4 hours ago, RichF said:

I'm not necessarily talking about fishing slop.  That's a whole different deal.  I'll fish the frog all the way to the boat in that case.  When I'm hitting targets, they're usually isolated.  Sure there's a chance a bass could come from open water somewhere and hit the bait away from the target, but I'm thinking in terms of high percentage when I fish a frog this way.  And again, I don't think @MassYak85 was saying he'd burn the bait in and cast again if a fish blew up on his bait, but rather have the ability to do so if a fish blows up somewhere else.  

Yup, I meant when I see fish elsewhere and need to make a quick cast. Some days chasing blowups is a fools game like @J Francho said, but other days it's very effective. One nice thing about being in a kayak is I can get waaaaaaay back into the pads. Some ponds have vast lily pad fields in the summer up in MA that can cover more than 75% of the water's surface. When that's the case it's like jig fishing a lake that's littered with standing timber, it's hard to know where to start. But sometimes what I do if it's a really shallow pond or area is just start paddling, the fish we're all really after can't make quick movements in that thick stuff without bumping into all kinds of stuff, so when you come barreling in and they need to move...you get to know about it. Move around enough and you start getting a sense of where fish are and aren't, then you can let the area cool down and bomb the frog back through there and at least have the confidence knowing that fish are in that area. 

 

8 hours ago, J Francho said:

I've watched a bass follow a frog too many times to think in terms of a small target.  My favorite is the wake inthe slop coming right at your frog.  But I digress, keep taking your baits away from the fish.

Man those wakes....not for the faint of heart but by far one of my favorite part of bass fishing. 

On 4/10/2018 at 7:26 PM, Tywithay said:

If you're casting them a great distance, the IPT for a 1/2 full spool is a lot lower. That's why a faster ratio is more effective.

Which is why I like a reel with a larger and or wider spool.

I prefer the highest speed I have available. Yes you do not want to pull the bait away from the fish. When you get a blow up stop and change your game up. Fish that cast back to the boat. But when that casts over I want to rip the bait back in and get back into the game. I also prefer the highest speed because I don't always have 15 rods with me. I'll use the same reel to flip and frog when I'm bank fishing. 

To each his own, reel speed is way overrated Imo but if you like fast reels great if you like slower reals great. I do feel like some of the advice on here fails to take in account what other people actually need. Honestly you could fish every technique with a 6:4.1 reel. I don't want people to feel like they have to have this fast reel or this rod or that lure to have fun and catch fish. Everywhere you look in this sport someone is trying to sell us the next big thing, from the oil in the boat motor  to the rod in your hand. I hope on bass resource we can stay away from that and encourage people to have fun and dont worry so much. Lets stop trying to sell product to each other and get back to learning how to become better anglers. It dosent matter how fast the reel or the power of the rod if you can't break down a pad field or pattern a bite. Way too much whats the best lure, rod, reel,line talk and not enough in-depth discussion about patterning fish by day weather ect.