TheBaitMonkey

Got a few dinks from shore with a drop shot at a local pond. Gonna get out again tomorrow and test out a jerk bait and a glide to see if I can get anything bigger to bite

Cox definitely tends to shrivel up when it’s too cold… 😂

Turned around quick for you!

Any luck? Won’t be getting out on the ice, outside of sturgeon spearing this year, unfortunately

Pumped for this to start back up, thanks for putting it together. Good luck everyone 🍻 The first Elite series of the year finishing on Super Bowl Sunday… bad day to be a beer and a bag of Tostitos lol

They look really good!

Well… have been diving down the finesse glidebait rabbit hole and picked up this 86 Baits Failsafe -

I dove in and grabbed a 5” KGB Chad Shad after being impressed by the new Lil Guy collab they did with Spro. I was able to get it out today for a few casts and they fish really similar (shocker, I know). The 5” has a little longer body, a slower rate of fall, and glides further side to side. The back piece of each glide is about 39mm. The front piece of the 5” is 60mm while the Lil Guy is 50mm, so that could be why it glides further.

That place looks sick! They need to bring it back.

Yea, the Grand Shad looks pretty spot on to the juvenile bluegill in the lakes I fish. The bass seemed to think so, too. I got 7 of them in an hour yesterday on it!

Got a nice 5lber on one of the last trips out of the season. Went to a little lake by the house in the kayak and got this one right around sunset tonight on a Spro KGB Lil Guy. After she fought like hell, and I missed netting her twice, I was lucky enough to get her in -

Decided to try out the new Spro KGB Lil Guy. Got it in the mail this afternoon and just HAD to go test it out. I got a bunch of them on it, including this 5lber. The action on it is really nice, and it seems like it can be fished at a variety of speeds. It is a nice little bait that I definitely feel I’ll use more than the big chad shad. It weighs in at .9oz, and I was actually able to throw it really well on my Expride 610m, surprisingly.

Has anyone tried these out?

This is great, thanks for putting this together! I'll have to do him proud

A Bantam Bass One Mag I recently cleaned and oiled up. I’m gonna put some line and test it out - inherited it from my grandpa

872s or 873crr

I had fun playing with you all this year -- it's going down to the wire! It'll be interesting to see who wins AOY, too. Good luck!

Resurrecting a dead thread, but couldn't find another similar one relating to spinning reels... so here we are. I've been toying with lighter-weight spinning reels over the last year, and I eventually swapped a Daiwa Airity LT2000S-H onto my P5 Addermine - probably the spinning rod I use the most since I dropshot a lot. I had a 2019 Certate LT2500-H on it before. I've noticed that it feels more sensitive in my hands with the lighter reel. The Airity weighs 145 grams, and the Certate weighs 205 grams. So a little over a 2oz difference. It could all be in my head... but I feel like the ticks of bluegills nibbling at the dropshot, or when a bass hits, it just feels more pronounced. Has anyone else noticed something similar?

I do what MN Fisher mentioned above. I tend to texas rig and throw it around and through grass a lot where I live. I like a light weight when fishing from shore, usually a 1/8 oz weight (I use heavier when fishing in a boat/kayak, depending on the depth), then I will use a 1/0 Cover Shot hook with a 4.5" fat roboworm 90% of the time. Usually an 8" - 20" leader, depending on the time of year and height of the weeds I'm fishing in. I'll cast it out and let it sink to the bottom, then slowly drag it back in on a semi-taut line so I can maintain constant contact with the weight. After a drag, I'll pause it for a few seconds, then drag it again. If the water is really hot, I'll jerk it after the pause every once in a while during the retrieve to try to get a reaction strike out of it. Some people really don't like throwing a dropshot because it's boring to them, but catching fish is never boring to me, and it HAMMERS 'em, especially when scoping offshore grass and structure.

It's gonna be a close one!

Welp... for some reason, I stopped using the Trey McKinney cheat code for this tourney. Poor choice to bet against him. *sighs

Good luck

They are DEMOLISHING them! Maybe the 5.5 was too low @TnRiver46

Man… to pick just one would be a sad day, it’s like picking a favorite child, but if I had to I’d go with Loomis. A lot of good models and great warranty. I rotate rods a lot because trying stuff is fun. I’ll hold onto the favorites and sell the redundant rods that I don’t necessarily need. What I’ve consistently noticed is Loomis rods hold their value the most and tend to sell the quickest out of the various brands.

Any of you all fish for smallies on Lake Michigan near the city much? This 7lber caught downtown the other day has me itching to try it -