fin

I'm cheap too. I've just texas rigged with an EWG and slid a bullet sinker inside the tube. If you use the right size sinker, it will stay in place pretty well. You can also change the action by sliding the weight around.

I think that's a pretty good rule of thumb, but it wouldn't stop me from going 1.5X or 2.5X the thickness. Softness of plastic, design of bait (is there a hook knockout?) and wire diameter play into it too. And if you're skinning the hook off the side of a worm, you could go down to the same width as the worm.

Pretty much, with about five exceptions. Here's a site that breaks it down by state: https://hookedinfishing.com/fishing-license-cost-by-state/

Don't use your wife's favorite pot to boil them in. And you want some ventilation when boiling them. I used a portable outdoor gas grill once, and it worked well. It might take a few minutes in the hot water, but it does work.

I like to see the line between hard baits and soft baits getting blurred. It's nothing new, but I think it's the one frontier where there's room to grow.

Not the first time apparently. This video is 3 years old.

Tackle Warehouse was great about swapping mine out, so if you're not happy with whatever you choose, don't hesitate to swap.

I bought a 7’MHF Aird-X last year, but sent it back after a week because it felt like a broomstick for some of the light baits I was throwing on it. I swapped it for a 7’MF, and was happy with that, but I got a deal on a 6’6” MHF a couple months ago and I love it. I haven’t picked up the 7’MF since. It’s amazing to me how that six inches of length makes such a huge difference on a MH. I hated the 7’, but loved the 6-6. It was the perfect compromise of hook setting power and casting distance. The shorter length makes the rod easier to deal with too, easier to pass through a door way an put in the car, for example, maybe better in a kayak too. One thing to consider is the guides if you’re going with braid/mono. The Aird-X has microguides and the tags have to be cut extremely close and the knot has to be really small. I think the Dobyns has larger guides, so if that’s what you go with, it’s not such an issue. The Aird-X is less than half the price of the Dobyns though. I bought a Revros about a year ago and have been happy with it. I had a Daiwa Legalis before that, so the Revros was a step down price wise, but I can’t feel/see a difference. I’m thinking about getting another one while they’re on sale. I use 10#/10# braid/mono and have for years.

I've had the loop get caught in the gap of the hook eye. It cut the line when I hooked a nice fish. That was the end of my loop knot phase. There's two sides to that argument about it giving more action. True, it's more free to move, but you lose contact, so you're not in control of the movement. Sometimes that's okay, sometimes not.

They don't offer that anymore. You're telling your age 😉 I pay $7. I wouldn't mind paying a little more for a license if I could see some results from it. The lake I fish has only been stocked once in the past twenty years, I might see a Game Warden once a year, and it's the busiest (state) park in the state.

You see blade baits come with double hooks, I don't know why not lipless. I'm not sure how much it helps with blade baits though. They stick to almost anything they touch, in my experience.

Why are most ball head jig skirts tied like that? (Most skirts are tied close to the middle, ball head jigs are tied towards one end) Is it because they are short enough that you can get two jigs out of one normal length skirt?

I once tried to pick up a lure off the bottom using a lipless and learned how hard it is to hook something on the bottom with one. Because of the way they are designed, the hooks are kind of shielded by the nose and the body. Kind of. Grab some cheap lipless from Walmart or whatever for throwing in spots like that. You'll be surprised what they can come through when you don't care whether you lose them. I've never removed one hook. I wouldn't recommend it, personally.

@WaterOtter what is that lure that looks like a jitterbug? It looks different than a normal jitterbug. Nice color on it. Is it supposed to be a cicada?

I'm sure I could eventually get used to it, but I don't see an advantage to changing.

That's interesting. I've never heard of them. I now see they are an Amazon seller, but they apparently don't have a very big footprint in the retail market. I'm okay with lower-end stuff.

That's not the only reason I buy Diawa, but yeah, most of their models still have the switch, and as long as they do, I'll keep buying Diawa. Who knows if they will continue with the switch though.

I like that idea better. Easier than grabbing and pulling on the line with my old fingers. I’ve never used the switch for back-reeling, just to release line to prepare to cast. I only reel baits close to the rod tip when I’m done fishing, or switching rods. I don’t tighten them to the tip, but if the handle gets bumped, which happens a lot, the lure may get kind of jammed to the tip. I guess if I had learned on a spinning reel that didn’t have the switch, it wouldn’t be a big deal, but I’ve been doing things the same for too many years. I’m sure if I bought one now without a switch, I’d still be reaching for that switch all the time.

You pick up your rod which has a lure tied-on, and the lure is tight up against the rod tip guide. How do you get line out of the reel to prepare to cast? Do you force the bail open? Do you pull line out by hand? I don’t understand why the switches are going away. Is it all in the interest of lighter weight? Are they just considered unnecessary with modern drag systems? Is there any other reason?

Ha. I don't have that problem, I'm in Georgia. It's rare we freeze over, let alone freeze over thick enough to walk on.

Be careful out there man. That's a nice haul, but not worth taking a cool dip for. I know how hard they can be to ignore, but usually they're not going anywhere anytime soon.

It seems to go that way sometimes. I find a couple within a few feet of each other which puts me on alert and then I can't stop looking around for more. Most times I don't find more. I found a Berkley Spin Rocket today hanging in a tree right next to a big long stick. I had it down in less than a minute. Some people give up so easy, I don't understand it.

They fly a few thousand feet over the lake I fish during their migration, so I’ve been hearing them for years, but I never saw one on the ground until last year when an injured one landed and hung around for a few days. Eventually it was captured and taken to an animal rescue place.

Alright, last comment on the issue. I'm not nagging, I'm trying to be helpful. It happened again just now 7:39 AM EST. The page actually quit loading altogether at this point, it wasn't hung-up trying to load. After this happened, I visited a few more pages and everything worked perfectly and loaded instantly. NetworkQuality ==== SUMMARY ==== Upload capacity: 9.437 Mbps Download capacity: 219.425 Mbps Upload flows: 12 Download flows: 12 Responsiveness: Medium (682 RPM)

If I commented every time the site is running great, there would be over 3,000 comments, based on me stopping by for a few minutes a couple times a day for the five years I’ve been coming here. (That’s my way of saying the site is always running great.) I was curious if anyone else was seeing the freezing issues. I don’t think I’m having ISP problems, as I am constantly streaming audio when I’m visiting the site and streaming video and visiting other sites without issue, but it’s possible there is something else going on in between here and your servers. I know you face a lot of negativity here, @Glenn, and I didn’t intend for my comment to sound like some of the whining I hear around here from some other users that seem to take pleasure in bashing sponsors and generally peeing in their own sandbox. I think you do a great job here, and you seem like a genuinely nice person from what I’ve seen in your videos. I appreciate all you do. BTW, the site is loading exceptionally fast and snappy today! 😄