Bass Rutten

The Golden Ticket is now showing as out of stock on their website.

@Rockhopper I'm in the mid-Columbia, Tri-Cities area. @pdxfisher Thanks, I'll check them out.

Due to life circumstances, I recently found myself suddenly plucked from the sunny, sweaty, soggy climes of central Florida to the Oregon/Washington border on the Columbia River, where I spent my youth. It seems the majority of the local bass fishing opportunities here will be for smallmouth in big, deep, rocky river water. I have little experience with deep rocky water outside of a few trips to Dale Hollow and Sturgeon Bay. An unexpected and welcome change, especially considering I grew up, and now live, on the banks of a world-class smallmouth fishery and never even knew it. Although SE Washington is where I grew up, I did not begin my bass fishing journey until a few years after leaving the state. Virtually all of my experience has been in natural lakes in the midwest, mostly in Illinois and Wisconsin, with my last three years in Florida. All of that to ask... what advice would you offer as I learn to fish what is, for me, a relatively foreign style of bass fishing? I’ve found a local club that accepts co-anglers, which I plan to join at some point, as I have no boat and shore fishing options seem very limited. Since I’ll likely be tournament fishing as a co-angler most of the time, I won’t have much say in where or how we fish. For that reason, I’d prefer to focus primarily on gear and tackle; key techniques, lures, and recommended rod, reel, and line setups [monkey tries to hide grin 🙊]. Any and all advice or shared experiences is appreciated! A few topics of particular interest to me: Football jigs Hair jigs Swingheads Deep jerkbaiting Deep cranking Deep-water finesse approaches Underspins

The very similar t-rigged speed worm (aka swimworm) is a Florida staple, it's like the swimjig of worms; you can flip and pitch it traditionally or swim it back should the need or opportunity arise, it's a surprisingly consistent rig too. I love the versatility of being able to change presentations with the same rig. In my time there I learned a lot from my club partner about the swimworm/speedworm rig, he fished it so much I dubbed him the speedmaster.

I like Deek's Deadspin. Solid build, beefy little 2/0 hook, and it's more weedless than one would think due to the forward eye location. I hooked a monster snakehead once ripping it out of weeds, broke my line, and my heart...

Dropshot/Bubbashot for me, I've admittedly become a bit reliant on it. In all of 2023, 2024, and 2025, I'd estimate very conservatively that half of my time on the water was with dropshot rod in hand. But conversely, rather than diminishing my fishing potential, I feel that it enhances it greatly, to the point I'm planning on putting together a second dedicated dropshot setup.

No swapping here. Rod/reel combos are "tuned". One reel would not work on another due to either the line, gear ratio/retrieval rate, the size/weight of the reel, casting/braking profile, etc. or a combination thereof.

4 years ago my answer might have been a spook.

I'm sure the OP has figured something out by now. Bush was president when this thread was made lol

@Bandersnatch I'm about 98.5% sure it's the 3/0

If the blank is a significant upgrade, on par or close to the Orochi series, this should be a killer value if the price is the same. The Run & Gunning jumps out at me right away, got an old st croix avid-x that's getting long in the tooth. I really wish they'd make their bfs rods longer in the 6'9" or 6'10" range.

Unlike most it seems, I’ve come to use bfs primarily to fish soft plastics. Mostly ned rigs and flick shake, but occasionally neko rig, swimbaits, and floating worm too. Favorites are trd’s, swamp crawlers, shad shape worms, plus a myriad of finesse worms from 4-7 inches.

Sorry for the late reply, somehow missed this. I have not purchased it, but it's on still on my radar.

Can someone please tell me who this Al guy is that everyone on the internet's been quoting recently? Al Gore, Albert Einstein? Whoever he is he sure must be smart 😉 I use the Daiwa Feider jerkbait rod, which I'd call a mod-fast, or what Daiwa labels as "Regular" action, for 1/4 & 3/8 jerks. For 1/2 & 5/8oz jerks I use a st croix avid-x medium/fast which feels closer to x-fast. I find it hard to understand how jerkbait fisherman are so finicky when it comes to action, probably explains why I'm so mediocre at it, but that aside, between mod-fast, fast, and x-fast it just doesn't seem to make enough of a difference to me to be a deal breaker

Back when I used spinning outfits I used 7ft leaders. By using a rod length of leader your knot will always be just in front of the reel, works for most any rod length. I now throw ned rigs on a 7ft ml/f bait cast rod, I'll use anywhere from a 15 to 25ft leader for some of the reasons listed above and then some.

The sticky menu bar is just completely gone for me on desktop, and I'm not getting notifications, it's still there on mobile. Anyone else?

Here's a little info about Gyotaku courtesy of chatgpt: Gyotaku (魚拓) is a traditional Japanese art form that dates back to the early 1800s, originally used by fishermen to record their catches before cameras were common. The actual fish is carefully inked and pressed onto paper or cloth, creating a life-size, highly detailed print that captures scale patterns, fin structure, and even scars—essentially a biological “fingerprint” of the catch. Originally done with simple black sumi ink, modern gyotaku often uses subtle colors and calligraphy to note the species, location, date, and angler. When done properly, the process does not ruin the fish, and it was (and still is) common to eat the catch afterward. Today, gyotaku sits at the intersection of fishing, science, and art—a timeless way to preserve a memorable fish without mounting it on a wall.

Below is the only fishing related wall decoration in my parents house. This is called a Gyotaku print, Japanese art of fish printing, and was made 4/22/73 of a smallmouth bass caught in New Hampshire.

Cool stuff! Thanks for taking the time to write that up, never really considered art collecting, but you have inspired me to get back out and scour thrift stores, used to go often, never know what you'll find.

Interested in seeing what fishing related art or wall hangings you have at home. I’m thinking about dressing up some pretty bland walls here and could use some ideas and inspiration. Paintings, prints, photos, mounts... the more pics, the better!

I put a sagisi customs drag clicker in my alphas 800, I like the audible feedback. Needed? Obviously not, it's just a luxury and a preference, and I prefer it.

For purely stealth/invisibility reasons I can’t argue, but there are definitely other benefits to an extra long leader, which you may or may not need depending on your situation, I often go 20-25’: Abrasion resistance against rocky or hard structure. Natural lure action (its submersibility offsets braids buoyancy). Shock absorption, less strain on both the leader and lure knot. Leader knot inside of reel during boatside battles. More re-ties/rigging per leader. *No toes were harmed in the tying of this knot 🤣

Yes, it took a few try-fail-revisit cycles, but I eventually succeeded. My take is that you can watch a hundred videos and if you try to mimic a method exactly you’ll probably drive yourself nuts. Many failed attempts is what taught me the fundamentals of the knot and what it's trying to accomplish. I think I tried at least 3 or 4 different methods and it was only after I began improvising with little tweaks that it finally clicked, the tweaks being in how you manipulate your hands and fingers to hold things in place while tying it, not in the knot itself. It was 100% worth the trouble to learn.

Last one I went to was about 5 years ago in Schaumburg. Pretty good sized show and decent turnout, watched a seminar by Oliver Ngy. I don't recall the ratio of fishing outfitters vs everyone else. Ed & Shirleys isn't around anymore, it was sold years ago and is now called Anglers International Resources / FishingGurus (same location in palatine), very nice store and selection. They usually have a booth there. I live out of state now so things may have changed. I doubt there will be any shortage of ways for the monkey convince you to spend your money lol

No bigs for me in '25, my best came in at around 4.5lbs on a baby bass 5" caffeine shad.