BrianMDTX

I have a big box but use it as storage. I have smaller Plano boxes that fit in storage pouches on my inflatable boat that I swap out baits I plan to use that day. Too many options seems to make me want to change baits more frequently and catch less bass lol.

I hope to. Doing some chores today to keep tomorrow wide open for fishing. Forecast is sunny and a high of 84°. Should be a nice day on the water.

Welcome to BR!

A few years ago I had Cheap Beer Summer. I bought a six of beers I recalled drinking in my salad days. Miller High Life. Budweiser. Pabst Blue Ribbon. Rolling Rock. National Bohemian (Natty Boh), Natural Light, Busch, Coors Banquet and probably a couple of others. It made me remember what watered-down commercial American suds tasted like when I was a lad. And why I stopped drinking it lol. Life is too short to drink cheap beer. Except ice cold Coors Light goes well with hot steamed crabs. That’s a given.

My wife and I were scheduled to get the J&J last Thursday, which we’ve been waiting for. They put the kibosh on it the day prior lol. So we decided to get the Moderna. Had our first shot on Monday evening. Other than an ache at the injection site, neither on of us had a reaction. Got it at Walmart. Didn’t even have time to look at fishing stuff lol.

Well, all I can say is that A- I fish a lot of shallow 4’-8’ deep ponds that B- have mostly mucky bottoms, so weightless or 1/8 oz is the way to go to avoid dredging up too much junk. Texas rigged Senkos and Neko Machos cast well from my baitcasters without any weight, and most of my Zoom Tricks, creature baits, etc. are tossed on my spinning rigs. I cast them in cover, weed beds and open water. Catch bass in all those spots. But it’s shallow water, which helps.

I'm not sure. Walmart's product specs leave a lot to be desired. I think the 7' combo is a BMAX3/701MH, which I believe is a Medium Heavy power but I do not see the action. Not even on Abu Garcia's website. But I would think it's likely fast at the most and possibly moderate. I highly doubt if it's XF. The local WM by me has four left at $59.00. Hard to beat that!

It's turning into one of my favorite soft plastics. Casts like a bullet weightless, and catches bass either as a Neko rig or a weightless Texas rig. Its a great bait.

Jerkbaits and spinnerbaits. Never caught a darned thing on a jerkbait until this month. Then I caught one bass on an outing. Next time I caught three. Only caught one bass on a spinnerbait until last Monday. Then I caught two (one was 12” off the bank).

@Spankey Walmart has a Black Max combo for $69.95. Not sure what the specs are on the Black Max rod, but for that price, probably good enough. Both my Black Max reels are on Daiwa Aird-X’s. One a MF and the other a MHF. I have no issues with either reel. I had no problem reeling this bass in last Friday that bit on a Daiwa/GYBC Neko Macho weightless TR on a Gamakatsu 3/0 EWG.

I gotta say, I have two Black Max’s and the only time I ever have an issue is on me, not the reel. I am NOT good at flipping or pitching lol. Other than that, both have caught many bass and I really have zero complaints.

That’s a great-looking rig. I know performance counts but I’d rather have a great-looking rig that performs vs one that looks like crapola. I hope you set the hook on a big gal with it soon!

Your profile says you’re in Bethlehem, PA. I transferred from PHL to IAH in 2019 after 58 years (minus 3.5 years in DE and any military postings) in MD. This is a huge bass there for sure. Here, you get a “nice fish” at the most lol. They do get bigger here for sure. And most have that real pretty green coloration. Not all, but most. Best of all is this pond is 1/2 mile at most from my driveway.

I was out last Friday tossing Neko Macho TR with it. Had no problems reeling this bass in with it!

Here's a link to my review of the rod in another thread. https://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/236728-going-to-try-a-falcon/?do=findComment&comment=2693327

I just purchased a Lowrider All Round Fast MHF a few weeks ago. Paired it with a Daiwa Fuego CT 8.1:1 as my primary rig for soft plastics. It’s quickly becoming my favorite rig.

My bestest and most sage advice is: have fun most of all, keep at it and the fish will follow. When I was younger, I thought lures were the greatest scam ever perpetuated on the public. I never, and I mean never, caught anything over 10” long and that was with tiny spoons, spinners and panfish poppers. Plastics? A joke. Spinnerbaits? Waste of $$$. Crankbaits? Get real! Heck, I read Outdoor Life, Field and Stream and other magazines about techniques, etc. and still I sucked lol. Why? I don’t know. I think my dad, who was 99% a live bait angler, was unable to show me the basics of fishing lures, and without a mentor at a young age, I failed miserably. So much so that when I gave up on fishing to concentrate on hunting, it felt like no big loss. When I started fishing again last year after an almost 30-year absence, what did I do? Yep. Live bait. Had fun, caught some fish, cussed at the turtles and then I caught a nice 6-7 lb bass on a #6 baitkeeper hook and 1/2 a nightcrawler on a UL rig. And looking for info I somehow, through the magic of Google, found this site. And read a lot. And learned a lot. And saw that some had tons of success, some caught decent fish and other struggled but kept at it. So I decided to upgrade some rigs and tackle and tried fishing with lures again. The first bass I caught (about 3 lbs) on a plastic worm turned my life around. In less than a year I’ve caught nice bass on plastic worms, Senkos, creature baits, spinnerbaits, jigs, topwater lures, jerkbaits, you name it. I stuck with it, and success followed. But I had fun. That’s the most important part. It’s a journey, not a destination.

Too big for the Bait Monkey. That’s Bait Gorilla territory!

If you are looking for an easy braid-to-leader knot, you can’t get any easier than the Lefty Kreh knot. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GDxGy3Nld2g

Went for a hour or so. Caught two on a spinnerbait and craw, and missed two on a Neko Macho weightless TR. Nothing of any size but my first spinnerbait catches this year. Not sure what spinnerbait it was. I don’t know how you guys keep track of all your lures lol. I think the craw was a 4” Strike King Rage Craw.

I was thinking along the same lines. There should be some way to waterproof the fur to a degree to make it usable. Because you're right, that rat is a beautiful bait that needs to catch a hawg!

That is a wild-looking Neko rig bait right there.

Spinning: wacky rigs, weightless Texas rigs with lightweight plastics (Zoom Tricks, creature baits), Neko rigs with lightweight baits, small jerkbaits (Rapala Floating Minnow, etc.). Baitcasting: pretty much everything else.

Lots of choices. Looking at TW and Academy, many are still not in stock.

Well, the rod is a MF and the reel is 6.4:1 spooled with 10 lb Big Game lol. I’ll look at those two. Thanks.