plawren53202

? You're not kidding there's a lot of debate in guitar world. Upon rereading I guess I oversimplified the guitar part. I definitely agree with you on other things making more of a difference than finish. Maybe my other instrument, the mandolin, this would apply to more (or acoustic guitars in general), where I have heard others say that a thick low quality finish can impede wood resonance. I'm certainly no guitar tech though. Specific debates about guitars notwithstanding, this is what seemed to make sense to me. It would seem that taking any rod and applying a glossy finish would be more likely to deaden vibration and thus make the rod less sensitive. This dawned on me in particular when I was holding the Shimano Sellus. It is a more reasonably priced rods that seems to get good reviews, and in general I liked the feel of it for the price. It had a glossy finish. Seems to me that if this negatively impacts sensitivity (or at least doesn't help it), and is an extra step in the manufacturing process and thus adds cost, they why do it? I guess it has to be that they have focus group or market study data that shows that people are more likely to like the look of and buy a glossy rod. Me personally, I really like matte rods (also tend to like matte guitars); certainly, I'm going to like better the look of whatever leads to a more sensitive rod. Definitely with the two Dobyns Furys I recently got, both are extremely sensitive and both are matte.

Just wanted to get everyone's take on when you would throw a Ned rig versus when you would throw a shakey head. At least in my mind, they are similar and would target similar situations--both are obviously a more finesse oriented approach and fish a little slower--but at the same time a little different. I have a couple of thoughts about when I think I would throw each versus the other, but curious to compare with what others think.

Was in Academy, just browsing tonight, looking at rods and reels in particular. I checked out a bunch of different rods, as much as you can in a store anyway. Within the last few months I bought Dobyns Furys, casting and spinning. Loving those rods. The blanks are a matte finish, which I like the look of. There were several rods I checked out at Academy tonight that I liked but they had a glossy finish. Some of the H20 rods were nice, also the Shimano Sellus which I have heard a lot of good feedback on. In guitar world, my other hobby, thick glossy finishes can deaden vibration and degrade sound quality of the guitar. In particular the cheap Fender Strat knockoffs typically have a thick clear poly finish that is not good for vibration and hurts the sound. Now there are some clear coats like nitrocellulose that don't degrade sound quality, but you have to pay more for them. Seems like the same would be true for rods? Seems to me like a clear poly coat put on a rod to give a glossy finish would add weight and cut down on sensitivity. Plus it is an added step meaning added cost. Maybe I'm totally off base on this. Just thinking though this issue through my guitar background.

This is what I was going to suggest. Take it with a grain of salt, it has been years since I kept up with the Mepps lineup, but I remember that the Comets would allow you to replace the trailer behind the body of the spinner. You could easily swap it out for an EWG hook and use whatever soft plastic you want t-rigged. I know the Comet doesn't have the black and red or chartreuse blades of the Black Fury, but might be worth a try. Also I guess in theory if it worked well you could paint the blade of a Comet to look like a Black Fury blade. I looked at the weedless Black Fury after reading your post. It does come with the Mister Twister keeper hook which I remember not liking from many many moons ago when I tried it. Given that I might lean toward the Comet/EWG hook option and paint the blade if I wanted the Black Fury blade pattern.

A little more info might help everyone answer your question. What kind of water are you fishing, reservoir, pond, river?

I'm going to be the contrarian and say that you may have been spooking the fish, depending on water clarity and especially if they are bedding. My subdivision pond is usually very clear water and, like your campus pond, highly pressured. Pressured both in the sense of fishing pressure and also foot traffic around the pond (the hiking trail around the pond goes right by the shallow end where many of them spawn). When the fish are up in the skinny water spawning with their fins nearly sticking out of the water, they are catchable but I really have to closely manage lure entry into the water. There are many spots where I can reach the far bank casting. If I land the bait (most often either a weightless Senko or a weightless fluke) on the bank and drag it into the water, I can get lots of bites from the bedding fish. If however I plop it in the water where they are, I am usually met with a swirl and a departing fish. There are some places where I can't reach casting to the opposite bank. There a good substitute is landing the bait on the weeds that grow along the bank in many places, and then dragging it into the water. The weeds deaden the impact and the "plop." Between the clear water and the pressure, fishing the spawn in this pond reminds me more of my past days of trout fishing streams rather than bass fishing. Now in contrast, this past weekend I was fishing the ponds at our family's farm. Dirtier water and essentially no fishing pressure. Those fish couldn't have cared less about the plop. In fact it almost seemed to help, and rather than swirl and take off, many of them would swirl and attack my bait from 2 or 3 feet away. On a different subject, on your question about whether to just reel fast once your jig gets out of the cover, perhaps....BUT there may be some kind of structure or cover you don't know about on the bottom along the way. For instance some ponds have a small dropoff of a foot or two a few feet out from the bank, or there could be a small "channel" or ditch running through the pond. If a pond doesn't have a lot of cover or structure, it only takes a very slight difference to give the fish something to relate to. I would at least give the "middle" a try. If you're fishing the jig in more open water, you need to really relate your presentation to the bottom--either drag it slowly along the bottom, or short hops alternating with reeling up the slack. Especially as the fish finish spawning and may start to relate to deeper water, you might be surprised what's out there in the middle. This would go for other bottom baits like a shakey head or regular t-rigged soft plastic. Of course, if you give it a try and get no baits, and find that they are relating to the visible cover, then stick with that.

This raises the question I have been wondering about throughout this...what did all these people do prior to coronavirus? I'm all for bringing in newcomers to the sport and recognize the value that it contributes, providing funds for conservation departments, incentive for manufacturers to develop new products, etc....BUT...do it responsibly. I have introduced several people to the sport over the last year, but when they go with me, not only do they hear suggestions about gear and tactics but also conservation, catch and release, fishing ethics, etc. Case in point, my subdivision pond that has just been swarming with people since this started. Covered with litter, bait boxes, Yum and Zoom packages, wads of discarded line, and so on. I don't understand it because you don't need to be an experienced fisherman to know that littering is wrong, just need to not be a jerk. Now every trip to the pond, I come home with a wad of garbage in my bag; I almost never had to pick up litter pre-coronavirus. Thankfully it seems like the crowd is starting to die down just a little ever since Missouri started the reopening process. The other problem is that publicly fishable waters in the St. Louis area were at or near the upper limits of sustainable traffic levels before Covid hit (and not managed well by conservation dept.). I'm sure this is the case in other places too.

Not the Keitech, but this past weekend I threw the Rage Swimmer, which is essentially the same shape, in chocolate milk water. I threw the electric shad color, which wasn't ideal but was the darkest color I had on me. In clearer water I think the blue in that color does an okay job of mimicking bluegill. In the very short time I was throwing it, I did catch one. I think the wide kick of the tail sends out enough vibration that it was able to catch one in such muddy water even though the color wasn't ideal. I stopped throwing it only because the spot I was fishing was so weed choked that it was just catching too many weeds (the only thing that was working for me and not catching weeds was a weightless t-rigged Senko dragged over the top of the weeds). Were it not for that, I would have liked to keep giving it a try. I would think a dark color would work well in stained water.

I'm not super familiar with JDM products but in general every time I see a JDM reel I notice how sharp they look.

Spent Saturday through Monday at our family property in north central MO. Property has a 7 acre pond and a 2 acre pond. Saturday evening I fished the 7 acre pond from the johnboat. It was insane. Both in numbers and size. I caught at least 30 in less than 3 hours, and I would estimate the biggest couple were in the 4-5 pound range, and multiples in the 3 pound range. They are in the middle of the spawn right now. Males were hitting up against the bank guarding the nests, and females were generally sitting out a hair deeper, just outside the bank weedline. The water was muddy (less than a foot of visibility). A junebug 6th Sense Divine Shakey worm caught all of them, t-rigged weightless. Best approach was to cast it actually up on the bank, drag it in the water slowly so no plop to spook the fish, and if it didn't get hit right at the bank, drag it slowly across the weeds and let it drop at the deeper edge of the weeds. Sunday and Monday in the big pond were not quite as insane, but still really really good. Same 6th Sense worm but in Nirvana (green pumpkin and blue) seemed to work better. Also, in between trips out on the big pond, I fished the smaller pond. The little guys (1 pounders) were also guarding the nest. They were just attacking with hatred anything that would come near. The small pond is nearly crystal clear and choked with weeds. I caught a lot of them on a "bream" (green pumpkin and blue) 4" Yum Dinger. Also just for fun I tried out a Bass Pro Shops 3" hellgrammite in green pumpkin, t-rigged weightless. I use it a lot for creek smallmouths--the pond largemouths seemed to like it a lot too. Attaching just a couple of pics. I actually got tired of taking my phone out to take fish selfies.

Picked up the set of Spike It pens at Academy last night, as well as a jar (which I haven't opened yet). I hadn't used the Spike It products before. I used the red pen to touch up a red Ned head that had gotten all chipped up, and also colored the tip of a TRD Finesse red. Holy cow is that stuff potent, both in smell and in coloring capability. ? Verdict is still out on whether it catches more fish, but count me as impressed with the potency. Now I understand why people are so quick to caution spilling it or getting it on your hands.

Well, after one (short) morning of fishing it, I could not be happier with these selections. What a fantastic combo, especially coming in right at $200 (and I didn't have the patience to wait for a sale!). This setup with the 832 15 lb. test casts a country mile. Noticeably further than my Xfinity combo with Pro Power. There were a couple of spots that usually at this pond are just out of reach for me to cast to from the bank, but reached them this morning. The Fury, as I expected based on my experience with the casting version, is extremely sensitive. There were at least a couple of fish this morning that based on how lightly they bit, I am pretty certain I would not have caught using a less sensitive setup. I am really impressed at how much more I can feel with this setup. Like my initial first impression last night, I was not expecting how balanced this combo feels in the hand. And this being my first experience owning a Shimano reel, I still cannot get over how smooth the Sahara feels. When reeling, there's absolutely no gear or other noise or grind at all. Even in pretty good reels I have owned, there is always at least a hint of some when you reel. Also had a chance to test out the drag on the reel (and the rod's ability to handle heavy weights) when my first "catch" on this new combo was a not small snapping turtle ?. The drag handled it really well and allowed me to reel in the turtle without breaking the 8 lb. leader I was using. I realize that I'm still in the honeymoon phase, and the other test of a rod and reel is how they hold up over time. But as someone who has owned a bunch of different budget combos over the years, but never anything even approaching high end, this combo was just an absolute joy to fish this morning.

I have to credit this board for each of these selections. Every one of those things was chosen after reading lots of positive posts about them on here. When I upgraded my baitcaster a few months ago, I went with a Fury due to lots of recommendations on this site. That turned out to be a great choice, and it fell in the budget range I wanted to spend so the Fury spinning rod was a no brainer for me.

My order of priority is location (cover/structure/etc.), then presentation (type of lure, retrieve), then color. While I put color at the end of that list, it does still have some importance. Some days more than others. This past weekend was a good example of that for me. Saturday evening was some of the best fishing of my life. Around 30 in about 2 1/2 hours of fishing, including multiple fish over 3 lbs. and a couple that topped 5 lbs. I happened to be throwing a weightless junebug colored 6th Sense Divine Shakey worm because it was muddy water, but the way they were biting I have the feeling I could have been throwing many, many other colors and done basically the same. Now, they were hitting in a very particular area, just on the deep water side of the bank weedline, and I likewise have no doubt that I would have caught very few if I had been fishing in a different area, or fishing a different presentation that, for instance, bogged down in the weeds rather than gliding over the top of them. On Sunday, same lake, I started out fishing the same location, same presentation, same color. Very few bites. After about an hour I switched to a green pumpkin/blue version of the same worm. The fishing picked up noticeably. Not as good as the day before, but markedly better than on the junebug worm. For whatever reason color seemed to make a significant difference on Sunday whereas Saturday night I suspect that it didn't matter much.

Had to post my new spinning setup. I know in the world of rods and reels this is far from the top of the heap, but it is better gear than I have owned before. My Lew's Xfinity Combo has served me well, it's actually a really really solid rod and reel, but it was time to take the next step. I got a Dobyns Fury rod, the 7'0" medium/fast spinning option. Paired it with a Shimano Sahara 2500. Spooled it with Sufix 832, 15 lb. test, and a Sufix Advance 8 lb. leader. After I got it home and spooled up tonight, I took it out in the yard for a few obligatory test casts. My admittedly very limited first impression, good grief, what a buttery smooth, solid combo. I was particularly impressed with how balanced this combo feels in the hand, giving it the sense of being nearly weightless. At the same time, everything feels rock solid. The Sahara reel is soooo smooth. Weather permitting, I can't wait to go give it a test drive at my local pond early tomorrow morning.

Oh man I'm jealous reading how light many of you pack for bank fishing. I do 90% of my fishing from the bank. Many of the places I fish are highly pressured waters where the fish tend to be extremely picky. I think as a result of that my bass bank fishing setup has evolved to be ridiculously big. I carry two rods, a baitcaster and a spinning rod. I have an Eastpak backpack (not a fishing backpack, just a regular backpack I have left over from college) that carries boxes for crankbaits, terminal tackle, topwaters, and soft worm bags with spinnerbaits, chatterbaits and jigs. My second bag is a smaller Walmart tackle bag, for soft plastics. I have them in original packages divided into gallon Ziploc bags by type (Senkos/craws/creature baits/swimbaits/flukes). I don't like carrying this much gear with me. It definitely makes moving spot to spot a little harder. But I have had many times when I went to the water thinking I was going to fish one bait and ended up using something completely different, and a bait I would never have expected when I headed there (like, they end up hitting on a lipless crankbait and I thought they were going to want something slow and on the bottom). I hate the thought of getting to the water and conditions hinting at throwing something that I don't have with me. In contrast, I have an "ultralight" bag that I use with my light spinning setup. I generally fish this in small rivers, smaller ponds and other places where in general the fish tend not to be so picky. It is much smaller, a Walmart Plano bag that holds two 3500 boxes (one has mainly Rebel craws, crickhoppers, small Rapalas and other hard baits, the other has mainly terminal tackle) and a few bags of Ned worms, Bobby Garlands and other soft plastics. I really enjoy the light travel with this bag and wish I could incorporate my bass gear the same way.

This is consistent with my observation at the water I fish the most, my subdivision HOA pond. It gets a LOT of pressure. I see a lot of people throwing spinnerbaits for some reason; I don't know if it's the draw of the $1 box at Walmart? Whatever the case I also have never seen anyone catch anything on them. The baits that work the best for me there are all soft plastics, primarily wacky or weightless t-rigged Senkos, or weightless flukes. I have also had some success when the water is dirtier with a Bitsy Bug with a Tiny Paca Chunk trailer, but because of the trailer I almost put the jig more in the soft bait category. It's certainly not what I would call a moving bait, especially when fished crawled along the bottom. Very rarely I have caught a few on a moving bait there; did okay over the winter and early spring on a red craw lipless crankbait, and occasionally when it is warmer I have caught a few at late late sunset or even as it is dark on a mini spinner bait, Colorado blade and black/blue. But for a place that I fish a lot, I have probably caught 95% or more of my fish there on soft baits, and I do think this is due to pressure.

In one of the Facebook fishing groups I am in, this morning someone posted a question asking for the best recipe for bass eggs ?? In theory I might be okay with that if the person was harvesting an egg-filled fish from a private water that was overstocked and needed managing, but I took a quick look at this person's other posts and they are most definitely fishing very public, overfished waters. I've enjoyed reading the thoughts in this thread. Has made me realize that I believe our conservation department needs to do a better job of managing many of the fisheries in the state (Missouri). There are a number of places where it is currently "legal" to keep bass of a certain size in my metro area--and God knows people do--but in reality those bass should be going back in the water. And the fishing very noticeably suffers as a result. Too many people viewing these public waters as their personal fish market, keeping every single fish they catch whether legal or not.

Jig light came on for me also this spring LOL. I have tried jigs at various times over the years but not much success. I think what changed this spring was I started viewing a jig a much more "surgical" than most of my other baits. I am a bank fisherman so I can't be out in a boat pitching or flipping to cover. But this spring I started working on using jigs with a similar approach, as much as possible from the bank. I also started using finesse jigs or even smaller jigs like the Bitsy Bug for this; I think I had only tried standard size (like 1/2 oz.) jigs in the past. The Bitsy Bugs and other similar sized jigs, combined with an appropriate sized trailer like a Paca Tiny Chunk, really brought jigs into the picture for me. I have had some good luck doing this to fish cover right on the bank. Especially if I am very conscious about not spooking those fish first, sneaking up, keeping an appropriate distance, minding casting angles, etc. I have caught a decent number of fish using this "bank flipping" approach with a black and blue Bitsy Bug/Tiny Paca Chunk so far this year, and I think the first fish I caught doing this this year was the first fish I had ever caught on a jig.

Following this with interest...have been giving some thought to upgrading my spinning setup, but not a huge budget to do it, and I'm leaning toward putting more of the money toward the rod (something like a Dobyns Fury, St. Croix Bass X, etc.). So I've been looking at the sub-$100 and really, sub-$75 reels. I have looked at the Daiwa Regal, Revros, and Legalis, as well as the Shimano Sedona and Sahara, and the Lew's Carbon Fire. Seems like these all get generally good reviews and tend to be the best in the price point (along with the Pfluegers), and I can't really find much to set one apart from another. I'll probably just end up picking the one of these that I happen across the best sale at some point.

Black and blue, and red, are the standard answers for this. Red chatterbaits are more of a recent thing, for some reason, and my understanding is that they are (or were) a little hard to find since the winner of the Bassmaster Classic used one this year. A youtube video recommend white/chartreuse or even just plain white as a chatterbait or spinnerbait color for stained to muddy water. I personally have done a lot better in the past with black and blue or red, but I will take their word for it and keep trying those colors as well.

Two issues jump out at me on this subject. One, there is a difference between what is legal and what is ethical/considerate. There are lots of things that might be technically legal but are anything but ethical or considerate; I'm reminded of that every morning and evening during my commute to and from work. To me, whether keeping bass is ethical is a matter of scarcity--how scarce are bass at this particular fishing location, and how scarce is a bass of this size? In general my default is to err on the side of conservation, so my default would be to release bass. There are places I fish where small bass are too abundant and need to be harvested. For instance I have many times kept lots of small bass from a pond at our family farm that is overpopulated. Our subdivision HOA pond is similarly overpopulated and needs some small bass taken out, but I know my neighbors would look at me like I was a barbarian if I walked home with a stringer of bass. ? In contrast there are some public places I fish where they are so heavily pressured that even small bass should be returned. To me, a big bass is scarce everywhere and the ethical thing is to return it to the water unharmed. "Big" of course is relative to location but for me personally, if I catch a bass over 2 pounds in any place I've ever fished in Missouri, it's going back in the water. I can catch plenty under 2 pounds if I want to keep some to eat. Of course in Texas or Florida, a 2 pound bass is much more common than the places I fish in Missouri, so what's ethical there would be different. That's all just my personal opinion, I know people differ on these issues.

I have one pond I fish from time to time that is nearly 100% full of weeds that grow to within a few inches of the surface of the water for the entirety of the warmer months. My go-to on that pond has been a weightless fluke. I'm not in love with a fluke but it certainly serves its purposes in this setting. Couple of tips for using it in these circumstances, I do want it to sink a little and not have to wait forever for it to sink, so I use a bigger hook (like a 4/0 or 5/0) and try to find one that's a little thicker to give it some weight. Also I've found that when texas rigging it, when I first stick the hook into the nose of the bait, I bring the point out a little further down than I might normally. I want the bait to be able to push up over the eye of the hook and the knot, covering them. This doesn't entirely prevent catching vegetation but it seems to help a little.

My subdivision HOA pond has been crawling with people ever since coronavirus hit. On Saturday it was starting to rain, so I thought, good no one will be there and headed down...to find three people. ? I have found that more often, people are there the least at the times when I actually want to fish, first light in the morning and late evening. Early morning I understand, you have to be half crazy to be up fishing a subdivision pond at 5:45 a.m. on a Tuesday--but being half crazy I do enjoy the solitude--but I'm kind of amazed at how many people will fish late afternoon in the hot sun and then head out before that last hour of fishing time (just before until just after sunset).

Super helpful responses, from everyone...I've gone back and forth four or five times just in this one thread LOL. Now I think you all have convinced me to stick with braid for this weekend, but I will bump it up to 40#. I'll also leave the lighter baits like the weightless flukes for the spinning rod, at least for now.