AO2point4

It's not too big. This is a 190 sized Whopper Plopper (7 1/2 inches), and this smallmouth had no problem crushing it. Seems like bass have eyes bigger than their stomachs.

Thanks for the replies, just ordered one

I am looking to grab a cheap bait casting setup for my girlfriend to use, and I really want to give Kastking a try. I've noticed that the gear ratios and the two reels are different (7.0:1 for the Royale Legend and 6.4:1 for the Sparticus Plus), but other than that they seem quite similar, and similarly priced. It will be used for straight retrieve lures likes Mepps Aglias, Whopper Ploppers, and Keitech swimbaits. If anyone has experience with each of these reels and would be willing to offer up some input as to which one would be a better buy, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks! The reel will be spooled up with 40lb braid.

Search around eBay, I recently got a brand new Shimano Curado I for $108 from a very much trusted seller. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post their name on here so PM me if you'd like to know. I'll let others give their input on rods, but anything from St. Croix and the great state of Wisconsin will fullfill your needs I'm sure.

Whopper Plopper 110 has been my most consistent fish producing topwater bait over the last year or so. Frogs only produce Pike for me. Plopper gets my vote.

I find this very interesting. I bet most of my strikes from fish come when I am completely zoned out, thinking about why the Brewers haven't made a significant trade yet, or listening to a my favorite podcast. When I'm really focused on fishing I think I try to work m bait too much and potentially mess up it's natural action.

About a couple weeks ago I dedicated myself to throw only jigs, to learn the technique. After tons of frustration I finally started to see success, and now I'm addicted. The feeling of setting the hook on a fish who just slurped up your jig is very fun to me.

Mepps Aglia, replace the treble with a weighted swimbait hook rigged with a 3.8 Keitech. That would be money.

I'm the same way, I'll toss a senko for a few casts, get bored of it, and switch to something more fun to fish, like topwater. That's why I do a lot of "fishing", and not a lot of "catching".

I paid 19.99, same as they are on TW I believe. My girlfriend's dad owns an Ace in Minnesota, and she said they don't have any fishing equipment at all. I found it very odd that an Ace would carry baits like that, but I'm not complaining.

A gentleman approached me yesterday while I was tossing a Pompadour around in a local lake, and he informed me that the local Ace hardware store he works at now carries a full supply of Pompadours and Pompadour JRs (amongst their very limited selection of other tackle). Anyways, yeah, now I have a JR in the gill color.

If you're a beginner, I'd recommend the BB1 Pro from Lew's. The external dial to adjust the braking system is super easy to get dialed in, which was one of my biggest concerns when I first started throwing a bait caster. Otherwise, just pick one you like. All reels above the $100 price range, generally, will be of good quality. Lew's guys will recommend Lew's, Shimano guys will recommend Shimano, and so on. So just pick one you like and you'll start to form your own preferences on what you like in a reel.

The biggest problem is that they would get absolutely destroyed by pike up here, I'd have to almost exclusively fish hard swim baits.

Hm, that's definitely something for me to look into in the future. But for now, I'm going to keep telling myself that it is odd, because the last thing my wallet needs if for me to get hooked on throwing big swim baits...

Not usually, but on this particular trip we caught 4 big bass on musky baits. We caught 2 on a big, ugly Suick, and another on a big walking bait. It was odd how 3-4lbs fish we hammering baits that were over 6 inches.

First post here, I've been reading up for a long time and trying to absorb as much knowledge as possible. Anyways, my biggest bass came while fishing a Musky tournament on big Whopper Plopper 190. Unsure of length/weight, but it was by far my biggest of the year.