ironbjorn

I've had bass eat a Senko while also looking at me in crystal clear water a half foot off the bank. Try a Ned Rig. There's a pond that I was convinced had no bass in it even though it was heavily pressured until one day I used a Ned Rig and caught 20+ while everyone else got skunked and have presumably stayed skunked because I've never seen anyone else catch a bass from there and I've never caught them on anything but a Ned.

Red hot needles under the fingernails sounds like a less painful time than skipping ?

You already have too much for being bank bound. Anything else added to this list is a niche enthusiast purchase.

If you can get them in Canada, the Dobyns Sierra line might be the best rods for Smallies in the sub $200 price range ($160).

Despite every rule book ever, the heat and dead of summer is when I catch quantity and quality.

50 is an all around size for functionality and casting. 30 if you want to get cute, 40 is you're specializing, and 65 if you think you're fishing for 15lbers out of the absolute worst slop humanely imaginable every time like too many people think.

Spinnerbait, after days upon days upon days of trying. And a decade later nothing has changed: it rarely catches a fish, and so it rarely gets used.

Very, very few people have seen a UFO, and what they claim they saw is highly questionable. On the other hand, most bass have seen UFOs (boats) and/or aliens (humans). They would probably believe them.

No bites = lure Short strikes = color

Randy Blaukat recently put out a video discussing why professional bass anglers fall off the map as they get older. It's a mixture of the natural aging process and reluctance to change and adapt, among other things. It's a younger man's game. 30s and 40s are the height of their careers. A 30 something bass angler wouldn't even care to catch this fish.

I find that most internet forums have trash mods who play favorites and have blatant biases. The worst are the "woke" mods. Here however the mods are fantastic. This place is a gem.

5:30am~. You can get hurt more easily in the dark (this is my way of not owning up to the fact that, even in my 30s, the night still gives me the creeps ---- oh, oops).

I like to be left alone. I'm a quiet man of few words who likes solitude outside of my fiance and children. I wouldn't normally chat with strangers in every day life, let alone when I'm engaging in one of my life's passions, where I go to enjoy nature and peace. I'm not a jerk for it; I've truly been this way my whole life; always quiet, by myself, not much liking human interaction. Just yesterday I had th typical case of rude strangers while fishing a large pond from the bank. A couple of men showed up with a dog. They came within 10-15 yards of me and started throwing a ball into the water for the dog to fetch. They asked if I ever do any good here and I said sometimes and then packed up and moved down about 20-25 yards. No luck there, and they killed my other spot, so I packed up again after 20 minutes (and they were still throwing that d**n ball into the water for the dog) to move to the other side of the pond. The only way to do this was to walk by them. Now where they were is a steep brushy hill. As I was passing they told me to "throw in" right there after the dog got out because they saw fish. I said I'm after bass and after all this commotion there won't be any over here. They said that they saw bass. I said even if that's the case and I manage to catch one right away right here I won't be able to get it through this brush and up the hill. They said yes I will. At that point I'm really just aggravated and wanting to move on, so I said, thanks but I do this every day when weather permits and I know that trying to fish right here where a dog is jumping in the water, casting over brush and down a hill, is stupid, goodbye.

If you can't get a good, reliable reel for $100-$200, the industry is broken. Hint: you actually can, easily. There are so many amazing reels out there in that price range. I feel like you're talking a completely different language than a vast majority of bass anglers.

Power Worm or Culprit, differences are almost negligible.

That wasn't really what I was getting at. I'm talking about the people who fear snagging in the rocks, fishing brush piles, stumps, trying to get under overhanging trees, etc; people who are so scared of losing a lure that they'll only fish safe, open water, rather than where the fish are actually located. Of course one should take extra care when fishing around the belongings of others around docks. If you're not skilled enough to trust that you won't dent a boat, break a window, or snag a 5 year old, it's best to move on. Just like with Senko fishing. We all know it's one Senko, one fish most of the time. It gets costly. But just like we know that fishing snaggy areas is where the bass are, we also know that nothing in the stick bait variety is better than a Senko and that a Senko will catch fish. It costs money to catch them consistently. There's nothing wrong with the knockoff route, just like it's one's prerogative to fish safe water, but just know you're leaving fish behind.

This reminds me of the guys who won't cast into high snag risk areas for fear of losing the lure. If you want to consistently catch fish, it's going to cost you some money.

I'm glad you covered height. Too many guys spread the myth that height doesn't matter when selecting rod length. Dead wrong. Too many below average height guys have had bad experiences with long rods for this myth to continue. I'm 5'11" and even at 7'3" I find pitching to get messy with hitting things below me.

You're backwards. You're worrying about a negligible difference in gear ratio when you should be worrying about the rod. A medium powered rod won't do everything, not even close. A medium heavy powered rod is what you're looking for. Anything in the 6-7 gear ratio will do most things well for you.

Following the rules and staying home is the best thing to do. Please tell me we don't care more about fishing licenses laws than pandemic quarantine rules around here.

The Bullets are heavy as a brick and the one I got my kid before he learned how to use spinning took a crap just as fast as any other spincast reel

They're largemouth. Nothing about those fish says spotted bass, and where they were caught isn't even within their living range as indicated above. Nothing against Tom, but I've often seen him confuse the two species when lurking before joining.

You don't have to justify your use of inexpensive equipment. If it works, it works.

I'm of Norwegian and French Canadian descent. I don't tan. I immediately burn. I've gotten second degree sunburn on my scalp twice during my younger years playing summer flag football. That was no fun either time, and now being older, it concerns me about the future. I'm very vigilant about covering up these days.

I strongly disagree. That's the beauty of fishing and opinions I guess.