Boomstick

The Lightning and the Lightning Shocks are probably the best value rods on the market, even if you pay full retail.

For spinning reels, I'm partial to Daiwa and Pflueger. I'm a huge fan of the Daiwa BG especially for the price, but if I'm on a budget, the Daiwa RG or Pflueger President are great reliable options. For casting reels, I'm partial to Daiwa, Pflueger and Shimano. I have two Tatula SVs which are great and I got my youngest son a Pflueger Supreme XT and I really like that reel. My oldest son has a Shimano Curado K, which is also a very nice reel I'd consider again as well. For casting rods, I tend to go with St. Croix Mojo Bass or Daiwa Tatula rods. They're solid rods at a solid price point. My #1 spinning rod is a St. Croix Avid X. I figure any added sensitivity will help. I did not go with the Tatula finesse rod because when I read reviews, every single person said they broke the tip off, often on a 1lb fish which was alarming. I also considered a Dobyns Sierra and a St. Croix Mojo Bass.

I have thrown a lot of chatterbaits on 15lb fluorocarbon this year. Last year, I used mostly 40lb braid, usually straight but I have also used 15lb mono, 17lb mono and my oldest son uses 15lb copoly. Generally, any line should work with a chatterbait as long as it's got enough strength (15-20lb depending on conditions). I switched to fluorocarbon for crankbaits, spinnerbaits and chatterbaits and in many places it works well because it lets me get down in the water column. I usually fish from shore though, and many of the shore locations I fish from are shallow so in this case, I would prefer mono for the shallower locations

It's not as much about regulations (all year round is open season for bass in MA) as it's just my inability to tolerate cold right now. However, it's becoming more tolerable as I did not get the oxaliplatin last week which is what makes my hands especially sensitive to the cold. I would fish until at least November otherwise or until my youngest son's travel hockey games start to keep me busy. This winter I will be doing not only re-organizing, but purchasing some new cranks and spinners as I lost a few and broke a few more. I'll also probably add some more jigs and jerkbaits as well, as just like with crankbaits and spinnerbaits, these are also lures that I can find a use for a variety of colors and sizes. I'll probably pick up the bass mafia crankbait and spinnerbait coffins as well, as they hold a lot of lures and I can load what I want into my 3650 boxes I carry with me when shore fishing and once I get a boat, they'll just reside in the boat.

Well I did not get the chemo drug that makes my hands go numb in the cold, so I might get out fishing on Sunday afterall

Yeah the problem is really that my hands go numb with chemo -- even my legs do with lined pants when it's in the 50s. I'd be fishing all month otherwise or at least until my kid's travel hockey games start.

So I just looked at the weather forecast and with upcoming highs around 50 and lows in the 30s plus chemo which makes my hands super sensitive to cold temperatures, this will be the end of my fishing season. My takeaways from this season: #1) I got far less time on the water than I would have liked -- or last year. #2) I still caught a whole lot more fish. #3) Minus one giant smallie, I caught bigger fish. My goals for this season was to improve my drop shot fishing and crankbait fishing. I didn't get to do a lot of drop shot fishing because I didn't have energy to rent a canoe or rowboat most of the season and ended up shore fishing a lot of shallower water. That said, I did land a few good fish on the drop shot. As for crankbaits, my youngest son always made a killing on a crankbait so I wanted to fish them more, and there is a particular area where I did succeed. I caught more fish on either a River2Sea Ish Monroe Biggie Smalls or a Norman Fat Boy than any other lure this year. R.I.P. 2018 fishing season. Next spring can't come soon enough.

My experience has been similar. Usually those repeat taps are smaller fish nibbling at it.

That's kind of creepy! At least there were no bodies!

Sorry to hear. The plus size is winter is coming, and you have all that time to restock./ I lost a few baits and wrecked a few but I'm trying to look at it in a positive light as I will replace the ones that have been effective and try some new ones. Trying to stay positive...

I've used mono, fluro and braid

On my Tatula's, I don't even have to thumb it for a normal cast and I run the brake between 6 and 8, occasionally as high as 10 for some lighter baits (it goes up to 20) so not all magnetic brakes are ineffective.

I have both, and to me it depends on the particular reel to be honest. My worst braking reel is an Abu Garcia Black Max. My best braking reel is probably my Daiwa Tatula SV, but the Pflueger Supreme XT I got for my youngest son brakes beautifully as well.

For the 7' ML/F rod, I would suggest 5lb braid with a 6lb leader. For the 7' ML/F rod, I would suggest 15lb braid with 8lb leader and maybe occasionally 6lbs depending on conditions and what you're throwing. For the 7' MH/F rod, since you throw frogs I would suggest 40lb braid. If you add a frogging rod, I would suggest 15lb or 17lb fluorocarbon, mono or copoly. I generally prefer to not run braid on casting gear if I don't need to -- first it's quicker to rig up not tying a leader and second it's easier to remove a bird's nest and even the best of us will occasionally hit a low hanging branch of something.

Odd. I can usually catch bass on a crankbait in pretty much any lake. Last year, I didn't catch too many on a crankbait but this year I fished them more and made a killing.

I still haven't mastered it. There's still several things I could do better or be more consistent with, like skipping for example. But in order to get comfortable casting? It took me a few weeks to actually figure it out. Once I figured it out, I was able to cast pretty consistently. But there are still some days where my casting is all off at first too and I need to readjust my casting and then there are days where it's spot on and I never get a bird's nest.

I don't have any issues at all casting accurately, the trick was the bridge I've been fishing under a lot lately has a very little space between the water and is a very tricky cast. Usually I'm fine, but I have smashed a couple against it, and both of my kids got a few in there as well and they aren't quite as accurate casting as I am. I also don't have a particularly large collection of cranks (I usually keep my box full) so that leaves room to try out some new ones. I also don't have a huge collection of cranks to begin with, so a few broken ones adds up fast. Yeah I could not throw them under the same bridge, but it has paid off at times too. Sorry if I was unclear.

Thanks! Ironically, I was at Dick's the other day because my oldest son smashed up the orange KVD 2.5 he was using pretty bad, and had a lot of success on it so I had to get him another one and I almost picked up a series 1.

So this fall, I have thrown a lot of crankbaits, and as a result of largely throwing them under a bridge (and hitting the bridge a few times) I have cracked a lot of the bills on my squarebills and dented up half of the cranks I regularly carry with me to the point they track strongly to one side. As money is tight now and the season is nearing its end, I figure I will hold off on actually buying new crankbaits until next year, but have been putting together my wish list currently. I usually fish from shore which is usually fairly shallow but occasionally rent a boat, and even then I tend to fish shallow, so don't need a large amount of deep divers. So what cranks have you guy had success with? For me, my most successful cranks have been as follows. #1) River2Sea Ish Monroe Biggie Smalls - catches fish all year and tracks beautifully as well. #2) Norman Fat Boy - works great when the bass are actively chasing because of the wide wobble and the amount of water it moves. Caught my largest fish of the year on it. #3) Lucky Craft LC 1.5 - another nice tracking crank, just haven't got nearly as many fish as I have on the Ish Monroes. Also the eyes seem to fall off too easily. #4) KVD 1.5/2.5 - honestly my oldest son has caught more fish on the 2.5s these than I have but has had his most success fishing to date this fall with one. I normally have more success with the smaller sized cranks. I always keep a few KVD 1.5s and 2.5s in my arsenal at least because they're cheap, effective and can buy them locally. I already know that I am going to try a Megabass S crank. They are expensive but I've heard so many good things about them that I have to give them a try.

I've been thinking a lot about this actually. I think for me, in May and June, I had the most success with a War Eagle Colorado willow spinnerbait in 3/8oz with trocar hooks that practically set themselves, however I did not get to fish much as I was in the hospital with colon cancer, and it took a while to get the staples removed post surgery which were rather painful. In July, I was pretty wiped out by chemo. I had some good success with the ned rig, drop shots with a Roboworm and spinnerbaits when I did make it out, but I had my best fishing day of the year fishing a River2Sea Ish Monroe Biggie Smalls in Horizon Shad, so that takes the trophy. I think I only made it out one day in August, and if I recall I got skunked. In September and October (to date), I've been largely fishing local lakes and have had good success with the Norman Fat Boy in Nutter Shad color and the Ish Monroe's alike. For the season overall, I have caught more fish on either the Norman Fat Boy or the Ish Monroe crankbaits than anything else.

The difference as others have said is the T-Wing, and the price. If you have the extra money, the Tatula CT is well worth it, but if not many forum users have been quite happy with the Fuego CT so I wouldn't hesitate to give that a shot.

My treatment is a milder one, folfox. I go in Wednesdays, get a bunch of infusions, get hooked up to a pump for two days which I get unhooked Fridays. No getting sick or losing my hair at least.

I never really lost my taste buds... but the second I stop eating, the bad taste returns at least right after treatment. I also have 24/7 acid reflux, but they gave me medication so as long as I take it, it keeps that at bay.

It already has! I'm no longer narcoleptic and can at least fish on the weekends (no time during the week as the kids sports season started plus I'm pretty tired during the week - partially due to treatments and partially due to my job burning me out at the end of the day). All week I have been looking forward to this weekend. A tolerable high of 64 tomorrow and sunny all day, and a little rain early on Sunday morning but a nice high of 73! Perfect weather.

So as many of you know, I was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer earlier this year, and am currently undergoing treatment. Initially, I had a pretty hard time with treatment, but in August I was supposed to be on vacation, but because I was so tired and my girlfriend had issues of her own, I did not go. As a result however, I did end up with a week off of treatment. Ever since, I've been able to drink room temperature water and even sometimes cold water if I drink it slowly. The worst part has been the awful taste in my mouth after the first few days of treatment -- it's not even bitter or metallic tasting, that's what comes after the first few days when it gets better. Also my youngest son has started hockey and the rinks are pretty cold and my skin (especially hands and legs and ankles) are sensitive to cold. Much better than not being able to drink even room temperature water and being basically narcoleptic. For the last several weekends, I have been out fishing all day, primarily at local lakes which are usually pretty tough to catch fish from the shore. I have had a lot of success fishing the local lakes with crankbaits. Tomorrow I am going to try for trout after lunch since you can see browns everywhere in a fishing spot I found, and try bass later in the day. I now have 4 treatments to go. My last one is supposed to be the Wednesday before Thanksgiving but that may end up being rescheduled! The bad is that my insurance has started to randomly deny every treatment or doctor's appointment, giving bogus reasons like they already paid for the same appointment, which they clearly did not. Additionally, I will have to pay for a colonoscopy out of pocket every year for the rest of my life, and because I have Lynch Syndrome (a very high risk of genetic colon cancer for men) my insurance won't cover it. That will end up being about the same as a year's worth of bass boat payments, which is depressing. This weekend would normally be the last camping trip of the weekend. Since my kids don't have school on Columbus Day, I would take the Monday off to go campaign from Saturday to Monday. But with treatment, I can't tolerate the cold that well. At this point, I am just looking forward to next summer, when I should have my energy back and hopefully my employer does not set unrealistic deadlines, telling us we have a month to do a full system re-write with no real basis for the said timeline given the size of the team and project.