Glaucus

I don't see a reason to move on from Power Pro.

Otters can destroy a fishery. Shoot 'em.

I get that you're asking about shallow water, but sometimes it isn't practical and rather than staying comfortable, you need to learn new things; in this case, going deeper.

Bass being conditioned can clearly be seen in videos by The Fish Whisperer and Bamabass. TFW has trained bass in a private pond to feed out of his hands and wait for him by the banks. He's trained them to track food that is thrown out to them. He will throw a shad and you watch as the massive wakes track the shad in the air and then the bass explode on it immediately. Bamabass has conditioned his pet bass Moby. Moby knows when it's feeding time and behaves eerily like a dog when his owner is offering up treats. Bamabass also has 2 pet bass in a backyard pond who are trained the same.

I think there's a very fine line here. Bass are not smart. But time on the water has proven time and time again that bass can become conditioned (as Sam actually just said) in some sense.

Some as old as 8-10 years, some as new as this month.

Believed in fluoro until I broke my leader off using a Ned Rig and had to fish it on straight braid. Catch rate didn't go down and I even got bigger fish after that. Of course straight braid didn't cause me to catch bigger fish, but that coincidence happened and I learned that it really doesn't matter to a degree* *if we're talking 8-15lb braid it's already so thin it doesn't matter. I'm all about copolymer for the most part anyways now.

Left hand retrieve. I'm right handed. It's my strong hand. As such, it only feels comfortable to hold a rod and fight a fish with my right hand. 100 percent don't understand why back in the day companies thought right handed meant you reel right handed. Nope. Need that hand for doing the real work.

Buddy and I recently talked about the danger we all take when we go fishing that nobody really thinks about. You'll never catch me in the water without a PFD. Don't care if it's 3fow.

Some fishermen: fluoro, camo, walk around the pond hunting wabbits Other fishermen: braid with no leader, using the atrocity that is the Tokyo rig Everyone catching fish. Moral of the story : doesn't matter it's in your head

Better man than I am. One of the first trillion dollar companies in the world who still pays their employees peanuts wouldn't get a peep out of me.

I'm thinking about it because my favorite online tackle shops don't have the length I want in a rod I'm looking at. Amazon of course does because they have everything. But a tackle shop knows how to treat, store, and package a rod. I'm a little weary of ordering one from Amazon because I highly doubt they take special care of how their rods are stored. As far as packaging, do they package them correctly? Do they arrive in tip top shape?

Watch ndyakangler. He does it next to his yak when his top water gets retrieved back to the last couple of feet and even that close he will occasionally draw a strike. It's really cool. A buddy taught me to do it with squarbills from the banks on rivers. There's a lot of rocks and we stand on them by the dams and when the squarebill is basically back to us we'll just kind of drag it back and forth next to us and it draws strikes. It's freaking cool man.

That's not the issue. It's harder to work a longer rod on foot or from a yak for things like jerkbaits, frogs, flipping, etc. For me anyways. I'm 6' but still find it to be a pain.

High end usually means lighter and more sensitive. Compare it to wine. Most people won't the the difference between a 10 dollar bottle and a 50-100 dollar bottle. It's subtle, but makes a difference to some people. In some ways, probably, in other ways, not so much. But I'm OCD and admit to it lol

All gear will eventually fail, but that's no reason not to take care of it.

Pretty much subtle entry is preferred but sometimes you can get lucky with a big splash entry. And make no mistake it is luck. Nothing about throwing a spinnerbait with a splash that instantly gets ate is intentional.

We do that here after bringing a bait back to the yak or bank, and off of walls. Can sometimes pick off a bass you would otherwise not.

You're missing one of my points though. My cheap squarebill setup isn't due to its price or ant justification not to go higher. I have it because I haven't felt anything better. All of the characteristics I want in that setup was ideally met to the T in the cheap setup. I could without a doubt spend 4x as much to find something even better, but why when my ideal setup was met for 4x less? Sometimes it isn't about the name or the price tag or what one can afford. Sometimes exactly what you're looking for doesn't cost much at all. But that's just one of my points. Of course I'm not giving up my Elite Techs, Tatulas, HMGs, E6Xs, or newly acquired Okumas any time to go back to Ugly Stick or Shock or Shakespeare or cheap Abu rods of various sorts or anything like that, but I did catch a bunch of fish using that stuff when I started out and didn't want to fork over the money because I either couldn't afford it or didn't think it was necessary. It's become necessary for me, but like I said, not a d**n person can tell me my Lightning Rod and Silver Max isn't perfect to me for what I use it for.

I was a co-angler last year. Absolutely yes, there is nothing like casting from a bass boat. Very easy, very worthwhile.

I support a family of 6 on my income alone. I make a modest income with some but not a lot of wiggle room. The only way I'm able to afford nice gear is that I sacrifice things for myself. The wife and kids get their fancy phones (well only my oldest kid has a phone, my kids are young yet), nice clothes, gaming systems, this and that around the house for my wife or whatever the hell she thinks she needs. Etc etc etc for all things, just standard "got a wife and kids" stuff. For myself, I get a cheap prepaid smartphone with a cheap prepaid plan. I get my clothes from thrift stores and wear them out. I don't smoke. I don't buy a coffee or a pop or fast food or lunch or whatever. I literally cut out all of my personal luxury expenses or minimize them as much as I can, and that leaves me room to spend money where I really want to: fishing.

One of the exact reasons I hate a rod over 6'10". I wade, bank, and yak fish. Those longer rods are an uncomfortable pain in the butt.

Yes and no. I don't want to scratch or ding my cheap Berkley and Abu stuff anymore than my modest Fenwick or expensive Daiwa stuff. I'm OCD about all of my gear. I'll fish them and travel with them, but I take care of them like I would my body. I run with my body, but I don't want to trip and get scrapped up. Same principle for all of my gear.

Lower the trajectory of your bait on the cast. Sometimes a splash is in your favor, sometimes a splash is a missed opportunity. Like MN Fisher, I've had bass hit spinnerbaits upon impact, and then I've had bass back off on a Senko that was just too loud coming in.

PB LMB - around 6pm I was fishing with a buddy at a pond after work. He got skunked. I got my PB. Go figure. 4 inch Senko. 7lbs. PB SMB - around 11am I was fishing 40 yards off a river dam, wading in a foot of water, with my wife, waiting the other couple to show up so we could spend the day wading down the river. Ned Rig. 4lbs. I live in Illinois.