CrashVector

Good. Cabela's/BPS is the Walmart of fishing.

I use it frequently. It's stiffer than XL, but waaay more sensitive. Fluorocarbon is not dramatically more resistant to being cut than a good tempered mono like XT or big game. We catch alligator gars in the 50-70lb range every summer here...on 20lb berkley Trilene big game. There's nothing that a pike can do that a garfish can't, and mono works perfectly.

The whole "fluorocarbon is less visible than mono bc its refractive index is closer to water" garbage has absolutely been PROVEN to be complete bulls**t. Why people still believe it I have no idea, but then again, some people (not smart ones) still think the earth is flat.

I typically do a series of fast hops, sorta like how you work a shaky head. Most of my big fish are caught on the initial fall or the first hop.

I hate fluoro. I've spent hundreds of $ trying d**n near every fluorocarbon line on the market, and they all suck compared to mono in my opinion. There is literally NO benefit vs a good monofilament line. It's a myth that it's invisible in water, it's fragile, and expensive. Find a good mono you like and just roll with that. It's cheap and reliable, and certainly gets the job done. I personally use Berkley Trilene big game or Berkley Trilene sensation. Oh,and don't buy into the whole "if you use braid, you need a leader" garbage either. I fish straight braid, and never have a problem catching tons of fish, even on very highly pressured waters. Try the Trilene sensation. It'll change your mind about the sensitivity.

Currently, all of my higher-end rods are Abu Garcia, but I also use Shakespeare and Shimano rods. My "main" rods are Veritas plx tournament rods. The oldest rod I use is a Browning boron rod.

I'm going to be using powerbait maxscent worms a lot this year. For no other reason than I'm curious.

This spring may be screwed for me as well. They're surveying to dredge the lake where I bank fish....right when the bass are spawning. Smart ppl I tell ya.

I play Halo lol

"clout fishermen" annoy me.

Yeah I had the same experience. Covid hit, then my bank spots were overrun by new fishing hipsters...wearing leather boots and fedoras with fly fishing vests and fanny packs.

Sometimes yeah. I'm off mon-fri, so I can fish 3-4 days a week if I want to. So far this week, I've gone every day since Mon, so naturally, I'm not as "enthusiastic" about it towards the end of the week. There's always "pressure"for me to get good catch footage for my yt channel, but after a while, I stop caring about that too and just go for fun.

Referencing to "goo" bags?

Honestly, I'd just find a confidence bait (for me it's a powerbait pit boss in bama bug color) and throw it every day til I caught a few. Your confidence will come back....don't worry. We ALL go through slumps. A couple catches and it will be like riding a bike for you.

We had very *very* strong cold fronts come through recently...the latest Sunday night. Dropped daytime temps by over 30F. I could SEE the fish. They were hovering just inside the innermost weed edges...NOT in the deepest part of the lake, but right at about 40 yds from the bank. Bluebird skies. Makes sense...air was/is in the mid 40s...sun heats up the weeds just under the surface, bass sitting in the warmer water. Literally NOTHING could get them to bite, and I was looking right at them. I tried 25+ different lures from buzzbaits to Ned rigs and senkos. They were ignoring everything including the tiny bluegill that were literally surrounding them.

Hercules 8 strand for me.

I only know what I've seen them do on a very clear,very big pond that's shallow (roughly 5-6' deep) with sporadic, but very heavy, grass cover. I can't answer for big lake systems, etc.

I'm going to try to get better at punching THICK grass mats.

I catch and release. Today I caught 9.

At least I know I'm not ocd about cleaning my reels, etc lol.every time they're used, they get a quick cleaning, etc.

Yep ..I've noticed that the fish don't much care about what they "should" be biting on lol

So winter here is basically two months from a fishing point of view: December and January. Typically, the bass start moving up in early February to spawn. I decided to go get some practice in with my modified Ned rigs and new rod, and just to get a feel of fishing the shallows again. I ended up catching 13 fish, all 1-2lbs, and ONE 6.25lb chunk. They were hanging out of the outside weed edges from the bank. It was super windy, so I was practicing my ability to detect very small bites in heavy wind. Any of you do this to stay in "fighting shape" come spawn?

Can't feel a light bite on a slack line

When that happens, it's one of two things. Your spool tension is too loose, or you're throwing the lure too hard because you're trying to overcome you spool tension being too tight. Sounds like a contradiction..but trust me lol

Pocket knives means one of two names for me: Old Timer or Case.