bloom

I agree with what MN Fisher said. If the rod is not involved it makes no difference if the rod is 1 foot or 10 foot the same reel will give the same retrieve.

I have and still use an old lews bb1n that has that switch. never use the switch. At the time, Lews was called Lew Childre and they were sold by Browning. Back in the day backreeling with spinning reels was popular due to crummy drag systems (by todays standards) and I suppose the reel manufacturers were wondering if baitcaster guys would be interested in the same feature.

Welcome

great start, congrats and keep it up.

Just did a quick count and got about 60. This includes Fly, musky, ultralight, as well as several antique rods from my dad and uncles (fiberglass, bamboo and steel) that will probably never see water again. I regularly use 6 or 8 of them, over a full year I might use 15 or so.

I agree with papajoe, work on one or two techniques at a time, Last year I did pretty good with paddle tail swimbaits on a jighead, a wacky rigged senko is a fish catcher. You don't need a bunch of colors either maybe a light and a darker. I use hi visibility braid tied to a mono or fluorocarbon leader. The knot from braid to leader can be a tricky one to learn. I would suggest learning the double uni knot as you can use a version of the same knot to tie your lure. Otherwise there is nothing wrong with good old trilene xt. Most importantly relax and have fun--Good luck!!

6 cranks of the handle gives 30 or 35 inches. 5 inches difference divided by the 6 wraps around the spool=.83333 inches circumferance bigger on the 2500. I'm not sure on the math so I don't know. I bet loomis has some awesome ultra lights. I usually use longer UL rods but for tight little brushy creeks I can see the advantage of a 5 footer.

2500 size would be too big for a 5 ft UL St Croix trout panfish series

2 lb braid must be insanely thin.

several years ago on one of my favorite lakes it seemed whenever I used musky tackle and lures I caught bass and when I used bass tackle I caught musky. For a few years my best musky lure was a white #5 mepps with no hair and an Uncle Josh white bass strip fished with 12 lb mono on a spinning setup. Perhaps a good approach would be to upsize some bass stuff and use some kind of leader. I agree with all the advise given earlier, specially having hook removal tools.

thanks, gave me a good chuckle.

Way too much snow and ice here, but one new lure really has my attention. @alabama spothunter recommended the flashback mini a while ago and I figured I should get a couple. Looks like a heck of a fish catcher--any kind of fish around here will nip at something like that. I think it will be an efficient search tool.

Thanks so muck

I am going to upgrade my electronics to include side vision. What is the difference between the gt54 and gt56 transducers?

hello and welcome, I'm a little north of you in Hayward. Never fished the mississippi but have heard of some very good fishing there.

Perch colored shadow rap

Thanks for all the responses, the wobble head lure sounds like an interesting lure. Does anyone remember using the original banana shaped lazy ike? I recall fishing as a little kid (5 or 6 years old) with my older brother. 3 times drifting past the same stump I caught a nice walleye, a nice crappie and a good sized bass on a perch colored lazy ike, I was rather proud of myself. I have not however touched one in years.

Anyone remember this lure from the 60's and 70's? I don"t think it was real popular, but my dad and I sure caught a lot of fish on them. The spoon goes up like a chatterbait but it is fixed to the jighead rather than free swinging and the worm swims along horizontally, I visualized it as a leech imitation. Darnit, I can't get the photo to upload, I'll have to get some kid to show me how to do it.

Great post, and a fun read going thru all the replies, I have been fishing many years but only recently started pursuing bass and I am primarly stage 2. I am more of a toss it out there and crank it in kind of guy. I've done well with wacky worms and such but try my best to avoid them so I guess I fall into stage 4 a bit too.

Thanks everyone. I'm very glad to be here.

olcrickety; Hayward Wisconsin a little bit north of Eau Claire. I've lived here all my life and mostly fished walleye and musky. I live close to Grindstone, Lac Court Oreilles, Round, and the Chippewa Flowage, all very good smallmouth lakes, last year I did my best on a smaller nearby lake named Windigo. GRiver;I have had some fun times fishing in FL. Variety is the spice of life and you sure have a variety at your fingertips.

Hello everyone, I've been lurking a while and I am very happy to be joining this community. Supportive, friendly, and a lot of knowledge shared make this site look like a daily visit for sure. I'm an old guy and have been fishing all my life but have only started targeting bass a couple years ago and have a lot to learn. Last summer I was targeting and catching mostly smallmouth bass. They really tickle my fancy and I'm eager for more. Sometimes I fly fish, although last year was mostly light spinning finesse type. Ned rigs wacky worm and small paddletail swimjigs were my main baits along with jerkbaits on a little heavier rod. Although the wacky worm accounted for some of my best days, I still don;t like to fish that way and don't feel I'm any good at it. I will continue to work on that technique, also next summer I might bring the fly rod along for some surface bait duty. Thanks for the opportunity to join, see ya on the flip side.