Hook2Jaw

@Troy85, it's Troy87 here. That is the best video I've seen in a while and that dude deserves all the followers.

Man, I almost forgot about that rod. Well, the Lightning Rod Shock. When I first returned to fishing and before I had started seriously educating myself on techniques, I had just bought a Jon boat. I was armed with an ultra-light BPS spinning rod all of 5'6" long and knew absolutely nothing, all I knew is I enjoyed the fight on the light rod, seriously fun but seriously inneficient. All I was armed with was that rod, some storm swimbaits, and a single white spinnerbait. The first day of my glorious return was an entire day all for one fish. That light rod was bowed nearly in half all day, wearing me out with that 3/8oz spinnerbait. Sometime shortly after that I decided there had to be some advice online for catching more than one fish. That led me here, and shortly after that I had an idea about this weird weightless plastic presentation with a funny looking worm called a senko. Everyone here recommended the Pflueger President, almost like a lot of us recommend the Daiwa Fuego today. I grabbed up a Pflueger Trion instead. I wanted a budget spinning rod under 50 bucks, and many people mentioned the Berkley Lightning Rod Shock. Many more seconded that suggestion. Shortly thereafter I grabbed a 7' MF, tightened my Trion onto it, learned about watching braid on top of the water while my stick worm dangled below it, and was catching way more than one bass a day. I thought I was the best bass fisherman there ever was with that Berkley rod. The only way to catch fish was a weightless Texas rigged senko. Thanks for bringing the memories back, @Catt, my Trion and Lightning Rod are resting somewhere in the Atlantic ocean. Sucker put a whooping on redfish too!

@Choporoz, rage rigged?

@Fishingmickey that's the vibrationingest son of a gun there ever was and ever gone be.

Your favorite lure costs more than most of my reels! ? I'm getting my budgety swimbait setup for Christmas but plan to stick some Hudd 68s and Gills on the end of it, as well as an S-Waver or two. Do you Texas Rig this feller or what? Weightless? Tell me more, turtle tosser. Wait, I've got it. You throw it weightless, Texas rigged on top of logs with the other shelled critters and drop it off the side and get your shoulder dislocated!

@Spankey, I totally feel that. My local lake...er...pond...er, 55 acre impoundment is a mess of pads towards one end and during the summer I do pretty decent. Public fishing area, ludicrously heavy pressured body. A lot of folks throw hollow frogs, me included. This year I'm gonna grab a Johnson Silver Minnow, throw a grub or worm on the hook, and hit those pads with something they haven't seen.

With ya. What currently catches is my current favorite.

Let me guess. Ned and senko.

I threw them quite a bit when I was younger, and have tied them on a few times and caught quite a few since my fishing return. I'm a big fan of slow rolling them and throwing them into heavier cover ever since I was informed they're pretty weedless. There is something very fun about a lure that really tells me what it's up to down there, whether it be a crank, chatter, or spinner.

I feel like I'm pretty bad about fishing lines that are at the low end of what is required for the presentation except finesse. I've drop shotted with 4#, but beyond that I'm typically using 8 or 10. I have a spool of untouched six. What pound line and type are you using when throwing the ned? I want to know, which spinnerbait?

I still speed up or slow down and have both low speed and high speed reels to accentuate it even farther.

@Arlo Smithereen what's the pay like in the necromancer field, if you don't mind me asking?

Catt visits the first BPS at the grand opening, circa 1893, colorized.

I'm not a pro or tournament fisherman, for sure, but I'm still happy to have an 8 speed reel in my arsenal. It only takes a tiny amount of time for a fish to reject a bait. Often, I'll be zoned out and not react as quickly as I would want to. Oh, and it also gets my frog, flipping bait, or jig back to me more quickly. It might only be a second, but if that second adds up to two seconds it might add up to me getting another cast in. I love catching fish. More presentations in fishy locations ends up as more fish. So yeah, it makes sense for me to have a high speed reel. I enjoy it. Plus, it only cost 5 dollars more than my 6 and 7 gear ratios.

Nothing about a spinning reel is comfortable for me. I situate the reel arm, leg, whatever you wanna call it, between my pointer and index finger when casting and retrieving and it gets sore after a day of casting.

I can't catch a cold on a finesse worm, much less a magnum finesse worm. That's not entirely true, as I can and have caught fish shakyheading, it's just not my favorite thing to do.

You have dishonored yourself, your family, and your cow. ?

@the reel ess, I hear ya! Just throwing the recommendation. That's awesome that you probably caught the same PB twice, she sounds like an aggressive girl. As far as the spinnerbaits go I like to keep in simple. 1/2oz, white or chartreuse. @Catt, now you've got me googling. @2tall79, unweighted or weighted? I've never tried them weighted, and after hanging them up unweighted I always return to texposing them. Awesome replies, guys, thanks for helping me finish the day!

I throw Booyah spinnerbaits, but I've heard lots of good things about War Eagle. What makes them so good?

Thanks for the rod recommendation, @Glaucus! My current 7' MH has Fluoro on it, which keeps dragging my spooks under. I may have to grab another Aird-X and string it with mono. @the reel ess, I also became comfortable with casting jigs this year and it landed me my own personal best! I tend to drag a 7.5" worm Texas/Carolina when I need a fish, and a jig and craw when I want a big fish! you should try pitching your jigs, that's been fun for me. @NYWayfarer, I have fond memories of Rebel craw crankbaits and Rebel floating jerkbaits from way back when I'd go visit my grandfather. I miss fishing with him so much. That's a sweet little crank.

Ain't no shame in my stick worm game either, bro. Never thrown the ploploplop, and don't own any. What rod would you recommend for them? A 6'6" MF is my current rip/topwater rod but I think it's a bit light. What's your favorite way to throw them? iirc, that's the Mann's Jelly Worm?

What is your current favorite lure, soft plastic or hard bait? If you can't narrow it down to one, give me a few! I'm just curious and thought it would make an interesting thread for folks to partake in today. As for me, my current favorite soft bait is the YUM Pulse 4.5 Paddletail. I'm amazed at how the rib set up on the sides truly does keep the bait at depth more efficiently than other paddletails I've used in the past. As for hard baits, I'm late to the club but the Z-Man Original Chatterbait has been a blast. When I first tried it the summer before last I was just burning it close to the top, but after tying it on several weeks ago and applying some of the methods I've read about it started to catch fish for me and the feedback of the blade just stopping or getting the rod snatched out of my grip has been a blast.

Since I picked up bass fishing as my primary hobby and dropped bowhunting everything that moved, I have set my sights on getting into kayak bass tournaments and eventually, I want to start a YouTube channel. Over the past two years I've broadened the techniques I'm comfortable with, and as I've stepped into them I've bought more and more gear and tackle. I've had to upgrade my kayak crate from a 13x13 to a 13x19 to carry the nine planos I have packed full of baits, and it has 10 rod holders screwed to the side. I did my research and bought the most effective and durable gear I could, and I'm hoping it lasts years. As far as rods and reels go, I'm fairly set. As far as baits go, I focus my attention on 2 to 3 colors of soft plastics, and up to 5 colors of hard baits. I've always got two plug knockers in the front hatch. I do everything possible to avoid buying new baits at this point, but when I do buy a new bait, it's not a 15 dollar lucky craft or 25 dollar megabass jerkbait. It's always a replacement in what I deemed appropriate to my budget. Now, when the fiancee and I open our law office in the future, you might see me trying to enter big boat bass tournaments and doubling that boats weight with Yamamoto, Roboworm, Megabass and Luckycraft. But I'll more than likely always stick to a budget and I might break my bow out to skewer the bait monkey.

@MassYak85 I'm getting pretty good with my gear, but that's an excellent point. A backlash will most definitely cause a break, because I've had it happen before. The problem is, I've opted for a 250 sized reel for comfort and really need to have as much line as possible for the runs my salty fish are liable to go on. I'll also be using this rod and reel to troll for king mackerel, and I'll definitely need 300 yards, at least, for that. You're right though, I'll eventually cast off a swimbait. As far as the leader getting hung up on guides, the FG knot largely eliminated that for me long ago.

You have a great day too!