MontanaBasser

OG Rapala is Balsa and the Rebel is plastic, right? The Rebel with a rattle casts like an ICBM compared to a Rapala. A Rebel doesn't hunt as well as a Rapala.

It's so interesting to see the variety and regional nature of fishing. Around here people throw a lot of hair jigs at walleye, steelhead and trout but they're smaller and lighter. I could get by with a 7’6” lite action and maybe the ML for deeper walleye, but I throw hair jigs on a 8’6” ultralight with a moderate action. And, I was watching a YouTube video with a crappie guide earlier and he swore up and down that anything less than 10' and you're at a disadvantage.

And if I had a boat I'd go out on the ocean And if I had a pony I'd ride him on my boat And we could all together Go out on the ocean I said me upon my pony on my boat

What are your favorites?

I love snaps. I'll tie direct when needed, but I'm throwing moving baits at dinks from shore. It's cold and I can change baits without taking my gloves off. If you have any snaps, you'd like to part with, send them my way.

I had the good fortune to snap off my whole leader without any replacement. Driving back to the house would have eaten all my time but the only place nearby was a fly shop. I worked up the courage and walked in the door. I found a spool of florocarbon tippet, paid and headed back to the river. Cortland Top Secret fly tippet has turned out to be my favorite leader material by far. The only high end leader I've used much is gold label and I like Cortland more than that.

In the spring, can you see them spawning in the shallows?

My experience has been that as you get lighter and lighter baits become more finicky and harder to identify by sight. Plus, little changes have a big impact. Finally, if I know that my BFS reel is dialed in for 1/8th oz, I can weigh my other presentations to know if the breaks need adjustment before. But, the real reason is for when I dump a full 3700 of sinkers.

I've been carrying one in my big tackle bag for a while now. You can find them at your local smoke shop and behind the counter at seedier convenience stores. It turns out tobacco smokers send a lot of over stuffed letters and are real sticklers for correct postage. Passionate philatelists - that lot.

Have you ever seen a YouTube video of someone doing circuit board repair? I went down a rabbit hole one day and that was my exact thought. These folks will desolder everything off the board, use a microscope and tiny rotary mills to mill down into the circuit board itself and then repair the damaged layer. Then, they have to repair every layer above it that they destroyed getting down to the initial damage. Finally, they have to resolder all of the components to the face of the board. If, at any time they didn't do a good job isolating one layer of the board from the next, they're SOL. I was equally impressed and filled with dread.

I purchased this reel in a 2500 size last holiday season. I've used it on a variety of rods all summer. I've had it loaded with Reaction Tackle 8x braid in 8lb. I got lucky on a Midway mystery rod and pulled a 7' St. Croix Legend Trout and Panfish. When I got the rod, I started shopping for a reel and found a good deal on this one. I grew up 2 hours from Park Falls, WI so it was nice to support the home team. It's a nice reel and I expect the only reason it was on sale was because people don't trust a new name. This is clearly designed as a finesse reel and IMHO they nailed it. The skelatonized spool body keeps the center of gravity of the reel at or possibly slightly behind the grip point and it becomes very apparent when paired with a light or short rod. The spool is shallow by traditional standards, but not by modern standards. The rubber grip ring on the spool insures your braid won't slip on the spool. The overall weight of the reel is 7.5oz. I don't have a clue how many ball bearings it has as I've never found that to equate with reel smoothness. Of the the spinning reels I own, It's on par or nicer than the Diawa Fuego but not quite as nice as a late model Shimano Stratic or Okuma Wave Off. The drag is the high quality you would expect from a Midwest finesse reel. It's application of force feels linear and line payout starts and stops smoothly. If I had to say something negative, it's more of a word of caution. The gap between the spool and the body will happily eat your main line if you let it. It's only happened twice, but both times I had to take the spool off the reel to sort it out.

A couple of times a year (it seems) Midway will sell "mystery box" rods and reels. You purchase a rod or reel based on price point and WYSIWYG. The rods and reels are for sale for 40-45% below MSRP and you are guaranteed a rod that MSRPs for XXX amount. For instance, it'll be advertised as "Bass casting rod minimum $375" and the price is $225. The categories I've seen are: Bass casting rod Bass casting crank rod Bass Spinning rod 1pc Bass spinning rod 2pc Trout/Panfish rod Casting reel Spinning reel Inside those categories they'll have sub categories for reel size and handedness. Below is a copy of an earlier post I made about my first experience. Since then I've purchased another two and both rods were 7'6" Lews Carbon Lites - one MH and one H. I've received rods from ultralight to Heavy and 6'10" - 7'10". So, if you are looking to fill a hole in your lineup, it's not the best approach but if you are looking to expand your lineup and don't need a specific length/power/action it's an inexpensive way to do it. Begin repost: A while ago another member wanted a report from someone who had bought mystery rods from Midway. Well, here you go: This past December I YOLO'd and bought a mystery rod, or four... I ordered two casting rods and two spinning rods at different price points. I put specifics below, but the conclusion is that I didn't get ripped off. First, all of the rods were St. Croix. For a Midwest boy that suits me fine. I haven't had a chance to use any of them yet. The least expense rod was advertised as a "bass crankbait casting rod minimum value $175”. Purchase price $105. I received a Mojo Bass series Carbon Cranker - 7'2" Med Heavy / Moderate. (Market Price $175-200) The second rod was advertised as a"bass casting rod minimum value $200. Purchase price $120. I received a Victory series - 7'3" Heavy / Mod-Fast. (Market Price $200-275) The third rod was advertised as a "bass spinning rod-2 piece, minimum value $200". Purchase price $130. I received an Avid series - 6'8" Medium / Extra Fast 2 piece. (Market Price $200-250) Finally the spendy one. Advertised as a "trout and panfish spinning rod minimum value $400”. Purchase price $220. I received a Legend Elite Panfish series - 7'0" Lite / Extra Fast. (Market Price $385-410) So, there you go. Four samples of the Midway mystery rods. I am overall pleased. The only disappointment is the length of the Victory rod and only because I could use a rod for carolina rigs and bigger swim baits.

If you're brand agnostic and aren't looking for a specific length/power/action the mystery rods at Midway have worked out great for me. I've purchased 6 now and all of them have been great. At this point I think I would end up with duplicate rods, but that's only possible now that I have some rods.

If this run's a foul of site rules, please let me know. I am not affiliated with this company at all and purchased all products mentioned herein. That little disclaimer out of the way, I wanted to share a little niche manufacturer that has made my summer a lot more fun. If you dislike finesse fishing, you can probably stop reading now. However, if you like ultra light - Medium light finesse fishing for bass, trout and panfish, you'll love this stuff. Moondog Bait co is a small online lure manufacturer in the Ohio/Indiana area somewhere. They specialize in soft plastics and lures for panfish, but there are a lot of styles that carry over well to finesse bass fishing What initially drew me Moondog were their soft plastics. As soon as I saw their finesse leech, I knew I had to try it on a drop shot. I picked up two packs one in toxic pumpkin and one in motor oil. They arrived and the first time I used them I was hooked. After that, the Bait Monkey took hold. I really wanted to see if all of it was as good as the leeches and it was. To go with the soft plastics, they have a large selection of skirted micro ball head, micro swim jigs, micro bladed jigs and even micro umbrella rigs. Jig heads are available in 1/16th and 1/8th oz weights with a lot of great skirt options. Besides the drop shot, these baits work very well for a micro version of most bass fishing presentations. You'll probably want to pickup some of the #8 EWG hooks that they sell unless you have small EWG's already. In my experience, the #10s are too small and sometimes you will want a #6 or #4 as well. For Drop shotting, I used a small octopus hook nose hooked for the short stuff and an Owner Covershot #2 for weedless rigging of the longer baits. the 1/32nd blade bait is tough to cast and keep down in the water column, but the 1/8th blade bait is IMHO way better than the Mini Max or Baby Jack. My favorite soft plastic styles are the leech, lil lizard, Mini gill, Pond Parasite, Finesse Worm, Ultra Finesse worm, and the various paddle tails. The larger Shad Stingers make good trailers as do the split top minnows. The micro A-rigs are a lot of fun to pull through a school of crappie. I had high hopes for the Shad Reapers as a tad pole analog, but they didn't work out that well. Not a lot of movement compared to the other baits. The other bait that under preformed for me were the dragon flies. I haven't gotten a strike on them yet. I included photos of what was in my pocket box today, but if you want a closer look at something else, let me know. *The underspin heads are not moondog bait co. https://moondogbaitco.com/

Diving depths too please. I've gotten better at guessing based on bill shape and size, but that's after I started writing the range on the bait itself. Although, I once caught a bass just so he could disagree with me about the numbers on the bait.

I'm not experienced enough to pick one, but I go through phases. Right now it's blade baits. I'm bank fishing most of the time and they cast a country mile. Yo-yoing them back to the bank is a nice way to search for fish. Before blade baits I was on an extended underspin jag. They're as likely to catch a bass as a walleye and big trout like them too.

I'd like to play but I only have 155 posts.

After flying with two piece rods sticking awkwardly out of my carry-on a few times I'm looking to upgrade. Like the title stated, ideally I'd find two spinning rods with two tips each. The UL/L would be a trout and panfish rod and the other one a walleye and finesse bass rod. FishUSA has a ML/M that has mixed reviews. People say Fenwick makes a twin tip travel rod but I can't find one in production. What else should I look at?

For sale?

It seems like the going rate for a quality underspin is $6-7 and IMHO that's too much. How are the BPS underspins? Any other reasonable priced brands that are proven to work? I've tried buying cheap knockoffs but most of the time they don't spin or they're too close to the body or something else.

Tackledirect is running a BOGO on the Daiwa SOL AGS inshore. If you know and like that rod, it's a heck of a deal. https://enews.tackledirect.com/q/FlVUZDojDb-iTX0daamt9nNKHtHjJDFdw2zl4NoWkW0lbUKQ8rvyWQ8oK

The middle of August I finally found a micro bladed jig that works the way I want. It's available in 1/16 and 1/8 and both sizes start thumping near instantly. The first day I tied it on I caught 3 back to back in a super pressured pond - two LMB and a Rainbow. Trout is where this lure really shines.

I just found out that unlike most water bodies that divide states, the Connecticut River has been legally ruled to be the jurisdiction of New Hampshire. It's not split in the middle, it's split at the low water line. That got me thinking, does every Vermont angler who wants to fish the river have to buy a New Hampshire license?

If sharks and large fish are any indication, then we aren't paying enough attention to electrical conductivity. Sharks will swim miles to investigate weird electrical impulses and they clearly associate them with food. Bass probably do to.

We got my son a bearded dragon for Christmas last year. She will sit in the same spot for hours at a time. When she does move, it is very mechanical. Watching her always leaves me with the same question: Is she conscious? She is definitely alive and can certainly cognate. But, does that rise to the level of being conscious? If not, where is the cut off? If yes, what are the ramifications? Now, I love consciousness studies and theories, but I bring it up to ask the same question of fish. Do bass have "feelings" or are they just responding to stimuli? My dog has feelings, I'm sure of that. My kids share their 'feelings' about everything all the time. To me , a bass is like a graphing calculator that swims. It's purely responding to its environment - input A causes response B. It's not that simple obviously, but I don't think there is much going on up there.