster. Don't want any frozen gills.

So recently I was "fortunate" enough to get a Lew's BBZ-1 Pro Series Speed Spool at half price (retails at 200). Bait monkey made me do it. Except the reel is currently useless without a rod to use it with. I was thinking of making it a setup for single hook moving baits like spinnerbaits/bladed jigs/paddle tail swimbaits and maybe buzzbaits. I was wondering what power/action rods you guys use for these techniques( I was thinking something slightly over 7', Medium Heavy, Mod-Fast or Fast), and what a good rod would be for around a hundreds bucks? Some suggestions on line would be helpful too (I was thinking 15lb copoly, yay or nay?).

I was able to snag a brand new Lews BBZ-1 Pro Series Speed Spool for around a hundred bucks. I honestly have no idea what I am going to do with it yet, since I don't have a rod to pair it with, but half price on a 200 dollar reel, "I had no choice", it was coming home. Of course now I am in the market for a rod....

I also have the magdraft, to be honest I was a little underwhelmed by it, guess I just expected a different action. It seemed to swim "un-level" if that makes sense, tail kick was fine though. I saw the Mag Scowl and it seems like they changed the action, I just wish they had gone for a little more unique body shape to separate it from the mag draft a little more.

Like I said, I like to fish it in a little bit of wind, and if it is dead calm and I see surface activity I'll throw it too. My biggest fish on it so far was a 4.5 and hit right as it passed by a patch of promising looking lily pads. But I've caught fish on it in 20 foot deep open water.

I'd saying the heaviest winds I've caught fish in are like 15-20. But heavier than that I usually don't fish period. Dead calm is my least favorite time to use the lure. Even though I did get a couple today in dead calm conditions. I honestly have been using it in all circumstances and having success. I've had one tied on to a rod like 90% of the time in the past month.

Went from shore for a couple hours at the Sudbury Reservoir. Got two bass, one weighed in at 2.7, the other was probably around 1.5, I didn't weigh it. Both were on the whopper plopper. I could see a ton of surface activity way out beyond where I could cast at the edge of the weed beds. Had a couple other fish take a half-hearted swat at it, no idea on size of those.

I haven't fished mine on the Charles yet but I would imagine you could do really well with it along some of the weedlines. I was actually wondering about the silent version as well, more so for buoyancy.I'd imagine the lack of the rattles makes it a little lighter, and might make it float higher, which could be good in windier conditions to keep it higher in the waves.

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I've caught larger pickerel on deeper weed lines but that's only like 15-20 feet.

That's what I meant, the front one is always in the mouth for me and the back one usually ends up snagging some other part of them. Usually if the front one pops though the back one comes out too, at least in my experience.

If I am casting to or near a target that I think the fish might be holding to I like to let it sit for a bit in case they did get spooked. But my favorite time to fish it is in the wind, in which case any ripples or commotion it generates on landing is gone in a few seconds, in which case I start reeling almost immediately. Has anyone else noticed that they are almost always hooking fish on the front treble? Literally 100% of my fish have been that way. I almost want to take off the back one just as an experiment. I'm wondering if it would lay flatter in the water without the extra weight in the back, since right now it sits almost 60 degrees upright for me.

Scum frogs IMO are relatively soft, so I'm not sure if switching up frogs will do any good. I still think Pad Crashers are about as good as it gets for collapsibility though. Your gear seems right too. I would say it may have something to do with technique, not that 50% with frogs is downright terrible, but you could probably get it higher. I usually fish mine with the rod very high up, so that when I see a fish blow up on it I can drop the rod to let them take it, then I reel up to make sure they actually did take it and didn't completely miss (which they do sometimes), then as soon as the slack is gone and I feel the fish on I hit 'em hard. This whole process usually takes up about 2 seconds, there is no extra "counting" or "wait time" thrown in.

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I really like the All Terrain Tackle Grassmaster Jig. Comes through grass better than any other jig I've tried. With that one I can just pop the rod a little and it will come out clean, but with other ones that may tend to get hung up a little more, @Catt post should help you out. A lot of times it's better to just slowly work through the grass or weeds and it will kind of naturally wiggle it's way through.

I have the perch and the loon, all my fish have been on the perch though, only recently got the loon with the intention of using it at night. Haven't given it a fair shot yet.

If you do go to the place I suggested, beware, it is very weedy. You can all but forget about anything that has a treble hook attached, even in the center of the pond. There are some good spots for frogging though, I haven't done much but I would imagine punching could be productive, worms, jigs, any heavy cover stuff should do well. Oh and you can probably guess by the name, there are stumps everywhere, be cautious if you go in a kayak or canoe not to run up on one and tip. A bass boat is pretty much a complete no-go at this point in the summer, plus with it being low with the lack of rain.

I either use the snell (occasionally), or a Uni for everything else. It's not necessarily the best but I find it very quick to tie, with minimal chance of burning.

Don't wait! You'd be surprised how effective it can be in "non-deal" conditions. I do like throwing the 130 in a little bit (or a lotta bit) of wind though. Middle of the afternoon, morning, doesn't matter. Actually the only time I haven't had success on it, is the time everyone seems to love topwaters....evening into night. Go figure.

I think it's important to realize what the fish are feeding on. If you are sure they are bass, are they hitting baitfish on the surface? Blowing up on frogs up shallow? Sucking bugs off the surface (something I usually associate with panfish). It's best to try and imitate what they are feeding on. If you show up to the lake and there are hundreds of ripples, most likely it's panfish sucking bugs off the surface. Larger bass generally are not going to be bothered with hitting tiny flies that had the misfortune of crash landing into the water. Most bass surface lures are going to be mimicking baitfish of some sort. I think the easiest for you to learn would be a spook, buzzbait, or jitterbug.