tkunk

I fish for bull reds and muskies. The NACL will do fine, unless you get sand in it. Make sure you have titanium guides on your rod, or they'll rust. I've never had any luck throwing musky baits in the surf, but YMMV.

I fish Lake Michigan all the time, and I rarely see anyone trolling for smallmouths, except for a technique I'll describe below. Here, in the summer, it's all drop shot/tubes unless it's very windy, and the fish get shallow and aggressive. Fortunately, it's often windy. To the OP, I don't think anyone's mentioned that you can troll tubes and drop shots. Maintain bottom contact, and keep your speed under 0.8 MPH. Normally, people do this on very windy days. Point your bow into the wind, use your trolling motor to stay under 0.8 MPH, and try to drag your lure through interesting areas.

Awesome! Reds are my favorite fish. Did you get a weight/measurement?

That's the rod I use for light jerkbaits. The rod's balance and XF action makes it easy for me to fish baits aggressively, and fish rarely come unhooked, so I'd highly recommend it. I've caught well over 1,000 fish on it, and I have no plans to ever replace it. I've never used it for anything but jerkbaits, so I can't comment on sensitivity.

I'll fish the same jerkbait until I lose it (90% of the time, it's because I get bitten off). Often, the baits end up being totally clear except for the head, and it doesn't seem to make a difference. I have seen color make a big difference with finesse baits, though.

I've caught three muskies and probably over 100 largemouth on prop baits, so I don't think I'm pulling the bait away from smallies. I missed my first two muskies on prop baits, so now I make a point of not watching them as I'm retrieving them. For conditions, I'd say I've been fishing the bait one-footers. I'll try a 90 and report back once I get a day that's calm enough to fish topwater. Thanks.

For 1/16-3/32 oz hair jigs, I use a 7' Daiwa ML/XF rod rated for 1/64-1/4 oz lures and a 2000-sized spinning reel with 5 lb braid. I'll bet I can cast farther than 100 feet with the wind. Against the wind, I probably don't get more than 30 feet. Light braid makes a big difference. A 1000-sized reel is limiting your casting distance. For spinning reels, bigger spools are always better for distance (this is definitely not true for baitcasters). You can easily go up to 2000-sized reel without hurting the balance of your combo. For hair jigs, I'd fish a 5000-sized reel if it didn't cause an imbalance.

While they're fighting fish, some people use their fingers to pull line out of their reels. I've seen musky and bass guys do it with casting and spinning gear. What's the purpose?

I do roughly the same thing: When I get a bite, I reel a little faster, and if there's any weight there, I reel a lot faster and lean back a bit. But your experience is very different from mine. I use a 130 for early season muskies. I often get blow-ups from male smallies on beds (I assume), but I seldom hook them. I wasn't counting them in the original post, because I figured the bait was too big to hook them. If I were to count them towards the total, I'd say I'm about 5/40.

I had the same experience with the double uni. Unless I kept my drag super loose, I'd break the knot on every hook set. I'd also break them when smallies would get close to my boat and dive quickly. I haven't broken an FG knot since you explained how to tie one to me. It's probably been two years now.

When fishing for largemouths and muskies, I've had great luck with prop-style baits, so I decided to try a Whopper Plopper 110 for smallies. So far, I've gone 2/20. Half the time, it seems like fish completely whiff. I'm sure I've had days when I've gone ~10/10 on largemouths, so something's not right. I normally use it in moderately windy conditions (never on glass calm days, because I don't fish when it's calm), and the hooks are very sharp. Has anyone experienced anything similar or does anyone have any suggestions? My only guess is that a 110 might be too big to hook them reliably.

Wind helps a ton. When it's windy, you really only need to check wind-blown structure, so it considerably reduces the area you need to search. The lake I fish is very big, so I seldom fish for smallies in summer unless it's windy. Also, it's important to remember that smallies are smallies: They can be in 40 fow one day, and the next day they'll be in weed beds in 5 fow. Don't get stuck on the idea that they're deep because that's where some book or pro says they're supposed to be during a certain time of year. Look everywhere (except the non-windy side of structure).

If you're not losing lures, you're probably not fishing the right spots.

In my experience, hair jigs are awesome when water temps are below 55. The lighter, the better. I never go heavier than 3/32 oz. Just cast them out, count them down, and reel them in at an excruciatingly slow pace. You can also troll them at 0.8 MPH. The key, IMO, is to get a super long rod that can cast them a good distance. If you don't know someone who ties them, VMC hair jigs are fine.

I should've been clearer, because I never use like diameters. Normally, when I care about abrasion resistance, I'm using a 12-20 lb fluoro leader with 8-lb braid (spinning) or 40-lb braid (baitcasting). So normally, my fluoro leader is much larger in diameter than my main line.

A leader actually adds strength if you're fishing around rocks or anything sharp. Unlike fluoro, braid has no abrasion resistance.

I like XF with braid with a fluoro leader for jerkbait rods, because I don't have to work as hard when I twitch/rip. I use a MH baitcaster for 1/2 oz+ baits and a ML spinning rod for smaller stuff. The lakes I fish are clear, so I like 7'+ rods for long casts, but I fish out of a deep V, so YMMV.

Swimbaits don't have any resistance, so they won't put any stress on your reel unless you're constantly backlashing. Line capacity is the main issue. I use a 300 sized reel or bigger for anything over 2 oz.

Shimano TDRs and Okuma Convectors are cheap and sturdy. I use them for salmon and musky, and they've held up well. Salmon are much harder on gear despite being smaller than muskies. If I were guiding for salmon, I'd probably upgrade the Convectors to Tekotas. For salmon, I only use dipseys and lead core. You might need a different rod for downriggers. The good news is that you don't need to pay more than $30 for a trolling rod, because rod weight and sensitivity are irrelevant when trolling.

You shouldn't have problems with 65 lb braid digging in. If you have a few sloppy casts, lock your drag down, loosen your casting knob, put on a hard-pulling lure (like a 6XD or cowgirl), cast it out, drive away from it until your spool is almost empty, and reel the lure back in while you're moving away from it at ~1.5 MPH. Also, I wouldn't use anything thinner than 40 lb PowerPro on a baitcaster.

It depends on the season, but my favorite baits, in no particular order, are Keitech 2.8-3.5, retrieved very slowly Pointer 78-100, retrieve depends on water temps and wind drop shot (I can't fish tubes very often because of snot weed) Random notes: Hair jigs are awesome for prespawn In my experience, crankbaits like DT10's-DT20's are excellent for size but terrible for numbers Burning spinnerbaits is fun when it's warm and very windy My #1 tip is to fish the windy side of all structure (above and below the water's surface), because that's where the active fish are likely to be. With a few exceptions, the windier it is, the better the fishing will be.

Does anyone know if it's possible to use braid on a spincast reel? I imagine that it'd eliminate line twist.

Not that I'm good at fishing, but my opinion is the opposite of this. The harder to I have to work to retrieve a bait, the easier it is for me to feel any reduction in resistance (usually because I've hooked debris, a weed, or a fish). To me, the low gear ratio reels like the Revo Winch feel too "mushy". The sensitivity thing is easy to test on spinnerbaits with big blades: With a low gear ratio, you won't feel any vibration in the first place, so you definitely won't be able to detect any changes in vibration. I also do quite a bit of crankbait trolling for muskies in the fall, and I'm 99% sure that boat speed (and therefore lure speed) doesn't affect the maximum depth that lures hit.

I hate whippy rods. Based on recommendations here, I got a Dobyns 805CB, which is MH/MF. It's not whippy at all (I now use it for spinnerbaits as well as crankbaits), it casts deep divers really well, and it's reasonably sensitive. Based on my experience with the 805CB, I were throwing lighter stuff, I'd get a 705CB for sure.

Not many people seem to know this, but jerkbaits work really well for smallies in the summer. On a warm, windy day, when there's a lot of bait in 0-15 fow, it's impossible to fish a jerkbait too fast or aggressively. It's my favorite technique.