Lead Head

Mostly just get on the water more. Because of covid I had the opportunity to work pretty much as much OT as I wanted this year. All the extra hours caused me to not fish anywhere near as much as I usually do. My goal this year is to stop chasing the all mighty $ and get back to enjoying my life. That is pretty much always the goal...

I usually start my leaders just long enough to keep the knot out of the spool. When pitching I want my leader knot just outside the tip top. So its relative to the length of the rod, but usually around 6'. I will replace it if it gets down into the 3'-4' range. To answer your question, no its not an exact science in bass fishing (for me anyway).

Uni knot looks better too... if that matters. I wish I could say looks don't matter to me, but they do. While the Palomar is a tried and true workhorse of a knot, it just don't look as clean as a good uni to me.

Fish-n-fool uni knot has never failed or slipped on me, and I use more braid than anything else.

On a tap- Oh? On a set- there he is! On a miss- calmly look over at my buddy and say "there was a disturbance in the force"

Wait... 4-6 months with surgery, and 6-9 months without? Unless the Dr. was strongly in favor of going without surgery, I would just have the surgery and get everything fixed up right the first time. I understand other things play a role here (insurance and bills and such) but if all things are equal, I would personally opt for surgery and a shorter recovery time. Everyone is different, but I learned long ago that I'm better off just getting things fixed and moving on. I had an achilles injury 12 years ago and opted to rehab without surgery. Now I have managed to get large calcium deposits (from scar tissue) inside my Achilles tendon. To surgically remove these calcium deposits now, will have the exact same recovery time I was avoiding 12 years ago. Sure wish I would have just had the surgery in the beginning and been done with it.

When I was little, I would cast (pretty poorly) with both hands. My grandfather did it that way, so I wanted to be like him. My senior year in HS, I had major reconstructive surgery on my right wrist (I'm right handed, and was mostly a right hand caster to this point). I decided this was a perfect time to "get good" with my left hand, it seemed right hand reels were ment to be cast with the left hand anyway since I didn't need to switch hands. Between the surgery and me working so hard on getting good left handed, I now am pretty much worthless casting with my right hand. It works out fine, but there are times I really wish I could switch to my right for a better casting angle. The biggest drawback is, when I have used my friends lefty reels, I absolutely struggle with everything about reeling with my left hand. Guess I just didn't spend enough time with a spinning reel before going to baitcasters as the first thing I do with every spinning reel I can remember owning is swap the handle over to make it right hand retrieve. I'm currently working on at least being capable of casting right handed again, but I don't think I'll ever be able to reel with my left.

Then- My father and grandfather were canepole and bobber fishermen. They went fishing for food, not fun. I loved to fish, but never liked eating fish all that much. When I first got out on my own with bass gear and a rundown old boat, all I did was chuck and wind spinnerbaits and buzzbaits. At first, I think it was the river I fell in love with more so than bass fishing. Eventually, a buddy taught me how to use soft plastics, and that changed everything. It started an obsession. I started researching and reading, watching anything I could on TV or vhs tape. Now- I can effectively present most techniques. I'm mostly on a big dirty river so my weaknesses are definitely offshore structure type fishing like dropshots. I'm still happy as can be just being on the water. Usually pitching a jig to cover but ill mix in cranks/spinnerbaits/frogs pretty liberally. One big difference from then until now. Then, I felt pressure to catch fish, and a skunk hurt my soul. Now, I feel 0 pressure to validate myself by catching fish. Fishing is relaxing and stress free for me.

Odd, I had a different experience. I put a deep gouge in one of my lenses (580p, not g) and when I contacted them willing to buy new lenses, they completely replaced the sunglasses free of charge. I couldn't have been more pleased.

I don't really care for fish. I will eat it, but not with regularity. My favorite (and probably the only that I truly like) is filet size bluegill/bream/goggle eye (war mouth, rock bass, whatever you call them). Next is crappie and then bass. I don't like white bass or catfish. Its funny, catfish is king around here everyone loves them but me. Something I didn't realize until just a few years back is how regional this really is. A guy moved down here from WI and we were talking about fishing. I mentioned that I don't really eat much fish and he says to me "can you believe people down here eat catfish, they love them". I laughed and asked what he did with them up in WI, he replied "throw them in a ditch!". A lot of people made fun of him for that, I wasn't one of them. He did eventually decide that he liked catfish though.

I'm a dedicated line watcher. Its how I learned back in the day. When I said "line visibility" I was saying I don't think it matters much if the fish can see your line when your targeting reaction strikes. If I wasn't a line watcher, I would probably only catch about 1/2 fish that grab my jig. Honestly that may be the case now, I'm no pro.

Do you anticipate needing the power to drag fish through and out of cover? Like hauling in a fish plus a pound of weeds. If not, a rod rated up to 1oz should work fine. If you think you will be dragging in clumps of vegetation with your fish you probably want something rated closer to 1 1/2oz. Also keep in mind versatility. A rod rated at 1oz will likely be a more versatile rod. Either way I suggest braid. It will help with sensitivity on such a stiff rod. Flipping and pitching into cover means you will be looking for reaction strikes and it is my opinion that line visibility matters very little when targeting reaction strikes. Many people who don't like braid for mainline will still use it on a flipping stick.

What is the line and lure weight rating on the rod? Those are far better indicators of what a rod will do than medium/medium heavy/heavy. Also keep in mind that a 1/2oz jig with a trailer will probably weigh closer to 3/4oz.

I'm a fan of Costa green mirrored. They are amber (copper) based. If you shop around you can often find them in the $100-130 range. Just research thoroughly to avoid knockoffs. I know that's a bit over your budget but its the best recommendation I can give.

I started off doing my guides this way but ended up just sanding them down. Often times when I would pull them forward it would leave a wrap or 2 a little loose and that would cause hard to eliminate gaps in the wrap. I'm betting on the thread and epoxy protecting the part of the guide foot where I remove coatings by sanding.

I guess my favorite is the rage bug, but I haven't tried one I didn't like. Recently grabbed some Space Monkeys and I'm excited to try them out when it warms back up.

Took a 3/8oz bullet sinker to the head... it went under the skin and looked like one of those crazy brow implants. Guess I kind of looked half Neanderthal. Squeezed it back out like a zit, but it left me with one heck of a black eye and the nickname. It makes for a pretty cool story though. @Boomstick I discovered Army of Darkness in 1995. My current signature has been the one I have used on every form of media that allows since then.

Ahh.. I'm glad you mentioned these. I typically disregard high end blanks, but have reached a point where any rods I build will be upgrades. Since I have started building my own rods, I absolutely can't stop myself from having "my next rod build" planned out. Since I'm upgrading, more expensive blanks are now going to be part of the process. I'm just going to be building fewer rods because of budget. In the past, I haven't looked at Point Blank, Phoenix, or St Croix SC5 much because I was after "bang for your buck" builds. You just reminded me I need to start researching a few brands I have previously disregarded.

I agree on 50lb being more than enough. Your rod or reel will give out before it does unless you are neglecting some sort of wear or damage. I mostly use 30lb, but 50lb is a bit more user-friendly.

Put me down as a Daiwa fan. Absolutely nothing wrong with Shimano, and if I wanted pure distance on a calm day they are what I would choose. Reality is, pure distance is rarely important to me and perfect days don't come along that often. For me, Daiwa is better than or equal to Shimano in every other quality I look for in a baitcaster.

Thanks for the ideas guys. A St Croix blank has been on my "must try" list for a while now so ill definitely look into that. I throw neds on a Immortal ML and its absolutely great, a M was what I had in mind before I decided to make this post. Any of you have experience with both the Immortal and St Croix in a M power? What do they do differently from one another? As far as the X-ray goes, wouldn't the mb736 be a little too heavy for weightless? I like the X-ray blanks for $75 (I have 1 now), but I'm not crazy about them at full price.

Sorry it took me a while to get back to you. I work for a large shipping company and things are crazy right now. As to why I don't play well with T-wings. When fishing bottom contact, I hold the reel and keep my index finger out front and under the line. This pushes the line up out of the T-wing and causes all sorts of line lay issues. I really wish I could get along with those silly T-wings because Daiwa puts them on dang near everything good they make. I get by though, the JDM reels I'm into now are pretty top notch. Maybe someday I'll run across someone willing to part with a SV103 at a decent price, I would really like to give one of those a spin!

After Christmas I'll likely be building a new senko rod. I mostly use the 5 or 6in size senkos (or stik-o). What have you guys built and used for senkos? What is your favorite? Casting or spinning, I'm open to either.

If your still a little new with baitcasters, and looking for a noticeable upgrade from the fuego, get a (practically any) SV spooled Daiwa. In my experience, unless you're trying to get absolute max distance (good luck if your not extremely comfortable with your baitcaster) the SV spools are a cant miss. I was perfectly happy with my fuegos until I started playing around with my daughters tatula SV TW. I can't fish bottom contact presentations with a t-wing so I had to get into some used jdm reels. Another great thing about SV spools is skipping... if you're good at it they may not help much, but if you're like me and... let's just say "below average", they can absolutely make you better at it.

A while back, I was turning braid around on my frog rod. After I get everything respooled, I lay the rod down in the floor (just for a second while I grab a drink from nearby) while still holding the line in my other hand. At that perfect moment, my wife comes home and our 90lb lab goes flying by me to meet her at the door. After a few minutes of untangling the dog, I looked over to my reel and the mother of all backlashes. Apparently I still didn't have the spool engaged when my dog was power sliding through. And her tail somehow got involved too! Thats the story of the only braid backlash I have ever had that required "surgical" removal.