Sphynx

What do you define as the main difference between a trout rod and anything else? If you mean an ultralight rod, that would be one thing, but that won't help at all if your looking for something else

It isn't polite to brag...

Dunno man, last year I was fishing from the bank and a boater came by and chucked a crankbait at me, and acted like it was perfectly ok...I threw a jig back and he got upset, I admit it was pretty childish to play chicken like that, but we've all got our limits, and that guy went well beyond mine.

Every fish is a clue. The instant you think you have it all figured out, these fish will make you look like a dummy, just do the best you can, grind away on the tough days, soak up the good days, this thing is a marathon not a sprint.

I am in the unique and somewhat enviable position of working 6 months out of the year in a place where I can fish, and they provide my fuel...so probably not unless the prices change the contract itself, which is unlikely considering what I am hearing through the grapevine.

I usually live by "Find the grass, find the bass" in the summer, big pockets of living vegetation with a feeder stream/source of current hitting it are going to draw an abnormal amount of my attention.

I'm sitting at 90% of detected strikes brought to hand, 2/2 on the Texas Rig, 6/6 Lipless Crankbait, 1/1 Jerkbait, and 0/1 Chatterbait for the month of July...

Personally? I say do whatever let's you sleep at night, not my choice to make for anyone other than myself, and anyone using my tackle.

You WILL lose more fish this way, if that is something you are comfortable with then absolutely proceed with using barbless hooks. Laws notwithstanding, my philosophy is pretty simple for this stuff, fish die all the time for all kinds of reasons, and they are consumed as energy by another creature from the snooter to the pooter and absolutely nothing goes to waste, even the bones get broken down and release nutrients to be absorbed by plants and bacteria etc...now the deliberate attempt to kill and waste fish is one thing, but the occasional fish that gets hooked and bellies up later on is for all intents and purposes just another dead fish that will get consumed by the cycle of life. The only 100% foolproof method of guaranteed no dead fish I know of is to quit fishing entirely, the occasional fish not making it is the cost to play our game, and it's one that you have to square with if you choose to play, eat them yourself, or leave them to be eaten by something else, there's no such thing as wasted unless your indiscriminately killing with intent to waste.

Of course you only went for strippers at night, they don't even wake up before the sun goes down...

Well, it may be instructive to look up the results of your DNR shocking samples, you'll probably find that there are many more fish in a given stretch of river/lake than you think. That said, there are undoubtedly a few that get caught repeatedly, but most of the fish that get that big do so because they compete successfully for the best food/feeding opportunities, and because they are exceptionally skilled at avoiding predation over a very long time.

For me? 1800...because work starts at 0600. In all seriousness, in the late spring through early autumn, morning bite. From the autumn until mid spring or so, evening bite is typically more productive for me.

What a pig! Nice job and congratulations man, not too many ways (excluding topwater) to me that are more fun to catch them on than cranking

Fish #7 between last night and this morning, and the only one with any size to speak of (not much at that!) On a white/shad color spinnerbait from Walmart, turns out they do work, pinned this guy perfectly in the upper lip, he wasn't going anywhere.

Those frog hooks are some kinda stout man, your not gonna hurt them none, most frogs your not really needing to move them much at all, just a tiny bit of separation from the frog body so they catch mouth instead of soft plastic, what kinda frog you tossing?

Your going to have to twist, not pull...it's probably the kind of deal that voids a warranty on the pliers, but that and a bit of strong-man-hands will get it done...alternatively you can look for frogs that come stock with turned up hooks if you feel it's that big a deal.

Never been happier to miss in my life

There is a second option that must be considered if thinking along these lines...perhaps the KVD 1.5 sells better because it is more effective, you know, which came first the chicken or the egg kinda thing? For my part I don't know that it makes as much a difference as we like to believe MOST of the time...there's always that weird little incident that you go out and slay on a Crush 50X, and you can't seem to buy a bite on Competitor A, B, C etc's crank, but unless we're running multiple cranks simultaneously by the same fish at the same distance at the same time, it's all unscientific guesswork anyway.

I prefer my 7'1" MF St. Croix Mojo Bass, I have tried them on my Lews stuff, and on my Mojo Bass Glass stuff, and I just find that for this technique (I suppose I should specify in the 1.5 or so size) that rod just does the deal for me, it's got enough backbone that you can feel the bill deflecting and enough backbone to turn fish diving for color, but has a soft enough tip to still get a decently long cast.

Flaming Gorge Reservoir is supposed to have some decent bass fishing according to a couple guys at a shipper I work with regularly, I've never been there myself though, so take that recommendation with a grain of salt.

It's been an absolute grind out west this year, my last three trips have resulted in 2 fish, and water temps JUST starting to get over 60, in freaking July lol...I can totally understand your pain.

Got two this morning, been a very cold spring and I am not entirely convinced that these fish have even finished (or started in some cases) spawning yet, hopefully that means a longer good weather period on the back end of the year!

Texas Rig flipping cover along the bank was how I got the two I got this morning, definitely a good technique when the going gets tough.

Well, this was the deal this morning, Summer Craw on a T-rig got the only fish of the day lol.

Oh boy...Strike King, Lucky Craft, River2Sea, Evergreen, Rapala, SPRO, 6th Sense, Megabass, here's about half of them.