Big Hands

I have a couple spools of 15 lbs fluoro that I have been curious to try (P-Line CX and Sunline Shooter). Can I buy a new pair of those at pants TW? Mine seem to be defective. Might need to try some hurt feelings insurance (aka KVD Line & Lure) to go along with those big boy pants in size Double Bubba too. It's been just long enough since the last time I spooled a reel with fluoro that I can't quite recall why I swore I wouldn't do that again.

Of the two, I would choose this and maybe think about an 8 lb leader. The YZ jerkbaits will catch fish and are are fairly priced. The tiny ones work well on UL gear too. They run a little shallower than my Lucky Craft 48 SP, which comes in handy sometimes..

Maybe some risk assessment is in order. I'm not going to throw an expensive slow sinking glide bait on line that I have had for a while and haven't battle tested it on something like a Texas rig worm/lizard. I have had fluoro go bad in less than a year if it's been in the sun just while I am fishing. Now, I put it back in my tackle bag after I make a leader with it. I also have mono from . . . well, I am embarrassed to say exactly how long I have had some of those spools, but they seem to still perform well. But I still won't be tying on anything too expensive or hard to get.

Very simply/generally: If the baits you're wanting to throw are treble hook baits, I would go MH/Moderate. If the baits you're wanting to throw are single hook baits, I would go MH/F. Can you do both with either? Yes, just not as well or as easily, and your results will likely be reflective of that.

My suggestion: Check out the Daiwa Elite TTEL741MHRB (Randy Howell collection). Same general price range as a Dobyns Sierra rod. I love it for bigger topwater baits like the Whopper Plopper, Pompadour, Nomad Dartwing, Zara Spook, Sammy 115, Gunfish 117, or other baits like a 5/0 Flashy Swimmer with a 4.8" Keitech Swing Impact or a 6" Magdraft. Combined with a Curado 200K and 15 lbs mono, it's almost always on my deck ready for duty.

A few years ago, I found a Loomis rod with a Stella 1000FD reel (2007-2009 vintage as far as I can tell) floating tip down with just the butt cork sticking out of the water. I have no idea how long it had been it the water. I took it home and posted on several local boards to see if someone had lost it, as well as the lost/found at the lake) and could not find the rightful owner. I cleaned up the rod with some polish, lightly sanded the cork and cleaned up the reel. The Stella has a port screw that allows you to put lubrication into the body of the reel. I expected to find water in there, but it looked as good as new. To say I am "impressed" with the sealing on that reel is an understatement. It's amazing if they have attained that level of sealing on an Ultegra spinning reel that sells for under $150,

I certainly have no basis from which to claim I am smarter. However, given that the solid state batteries I have looked at start at around $1,000 for a 12v 90ah battery, the cost to be an early adopter is a bit rich for my budget. Looks like a great solution to have a battery that is a quarter of the weight of a lead acid battery though as I would love to have one as my starter and electronics battery. I couldn't find much about chargers for a solid state battery, but for one from the company I bought my lithium charger from for about $200 would cost over $350 for one that supposedly charges solid state batteries. I paid $550 for a 24v 100ah lithium with low temp charge protection (not heated) which should be fine for me in southern California. To replace the 100ah (only 50% of which is truly usable) 12v agm batteries I had would have cost about $450. I can easily go three trips before I need to recharge with the lithium trolling battery. I don't need to charge the starting battery much, if ever. I can check the charging status with an app on my phone, and I can actively monitor the status of the battery with my phone as well. I did have to buy a new charger for my lithium trolling motor battery and that cost close to $200. You can buy lithium chargers for less, but this had some very nice features and is waterproof. The TL/DR is that solid state looks to be something that would work well, but the cost to play in that sandbox (some might call it the perceived value) may not quite be able deliver the actual bang-for-the-buck. . . . yet.

I am willing to fish ugly water. Foam and other crud pushed back into the back of a cut. Bushes, rocks, and stickups mixed in, all the better. Places others don't even want to be, or aren't willing to take their boat, especially this time of year.

Try as I might, I just didn't get it for many years until I was out night fishing and ran into a friend at about 11:00 pm. I had been doing OK too, but he said he and his son were killin em on Senkos. So, I sat and watched them for a while, and then finally rigged one up and did the ol' monkey see, monkey do that is one of my most preferred learning styles. What works for me is to rig it wacky style with the hook about two or three rings toward the more pointed end from the 'egg sack', often with an o-ring if I have them with me. On sloping points, I rarely fish them deeper than 10' deep. On steep shorelines, or bluff walls, I don't worry much about the depth because I am casting it right up against the bluff wall, or within two feet of the bank. The bait itself does it's thing all by itself if you let it sink straight down. I leave the line fairly slack as it sinks, and I can often still feel a bite, or I see the line either jump or start moving in a way that tells me that a creature of some sort has it. I call the falling action the "wooba-wooba". I don't impart ANY action to the bait other than a couple of lifts after the initial fall. If I haven't been bit by then, I usually reel it in and cast again because my chances of getting bit after that go down substantially. When I get bit, I use the same 'hookset' as when dropshot fishing. I don't swing. Just lower the tip, reel down, and then a very firm lift. The fish will het set the hook when they feel the firm lift. I don't know if you dare fish 10 lbs braid (I like hi-vis) with a 6-8 lbs fluoro leader on a medium light spinning rod in your neck of the woods, but that's my preferred Senko combo. It's easier for me to let the bait sink straight down all on it's own with spinning gear, and this is EVERYTHING for this bait to work as it was intended to. Lots of colors catch fish, but if in doubt, go with #297. JMHO.

Same here, except my number three would be a C3 Slim Pro (a local plastic artist). It's a Senko shape, but about the same diameter as a Flick Shake.

My own little drop shot thing I do this time of year is to put the weight about 4-5 inches below the hook. If the hook is dancing around 1-2 feet over their bed, they may be content to give it a lot of time to vacate the area. When it's partying just a few inches above the bottom, they tend to not be so forgiving. If that's what I am doing, I will also use a very short compact bait so they can't easily drag it around by the tail. I don't bed fish often, but if I do, this is my go to rig. ============================ Mosquito light, mosquito, and wide gap drop shot are my go to hooks of choice. For most drop shot fishing, I'll use baits from 2" to 5", mostly nose hooked or wacky. If the hook point is not facing up after tying a Palomar know, I will run the line back through the eye of the hook from the open throat side of the hook. It should be oriented with the point facing up. This orients the bait the way you want and may facilitate hooking them in the upper part of the mouth. Two things that I do drop shot fishing, but not so much in other techniques: 1) Greatly restrict my impact on moving the bait to make it appear alive. It'll impart enough action on it's own from other sources. 2) Don't swing on them. The hooks are small and will easily pull through their mouth opening before having a chance to stick. Instead: a) if they are moving off with the bait, I lower the rod tip, reel in slack, and then keep reeling while I lift 'firmly'. or b) if I feel a definite 'peck' but they're not necessarily moving with it, I lower the rod tip, slowly reel in a little slack while trying to detect their presence, and if I feel like they are there, keep reeling while I lift 'firmly'. If I don't quite feel them there, it doesn't necessarily mean they aren't. Sometimes they swim toward you with the bait still in their mouth. If you keep reeling, you'll feel resistance gradually increase, or it 'just feels funny'. Reel in and lift firmly so you can say hello to your new friend. This improved greatly improved my 'getting a bite' to 'getting them into the boat' ratio.

I own this one too, and I think it would be a great crappie rod for average size crappie to large crappie, even for the 2-3 pound models. If you're dinking and dipping for the smaller variety, you could go lighter to cast the smallest of crappie jigs.

I agree that it is possible that the line could be slipping on the spool. The Tatula should be a great reel for jig fishing and I imagine you'll be able to get the slipping issue sorted out one way or another. However, if you're looking for a reel in the with 'good bone structure' in the $150 range, my suggestion would be to check out the Curado 200K. They are pretty compact for a 200 size reel, and I have seen them new for as low as $140.

I thought I heard them say yesterday that he had four other spots that he wasn't going to spoil just to catch a bunch of the same size fish he already had in his live well, and that he was saving those areas for the final day.

The subject of a dedicated Senko rod intrigues me (a lot). And then you mentioned flukes and dropshotting. And that Lake Fork may be a place you’d like to use such a setup. I didn’t care if my ultimate Senko rod did anything else at all, but it had to be really great for tossing weightless Senkos at the lake I fish, however, after trying no less than six different rods while on my own search for a dedicated Senko rod, my biggest takeaway was that my perfect Senko rod may not be your, or anyone else’s perfect Senko rod. It varies widely from angler to angler, and even from one body of water to another. I think I am seeing some evidence of this from the responses you’re getting already. You may or may not have already had your perfect Senko rod suggested to you here. I think you’re just going to have to try some different rods out to see how they work for you (for Senko fishing as well as dropshotting and Fluke fishing). With that in mind, I would suggest something like a 7' to 7'2", ML/F rod with a reel that is light, strong enough, can take up slack reasonably fast with a shallow spool that holds enough line, but not much more than that. I would put 12-15 lbs braid (I always apologize to @bulldog1935 for referring to braid sizes like the googan that I am) and 8-10 lbs fluorocarbon leader. I like the reel @bulldog1935 has recommended, as well as something like the Daiwa Tatula LT 2500S-XH-QD from the same source for $180. As for a rod, I would tell a friend to check out the Shimano 270ML (7', ML/F spinning rod) or the Daiwa Tatula TTU711MLFS (7'1" ML/F spinning rod) as well as other similar rods. They may not be the perfect Senko rod for where you live, but they will do a pretty good job for that as well as classic finesse-ish dropshotting and at least some versions of fluke fishing. At the risk of appearing to carry water for the Bait Monkey, you may find that your ultimate single purpose Senko rod could be something different, I think what I have suggested will do it reasonably well, as well as having a chance at dropshotting and fluke fishing reasonably well. For the record, there are few things in life I would rather do than drag a June Bug colored Ol' Monster on 20 lbs monofilament through the timber at lake fork at midnight, however my biggest Lake Fork bass (a 8.5 lbs bruiser that isn't quite a Lake Fork lunker, but a pretty good fish anywhere one goes IMHO) was caught on a rig similar to what you're looking for while jigging a 1/4 oz Joe Speitz slab.

The Fuego and Procyon bass rods from Daiwa both have an MSRP of $79.99, both have titanium oxide guidetrains. The Fuego rods have EVA grips and the Procyon rods have cork. Hard to find a decent cork handle rod for that price. I once had a 7'2" M/XF Fuego spinning rod and sold it because I didn't care for the XF action. I am also not a big fan of EVA foam grips, and would probably go for a Procyon for that reason alone (but that's just me). Other than that it was fine for the price. If you're looking at Tatula rods, One of my favorite rods is the 7'3" MH/F 'All Around' casting rod. Daiwa makes 7'3" MH/F casting rods in many of their ranges that are classified as either 'All Around' or 'Multi-Purpose' and they just seem to have that certain something that I like.

Ever eat a pine cone?

I'm that guy that can fish for 12 hours, not get a bite, and tell you with a straight face that I have not have eaten anything or even taken a sip of water because I was too busy fishing.

12 lbs 4 oz, with a jointed wooden lure (made from 1-3/8" closet dowel and eye screws for the hook hangers, joints, and line tie. . . purchased from Home Depot), with a soft plastic tail. No photos. It wasn't my PB. I reeled it in, weighed her, and sent her back to where she came from.

Put one of these on the back if it'll make ya feel better. . .

Yea. If I was going to try to eliminate gear issues, I would want to be able to be able to keep pressure on with lots of room to spare, so a mod or regular action rod that matches well to the line I am using. Same with hooks; sticky sharp and the finest wire that isn't likely to fail, and will set past the barb with the power of the rod I am using. Proper drag setting. If it's too loose, the fish can make it difficult to keep the rod bent down far enough. As for technique, if you see them headed for the surface (and a Bang-O-Lure doesn't run much below it), you can alter the pressure you have on the fish to see if you can get them to have difficulty being in a good jumping position right when they are going to jump. With small-ish treble hooks, you're not in a good position to horse them over as they get to the surface (maybe a little, but not a lot), so the opposite approach could work. That is to ease the pressure a little before they about to jump which sometimes gets them headed somewhere other than the surface. A rod that will stay loaded if you ease up on the pressure helps a bunch. Changing the angle you're pulling from can also discourage them from jumping. The other thing that comes to mind is that seeing that you list smallmouth as your favorite species. The Bang-O-Lure is a long skinny stick bait, and a smallmouth may be having a tougher time fully eating it deeply enough to get the hook into it's mouth. Just a thought.

Zodias or Tatula Elite. . . . . if you can stomach the hypalon grips.

I think I saw a video of Mike Long using one of those very successfully.

From the BASS website: B.A.S.S. officials received a call on the morning of Feb. 26 from Elite Series pro Scott Martin, self-reporting a violation of Rule C3. 3 PRACTICE AND COMPETITION (ii) a. and j., concerning the receipt of information to gain a competitive advantage from a non-competitor. Martin admitted to having a conversation with a local angler about conditions at certain locations on Lake Okeechobee after the no information period was in effect. Due to the infraction, Martin has been disqualified from the 2025 Champion Power Equipment Bassmaster Elite on Lake Okeechobee and has been assessed a fine. “Unintentionally and inadvertently, I received information that violated the no information rule,” said Martin. “I was rigging my boat at the marina and was engaged in a conversation with an angler and simply did not shut it down quickly enough. This really hurts, as this lake is special to me and I was really looking forward to the event. That said, the integrity of our sport is paramount, and I have to deal with the consequences. This is a situation that can happen to any angler in the Elite field and in today’s world, we have to be vigilant and simply do things differently.”

It's actually quite moderate IMHO. I have one and knew this going in. You're going to have to lean on it a bit with single hook swimbaits. JMHO. Thinking a rod would have enough give to keep treble hooks from pulling out, while at the same time, thinking that it could have the backbone to drive a big single hook past the barb and keep those fishing coming to the boat? I'm not sure you can expect to have it both ways.