Aaron_H

Figured I'd try a little bit of post-hurricane fishing in the canal out behind the house. Nothing on a jig, but did manage one little guy on a spinnerbait. We got a ton of rainfall and power loss, but were very fortunate compared to many SW of us.

I'm over on the east side of Orlando, current projection has the eye running over about ~5 miles from the house on Thurs, but hopefully it's lost enough steam by the time it's reached here. Wishing you guys on the west coast the best.

~0.3 oz in freedom units.

How did I miss this thread? What a bunch of gorgeous fish. Those smallies have me itching to pack my bags and hit the road up north. This one here just barely cracks the top 10 in size for the year, but I think it's #1 for pattern. Caught it February 16th on a jerkbait (what else?) right at dusk, came in at 5lb 5oz. Pretty average proportions, but the pattern was very striking in person.

Congrats! Nice fish and sounds like a great time with your son. He might be catching the big ones, but sometimes you just gotta remind 'em that Dad's still got it. And stand a little further back next time, I can still make out some shapes! ?

I use a 7'2" MH/XF rod for jigs and weighted Texas rigs. I like it very much for those techniques. It sticks them fast and hard.

You can have my dad's 5'6" pistol grip trap rod when you can pry it out of his cold, dead hands. ? For comparison's sake to the OP, I have a 6'10" M/XF and a 7'2" M/XF, both from the SLX lineup so all other things should be equal aside from length. The longer rod is more stout between the two. It's rated to 1/2 oz but I can easily throw a 1oz Whopper Plopper 110 on it without it feeling overloaded. The 6'10" feels like it has more give in the backbone.

For me, this is the best time for a faster reel. Since I'm just using the rod to move the bait along the bottom, the speed of the reel is irrelevant to the speed of the lure. Instead, I want to be able to take up slack as quickly as possible. That's just what works better for me, though. The only rod I use a 6:1 reel on is my chatterbait rod. The slower reel helps keep the chatterbait down and I get a slower/harder vibration than when I threw them on a faster speed. With higher speed reels, I was finding it difficult to slow it down enough to keep it from rising without also killing the vibration. Everything else is a 7:1 ratio.

Thank you, I was very fortunate to get into a handful of nice ones this year, let alone on a presentation I was just getting into. My best five went 43lb 9oz, and the biggest three were on that jerkbait. Fingers crossed this season wasn't a fluke and I can squeeze out something good this coming fall/spring. And yeah, no problem. Shall I throw in some GPS coordinates to make it easier? ?

I'm not a big spinnerbait guy (sorry @LrgmouthShad), but I've had good luck with Strike King's Tour Grade Compact offering in white/silver in a lot of my spots with shad present. Maybe spinnerbait will be my 2023 grind....

This was my dad's #1 worm for many, many years, caught his 8.5lb PB on it. I picked up a few packs a couple of years ago, they still have the magic. Nothing big on them, yet, though, but some day. I like their 5" SinSation bait also, solid swimjig trailer. And I have to throw another vote behind the H2O line, and especially that Ultimate Jerk Shad. I'm still a newbie to jerkbaits, but it has caught my three biggest bass of this year so far, including two double digits. For six bucks, that lure is no joke.

They clearance out a lot of their baits every year, but some do get discontinued during this, like that 5" glide bait they used to sell. I can't see that jerkbait getting discontinued, it is absolutely one of their best offerings. I'll definitely be stopping by and buying a handful at those prices if they have the color I want.

Lipless crankbait Super Spook Jr Whopper Plopper Jerkbait Chatterbait That fall transition has them feeding heavily on baitfish in the upper/middle water column, so that's what I try to primarily target.

Hydrilla or pads. If I see it, I'm beelining for it.

It's not so bad until you get up into the Jackhammer territory. You can tune even the inexpensive base model ones to have that instant startup, but the components are definitely not as nice as the Jackhammer which doesn't need tuning out of the box. I've got a handful of nice "scorable" ones on them and it's one of my confidence baits. Very fun bite when they're fired up on it.

I'm too blinded by the ditch pickles down here to know what to do on a smallie fishery, but if I've learned anything from A-Jay's videos it's when in doubt, throw a bladed jig.

I have two BG 2500s that were my primary reels before I learned how to throw a baitcaster, now they are my inshore setups. They did everything I asked them to as a bank angler and then some, caught some PBs on them and never had a hiccup. 11/10 highly recommend them at their pricepoint.

What I've got in my panfish box: 1/16 oz Mr Crappie slab slasher jigheads 1/16 oz Roadrunner underspins Mr. Crappie Shadpole CT Big Bites Baits 2" grub Bill Lewis Tiny Trap Strike King Bitsy Minnow 1/16oz and 1/8oz Beetle Spin Creme 1.5" swimbaits

I will add that I do love mine for casting into the wind. I don't have trouble with it on my other reels vis a vis backlashes, but I get more distance into the wind with the DC compared to the non-DC.

I don't have any of the higher end DC reels, but I backlash my SLX DC way more often than my standard SLX reels with centrifugal brakes. The backlashes are never bad with it, at least. If I went back I'd probably go with the SLX MGL or Curado K over it. That DC whine is pretty addicting, though.

I have two Quantum Smoke S3 PT Inshore spinning reels that I bought to be matchy-matchy with a couple of SLX rods I got for a steal, before Shimano came out with the Nexave. I got a fair discount on the reels, $125 each versus the ~200 retail so figured I'd give them a shot. I like them well enough, they are reasonably smooth and have fairly nice drag. I would put them a slight step below my Daiwa BGs. I think they are fine for the price I paid, but do not see the value at their retail price.

I don't know anything about Sixgill other than the constant BOGO they have going on. Looking at the fit and finish in the pictures, I assumed this was a budget reel they were releasing. Color me shocked when I saw the price was nearly $300....

Congrats to your friend, that's a big summer girl.

I've gotten pretty good at not skunking, been almost a full year and many dozens of trips since I blanked. Not always catching anything worth showing off, but I'm catching something at least.

I may be misunderstanding, but is it possible the braid is slipping on the spool? Is the spool itself not moving when you reel or is it just the line that's not moving?