Bankc

About half of my lures are ones I bought to try out and see if I like them. More often than not, I like what I already have better. But these lures are great for these types of situations. So I have plenty of stuff that I can throw into places where I'm totally okay with not getting my lure back. At worst, it gives me an excuse to buy and try something new. At best, I get a nice bite.

My grandfather and great-grandfather. My great-grandfather had a minnow pond with a bamboo field growing next to it, so we'd often catch some minnows and make a pole out of bamboo before hitting the pond. My grandfather had a boat, and he'd frequently take us out fishing in it whenever we visited. It was their favorite pastimes and something they passed down to their kids and grandkids. My father was more into water skiing. So we also had a boat growing up, but my father didn't really know how to fish, so we mostly just ran around a lake, gave up, and fished back at the dock.

With carbon drag washers you lose some of the middle range. Carbon drag washers will ramp up much more quickly, making it harder to get a specific middle setting. Also, if you're putting more drag on your reel than it was designed for, it can damage other parts of your reel. Just some things to think about. I switch out all of my reels with regular drag washers for carbon fiber ones if they don't come from the factory that way. I prefer them, but they're not without their drawbacks.

I don't care about reel speed. For pitching and punching, you don't have much line out. A lower ratio reel might help with the slop, but it's really the rod that does all of the work. So long as it has Stout drag, I'm happy. For most presentations, I don't worry about reel speed. The two situations where it matters to me is buzzbaits and deep diving cranks. I also have a super slow 3.8:1 reel that I like for poppers and walkers, because it seems to work out that one full rotation on that reel will take up the perfect amount of slack, so I can burn a popper or Spook really easily. But that's more serendipity of the situation than preferring slow reels in general.

I have a small steel bar that I wrap it around. It's the same steel bar that is attached to my plug knocker, so if I get hung up, I usually have that out anyway. I don't go 100% braid all of the time. I usually like to use a mono or fluoro leader for this reason, and to make the braid last longer. But if I break off the leader, it gets too short, or I just get lazy, I'll go straight braid with just about anything.

How old are we talking here? And when you say you don't want to use live bait, do you mean you don't want to mess with worms or minnows or something that's currently living, or do you want to stick to artificial lures? Because it's easier to teach kids to fish using a hook and boober than it is a T-rig or marabou jig. And you can always throw something like dough, hominy, powerbait, etc. on a hook and catch fish pretty easily. I know a couple of adults who want to go fishing with me, and I can't get them to do anything but cast a line once and watch a bobber. Anything more than that, and they get anxious and frustrated and want to quit. And we're talking full grown adults. Kids are even worse. Sometimes you'll find one that shows an interest, but most people's idea of fishing is just sitting still, and then reeling in a big fish every 5-10 minutes.

I love my kayak except when loading an unloading it, and during windy days. I've learned how to deal with the wind pretty well, but it still takes a lot of the fun out and puts a lot more stress and frustration into the whole trip. I'm looking to eventually get a trailer of some kind, because car topping is not fun nor quick. A lot of my local lakes are almost unfishable without a boat of some kind. They usually have the docks locked up, so you can't fish from there. The banks are covered in trees and thick brush, so they're near impossible to get to through, let alone whip a pole around. And while there are usually a few fishing piers and a couple of sections of bank that you can access, they're usually crowded and not in good spots for fishing.

That excitement is the only thing keeping me employed. Seriously. This last year has been ridiculously rough at my job, and I hated to quit, but I just didn't know how much longer I could take the stress. I've seen some ups and downs over the last ten years, but this last year has been a completely different world. But I found a small lake near my job and started packing my lunch and fishing on my lunch break. Now, while I still absolutely hate my job, I at least enjoy going to it in the mornings, because it means I get to fish. It's amazing how 20 minutes of fishing can change your day.

If you really want stretch, go with mono. Fluorocarbon, unlike mono, doesn't shrink back much after it stretches. If you stretch it out fighting a fish, you'd be smart to replace it afterwards, as it likely won't stretch much again before it snaps. Mono will rebound much better.

I'm starting to get away from the Palomar for FC. FC line seems to not like being pinched, and if you accidentally cross the line on a Palomar, it seems to weaken the knot a lot more than with braid or nylon. I might give that MK a try.

Each year it seems to be different. Last year, topwaters and deep diving crankbaits were killing it. This year, I'm doing better with T-rigged craws. Last year was hotter, and this year has been wetter. Also, the water seems clearer and there's more vegetation this year. I usually just start trying different things until something works. And once I find something that works well, it tends to work from late July through late August, with a few exceptions sprinkled throughout.

The plopper can be fished slower than a buzzbait. It's also easier to do a start-stop retrieve. And it makes a different sound and has a different profile, so sometimes fish will prefer one over the other. In a pond, I prefer poppers and propbaits. Pond fish tend to be a bit more skittish and the water tends to be a bit more still, so you often benefit from using smaller, and less aggressive techniques. Though, sometimes the fish want the exact opposite of what you'd think. So you never know.

Yeah. If you can find one. They were discontinued in early 2016, so you'd have to look on the used market. And I don't know how inclined I would be to buy an old one. They're usually not cheap, and it might be smarter in the long run to just buy a new sonar unit that comes with a new mapping software preinstalled.

Honestly, on the higher end of that range ($150+), it's kind of hard to go wrong. I'd just head down to a store and see what they have, and pick whatever catches your eye or feels the best in your hands. That's right about at the sweet spot of the price to performance curve.

That's where I'm at with it. It's not that it won't work. But it's easier to target suspended fish in open water with a lure that big. In the warmer months, I'm usually fishing topwater, bumping along the bottom, or deep in the weeds and trees.

Are you sure you have it set to feet and not meters?

I'm rarely bothered by others. Though the people cutting in front when I'm trolling or drifting a bank, and the people who punch it full speed out of there, right next to me bother me a bit because I'm in a kayak and that will either ruin an hour of my time (because it takes me forever to get to another spot) or is dangerous (high waves when you're standing on a kayak is no fun). But I take a deep breath and let it all go. The world is full of stupid people. You can't let them bring you down to their level. And getting angry will make you stupid.

My theory is the biggest bass are bullies. They can choose the best spots to hide and wait for the food to come to them. And since food is plentiful, they can be picky about what and when they feed. So they're less likely to go after a single lure when a school of baitfish will soon pass by. The amount of food you can catch versus the amount of energy expelled goes up significantly if there's a school of fish swimming right next to the big bass's ambush spot. Smaller bass have to find food in less than ideal conditions. They get pushed off the best spots. So they have to be more aggressive and exposed to feed. Many lures mimic an injured bait fish. For a small bass, this makes for an easier meal. For a big bass, it presents a risk. Is this baitfish sick, and will it make the bass sick if they eat it? Plus there are more smaller bass in any given lake. So big bass are definitely more rare, just by the fact that it takes time to get big and the longer you live, the more dangers you will have faced. Of course, there are environmental factors that can skew that. And I doubt big bass are much smarter. Human brains don't fully develop until around 27, so that's a bad comparison. Animals like fish and reptile's brains are usually fully developed not long after birth. But big bass may seem smarter to us, as they're less likely to be motivated to try to eat something if something seems a bit off or conditions aren't ideal. So they'll pass on your injured baitfish snack that your throwing a few feet away and wait for that buffet to come knocking on their door.

This is the main reason I use a leader, when I use a leader. Braid will last forever on a reel and it casts better than fluorocarbon. It the cheapest line to use, in the long term. And using a leader keeps me from having to peel off the braid to put more backing on it, or replacing the braid. So the braid to leader saves me money. I like to use about 7-15ft of leader. Right now, I'm using Yo-Zuri Top Knot Fluorcarbon for leader, as it's really cheap and works well enough. A $10 spool will last me many years. It's got some bad memory, so I wouldn't use it as a mainline, even though it's labeled as such. But it works pretty well as a leader, in my experience.

I'm in the opposite boat. I found a Penn Warfare in the trash a while back. It was attached to a broken rod, and apparently the previous owner got so mad, they threw away the whole combo. The reel needed a good cleaning, but is otherwise fine. I don't have a use for it, but I still find myself looking for a rod for it. As for your situation, I'd just find a cheap reel to throw on that. The standard SLX would be good. Pairing an expensive reel to a cheap rod is kind of like putting expensive racing tires on a Ford Tarus. Will they improve it? Yeah. But it's not gonna turn it into a race car. A really nice reel will just make you want to replace the rod altogether. For the price of a Curado DC, you could probably get a nice Johnny Morris combo that you'd appreciate a whole lot more.

I wouldn't worry too much about speed. You control the fish more with the rod than the reel anyway. Usually when you're pulling a big bass out of the salad, a lower gear ratio is more helpful because it has more torque, so you can spin it faster. Higher speed reels are better for fishing fast than pulling bass in fast, in my opinion. Same with plastic reel frames and low drag settings. The forces places on reel come from the front, and plastic reels typically flex when pushed from the side more than the front. And low drag can be overcome with some thumb and rod control. So basically, I'd just look for a well built reel with strong gears. The Fuego would be a great choice. A lot of plastic framed reels get a bad rap because they're cheap reels to begin with. It's not the plastic that dooms them, but the cost cutting everywhere else. My frogging and punching reel is an Abu Zata and it has a plastic frame. But it's well built and handles the slop better than my aluminum framed BPS Pro Qualifier II.

Unless you're fishing around wood, shells, or something that will catch and abrade braided line, or are fishing in fairly clear water, you don't need a leader. One of my favorite things about braid is how supple it is. It allows for better bait action, in my opinion. Though if you're pinning your weight against the bait, that doesn't really matter.

Half of what I throw are crankbaits. They are by far my most productive bait. I'm surprised at how often I hear people talking about banging crankbaits into cover to get a bite. I'd say only about 25% of my crankbait bites come on casts where I've bumped it into something. Sure, it's a good technique. And I'll definitely try it when I can (I fish a lot of lakes with muddy bottoms and sparse cover). But it's far from the only effective way to fish a crankbait. Sometimes varying the speed from slow to fast works. Sometimes switching the rod from your left side to your right works (it gives the bait a quick pause, jerk, and change of direction). Sometimes a rapid start stop works. Sometimes a hard run with a few quick pauses works. You can fish them like a jerkbait, or a swimbait. There's a thousand ways to fish them, and bumping cover is just one. No matter what you do, just make sure it's a bit erratic. Bass love that.

I sounds to me like you're mistaking hitting something like submerged tree branches for bites. Or if you are getting bit, then you're definitely trying to set the hook too hard and pulling the rod way too high. On a small crankbait like that, with those small treble hooks, you shouldn't be setting the hook with enough force to pull the lure out of the water. And you usually want to sweep it off to the side and keep the rod tip low.

I sure hope they stay mixed. I've got a can of that stuff for my weed whacker that usually goes about 3 years before being refilled. With a little gas stabilizer, it seems to go the full 3 years without any problems. Probably not best practice, but my last weed whacker lasted about 15 years, or five gallons.