galyonj

Same here. Crankbaits make me hyper, so I change them a lot.

Nice. The video I was referring to was from Richard Gene. I think it's whatever and either is probably fine.

The way I heard it explained, you dunk the plastic spool the line is sold on, then you spool it up on the reel.

Yeah, you ain't kidding between the rocks and the garbage.

Whatever I find cheapest between 1/32 and 1/16, because I snag and have to break off like 90% of them. I don't even care about the head shape at this point.

You've got gobs and gobs of good options below $100. Especially for topwater presentations like you mention. Rod price goes up concurrent with sensitivity (and brand name, but fish can't read the logo on the blank), of course, but I don't see a topwater situation in which you're going to struggle to detect a strike.

I don't keep up much with spinning reels, and I've never turned anti-reverse off on the one reel I have except to play with it, but it looks like Lew's also has the switch on several models. From lurking other discussions here it seems like back reeling fell out of favor when reels that had a smoother drag became more prevalent.

I agree with the guys above. The size of the jig isn't gonna be an issue because I don't think fish see it and have the same considerations we do. Two things are more important to me than overall size: weight and color. Matching bluegill patterns works really well for me down here, especially in ponds where they're more likely to be the main forage for bass. A dab of chartreuse will take you a long way some days. In addition, my most productive weight is "light." I use ¼ oz swim jigs because I feel like I have more flexibility in the speed of my retrieve over ⅜ oz. You may find trimming the skirt advantageous, though, especially if you're bumping into things and yanking it out of grass. Some days that little bit of extra flare and puff from trimming the skirt material that lays over the rubber band is money.

This is how I do it, for what that's worth. The line touch is a little extra to be more visible in the photo, but I just let the line rest on my index finger while I'm working a lure that needs it. Easy peasy.

Happened to me yesterday. I hope that's what it was, anyway. Otherwise I swung and missed, and that would be sad.

Far and away my most productive trailer is a 3.75" Rage Swimmer. I've stopped using everything else and all my Keitechs and Divine Swimmers are in a box in my office closet now. I've never seen that before but I need it. Stupid bait monkey.

I'm starting to think that anything that's not a t-rig or a ball-head jig is just taking up space for you.

I'm... somewhat familiar with that color. A tequila sunrise Mag II is what I caught my first fish on when I got back into the hobby after a long time away. ?

It's possible back then they had a version with flake in it, but the version I'm familiar with now is like a purple/maroon laminate. Like so:

Like Tequila Sunrise? Love that color.

It drives a bass absolutely nuts to kill a lure and just let it sit there for a while, then suddenly pop it back up. It's like it startles them or something.

Thank you, sir! That bluegill skirt was money in this little pond.

I've had the stench of skunk on me so long that I was afraid it'd never wash off, and I thought a change of scenery would be nice. So I went to a pond nearish to the house and I knew I had a chance when one of the maintenance crewmen that was weedeating asked me if I ever caught anything there, and said that he didn't even know if there were any fish in the water. Somehow, that always means I'm gonna catch a fish. The change of scenery did me good, apparently. First one. Caught it slow rolling an H2O Xpress plopper past the cattails. The second one thought a @Siebert Outdoors shotcaller looked like a tasty snack. I really needed to get moving cause I have stuff to do today that can't be accomplished with a fishing rod in my hand, but I got one more before I packed up. Caught it on a Gill Raker jointed swimbait. This fish pooped on me. Which I guess is fair since I tricked him and caused him to get stuck in his face. Lost two others. One on a weighted wacky rig, and the other on the same swim jig from above. My hookset is bad and I should feel bad.

What a collection of toads. Nicely done.

When I was younger, and before MS made my balance so bad that it wasn't worth trying anymore, I played golf every once in a while with my dad and our friends. One evening we went to the driving range and a friend of ours was there, and this dude had just got a new driver. I can't even remember what it was he bought now, but he was real proud of it. He squares up to the tee, does his dance, and claps it. Shanked it so bad we joked he was throwing a boomerang. Same result for the next few balls. He got mad at the club and told me to try. I wasn't any better at golf than I am at fishing, which is to say that I'm hilariously bad at both. But, somehow, I hit that ball as hard as as straight as I've ever struck a golf ball. Absolutely smashed it. Turned around to give it back to him and he said "Hell, just keep it!" And that's how I got a nice new driver.

I have two rods with Winn grips, and they're just so comfortable. Too thin a grip makes my hand cramp.

Not to disparage your homeboy, but the vast majority of macho thinking is difficult for me to wrap my head around. Hold your spinning reel upside down. That'll learn 'em.

I think the difference is that I get a lot of satisfaction after dialing one in just right. I took the 5.6 LFS I throw plugs with apart and cleaned/greased/oiled all the innards a couple days ago, and bombing that popper out when I finally got it all dialed in felt real good. Spinning reels have a lot of value for me still, but I'm a lot less comfortable with them now, even though I fished way more of my life with one than with a BC.

I'm cheap and I'm not very accurate, so I love these. They catch fish and it doesn't break my heart to have a tree eat one.

Swim jigs for me. I've never once caught on a spinnerbait of any sort. At least I can get a swim jig to produce once in a while.