Glaucus

What kind of crankbaits? If you're talking lipless and squarebills, the regular 3 power for sure. It does great with those and is way more versatile for other things. That's the one casting rod of theirs I chose to keep, except mine is 6'6". It's got a great parabolic bend as it is with plenty of backbone for other things, like Senkos and light T-Rigs, lighter jigs, spinnerbaits, and chatterbaits. Just don't go trying to throw 3/8 with a paddle tail trailer. Good for the smaller Whopper Ploppers as well.

Now that the rivers are basically back to normal after massive flooding all spring and summer so far, I will be making my first trip of the season to my home river to chase some river Smallies. I've got KVD 1.5s, Bitsy Bug Jigs with Z-Man CrawZ, Ned Rigs, Inline Spinners, Whopper Ploppers, and Poppers all ready to go. Let's get it!

Random thoughts here, for a reason. I broke off 12lb Yo-Zuri in a fishes face today, which claims a near 20lb breaking strength, and I believe it because I've 1. Never broke off before with it and 2. Have uprooted some gnarly stuff. Just keep thinking about whether or not I missed a PB or tied a bad knot, but it was a fresh tie on a T-Rig and the line wasn't damaged from what I saw. One of those moments that haunts you with the what if. I'm not really looking for anything but random discussion I guess. This is just bugging the daylights out of me. I broke moments after the hookset and the fish ran. My wife was with me and I was speechless. Just kept muttering, wow I just broke off. Done it many times before just never with this stuff.

It's way too early in the morning to be insulting the police.

Wacky for me is 10lb straight braid, 10lb braid to 6lb fluoro leader, 6-8lb mono, or 4-6lb Yo-Zuri Hybrid.

Is that an old school baitcaster you have on your rod in that photo?

Over a decade. I picked it up when a freak injury ruined my high school sports career and my developmental disorder started to wreak havoc on my ability to maintain my inner peace.

When I get a decent build up of worms and stick baits that have been demolished beyond use for T-Rigging I have a Wacky Rig day where I just go out and burn through them, living and dying by the Wacky Rig. I don't like to keep them around for too long because it gets to be too much, some things get misshapen pretty bad, and colors start to bleed together.

Fuego for sure. Best bang for the buck out there.

The weeds fall off a lot easier and come up much less plentiful on weightless plastics.

That is a really broad budget with dozens and dozens of fantastic options. From the Fenwick HMG at $100, to the Daiwa Tatula at $150, to the St. Croix Avid at $200. There's a world of difference from $100 to $200.

Beetle Spins under $1

I think you meant the Fenwick HMG, and those are great rods.

No, the weight will catch far more weeds.

Fenwick will always replace your rod.

Could be where you're fishing them. There's one pond I fish where they won't touch a Plopper period, but use a Popper and they slam it. And then at my home river I can use a Plopper from sun up to sun down and catch Smallies all day long as long as the water isn't hard.

I'm not going to buy a Choppo when I already have several Ploppers, but I lose Ploppers to trees embarrassingly often, and when the last one gets lost I'll be making the switch to the Choppo unless R2S brings the price down to compete.

Spincast reels are notorious for constantly messing the line up and otherwise malfunctioning. It takes all of 2 minutes to learn how to use a spinning reel. You can get something like the Pflueger Trion or Abu Garcia Silver Max for the same price as a Zebco 33. Well worth learning the spinning reel to avoid these problems.

They are amazing for me in my rocky river. If I use the ones without the guard I get snagged almost instantly. Around grass and other vegetation wire guards won't prevent it from bringing that crap up. I view wire guards more of a deflection off the hard stuff my hook would otherwise dig in to.

Weightless soft plastics and topwaters are the best way to avoid brining up weeds. If something has a wire guard I look at it more like I'm going to be able to fend off wood, rocks, and other hard debris, but not vegetation.

Funny but I would legit be interested in your stock squarebill trebles because I never change the hooks on my KVD 1.0s, 1.5s, and 2.5s. I never have an issue with fish, just the rivers rocks I get snagged on.

I'm a sinner and typically fish them like a mini shaky head which gives me my best results.

Medium Power, Moderate Fast Action is my favorite for cranks. Of course you need to go up in power for heavy cranks, but keep the same action. Casting. Anything that moves feels terrible with spinning gear.

You won't get nearly as good action with small finesse worms and 3-4 inch Senkos with larger hooks. I use 1/0 for those and rarely ever gut hook bass. Gary says the 5 inch Senko should be fished with a 3/0. Yeah I typically use octopus circle hooks for Wacky Rigs and I'm not sure one has ever gut hooked my fish. I use 1/0 though.

Plano trays and a waterproof backpack. I also have a little Plano handbag that I use for Senkos, Trick Worms, TRDs, Ned Heads and hooks for when I'm taking a spinning rod and going on foot to finesse some numbers.