MassYak85

That's pretty cool. Haha, for a second there I thought the blue speckles were the dots you were referring to and the actual dots were stitching.

My dad and I went striper fishing in the connecticut river this weekend, but didn't get any, I think it's kind of late in the run and most of them have headed back to the ocean. We got a couple hits but none ran with the bait. We probably could have done pretty well on smallies but silly me only brought my swimbait set up to go for stripers so I was stuck throwing an S-Waver at smallies. A lot of interest but no bites.

I think many would argue Reign In Blood was their best album, but I don't have a dog in that fight.

Hard to pick just one, but I'd go with green pumpkin. Most of the lakes I fish are at least relatively clear so it is a good natural color. In dirty water I want black/blue though, and I also like baby bass in clearer water as well.

I definitely lean more towards Metallica, I just find them more listenable and I feel they have more great songs than Megadeth. While Dave's gritty voice works great on some songs like Holy Wars, I feel it takes away from some of their other songs. I can listen to 6 Metallica albums and love every song (first 5 and death magnetic), while I can really only do that with 2 Megadeth albums, Rust in peace and Peace Sells....but who's buying? But thrash metal wouldn't be the same without either of them. I also find it kind of funny how the fans of both bands continue to bash each other and fight years and years after the two bands themselves have made peace with each other. They're both good, so enjoy both. As for Pantera, I never really got into them. There's a few songs I liked but overall they never really did it for me. Same thing with Slayer, just my opinion but I find both of them kind of overrated.

I wonder if anyone here has ever hooked a bullfrog on a hollow belly frog, and then had a bass attack the frog while reeling them in, and landed the bass. That would be something.

Mostly Metal but anything with rock influences I like Favorites include... Metallica Dream Theater Symphony X Anthrax Megadeth Tool Mastadon Iced Earth Iron Maiden Opeth Rise Against

PB bullfrog? It always amazes me how aggressive those things are, I've caught a few that I tossed some t-rigged worms to just for laughs. You don't even have to hook them, they latch on hard.

I think one of the biggest advantages of baitcasters is the large range in gear ratios. Have fun burning buzzbaits back to the boat on a 4 or 5 speed spinning reel for hours at a time. You'll wear yourself out. Meanwhile baitcasters come in 8 and even 9 speeds now. Does that mean buzzbaits CAN'T be fished on spinning gear? Absolutely not, as baitcasters back in the day were also only available in what we would consider low gear ratios by todays standards, and people did just fine on 4 and 5 speed baitcasters. But this is just an example of which tool is best for the job, in fishing it seems there are a lot of tools that all can be used for the same job, but there usually is a most effective/efficient one.

I just ordered a 5" perch and a 7" pond shiner 2 weeks ago, super excited to get and try them out. @sd0a Welcome to the forums, sorry to hear about your fishless weekend, I think we've all been there experiencing the goose egg before. Also, do any of you guys ever fish the Sudbury reservoir? It's restricted to shore fishing and I've never caught anything huge out of there. Tried it today with a couple swimbaits and didn't get any bites. I did have a couple bass follow it all the way to shore, about 2-3 pounds. Probably could have eaten it if they really wanted to but they weren't really the size I was targeting. Anyone ever catch anything big out of there?

I think you are limiting yourself if you adamantly refuse to use one or the other. You can fish pretty much any bass fishing technique on spinning gear....or on casting gear. Personally there are certain ones I would never even consider doing on spinning gear but it can be done. Heck, for swimbaits I would guess you'd have to buy saltwater gear if you want to do it on spinning tackle. I fish spinning gear for more finesse applications and smaller lures (like a tiny jerkbait). But honestly, use whatever you feel allows you to best fish a technique. If you feel you can effectively fish a frog, punch mats, and throw a Hudd on spinning gear....do it. I personally feel baitcaters are the better choice for heavier lures and lines, and I can be more accurate with them. But there are guys on here that flip and pitch with spinning gear without issues, and guys who fish drop shots and 4lb line on casting gear. Bottom line is there are advantages to each, but you don't "have to" fish one or the other if you don't want to.

Ideally I would have a spinning set up with straight fluoro for wacky rigging for the slack line sensitivity but since I only have one at the moment, I do braid to a fluoro leader.

I am pretty stuck on war eagle's right now.

At that rod rating I would say a soft plastic paddle tail like the kietech's are your best bet. If you are looking at throwing the larger big profile swimbaits you really need to get a rod to suit the job. You can try the 4" BBZ-1 by Spro, which I believe is like 3/4 which would be slightly above your rod rating by 1/8 ounce but you could probably get away with it.

Let the fish tell you, if you aren't getting bit on the weightless try the weighted. Sometimes they like a faster fall rate, even in shallow water. Usually I fish it shallower than 10 feet around some sort of cover. If you need it to get down fast then the weighted one will probably be the bets bet. Like Darren said, in windy conditions the weight helps too. Also watch how the worm moves on the fall with the different hooks and weight. Some worms have a very subtle wiggle on the fall that can trigger bites and it helps to notice how that wiggle changes depending what you change.

Lews Speed Spool LFS is also a pretty good reel for $100. I have one and love it.

Wacky rig hookups are usually excellent. I use Gamakatsu's wacky jig head and almost always hook them right in the corner of the mouth. The hook is pretty light wire so it doesn't take much to set it, and the weed guards are not stiff. Now, with wacky rigging like some have said above me, a lot of times smaller fish will grab the end of your worm and pull on it, giving the impression of a bass bite. Bluegill, perch, dink bass....all will do this. So it might not be you, but if you are certain that most of your hits were from bass then I would say something with your gear needs to change. I doubt your rod is the issue as I even used a 5 foot ultra light for years before knowing any better, and still had decent hook ups. You can try using TWO O-rings crossed over each other to keep the hook perpendicular to the worm, like this: beyond that I don't really know what could be causing it.

I use 12lb fluoro for most of my leaders and they almost always hold up to pickeral. Of course they are frayed so I have to retie after catching one but I rarely have one bite clean through. It has happened though. I imagine 15lb like Fishing Rhino said would hold up to all but the biggest pickeral.

First time was during the spawn on the lake closest to me last year. Up shallow in the middle of a little channel leading into a cove. Caught on a wacky rigged BPS green pumpkin stick-o. Hooked in the gills so I released her asap, no picture unfortunately but I figured it would give her a better chance. Weighed in at 5.40 exactly. Second time. This year on a larger lake about 20 minutes from my house. Fishing the deeper edge of a spawning flat during the pre-spawn. Caught on a Lethal Weapon IV green pumpkin orange swimjig + 4" Kietech Swimbait for a trailer. She weighed in at exactly 5.40.....again. But at least this time I got a picture.

I'm in Mass and there are definitely lakes capable of holding double digits. If it's still possible to beat the state record I imagine it's swimming around in the Quabbin somewhere. But in New Hampshire, I'd have to imagine that there is at least one double digit fish in Winnipesaukee.

Braid and leader x3

Yea, I'm in Mass too and it is nice to know that law is there. Some dock owners can be a little rude. One time I was fishing around the docks of this one house, and I mean it was a NICE house. Probably a million dollar property at least, but they had like 4 different docks and were making cast around them, but didn't hit them once. They also had one of those big inflatable trampolines like 150 feet off the shore. So we had the boat in between one of the docks and that trampoline, and this lady starts yelling at us from their 3rd story balcony "A little close don't you think! Why don't you fish somewhere else, you have the entire lake!" or something along those lines. We were done fishing there anyways so we just left. If there is someone ON the dock, I won't cast within 15 - 20 feet of it. In the yard is a different story, I'll still fish it pretty close but I am not going to make any risky casts that might clang off some metal or try and skip it underneath.

Fished Brimfield Res. today with my dad. There was some decent activity in the morning, but it slowed as the day went on. No one else we talked to was doing well. The bass we did catch were on deeper weed lines a ways off the shore. Probably about 10 between us, and a ton of pickeral. I decided to give my 8" savage gear line through trout a fair shot today and fished that a few hours. I got two fish.....both pickeral. When I got an 8" swimbait catching 18-20 inch pickeral wasn't exactly what I had in mind, but oh well, better than nothing. I was actually surprised they were even able to eat the thing. They had the treble in the corners of their mouths which means that had to have had the entire bait in their mouth, which for a 2lb pickeral shocks me but I guess they can fit it.

Not anymore but I used to fish their curly tail worms. No complaints about them.

You can fish any color so long as it's black. JK, but back is hard to go wrong with. A white one is good if they are chasing baitfish on the surface. Of all the ones I have FISHED, I like the cavitrons the best. But I did pick up 2 of those war eagle ones you are talking about over the winter and I must say, out of the package they look awesome. I'm a big fan of their spinnerbaits so I expect their buzzbaits will be good too. Whether they will edge out the cavitrons I don't know. No time on the water with them yet.