Sphynx

@Sam was obviously intending to say that support of the Ragin' Cajuns is the true secret to success in the Bayou, but I forgive him for his error, lol.

Lol, I'm a straight razor or double edged safety razor man myself, and this particular close shave was with a skunk lol, I am amazed at how light the combo feels, my 7'1" MHF/Curado DC combo is noticeably heavier, not sure if it's the rods, the reels, or a bit of both, but I think they are both coming down to the river today for a bit of experimentation, I have no interest of subjecting myself to another day of cranking on an 8.1/1

Ned style head, or one of the ewg style ned heads maybe?

I've found squarebills burned along rip rap with intermittent pauses along the bankon the Columbia has been a very, very productive technique for the last several weeks, top producing colors have been in the natural baitfish category, both bluegill and shad colors, probably been outperforming any other technique by a minimum of 2-1, probably higher, next best has been the Ned rig.

A buddy of mine who fished as a co angler for years and studied freshwater biology used to be fond of saying that "If bass had teeth and were the size of sharks, you wouldn't be safe to swim anywhere in North America." Bass will eat anything they think they can eat and or kill, baby ducks, rats, any fish they can catch and eat, all of the gazillions of lures we throw at them, pretty close to any baitfish is fair game to a bass.

So I have a couple of rods and a new reel and was desperately trying to find some fish to get an idea of how the new reel and at least one of the new rods handled, tell you what, they wanted nothing to do with a shakeyhead and a green pumpkin trick worm, was tossing it on a 7'1" MF St. Croix Mojo Bass with a Daiwa Tatula Elite 8.1/1 spooled with 65lb braid and a 10lb mono leader, nearly 2 hours I snagged it and tied on a crankbait, spent another 30 minutes and on my last cast managed to hook up on a decent 1-2lb smallmouth, he fought hard and I managed to bring him to hand...no shock at all that 8.1/1 is a miserable thing for a crankbait, this is hardly a revelation to me, and likely not to any of you, but the reel and the drag performed wonderfully, no flex, smooth as glass drag, I like this reel a lot so far, blew it up once, but it had to happen coming over from a Curado DC, the Rod though, I think I am in love, the MHF I usually press into service for cranking at present has just been relieved for cause, I doubt it sees another crankbait, jury is still out whether a MM glass rod or a MHM glass will do better, those will get ordered next time I find a deal, but I really like this combo for plastics and other, non crankbait applications...also, one fish means no skunk, and he was a solid fish, with a fat gut, looking really healthy which is always a pleasure to see, and he tried every low down, filthy trick he could lay flukes to to stick a treble in me, love to see that fighting spirit, they just never give up like a bucketmouth will

Don't forget to grab a reflective vest and a set of triangles to toss out there

Nope, getting my major overhaul done this summer/autumn, and I am nearly done, got Jerkbaits, Crankbaits, underpins and swimbaits left to get set up for, the last one I am still up in the air about since I don't consider them practical for a guy who doesn't live near a fishery that is likely to have bass big enough to eat them...this winter begins the savings to do more fishing next year...and camping

Well, been waiting ages for the planets to line up and they did, picked up a new Daiwa Tatula Elite to compare over the next month or two to the Shimano Curado DC I have been using this summer. Spooled it up with 65lb maxcuatro and stuck it on my 7'4" HF St. Croix Mojo Bass rod, it won't be an exact apples to apples comparison, the rods and line are different, so is the ratio, but I figure if it can handle frigging and punching it can handle anything else I throw at it. This Curado DC has set the bar pretty high, and I find it hard to believe that anything out there could be a better fit in this price range, but I am a believer in at least trying a thing before you make up your mind whenever possible, so we will see, can't wait to get out tomorrow and give it the inaugural outing.

This is a painful lesson about preparedness that could have ended a lot worse than it did, glad everything worked out and even more glad you are using it as a learning opportunity to be more prepared next time. As far as blowouts, I have blown out brand new tires on my 18 wheeler because of road debris, and because of plain lemon tires, and probably other reasons I can't think of, always looked at tires as a "when" rather than an "if" item.

The Strike King KVD 1.5 came on outta nowhere this year, and it has changed the way I fish a crankbait, this thing has been the smallmouth hammer and has held up very well, I had to replace some treble hooks, but the included ones held up for a fairly large number of hard fighting river fish before they got dull and or bent out, I used to be a bit dubious about this crankbait, but having thumped on it pretty heavily this fall I have to say it has made a believer out of me.

Since nobody else has brought it up, you are trimming your legs/skirt up on them right? Sounds an awful lot like the issues I used to have with mine before I started trimming them.

ST-36, use a hyper wire ring, I do not recall the sizes off hand but you'll know when you get it right, they don't tangle themselves up.

I usually go with something a couple inches shorter, and I guess now that I think about it I use a fast tip, but I still maintain that anyone who buys into the idea that a 7'6" rod is more accurate than a 7'4" rod is fooling themselves, I can see where a 6" difference might start to affect things, but a couple inches is not noticeable, I cast a 7'1" rod the same as a 7' or a 7'3" and I've never once stopped and said "d**n, I bet I'd have landed that cast perfectly if my rod was 1" shorter." Distance on your casts and portability/maneuverability are the big factors to my way of thinking...I'm sure there is someone out there who is convinced such small differences in length matter, and if thinking so helps them enjoy a day of fishing more than thinking the opposite, then I say they have ample justification for thinking that way.

I know a lot of folks rave about the JDM stuff, now how much of this praise is due to these rods actually being superior and how much is due to the difficulty in procurement is a debate that isn't likely to be settled in my lifetime, but if you are looking for high end gear you may as well look into those rods as well.

I see no reason there should be a lack of transition simply because you choose to call your tiny lake a pond, I doubt very seriously that the bass are aware of the difference anyway, the nice thing about smaller ponds is that you can test theories out with little difficulty, spend an hour or so looking for a summer pattern, then do the same with a fall pattern, see which one is most productive, a few hours on the water, or fishing one day one way and the next day the other should give you at least some empirical evidence of one pattern or the other.

Depends on the bait, things like a Rebel Pop R I always change them, same with the majority of my jerkbaits, crankbaits are going through some testing this year, and I'm going to compare my hookup ratio between stock hooks and the Owner ST-36's I have obtained as replacement hooks.

You'll get there, it's all about the journey man, looking forward to seeing your story unfold, welcome aboard. Having done a fair bit of fishing in Louisiana, I can say with confidence that you have solid fish near you, if you put in the time, you'll catch them.

Rage baits still have a label boasting of a coffee scent, not sure how well the soft plastic will accept the scent, but I'll be sure to follow this thread to see what your results are.

On a 2 acre pond? Chatterbait, or a swim jig, or a swim bait depending on cover/clarity of water, if it's got a lot of wood to bounce off of, squarebill and T-rigged craw/creature, topwater option would depend on grass/vegetation, if little/none, whopper plopper/buzzbait would work for a moving option, walking style/popper for something slower, if we are talking muddy bottom grass pond, replace the T-rig with a C Rig, the Squarebill with a lipless, and the topwaters for a selection of frogs...I generally agree that for a 2 acre pond you aren't likely to need to do much with search baits, a spinnerbait would work too, and is almost never a liability in a tackle box

I have found no magic bullet for crankbaits of any kind, I am landing something like 75-80% of the fish I hook since I started fishing one this fall transition, and those are on round bend, stock hooks on a KVD 1.5, and a Red Eye Shad, rod is a MHF Mojo Bass, best days have been those where I can swing on them hard to bury the hooks and then lock down the reel and horse them in with the rod tip in the water, nearly every fish has jumped and most that come off come off then, I imagine a MF or a MHM rod may help improve the ratio, but I doubt another hook would play an appreciable role past making my baits more expensive and "cool looking" or whatever it is folks think, when a set of stock hooks goes dull or bends out I'll swap them out with some Owner ST-36 Stingers and use this rod to see if I notice any real difference...for science.

It might be a bit erratic, but if you can catch a weekend or whatever times you have for fishing where the bite is good, and you can locate fish, you stand a pretty good chance to wear out your arm catching them, on the days they are cooperating with me being bank bound it isn't unusual for me to be in the double digits of fish in the same spot in a 2-3 hour period...the other times suck kind of bad, but boy when it's hot, it pays to be organized, have a search bait and something else tied on to follow up and you can catch a bunch of them in a hurry.

I caught around 30 fish in about 10 hours of fishing spread out over about 5 or 6 days in south central Washington with smoke so thick you couldn't see the 1 mile across the river to the Oregon side...or the sun, moon, clouds or anything else, so I'd say it's not bothering the fish too much

It took every ounce of self control I possess not to pluck that bugger out of the river, I wanted to examine it so badly up close, but it was best he be left to his own devices and make tons more little crawfish to feed our shared hobby.

With the exception of a very finite number of people, catching fish isn't something people pay for, at least not bass, most of the money in the industry is either in selling things for fishing to folks like us, managing/creating fisheries, enforcing fishing regulations, or guiding other people to catch fish, if you can find enjoyment doing something related to one of these broad categories, you'll figure out pretty quickly which career appeals most to you.