looking45

A 1/4oz lure can be easily used with bait casting gear.

For those of you who are trying to decide about getting one, they're 2 3/8", weigh 1/4 oz and come with #8 trebles. I'll be swapping out the hooks for inline hooks.

This should be a no brainer. How many bites are you going to get in your garage?

Has anyone bought/tried the new whopper plopper 60 yet? A good selection of colors is available at Tackle Warehouse. I'm thinking this will be a great bait for spotted bass and smallies.

OOOPs, you're right. Sorry

If it were me, since they offered to replace it, I'm sending it back. But, as mentioned, I would send it back right away, while they offer is there. Look at it this way. Would you buy this rod if you noticed this damage? If yes, then keep the rod.

If a bass fisherman doesn't have a stockpile of plastics, he hasn't been fishing long or hard enough. Almost everyone has bought a bunch of the "latest and greatest", only to find out it doesn't last very long.

I fish a lake that has no shad. It does have bluegill but I haven't seen very many of them. It does have crawfish. When I fish this lake, I use jigs and spider grub type plastics and concentrate on the bottom. When I catch a bass, I put it in the live well for awhile to see what, if anything, it spits up. I've had bass spit up lots of crawdads but so far, never a fish. I don't even think of topwater or jerk baits.

cricket works great for smallies

Stick your fingers between the back of the seat and the backrest and see if you can lift the seat forward. The straps might have been broken/taken off. If so, just attach a couple of new straps. The straps at the bottom of the seats give the passenger something to hand on to in rough water

If it's the same setup as the 373V, the seats should tilt forward. There should be a strap connected to the back of the seat.

The Flow Troll should be big enough for 15 minnows,but with limited water capacity at home, you'll definitely need an aerator. I'm not aware of an aerator that can use batteries and be plugged in. since you'll be so close to the creek, you won't need air transporting the minnows. But put the bucket in the creek as soon as you get there. This is an aerator stone.

Get a big enough bucket so you don't overcrowd them. You definitely want to get an aerator. You can get an aquarium pump from Walmart that plugs into the wall. Just stick an aerating stone on a piece of tubing and connect it to the pump. It would be better to have a battery powered one so you can take it with you when you go fishing. You don't need to feed them, but I would change the water every couple of days, depending on how many minnows you have

Make sure you're using trailer tires and inflate them to the max psi printed on the sidewall. Trailer tires are typically 50 psi

looks like you're going to be busy

If you see a log of bait and you don't get bit in several casts, there's a good chance there's no fish under the bait. Some lakes have so many shad that there's big schools of bait roaming around and no bass chasing them. Look for other schools of bait that have fish attacking them, or as mentioned, just fish normal, like they weren't there

I'll use the lightest one I can get away with, depending on the wind, as others have said. If there's no wind, 1/16 oz, regardless of depth

check your local regulations, in some states it's illegal to tag fish without a permit from Fish and Game.

I bought two bags, they'll be here Wednesday

I replace the trebles on most of my baits with inline hooks. There are guides online to show you the replacement sizes. The inline hooks will look big, but that's because the gap between the trebles and the inline are the same but it's a single hook, so appears bigger. The single hook keeps the bass from tossing the bait and it's a lot easier to get the fish out of the net.

Put an ad in the classifieds for a hand pour person. They should be able to get you some baits, maybe even the exact bait/color that you want

My apologies, I just reread your post. I see that you were comparing similarly priced rods

IMO, you are comparing apples to oranges. You can't compare a rod to another one that costs 4X as much. I consider the Fury series entry level rods. Compare the SC to a $400 Dobyns to get a fair comparison. Compare a $400 Dobyns rod to a $100 SC rod and your opinion might change.

Mourning dove season opens here in Ca on Sept 1, but I've been shooting Eurasian doves all years with and air gun. They are considered an invasive species, no season, no limits. They are a lot bigger than morning doves and are delicious. Check your local regulations, you might be able to shoot them year 'round too. Good luck

Are you looking for injection or open pour molds?