MediumMouthBass

@Bankc If you are serious then wow? if im bleeding out severely and the stuff in my med kit wont stop the bleeding, and have no use of my other arm im not going to go through the process of taking my shirt off, taking the boat/kayak to the bank to find a stick and try to figure out how to make it work. A TQ takes seconds to deploy and can be done single handed. In a situation like that you arent going to be thinking clearly and every second wasted can become something very bad They are under $30, and going to a Stop the Bleed class held at most ranges across the country weekly/monthly which are usually either free or up to $75 theres no reason not too. It literally takes up as much space as a water bottle.... The main reason they sometimes do more harm than good is because people have no idea how to use it, whether its how to put it on, where to put it on, or if its even needed. And like i said right above, they have no clue how to use it and do not write the time down and leave it on way to long. Getting proper training is very simple to do and is something most people should learn. Again, seriously? Sharp hooks, boat propellers, do i need to continue? Wonderfully said, should only be a last line of defense, applying pressure, quick clot, israeli bandage are just a few of the things that should be tried first. TQ's are only if you have life threatening injuries/bleeding wont stop if youve tried the other stuff.

Fishing a bladed jig is simple, fish it like a squirrel with ADHD after having 3 energy drinks. Throw it over and over again with many different variations each cast, sweep the rod like you are trying to rip it out of the water and into space, reel it in slow and steady continuously , bounce it off the bottom like a tube jig, put a lizard on it and drag bottom, work the bait like matt said and then just come to a complete stop, reel it in near the surface almost like you would a wake bait, throw it into a submerged tree, on top of rocks, rip it through grass, pick it up and drop it like a lipless crank. Or just fish it like a jig on the bottom. There isnt 1 right way to fish it, but there might be 1 right way the bass in your lake want it.

I only have cranking rods from St Croix and Lews. And i just put together a few 3700 sized trays last night of square bills and deep divers. If you are throwing the 1.5's do yourself the biggest favor you can and get a medium rod. St Croix, Dobyns, and Lews make very good options. If you dont have brand loyalty to a certain one try to find something on sale.

Chemicals arent the answer either, both options are no good. - Source My favorite lake to fish had a great smallmouth and largemouth population, days of catching 10-20 nice sized ones were very common. Last season it had more grass than usual grow around the bank so they used or sprayed something and shut the lake down for a week, well i only caught 3 largemouth and 1 smallmouth for the whole year of fishing there, the panfishing is almost non existent now too. The parking lot used to be filled 2x past capacity and now is barely even 1/3rd. This was a very great and popular lake for fishing and now its like a ghost town in the old wild west.

8-10lb Berkley Big game or 8-10lb Yo Zuri Hybrid, i use all of those for bass, trout, and panfish. And if you plan on fishing for different species and using a bobber use the Aird X Medium rod, and get yourself a few Rocket Bobbers, the medium and large ones. These bobbers are so aerodynamic and also heavy i could cast them all day with good distance on any of my casting setups. They are very sensitive, did i mention how far they can cast too? Good thing im not the only one, i prefer it to most of my $100-275 rods.

I fish mainly Berkley hooks, from their trebles, EWG, Swimbait hooks/weighted and unweighted, and smaller ones for panfish/trout and salmon/steelhead. Im happy with them, and have only broken 1 treble because i was fishing crankbaits on a non cranking rod and had my drag tight, and was reeling in a 5lber well that broke one side off the hook . Since then ive used the right gear and had the drags set right and the hooks hold up great for me. Havent broke another one since and im using some hook from Berkley every time im on the water. They arent worth full price tho, always buy them on sale. For the MSRP price get Gamakatsu's or VMC's.

Interesting read, but for where im at the grass carp are the only thing keeping some places fishable. So when im talking about grass carp im for them in some areas but against them in others. Most of the bodies of water i fish are very small compared to the lakes some of the people on here fish, between 9 acres-160 acres. And most have had very bad aquatic vegetation, not all the places i fish have them, most just have regular carp. But a few do have grass carp that were stocked by the state, usually have signs saying you cannot remove them and to release them back into the water you caught them immediately. The state says since they are sterile and wont reproduce they only stock a few into a lake or pond, the ones that have them still have some vegetation and lily pads off the bank or the back of the lake but thats about it. Havent had much impact on the fishing yet (bass, pickerel, bluegill, crappie, and trout) but its too soon to tell, i guess we are their testers for their experiment with it. But its a trade off, do you want the lake to be completely covered and unfishable? Or put these in and have the fishing quality go down hill over the years? Well since a few of the places that have them are stocked with tons of trout (The state of PA for fishing makes most of their money off of trout and they care about them more than the other fish or water life/water quality, in fact they would destroy great bass/panfish fisheries if it meant they could put trout in them) So after reading that you already came to the conclusion they put the grass carp in these places to keep the fishing open year round. And heres the funny thing, the states Fish and Boat Commission's local office has a 30 acre pond right next to it and owns the property its on, its designated as a PA Big Bass Lake Program and has special regulations, well it gets so bad with aquatic vegetation that its unfishable from summer-fall, we are talking 90-100% completely covered at its highest point, but the state DENIED their own agency $5,000 to put the grass carp in it. No trout = Bass saved in PA, even though you can only fish it certain times out of the year its a nice place and has big bass so thats another trade off.

My local shop sells Quantum products, they are on sale alot recently, either half off or free with a certain rod purchase. (Mainly the cheaper offerings from them) Ive always just walked past them and really didnt pay any attention to them. Whenever i think about buying a rod or reel i dont think ive ever even thought about Quantum or their products, mainly just Lews, Daiwa, and Shimano. I spend alot of time in different tackle shops, here, tons of other fishing websites, and watch alot of Youtube fishing videos, as well as talk to alot of people at the lakes, ponds, and creeks nearby and i rarely ever hear anything about Quantum. Ive been fishing my whole life but only started taking it serious the past few years so even tho it might've been a big brand in the past it seems it popularity has been pushed aside in recent years. Honestly i think i only heard of the brand last season, only because TW was having a sale on a few of their reels. What im trying to say and the point im trying to make is that they have a severely almost non existent marketing or advertisments. People that have been fishing for a long time think of Quantum as a brand thats been around while and had some great professionals using their gear. Others can think of them as a trusted long time brand that they can count on and used alot. But for people like me (younger or newer to fishing) we think about Quantum as something new (even tho old) and arent familar with. Because they dont have any ads, marketing, etc to get their brand out in the current times. And from a quick glance on Tackle Warehouse the prices atleast on their casting reels are very similar to the pricing of reels from Daiwa, Shimano, and Lews (these companies have been around a long time too, but they have done alot and spent a ton of money to keep themselves relevant in todays current modern day, whether new technology, sponsorships, media/social media, advertising, Youtube, etc...) Even if Quantum was a great brand 20 years ago, or even today they might make fantastic reels but from not hearing about them much, combine that with a quick google search and i can barely even find reviews for most of their products it makes me very leery of them, because if i were to buy a new reel for $150-200 i would feel much better buying a Daiwa or Shimano, just from knowing their company very well and being able to find hundreds of reviews within seconds vs a company that seems to be stuck in 2010 that i know very little about. And i doubt im the only person that has had that thought. And to the people that say but some only like to spend a little on budget gear thats why they buy the cheaper offerings from Quantum. Well the Shimano Sienna for $30, Daiwa Aird X for $50 are just 2 examples of the huge amount of budget gear that works great that other companies are making today. Regardless of how much people loved the brand in the past or how much they sold decades ago, they dont seem to be doing very well from what ive read above. They better make some big changes soon, get out some new stuff, promote it heavily, spend some money on marketing, ads, sponorships. Along with getting with the modern era or they wont make it much longer. Brand loyalty from a small amount of customers from 2 decades ago can only pay their electric bill for so long. I dont mean anyone that likes their brand any disrespect from this its just my own experience with them and what ive gathered about them

4lb Trout Magnet or 4lb Viscous panfish mono (yellow or green) for all my trout/panfish setups. These both hold up very well when i catch bass while panfishing too. 10, 12, 15lb Yo Zuri Hybrid for 70% of my casting reels the other 30% get 40-65lb braid (either Power Pro or Suffix 832). Although my big swimbait reel (Abu 5500 c3) gets 30lb Berkley Big Game. My spinning reels have various different brands and types, Power Pro 10lb for the ones with braid. 6 or 8lb Berkley Vanish fluorocarbon (i dont think the more expensive ones are worth it) this works great for my leader material for ned rigs. A few others have 8lb Suffix Superior mono. And ive got a couple that also have 10, 12, and 15lb Berkley Big Game. And theres some with 4 or 6lb Yo Zuri Hybrid on them as well. When i was younger and started out almost every time i went fishing i was using Berkley Trilene XL, i had no idea what fluorocarbon or braid were back then.

I bought one last year, but returned it because i decided i didnt want the kayak to become more work and use more space.... Plus i wanted to fish old school. But the one i got was the Garmin Striker Vivid 5CV, the 7CV would be better for a boat. I did a bit of research before buying it and liked the Garmin's the best, i got mine at around $290. I really really did not want 2d only, this one had more features than other brands at the same price, main one was the ClearVu. Being able to have 2D and ClearVu side by side was amazing to me and i didnt want side view because of mainly price but also the space it would take up. Do a quick google search of the garmin 5/7CV and go to pictures of the 2D and ClearVu side by side its amazing what you can see in the water. Also watch alot of youtube videos to understand what you are seeing under/behind you on the screen, i wouldve mostly just used it for depth and finding under water structure.

@Motoboss If you are using Yo Zuri Hybrid CO Polymer line there isnt much stretch, i use it for bottom fishing and it does great, but Fluoro would be the better choice for jig fishing if you think its worth 2-3x the price.

You can fish for bass on a 1000 reel, ive done it plenty of times while panfishing, but from that experience idk why anyone would want too. Lower drag, lighter line, longer fight = more chance you can loose the bass from it jumping and spitting the hook or line breaking. Thats like putting a Toyota Corolla on a drag racing strip against a Hellcat, you can do it but why? I could understand the need for it if you are doing ultra finesse fishing in water thats clear 20 feet down but for regular bass fishing why limit yourself like that? Edit. Plus you never know when your next bass will be your PB, so might as well give yourself every advantage you can in your gear.

Im very willing to try new knots, just not for fishing. Knots are something i think are very important to learn and keep learning. But for fishing i only need the San Diego Jam and Snell, i did Palomar knots only for several years but now i just dont like it, had it break to many times and switched to SDJ and am very happy with it. I dont have to put a huge loop around the bait, wet the line, make sure not the burn the line when synching down, and its much easier and quicker too. (And the Snell knot is only for flipping)

Its hard to just pick one, i have many favorites and most do something very different than the other, if we are talking favorite per technique then: Lighter baits and lures or flipping and pitching heavy stuff: Shimano SLX MGL Jigs and spinnerbaits: tie between the regular Shimano SLX and the Daiwa Feugo CT. Texas rigs whether lighter or heavier: Shimano SLX XT (think of this as a middle ground between the SLX and the SLX MGL). 1-3oz swimbaits: Idk the Daiwa Tatula 150 is really beefy and built like a tank, but id say the Lews BB1 Pro just because of how it can cast much farther and holds more line from the deeper spool. My favorite baitcasting reel if we are talking about just 1 for any technique or any type of fishing: well thats the Daiwa Tatula CT. It can do anything, it might not be the best at 1 thing like the others above but it can do it all. Casts really far too. Plus it also matches the paint on the Aird X rods, which i have 14 of. But my favorite reel personally is the Abu Garcia Black Max, i learned how to fish for bass on this reel, i learned how to cast on this reel. It holds alot of sentimental value to me. I bought several and plan on putting them on the wall of my fishing room.

My ML rods are split into light bass fishing-crappie/trout fishing its 50/50. For this i put on a 2000 sized reel spooled with 8lb line, and if im going for panfish/trout i just tie a 6' leader of 4lb line. 2000 works great for this, my 1000 reels would be way to small for bass fishing on purpose, tho i have caught quite a few bass on them using panfish tubes. And the 2500 just makes it feel unbalanced.

@Functional sorry i dont, i havent used podcasts for cooking but im sure there are some good ones.

Despite what you might have heard cooking is very easy! Making food that tastes good is the hard part.😂 I started cooking at a young age (just basic things). But for many years i didnt cook and ate almost all of my meals at fast food places or dozens of local restaurant chains, and it got expensive but also extremely unhealthy. I would go out an eat 2000-5000 calories in just 1 meal, i never counted calories but now i do several times a day. When its bulking season i only eat 2600-3500 calories in total for the whole day split into 5 meals (3500 divided by 5 is 700 calories per meal). Its extremely unhealthy to eat at most places these days. So i had to do something, i started wanting to make healthier meals at home but i also wanted to eat the same food that i really enjoyed so i found copy cat recipes from the restaurant chains i ate at quite alot. I would change the recipe either slightly or alot, to make it conform to my diet (as much protein as possible while reducing the excessive amount of carbs sugar and calories they had). Example: I could make a $20 dinner for $5-8 and have it go from 3500 calories to 1200 calories. Cooking is a great way to save money if done properly, (check several different stores prices and compare, sign up for their coupons and deals and make lists). And also you know whats being put into your body, and can control its calories, fat, carbs, sugars, protein, etc.... From doing this for awhile, along with watching several cooking tv shows (some entertaining and some educational) i picked up quite a bit. Following the recipes is a good way to start off, and gives you quite a base to build on. What i would suggest is to put cooking shows on in the background while you are doing something else, the human mind is amazing and youll retain some of the info. If you are too busy for that put in earbuds/headphones and listen to a cooking podcast, read books. As many books as you can. Eventually you will realize how much of this or that you need, how this will make that taste, and then create your own food from scratch. You can also find groups nearby that teach cooking, not just colleges and schools do it.

In my opinion (crankbaits specifically) catch more fish for me after they have had the paint beaten up by bass biting them than the ones just out of the box. It seems like quite a bit of work doing this to $4-8 lures. Especially if it might get snagged, broken off, bit off, stuck in a tree a week later, etc.... And after holding lots of bass and feeling their mouths and then looking at my thumb i dont think clear coat will make them last much longer either. But if you want to do it make sure not to get it onto the split rings, and i dont think it will have a severe impact on its action, since its just an extra layer. Or you can just buy the protectors for swimbaits to prevent hook rash and just cut them to cover the main parts of the crankbait (or other lure) you think a bass would bite. This would be my choice if i wanted to do this. And it would probably last longer than clear coat too.

I dont have any with the brush style tail but i have dozens of paddle/boot tails as well as rubber fork tail ones. Only thing that comes to mind for me is less drag/vibrations in the water and also probably lasts quite a long time unlike the rubber tail sections on most that can get bit off.

@FishTax i wasnt expecting to see bass with them, mainly just some panfish, shallow structure or tree branches in the shallower lakes and ponds i fish to give me an idea on where to cast. But most of the lakes and ponds i fish just dont have the clarity many of the above commenters have. They arent dirty water, its just 1-4' visibility most of the time. With or without polarized glasses. Although there is a 20' deep pond that you can see a pink senko halfway down with regular glasses so ill have to try them there. But for the creeks they should do great at seeing trout. Also to you guys up north or south even with that really clear water whats the prices of homes? Just joking, well for now atleast.

I have rods from many different brands, and carry around 4-6 rods when bank fishing clumped together. The rods are hit with each other, lures, rocks, thrown on the ground, whacked into trees and they hold up just fine. Only 1 rod i have has a chip in the paint though, but thats from hitting it into an old wall made from rocks while trout fishing 12 feet over the creek a few hundred times. I do however have a few Abu Garcia rods (Berkley-Abu owned by the same company). A few from years ago and also a newer one. The newer one has a very different finish on it, compared to my other rods and it seems like it would scratch or get chipped very easily. It almost feels like they have a chalky/powdered texture to them. (that being said) Are you sure the rod wasnt like that when you got it? Ive seen the way BPS/Cabelas and DSG put their rods on the racks and how they store them before and it doesnt give me a pleasant feeling how they handle them.

I have a 3 different swimbait setups. My big one (3-6oz) has an Ambassadeur C3 with a 5.3:1, a little slower than what most would like but it does great for slow crawling 3oz and 6 oz Savage Gear line thru trout. Middle one (2-3oz) has a Tatula 150 7.3:1, this is perfect for anything. I can reel as slowly as possible for crawling near/on the bottom but speed it up and burn a 6th Sense Trace above vegetation. Light one (1-1.5oz) has a BB1 Pro 7.5:1, it works ok for throwing 6" Daingerous (magdraft) with a 3/8oz Owner Beast hook. But its not ideal, even when trying to reel it as slow as i can its hard to keep it on the bottom. I think i might switch the reel out for my BB1 Pro in 6.2:1. Point of that^ is to show that each reel speed has a completely different effect depending on what you are throwing, the ounces it weighs, and what part of the water column you want to fish it in. Also how do you plan to fish it and where. Theres lots of questions here, what size swimbait and glide bait/wakes are you using? What line? Are you going to be slow crawling on the bottom of deeper parts of the lake? Burning it over shallow grass/vegetation? or Just casting out and reeling back in? Are the lures fast sinking, slow sinking, floating? Do you tend to reel in very fast? or slowly? Does the swimbait have a huge paddle tail/boot tail that makes lots of drag?

@Bankc amazing info, the one lake i fish the sun is always at one side or the other never in front or behind (odd shaped lake) and the others arent super clear either. Probably most vary between 1-3' visibility tho i do have 1 lake thats clear 10' down. But we have also had alot of rain lately too. And i bought those Wiley X's for a few reasons one of which was "Every pair of sunglasses offers 100% protection from UVA and UVB rays " I guess for most of my lakes their being able to see through the water better wont be working but im still happy with them, just wouldve been a nice feature to have. Thanks for the info really, appreciate it.

I have a few pairs from Wiley X i got on really good sales, first is the Ozone Climate Control (for those windy windy days) the lenses say gray but are closer to black. The second is the Omega Jacob Wheeler signature edition with green mirror on the outside and amber/brown on the inside. Now i mainly wear the Omegas fishing, and these glasses make such a difference. Its really amazing and i can see inside and at night with them too. Which really helps when i start coming back to launch on the kayak when the sun starts going down. They are ANSI rated and fit my head shape very good, plus i really care about the UV protection polarized glasses give. But ive seen many videos and hear people talking about how they caught "this fish or that fish" from seeing it in the water with their polarized glasses and so far by doing various tests i can only see as far into the water with these as i could with my regular prescription glasses. It doesnt cut through the water like ive heard or saw on youtube videos. I ive fished with them in a few different lakes/ponds on cloudy days, sunny days, rainy days, windy days, calm day. Standing above the water while bank fishing, and sitting low in a kayak and these just dont do it. Is it the brand? The color on the lenses? Or just marketing hype to get you to buy them?

Bone, Loon, and Perch for me. Though i recently got a Choppo thats white with a painted red head, and the smallmouth where i fish love that color. So i guess im going to have to paint the Bone Whopper Plopper that color too.