Dens228

This is the same reasoning why I only have two types of jigs. A swim jig and a pitching jig. Three colors of swim jig, four colors of pitching jig. They cover all my jig needs and I fish jigs more than any other lure. I did buy some football head jigs last fall but haven't used them yet.

I made the mistake of buying one. Today I had seven MegaBass rods on my kayak with me.

I have two MegaBass Diablo Spec R's with Tatula Elite reels and 30 lb Sufix I have two MegaBass Braillist's with 30 Tatula SV Tw's and 30 lb Suffix They are always with me.

Ha, we must be neighbors. I am in the same situation but in Illinois. half hour in opposite directions, Cabela's is horrible, even things they say are in stock are not, shelves half empty. BassPro is better here.

Tatula Elite

Every year I say I'm going to track my success compared to the tables, every year I don't do that.

My PB bass was caught on a 5" wacky rigged Senko. I live in northern Illinois and have caught probably around 20 or so 5 lb+ bass in the last two years. Other than the Senko PB and one other big one on a jerkbait in November, every other one of those bass was caught on some sort of jig. But............the depth caught was anywhere between a foot (yesterday) and 20 feet (early spring).

When it's slow I tend to move to plastics, creature, craw, worms..........when it's REAL slow I end up with worms.

Today was going to be a slow day, minor cold front moved in last night, no clouds or wind this morning so I knew I'd have to work for any bass. I caught one pretty quick on a frog but once the sun got higher I moved to some blow downs and worked around them with a frog. Had a non-committed strike on the frog near some wood and cast a few more times around it without a take, so I switched to a T-rigged Black/blue flake Sweat Beaver and cast to the same area, second cast I got another light strike but no hook up. Now I know there's a bass there. I worked that blow down, front to back, side to side for probably 15 minutes until I finally got a real strike and landed the bass. I knew that bass was there and also knew it was going to be tough sledding so I wasn't leaving a spot I knew had a bass until I landed it!

The Curve 55 is one of my favorite cranks. I use a Megabass Orochi XX Swingfire with a Tatula Elite loaded with 20 lb Sufix 832 and a short mono leader and it casts a mile. Well maybe not a mile..lol

Way overthinking it. Imagine a Whopper Plopper or buzbait....I do the same as you. I'd imagine that one of these times a fish is going to hit it anyway.

I'm semi retired, work four our afternoon shifts doing security at a high school and have summers off. Thanks to that I usually limit myself to weekdays once the ice melts. This year it is like every day is Saturday.....lol. Two out of the last three times out by about 9:00 am the lakes I'm at were so crowded that there was virtually no place to work an area without violating fishing etiquette. One of those times two boats were fishing the narrow mouth of the small bay I launched from and as I tried to paddle through in my kayak one of the boaters shot me a stare, I politely told him I was leaving and the only way to do it was get past him best I could. He did reply with a smile and said, yep, it is getting a bit crowded.

Mine are all around $500 for rod/reel combined.

I'd go with 832 also. I use 30 lb test for the applications you mentioned. Wind knots have not been a problem for me in any way. I think the lower test braids such as 10 and under is where that happens due to the braid being extremely thin and light.

I only had one Levante, still having it, but MegaBass stopping production has cost me many $$'s once I discovered the Orochi XX's.......

There was an issue with them breaking. It didn't appear to be all, just some. They were supposed to be retooling the process on them, haven't heard a thing since.

I fish out of a kayak and don't bring 20 rods, I try to "limit" it to 6 or 7. I always have at least One plastics rod One jig rod One Crank or popper rod One spinnerbait/chatterbait rod One H/Fast for glides and frogs The others I bring depends on where I'm going.

Last summer I was working a shoreline and cast a crankbait over a tree branch about 10 feet or so up but the lure was laying just barely in the water. I thought was to paddle over and cut the lure off and reel the line in. Just as I started to do that a bass hit it, pulled it down and spit it out. The branch had bent, sprang back up and wrapped the line and my crankbait several times around well up out of reach. It was worth the $6 just to have that story.

Famous last words! I've been saying that for every reel purchase!

I go by depth and most of my cranks are 6th Sense but do have brands. For each depth I try to keep it simple. Shad color, bluegill color, ghost color, something with chartreuese. Silent and rattle. 2-5 feet 5-9 feet 9-12 feet 15+ feet Without duplicating that right there is 32 crankbaits if you use all the options. Then throw in lipless.......lol

I really liked War Eagle, specifically the ones with the twisted wire for the line tie. I've grown to still like their spinnerbaits but hate the twisted wire as sooner or later I find myself trying to get my line out of the twist. I just purchased some Revenge spinnerbaits without the twist and like them so far.

My carp question is will bass stay in an area where carp are herding up and going crazy or should I pass right by?

When I started kayak bass fishing four years ago I brought two rods. I wondered why people needed more than that. Now I have been bringing six the last two years and will be bringing eight the rest of the summer since the weeds are now thickening up and I need to frog and punch.

It depends on my mood. For the most part anything over 18 and I'm very happy, anything over 20 and I'm ecstatic! But there are days where I just want to catch bass. I have an isolated place where I can catch high numbers but there an 18 inch bass is rare and probably rules the place.

Imagine bass fishing with a Jackhammer for bass on straight braid and bringing a decent musky all the way to your kayak before it cuts your line and takes off, with your Jackhammer. Yep, that was me this morning.