Hook2Jaw

My Daiwa Lexa Type-WN 300 is my favorite reel. I haven't touched many other offerings in that size category, but I can say I am impressed. It casts well and it is buttery smooth. Truly a pleasure to fish.

I've experimented a tad with a more finesse Carolina rig, Pete Thliveros popularized it and has made a lot of money doing so. It's aptly named the Petey Rig, and generally consists of a bullet weight of 1/4oz or less pegged in a static position around 8-10" in front of the hook. Pete did/does damage to prespawn and spawning bass by fishing a fluke behind it. I believe the entire point is to keep the fluke near the bottom while preserving the falling and gliding action of that particular bait. I've caught a few fish using it in both salt and freshwater. I don't see why you can't simply slide your bobber stops down to the hook eye and have a quick Texas rig should you be limited to only a few rods. I don't like the extra terminal tackle involved, the stops tend to grab all the garbage I'm throwing around and if they were close to the bait, they would definitely gum up the action. In a pinch, I don't think there's anything wrong with that method. In a pinch, I wouldn't fray my line by pinching on a split shot. Use pegs or bobber stops.

I run a Humminbird Helix 7 MSI G3, @Choporoz. I have a Berleypro transducer cover and highly recommend it. It's a balanced, space saving, and streamlined method of making the Lowrance ready system into a transducer setup capable of sidescan.

The stability of the PA12 will greatly exceed the Outback. With your high center of gravity and a want for stability, I would go with the PA12. I used to fish from an Outback and never had a balance issue. I now fish from a PA14, and can confidently say I won't ever have a balance issue. There are systems you can add to your roof rack to more easily enable car topping a PA12. If you've got any more questions about the two boats, fire away.

I'm a fan of braid to leader from years of throwing it in the inshore salt as well as really starting my bass fishing hobby with Senkos and YUM Dingers. I like the casting distance to cover more water. The braid doesn't stretch, so it really aids with hook sets at distance. A lot of jig bites happen on the initial fall, and years of watching braid twitch on a stick bait bite gives me an advantage with those right off the top bites, as the braid is a highly visible line. The fluorocarbon is there for the abrasion resistance, the ability to break off should I need to, and because some of the bodies of water I fish are very clear. I don't think there's an incorrect way to go about it. There are advantages to straight fluoro, mono, copoly, straight braid, and braid to leader. I just prefer braid to leader.

I have an absolute load of confidence in fast reeling and slashing with my rod with a jerkbait on the end. I'm talking line whistling jerks. Give it a go! I'm on my way to carpal tunnel one warm water jerkbait fish at a time.

Good lord, I typed out a good many paragraphs, decided that was excessive, then started typing lists and found that was also excessive. Here's a list of brands I use and trust to put fish in the boat, and I just caught three at work in about 20 minutes off two of those brands. YUM and ZOOM handle almost all of my soft plastic needs. I also throw the Big Bite Baits Cane Thumper often. There are tons of great products in those three brands and YUM hardly ever goes over 3 bucks a bag, and BBB and ZOOM keep it under 4 bucks. H2O Xpress, Strike King, BPS XPS, and Berkley handle my hard baits. H2O Squarebills and Jerkbaits are good stuff, and their lipless cranks aren't bad either. Strike King Red Eye Shad are hard to beat. BPS XPS Squarebills do my lifting when I want a silent squarebill. Berkley Diggers and Dredgers handle my deeper cranking. I absolutely love the Berkley Drift Walker for topwater walking, and the Choppo is a success. My frogs are all Booyah, as well as my spinnerbaits and buzzbaits. My jigs and skirts come from BOSS. My swimbait jigheads are from Jann's Netcraft, cheapest per jig I've found and they're on Mustad hooks. I get my shakyheads from Big Bite Baits, cheap, haven't had a problem. I get all my tungsten from Academy, it seems to be good quality and it's not as expensive as some brands. Dropshot hooks from Lunkerhunt, highly impressed, probably their only decent product. I throw original chatterbaits from Z-Man. BPS Magna O'Schaunessey, Magna EWG for plastics on my heavier gear. Wide Superlocks for spinning presentations. Line? Original Power Pro 20# on my finesse rods. 30# when I'm running braid to leader on casting outfits. Frogs get Kastking, 50#, as that rough 4 carrier absolutely saws through everything. Berkley Vanish for Fluorocarbon main line and leader, I just hit it with KVD Line and Lure. Big Game for my topwater rod and my swimbait leader. Oh, and as far as swimbaits go, I haven't been too impressed with Savage Gear. The Huddleston 68 and Matlures Gill, however, have caught me several 4s. I'm just waiting on a big girl before I go to bragging about my swimbait exploits. I don't go THAT cheap when it comes to offerings I need to be that natural. I tried not to write a list and wrote a list. While I'm at it, obligatory shout to the Daiwa Fuego CT and LT. I understand the doing it well for cheap grind. What else you need cheap alternatives for? It's all I've ever researched.

Another vote for the Berkley Half Head. The only gripe I have about them is if I was a Ned aficionado they don't have many different sizes or colors available, but I'm not, so having some 1/16, 1/8, and 1/4 in the boat is fine with me.

It's the fastest who gets paid, and the fastest who gets... - Reese Bobby In short, I fish too fast.

My hardbaits have become a mix of H2O and Berkley simply because they come ready to rock with good hardware. I'll take one hooked finger for hundreds of pinned fish. Thanks, man! I'll keep reporting as I figure my 2 hour away lakes out.

I spend a lot of time pitching from my kayak, it's one of my favorite ways to put fish in the boat. On the move, I prefer a 7' MH, and I may be trying a 6'7" MH in the future. Palm your presentation at the reel and sweep your rod out sideways, keeping your presentation low and rely on your thumb as much as your stick to make your shot. I sit in my kayak's chair in the carport and practice this about once a week. I also pitch standing, using a 7'11" Heavy Fast. I'll anchor pole down and pick apart the heavier stuff with the more traditional pitching technique rather than the modified side sweeping pitch when I know I need heavier gear to get them up and out. I use a coffee mug in the carport to practice this. Practice the side armed pitch, Glenn has a good video on it on YouTube. Practice traditional pitching as well, it's all been rather effective for me from a kayak. Leave the frog and bladed jig at home, tie on a jig or Texas rig, and do it all dang day long. You'll figure it out quickly, as I did, I'm betting.

Good deal, @BassNJake. I think I'll tie off to the rail on my kayak if and when I pop one out solo. In the mean time, I'm gonna buy a new boga grip.

I've been transitioning from ponds, rivers, and inshore saltwater and learning a lake that sits 2 hours from me known as Juliette. She's a tough, tough girl. I've experienced 5-10' of clarity, and she DROPS. I'm talking inches to 60' in the span of a cast. My first trip out, I landed one spotted bass cranking a grassline. I landed three nice striped bass trolling the same Berkley Digger 14.5. Still, I felt I never figured out the green bass. I had a lot to learn. My second run to the mean girl produced nada. I focused on a creek arm and several GPS coordinates the bassresource provided. I lost one green bass in that arm in 3 hours of fishing. I had a good friend with me, and we decided to go troll for stripers. I pulled my crank down the riprap along the dam, my rod bowed, and I proceeded to lose a green bass that would have went 5, 6, 7, or 8 pounds. She was a nice fish. I hooked up with her where the riprap met clay and grass, and a light went off in my head. I needed to take a look at a contour map and figure out why the big bass was hooked there. I went home and mapped. A light went off. Juliette is primarily a bowl, and even the creek arms get to 40' deep. The bass I had lost had come off one of the only sloping points that existed on the side of the lake I've been fishing, where most of the water drops to 60-90' deep in a short span. Where the dam and riprap stopped, the lake humps up onto that tapering flat of clay with sparse grass toward the bank. This would be my focus, I decided, and at first light Saturday morning I was pedalling my Hobie toward that point as hard as I could. Here's where the rest of my research paid off: Juliette is a blueback herring lake. Apparently, blueback herring lakes provide for an amazing topwater bite. I had purchased two Berkley Drift Walker 110s, a rather finesse spook with an excellent review on a reputable fishing site. As my kayak sat in 30' of water, I ripped a long cast to the beginning of the grass and started walking my new spook towards me. Magic happened on my first cast. 16 inches of spotted bass creamed my offering and provided one heck of a fight. I'm not used to the fury these little guys have, I'm more accustomed to largemouth willingly sliding into my net. I proceeded to work that lonely point for two more spotted bass around 12" each, and hosted three largies, the biggest going 14". Behind me in open water, the hybrid and striper proceeded to surface beneath a pushed school of herring, so I sped out to them and boated a nice hybrid over 60' of water with that same topwater. Out of the same frothing mess of bait and bass, I hoisted another off topwater. She trashed on my deck and sunk a Fusion 19 to the bone in my pointer finger. I thought my day was ended, as I have never done the braid trick to pop a hook out but on my way in I asked another man in a boat if he had. A few moments later I was unhooked and we fished for those schooling striper and hybrids the rest of the day. I ended the day with 10 more lined bass in between 15-25". I didn't take any pictures as the action was furious when they came up. Now I just need to figure out Lake Juliette's green bass after the topwater bites lull. I hope you all had a good weekend and I hope this has been a good read, bassresource!

@GreenPig, I almost discounted your advice to use a black and blue stick worm considering how clear the water was and my belief that clear water meant natural colors, but now you've said you fish it often and have success. I'll try that black and blue worm now. Any theory why it works there? The herring?

I don't believe your promise.

@J Francho, I'm gonna give it a shot. We've got tons of greenery that gunks up on knots and hook eyes down here in the southeast.

I'm curious about it as well. My guess is knot protection and a deterrent to gathering salad.

Frog it or punch the thickest mess in the mess.

That's good to hear, Hammer! I might be tempted to try an XT if they had a longer stick.

The coupon code excludes Daiwa products. It looks like I'll have to wait.

I'm thinking of waiting on a Daiwa Tatula Bass 7'6" MHF to be on sale somewhere, rather than jumping the gun and grabbing a 7'3" when I truly need it for probing deep water with Texas, Carolina, and jigs weighing 1/2oz and up. It'll be nice to step up the weight rating. Thanks again, everyone. If anyone knows where to find the 7'6" MHF anywhere, let me know, please!

My Wal-Mart carries a big pile of poop when it comes to decent gear.

@Junger, think the 7'3" MHF Tatula Bass for 119 is a good move? It's rated up to 1oz. Think it would make an okay stick for dragging jigs and worms up to 3/4? I'm so close to pulling the trigger.

Lord, thanks for the information already guys! I think I'm going to shop around for a Tatula with all the recommendations, but sportsmanoutfitters is sold out of the models I would want for the purpose I need. I'm scared to death of Amazon shipping after receiving two broken rods already. How's the Tatula Bass? Is that just the replacement for the OG Tatula that @Junger mentioned? God I'm excited for a more sensitive stick. I am shaking with adrenaline.

I'm trying to figure out what my next rod purchase is going to be, and after attempting to use my more budget minded sticks with guides that do not perform well with braid to fluoro as bottom contact rods with straight fluoro, I've been left wanting more sensitivity. Daiwa is my favorite brand, by far, and I own multiple Fuego CTs and LTs. The only rod I've tried from their offering is the Aird-X 7' MHF, and I love it for casting lipless cranks. It has plenty of backbone and slings them a mile. So I decided to look at more expensive offerings from Daiwa, namely the Daiwa Tatula XT at 99 dollars and the Daiwa Tatula at 150. I'll be putting a Daiwa Fuego or Tatula CT on either the 7'3" MHF XT or 7'6" MHF Tatula and throwing jigs, Carolina rigs, and Texas rigs with 30# braid to 15# fluoro. Am I making a good decision with either rod for bottom contact? Tatula-XT or Tatula, bassresouce?