MassYak85

Ned rig in general is not suited to heavy or even moderate cover. They do make ones with weed guards but I have not used them.

Yea I agree, spinning CAN be used for any techqnique, but for some a baitcaster is just more ideal. Same can be said vice versa. I just think if you choose to only use one you are limiting yourself.

@MIbassyaker Huh, interesting. It's just for me personally, I wouldn't trust the kind of strain put on the spinning reel for frogging after years and years. I lock down the brakes when I am frogging and use 50lb braid and a 7' 6" heavy rod. It just seems like a lot of strain to be putting on the braking system for the spinning reel and the 90 degree turn around the bail the line has to make, rather than the direct pull on a baitcaster. It's easier to get higher drag into a low profile than the same drag rating in an equivalent size/weight spinning reel. You mention the ***, which has at least double the drag of the supreme, plus is considerably lighter. I just feel that you get more bang for your buck with a baitcaster. As far as weight and drag go at least.

I'll just say this, I'm not spooling my Pfluger President with 65lb braid and going frogging with any kind of confidence. I'd say one of the biggets advantages is gear ratio. Today's baitcasters can be had readily in 8 speeds whereas spinning you are going to be doing some searching just to get into 6 speeds. Now certainly you can go with a larger spinning reel to get the IPT the same with the lower gear ratio, but now you are talking a much heavier and bulkier reel to accomplish the same task.

I was hesitant paying 17 bucks for my first 130 size one, but after having one of my best days of fishing ever on it....I did not hesitate on my second . I caught my 3rd and 5th biggest bass ever on the same day last saturday using the perch color (white belly). I just ordered the loon color (black belly) for some night fishing. My dad was with me that day and he tried every topwater he had and didn't even come close to the success I had with it (he didn't have one). The sound it produces is very unique and they were hitting it over the buzzbaits my dad was trying like 5 : 1.

True, I would say for on-the-water knot tying it may be the better choice. But setting up your gear at home before a trip I like to the use the FG. I do not wet the knot at all when tying or cinching it. Reason being is you are not worried about the knot burning itself due to the friction. All the strength comes from the braid digging into the fluorocarbon. I would say wetting it could actually inhibit it from effectively doing so. It seems to me that your issue may be coming from how you finish the knot. All those fingertrap lashings are useless unless the knot is finished properly. The finish is the only thing stopping the tag end from unraveling and undoing every single one of those lashings. Experiment with what works best for you, but what I do is this. After the main lashings I tie a single overhand knot, AT THIS POINT I cinch down the knot. Once you have done this the knot is as strong as it's ever going to be, anything you do afterwords is only going to be to prevent it from unraveling. What I do afterwards is 3 more overhand knots going around BOTH the braid mainline AND the fluoro/mono tag end. Then I do 3 more overhand around JUST the braid mainline. I cinch each of these down individually as I tie them. This builds a kind of "ramp" so that the knot goes through your guides easier and is less likely to come undone. Then I clip the tags.The reason you want all those extra overhand knots is say you only tie one or two, if those overhands come undone the entire knot is compromised and will unravel quite easily, which I suspect is what is happening in your case. If you have 5-6 then if one or two come undone it's not a big deal and the knot is in no danger of unraveling. Watch some videos on how people end the knot, it will probably resolve your issue.

The fluoro does have to be thicker. But 20lb braid is CONSIDERABLY less thick than 14lb fluoro. Don't go by the lb test, go by line diameter. It is a tricky knot to learn, and many on here would advise more simple connection knots. It is great when you finally master it, so if you are committed to learning I would sit down in the living room for a while while watching TV and just tie it, over...and over. Until you get it down. There are a lot of little details that all go into making the knot as good as it is, but you need to make sure you get them right. There are some good videos on how to tie it on YouTube, I'd recommend this one. Helped me a lot.

A failed attempt at a texas rig?

Honestly this is why I hate the Palomar for anything besides hooks. If I have a 5" bait with big treble hooks on it and it's windy out.....last thing I want to be doing is trying to make a loop out of feather light material (braid) and then pass the entire lure through it. I tie a Uni like 90% of the time, or the improved clinch. I am starting to favor the Uni more though after using the clinch for years.

I use the improved clinch with 40lb braid. It would be helpful to know how you lost them. Was it on a cast, did a fish break you off, backlash? Also remember to retie every so often no matter what lure you are losing to reduce knot fatigue.

They make more noise, spit more water, and take less speed to stay on top of the water. I only have one though. To be honest though my Cavitron can be fished about as slow as the double I have.

My dad uses the timber doodle and really likes it.

I use the 130 the most, I have the 90 too but like the 130 much better. I have been doing very well on the perch color, but the belly is white so any color with a white belly I would imagine would produce the same results. I am also going to be getting the Loon color (black belly) for some night fishing. The 130 might seem a little big at first but you'll still catch 1 pounders on it all day. I fish it on 40lb braid on my jig rod (7' 2" heavy fast). It's 1 3/8 ounce so it casts a mile. I can spool my Conc. A on a cast with it. Also @CavScoutA21 I personally don't ever use trailer hooks. I feel like if they are short striking then that is them just telling me that they like what I am using, but that there is one thing that is throwing them off a little. Maybe it's the blade color (spinnerbait), the retrieve speed or cadence, the size, the color. I feel I can usually change something to make them commit instead of using the trailer.

Thanks. River 2 Sea makes it, a little pricey (17 bucks) but worth it IMO. Definitely check them out. I haven't had such a fun fishing day in a long time. Now I kind of wish we had stayed longer, they were still hitting when we left. Oh and PS @Mike Dixon, guess who I saw in the latest Bassmaster magazine holding a Big 'Ol Smallie.....congrats! That really is a nice picture.

I fished the 130 yesterday, for probably 7-8 hours straight, in windy conditions, on straight 40 lb braid. I could count the number of times the line fouled the lure on one hand. You will be fine. It casts very well and shouldn't spin in the air too much where a treble hook might catch on the line.

lews lfs speed spool

I wanted to try using smaller frogs (</= 1/4 ounce) because I too thought it would probably increase the bites on tougher days, but just haven't done it yet due to what you said, casting that on a frog setup is not happening. But I might try it out a little on another rod.

Me and my dad headed to Lake Webster today. Got to the ramp around 6am. The weather was pretty crap, we wore sweatshirts the entire day in mid July, who woulda thought. At least there was no rain though. With the huge swing in weather from what we have been having I figured today was either going to suck, or be great. And GREAT it was!!!!! We launched at the smaller ramp but headed over to the shallow area near the main one. I gave my 40 size Spro Rat it's maiden voyage and man, it delivered. Started off with a keeper probably a little less than 2 lbs. Then I got a 2.8lber. We went a little shallower and there was one spot that just looked to perfect not to cast to. Two overhanging trees with a nice little gap between them and a stick submerged in that gap. After three casts in there working it like I had been (they had been hitting on fast twitches rather than a straight retrieve) I tried slowing it down, with two twitches followed by letting it soak for about 30 seconds. After a couple minutes a big girl came up and inhaled it. Got her in and weighed her, 4.8 lbs. My third biggest bass ever. The bite died down in there and we moved out to the main lake. For about an hour we didn't have any luck. We tried fishing one area we usually get some stuff, where a large shallow flat drops into deeper water. I was fishing a spinnerbait and my dad a swimjig and we were getting little hits but none were taking them, until my dad got a 2lber on the swimjig. We knew the fish were around but it was a question of what they wanted. The wind was starting to pick up and I decided to try some topwater action since I remembered reading that buzzbaits could produce on windy days. I chose the 130 size whopper plopper I recently got instead. Best fishing decision of the year! Absolutely KILLED 'EM with that. Started off with two smaller keepers which gave me confidence I had made the right choice.Bite slowed down so we decided to take another pass. On the end of the flat there is a sharp drop off into 25 feet of water. We were over there when a big smallie CRUSHED the whopper plopper. Unfortunately for me he decided to practice his olympic routine with my lure still in his mouth. Came clear out of the water twice and spit the hook. We stayed in that spot spot for a while and I managed a few more smallies and a largemouth,all around 2 lbs. There is a lone patch of lilypads on that flat and I had a blowup right next to it, but whatever it was wrapped me around 20 lilypads and went to go get the lure I had a big salad and no fish. We moved again to a spot we have gotten big ones before in the spring. I had another big girl come up and smoke it about 25 feet from the boat. I thought for sure it was going to be over 5 once we got her in the boat, but the scale only rang her up at 4.4. But it was still my 5th biggest bass ever so I'm not complaining . We moved into a nearby "bay" full of weeds with some lilypads. I was killing them in there (again on the whopper plopper). Probably got about 10 in total in that area. Lost one about 100 feet from the boat that was probably over 3, lost another around 3 due to my mistake, where I tried to pull the fish into the net rather than properly net it, which ripper out the hooks and it got away right at the boat. Got another smallie around 2lbs near some pads. As we started to head back to the ramp I made a cast parallel to a dock, as soon as it passed the end a bass killed it. I could tell immediately it was a largemouth and it jumped, but it was still hooked, it pulled hard after that and without so much as a head shake it just slipped off. I'm pretty sure the front treble hook was in it's mouth, and the back one in it's side, and when it jumped I think the one in it's mouth came out and the extra pulling I felt was because I was pulling the fish sideways after that, and the hook pulled out. I think that one may have been around 4 though, it felt good. Kind of left a sour taste in my mouth after that but I managed one more little keeper smallie to end the day on a high note. Right as I was releasing it an environmental police boat pulled us over. They were very friendly, asked us to show some safety things in the boat and out fishing licenses and we went on our way back to the ramp. It was about 6pm when we pulled the boat out. All in all, probably around 15 bass. A bunch of smallies which I am not used to. A 4.4 and a 4.8, numbers 3 and 5 on the list of my top 5 biggest bass. And the cherry on top...I didn't have to deal with a single pickerel. Best fishing day of the year so far. Other than the 4.8 and a couple smaller keepers, all fish were caught on the whopper plopper 130. Great lure! Only downside of the day was my dad, who did not have a whopper plopper, only caught 3 small fish. He tried everything and couldn't get the same kind of bite. I even gave him my 90 size whopper plopper to use, but it seemed like they wanted the extra commosion the 130 size generates. The key seemed to be the wind today, the best bite seemed to be on the shore the wind was blowing into.

I use leaders a lot, but would never use them for frogs. I would HIGHLY recommend at least 30lb braid for any type of frogging.

Unless you actually took something like a metal pick and dug it out, I doubt you did any damage.

Whopper plopper would probably be the easiest, but honestly I fish top waters from my kayak all the time, especially frogs, with no issues.

Welcome! The fever has no cure unfortunately, except more fishing

Good to know, was just thinking out loud with this post. I felt it and it did seem rather unmanageable for casting.

Mostly preference. But say you want 20lbs of drag, a low profile baitcaster will get you that while you may need a much larger spinning reel to get that. Or if you want a really high speed gear ratio, like 8 or 9 speed. I've never heard of a spinning reel capable of that, of course you can compensate by increasing the reel size, which will give you a more equatable IPT to the high speed baitcaster despite the lower ratio. Basically I feel that you can get more in a smaller package with a bait caster. Especially the guys who obsess over weight, there really is no comparison.

I fish for fun, and some of my fun comes from finding the right presentation and "tricking" the fish into biting a lure, instead of actual food. Ice fishing I use pretty much only live bait though.