Tennessee Boy

I've never lived in a state that had a bass fishing season. I can understand catch and release but how do they define fishing for bass?

I go with Junebug most often but I do throw B&B, usually more so for craw baits. I don’t remember why... I’m getting old. I didn’t know it was legal to throw a jig that’s not black & blue.

There’s plenty of things that could have gone wrong. You may have entered them in the wrong format. The very first time I entered a waypoint from a map it was before GPS’s had on screen maps. I was trying to navigate to the waypoint but didn’t seem to be making progress. Then I noticed it was 5000 miles away. I had entered it for the Southern Hemisphere.

Yeah, peanut butter, banana, and honey. Elvis used to eat these fried in butter... That’s what killed him.

I spent a lot of time wading in Tennessee as a youngster. No gators here. Only had one close encounter with a cotton mouth. Never went back to that creek.

Welcome fellow Tennessean!

Well said @Mobasser The first question I ask when I hit the water is how deep are they. The second question is how fast should I fish. When the fish aren't bitting it's easy to get in the mode of just casting and retrieving without giving much thought to how we're presenting the bait. When the fishing's tough, you gotta try different retrieves. Doing something different from what everyone else is do is usually the key. Slowing WAY down is something we should always remember to try.

I don't think oil heat is a thing in the south. I've never known anyone that had it so I can't compare the two. Nature gas heats fast and is much cheaper than electricity. You can get detectors if you're concerned about leaks and you should always have a carbon monoxide detector when you have gas heat.

There is a lot of markup but at the same time I don't get the feeling that it's a very profitable industry. In reality, it's almost impossible to make a rod that's noticeably better than other rods on the market. The only way to differentiate your product from the competition is through marketing which is probably where most of the cost of a rod goes. Same is probably true for Reels/Line/Lures...etc Occasionally, I search the web for wholesale Chinese manufactures just to see how much it cost to buy a generic tackle wholesale. Last time I did this for rods, I found a manufacture where you could buy rods from $15 to $55 each with a minimum order of 50 rods. The $55 rods were high modulus graphite with fuji components and premium cork just like you would expect in a high end rod. I'm sure if you ordered several thousand you could get them for even less.

I'm always a little afraid that I will find myself in a situation like the guys shooting this video. A situation where someone needs help and you have to put yourself and anyone else in your boat at risk to help them. It's not easy to make these kinds of decisions in the heat of the moment. They can be decisions with serious consequences that you might regret for a long time or just wonder if you could have done more.

Welcome to the forum!

I use brand X rods. You use brand Y rods. We can consider ourselves brothers because both are made in the same Chinese factory.

I won’t go if the BP is above 32 inHg. ?

Yep! I was an innocent little seven year old when a bluegill hit a poppin bug I was playing around with. That fish has easily cost me over a $250K over the last 50 years.

It looks like that rod is rated for up to 20lb test so I would not want to set the drag to more than 6 1/2 lbs. That should protect your rod but might not be enough for really heavy grass. You might have to go get some fish in the heavy stuff.

Welcome to the forum. I think you made a great choice on your combo.

Welcome

Welcome!

I can't imagine life without both and probably use each about 50% of the time. I know people that only use spinning rods and I know people that only use BC rods. To each his own.

Welcome to BR. Those are some very nice fish. Congrates on the new PB!

Let me say this about my 110 yard casting distance claim. I didn't measure the cast, I just base the distance on an estimate of the amount of line on the reel. I'm an old guy and rest assured, if I can do it you probably could to using the reel I was using. What you are throwing makes a huge difference. It's not hard to throw all the line out on my old Diawas with 3/4 egg sinker. I cannot get anywhere close to that distance with a 3/4 rattle trap. THE POINT I AM TRYING TO MAKE IS THIS. I CAN CAST TWICE AS FAR WITH MY LONGEST CASTING REEL AS I CAN WITH MY SHORTEST CASTING REEL. THE REEL YOU ARE USING MAKES A BIG DIFFERENCE. USING A MODERN REEL WITH ALL THE BRAKING MAY GREATLY LIMIT YOUR CASTING DISTANCE. IF YOU CAN ONLY CAST 50 YARDS, IT MAY BE YOUR REEL NOT YOU. ?

I have the spool tension extremely loose. I can tell that changing the brakes does affect the cast. I haven’t checked the other things you mentioned. I’ve decided the reel is not for me and have moved on.

Like I said in my earlier post, I can get more than twice the distance with my 20+ year old Diawa than I can with a new Diawa Zillion on identical rods, line and weight. I think the Zillion is designed to limit backlash at the expense of casting distance. The Zillion’s brakes drive me crazy casting a heavy Carolina rig but are fine pitching a jig. It’s clearly the brakes that are the problem. It may not be the quality of the reel that determines casting distance but the way it’s designed.

There are a lot of distances posted here without stating what’s being thrown. It is not hard to cast a heavy weight a long distance with the right equipment. Looks like the record is over 300 yards. https://www.outdoorlife.com/record-casts

Wow! very nice fish. Bill Dance has been demonstrating the power of the Tennessee cap for decades and it’s still the biggest secret in fishing.