Rockhopper

Hey Kev, side question...What are you using as a top coat?

That was the most productive color for me this year with both smb and lmb.

Unless I am missing something, OP never said that. The request for the rod includes a rod that will allow more casting distance. No mention that OP only wants to stick with a spinning rod.

I use a 7' mhmf baitcasting rod with a curado mgl 71hg and 15lb copoly for this exact task. It works very well. The reel can cast weightless plastics with ease and distance, and the mod fast rod really helps to load the light bait in the cast.

But yet people still eat it!

I may or may not have purchased a new Leviathan Omega heavy today. Tranx 301 or a Bates Goat SWM?

How is that any different than a direct tie or tying to a split ring? For large swimbaits and glide baits, you should be using both depending on the time of year and action needed from the bait. Direct tie imparts less action from the bait. There is a time and place for each. I choose snaps over split rings.

Easy and cheap swap. Get the reel you want. Change knob if needed.

This.

I use rods up to 8' in my kayak. Its the butt length of the rod that is the concern. Not the overall length.

Oh boy! To start, get yourself a medium heavy fast action baitcaster with a 7 speed 150 size spool reel and 15lb copoly line and a medium or medium light moderate fast action spinning rod with a 2500 or 3000 size reel and 12 lb copoloy line. Both in 7' length. St. Croix makes some nice entry level rods. Get some of the following tackle: -3/0 and 4/0 Gamakatsu EWG hooks. -Black with blue flake and also green pumpkin 5" Yamamoto Senko's. -White 1/2 oz double willow blade spinnerbaits. (Dobyn's Beast and Megabass SV-3 are the best) -Creature craws. Reaction Innovations Sweet Beaver and Riot Baits Little Fuzzy Beaver. Get the color that is black/blue on one side and green pumpkin on the other. It is called different things by different manufacturers. Riot Baits calls this color "Money". -Zoom white pearl flukes. (I prefer regular flukes over super flukes) -1/2 oz black/blue and also green pumpkin jig. Pitching jigs are a good place to start. Also consider a football head jig. Can't go wrong with Dirty Jigs brand or Siebert Outdoors. -4" Rapala Crush City Mayor swimbait in electric shad color. -1/4 oz Texas rig weights black color. -Peg stoppers for weights. I would personally ignore everything else until you get a feel for bass fishing, casting, etc. Don't get hung up on color. Focus on white, black, and green pumpkin colored baits. If you jump into worm fishing, you can add a fourth color pattern of something that looks similar to an earth worm. There are many varieties of this color, but just get something that has that brownish red/purple/blue hue to it. The only place really needed to expand from there would eventually be junebug color in various soft plastics. Keep color simple. With those baits you should be able to learn to catch bass. After that...well...open your wallet. Once you get bit, its going to get expensive. *Edit - Second train of thought: This day in age, knowing what I know now and how I like to fish, I could have saved myself thousands of dollars just going straight to BFS (bait finesse) and big swimbaits and skipping all the rest in between. But I really would not have learned much along the way.

In cold water I go with two philosophies. 1. If fishing slow, got to fish super slow including how the bait itself moves. Very natural colors are your friend here. And little to no rattle. 2. Fish super fast eliciting a reaction strike and not giving the fish time to stare the bait down. Burn deep divers in shallow water.

Limeaid mixed with JB Honey. Goes down so smooth.

Well only two hours going back in. But then the truck wouldn't run correctly. Spent two more hours figuring it out. Who knew I had to drive it for 20 minutes for the computer to relearn how to idle correctly. Really hate new cars.

Took it out tonight. Only took 3 hours. 🙄 Had to pretty much disassemble the entire passenger side of the front of the motor and fender well. That thing is buried in there deep. Will install new one tomorrow. Wish me luck! Remember when they used to just sit here?

Looks like on yours when you turn on cruise with the button on the steering wheel that looks like a speedometer with a car symbol next to it...instead of just tapping the button for on, press and hold for 1 sec and it will turn on constant speed mode. Tap on for adaptive, press and hold for constant. The green light on the dash should display the speedometer symbol without the car next to it at that point.

My 2 y.o. 4runner can turn it off using mode button 🤷‍♂️

On the Yoter it can be disabled using the mode button on the steering wheel. My '12 Tundra alternator just took a crap. Been watching videos on how to replace it. I am very good mechanically. I have anxiety now.

I hate auto anything on the new cars. Also hate the big screen tv's sitting in the dash. I am not THAT old, but I am old school. Give me points and a carb and manual roll up windows and I am happy.

This could be done on the Umpqua. Ok maybe not 157...but you could catch a hundred in a day for sure.

I didn't even know that was a thing. I fish all year long.

I am fishing them every outing. I typically bass fish from a kayak and work my way along the shore line. I pull up to the first spot I want to fish and throw the big baits first, fanning the area within casting distance. Then I switch rods and throw more traditional or finesse baits until I am convinced I have caught what that area will produce for the time. Then I move on down the shoreline to the next area beyond the first area's casting distance and repeat the process. This has worked very well for me this year. If I had to put a number on it, I would say roughly 15% of the time is dedicated to casting the big baits.

I bass fished more this year than any other year I have been alive. There was one stretch in the summer that I made it out for 19 straight days. Definitely a record for me. I caught hundreds of fish this year. My goal for 2025 was to branch out with my lure arsenal...and I was very successful in doing so. Prior to this year I mostly fished jigs and spinnerbaits. Although I was always successful, I was getting bored fishing the same stuff over and over and made a change this year. I went heavy on swimbaits and bfs. My two most successful baits this year were the 4" Mayor and the Karashi. I also had a ton of success with the Spro Chad Shad, the Bass Mafia 6" and 7" unloaded, 10" mag worm, and Black Label Cliff Pace Snapshot. I caught a few (including my first ever) with the jerkbait as well. Mostly the vision 110 junior +1. Yes, I still fished the jig and spinnerbait and caught fish every time I used them. But I have to admit I had a lot of fun experimenting this year. The one bait that still eludes me is the frog. I fished it quite a bit. I had a ton of blow ups. But for the life of me I could never set the hook until just towards the end of the year when I finally set the hook on one correctly and got it to the boat. I eased up a bit this year on the smallmouth fishing, but the couple times I went were actually my best days for numbers. Caught all smallmouth on white flukes and karashis, with only one large smallie on a jig in early spring. I also caught my PB largemouth this year on the Spro Chad Shad. I netted several 8+lb lmb's as well, a decent amount of 6+lb, and a record amount of 5+lb fish for me. For 2026 I am looking to expand my swimbait arsenal, as well as my bfs selection. And I will probably end up selling off a lot of my crankbait gear. I have a lot of nice crankbaits, most that have never been fished. And I do not really see myself wanting to use them in the future. Swimbaits, bfs, topwater, jigs, and spinnerbaits are where its at for me.

I bought a dumb amount of 6" and 7" Bass Mafia baits from TW when they had the unloaded version on sale for $5 a two pack. Though I do need to pick up this 5" version.

If only dibs were a thing with this....