galyonj

Finding a school of revved up white bass is so much fun.

Went out with @TnRiver46 and She Who Must Be Obeyed for an impromptu sesh on the French Broad this evening. Only caught these two, both on a shakeyhead. I haven't had the opportunity to catch many smallmouth, so that's always a blast. Didn't get weights on either.

It's true. There's a lot of meanness packed into that little frisbee-shaped body.

Yeah it does. Honestly depends. The big one -- at 2.8" -- is only an inch or so longer than the junior, and it looks to be a smidge bigger in diameter to fill out the profile. And crappie will hit much bigger than that if they've a mind to do so. I think either'll work. The smaller one might get a few more bites. For $10 get both and see what happens.

I have lost more fish on that specific hook than on all the other wacky hooks I've ever tried. I do not recommend it.

That is legit one of the most gut-wrenching stories I've ever read. Like if Cormac McCarthy rewrote The Old Man and the Sea.

Honestly, the upgrade doesn't have to be much. A 2500-size reel and a medium/fast or medium-heavy/fast rod is about all you gotta have.

Those are all good points @Bubba 460. I didn't touch on the fact that one benefits from developing a "touch," for lack of a better word, when trying to another site on very light tackle. It's 100% doable, but it's more stress on the fish, and I like to avoid that if I can help it. Honestly, because all my fishing is C&R, I'd just as soon ski them in using rod and line beyond what's necessary, unhook them, get my pictures, and release them healthy and confused, ready for the next fight. If I were OP, I'd embrace that rod for what it is, get a collection of small lures that work with it, and go to town catching panfish because, while they're not bass, they're a lot of fun.

I mostly agree with all this. I would recommend that OP ignore that casting combos even exist for the time being. At least until he's got his bearings. There's no sense in steepening the learning curve this early in his quest.

So true. And I think people just don't respect that one can get away with being an idiot until the precise second that one doesn't get away with it anymore. And it'll turn into a real bad scene in a big hurry after that. I guess that applies to a lot of situations, to be honest.

I hesitate to say too much because the bait monkey will hear and will ride you into the ground. However...a 5' ultralight is gonna give you a hard row to hoe for bass fishing. That rod likely doesn't have enough backbone in the blank to fully set a big hook. You can 100% catch bass on an ultralight (and it's fun to do so!), but you gotta downsize the lures and hooks you use to suit the sweet spot of the rod and your line.

We finally ran into holiday shenanigans yesterday evening. There was what I assume a family horsing around in the water behind us as we attempted to put in. I think it was lucky for everybody last night that the motor's a cranky old 2-stroke and didn't wanna start, because I turned to look as I was turning the key, and one of them had maneuvered two or three feet aft of us and nobody but me seemed to be paying any attention. Probably wouldn't have killed her if I'd gotten the boat started. Might've just took her foot or something. However, any day I don't have to talk to the cops is a good day for me, so we just secured it back onto the trailer and went home.

The lady caught a pretty nice shellcracker this evening.

First official bass on the new-to-me-boat. Also the first topwater of the year.

I feel like I'm less likely to burn the line or have the eye loops twist on me with this knot than with a Palomar. Anyway, I use it for everything.

The lady and I took advantage of a sky that looked a lot worse than it ever turned out to be to motor around and have a look at some new spots, but got a lazy start. Got to the ramp about 9:30 to find a ghost town. Super slow day on the water for us. By the time we got back at close to 4, the weather had cleared up and there was a bit more traffic, but nothing close to what I feared.

That's awesome. Thanks for the heads up! I agree, either'll work just fine. Swim jigs, especially, can really benefit from a little longer overall length, depending on what I'm trying to emulate.

The z-craws are an excellent trailer. I hate that i can't find any more in white. Down to my last one.

How small's the step?

Try an FG knot. I resisted for a long time because I didn't wanna learn a complicated leader knot, but it's my favorite now. I have a couple rods with micro guides, and it doesn't even give them any trouble.

If it makes you feel any better, I'm really just using it as a pretty wrapper around Linux. Same thing I did when I used a Mac at my last job.

A larger hook may make it so the entire presentation rattles around in their mouth a little more, and you might possibly feel that a little sooner, but even a small bass is able to gut a massive hook.

Gotcha. There really isn't anything you can do about the line that's billowing about between the surface and your rod tip; and you already know you can't trust what that line's telling you anyway, right? Try this the next time it's windy: Orient where your line enters the water to something stationary behind it -- a stick poking up, a mat, a weed, a dock piling, some piece of structure on the far shore. Just pick something close enough that you can kind of eyeball how the two points relate spatially. If the line changes its relationship to that stationary object at all, set the hook. Incidentally, this is one of the reasons that I only spool my finesse rigs with the gaudiest, brightest color braid I can find. Lastly, in the words of the warrior-poet Captain Jean Luc Picard, "It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose." I've had them take the and sit right on the spot it was floating towards, and just munch on it like they didn't have a care in the world. It happens. Edit: Also keep your rod tip down as much as is feasible when it's windy. Minimizes the amount of line that's exposed to the wind.

The same you'd use catching them when you wanna emulate a bluegill-like forage species at any other time of year. Lure: Worms Jigs (especially swim jigs and chatterbaits) Swimbaits Spinnerbaits Colors: Green pumpkin, but don't be afraid to experiment