Boomstick

Sorry to hear about your tackle bag. Typically, in colder weather like spring and fall, a tighter wobble will work well and in warmer weather, a wide wobble will work well. There are some exceptions to this, like early fall when the fish are aggressive and it's not too cold yet, a wide wobble should still be rather effective. Also if I am throwing in muddier water, I may try a wider wobble as they will disrupt more water. My personal favorite for a wide wobble is the Norman Fat Boy crankbaits which have a wider wobble than most crankbaits moves a lot of water. Plus they're rather affordable. For a tighter wobble, I like the Lucky Craft RTOs or the River2Sea, or the Skeet Reese's for even less wobble. The other thing is you will want different depth crankbaits as well. I don't do many deep divers, but I would probably start with some with a nice tight wobble first.

Sufix Siege line would fit the bill well. It's a little bit more expensive, but well worth it imo

I gather the salmon egg scent powerbait is generally the most effective, then the cheese. A lot of people absolutely slay them with Powerbait, but sometimes the trout seem to prefer something else. As others have said, the eggs should be worth a shot as well. Trout are finicky -- make sure your line (or leader if you are using one) is 4lbs or less. Since it's a light rod I would assume you run 6lb line with a 4lb leader, where I will spool ultra light rods up with straight 4lb and use a leader if the rig calls for it. The other thing is try a smaller sized hook. For trout, you can try a 10 or 12 sized hook. The smaller presentation is going to look much more appealing to your average sized trout, so if you aren't getting big ones on larger hooks, try smaller hooks. You can also try a 16-20 treble hook if you prefer.

Well I thought I would chime in in a 6 month update... I have kept up my diet of no meat and no high fructose corn syrup to date and limited fish. No gout issues so far, and what should help me is I have dropped 55lbs since October. After the prior gout event, I quit meat for 6 months and dropped 65 although a lot of it at the end was water weight, but I kept 32 of it off, which means I dropped a total of 87lbs to date! I now look like a rapper wearing clothes that did not fit me in November. That should help keep the gout away and not wreck my fall fishing season this year, and I imagine I will lose a little bit more especially as the weather improves and the lakes thaw out.

For myself, it's usually two casting rods and one spinning rod. I currently have two spinning rods, but will upgrading my spinning rod soon and my kids can use the two that I have now. The kids have two casting rods, and a casting rod and spinning rod each. I got each of them a good casting rod for this year, so I will definitely bring those, and probably bring one or two of my current spinning rods too for them to use. Then we each have a light or ultra light trout rod which may likely come with us...

That should be no problem at all! If I can put in a half a tank every weekend and get a solid weekend of fishing, let's say I wouldn't have to altar my budget to fish all weekend.

Understood. One of the reasons I'm shopping aluminum boats is because they're supposed to be so much more fuel efficient, which results in more time on the water.

Sounds like the 7'4". Enough people have the 7'4" version, but you were the first one I talked to who has the 7'2".

I have been looking at boats, with plans to buy next year if everything goes right and it's looking like the Renegade 1875 is going to be the winner. I also liked the Ranger RT188 a lot, but the Renegade is a little cheaper, plus Lund would be my first choice for an aluminum boat a well since they've been doing it so long. What's the fuel consumption like? I'd assume not too bad. Anything else you don't like about the boat?

I plan on picking up the following, which should run $220 on Amazon on the right day. Tatula CT, 8:1 ratio Tatula 7'4" Frogging Rod Given you are looking at making your own rod, that gives you some freedom in the reel.

I have a 35 Pflueger President reel, which holds similar size lines just more of it and use 8lb line, but I use it for more finesse techniques like shaky heads and whatnot. Ideally, it would have braid with an appropriate sized fluorocarbon leader, perhaps 15lb braid and a 6-10lb leader, depending what you're fishing, cover etc.

I worded that poorly. What I meant to say is that a backlash can be much more severe, which at times forced me to cut the line out and respool. I do find that braid when compared to mono is more prone to backlashing, because for the strength I'll be using for similar techniques, the braid is thinner. Fluorocarbon is a whole different story, and is stiff so it can backlash more and certain fluorocarbon can be far worse than others.

The small ones weigh around 2oz, which is the rods rated max. It would be sweet if it could throw a small Huddleston because 7'4" is the largest rod I could possibly fit in my car.

Braid on casting reels has its ups and downs. The ups is it casts further, but the downside is it can birds nest more, and much worse and pulling them out can be a lot worse. There's been a couple times I hit a low hanging branch and had to cut the braid right out of my reel and respool, and that's no fun! But I too tend to prefer running mono or fluorocarbon on my casting reels, except for the one I'm frogging on, as I often do cast around low hanging branches and usually fish with my kids so sometimes I get distracted and snag one. I currently fish my frogs on the same rod I use for heavier spinnerbaits, jigs and soft plastics (among other baits), so that has braid on it. One of these days I will add a proper heavy action rod for frogging and jigs in heavy cover, and that rod will get straight 15-20lb fluorocarbon. The only reason I don't use braid on all of my spinning reels is simply to save money. There's less line twist and it just casts better. Over time, they will all get braid.

What do you think of the 7'2" Tatula? The 7'4" Tatula H/F rod is on my to buy list for frogs and jigs.

If you live near a larger Dick's Sporting Goods, they may have one of the glass Mojo Bass cranking rods in stock. Those are nice all-around cranking sticks for around $130, as long as you can fit a rod that long in your car.

Moderate fast will definitely help with the hookset which can easily be too quick on a frog, but if you are fishing a frog in its natural habitat (lily pads) and not open water, you will definitely want fast action as it will help muscle them out of these weeds.

I use a 6'10" and a 7'2" rod for spinnerbaits (somewhat depending on the weight as well). I like the 7'2" length the best unless I'm on a canoe with my kids, which can be a little more difficult to cast with or around trees or low hanging branches. There is no reason you couldn't use a 7'6" rod. It will have its advantages as well, as the longer rod will yield better casting distances which can be beneficial with moving baits. The downside is it might be a little tricker to drop the spinnerbait in your target area without making a larger splash, but in some areas you can simply cast past your target if you know where the fish are.

I buy a lot of stuff at local sporting goods stores, Walmart, Dick's and local sporting goods stores on a regular basis. I'll buy a lot of stuff from Bass Pro and Cabela's when I get there. A lot of stuff I can't find locally I will buy from Tackle Warehouse or Tackle Supply Depot (who is a state away and ships to me really fast).

Sounds like something redneck engineering could resolve. I'd need to see your boat for recommendations, but start by finding where the rods would go and what you could build on around those areas.

At the end of the day, I don't really think it matters a whole lot. I have mostly magnetic braking systems, and they work great for me. But a good braking system is a good braking system, The advantage of magnetic brakes is that they are extremely quick to make adjustments on the fly to. The advantage of centrifugal brakes is due to the way they work, they might let you cast a little bit further since they act as a speed limiter and not an always on brake, but I don't think it ends up being a big deal for beginners who are turning the brake way up, and becomes less and less of an issue as you get good and start turning the brake down below half. Generally, I think Daiwa has the best magnetic braking system and Shimano and Pflueger have the same centrifugal braking systems.

For deep divers, you will want to use 10-12lb fluorocarbon for sure.

I tend to spend more money on spinning rods than reels, but with casting, there's been a couple times the reels have cost more than the rod. Then of course some things depend on application as well - for example if I am fishing jigs and soft plastic, a higher end rod is going to be more important but if I am fishing moving baits, I can get away with a cheaper rod.

The St. Croix Mojo Bass Spinnerbait rod is one of the best rods to fish both spinnerbaits and crankbaits with. It's medium heavy so it has some reserve power for fishing a spinnerbait, and the tip is moderate fast so it has some play for a crankbait as well. I would suggest using some mono line for added stretch but it should not be a bad rod to fish squarebills in grass or deep divers in particular. I would say it's really geared towards 3/8oz and 1/2oz spinnerbaits and not the larger ones. No idea how the Premier 7' MH/MF compares though.

The Curado 70 should hold enough 20lb fluoro to pitch with, but a good cast and a large fish could easily spool it. You could try 17lb line, but I would personally just go with the larger Curado K and then you'd be good to cast with as well.