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A-Jay a good pellet gun could change the balance of power...

No questions just a story. I bought a trolling motor cheap last year at the end of the season. Being a second season boater I know nothing about these things. After lots of research I developed a game plan. I needed a bracket and after calling a few welder and machine shops I was close but no cigar. My dad said screw calling and let's go visit some of these guys. Af our second stop we got a lead on a shop that might be able to help us. Went there and got a custom bracket for $50 cheaper than any other quote I found and 1/4 aluminum to boot. Then came the wiring. Figured that out and wired it up today. As we were getting the wiring together my dad used a knife to strip off some plastic on the wire and cut his hand open. We bandaged it and like a boss he helped me finish the job. Called him around dinner to thank him again and he had just gotten back from emergency care. He needed 5 stitches in his thumb. Took the boat out for an hour tonight and I'm going to love this thing. Much better then anchoring all the time or having to use paddles. Thanks Dad I owe ya a beer and a pair of wire strippers!!!

Second biggest bass of my life: Let's just say I believe in the Ned Rig now! This pond has produced a lot of bass for me with finesse presentations, so I was excited to field test the bait. It's a very pressured pond, the bass see a ton of lures, and the simple appeal of the Ned Rig was too good to be passed up. Caught five more chunky fish, but nothing like this one. Carp were out feeding all day, and I was 95% positive I had a carp on.....until it jumped. As much as I would have liked to land it on my new rod, I think it's a testament that I fought it on a Berkley Lightning rod and a Bass Pro Megacast reel.......super cheap combo, the reel was given to me, I'm planning on upgrading it, but hey: it got the job done! Funnest fight ever

Been on an awesome jig bite lately. There's absolutely nothing I like better than when they eat jigs on a long cast on or near the bottom. 41 keepers in ~10 hours on the water (3 trips), all over 13", none over 16" unfortunately. All on my walmart one dollar special jig (heavily modified of course). A Hudd68 type bass (wish I was clever enough to come up with that). These little fish pull SO hard. This fish at least has the length to girth ratio in its favor! Think I'll take a break for a few days.

I have not been on for awhile but I am surprised at all you guys when this happens it's not a negative thing it is a golden opportunity to go home and tell your wife that you did not have the proper lures or equipment for the conditions you were faced with today TIME TO GO TO THE TACKLE SHOP.

A couple months back I stuck a treble hook deep into my index finger (big dummy). I pulled on the lure with all my might, but it was hooked on so much flesh that it wouldn't rip out. I then pushed the hook-point all the way through my finger, snipped it off with wire cutters, then backed out the hook. There was virtually no pain, but I felt sorry for my wife who was wincing with sympathetic pain I smeared some Polysporin on the puncture and went back to fishing. Roger

5 pounder on the Ned Rig! Hard to get perspective without someone else taking the pic, but it was officially 5 pounds even.

Too lazy to get the boat out this morn and decided to bankbeat.. in 3 hours of work landed close to 20 fish (lost count) mostly 2-3 pounders but did cap it off with 2 hosses: 21" 5.5 lb and a 20" 4 3/4lb (the 20" broke my flippin stick and ended my day) Even Mattlures got into it .. first fish on Mattlures only a 14" but hey its the first on the Hardgill.. gonna use it alil more going forward. Fishin itch is scratched for another week..

Or I would also ask about the scent of the chlorine, can't think that it would be an attractant.

5.8 pounds on a jig in a 3 hour Wednesday night tournament. Big fish and helped our other two fish to be good enough for 1st place with big fish. Pretty decent night. Tight lines Andrew

I sure wish my lawn needed to be trimmed this morning. One of my neighbors, "The Great American Patriot" was lighting off fireworks until 3am so I'm sure he'd like to listen to it at sunrise. Another leaves his teenage children home alone for the weekend so the rest of us can listen to the thump, thump, thump of Ghetto Rap. The old fashioned idea of respecting your neighbors started to circle the drain a long time ago. It wouldn't surprise me that these idiots get upset when they're awakened in the morning by the noise of people going to work, none of them have that habit.

My grass fishing 101...............go over the top with a topwater bait, if they won't bite that, or slap and miss, rip a square billed crank or swim jig through it.....still no takers, but you know they are in the grass, next step is a slow falling wacky rigged bait, if that's hauling water............time to go straight to the bottom with any number of things. My # 1 choice would be a T-rigged plastic, or a jig. If none of that works..................go fish docks, or hard cover out side the grass, like an off shore rock pile, sunken boats, etc.... In our lakes around here, there are ALWAYS bass in the grass, but they can be some of the most finicky fish to get to bite, especially in clear water where the grass is easily seen and hammered by a legion of decent anglers. Not to mention they turn off or on at the drop of a hat, at almost seemingly random times. While there are more shallow water fisherman around here, fewer of them are any good, and it's a good way to get on some big fish when the grass bite is slow..........same with the deep water bite. Not to mention, shallow living big bass seem to be more "angry" in general, and can be irritated into biting. But boy, when those hogs turn on in the grass, it's possible to put a sack and a half of them in the boat FAST, but timing is the key. I know guys who are 100% grass guys who will live and die with that bite, and never go outside or shallow. They are the guys who will zero or middle it for weeks on end, but they are also the guys who will smash 20lb bags for weeks on end when it's "right". I am not quick to bail on the grass, but I will....especially if I haven't had a bite in 4 hours and have fished the crap out of good areas, but it can bite you........several times I have given up on the grass to go shallow, or deeper, and it's cost me, because while I have been farting around elsewhere............they turned on.

The ammo monkey.......he over rides the congress of fishing related monkeys about the day after I put the boat up for the winter, and...............really never stays too silent. Often time him and the bait monkey conspire against me when I am in a place that has both.

50lb power pro should do the trick.

Got another nice one today. Wasn't expecting to pull this fish out of a laydown on a flipping jig. Thought for sure I had a 5lb largemouth. Nope, 18" 2.8lb smallie. Boy can they fight!

I believe that once something enters the mouth, the sense of taste outweighs the sense of smell. In that regard, it's tough to best sodium chloride (NaCl)

Ya can't gain much confidence unless ya catching I do like like A-Jay, I try new lures when they are biting

http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/130634-rod-selection-the-basics/

5.8 pounds on a jig in a Wednesday night tourney. Tight lines Andrew

'Hope' drives the opening game, but 'confidence' can only be built on success. Although you may gain confidence in a lure, your learning experience will never end. One Lure At A Time: Knowledge is always the first step, followed by time on the water. Omitting the first step would sharply lower the quality of time spent on the water. Learn the tricks and tips before wetting a line, and prevent the pitfalls made by your predecessors. Roger

Take it one bait at a time. Learn as much as you can about each one; how to fish it, when, where, why & how. Knowledge Breeds Confidence. This will be a big help on the road to having success with the baits. One way I do it is, when the bass are in a biting mood, and I'm catching a few, I'll change out to one of my "New" baits right in the middle of the best action. This solves a few pieces of the puzzle right away. I know where the bass are and I know that they are in a feeding mood. Now it's just a matter of finding out if they are willing to eat my new bait. It helps if the baits are similar. I've been able to gain confidence in several baits this way and have also regained faith in some older baits like this as well. When the conditions are right this offers a chance to fine tune your presentation too. Clearly this doesn't always work. And often times if the bait is a dud or I'm fishing it incorrectly, I know I'm missing out on some fish. But it does pay off enough times to make it a viable option. Good Luck A-Jay

One way is to use them at the right time and conditions. If you don't, you'll end up putting them back in the bottom of the box.Don't expect many topwater bites at high noon with bluebird skies. Unless it's a really weedy place and the bait is a frog.

I'm using a 7' 3" H/F Ethos from Academy. Got it on sale for $59 and it's the best frog rod I've owned. Lots of power but loads well to fire a frog a long ways. It has micro guides which I like to help with cast control so I can hit spots under a dock or overhanging tree. It makes a good pitching rod as well.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v181/Mattlures/Deadtwitch.jpg <a href="http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Mattlures/media/Deadtwitch.jpg.html"target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v181/Mattlures/Deadtwitch.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo Deadtwitch.jpg"/></a> 13 inch Dead twitch about 14 0z Couple of good fish the big one was 11and change

My biggest smallie of the year 4.5 pounds, caught on a custom painted 110+1 in pink/white/chartreuse.

What size head/hook were you using? Looks huge for a Ned rig. Say it with me now, the Ned rig only catches numbers of little fish

Fish them, that's the only way to truly build confidence in them. If you have access to a pond or somewhere that they'll eat everything that touches the water, I'd start out there. I have a "practice lake", close to me where I try out new ideas because it's packed full of aggressive little bass.

Alrighty and i think that it would include bluegill but not sure the specifics

With those big marble eyes, she looks every bit of five Roger

I mostly fish from a kayak and mainly use crankbaits. I hooked and landed a dink pike and made the mistake of putting him near my lap he thrashes and hooks my nutsack. had to push it thru

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTUQXpg76xQ

PowerPro is fine. Sufix Performance is another low cost braid alternative that is quieter than PowerPro Original.

A K-9 test was performed using a group of people and a handkerchief. While the dog was out of the room, someone in the group would pick-up the hanky then drop it to the floor. The dog was brought into the room and allowed to sniff the hanky. The dog not only picked up human scent every time, but went unerringly to the person in the group who touched the hanky. This test was repeated for everyone in the group, and the dog had a near-perfect score. Interestingly enough, the only time the dog showed any indecision was between twin sisters. Apparently confused by nearly identical DNA, the dog paced back-and-forth between the twins. Roger

It's a biological fact, bass are sight feeders with a very poor sense of smell. Fish species with barbels such as bullheads, catfish and carp have a good sense of smell, but I've never heard of an instance where a catfish or carp was repelled by human scent. In fact, the cornmeal doughballs I use for carp bait are thoroughly kneaded by human hands. Moreover, carp are deemed the craftiest and wariest of all fish. For animals with a keen sense of smell such as deer, dogs and bear, masking human odor is a myth. Adding odor to another odor doesn't eradicate anything (else bloodhounds would be out of job) When deer hunting, I've tried every cover scent imaginable, but all to no avail, Whenever I place myself upwind of a buck, it's a pretty safe bet I'm going to hear a farewell nasal snort Roger

I like a good tip for casting and walking the frog with a strong back bone to bury the hook and get them out of the slop. I use a megabass xx perfect pitch which is 7'2".

I've never bothered counting ribs before. I look at ribs being 2 sizes: 1) That should be enough 2) Better get more ribs

Mine is always in the boat - fished it today in fact. I primarily use it for t-rigs, but the beauty of this rod is that you can use it for practically anything in it's weight range and get good performance. T-rigs, light jigs, flukes, ligher paddle-tail swimbaits, lighter spinnerbaits and other single-hook baits. You can even crank with it in a pinch. If any of my other BC rods/reels go down while in the boat, this rod can sub for them on the lighter end of the weight spectrum. You're not going to pull hawgs out of the slop with this rod, but in open water it will handle some nice-size fish...

Unhooking a nice LMB today and he shivered and buried a Rat-L-Trap treble all the way to the hilt in my finger. That felt good. Luckily, there was a guy pretty close the helped me with the fish and then helped me load up my boat. for the trip to the ER. First time in 10 years of Bass fishing I had to have one extracted. Don't usually get them in THAT far.

Thanks! Will see if it's on YouTube or if I can find a place to purchase it. Josh

Congratulations Kyle! A 5-lber is a hog anywhere USA Roger

Thanks guys!

Great fish! Got a weight on that bass? Looks like a solid 4! Nice! EDIT: didnt see 5lber in the title

Congratulations..............great fish.

I've fished for bass UL and L for pretty much my entire angling "career" Indeed a true UL rod can easily hook a good bass, either that or my UL rods and the bass I catch are lying about their true power ...but the problem comes when a rig has the hook buried in a soft plastic, as it will snap the line on a hard hookset. So to compensate for that I learned to "texpose" my senkos and worms, etc. For me now that's the only way to rig those baits with 4-6 lb mono line. I had a very good 6'6" Quantum UL that was my primary rod for a long time. Unfortunately it was stolen during my time off from fishing. So this year I decided to see what's out their in the UL world, and ended up buying two...a 7'6" and a 6'6" BPS Micro Lite Glass (not graphite) rods. A good test of a UL is to see how far you can cast a 1/64oz jig on 4 lb mono. Both of my Micro Lite Glass rods cast them much further than my late great Quantum ever did (which was graphite). They are stunningly great rods for $20 each. The 7'6" is my primary float rod, the 6'6" my general purpose UL. I had ignored the potential of fiberglass rods in the past...but they excel when throwing tiny lures. They sacrifice sensitivity compared to graphite, but once I adjusted my casting to the glass it's now silly how far they'll toss the tiniest lures I own. Good luck my friend. Bass can't be beat on UL tackle...tons and tons of fun.

Your specified baits would usually mean THREE rods for most folks. Weightless t-rigs might mean a medium-power, fast or extra-fast action rod. Frogs are most often tossed on a medium-heavy, or heavy power rod. Crankbaits are typically tossed on a medium, or medium-heavy (depending on the weight of the bait) power rod with a moderate, or moderate-fast action. Many feel that if you can only have a SINGLE baitcasting rod, then a ~7' medium-heavy, fast action rod is as close as you can come to covering the most bases. Depending on how soft the tip is, it may, or may not, give marginal service for cranking however. Welcome to BR !

I used to be loomified. Until these came along. Next will be the levetian. Now that's a stick!

You say ultralite but seems to me you are really looking for a lite or ml. I dont see any "true" UL setting a hook in a bass' mouth but i also dont see a ml casting a 1/64 jig either I think you will need to see and feel a rod in person to see what you want/need. Specs might be deceiving. I have an old Quantum 6' lite that will sort of do both. I mainly use it for 1/8 cranks Dont go too long or they get real whippy

I just picked up a new St.Croix Panfish Series 6'9" ULF. At first, I thought it was the best ever. Now that I've fished it a while, I still really like it, but am finding it isn't quite as sensitive as I'd like. On the other hand, it was fairly inexpensive as far as quality rods go, and it casts and fights fish very well. It has plenty of backbone and a nice, fast tip. I'd buy another one. (I have a Shimano Symetre on mine.) Tight lines, Bob

When I tried first tying it the "easy" way like that video on youtube said it was a mess. I had the same issues as you. Big Angry Fish TV does a great youtube video and it helped me a lot. I respect Ajay and his views, but have to disagree. Yes it does take a long time to tie, but the more you do it the easier it gets. I used to use the modified albrecht and hated it. Lost so many lures from the knot breaking or slipping and almost gave up on using fluoro because of it (was fine with mono). I then tried the FG and can't be happier. It goes through my micro guides great and is very strong. Don't give up on it!

When I retired I promised myself.... No more getting up before 6:00 am Only shave when she starts yelling Throw out all the ties And find a kid to cut the grass!! Mike