plawren53202

Just look for the Rage Craws on sale. For instance I know BP has had them 25% off the last couple of weeks, which puts them in the low $4s per bag range.

My Dobyns Fury (733C) from the big sale finally arrived today no thanks to some really slow work by FedEx, so I finally got to mount the Lew's Tournament MP that arrived a week ago for it. The MP has been blowing me away already on a cheapy Walmart Lew's rod, so I can't wait to get out and try out the full setup, hopefully tomorrow. This is by quite a bit the best reel and rod that I have owned in many years of fishing, bass and otherwise.

I only get to fish from the bank so that's what grass is for? In all seriousness, if you have fish smell on your hands after a trip or after cleaning fish, (a) good for you, you didn't get skunked, and (b) ketchup takes the smell off--slather ketchup on your hands and scrub it around, rinse it off, then scrub with soap and water, and rinse it. Same logic as taking a bath in tomato juice if you get sprayed by a skunk.

Or you could go with the guy on YouTube whose theory is that the original Ned TRD attracts fish because it looks like a goose turd ?

This is actually a really complicated question, and I think you can get lots of useful tips but it is difficult to give one comprehensive answer. The biggest reason being how bass bite can vary greatly depending on a lot of different factors, time of year, water temperature, point in spawning cycle, etc. etc.--in general all relating to how aggressively they are or aren't feeding. Will also vary depending on what kind of lure you are using. The two extreme ends of the spectrum for me are a topwater bite when the bass are aggressively feeding, when they just explode on the lure, versus a Ned rig bite when they are not aggressively feeding, like in wintertime, when a bite just feels like a wet blanket on the end of the line and is very hard to distinguish from hooking into a clump of dead weeds. In general moving baits tend to be easier to detect, at the least there is all of sudden something that is obviously preventing you from continuing to reel in your lure, plus bass tend to hit moving baits a little more aggressively. T-rigged worms or other t-rigged baits fished on the bottom, my experience is it will either be a distinct tap tap tap, or more of the Ned rig wet blanket on the line. As you learn how each type of lure performs and acts as you retrieve or fish it, then anything different than that could potentially be a bite. Anything from the explosion to more subtle things like line moving sideways not caused by you, slack in the line not caused by your retrieve, lure suddenly feels heavier, and so on. A lot of this just comes from learning each bait and how they are "supposed" to act. Do you have experience in other kinds of fishing? If so you can take experience with bites from other fish, use that as a starting point, and then gain some experience in how bass might be different. If you are starting from scratch, a lot of it just comes from time with your line in the water and learning different baits. Also, remember hooksets are free, so when in doubt, set the hook.?

This weekend I have the rare opportunity to use a boat. It will be around the Farmington area. Trying to figure out which lake relatively close to Farmington to go to and catch a few bass--Wappapello? Clearwater? Something else I'm not thinking of? I've never been on any of these lakes. From my reading so far sounds like Wappepello is more similar to lakes I have fished in the past, whereas Clearwater is deeper and clearer. That makes me lean toward Wappapello, but I'm open to any suggestions and could adapt to either.

I like this suggestion a lot. I feel like a few knuckleheads have ruined it for everyone else in the places that have closed public water. This is really unfortunate given that fishing is one of the few things we can very safely do these days. Here in MO the public water has stayed open so far, thank goodness, but I keep hearing stories about boneheads and I'm afraid that our state government will follow with a similar kneejerk reaction and ruin a good thing for 99% because of the stupidity of the 1%. Also, just a suggestion for those of you who are in states where public water has been shut down. Don't underestimate the power of a bunch of people raising a fuss to the governor, Dept. of Conservation or whichever government authority has jurisdiction over the decision. I work in a job that involves lots of state and federal advocacy in the healthcare field. If you're in a state where public waters have been closed and they should be open, you might be surprised at how much a coordinated email/phone call campaign can make a difference.

Just went through the process of buying a Lew's reel...I really really wanted to pick the Mach Crush. Just looks so darn cool, and I love those big Winn grips on other reels. Ended up going with the Tournament MP, and I couldn't be happier. I really like having the aluminum frame versus the graphite of the Crush. The brake system is soooo tunable with both internal centrifugal brakes and the magnetic brakes. The thing casts a country mile, first lure I threw on it was a weightless fluke and I couldn't believe how far I was bombing it. And although the grips aren't Winn grips, the textured rubber grips on the MP are really sticky and a huge step up from my last reel. For me, the one thing that switched me over to the MP was the aluminum frame, but along the way I found out I'm huge fan of the dual brake system. And, if you look around, you can find the MP for $119 a couple of places.

I'm glad your HOA lake experience was this. Here in MO, on our HOA lake over the weekend, it was packed. Solid stream of people, 2-3 fishing a 3 acre lake constantly. Most of them are not our subdivision residents, despite the prominent signage restricting fishing to residents only. Here in MO, outdoor activities are permitted so long as you maintain appropriate distance. Apparently, with nothing better to do, half our county decided to head out and go fishing this weekend, and there aren't a lot of spots to fish in our county. Those poor fish were getting bludgeoned with a steady pounding of big heavy spinnerbaits and buzzbaits on rope. I had to laugh b/c the water was gin clear this weekend, and barely a ripple on the surface--not exactly prime spinnerbait conditions. I tried to be a little sneaky so they wouldn't see that a t-rigged weightless fluke, on light line, fished very gently just off the bank, was working just a little better.?

To echo others, it depends. E.g., we have a family farm with a pond that gets very little pressure and has some big ones in it. I definitely don't downsize there. In comparison, my subdivision's 3 acre HOA pond--the water is generally very clear, and it is highly overpressured. I tend to fish it more like a trout stream. Smaller lures, more finesse presentations, weightless whenever possible, etc.

Until this past year I was always a mono user. No reason other than that's what I had always used, and just hadn't been exposed to fluoro or braid. As I really worked to expand my bass fishing arsenal this past year, I started using fluoro. I really like the low stretch factor, I really like how solid it feels when setting the hook compared to mono. However, coming from using some good quality monos, I'm not really a fan of how fluoro feels. To me it feels a little wiry and brittle, and seems like line memory and coiling off the spool is worse than good monos I had used in the past. So that's got me wondering about copolymer. How does it compare to good mono and good fluoro with respect to (a) stretch and (b) feel/line memory? It has me wondering if I should give it a try. I know some may also say braid. I just don't think I'm ready to take that leap yet. For one thing, I don't get really excited about using a leader. I have quite a bit of flyfishing experience, and by far my least favorite part of flyfishing is tying a leader to the fly line. Thanks for any input on this!

I just got one of these as well, about a week ago. With a little looking you can find one on sale for 119. Stepping up from the $50 Lew's Classic Pro, the Tournament MP has blown me away so far. Once I got the dual brakes dialed in, it has been amazing at controlling backlash. Also casting distance is outstanding. Granted this is my first experience with a reel in this price range, but so far I love everything about the Tournament MP.

A local sporting goods store has Shimano SLX 150HGs on sale for 79.99, plus some other reels: https://shopdunns.com/product-category/dunns-deals/fishing-deals/ Also includes free shipping.

Can anyone who has already received their Dobyns rod from SO tell me how they shipped it? Seems like normally stuff I order from SO comes via US Postal Service, but I wasn't sure if I should be expecting my rod to arrive by FedEx or UPS.

Thoughts and prayers. Sounds like everything is going well. I'm glad he got to go home quickly, being in the hospital without family and friends being able to visit right now would be terrible. It's amazing what they can do for these. Last April I was diagnosed with a tangerine-sized brain tumor (non-cancerous thankfully). I had surgery to remove it on a Tuesday morning, went home on Thursday and the next Tuesday morning I was back in the office at work. I attribute that to the skill of my surgeon and the entire medical team.

Interesting discussion...if I'm wrapping 65# braid around a boat cleat and backing the boat up with the trolling or outboard motor, you can bet I'm also laying in the floor of the boat ? I'm also praying the cleat doesn't rip off or the boat tip over lol.

Same here, ordered on the 27th and haven't received mine yet. I am cutting them a break on this one given the special sale and I'm sure the volume. I ordered a Lew's Tournament MP to go on the rod, ordered from them Friday 4/3 and it arrived yesterday.

That's usually my admittedly unscientific technique, just looking in the shallow water as I walk around the pond. I also usually guess based on size of the body of water and geographical location. For instance, I know that ponds and lakes under a certain size in my area are not going to have shad in them, and the primary baitfish forage for bass is likely to be bluegill. Lakes over a certain size in my area, typically have threadfin shad.

My grandparents lived just down the road from a small clear stream. Very wadable, and lots of sunfish (rock bass, longear, green sunfish) as well as a few smallmouth. A light action spinning rod and a small box with some Rebel Wee R crawfish and a few Beetle Spins were all I needed. Man I miss those days.

Bought a Dobyns Fury 733 during the SO 40% off sale, so of course had to get a new reel for it as well. My new Lew's Tournament MP reel arrived today, still waiting on the rod.

Ironic, I was just on here moaning and groaning yesterday morning that I still hadn't caught a bass in 2020. So yesterday afternoon I decided to drive to a lake that's about an hour away where I usually have pretty good luck. (Bank fisherman, no boat--for reference purposes, eastern Missouri.) Sure enough, diligence was rewarded. Caught one about a pound and a half. I know that's no monster but soooo good to get the major skunk off my back. Four or five other bites in the course of a couple of hours so not great, but again, bye bye skunk. They seemed to be in what I would call pre-spawn staging areas. E.g., the one I caught was about 8 feet deep on the last main lake point before going back up in a creek (shallower areas for spawning). Other bites were similar. All the action was on Strike King Rage Swimmer, "electric shad" color (which is blue and green and looks more like a bluegill to me), on a VMC Ike Approved swimbait head. But the real kicker was the one I didn't catch. At one point shortly before sundown, I was fishing on the dam (this is an approximately 100 acre lake). Still fishing that same Rage Swimmer. About 15 feet out from the bank, I hook into something, first think I'm hung up until it starts moving. Pulled up and it immediately put a huge bend in my med/heavy Lew's rod. I got him up to the surface, about three feet from the bank, where he rolled over and splashed. He was upside down, so all I could see was big white belly, but I could see his full length. It had to have been at least 32-34 inches long. By far would have been the biggest fish I've ever caught. When he rolled over, he snapped my 12 lb. fluorocarbon like it was nothing. I'm 99 percent certain it was a big catfish. No idea on how to guess approximate weight. But considering the largest fish I've ever caught to date was an 8-9 lb. bass and a 9 lb. walleye, I'm certain it would have been well over either of those. Not exactly what I was expecting for the day yesterday, but a prime example of why if you're in doubt, get up off the couch and get out.

I was standing beside my neighborhood pond yesterday, which doesn't have a single shad in it, watching a big school of tiny baby bluegill swim by. Was just thinking an A rig with sungill colored baits on it would sure do a good job mimicking what I was watching.

Haven't caught my first 2020 bass yet, and not for lack of trying either. What's really dumb is that end of 2019, I was actually catching a few in really cold temps (water temps low 40s-upper 30s) for the first time in my life. But man when the calendar flipped, so did my luck. Few factors that I think are affecting it--(1) my local go-to pond has gotten choked with algae for the first time ever; (2) seems like we have a cold front roll through every Thursday or Friday, so every weekend the last month has been post-frontal, and can't get a good warming trend going; (3) the spots relatively close to my house are bad, and COVID has seen to it that I haven't been taking any longer drives lately. This morning was a perfect example. 20 degree-drop cold front rolled through yesterday morning. Had a few hours so I went to an extremely overpressured local conservation area. Fished for three hours, used a range of baits and tactics. Fully confident that I was using the right tactics in the right places. One bite, none landed. And certainly didn't see anyone else land one either.

That looks like a good deal in itself, but saw through clicking the link that Academy has a lot of their H20 stuff for 25-33% off right now, lures, reels, etc.

I'm quite sure that is the case (too perfect lawns). I deal with that non-fishing as well, I'm just not a lawn guy and a lot of the people in our subdivision have Augusta National quality grass going. The stuff is matting up in one end of the pond already. Last time out I tried throwing a fog on top of it for a while, but no takers.