Boomstick

I tend to keep most things very simple. For plastics, I'll have a handful of colors of senkos, ribbon tail worms, craws and flukes, roboworms, berkley dreamshots and keitechs (either as trailers or as swimbaits with owner beast hooks). I usually keep two bags or so of each, in different colors (often experimenting with new colors too). Most of these I can conveniently buy locally, so once I run out of a bag, I buy a second before my backup bag is empty too. Easy enough! For swim jigs and chatterbaits, I will largely stock a light colored 3/8oz, a darker colored 3/8oz and 1/2oz, and a black 1/2oz plus whatever else I picked up, but that is generally what I look for. A second of each is often good too because I usually fish with my kids so this way if one of them is using one and I want to throw the same thing, I can. I can make it down to about 4 jerkbaits with a similar selection as well and a handful of frogs and poppers. So far, not too bad. When it comes to spinnerbaits, it gets a little more complicated. I tend to keep a white/chartreuse and brown ccolored dual colorado blade models, white and chartreuse, sexy shad willow and nearly white willow/colorado bladed spinnerbaits and white/chartreuse and white dual willow blades. Then I want some 3/8oz and some 1/2oz models. When it comes to crankbaits, it gets a bit more expensive. I tend to keep usually tigher wobbling lipless models for early spring and late fall, then a varying selection of squarebills with different wobbles for more and less aggressive bass. Then there's medium divers and deep divers on top of that, so my crankbait arsenal has gotten pretty pricey, especially after this year's Black Friday purchase. The nice thing about rods and reels is that I have carefully chosen my rods and reels to ensure as I add more, the ones I have already bought will still be useful. So far so good here. I will always try something new here and there, but other than this Black Friday it's usually a little bit here and there. It just so happens that I broke a few cranks trying to cast under a bridge from up a hill (a fairly difficult cast) and lost a few more this year and there were quite a few new lures I wanted to try, so I took advantage of the 20% off Black Friday sale.

Yes it is, that's a load off my shoulders! But I'm not entirely out of the water yet, the chance of recurrence is highest in the first year, then drops a little the second year, and after that drops off significantly.

It's not bad, just takes a little bit getting used to (like learning a baitcaster). Like I said the secret is very short strokes, especially around the chin -- that keeps it from changing angle on you. The single blades is so much sharper than all of the blades of any multi bladed shaving razor they sell in stores combined, and stays sharper so much longer. It's like night and day!

That is excellent news! I just received the results of my CT scan that followed 6 months of chemotherapy which confirmed that I am cancer free as of this moment in time just today myself. What a relief!

I finished up chemotherapy on black friday, last Friday I had a CT scan to verify that there is no lingering cancer and today I got the results. I am officially 100% cancer free as of this moment in time. That is not to say that I am out of the water yet, the chance of recurrence is the highest within the first year, drops a little during the second year and drops significantly after that, but at least I have beaten cancer in the first (and hopefully last) battle. Things are also going good at work, so hope of getting a bass boat in the next year or two is renewed!

I used to have pretty good luck with the original Mach 3 years ago, but lately I get a handful of daily shaves out of one and the blade is dull. The 5 blade ones are even worse. And the blades are very expensive. So I went out and bought an old school safety razor. The first one I got was a Parker with those overpriced blades you can often find in a store that have divots in them -- I cut the **** out of myself. So I did some research and people said the Merkur razors are less aggressive, and a friend tried Feather blades which are super sharp, Astra blades which are decent (both brands are around $10 for 100) and that Merkur blades which are fairly mild but slightly more expensive (50 for around $25). So I bought the Merkur safety razor (the short handle is generally recommended if you tend to cut yourself because it's easier to control) which cost me around $35, and 50 Merkur blades for $25 and that was the best investment I could have made. The razor should last me a lifetime, and the blades will last me at least 4-5 years. I get at least a solid month per blade and have gotten several out of one blade before. Also if you flip the blade, it extends the life out of it. It takes a little bit getting used to it as even with the Merkur model, you can cut yourself. The trick is to use short and even strokes but once you learn what you're doing, there's no going back.

I have a small house so I pretty much have to get a fake one to get one small enough, which is good enough for me, no point in wasting trees for a once a year holiday imo

I'm generally a Daiwa junkie myself so naturally I would go with the Tatula CT, but both Daiwa and Shimano both make some of the best reels and braking systems available, so I don't think you can go terribly wrong with either option. I will second buying from TriaceTackle. I ave bought reels from TriaceTackle as has a friend with no issues.

I find that as braid is thinner and less stiff than mono or fluorocarbon, it will will birds nest much less. The downside is that should it birds nest, you may have to cut your line out as it may cinch down tightly upon itself depending on the severity of the birds nest and especially thin diameter braid can be really difficult to remove knots and not frey the line. Mono and flurocarbon is both fatter per lb or breaking strength and it is stiffer, so you have to be sure to make a good cast. The upside is that I can pull out a birds nest much faster and unless I do something really stupid, won't ever have to cut out the line. A longer rod would make it a little easier to cast and not bird's nest but the biggest thing is be sure to not shy away from really throw the lure forward when casting and to feather the spool. After enough practice, I find that I rarely birds nest anymore (but at the start of the season it takes me a little while to get back up to speed).

As others have already hinted at, I'm fairly sure the Daiwa Fuego has a monopoly on reels that meet your requirements.

Nice find. I'd be all over that as I will need another reel for a cranking stick for next year too (almost certainly going with a Tatula SV).

I have most of my success up in the northeast on smaller soft plastics like a ned rig or a drop shot. For larger worms, I've had decent success with ribbon tail worms like the Berkley Power worms. When the bass are a little more active, senkos can be effective.

I've ordered a few rods from Tackle Warehouse now and I could have told you they do a great job packaging them

The RT188 is my second choice for an aluminum boat. The Lund Renegade 1875 I believe would be my #1, as the 1775 has more storage and deck space despite being a foot shorter (which may have something to do with why the 18' Ranger is more stable), although the Ranger is a little cheaper and I might have some hope of finding one used as well. The reason I'm still considering aluminum boats, is while they have gone up in price something insane each year for the past few years is like you said I'd be a little less worried about running it in shallow water as what puts a scratch in an aluminum hull can sink a fiberglass boat, and there are a few lakes I'd use it on that do have some rocks and stumps that I'd like to use it on, and I do like fishing shallow. I'm probably at least a year away at this point anyway. I have to worry about surviving next year's medical bills first.

A of last year, they did not.

As promised, here is my Tackle Warehouse Black Friday purchases. Sorry my girlfriend's phone does not take very good pictures, and I did not want to ask my oldest son to borrow his camera as the reel and the Mojo Bass Topwater rod are Christmas presents... Tagging @Burke as he requested pics in another thread.

That summarizes my thoughts exactly!

I know that KVD uses mono for spinnerbaits because it gives a better presentation. Dangit, I thought that if the bass saw mono line, they figured you were cheap. ?

Right, the Mojo Bass now has the SCIII blank which is the same blank the Avids use. My experience with them is that it's a solid rod and priced right. I now own two (one is arriving tomorrow in the mail).

I will use mono for topwater. Mono has some added benefits to the presentation of certain baits like jerkbaits depending on how they are weighted as well as spinnerbaits as it keeps the front end up more.

I have been using the Cabela's Advanced Angler tackle bag in large size (holds 3600 sized boxes) as seen here: https://www.cabelas.com/product/fishing/tackle-storage/tackle-bags/pc/104793480/c/104777280/sc/104619780/cabelas-advanced-anglers-tackle-bags-without-utility-boxes/1391169.uts?slotId=1 Was thinking of trying something larger with wheels which would be nice like the Bass Mafia tackle bag or maybe a backpack. The tackle bag strap over one shoulder is a little uncomfortable after a while.

On my 6'9" ML/XF spinning rod, I have no issues with leader knots. However, I'd be wary about it with thicker line, I only use 10-15lb braid and 6 or 8lb fluro leaders...

You basically have the right idea. My experience also says it seems to depend on where you're fishing. In several the lakes I fish often, they'll chase a crank or a spinnerbait pretty much all year round. In one of the closest lakes where I spent a lot of time fishing this summer, they have finicky bass that won't chase a spinnerbait and if it's summer or early fall, they won't often chase a crank if the sun's up but you can get them at night. So if the sun's up, you will want to throw a t-rig or a ned rig or sometimes a jig is a good bet. and as TnRiver46 alluded to, try a trick worm a Berkley power worm, the tails give the bait action that a Senko can't replicate.

Oh, I forgot to mention the 7'2" MH/R and 7' M/R are glass. Is the 7' ML/R basically a medium from other companies? Daiwa's MH's are like MH+, the M's are like many companies MH's...

I see you tried out a Supreme XT. Good reel! I own a few rod and reel combos that I paid $300 (a couple of them may have exceeded $300 slightly, but not by much). And I'd buy them all again. I'm definitely not the most experienced on the forums, but I've had good luck with them all and rarely lose fish. Daiwa Tatula 6'10" MH/F and a Tatula SV 7.1:1 Daiwa Tatula 7'2" glass MH/R and a Tatula SV 6.3:1 Daiwa Tatula 7' glass M/R and a Tatula SV 6.3:1 St Croix Mojo Bass 7' MH/MF (spinnerbait) and a Pflueger Supreme XT (for my youngest son) St Croix Mojo Bass 6'8" M/XF (topwater) and a Pflueger St Croix Avid X 6'9" ML/XF spinning rod and a Daiwa BG 2000 I also bought my oldest son a Dobyns Sierra 704C with a Shimano Curado K. That ran around $350 but paired with a Tatula CT would put it right at $300. That's a nice rod for soft plastics and jigs!