MassYak85

Savage gear has some decent stuff at reasonable prices. You could probably get a few baits for under 50 bucks. That leaves 100 for the rod and reel. Retail I don't really think you've got many options, but if you can find someone selling a used cardiff and used dobyns fury or something you could probably be spooled up and ready to fish for around 200.

My spring has been tough too. I think part of it is just that this is the first season I've truly fished since ice-out, and I suppose I had unrealistic expectations from the start. I think in the back of my head I thought fishing a jerkbait, hair jig, and blade bait really slow would be some kind of magic bullet for those early season fish and that just wasn't the case. So I think I've been a little antsy as we get closer to spawn trying to force stuff like spinnerbaits and other reaction baits now that "it's time". I also need to stay off social media a bit. I see too many posts the day before I got out of someone who had a great day doing XYZ, and I think they stay in the back of my head and influence my decision making. And the wind...seems like 4/5 trips this year have been windy as hell. It's mostly a mental thing on my part, but it makes it difficult to go really finesse, and again I usually wind up just chucking and winding reaction baits for little return. I should probably try and work a jig more but it eats at my patience when there's a 10ft bow in my line fishing a "bottom contact" bait. Oh, I don't think I've mentioned yet but I'm going to be moving to Vermont for a job in June now that I finished with my degree. It's like half an hour from the NH border so I'll probably need 3 fishing licenses lol (NH, VT, MA).

No it was on Lake Maspenock, shallower lake and the north end of it is rocky/sandy and shallow so it warms up fast.

Got out for a few hours this evening. Fished a northern shore where I had some luck last time. The rain has dropped the temperature a good 5 degrees back into the mid-50's. I got about 5 bites on a jig, missed a few. They were veeeery strange jig bites, almost like I would expect to feel from bluegill pulling on the trailer. Tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick and then I would finally feel some weight. Usually I just feel one good wack and then they swim away with it. Got a decent one on a stick-o too, but even that fish only hit after it had sat on the bottom for a few seconds. They definitely seemed a bit lethargic and wouldn't hit any moving baits. I'm hoping to get out tomorrow, hopefully the sunshine after all this rain and clouds gets them back in the mood. Next week looks great for getting the water temps back into the 60's.

Open water around light vegetation and smaller spinnerbaits I'll go down to 10lb, otherwise I'm using 18lb. But that's really just because of the leader line I keep on me (10, 18, and 25). Ideally I'd probably go 15lb most of the time.

In my kayak I've got a ram mount and just put it on a timer, from the bank I just take a regular selfie.

Plain and simple the rod you're looking for doesn't exist. That being said if I could only own one rod it would be a 7' MHF casting rod with 40lb braid. It will do okay with 90% of baits but the far upper and lower end of stuff will be eliminated basically. Your true heavy cover techniques like heavy frogging and punching are out, and on the lighter end like tiny jerkbaits, ned rigs, drop shots you won't be casting them very far and will need to significantly back off on your drag to avoid bending out hooks.

Yea the BG has definitely been a tank for me so far. It's heavy for it's size but it definitely has a more rugged build because of it. Also the anodized frame is nice.

Guys throw swimbaits over half a pound on 25lb line so I wouldn't hold too strictly to your system. I'm usually not directly equating the lure weight with my line choice. It plays a role sure, but other things like the cover and gear I'm using for that lure are bigger factors.

Can't vouch for Shimano since I haven't owned one of their spinning reels but I have had my Daiwa BG for about a year now and have loved it.

A while back I bought some very thin washers and can always solve this by playing around with a few different combinations.

Open water I've got no issue going down to 12 or even 8lb line for most techniques. The reasons I go heavier are fishing heavy cover, around rocks, or using heavier gear or terminal tackle. I'm not gonna use light line to punch, to fish jigs around rocks, to fish swimbaits, to fish frogs etc. etc. All things being equal I think lighter line will get you more bites but if you end up breaking off your fish it doesn't matter. Hell, just today I broke off a jig because the fish dragged my 18lb leader over a rock so I upsized to 25lb.

Another day, another hurricane...Me and my dad got out for a few hours this afternoon to some more whitecaps. Water was getting around 60 on the northern shores. Didn't see any pairs on beds but fish were definitely shallow. Couldn't get any big ones, we got some smaller males. I missed a good bite on a t-rigged rage bug near a rock...then after fraying my leader and thinking it was still good enough, broke off another good bite on a jig. Tied on some 25lb leader after that lol. I had other plans later so we pulled off the water around 3. This week's weather looks pretty crappy again. I think it's gonna push them back out to pre-spawn locations again at least on the lakes I've been fishing. Seems like it's been a few weeks of this, where the weather gets the fish aaaaaalmost there and then we get a reset and try again.

The reason plastics like Senkos and Keitechs are so highly regarded is because they maintain their action even at frigid temperatures. Their high salt content creates little pockets in the plastic of the bait and makes them very flexible, but also not very durable. The thing that makes any "stick bait" good or not though is their action when sinking. If the ends wiggle subtly back and forth, they will get get crushed on the fall, but if it just sinks like an actual stick, then your bites will go down considerably. And again as the temperatures plummet you want the plastic to remain flexible enough to maintain that action.

Went to A1 for about 4 hours this afternoon in my kayak. Weather called for 5-8mph winds when I checked yesterday and nice sunny skies...I was less than pleased to get chased off the water around 4pm by near white-caps coming across the lake. I decided to go without the outriggers when I launched to lessen the wind resistance, and while that helped a lot...it's also playing with fire in my kayak on A1 with all the stumps. All it takes is to ride up a wave and come back down onto a stick to flip me. So I decided to call it when the wind really kicked up. I started out on the northern shore because it was protected by the wind and I have done well there in the spring in previous years. The water was surprisingly warm and the spawn was definitely underway there. Saw a few beds and one spawning pair actively gaurding a bed. TONS of small bluegill up shallow that were getting spooked so I tied on a frog and went as shallow as I could. Caught two fish in like 6 inches of water on the frog, both right next to laydowns. Both were probably about 2.5lbs but were very skinny fish. Had two other blowups that seemed to be bigger fish but one hit my frog after I cast over a branch so there was no way to get a good hookset, and another I missed in open water. Thought I might be able to get some bigger fish if I pulled off the flat and fished the drop. Got a nice 3.3lber on a spinnerbait doing just that and missed a bite on a jig. Then I went to the southern shore which was windblown and is a little sandier, thinking I might be able to get some more action over there. I got a small bite cranking down a slammer but it got off. That's when the wind really kicked up, and coming out of the north the shore I started was really my only option for staying out of the wind. Tried another cove but again, wind was bad and I was getting blown into stumps and could really only make like 1 good cats before the wind had me going backwards at a good pace so I just called it and paddled back to the launch. Wouldn't you know the wind started to calm down a bit as soon as I got to the launch but I had had enough lol. Overall a good day and the first time in a while I felt like I could actually pattern fish.

Berkley 10" power worm on a T-rig or Carolina rig. It's my go-to bait for working the bottom during the warmer months, especially in and around vegetation. Started using bigger straight tails though the last couple years and have done well (Uptons customs, Manns Jelly worm). Zoom trick worms and roboworms for more finesse stuff.

I'll definitely start working in the T-rig. That brings up another question I had...what are you guys using for tube jigs? I can't seem to find any that aren't lead, so I've just been using ball-head jigs.

Gonna try and get out in the kayak on Wednesday somewhere. Might try A1, haven't launched the kayak there yet this season.

If it was me I'd so something similar to this. Make the M another MH but with a more moderate action so you can fish anything from spinnerbaits, cranks, bladed jigs, topwater, jerks etc...anything with trebles or any "moving" baits essentially. Then I'd make your other casting rod a H fast action for T-rigs, C-rigs, Jigs, frogs...anything that needs that extra "uumph" to set the hook. And then I agree with the M spinning setup.

I was actually gonna ask the same thing. I am really confident using C-rigs and T-rigs in the summer, it's one of my go-to's. My favorite is probably a curly tail 10" power worm and last year I started using bigger straight tails. Lizards have always been a favorite too. But this time of year what is everyone using for plastics? I usually have the jig tied on until after the spawn but I haven't been doing so hot lately and want to switch it up.

My dad and I got out on Webster today for about 6 hours. All that yielded was one keeper (barely) smallmouth on a 2.8 keitech on a ballhead jig. My dad managed a few pickerel but man, what a slow day. I don't think I've had a worse day on that lake. We started in a cove with jerkbaits seeing if any were up in the new weed beds yet, no signs of life. Tried one of the really shallow coves, again no signs of life. So we headed out to some of the deeper drops outside the coves where I would have guessed they were at by the 55° water temp, but still no luck on jigs, spinnerbaits, chatterbaits or jerks. Kind of losing hope we went to the other extreme and tried some of the deeper structure and marked a few fish, thought maybe we could squeeze a couple out on blade baits or underspins doing that but they weren't having it. Pretty sure we passed by you, @Janderson45 around noon. Hopefully you had a better day lol.

Got out for a couple hours later in the afternoon. Crappie were hanging around deep and were interested in jerkbaits and underspins but not much else was biting. Saw one 2lb male on a bed but other than that the shallows looked pretty lifeless. Water was only 55. Did manage one bass on a jig, about 1.5lbs probably. He got off as I lifted him out of the water... Hook had been bent a little on the jig. I recently got some tungsten football jigs to try from evolution tungsten and they look great, but I really haven't been a fan of them after using them for a bit now. The skirt doesn't flare out whatsoever when fishing it and now my confidence in the hook is a little shakey. Any recommendations for a different brand? I might just do a small order from Siebert.

I have a hard time paying attention to any of their new "budget" reels in that $80 dollar range when I can find a brand new Fuego CT cheaper on Ebay almost any day of the week. The magforce braking system alone makes it worth the retail price difference, and finding it at the same price basically makes their cheaper reels obsolete.

What is this....a Saturday forecast not calling for gale-force winds???!!!!! About time lol.

My personal rule for space between people, whether it's bank, kayak, boat or any mix of the three is two casting lengths. If you guys can cast at each other and cross lines someone got too close.