Boomstick

boat-ed doesn't offer a course for MA and won't let me take one for Vermont if I'm not a resident, which is why I'm confused. I might be able to take the New York course. I guess I will have to call and ask, but you think they'd do a better job of documenting this somehow.

I bought my son the St. Croix Spinnerbait rod, which is MH/MF. It's very light and it has a very good blank -- same blank as the more expensive Avid and Avid X rods! I picked up the 6'8 topwater M/XF rod for next season as well, but haven't got to use it yet. I haven't actually got my hands on a Bass X rod yet so I can't comment on those, but the Mojo Bass seems to be priced very right for the quality of the rod. One piece of advice when picking a Mojo Bass rod is generally, the St. Croix rods tend to run heavy in power, but tend to not have a lot of tip. So in short, should you plan on using it for jigs and spinnerbaits and are torn between the MH/MF spinnerbait rod and the MH/F Jigs n bait rod, get the jig n bait rod as that has much more tip to it to really wench them out of cover. The good thing is if you have a decent Dick's sporting goods in your area, they may have most of the lineup in stock so you can get your hands on them yourself.

If it was me as a non boat owner in local lakes without a lot of access to heavy cover, I would look for a M/F, M/MF or even a MH/MF casting rod to fish crankbaits and jerkbaits with (I would go with 7' to 7'2" for crankbaits, but a jerkbait rod can be a little shorter to help twitch it). A M/F rod can handle most treble hooked baits decently plus can also be used for weightless soft plastics and topwater as well, but last year I was using a MH/F, MH/MF and ML/XF spinning rod and that covered most of the bases pretty well. I have added M/MF and M/XF casting rods for this year, which will allow me to keep more baits pre-rigged. The year before, I was using a M/F spinning rod in place of the MH/MF casting rod for crankbaits. Alternatively, if you do have access to heavy cover, get a H/F rod for frogs and jigs. Fishing heavy cover is a great way to catch bass, the problem is I just don't get to access much heavy cover (and most of it I do is nothing my MH/F can't handle) so I've put off buying a H/F rod although it is the next rod I will pick up, then I can run some 65lb braid on that and run straight flurocarbon on my MH/F rod, which I would prefer. If you are interested in a very light but quality reel, check out the Pflueger Supreme XT. I bought my son one, it's light, holds a good amount of line, very smooth and brakes solidly and casts a mile. I use Tatula SVs myself which are better for light lures as the brake better but sacrificing casting distance.

The only rod I have in that price range is my St. Croix Avid X 6'9 ML/XF spinning rod I use for ned rigs and drop shots. But I have handled a few rods in that price range, and I don't think I can say that any of them felt like bad rods. If you can get your hands on some of them, buy the rod that feels like it has the proper action and tip for the uses you need. In my couple years of really fishing, I have learned what to look for for each presentation, and also what to expect from several rod manufacturers. For example, I use a 6'10" Daiwa Tatula MH/F rod for soft plastics, jigs, frogs, etc. and I got my oldest son a Dobyns Sierra 704C for his birthday which is good for the same techniques as well, but I prefer it for throwing 1/2oz jigs with large trailers or 3/4oz jigs because it has more tip, but may be less sensitive when fishing soft plastics to finicky fish -- although I will say he's never had an issue feeling weak bites. Neither rod is necessarily better than the other, they're just better for different things.

I bought the same rod for my youngest son. He uses it with 14lb mono (Sufix Siege) and will also throw crankbaits with it. He's not had any issues with too much stretch for spinnerbaits. If it was me, I would possibly be using fluorocarbon with it, likely the same 15lb Berkley Trilene FC that you mentioned. To address some of the other comments here, my personal experience with Berkley Trilene FC is that it does have more stretch than some other FC lines and probably more than the 14lb Siege my son's been using but it hasn't been an issue for me and it's very good with knots, so it's my choice of line for moving baits. It's not as abrasion resistant as the Sufix Siege or many other flurocarbon lines however. If you do decide to give mono a shot, I would highly recommend the Sufix Siege line over Trilene XT. It simply handles very well and I don't think you'll have any issues with sensitivity either to be honest.

As some of you know, I've been wanting to buy a boat for some time now but hitting speed bump after speed bump. Well, last year I got a really nice raise and it looks like I can make that happen either this year or next year, although ideally next year which would allow me to get rid of my student loan payment and then I could replace it with a boat loan and throw a little extra at it and pay it off roughly when my oldest son starts college. What I can't figure out is the Vermont boat laws. I live in Massachusetts right across the Vermont border but most of my favorite fishing lakes are in Vermont. Vermont seems to require a NASBLA approved boating safety course, which a MA course does not seem to meet the requirements for, but in order to take the Vermont course, a requirement is I would need to be a Vermont resident. They don't seem to give much information as what courses I could take that would be considered acceptable to legally operate a boat in Vermont. Has anyone here ran into this issue?

I would go for a 6'6' to 7' MH/F rod for sure, but don't think being a bank fisherman means you can't make use of other rods as well. I carry any combination of the following depending when and where I'm fishing Casting rods: M/MF, MH/MF, MH/F, M/XF Spinning rods: ML/XF, M/F

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7.

^7.

In thick grass where the tail is unable to get decent action, I would usually go with a senko or jig over a ribbon tail worm. Other than that and maybe sight fishing or pitching into hot spots, I generally do prefer a ribbon tail worm. Truth!

Nice, the water should still be fairly cold water regardless! I once was reeling in a spinnerbait slowly and at the end of the retrieve and for whatever reason, I didn't reel in quickly as it got near my feet to recast and a giant walleye jumped out of the water, right over my spinnerbait. This was in July in Canada when the Walleye mostly moved to deeper water, so that would have been a great catch!

I read this and I have to ask, were they fishing it like a spoon or something? Probably not, but I have to ask anyway

They sure can, especially with a 3.8" or 4.3" Keitech trailer which adds a ton of profile to it. I don't personally have a lot of luck with chatterbaits, but I sure know enough people who do.

I use a St Croix Avid X 6'9" ML/XF with a Daiwa BG. You can't go wrong with the BG as long as you don't mind the extra couple of ounces.

They also didn't line up to telegraph their play either. When an offensive player moves, they largely did not move anyone with them etc. Plus the fact that they didn't give him time, they really did a great job.

Not this year, but I wouldn't be surprised if Mahomes is the next Tom Brady (or the next closest player). He had the best rookie season for a quarterback ever, and as he demonstrated in the AFC conference championship game, he is no Tony Romo either. I gotta say, the Patriots defense surprised me. Last year, they'd make the worst third string quarterback in the league look like Joe Montana but they were really good this year. They were good all postseason long, but I thought if the Patriots were going to win last night, they would have had to score around 30 and get a two touchdown lead in the first quarter and demoralize the Rams. But was I ever wrong about that. Sure, Goff was absolutely terrible as he could not throw a bullet pass 10 yards down the field -- any pass over 10 yards was a weak high lob with a high chance of being picked off and he got lucky all night that only that one was picked off, but the Pats didn't leave open receivers either and stopped the run. Reminded me of the first three Super Bowls. But what was even more impressive was the Rams defense holding the Patriots to only 13. Brady who I think is easily the best quarterback at reading defenses to ever play the game, wasn't able to read their defense all night which really says something.

Just finger foods for me, but if it was up to me I'd fry up some perch, cod, haddock, flounder or catfish or maybe make some salmon.

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As a cancer survivor, it better be true! I lost 2018 to being a chemo zombie!

Looks about right.

^ 10. Great song, better solo. Since we're on metal...

Big bass tend to move out from shallow cover into deeper and more open water but tend to be much more finicky and tend to feed on their own schedule. Finding a pattern of big bass is much harder than finding a pattern of smaller bass. I recommend reading "In Pursuit of Giant Bass" by Bill Murphy if you're interested in catching big bass.

It's personal preference, but for what it's worth I usually run 4lb mono for trout fishing.

^ 8. Since slonezp posted Tool's 46 & 2....