Got out on the home lake this afternoon.Goals were to try a new finesse outfit, to try my new frog rig, and my new swimbait combo.By the way, I have a friend who works on used r&rs as a hobbie.So I have a lifetime of old broken equipment he recently fixed.So now I have quite a few combos I can use for different applications.

1.finesse rig:Used a Penn slammer 6.6 .light wieght rod with a fairly stiff action.I have some power pro my friend lined it with.Not sure of the pound test.I just started using it again after a long time so I cant tell the test by feel.I have what I I call a medium light shimano spinning reel.I used the 4 inch gy senko on this.I loved how accurate it casts.Used it around our Island where there is a lot of downed trees , overhanging branches etc.I could skip with it very well.With the braid and rod tip I could feel everything so good.Caught 10 on the east side of the island.I give this combo an A rating.

Frog combo:For this I use a shimano catala 300 reel with a 7" mh Berkely lightning rod.Using a heavier braid on this one.Had a problem casting.I have not used casting reels much since the 80s.Getting back into it.I would cast, it would go about 20 feet and act like there was a knot in it and plop down.I tried the adjustment knob and i just couldnt get it to cast the way I wanted.Had one fish( big) on it and I swung and missed.Got to re- group on this one.

3.Swimbait combo.Its an old quantam reel on a vortex spiral wrap the friend did for me.6.6 mh. Thing casts a mile.Occasional back lash but I still havent got the settings just right yet.Result: My first bass on a weighted swim bait rig.Whoo hoo.!  This combo feels good .Got to finish on the settings.

4.And fished my favorite reel.My Strada with new Yo zuri 8 pound test on an old 6.6 medium heavy ugly stick.Fished The 5 inch senko with this.Caught 2.

Summary: Been detirmined to try new things this year.Its hard but starting to pay off.As usual, i really enjoyed the evening on the water.Full moon was nice too.

Mike

Mike I wanted to read that heading as "Caught a 13"

I heard that! Best fish in that bunch was 2 1/2. Sometimes you just need to catch some - whatever you can.  Tried for bigger fish off and on during the evening though.

On 7/20/2016 at 11:52 AM, Dwight Hottle said:

Mike I wanted to read that heading as "Caught a 13"

hahaha same thing i thought before i opened it up.... was expecting a pic of a monster!

Maybe someday....