Boomstick

Senkos. Although of all things, I've had some success with Storm Wildeye Swim Shad as well. Get them about a foot from a fish and you got yourself a bite. They're not exactly weedless or the ideal lure, I just happened to be fishing them and saw a fish in the water in front of me at the time.

It depends. If you are using a leader for finesse techniques, you may want to throw on 30 feet and cut it off when it gets to around 4 or 5 feet (2 ft isn't enough to tie a dropshot for example). If you are using a leader so should you snag something big, you can get your line back then you want to use 6-8 feet and really need no more than 2 feet. I personally don't like the knot on my reel.

I only really see a reason to snell a straight shank hook personally, rather than an offset worm hook. But if you find it's working better for you then by all means keep using it.

It's quick and easy to use the improved cinch knot, but retie often as it doesn't hold as well as the uni or palomar. For a smaller spinnerbait, you can use a palomar, but since most spinnerbaits are a decent size, I usually use a uni knot and it tends to hold very well on mono and braid alike. I will usually use 5-7 wraps when attaching a lure with a uni-knot. I've actually seen people test the palomar vs the double palomar, and the regular palomar won every time so I never bother with the double palomar, although on braid the double palomar might be stronger. It tends to hold fine for me regardless.

I got my oldest son an Abu Garcia Black Max for his first decent rod and first casting rod. The reel is actually pretty good and really smooth but the rod in the Black Max combo isn't nearly as good as the reel, but if you are happy with it that's okay. The Abu Garcia Vengeance rod is much better, but I would probably get a Berkley Cherrywood or Shock rod to pair with the Black Max myself, those are both great for the price. Alternatively, I would look at what fishnkamp said and get a Lews Mach 1 casting combo, either on Dick's using the $10 off coupon or on Amazon, which will end up costing the same and have a quality rod. The Daiwa Tatula CT does not come in a combo. You might be able to get a Tatula rod for a little over $100 and a reel for the same, but you will exceed your budget. I use a Tatula SV reel with a 6'10" MH fast action Tatula rod myself, it's certainly not a bad setup.

For whatever reason, people seem to do good with plum colored baits, and often bubblegum flavored pink as well! Another general rule that people often fail to mention is don't be afraid to experiment. If one color doesn't work in one lake, it doesn't mean it won't be like fish crack in another, and because one color works in one place also doesn't mean it works in another.

I usually use a 3/8oz jig. You can try a 1/2oz if you are fishing deeper waters too. You can use a typical grub trailer, or try a Netbait Paca Chunk.

Yeah, I replaced it with an ugly stik. But we both liked the Pro Guide better. One of these days I will take it back to Cabela's and use it on open water but considering it's a 120+ mile drive one way, I have to give up a day of fishing to get out there so the gx2 will have to do for now. The good thing is that you have a larger rod you can load up with braid that can fish most of the same lures if you're fishing heavier cover areas too. You should be fin as long as you're aware of what you're fishing in

I actually had the rod pointed smack at it too. The rod looks like it broke at the joint, but the second half completely shattered. I gather a lot of people have similar issues too. The rod definitely has a great feel to it as well. I could very easily fish mono on a MH fast action combo. I ended up putting 30# braid on mine for fishing with a frog in a bed of lilly pads, but I ran mono before that. Fluro is good because it sinks but has its shortcomings as well.

I generally agree with Scarborough817 but I would not throw that Pro Guide into any weeds or rocks or anything that might get the slightest snag. I had got one for my oldest son and with the drag set to 2.5lbs on 12lb line, the rod just shattered. I pulled the lure out of the rock it got snagged on with my hand rather easily. So if there's weeds around, I might use the Veritas in place of the Pro Guide even for spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, etc.

I ended up getting a Daiwa Tatula rod, but the other rod I was considering was the St. Croix Mojo Bass rod. It's a great, lightweight rod and as you are likely to have it for a while, I would wager that it's worth the extra cash over the Bass X. Also as you can use that rod for frogs and other heavy techniques, you may find yourself using it a lot.

I would go with a medium rod if you fish senkos weightless but you might want to consider medium heavy if you fish in weeds regularly. As for length, go as long as you feel comfortable with. I would keep it in the 6'6" to 7' range personally.

I use a Daiwa Tatula 6'10 MH fast action tip rod with a Tatula SV reel. This setup would do you great for those type of baits, although is probably more than you are looking to spend. I did however get a dud tip on mine as the insert popped out after its first full day of fishing, hopefully I just got a bad tip and the rest of the rod is fine (at least it's a cheap fix). I would think any medium heavy rod around 7' with a fast action tip should serve you well.

I usually use Trilene Big Game when I'm using mono. It has a lot of memory, but it's strong and it's so cheap, I can replace it often and come out ahead. Even if I try a more expensive mono, I don't see the point in backing mono with cheaper mono.

For line to line, I use the double uni knot. For tying smaller lures on braid, I will use the Palomar since it's so easy, but for larger lures I usually use a uni knot. On mono, I may occasionally use an improved cinch knot to tie on larger lures in open water, but if I don't want to retie shortly, I will use a uni. I haven't had an issue a palomar or uni knot breaking, and would be hardpressed to say which one is truly stronger.

I am definitely not the best at tying knots, but I can tell you that I have thrown Trilene Big Game 12lb into some moderately thick rocks and weeds and more often than not, always got my lures back. Obviously, I am not throwing it into anything too excessively thick, as it's only 12lb mono. If you are constantly throwing a weightless worm or shaky head into cover, 10 or 12lb is appropriate. You could also try a different line but I'm not really sure it will buy you too much to be honest, and you may end up changing your line a whole lot less or paying a whole lot more. It's worth a shot and if you find maybe Trilene XT is working that much better for you, then continue to use it. I would not recommend Trilene XL however, as I once had to replace 12lb Big Game with 14lb XL (horrible bird's nest) and the 14lb is probably half as strong at best.

I honestly think the MH will be fine. Plus, if there is one bass rod I will use more often than any other, it's a MH fast action rod.

I never reeled up too far at any point. Anyway, where can I buy a tip? I've never bought parts for a rod before. I found line guides on ebay, think those should work?

After my first full day on the water, I already broke my Daiwa Tatula rod. Lost a guide ring at the end of the rod. Does anybody know where I can get a replacement ring, are these easy to repair typically, and is this a common issue? Not exactly giving me faith in this rod, and I'm thinking I maybe should have went with the St. Croix Mojo Bass.

Did that rod happen to have Cat/Catfish or maybe Muskie in the name? From my experience, a rod that is MH and is rated for 3/4 to 4 oz lures is usually a rod for Catfish or Muskies, not for bass, and people would run something like 30lb mono or 50 or 65lb braid on such a rod. My Catfish rod is rated for 1 - 4 oz lures. Occasionally it can be useful for bass fishing to throw heavier lures in the junk where I can have confidence I will get my line back. As for a do it all rod, typically you want a MH bass rod, 1/4oz - 1 oz and fast action. But even then, it's far from perfect for fishing baits with treble hooks like a crankbait. At the same time, it's a little light flipping, pitching and frogging heavy cover, and heavy for finesse techniques. The way I see it, I would have 4 rods ideally. First, a MH fast action rod, then a heavy action rod with 50# or 65# braid for frogs and pitching into heavy cover, a moderate action rod for treble hooks, and a spinning rod with anywhere from 6 to 12lb line for finesse techniques, although I make do with the first and latter options here for the time being. I've seen others recommend 6 rods for a complete bass fishing arsenal.

The Berkley Cherrywood or Shock and Ugly Stik GX2 rods are the first thing that comes to mind to fit the bill...

Let me guess, these "divers" are somebody's uncle's second cousin's in laws great uncle?

My experience with spin cast reels is that the drag maxes out around somewhere between 1 and 3lbs, but most of my spin cast reels were cheap entry level reels as well. Also, anything you can do on a spin cast reel you can do on a spinning reel and they really aren't that much harder to use. That said, more spin cast reels are made to be cheap than be quality reels, but people have caught some serious fish on better made models, no doubt.

That'll do nicely, but should you get a heavy rod, the faster gear ratio of the Revo SX will make it good for pitching too, when you want to retrieve your bait quickly and recast again, but isn't too fast for most other techniques either. That's the only reason I mention the heavy rod option.

I haven't either. I've caught a lot of small pickerel and bass in Cheshire, they seem to love a small spinnerbait there. In Onota, I got one smallie, but I did see a truly massive trophy bass jump out of the water in front of me. If I didn't get a good look at it, I might have mistook it for a Pike based on its length. I cast to the general area as quick as I could, but it was too late. Not much luck in Ashmere so far either, but the last time I made it out for more than 30 minutes, the water was 61 degrees which is tough from shore, been really busy the last few weeks.