jimanchower

You're exactly right about this method and the difficulty of keeping tension in the knot. I do two wraps and then use my teeth to get the leader tight and kind of work the knot between my fingers. Then repeat until I have 14-16 total wraps. It takes me closer to 2 minutes to do it, tag ends and all. Another downside of this method: you trim off a good bit (12-18") of braid on the tag end. Not insignificant compared to losing just a few inches of main line as with other methods, or other knots.

My creeks are muddier than yours up in TN (well, maybe not this week), but I really like a weedless Ned rig for bottom-contact and a 3/16oz Booyah Pond Magic spinnerbait. The latter is $2.99 at Academy so if you lose a couple to rocks or laydowns you're not too heartbroken. Scott F's advice is pretty spot on in terms of how to actually fish it.

Funny you mention the 6'8" Sierras. I have a 683 and a 684 and I like them a lot. I got a SLX MGL reel last week and had never fished one of the MGL spools. I put it on my Dobyns 683, rigged it with a 2.8 Keitech on an underspin, and caught a 4+ pound bass on my first cast. I did everything wrong. I hadn't tightened down the drag at all. I did eventually get the hook set, and then promptly let the fish run under the dock I was standing on and get into the pilings. I managed to pull him out and get him out of the water. Bent the hook out, too. I credit "having the right equipment" because I was not at my best in that moment.

More difficult but certainly not impossible. I use my teeth on the tag end of the leader to help get a little tension on the leader line and keep the wraps tight. I like that this method lets you do everything right in your lap - no need to use the rod to keep tension or anything like that. For me, it's changed the FG into a knot I'm confident tying quickly while on the water.

Curious if any of you guys and gals have tried this FG knot tying method. (start back at the beginning of the video to see the full description and technique) I certainly didn't get it immediately, and then it took me a while to be able to do consistently, but I can tie a perfect, consistent FG knot in under two minutes using this method. Half of that is tidying up the tag ends and doing the finishing hitch knots, where I take my time. This probably isn't the best way for someone to learn the FG knot, but for those who tie it regularly I think it's a good method.

I set the spool tension pretty light and I definitely still have to use my thumb to at least slow the spool as the lure enters the water. You can certainly get thumb-free casting by tightening the spool up but accuracy and distance suffer. The thumb-free stuff is just a party trick.

Yeah, apologies for the clickbait-y subject line. I like my reels but I understand that others have their own preferences. I don't throw a lot of baits under 1/4oz on my casting rods but I can see where that would be advantageous. I haven't tried any Daiwa baitcasters yet. I appreciate the nod towards the SV. I'll check it out. I have noticed the same as I have tested my flipping and pitching skills. I appreciate the feedback.

I started bass fishing not quite a year ago with a $50 Ugly Stik combo. Fast forward to this summer and I have a half dozen baitcasters and a few decent spinning setups. All of my baitcasters are Shimano SLX DC reels. Looking towards my next combo (isn't that what we all do?) I'm curious what techniques might be better suited to towards a reel with a traditional braking system. Are there techniques for that you find the DC brakes are a liability? What about techniques where the lower weight and bulk of a lower-profile reel are really beneficial? I love my SLX DC reels and I don't know that I would buy anything different if I had it to do over, but I'm curious how others approach it.

Sexy Shad and Secret Gill are kind of my "standard" colors but I've had luck with Black Orochi when I want to change it up, and I recently picked up a Pumpkinseed that I think offers a little variation that the other colors don't. I fish it on a St. Croix Bass X 7'1" M/F with 15# mono.

Getting into post spawn here. On the lake I'm catching them on a wacky rigged senko and a lot of topwater - mostly poppers and frogs. On the creek it's been spinnerbaits and Ned rigs.

Do you guys not know about Drew Gregory?? https://www.youtube.com/user/RiverBasserDrew Check out the whole Hooked on Wild Waters series, starting with season 1 episode 1.

I set up an unscientific test by setting up a step ladder with a 1" wooden dowel running perpendicular to the steps. I put a 3# weight in a bucket with a handle and set it on top of a container to put it about 10" off the ground. Then I set up something like this, if you can visualize it wooden dowel leader material wrapped around dowel split ring 50# braid carabiner bucket with weight container supporting the bucket and weight ...then I kicked the container out of the way. 8# Invizx broke each time, whether I used a uni or Palomar. Berkley Trilene Big Game 8# held with both a uni and a Palomar. Granted, the Invizx is .009" compared to .011". But I figure the real difference is that the monofilament stretches and absorbs the shock which helps reduce the strain on the knot. Maybe there's not much difference in the overall weight bearing capacity, but I was trying to simulate a hook set, not gradual weight being applied.

For this setup, I don't have a good answer. It's not because I need a certain fall rate or depth, and not because I feel that I need shock absorption. In a world where knots don't fail I think braid to leader (and a fluoro leader in particular) is the "right" way, but I'd prefer to have landed those fish. I'm leaning towards combining all of the good advice I've received so far and: 1. Fishing straight braid on this particular setup and seeing how that changes things 2. Testing my knot tying and testing other knots with flouro 3. Trying a mono leader if I feel like braid's visibility is causing me issues

One of the things that I like about the uni knot is that it is efficient with line, in that it doesn't leave much tag end. I don't like my leader knot to go onto my spool so I'm typically using only a 6-7' leader at most. If I stick with fluoro maybe it's time to make a change to the Palomar. I think this has more to do with my ability to tie a clean Palomar versus a uni. I think "switch to mono" might be another step in the right direction. Thanks for the input so far. I probably shouldn't have mentioned the FG knot in my post because it's not my issue; the terminal knot is. I do agree about the value of learning it, though. It's far superior (for me) to the double uni, which is what I used to use.

I've lost a couple of decent bass this spring when setting the hook on a wacky-rigged weightless senko this spring. I'm using a 6'6" medium/fast rod with 15# braid to 8# Invis-X leader, joined by an FG knot. My knot at the hook is a uni knot wrapped 5 times, and this is where I'm having my issue. I have only seen this breakage happen on bigger fish (let's say 4-6 pounds), and this has happened after I've already caught a few smaller ones. I'm tempted to do away with the leader altogether and go straight braid. I'm fishing waters with a few feet (at best) to a few inches of visibility, and these are mostly ponds that don't get a ton of pressure or creeks/rivers that hardly see any anglers. I don't have issues breaking off when I'm fishing straight braid. Alternatively I can re-examine my knots, and try to get better at tying them. I'm aware that care must be taken when knotting fluoro to avoid introducing a weak point, and maybe I'm not careful enough. On the other hand, I have to question if the finnickiness of the fluoro leader is worth it for the conditions I'm fishing. I know the "should I use a leader?" question is a well-worn path, but I'm thinking it through. How would you approach this issue? I've added a poll, and of course would encourage you to share your thoughts.

Or a small piece of Velcro hook-and-loop fastener like you'd find sold for the purposes of organizing cables.

A spinnerbait isn't a confidence bait for me but I knew it would be a good option for this past weekend's trip up and down the creek. I was looking for white bass and spotted bass and found both on a chartreuse Booyah Pond Magic. Really impressed with this bait, especially for $2.99 at Academy.

Agreed with others on the price:performance of the KastKing gloves, but I also picked up a pair of Simm's Solarflex from Amazon that are about the same price (in the blue color): https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B082YHKRR6/

The "correct" answer is MH. If you want to hedge your bets a little bit you might check out a Dobyns MH, which is a 3 power in their lineup. If you really want to focus on moving baits in the 1/2 - 3/4oz range you could look at something like a 705c crankbait rod. Works well for shallow cranking, whopper ploppers, and chatterbaits.

Agreed with this. I have not fished the Colorado blade version yet (although I have some), but the 3/0 with the willow and a 4.3 Keitech is the goods. Looking forward to trying the 1/0 with some smaller swimbaits.

Assuming that we're talking about rods of the same line (e.g. Sierra), and of the same power rating, would you expect any difference in the perceived power/action based on the difference in length? For example, would the longer rod feel like it has a slower action based on the fact that it has more rod to bend? I'm using a specific example here, but I suppose the same question applies to any lineup of rods where the only difference in specification is length.

How's the bite-to-land ratio for you guys? I fished this bait for the first time yesterday, when I just had about 10 minutes before I had to pack it in and remembered that I had it with me and wanted to try it out. Got bit, went to set the hook, lost the fish. I was fishing it on a medium/fast rod, braid to mono leader. Could be user error for sure, but I was a little surprised that I lost the fish. For what it's worth I thought the bait was actually pretty weedless, at least in terms of grass. I did try to throw it up next to a dock and got hung up on the wood immediately.

I've been having good luck recently with the lipless. Funnily enough, they like the cheap stuff. They ignore the LV500 but have been liking the Rat-L-Trap and Super Spot. I've also had pretty good luck with the Spro Aruku Shad 65 and the Strike King red eye two tap. I've been fishing them in windy conditions, targeting points and flats, as well as ripping it through grass. My best luck has been with a medium speed retrieve with a little variation thrown in, but I've also caught them with long pauses between reel turns. I've caught a couple on red lures, but shad patterns have been the main producer. Love catching fish on moving baits this time of year!

I've got a bunch of Edge 3600 boxes, including the Flex and the terminal tackle box. If I knew then what I know now, I wouldn't have ordered the terminal tackle box. There are no dividers included, and none of the other 3600 Edge dividers will work due to the height difference. I actually emailed Tackle Warehouse recently to ask them to correct the description on their product page, because it incorrectly stated the 3600 terminal box comes with dividers. I believe that the 3700 version does include dividers. Speaking of the lift-out boxes, they don't fit properly in any of the other Edge 3600 boxes. The spacing of the dovetails is different. This means that I can't, say, take a lift-out box containing drop shot hooks out of my terminal box and put it into a regular 3600 box for the day. Pretty disappointing in terms of modularity.

I don't wear clothes with a lot of branding on them, but when I make a TW order that qualifies I'll throw in a free shirt in a size that one of the fishing kids in my life. I handed a few out the other day when we were doing Christmas gift exchanges and someone asked why I have so many. I told them that for every $5000 in tackle you buy, they give you a free shirt.