MassYak85

I've never used them before so hopefully I like them lol. Although at that price I guess I could test out a pack and sell the rest. I did see a quick video on youtube before pulling the trigger and they do look really good on the fall.

sigh....I need to stop checking this thread *goes and places order* Of course the only logical thing to do was to buy 10 packs for 25 bucks to get free shipping lol. I usually don't cave on sales but when Dicks puts stuff on sale it's like 50% or in this case, 65% off.

I see the value of tournaments in growing you as an angler. It forces you to fish places and conditions you might normally shy away from, and you either learn to adapt or get left in the dust. But when I fish I am out there to fish and enjoy nature as long as possible. I don't want any additional pressure, I don't want a time limit. I just want to go and let the day and fish itself dictate what I'm going to do. And sorry to hijack a little here OP but I do have a question for tourny guys...have you ever SKIPPED weigh in to continue fishing because it was just that good? Obviously the tournament fee will play some sort of factor here.

Oh yea, it sucks big time, that's why 50lb bags have been taken out of some of the lakes there...

The only thing that line diameter has a factor in is it allows more abrasion before breaking simply because there is more material to get through. It's not that it's more resistant to be abraded.

This and a net are about the only two others I would add. Also fishing gear but you'd have to be having a really bad day to forget that.

Unless I got skunked every time I don't think I would get tired going that much. And even then I think I would just stupidly persistent and force myself to go.

Only thing that stops me from trying one are the dang pickerel.

x2 It's extra important for us self-propelled folk. I was about 2 miles from the ramp earlier this summer on a 95 degree day before realizing I was almost out. I was fine but had anything gone wrong it could have been bad.

Even if the lake looks like an impenetrable carpet on the surface there are often times large openings or passageways underneath the fish can navigate through. Even if there's a 2 foot mat on top it could just be a canopy. While other areas it might very well be thick from bottom to top. Your job is to find those pockets underneath, or find the areas where it's thin enough the bass can blow through to get a frog or other weedless rigged bait. To get through the weeds you really need either a punching setup or some heavy grass jigs though.

@Janderson45 That's good to hear the weeds aren't as bad as last year. I almost quit fishing there for a little while because I almost couldn't paddle when there was wind + my outriggers + the weeds. I think it was 3-4 years ago there was a great year. The weeds were generally like you described, growing carpeted on the bottom in nice lush green and the water was crystal clear. It was nice because the back half of the pond only had select clumps of lily pads which the fish were just glued to and I had 2 or 3 absolutely killer days just throwing a stick-o and letting it fall next to them. I had a couple 20-30 fish days and I wish I could go back and do those over again because I was still fishing with a 5' UL spinning setup with 10lb braid to worm LOL. I missed like half my hookups because they would just wrap me up and get off. Would you say the weeds are clear enough to fish surface treble hook baits along the lily pad edges? I'm gonna be bakc in MA in a couple weeks and I'm hoping to do a few night trips with a slammer (hoping TW's current backorder date stays correct).

Like others said the stock hooks and rings on all of those should be pretty good. If you want to you can buy a size up/down on the split rings for the jerkbaits and tune it based on the water temp once it falls out of it's stock suspending temperature range.

I usually go to the chatterbait in muddier water (Charles River), and generally I am fishing it a little slower than a spinnerbait, right along edges of cover like weed edges or the edge of lily pads. I don't ever drag them, not saying it doesn't work but if I am going to fish that slow I'd prefer a jig with rattles or a big black chrome colorado blade spinnerbait. And if I'm going to rip it off the bottom I'd probably give the nod to a lipless. For me it's more of a search bait to just chuck and wind when I feel the vibration is needed to get bites. I do like to vary my speeds though, sometimes I'll give a few really fast turns to get it to kick off to the side a bit and then slow back down. You can do that when it passes a piece of cover sometimes and trigger a bite. Experiment with trailers but I usually toss on a paddle tail. I need to try some more myself though. I do well with green pumpkin but I also got a black I haven't had much chance to fish yet.

Oh man this is a good topic, I'm going to need to pick a few I think. Polarized sunglasses would have to top the list for me. I wear them all the time when fishing and I often point stuff out to my father before realizing he can't see what I'm looking at because he isn't wearing a pair. Good split ring pliers (seriously, texas tackle ones are amazing and I will never go back). It's not a big deal not having any until you start changing out more treble hooks...or try and open an Owner hyper wire size 7 with anything but a good split ring plier. A lure knocker, not even because of the money it saves but it allows me to fish snaggy areas with confidence knowing the odds of losing whatever I am using really aren't that high.

I've got a couple super cheap ones I could try on first as well, ones that would probably just get tossed anyways so might as well learn from them.

Yea I've had my fair share of springs, e-clips, and other small parts go flying. So far, and thank God because I'm an idiot and do it in a carpeted room, I have recovered everything so far. Next time I am going to get myself a plastic bag or a box and open that kind of stuff inside just in case. It's more so for my own curiosity and knowledge than anything else. What I'll probably do is see how bad it looks once I get into it and if I think I need to go further then I'll tackle it from there. Like I said this is a pretty old reel and my most used spinning reel by far and for how much they cost if I end up breaking it it's already lived it's worth. Actually this looks like it's the best I've seen so far, thanks!

I consider myself pretty mechanically inclined and like I said when I do my baitcasters every piece comes out down to the bare frame so I'm not too worried, I'm just trying to see if there's a video of getting down into the main gearing so I can see if there's anything I should worry about. Also I'm just taking apart a really old pflueger president, not a stradic. If I screw it up it's lived a good life.

I just don't see the point. Other than the fact that it's a spincast I don't see anything about the reel that a 100 dollar baitcaster doesn't beat it in (line capacity, drag, weight, higher ratios). Now if you MUST have a spincast, it does look decent...but man 13 and a half ounces? That alone would make me force myself to learn to use a baitcaster.

It depends why you are tying a leader, if it's visibility, or the need to break off, or for finesse, then you will be fine with regular fluorocarbon line. If it's for abrasion resistance you are better off with the "real" fluorocarbon leader material. It is much much stiffer (seriously, if you ever spooled up with that....good luck) and will do a better job. But if all you have is normal fluoro line it will be better than 30lb braid for abrasion most likely.

So I've been doing complete tear downs of my baitcasters for a few years now and I'm pretty comfortable doing it, but I haven't touched my spinning gear. It's a Pflueger president that I haven't taken apart since I got it years ago since it's been fine so far but I figured it could probably use a good cleaning at this point. Anyways I've been scouring YouTube for a good video of a full spinning reel teardown, and I haven't found even one. Every maintenance, cleaning, or tear down video I have seen so far is not complete, and ends pretty soon after they get past the anti reverse. Does anyone know of a video of someone tearing a reel down to the very last part? I'm not necessarily planning on going that deep into mine but I want to know what I am getting myself into in case I do decide to. If you want to shamelessly plug your own video please do.

One day I'll convince myself I need to buy one of those. They are really amazing but for how much the new Mags cost, it will be a while for me. Heck the normal Hardgills ain't cheap either.

A step into the future? Sure. As long as that future involves losing their pro staffers, it sounds like they are seriously taking advantage of that relationship. And I can't say for sure without knowing the brand, but cutting advertising by that much could be cutting their own throats. If it's a well established brand where the customers know them and are willing to seek out what new product lines they are launching then that's one thing, if it's a smaller company then they need to get the word out and have as many people talking about their product as possible. The only exception I can think of is big bait custom manufacturers that many people may have never heard of but they develop enough of a cult following that the demand and available supply from a one or two man operation reaches a nice balance point simply from word of mouth.

Oooopppsss.... Got the rod a while ago on sale but just got the reel.

I'm around Virginia Beach and can't seem to catch a thing. I'm talking 1 or 2 fish a trip is a success, and from literally every other person I have talked to at the ramp when I've gone out, they didn't do much better. I've hit up the Suffolk reservoirs about 10 times now this summer, with fewer bass to show for it. This is my first summer down here so I don't expect to kill 'em when it's the heat of the summer and I don't know the lakes at all and have no electronics but man it's been rough.

Yea I got mine in like 6 shipments as well. Dicks is kind of weird, they don't specialize in fishing by any means but they have very solid deals pretty consistently, online and in certain stores. Also I just bought a Lexa 300H. I looked freaking everywhere online for that specific model, couldn't find it and had two orders canceled due to no stock. I looked on pretty much every major fishing online store and they either didn't carry them or had no stock. Then I look at Dick's and they have it no issue.