VTFan

Just curious how XPS fluro stacks up against Berkley Vanish...which is what I've been using for a few years. To me Vanish is ok but on the stiff side. Thanks in advance.

I too have no words except to tell you you are in my prayers.

Amen!!! My brother can wear them out on a DS but I just do not have the patience for it. I laughed but I fell for it as well. I still have a couple somewhere. Caught a few with them but again, I got caught by the bait monster.

I found that if I overspool my spinning reels with braid I will get wind knots. Once I removed maybe a sixteenth to an eighth of an inch of line it pretty much solved the problem. I still occasionally get a wind knot but it's rare and most of the time when I do I just make sure the knot is wet and pull on it and it...un-knots itself. JMHO

For years I would not touch a spinning outfit due to wind knots when using mono or fluro. Then I decided what the heck and gave braid a try on spinning and I love it!! Currently I have 30# Power Pro braid with a...either 17 or 20# fluro leader and before next season I plan to switch to 15# fluro leader. With this setup I fish mainly wacky's.

Just something that makes one wonder about the finickyness of bass. Lets say two anglers in the same boat, both fishing...lets say a drop shot, same set up, same lure...everything. Or lets say they are both throwing the same color crankbait, same setup...line, reel speed...everything but only one of them is getting bit. They are fishing the same depth water, same everything but one is getting bit and the other isn't. Got to be something there the bass don't like.

Being a recreational and somewhat of a budget fisherman I fish everything but wacky's and ned's,..stuff of that nature on the same rods. Usually I'll have a couple M/H casting rods and at least one medium spinning rod in the boat. I have one 7:1 casting reel that I do use for topwater. Just me.

Crankbaits, spinnerbaits and beetlespins were the ticket for me this year. I caught my new PB...8 lbs, 8 oz... on a KVD 1.5 in sexy shad color. It had been years since I had any sort of luck on cranks. Same for spinnerbaits. Black or white willow leaf spinners worked great for me as well. Sometimes the bite was better if I down sized and threw a beetlespin, again in either black or white. What did not work for me this year was wacky rigging. Over the past 2 or 3 years the wacky had been my go to bait but not so this year. It just wasn't happening for some reason.

Personally I had to go to braid with fluro leader using an FG knot. Don't have to worry about line twist anymore. Longer cast, more sensitivity. Love it when using wacky rigs etc... If I do happen to occasionally get a wind knot I just make sure the knot is wet and pull and it will come right out. Just what works for me.

I'm a firm believer that bass become accustomed to baits, colors, retrieves. For the past two years in my local pond I was tearing them up with a wacky rig. This year.....I bet I haven't caught 5 bass on a wacky rig. I remember one year the bait of choice was a super shallow running crankbait, another year it was a chatterbait. JMHO.

I heard Bill Dance say 'Wind out of the east, fish bite the least' but as someone else said, an east wind isn't going to stop me from going fishing if I have the time to fish. JMHO.

I used to be a tackle junkie. Now a days I stick to a few basic colors of the baits that work for me that I carry in a single Plano box. Not carrying that big Tackle Warehouse tackle bag with me on every trip anymore. I enjoy Matt and Tim but they do go very in depth and get a bit lengthy sometimes. JMHO

I personally never used them. Don't know why, just didn't even though my brother used them and caught the heck out of bass and did until he picked up a wacky rig and a drop shot rig. My humble opinion is that people try new things and the old stuff sort of gets laid by the wayside. I myself went back to some old school Beetle Spins this year for bass and..yep...they still catch bass like they did thirty years ago. JMHO

Problem solved. Too much line on the spool. How I made that bonehead mistake I do not know. Cast like a dream now...and I knew better!!!

I have a Abu Garcia Max STX baitcaster spooled with 40 lb Power Pro braid, that is actually my newest reel, about a year and a half old. I had been noticing that it would backlash slightly...or so I thought from time to time. I know all of us do that occasionally so I didn't think anything of it until yesterday when it was doing it on average 2 out of 3 cast and I also noticed that it was doing it at the same point in the cast which was roughly 15 yards out. I thought it was something I was doing wrong so my brother tried it a few times and the same thing happened with him. Once you pick the little backlash out there seems to be nothing catching from within the reel, the thumb knob has remained pressed while picking out loops. I'm going to pull all the line off today and take the side cover off just to see if I see anything obvious. Just wondering if anyone has any suggestions. Thanks in advance.