drmevo

Thanks for the additional insight, guys. Truth be told, I'm an idiot when it comes to freshwater gear and know next to nothing about all the various ratings and specs beyond the basics. I mainly fish the salt for striped bass, but I have a nice little pond (really dammed section of a river) around the corner from my house where I head with my one baitcaster and one spinning rig and have a blast either from shore or my kayak. I'm certainly no hardcore tournament guy - I keep it very simple and little nuances in weight or feel are unlikely to bother me too much one way or another. All that said, I did very much enjoy the Feather over the $60-$100 rods I typically bought in the past. If the M1 is in the same ballpark I think I will be happy - hopefully? I'm not sure I can wait months, is the thing, as the season will be starting up here shortly.

Thanks! I think I will go for the M1, it seems to be well-regarded like the Feather.

I broke my Phenix Feather L 7'1" spinning rod in the late fall (my fault) and just got around to chopping it up and sending it in for the replacement program. Unfortunately, they don't have that rod right now and they don't know when they will again (could be months, I'm told). I really, really liked it. I can pay to upgrade to the M1 but I'm not familiar with it. Has anyone used both? I won't miss the extra $20 but I know sometimes just because a product is more expensive it's not necessarily better. I used the Feather for quite a lot - trout, crappie, finesse bass (I'm not one to keep or carry a lot of rods for FW). They're listed as the same weight (and the M1 is actually 7'2" not 7'1"). Anyone tried both?

Happens to me at the start of every season, especially pulling through some weeds where the lure gets caught several times in rapid succession and feels like head shakes. People always say hooksets are free, but more than a few submerged limbs have taught me otherwise!

Yes, I have that charger as well and it works great. Charge time depends on how drained the battery is, but the trick is to just charge it when you get back from a trip. Maybe 4-6 hours for a typical charge. I’ve been doing the inflatable thing for the past couple of years and it’s a great way to get out on the water at minimal cost. I’m surprised it’s not more popular. I’d definitely recommend an electric pump that you can plug into your car, similar to what you use for an inflatable mattress. It should only take a few minutes to inflate vs. 10-15 with a manual pump. I’ll second the Minn Kota Endura C2. I have the 32 and it’s plenty of power for my needs. I’ve never run below maybe 75% battery (the charger will let you know once you get back). I am also looking into building a floor with a seat. Sitting on the side is fine for 2-3 hours but any longer and I might be a little sore after. That and “deflating” when the air or water temp are cooler than when you inflated are the only negatives I can think of.

I cast right and use a LH baitcaster. However, I do something weird with spinning where I cast left whenever I need to be really accurate and thumb/cup the reel with my right hand to control distance. Then I switch hands and reel lefty.

I haven't had much luck with senkos lately, perhaps due to the higher winds the last few times out, so I decided to try and learn other baits. Yesterday, I was out fishing with my son in the morning. I started by walking some frogs and drew a few strikes but couldn't hook anything. The wind started to pick up so I decided to try a new Whopper Plopper 110 in Bone (which I picked up since I haven't had luck with the Loon 130). I threw the 110 near the lily pads where I had been frogging and got a decent smallmouth. Then I headed over to some some reeds away from where I had seen everyone else fishing all morning and ended up with my new PB at 4.9lb! After some more casts my wife came and picked up our son and I stayed out a bit longer. I also tried a spinnerbait with a swimbait trailer and got pretty large pickerel but after that the winds picked up quite a bit and I didn't have my anchor so I decided to call it. Probably a good thing because otherwise I would've been out there until dark trying everything in my tacklebox!

I think that may become my new go-to over the senko. I wasn't getting anything on wacky or weightless Texas senkos the other night so I tied on a jig with Rage Craw and got a couple of fish pretty quick. It's also a little more fun to fish in my opinion.

Hey guys, I have a 10' Solstice inflatable (this one: http://a.co/dloPHT5) which I use to fish the river down the street from my house. Usually it's me and my son or one of my buddies, sometimes just me. I keep the boat partially inflated all season and top if off right before going out, then throw it on the roof and strap it down loosely. It's such a short trip that this works well. Once we arrive I throw in the gear and hook up the trolling motor+battery and we're off and going in about 5 minutes. I like this set up a lot because most of my trips are 1.5-3 hours and I feel like if I had anything more complicated I wouldn't get out nearly as often. But, I'd like to be able to get a little higher off the floor. We sit on the sides and that puts you pretty close to the water. Plus, if the temperature really drops the boat can "deflate" a bit and then sitting on the side isn't so comfortable. No matter what, it's definitely not all-day comfortable. I've seen pictures of people building floors and installing seats in their inflatables and this seems like a great solution. Has anyone done it, and how did it work out long-term? I was also considering a small pond hopper or jon boat but I have a small SUV and would need to get a trailer and hitch, etc. If the wooden floor isn't really worth the effort I'll probably go that route. Thanks!

Great answers, thanks guys. I find it really interesting that one guy's confidence bait could be totally unproductive in the hands of another angler. It can also be disappointing when you pick up a special/expensive bait only to not have any luck with it. I picked up a Whopper Plopper 130 in Loon a couple weeks back and haven't had a single strike with it. It might just be too big for the area I fish or maybe I'd have better luck with it in the morning (I've only tried it afternoons and a little in the evening). At least my 6 year-old son loves watching it go and getting to reel it in every few casts. So in that case, I'm mostly tying it on for fun

Interesting. I had one decent fish take the chatterbait the other day, maybe a 2 pounder or so but he was able to jump and shake it loose. Part of the problem was I didn't realize it was a bite at first - it felt about the same as a huge clump of weeds. Nothing before that or since, and same for the spinners although I haven't given those much of a chance. Guess I'll have to make sure I keep them in the rotation. Mind if I ask what CB you find works well around here (and if that's getting too off-topic would you mind PM'ing me?)? I've got a Rapala square bill, I think Crankin Rap in yellow perch that does OK on smallies but yet to catch a LM with it and then I've got some smaller, lighter colored CB's that go to different depths that I haven't had any luck with.

As I start to pick up more lures and try them out, it becomes increasingly clear that some will reliably catch fish (Senko, etc.) and others won't (for me, chatterbait and popper have yet to produce anything substantial). Obviously a lot of this is down to my lack of good technique, as well as knowing the right conditions for a particular bait. I don't think I'll ever get bored of catching fish on Senkos but half the fun for me at this point is trying new techniques and finding success. So, I got to thinking, when you pick up a new lure or tie something different on in the middle of a trip, are you usually hoping it will catch you more fish or do you just want to try something else to make things more interesting? Clearly if you're not having luck with one lure you'll change things up, but do you ever try something different even though you know you'll probably catch fewer fish with it? For example, I'll often start by throwing Senkos to get some confidence and know I'm almost guaranteed to catch something, and then if I've had decent success I'll try my hand at a crankbait or something that seems make sense for the conditions. I only take out two rods so on my typical 2-3 hour outing I might try 4-5 different baits max. Interested to hear your thoughts!

Yeah, once I made the adjustment it became so much more natural, more like how I imagined it would work. By the way, took it out Thursday night even though I only had about an hour and got my first bass on this setup! It was also my first time using a swim jig, which I paired with a Rage Tail craw. Got a nice 2-pounder: Edit: Sorry, can't figure out how to get rid of the smaller picture. If a mod sees this please remove.

Update: Well, as could be expected, I had some frustration last night but nothing disastrous and it all came down to me not referring back to @fishnkamp's advice on setting up the reel like I said I was going to. I followed some YouTube videos I had watched at some point that were not specific to the Tatula that advised loosening the spool tension until the bait just starts to drop at a consistent rate. The result was, I couldn't get any distance to speak of. I started casting too hard to try to get my baits out there and ended up with some overruns but thankfully no huge backlashes. Today on my lunch break I remembered to check the advice in this thread and it was right on - I just needed to loosen the spool tension until there was a slight amount of side-to-side play and set the brake adjustment to 10 or a little less and I was getting the same distance or better as my spinning reel with 1/4 and 3/8 jigs. Can't wait to get back out on the water to try again, but I will keep practicing in the yard as my lateral accuracy needs some work.

My Tatula CT arrived the other day as well as line (ended up going with 12# Trilene XL) and I had a chance to spool it up and try some casts in the yard. It went pretty well! No major backlashes, just some minor over-runs a couple times but nothing I couldn't easily get out. Biggest thing I noticed is that I have to time the release of the line much earlier than I'm used to with my spinning gear to get the direction I want. I can see it will take some more practice to get accurate with it, but despite that I'm going to take it out on the water tonight and see how it goes. Once I'm a little more confident with it I'll probably switch to 30lb braid as I'd like to be able to hit some of the lily pads and lighter weedy areas and just get some of the other benefits that braid offers. Thanks again for all the help! Now if only I could avoid spending $20+ on tackle every time I step foot into a Walmart...