fin

I've got a buddy that fishes a popping cork, which is kind of the same, kind of the opposite. Sometimes they hit the cork. You can use flies, flukes, whatever. He occasionally catches some.

I can understand spending a lot of money on certain things, but I’m a little puzzled by the high-end rods. I think maybe a lot of us might not know what we’re missing, like a person who has only fished with slow rods might not realize that they’re not feeling a lot of bites. For me, a rod has to be sensitive enough to feel a tap and strong enough that it won’t break when I catch a fish. The reel needs to stay attached in the seat and not wobble around, and the guides need to not chew up the line or fall off. I don’t know what else I need. It’s not like I’m yearning for something that I’m unwilling to spend money on. I also don’t understand people needing a different type of rod for each type of bait. If a rod is good for worms, I can use it for anything. A slower rod would feel better with spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, etc., but it’s not necessary as far as I can tell. How much money someone spends on their hobby is none of my business. I wouldn’t accuse them of wasting their money. I’m saying I don’t understand why some people spend so much. It doesn’t bother me they’re spending so much, it bothers me that I might be missing learning something that might help me catch more/bigger fish. What do those high-end rods do that the cheap rods don’t do?

I've bought a lot of their hard baits, and the only problem I've ever had was with the Shad 03 color flaking off. Other than that color, I recommend anything. Excellent question. I love a good puzzle. They're all pretty obvious until they combine them: S- SMALL PROFILE OR SHALLOW RUNNING CR- CRANKBAIT L- LIPLESS M- MEDIUM RUNNING TW- TOPWATER P- POPPER NR- NO RATTLE D- DEEP DIVER UL- ULTRALIGHT W- WAKEBAIT But I can’t figure out these two: NCRD - A deep crankbait, but I don’t know what the N stands for. SCSFW - This is a small wake bait, so that explains one S and the W, but I don’t know about the rest. It’s always bugged me why they have two different prices for lipless crankbaits. I can’t tell what the difference is. One has the LCR designation and the other is called “Rattlin' T”, but they both have rattles.

'Snake Oil' would be a good name for line conditioner.

Some salamanders excrete foul tasting substances through their tail, some even excrete toxic substances. There may be something in particular about your pond that is different than the others nearby. http://nyfalls.com/wildlife/reptiles-amphibians/salamanders-newts/

Seaguar quit level-winding their spools and everyone freaked. There's a thread about it here. Someone contacted Searguar about it and they were told by Searguar they no longer level-wind. It's very questionable, if not totally false, that the line in question is "respooled or rebranded". You can get a bad product on Amazon just like anywhere else, but that's not a good example.

Do you use a leader? If you use a lighter weight leader, you could go even shorter than 75 yards. You could go 50. But if you're not using a leader, then every time you break off, you risk having to put on new line. There's always the possibility of wind knots that force you to cut the line. Sometimes it's better to just not use a mono backing at all, and reverse the line after a year or whatever. Another way to measure line is to wrap it around a spool (or something) that has a circumference of one foot, or one yard. A diameter of 11.45916" will give you a circumference of one yard, A diameter of 3.81972" will give you a circumference of one foot. Of course you don't have to be that exact.

I've just been using the SuperPower, not the KastPro, which has a coating. I assume the coating is what is coming off, or 'bleeding'. What the heck is a bio solvent? Maybe it never dries. My only experience with coated braid was the Super 8 Slick PowerPro, and I didn't like it because the coating seemed kind of sticky, like the line wanted to stick together on the spool. It seemed like it slowed the release from the spool, reducing casting distance.

I think you might be right about that. It does seem like I have been having more wind knots, but I was attributing it to something else. I was getting knots with power pro too, but maybe not as much.

You made me curious, so I had to look up why:

I’ve noticed KastKing braid doesn’t get recommended or even mentioned much. I saw a thread from 2015, but not much else. I’ve been using it for a few months and I haven’t had any issues with it. I used to use PowerPro, but I wanted a brighter color, like yellow. I didn’t like the yellow Super 8 Slick PowerPro. KastKing was cheaper and came in yellow, so I gave it a try. I’ve seen a couple comments about the color bleeding and I don’t even know what that means. The color fades, but it fades on PowerPro too. I haven’t seen the yellow bleeding on to anything. In the 10#, it seems the PowerPro might be like 1-2# stronger than the KastKing, and might maintain its strength a little longer. I think PowerPro is superior overall, but after taking price and color into account, I’m not disappointed with the KastKing. I like it better than Spiderwire. I know other people are using it. Has it got a bad rep here?

Watch someone who doesn't know what they're doing, and you can learn a lot.

Yeah, most lures, if simply dropped on the bottom, would never be bitten. It's all about the motion, and lizards have a lot of parts that wiggle. I actually caught a small bass on a lizard yesterday.

I once sat on a jury in a case where the defendants ran a retail store that sold practically nothing but stolen merchandise. They were open for years before they were finally caught. Nobody reported them, they wanted that cheap price.

Back in the 70's, it was a gold Bagley's Bang-O-Lure (lol) or a gold jointed floating Rapala for me. As far as worms, it had to be Culprits. I still have some Rapalas, but haven't thrown them in years. Never buy Culprits anymore.

I was throwing a lizard yesterday because of this thread. I've always liked them, just never think about them much and was never 100% happy with my hook/weight combination, but I think I've come up with winner now.

I went to Academy a few days ago, and there were clearance tags with big reductions on a lot of empty shelves. When they start marking the good stuff down, it goes fast.

Not necessary for me, thanks, I get the idea. I was just curious.

I've never heard of that. What is/are slinky(s)?

Those private farm ponds are a different world altogether. One of the ones I visited had one pond dedicated to only catfish. There was a hula hoop floating in the water at the end of the dock. The owners threw the Purina Fish Chow into that hoop and the hoop would keep the feed from floating away. All you had to do was step on that dock and the water inside that hoop started boiling. They would eat anything you threw in there. It was similar in the bass ponds - the fish rarely saw outsiders, just the owners coming down to feed them, so the fish weren't scared of humans like they are in public waters.

They said warehouse, not factory. That caught my eye too. Their website says they're based in Watkinsville, GA. Google says Bogart, GA, which is nearby. I noticed once on Amazon it said "Product of China". I just read a *** article called "Inside the Zoom Bait Company Factory" from 2010 that didn't say specifically where, but it mentioned Georgia. I also learned the name Zoom was the nickname of one of the factory workers named Zimmerman.

https://zoombait.com/colors/ It's better if you can find someone local that stocks a bunch of colors, sometimes that's the small mom & pop store, not the big box store. You might pay a little more, but it can be worth it. A lot of colors look good in a picture, but bad in person and vice versa. I like to be able to hold one up to the light.

Just a piece of wadded up paper towel is better than nothing.

I try to be a minimalist. I see it as a challenge, like some people try to use the lightest weight line to catch big fish, I try to catch fish with the least amount of money.

Right, but that's the great thing about most frog designs - you can throw them anywhere. This is just pretty limited for a frog design. This thing would be good to have on a second rod for when you get a blow-up.