fin

50% of cost to replace the reel new? More?

I may have to try that sometime. Maybe you could bounce it off the bottom without getting hung up as much ?

A second rod means you have to set it down every time you want to cast. If you're going to a certain spot, then two rods are better, but if you're walking the banks, one rod frees you up to cast whenever you feel the urge, like being in a boat beating the banks.

I've never used one, but looking at the color selection at Tackle Warehouse of the Shower Blows vs. the colors available for Rebel Jumpin Minnows, that alone would be a big advantage. I personally wouldn't bet it's worth the difference of 3X the price. The thing is though, if you're asking the question, you're already hooked. You won't be happy until you've tried one. ?

If you’re happy with the FG, stick with that, but if you think there’s something wrong with the Alberto knot itself, that’s obviously untrue. There are subtle things you might be making that can make all the difference. If you got your instructions from an illustration, you might be making an assumption that’s not true. For example, the illustration on net knots * shows that you pull on the braid tag and the leader to tighten the line, when in reality, you pull the braid tag and both the leader and the leader tag simultaneously. If you only pull the leader, you create a lot of stress on it just below the knot. This could be your problem. Illustrations are good to use to remember how to tie a knot, but not so good to learn from. It’s better to watch several people tie the same knot in videos (or IRL) once you have learned the basics. It’s easier to pick up those little variations. I’ve found that making the second wrap of 7 much looser than the first 7 wraps makes cinching the knot much easier. I also add 3 half-hitch knots at the end. The purpose of that is to allow you to cut the tag more closely. Otherwise, there’s a very slight possibility that the knot can come untied when you don’t cinch it 100% and cut the tag too close.

You hear that preached here a lot, and I guess it's good advice if you have trouble tying a good Alberto knot, but in my experience, breaks at that point occur like maybe less than 5% of the time, and that's when trying to break free from a snag, not when catching a fish. I don't think I've ever had a break at the leader knot while landing a fish. If you don't care about losing a bunch of braid, and you don't care about leaving a bunch of heavy braid in the lake or hanging from trees, then the argument to not use a leader because "it's a potential failure point" makes more sense.

It was just laying on the ground at a popular bank fishing spot, so in their defense, they might not have fished with it yet, but it did have the swivel snap on it, so I'm thinking they did. And you know, snap to snap, so obviously not Einstein.

This never gets old ?

Culprit used to make their Fat Max worms in Cola, but I don't think they're available anymore. A friend just gave me a couple old packs of them, and I've caught a few with them already. Zoom makes a color called Natural Blue, which is a two-tone mix of blue and flesh-like color. The problem is the ones I see always have too much blue in them. The ones that are mostly flesh with just a hint of blue produced a lot of fish for me, the blues ones, not so much.

If you play around with the way you insert the hook, you can force the head of the bait to point down a little. That will make it dive a little. Most soft jerkbaits are shaped so that they rise when jerked - they get uplift from the curve of the front of the belly. I've always wondered why someone doesn't make one with a slant on top, working on the same principle that forces a floating or suspending lipless crankbait to dive. You can also take a razor blade and slice a downward slant on the head.

Never thought about that before. I've seen lots of baits swelled up like that, but never considered they might swell inside a fish. Good question. No idea what the bait is.

Anyone know if they charge extra for shipping 7' one-piece rods on orders that qualify for free shipping over $50?

Yeah, the medium is not as sensitive. I've also got a 7' Cherrywood two-piece med/fast, and it's not near as sensitive as the 6' one-piece MH/fast. In fact, I don't really like the 7' M very much, but I love the 6' MH. The 7' was collecting dust until I broke one of my 6' Cherrywoods. Now I'm using the 7' as a crankbait rod and the 6' as a worm rod.

Spinning 6 foot Medium Heavy Fast One piece Silicon Carbide (SiC) guide inserts or guides for braided line Broke a rod just in time for Memorial Day. Looking for replacement to Berkley Cherrywood. Looking to keep costs as low as possible while staying within the specs listed above. The Cherrywood was great for weight, sensitivity and strength. The only problem I had with it was the stainless guides. Any suggestions? Edit: I see Daiwa Aird X recommended highly here. A lot. Also, I’m flexible on the length. I prefer 6’, but will go longer if necessary to get MH action.

Knots shouldn’t slide, but the odds are way more likely that the knot slides into that joint than a jet engine falling on you, hamster or not. I said that was the reason I quit using them, not the reason you and the rest of the world should quit using them. I normally use speed clips and was out. I could only get my hands on the SPRO. After the trouble I had with the SPRO, I would rather use cheap Eagle Claw snaps than those Prime snaps, and that’s what I did until I got some more speed clips. No need to get wound up because I use a different product than you.

Sorry, you're right. I just pulled out the pack and looked. I was going from memory.

I tried a pack of those in the 0 size, and had a bad experience with them. I don't know if a larger size would be better, but for me, they were almost too easy to use for some lures and almost impossible for others. They should be fine for those Rapalas. Hard to put on something like a deep diver. But the main reason I quit using them was on one occasion my line slid around to the joint, and there must have been a tiny gap where the line slid through enough to get cut and broke. Lost a nice fish and nice lure. It was obvious from the way my line was cut inside the knot what had happened. I think Owner makes a similar product that is welded at that joint.

I think I've seen one of those videos posted here, and yeah, it is incredible. And I've caught fish that have stolen my bait just minutes before, and they still have it in their gullet. I'm aware of that stuff, and I'm still a little skeptical that one fish could accumulate that much. I'm guessing those are lost baits - not necessarily stolen baits. I guess the point of the article is that the scent is so good that fish are eating lost baits based on scent alone - not on action/movement. I'm not sure that's such a good point environmentally for Berkley. I can't imagine those baits in that fish degrading before causing a digestion problem. Maybe that fish was caught by Jacob Runyan and Chase Cominsky. ?

If you or someone you know has a Mac, you can open those images in the Preview app, place your cursor over the first letter on the page and wait for it to turn into text-selection cursor, then highlight all the text on the page, then copy. Create a new TextEdit document and paste. That will get you all the text, but there will be lots of errors and it will be unformatted. Example: BerKley Chigger craw 3% , 4" Net Bait Paca ChunK tiny , regular , senior Strike King Rage Bug regulare Mid -size, MagAnN Reaction Innavations Spicy Beaver BerKley Pit BOSS 3" 4° 15" strike King Rage Menace naby - regular Missile Baits D Bomb baby, regular ath Sense Prawn 4.2" Jackall Archelon Bruiser Bats crazy craw 2-Man Hella Crawz Net Bait Paca Slim 3.5" Z-Man Punch Crawz Reaction Innovations Sweet Beavel 3.5 4.2" x Zone Muscle Back Craw - 3.26", 4" X Zone Adrenaline CrAN 3.5", 4.25" Reaction Innovations Kinky Beavel X Zone Punisher Punch Craw Chompers Twin Tail Skirted Grubs S Yum Bad Mamma 200M Z Craw regular junior Berkley Power chunk Vananoto Hula Grab 4", 5. LooN Super Chunnk ZoON Big Sally Chunk - -junior e regular suall, big Gambler stinger 4.25" 5.25 Gambler 3B Cricket Geecrack Bellows Gill - 3.8% Culprit Incredi-Bug ZooM ultravibe Speed Craw

So they cut open a walleye and found a bunch of Gulp Minnows in it? Why would a fish have that much plastic (or water-based polymer) in it? Where are the hooks?

I’ve almost always pegged too. I haven’t questioned it for years until this thread. I’ve been going unpegged the past couple days, and with a trick worm or curly tail worm, the benefit I’ve seen is that you get a weightless effect just as the bait reaches the bottom. It looks much more natural for a worm. That’s pretty important. I agree that it seems more likely to wrap around a limb, and as others have pointed out, there are situations like with a creature or beaver where it doesn’t look as natural, and there are other considerations, like weight size, that play into it, but I think for worms, it’s worth reconsidering if you haven't thought about it in a long time.

Does it dry up in the bottle?

lol. I'm sparse on top and wear a hat almost all the time. One reason I use sunscreen on my lower face is because by early summer my face would be tanned dark and my forehead is still glow-in-the-dark white. When I have to go somewhere formal where I can't wear a hat, my forehead stands out like a beacon.

I use a broad spectrum 30 SPF lotion on my face. I’m using it on my arms too, but I want to get a spray for just my arms. It only takes a dab of lotion to cover my face, but my hairy arms really soak up the lotion. I don’t like spraying my face/eyelids, lotion is much better for the face.

That's an Ozark Trail (Walmart brand) crankbait. Very cheap, swims poorly. I throw them in the trash. They make a terrible Whopper Plopper knock-off too, but that's a legit Whopper Plopper you've got.