Smalls

I was just reading that article as I opened the site. I winced at the thought of sending a swivel through my guides.

Bass pro and Cabela’s have them. Or you can order them from Amazon. I keep em in all my baits, so I can throw them all in an open 3600 box and not have to worry about them tangling. I can fit about 25 in a box this way.

I wear a hat 99.9% of the time I’m awake, and it’s always a fitted New Era. I wish a few tackle companies would offer one, but I realize the issues with offering 30 different sizes.

If I’m fishing within 20 feet of thick lily pads, I’ll throw even a spinnerbait on a heavy rod with heavy braid. I know exactly where they plan on goin once I hook em and if I can stop em, I will.

I agree, but in your analogy you can see your progress. With the exception to walking topwaters, skipping, and maybe a few more, how do you measure accuracy? I measure my success with baits based on fish caught. If I know fish are there, and they should be biting a particular bait, then I know I’ve “dialed in” that bait or pattern when I start catching em. If I don’t, then I adjust.

“Dialing in” a bait, to me, means learning how to fish it and knowing you’re doing it properly because you’re catching fish. Problem is, that bait probably isn’t going to work every single day. So even if you fish it properly, there’s other factors involved that affect how well it works. It'd be be smarter to learn when and where and why a bait might work in a certain scenario, and then focus on “dialing in” your technique.

Got mine in today... definitely not dual brakes like you’re thinking. The face plate comes off, and you can see the centrifugal brakes, but you adjust them with the magnetic brakes with the knob on the outside.

That was my train of thought. There’s too many reels with proven track records to justify taking a chance on one with zero reviews.

Idk why I have a problem with this, but I will always matter-of-factly recite the wrong numbers. You’re correct, I meant the 90. I catch a ton ton of fish on the 90, too, but fishing from the bank, on bomb casts, I don’t think that we’re high enough to have our rod high enough to get it to run right. The angle we stand at on flat land just makes it want to nose dive.

A lot of the free versions suck. I’m not paying $10+ a month to find out how mediocre they are.

The Fitzgerald reel was on my radar, too. I had to pass after a lack of reviews.

I just ordered one, should be here tomorrow. I was also of this assumption.

I keep trying to kill my Garcia Pro Max reels. Just can’t seem to do it. The Black and Silver Max are junk, but for ~$80 for the combo, the pro max seems to love the abuse. The rod it comes with is “meh”, but it’ll get you started til you find a better rod.

6th sense or Spro. They both come with good hooks, take a beating, and catch em. I’ll add Rapala’s BX Brat, too. I just bought my first couple of em at the end of the season, so I’ve only thrown em a little over a handful of times. But they seem to be that perfect “finesse” sized bait that weighs enough to chuck far enough. Can’t comment on durability, though.

I’ve heard the Berkley model solves a lot of the running problems the WP 110 has, so I’ve been wanting to try it pretty bad. Especially at the price they sell for. It’s a great bait, but if I can get it cheaper than $15, I’m gonna do it.

Walking a Sammy or a spook across the water as fast as I can, there’s been times that a 6.xx ratio just doesn’t bring the line in fast enough. I’ll fumble the handle trying to reel that fast. Could just be me, I’m not necessarily “graceful”

Saves a bunch of space, and keeps it so much more organized. I do this, too. There’s only a few baits I put a whole bag of into the boxes, though. Stuff I go through a ton of. Everything else gets 3 or 4 put in the box. The only bags I carry with me are Z man stuff, because they react with other baits.

I have a rod that pulls double duty for the time being -crankin and top water. It has a 6.xx reel on it. It does great crankin. It does... ok with topwaters. It works, but definitely not an ideal choice. There are plenty of times I have to pause my cadence to make half or more of a reel turn. Works great for wakebaits though, obviously. For christmas I'm buying myself a longer crankbait rod, and a faster topwater reel.

That’s pretty much it. I had a few spots from shore that would only produce certain times of the year, even though the structure was very similar. Pretty much how I learned that grass type, current, weather, etc. mattered. Took me a lot of driving from spot “A” to spot “B”, “C”, all in one or two days to really click.

I had that one. My wife uses it, now. For the person who’s goal is to pack light, and have a few extra spots for sunglasses, phone, etc, it has just the same quality as the bigger one. But it even beating the banks, I’ll bring more than some co anglers in the FLW bring. It’s a huge pain in my back, but I’ll be damned if they’re eating green pumpkin “whatever bait” and I only brought black and blue. The single strap trap was as comfortable as a single strap can be, but my back definitely prefers 2 straps.

Typically, bass are opportunistic eaters. So it makes sense that if you fly something by them, they’ll eat it. But you’re right, that’s not always how it works. It it very much depends on time of year, and weather, and etc. if I assume the bass are in an mood where they’re not actively searching for baitfish, then a jig will absolutely become my “search bait” of choice. Again, doesn’t have to be a reaction bait. It just has to be the bait I think they’re gonna want to to eat. I prefer to cover water to see if bass are even there, first. Lakes are big, and I walk em. There ain’t enough time in the day to walk around some lakes and fish slow. I see your point, and agree to an extent. But just to play devils advocate- what aid does dragging a jig slowly do you, if there are no fish in the vicinity?

?. You’re right. Wasn’t really thinking, just chucked out numbers.

I use the FG knot almost exclusively, but be careful. The knot is designed to tie braid to larger diameter leaders. It'll work with leaders slightly smaller than your main line, but don’t go crazy and start tying 50 lb braid to 12 lb leader.

I’m a big fan of my spiderwire bag for that price. Tons of storage, and plenty of little pockets for stuff. I’ve also been using it for 2 seasons and other than being dirty from use, it looks brand new. I’ve yet to run out of room in it, I can fit 7 3600 boxes in it. Plus scissors, pliers, a small snack, other miscellaneous tools, extra spool of leader, etc, etc. I’m often surprised at the amount of crap I can shove in it.

No, of course there’s no magical bait. But the first thing you want to do is look for, and pick off active fish. So baits that allow you to cover water as quickly as possible are going to aid in doing that. Once you find the fish, then you can pick the area apart. If you throw say.. 3 different “search” baits, and nothing’s biting, then you have to make a decision. Either stay and slow down/downsize, or move to a new spot.