Mikeltee

I have a champ 705 spinning rod and it is super sensitive. I'd get a 702 or 703 extreme micro Sierra. The micro guides will give you the extra sensitivity you need. Don't get a 700 or 701. The fury is decent but always get the best rod you can afford. Check the size of top guide on the micro series and be sure it can pass the knots of your applications. Report back here when you get it as I am interested in a finesse dobyns as well. Was going to save for a champ extreme but if a Sierra micro will cut it, I'll bite. Whoops just saw you for a 692. Let us know how you like it

What travel rods are they? Those Bone Voyage look awesome and seem to produce! I never knew a travel rod could compare to a 1 piece. I must now have one... or 5. Thanks baitmonkey!

Practice throwing weight before throwing weightless and good luck in the wind. I find that the rod has a lot more to do with it than the reel does when it comes to light weight.

The more weight in the boat the lower you will be to the water. Be prepared to get wet from 6" rollers if you are tipping the weight limit.

Weigh a lure in your box and mark it. Now compare that to the one you want to use. I can usually guess to the gram. Maybe that is all those years handling bags of...... vegetables. Yea... vegetables.

Those pieces of structure are often bass magnets. A basic texas rig skin hooking the senco will solve this problem. Weird that you are not having luck on the whacky. You are fishing correctly. Color doesn't matter. Most use watermelon or pumpkin. Try to stick to 6" Yamamoto sencos until you start catching them and then you can switch up to the cheap knockoffs. Their higher cost builds more confidence in some, myself included, which is a necessity to be successful in this sport. You are right that they are not cheap and when you are lucky to get 1 fish per worm it adds up quick. Walmart has the cheapest price on them.

I was new to bass fishing this year. I did a ton of research here before dropping a couple stacks on tackle. I knew I wanted to start with sencos as these seem to be foolproof, cheap, and when all else fails, the sencos will reign supreme. The problem with this is that it is boring unless you are catching a ton of fish, but better than anything on tv. The best post I read was when bank fishing on a new pond, cast to center of pond, fish it in, walk 10' and repeat. If no fish bite no fish are there. This has been true all season whether it be 60 degrees at dawn or 100 degrees at 3pm. I have caught bass on sencos everywhere I have been using this technique. Hardly anything else works for me, but I have more fun trying new techniques such as walking a frog. I cant wait to get a boat! Give up the panfish bro. This is bass fishing! The big leagues! Leave the bluegills for the kiddos, and as far as live bait is concerned, most here will agree that's not sport fishing. If you are feeding your family, by all means... livebait til you got your limit! If you catch and release sport fish, be proud that you can imitate a baitfish with your knowledge and technique. One thing I will add is sencos require a very sensitive rod. Just the other day I was fishing and thought i felt bottom. It was the most subtle hit... I started to reel in the slack and the line took off. Low and behold that tiny subtle bite ended up being a 5#er inhaling the bait. Tom said the other day that 90% of bites go unnoticed and after my previous catch, I can 100% see that being true. In bass fishing where most fish are going to be under 4#, reels are a dime a dozen. What you are mainly paying for is longevity. The rod on the other hand is the most important purchase IMHO! Now if you don't have the money to fund a $200 rod, you can always go with a lighter power. The problem will surface when you need backbone and its just not there. My first ned rig rod was an Ugly Stick Elite ML for $50 and I caught many big bass on it. I never had to pull anything out of the muck with it though. Its now a panfish rod and a good one at that! If you drop $50 on a MH rod, you just wont have the sensitivity needed to feel those light bites.

Why just a piece of plastic? Plastics need to be fished in order to give it action. Live bait can be deadsticked because its alive and gives action. Deadsticked plastics appear to be a floating piece of trash. In a bass rich environment, cast out a 6" senco unweighted on a 4/0 ewg hook. Let it hit bottom. Lift rod to move it a couple feet and reel in the slack. Once it hits bottom, lift the rod and reel in slack. Rinse and repeat. Once its reeled back in, head down shore 10' and repeat. If you don't catch a fish you need to find a new place to fish.

There are 2 reasons for multi setups... The most obvious is more setups--less lure changing. The second reason is matching the tackle to the technique. You are being too vague and have a lot to learn. I would take that $200 and get a good MH rod. This will cover most situations. You will have the sensitivity needed to feel the light bites on weightless worms, ned rigs, dropshots etc as well has have some backbone to throw some moderately heavy lures. Read the stickies in the tackle section. Read the stickies in here especially "What is the best rod". I started with the Dobyns Fury 734, but if I was stopping there for awhile I would go for the 705 Fury and spend the rest on a baitcaster of your choosing. Maybe sell your stuff if you don't like it and get the 734 and a good Medium spinning setup for the light work.

You are taking the sport out of sport fishing by doing this. Its called fishing... not catching. I take more pride in catching 1 by replicating a baitfish with my skill than catching 10 deadsticking live bait with a float when I was 6.

Bank fishing sucks in Indiana. Get a boat. When you get a boat, remember this: Bow is the front and stern is the back. Port is to the left of the bow and Starboard is to the right of the bow (port and left both have 4 letters)

You build some quality tackle for cheap prices. I wish I would have ran into you before I filled my boxes. Theres always next year. Keep up the great work. Ratherbfishing: Click on each one of the links and there is a details paragraph which explains the usage. Each jig can be fished anyway you see fit though so you really cant go wrong. Just get the right weight for the application for best results. An easy start would be the Ned Rigs with the TRD. They catch fish for sure and are pretty simple to fish. You fish it like a dropshot.

Nada doesn't mean squat. Its law of supply and demand. If your market it flooded than you are paying probably paying asking price. It's the end of the season. Considering that you should be able to easily get away with a 10% off asking price. Always get the boat checked out by a reputable mechanic to run compression tests. Have him take you for a ride and make sure EVERYTHING works.

Thanks for the replies guys. I took everyone's advise into consideration and researched every rod recommended. I ended up with a Dobyns Champion 736. I don't know what the people are smoking that say that this is too much rod. I absolutely love this thing! I have tried many times walking the dog(uhh frog) with the Fury 734, Champ 705, and a Tatula Elite and couldn't get it. 2 casts with the 736 and I got it down. I'm tempted to say that to me this is the ULTIMATE all purpose rod. I really wanted to try the Megabass but couldnt find one in stock. Since its arrival, the 736 has been used as my topwater rod. It handles the KVD sexy frogs all the way to the Whopper Plopper 130 and casts them at least 25% farther than anything I have used before. I cant wait to buy a boat and try out this things flipping abilities. Im sure it can handle punching too, but I think ill got for an 8' for that.

whoops

Well if you can come up with another $100, I can vouch for the Tatula Elite Finesse for your intended purposes. Plenty of research to be had online with it. I absolutely love it! For $150 I think its going to be tough to find something with the sensitivity you are looking for as well as the backbone to set the hook and bring them in. If it was me, id look into the Dobyns Sierra Microguide systems. The microguides will give you some added sensitivity, but forget about using braid and a 10' leader as a lot of us do. Give Gary a call. He will set you up with something sweet. Maybe you can get lucky and get a refurb Champion 703 for that. I forsee a lot of Champions in my future. Just got the 736 and freaking love it!

Brand new or even used the saying is all the same... A boat is just a hole in the water that we throw our hard earned money in. Especially the "good deals"!

I once blew a motor in an I/O because the springs in the hose that intakes water to cool the engine gave out and the hose became constricted. Those impellers are rather important. In my case, the engine overheated. I didn't have a temp gauge, but the engine started smoking so bad that I thought it was on fire. Got towed back in. Got the hose fixed, just to find out the head gaskets melted.

I dont have a boat so I am stuck to bank fishing on the rivers and reservoirs. The main times I can fish are in my backyard at the neighborhhod retention ponds. They are about 5 acres and the smallest bass ive caught was 3#. Biggest was probably 5#. Ive only caught them finesse fishing (ned-dropshot-whacky-ewg). I can usually catch one within 10 minutes. Some will say this is cheating, but when you have 4 kids you got to do what you got to do.

I bring 3 rods with me to the bank everytime but leave 2 in the truckr. I'll try topwater for 45min and usually strike out. Then I'll grab the all purpose with a tiny tackle box that holds a couple ewg hooks, whacky hooks, and a couple jigs. I'll tie on whatever I want. The 3rd rod is the swimbait and it has yet to make it out of the truck.

I bust all my friends balls and they do the same to me. So.... bust his balls. "d**n son... I am tired of you catching more fish than me on my baits. Go buy your own" If he whines, hes not a friend.

Thanks guys. I think I'll go uni knot from now on. I like the looks of it and I'm fairly good at it from tiring leaders to my finesse setup. Now that I think about it it is a backlash causing the spool to abruptly stop and not the brakes.

Ahh I didnt even consider the stretch factor. This is probably the reason and not that braid is more likely to slip.

The faster the better in my opinion. Not just because you can possibly cover more water by cruising the bait back when its out of the strike zone, but more importantly there is less reeling. 50years of fishing can take a toll on your wrists. Its not like we are wrestling 1000# tunas and need the torque.

I have been reading up on glide baits and big swim baits and most are using flouro, with some using braid but giving warning to not chuck it hard. Is this because the knot slips on braid? I have lost a few whopper plopper 130s on 30&50lb braid. When I am not catching, I get bored and see how far I can throw lures. Occasionally I will chuck it so hard the brakes kick in mid flight and the lure goes sailing. Is this because the knot is giving? I use a palomar knot, but from now on I think I will use that with a backup improved clinch when using 1oz+. Maybe I should just lay off the PB casting obsession.