CDMTJager

Excellent Yoda level advice. PRECISELY how I plan on holding my rod/reel/line in my LFT hand while fishing jigs and all soft plastics with a BC (for the 1st time ever) this year

I've got GR/Pump, WTRM, and BLK/BLU jigs and 3"-3.25" GRN/Pump/BF, WTRM/RF and Okeechobee craw trailers. Last year I did very well fishing 4-4.25" BT/Bug baits in Okeechobee craw and fishing 8-12" worms in June Bug, blue/blk flake WTRM/RF and a new color beaver bait I did well on showed promise of Tilapia.

Well I splurged and bought the Diawa Tatula HHXF 7'1" rod. I already have a new unused Kast King Zephyr I'll spool it with 16lb Sporo Gouken fluorocarbon. Plan on fishing by 1st week of April. Will fill the spool 50% with Tylene BG then the rest with FC. at $23/164 yrds can't afford to waist any. Looking forward to trying out jig fishing as last year after two previous years of frog fishing and an abysmal hook up rate of <50% I switched to a smaller softer frog and mastered waiting to set the hook and my hook up/landing ratio skyrocketed to over 80%. I made only TWO simple changes and I doubled my success with frogs. Hoping for similar success with jigs.

Great advice on the line choice.This is my fluorocarbon of choice: https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/SPRO_Essential_Series_Gouken_Fluorocarbon_Fishing_Line/descpage-SEGF.html While I am a XXL guy my sons are both bigger than I one is 6'3" the other 6'4" and both over 280 feeding and clothing them both is frighteningly expensive. Thankfully they both have gotten so big they no longer fit in most of my clothes. Phrases like "does anyone want that last piece of pizza, chicken, beef roast etc. NEVER get said in my home.

Thanks for the advice will do. I haven't yet bought a jig fishing specific rod or reel and my funds of late are getting used pretty darn quick as both boys are now in collage youngest just started oldest is in his 2nd year of nursing youngest for electrical engineering. So I'll need to buy what I can afford VS what I'd really like. My son has joined the bass fishing club at his college, and while I bought him his own rods reels and pretty decent ones at that, as well as a quite respectful selection of both soft and hard sided baits, I'll have to keep my fishing gear under lock and key and look into what a 7/24/365 armed guard will cost me. Great advice on the line choice.This is my fluorocarbon of choice: https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/SPRO_Essential_Series_Gouken_Fluorocarbon_Fishing_Line/descpage-SEGF.html

Nothing to worry about at all. I took no offence whatsoever. I am a heavy industrial maintenance electrician responsible for safeguarding, maintaining and repairing electrical equipment worth millions to 10s of millions of dollars, so I tend to over evaluate most situations and at times have difficulty accepting a simple solution especially when it's staring me in the face.

Greatest of thanks to all the replies. Ill be the first to admit I tend to over complicate things. Thank you for your advise. No it wasn't a typo, but thank you for you concern. All of the baitcasting rods I currently own are MH-H fact action and I wasn't sure (actually had serious doubts) if any of my baitcasting rods or reels would work well with casting 1/4oz jigs so I was going to buy a baitcasting rod and reel setup suited for casting 1/4oz jigs. I was going to go with 8-10lb test as I felt lighter test line will cast lighter jigs better than 12-17lb test line and should reduce my odds of over-spooling and developing rats nest. Thanks to all for education me to the fact fishing jigs is very much like fishing a T-rigged worm as that will be a huge help in accelerating my bite detection learning curve. I just never fished a soft plastic with anything other than a spin casting setup. If my memory serves me correctly the lightest luer I have ever thrown with a baitcaster was 3/8oz. I am rather surprised after watching at least a 18-20 videos on how to specifically fish a skirted jig for beginners (101 if you will) not one person who produced the video said fishing jigs was anything like fishing a T-rigged soft plastic. But now that I think about it, I am rather embarrassed I didn't figure that out all on my own. Thanks to both of you for your advise. I will give those jigs a try. I did check my unused baitcasting rods and I do have an older 7' Shimano M/F rod (completely forgot I had it rod has a considerable layer of stringy dust on it) that should work well enough. I also have a Lew's Speed Spool reel still in it's box I will try as well. Greatest of thanks to all for sharing your experience with me. You answered my questions and saved me well over $100 on new baitcasting setup.

First I will be fishing almost entirely from the bank. Been fishing soft plastics in the form of all types of worms from 7-12" 90% Texas rigged for over 35 years with great success including 3 of my largest largemouths were caught using 7.5" Culprit original worms and 1/8oz bullet weights. Tried bug and creature baits first time last year and enjoyed much success. But I have never fished a skirted jig before in my life and are going to do so this year. Ordered a two each in 1/4, 3/8, and 1/2 oz in green Pumpkin, watermelon, black/blue and white/shad. Ordered Arkie Platinum series jigs (1/4 & 3/8oz) (best deal for jigs IMO) and Sixth Sense Hybrid jigs along with soft plastic trailer baits. Been watching how to fish skirted jigs from shore since October of last year. Everything I've read, heard or watched all say most difficult thing to master with fishing jigs is sensing when a bass just sucks up or lightly bites your jig. I plan on devoting at least two outings a week in early spring when I know the smaller <3lb male bass are in thick near the shore to strictly ONLY fishing jigs and only bringing jigs with so I have no choice but to fish only jigs. I have a pretty good bass lake walking distance from my home that before spawn large stretches of shore are simply LOUSY with <3lb male bass in 3-12 feet of water that I feel would be an excellent way for me to learn what a jig bite feels like. At this time of year vegetation will still be minimal and the bottom is sand interspersed with a lot of rocks that vary from fist to a basketball in size I have never fished a soft plastic with a baitcaster before only with spinning tackle. My question is this a good way to learn what a jig bite feels like as at first I plan on starting out using just my 1/4oz jigs with soft plastic trailers and a light baitcasting set up using 8lb fluorocarbon and a 7' or 6'6" baitcasting rod and reel designed for lighter baits. I'm doing this for two reasons. First because unlike a spinning rod set up if I'm using a baitcaster I can use my left hand to maintain direct contact with my line essentially 100% of the time during my retrieve, I can NOT do this using a spinning set up. Secondly I'm starting out with 1/4oz jigs because that is what I use 90# of the time to fish my soft plastics and I think a lighter jig weight to begin with will help me feel a strike or when a bass picks up my luer better than if I use hevior jigs. As I said I will be fishing almost entirely from shore and the structure I will be fishing will be a mix a lot of sand a lot of hard bottom like rock with patches of grass and lilly pads and soft bottom with patches of grass and lilly pads, but very very little other types of structure. As the average depth from shore of the lake in under 12 feet as the water warms up there is A LOT of grass, reeds and lilly pads by late may. I haven't yet bought a baitcasting reel or rod for casting lightER weight baits yet and am holding off doing so till I get some feedback from others more experienced than I at fishing jigs.

Appreciate the suggestion. As this rod and reel combo will be for jig fishing only.

I am going to give jig fishing a 100% effort next spring and am wanting to get as sensitive of a casting as I can find in the sub $150 range. This will be a jig only dedicated casting rod. Already have several 7:1 or faster good quality bait casting reels. I've done A LOT of on line searches for sub $150 casting rods but would like the advice of those who have had first hand experience in choosing then using the rod they are recommending.

I forgot I recently put my oldest Kastking Sharkey III reel through quite a work out while on vacation in Ohio and three other newer ones although not as tough a day still pretty good work out, I went fishing for smallmouth in lake Erie at a larger public boat launch with quite a few unused public docks in Sandusky while my boys spent the day at Cedar Point. I fished for over 10 hours straight save for bathroom brakes. First fish was a 3lb+ 22" smallmouth. Then I got IIRC 32 or 33 sheepshead on and 27 or 28 in. Biggest two were over 28" long. Was using my 30 year old 6'6" long Berkeley MH/FA Lightning rod and 8lb Berkley Vanish Fluorocarbon a #4 Eagle claw laser sharp hook a #5 split shot and softshell crayfish. Day before that my walleye charter cancelled due to a rough lake so we went to a public lake and started chasing bass using both luers and nightcrawlers, caught quite a few 1.5-2.5lb bass but ended up slaying the channel cats. Biggest one of the day was over 8Lbs and hit a WT/Char 1/2oz chatter bait. Was he fought I was thought I had a new PB LM on. My youngest had one heck of a day. Couldn't keep the bass and cats off his line. He caught both biggest bass at about 2.75lbs and a slightly larger channel cat than mine at 8.75lbs. He even caught a 2lb crappie. And the Sharkey III's performed very well. Ended up kinda PO at myself as I didn't bring any panfish gear at all and a guy there we watched as he and his son and daughter slayed the gills and sunfish

When it came time three and half years ago to give my two sons the ages of 14 and 16 several each of their own spinning and casting reel and rod set ups, understandably I was trying to do so as affordably as I could and strike the best balance between quality and cost. I was looking at buying a minimum of six spinning rod and reel set ups and four casting rod and reel set ups. It quickly dawned on me I hadn't researched fishing reels in quite some time so I had little knowledge of what if any new reel types or technologies were available in 2019-2020. And I certainly had little experience with reels costing below $100-$200 like my older MIJ Shimano's, Penns, Daiwa bait catering reels and Swedish made Abu-Garcia's casting reels Like EVERY equipment purchase I make I set about researching what is best ALL AROUND deal was for my $$$ in this case it was for the best reels under $60-$65 and best rods in the $50-$100 price range. Reel wise I kept coming back to Pflueger and a name I had not heard before. Kastking. I will admit Kastking absolutely marketed their products very well but more importantly to ME, highlighted the reels construction and features like a O ring sealed front drag a sealed main body numbers of salt water rated stainless steel sealed bearings (10) impressive 33-39lb multi-carbon disk drag system oversized SS main shaft and using many all metal for critical internal components and marketed these features more effectively and often much more effectively than other competing reel makers whom I was was familiar with like Shimano (last 5 Shimano reels I bought were still made in Japan, WOW I am getting older) Daiwa and Pflueger. I'm not saying Pflueger and Daiwa don't they just didn't make reels with as many features as the KK just they didn't made it a point to advertise doing do, at least not that I found back in 2020. And in MY experienced based opinion if a feature you're looking for is not listed among the items specifications, odds are it doesn't have it or at least you have to assume it doesn't have it. So I bought two Kastking Sharkey III's and two Pflueger Presidents both on sale for around IIRC $50-$60 each in March of 2020. I let my sons interchangeably use one each of the Presidents and Sharkey III's and my (GASP) made in Japan Shimano Spirex Symmetry reels and I set about beating the living bejesus out of both the other two. They both held up well and I did catch some channel cats over 8lbs a lot of sheepshead in the 3-8lb range and a even a few Northern Pike (yeah shocked the Bleeep out of me fishing off a beaver house in a local lake) over 6lbs that gave me a good evaluation of both the reels drags and over all performance. I as a rule do not use drag much as I prefer to back reel to fight a big fish but as a test when I got a big cat, pike or sheepshead on I quickly reset the drag purposely lite to test it for long runs to see how smoothly they worked. Neither reels drag disappointed me. I never had a fish brake me off a single time. I did catch and release a 6lb 4oz LM bass on a KK Sharkey III but got no bass over 4lbs on a President. Both advertised corrosion resistant stainless steel bearings and the Kastking advertised a O ring sealed front drag and sealed main body (VS the Pflueger president advertised only a sealed drag but not sealed reel body) I made it a point to submerge both a few times while fishing and neither showed any affects that day but I discovered a VERY small amount of water had gotten into the body of the Phlueger President but none got into the Kastking Sharkey III. As an added note my son took four of the KK Sharkey III's on a recent (in June) week long fishing trip to Lake Monroe with a family we know well. Prior to him leaving I installed some DIY rod floats on all the set ups he was taking with made from pool noodles. as he said he would be doing a fair amount of fishing from kayaks and possibly canoes. My son complained at how unattractive they made his set ups look but I said my equipment my money my rules or dig out the old Zebco 33 reel/rod combos and take those. He came home and told me good thing I did so as second day of the trip while he was fishing in a 17' canoe with his buddy and sure as bleeep they flipped the canoe. Much to my sons delight both his set ups instantly floated up but unfortunately his buddy's set ups all became permanent lake residents. As the KK reels were advertised as being sealed I decided against opening them up to see if any water found its way in as a test of sorts and will leave that for when I disassemble, clean and lube my reels in January and see if either reel starts to have issues that would indicate the advertised sealed body had failed and water might have made it into the reels inner workings. In total I have bought seven Kastking Sharky III's (three for my self two each for my sons last ones in 2021) and all have held up very very well and have seen A LOT of use as I fish at least 3x a week March till December (started a new job in 2020 in a new department where work and I now get 14 days off a month and all my vacations are two weeks long) and my sons each fish with me or their friends as often. Both the Phlueger Presidents also also used 95% by my sons. I have spooled them with everything from Yo-Zuri and P-Line Copolymer, P-line, Gouken and Berkley Fluorocarbon, Power Pro braid and Trilene XL and XT mono and all worked and casted well. Neither reel exhibited a propensity to induce excessive line twist or create rats nests more often than I was use to. Between the Kastking Sharkey III or the Pfluger President, I honestly feel as both reels are essentially the same price, and share essentially the same synthetic external construction the Kastking offered equal function but should have better durability due to its advertised sealed body VS the un-sealed body of the Phlueger so based on these facts and again in MY opinion the Kastking Sharkey III also advertises more and better features and should have better potential longevity and durability for your money than the Phlueger President and that's why I choose to buy more of the Kastking Sharkey III and not the Phluger President. Now all that remains to be seen is how the KK Sharkey III's hold up over the long run. Lastly this is the experience based opinion of a very serious but still armature fisherman who has never competed in any tournaments but has over 50 years of fishing experience and seen more than my fair share of reels fail especially so called "bargain price" or "budget price" reels and I have no hesitations to say a piece of equipment I've purchased is of substandard quality or just outright junk and long decades ago ceased the practice of allowing my liking or fondness for a piece of equipment or particular company prejudice my opinion of them. If it's junk I'm gonna say it's junk. I feel for the sub $65 price point the Kastking Sharkey III spinning reel is worth a non competitive freshwater species fisherman's consideration. Is it the best in it's price point? No I can not possibly even begin to say that nor was that ever the point of my post because I only tested two among many many reels in that category of price point, but I can say it's definitely worth considering and I in MY PERSONAL opinion felt it was a better all around reel than the Pflueger President. If anyone has a reel at the same $65 cost or less and they are confident it is the superior of the Kastking Sharkey III please by all means share it with me as I'm sure I haven't bought my last spinning reel.

Actually off today and are trying to finish outfitting my kayak. Bought a Sun Dolphin SS 12 new unused from a guy at work. He literally bought it left it unpacked in the factory box sat in his pole barn for over a year and I bought it off him for a price I couldn't pass on. Actually wouldn't have been my first choice but at less than 1/2 to 1/4th the cost of any other new kayak I bought it. I'm a big guy around 250lbs and absolutely did not want a sit in kayak and as I have bought some decent electronics will need a kayak with a significant weight limit beyond my own weight combined with 2-3 poles and additional gear. I am making a very serious effort to bring the barest of minimum gear out while fishing but between myself my, a paddle and compact back up paddle, electronics, transducer, the mounting hardware for same an anchor, and a hand bilge pump I needed over a 300lb weight limit and the Sun Dolphins 500lb weight limit was a big factor in buying it. I'm VERY excited to get fishing with it as there are A LOT of smaller lakes near me with absolutely horrible shore access and excellent structure that is inaccessible due to no shore access or to far from shore. Watched a guy in a kayak fish one such lake near my home (lake is a FAR walk from the parking area and has no boat access at all so its kayak or canoe only) absolutely murdered the bass using soft plastics (yes many times while fishing I carry a small compact pair of B&L Elite 7x24 binos) and I can count on one hand how many times I've ever seen a kayak on this lake.

Thank you all for the replies. I must confess although I do well enough at my local lakes, and bass of 2-3lbs are common, I use to have access to some quite good private ponds since the age of 10 and for about 8 years from 1987 till 1995 had access to some great private farm ponds, unfortunately all before I ever thought of carrying a camera and long before cell phone cameras were a thing. Save for my PB bass of 9lbs 11oz that came from Devils Kitchen lake in southern IL, all of my my over 6lb bass came from privately owned waters. The private lake and pond owners always gladly gave me permission because I never kept a single bass including one day I caught back to back bucket mouths one a 7lb+ other was 8lb+ but that was the condition of using that group of ponds. Keep all the gills and sunfish I wanted but no bass. The owner wasn't kidding either and banned for life his own son in-law because he also caught two 7lb+ bass in a day and kept both and because he found out he never got either mounted or ate either he just let them rot he banned him from his ponds for life. As far as my smallmouth success is concerned I use to fish the state line power generating discharge (lake Michigan) at least 3 days a week often 5 or 6 days a week year round for over a decade and was of the opinion then and now you had to go to lake Eire to get better smallmouth fishing within a less than a 4-5 hour drive from my home. Sadly there is no longer access to that area. My best day ever at state line generating plant was when I and my two friends took two neighborhood kids fishing and I knew the conditions were perfect. I bought literally 10 dozen softshell crayfish at $7/dozen and between the five of us caught and released well over a 100 fish that day about 55-65 were actually sheepshead and the rest about 50-60 were smallmouth bass. You could catch a sheepshead on nothing more than a claw on a 1/8oz lead head jig dragged on the bottom on either side of the break wall. Never caught sheepsheads in those numbers before and never at the astonishing rate we did that day. That was over 20 years ago and I still see those two boys that have since grown into men and fathers themselves and they still talk about that day when I see them. I deeply miss that spot as 3-4lb smallmouth were commonplace to catch and 5lb smallmouth although not common were not strangers. I use to carry a Berkley electronic fish scale or "de-liar" as we called it so I wouldn't get accused of exaggerating the weights of the fish I caught and released. Never did reach my goal of a 6lb smallmouth before access was ended. I have a few friends who are IL residents who do well fishing the harbors and other lake access in IL, but for years all I owned were extended cab pickups with 8' beds so I getting to the areas by way of LSD was a no go and I just loath going onto Chitcago these days.

Just for your consideration Its called the baby whale peddle Kayak by Hammerhead Kayaks https://www.hammerheadkayaks.net/s-projects-side-by-side

Love fishing in the rain. Eliminates 90%+ of my shore fishing competition, and I enjoy success more often than not on rainy days. Had MANY a great day creek fishing for steelhead and salmon. I actually if given a choice would much prefer a cloudy rainy 60-80* day VS a sunny 90* day as I absolutely LOATH the heat.

Thanks for the tip I have quite a few 3" Rage bugs. Has one color out performed others?

Lifetime fisherman here. Fished all over the lower 48 as far west as Colorado and Utah, south to Key West, as far east as Maryland as far north as UP Minnesota and both Ontario and Manitoba Canada. Like to catch what ever is biting but smallmouth are my A#1 favorite fish but creek fishing for steelhead and salmon are tied for a VERY close second but due to species availability and geographic convinces I mostly chase largemouth as I am mere minuets from good largemouth fishing and unfortunately lost 90% of my once very close and excellent public access smallmouth fishing. Have caught countless numbers of largemouth between 3Lbs and 6Lbs but only three between 8-9Lbs and never one 10Lbs or more. Also caught countless numbers of smallmouth between 3Lbs and over 4Lbs a few 5lbs but never one over 6Lbs or over. Unless it's a goodly number of panfish, some walleye or northern (northern pike is my favorite FW eating fish) I release 100% of all fish I catch post picture and haven't kept a bass (LGM or SM) in decades. I'm one of those guys who as long as the water is open literally fishes in all weather conditions day or night time and while fishing loose all sense of or concern for time and can fish endlessly hour upon hour weather their biting or not. Unfortunately I am currently boat-less and relegated to bank fishing 99% of the time, but did buy a Kayak recently, but have yet to try it out. Last night got my PB for my closest local lake on, a well over 6lb largemouth on a Scum Frog using 65lb Power Pro but she got off. Actually bent AND twisted the shaft going to the duel hooks so severely it is beyond repair. Kind of a heart breaker. Still do not understand how she #1 got off as both hooks remained intact and she was on long enough to jump 3x #2 twisted the hook shaft. Bent I can understand how but I have no explanation how she managed to twist the hook shaft. Best day this year (and in recent memory) was walking on and fishing public docks in lake Eire in Sandusky OH while my sons were at Cedar Point got one 3lb+ smallmouth first cast using live softshell crayfish and then over the next nine hours got 37 sheepshead on and 29 in two biggest tied at over 28". But not another smallmouth. Released everything.