Dens228

That's so true...Last year I was fishing in about a foot of weed infested water using a 5 inch Senko when I got a hit, as I was pulling that bad boy in I was thinking, there must be 20 pounds of weeds on this bass! It was a 48" musky! LOL

The best way to learn is to set the hook and not have a bass rather than not set the hook, not get the bass, and not know you even had one. Over time you'll get the feel of the small, consistent tick-tick of weeds/rocks vs the bit from a bass. As is often said, hooksets are free.

Well, there'e Bone, and then there's Bone.

Having a bass explode on a frog is exciting to see and feel......but if they aren't hitting it then having a bass nail a jig is exciting, and if they aren't hitting it then having a bass nail a spinnerbait is exciting.................lol I have my favorite but I just want to catch big fish!

I actually had a epiphany regarding this mid summer of this year. I fished all the time up through my college years. Then kids/family obligations put me on a long fishing hiatus. Started bass fishing again casually summer of 2015, more time fishing 2016, and bought a kayak and really started hitting it 2017, having a blast! This year I started online bass tournament and mid June I was out and caught about 15 bass but wasn't able to cull any of the 5 I currently had submitted so was irritated. As I was driving home I came to the realization that last summer I would have been doing backflips over catching 15 bass and if tournaments were going to remove the fun for me I was going to stop doing them. I'm still doing tournaments, I still fish for bigger bass, but I'm now thrilled for every bass I catch and don't sweat whether or not I'm going to win gas money from the tournament.

Same here. I tend to use the t-rig when I'm having issues getting a jig through the area I'm hitting otherwise it's a jig.....I catch my biggest bass on a jig though. By far.

Like above, 50 will work fine....I use 65, only because that's what I was told when I started out. LOL

I really concentrated on jigs this year. FYI I've used 3/8 oz swim jigs with both Rage Tails and Paddletails by ripping them through some heavy vegetation with success. Stout rod and heavy line.

Well...........your name is bagofdonuts...................it was probably a contract hit.....

Previously I relied on weightless t-rigs, and hollow body frogs in super weed filled water. This summer I added the rage rig and even more successfully paddletails on a weighted swimbait hook. Both are about at weedless as you can get while being able to effectively cover water.

I bought a Quantum Smoke S3 this spring. It was the first Quantum I ever had. I bought a second one a week later. It switches off as my favorite between that and another brand depending on my mood.....lol

Braid on a 7 foot, MH/Fast Bass Mojo.

Well if you don't count plastics, 6th Sense

Chartreuse, white, and black here too. I've had all Pad Crashers but went to buy some white belly Crashers today and bought a Live Target to try.

Do you feel the same way about cows, pigs, chickens??

I store my spinnerbaits and my buzzbaits in a worm binder. Two per page works great and takes up hardly any room.

My most successful lure, by far the most bass caught, is any Senko style stick bait in 5 inch length, color varies. But I get bored with it........lol My favorite lure, which I do decent with, is by far hollow body frogs......I mean really! What beats the adrenaline of the blow up followed by the screaming f-bombs with the missed hookset?

This is me dragging a lightly weighted Ragetail Craw just fast enough along the surface to keep it above the weeds.

That's why I only have two types, in a few colors each. They seem to work just fine!

When I'm on a roll I'm probably get a hook up about 50% of the time......that being said I think, based on the misses that are close up, the bass are missing a large percentage of the time. Usually right behind the frog, but I've also seen them miss by quite a bit.

I've done it too. Fishing it weightless T-rigged and cruising it over the top of weeds.

Living outside Chicago if I pre-ordered a reel and got it during the beginning of winter I would go insane! LOL

I tried out a new pond in my kayak a few weeks ago.........Big pond with lots of matted grass, very few pads. It was mid 90's by 11:00 am without a cloud in the sky and I wasn't having much luck. I started throwing the frog along the sides of the few docks on the pond and did quite well.

Yum makes tons of plastics, lower priced and seem to last quite well.

I used a Keitech Swimg Impact on a weighted swimbait hook, rigged weedless in thick weeds.......it ripped through easily and I had a VERY good day on a weed filled lake......there's another thing to try.