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So I'm done and ready for the opener tomorrow. Here are my 2016 addition to the family. 3 Zodias rods, a 7' Medium Glass, 6'10 ML and 6'10 Medium. for reels bought a Metanium XG '13, Metanium HG '13, Curado 200I HG, Curado 70 XG, Core 100 MG and Chronarch E5/E6/E7.

Walk into any fishing tackle store and look at lure or bait colors and every color is on the shelf. Doesn't matter if you are a bass angler or trout, walleye, musky, pike or salt water game fish color selection is limitless. Anglers want to catch fish and color isn't important if you have the color that is working. 2 colors seem to be predominate on this site; green pumpkin and black/blue for bottom bumping lures or sexy Shad for crankbaits. 10 years ago what was the predominate color for bass anglers or 10 years from now what colors will everyone be using? The answer is unknown because anglers change their preference based on what is popular at that time. Black/blue is very popular for jigs and lures fished at night. You can't buy a strike using black/blue where I fish during the day at night and mid winter it's good. Green pumpkin came on the scene about 15 years ago, before then it was called green weenie a laminate of green and brown or light green and cinnamon, before those it was motor oil. Multiple flake colors in soft plastics today are called candy or whatever sets them apart. Sexy Shad was coined by KVD, Shad color with chartruese lateral line. Shad color crankbaits have been popular for decades. Color....all you need is the one that works. Tom

A half an hour before sunrise seems about right to me.

Here's the shiny boat shortly after it was polished.

Problem is no bass has ever read a single color chart! I throw it & let the bass tell me if they like it!

Hey folks, I've been fishing with the Okuma Helios rod and Helios Air reel for awhile now, and thought I'd give you my take on the combo. Let me know your thoughts!

Those were the last fish my dad ever caught as he moved on to "better waters" yesterday. Hard to be planning his funeral over Father's Day weekend - but dad, we fished right up until the end! You taught me to fish and how to live life the right way. Rest in peace, Senior FryDog --

Good answer! Chase bronzebacks on the upper Mississippi ~ My dad and hero turned 87 two months ago and we celebrated by fishing for smallmouth on Mille Lacs - and had a great day. Fast forward to October and he was diagnosed with Leukemia. Who knows what next year will bring, but he elected to get out and fish one more time this season - and it was a great day with 35 fish caught, an average of 18 inches, and a couple at/near 20. A day I will never forget ~

So, you can have high end $500 and $600 dollar reels and the bass really don't care. Catch a nearly 21 pound bass on a Zebco 33? Is that even legal? June 23, 1973. Hootie

I fish braided line in water with 20ft+ visibility. I don't think the water clarity is the issue here.

Buy the SV spool for your 103, and then buy a Pixy to compare. +1 to bait monkey for outside the box thinking, +1 bait monkey for enabling Pixy fantasy +2>0 Therefore this is the best option haha

I don't think anyone thinks that at all. Some people just like to spend their money on higher end gear. If they have the money to do so and it gives them as much enjoyment as anyone else then who really cares. On a related note, i bought my son his first real fishing rod and it is a zebco 33 and it is surprisingly nice. Hopefully he can feel the tug of a fish on it for the first time this weekend when i take him out on the kayak

yet some people will see this and still think no one can catch fish without the most expensive of everything available...

It is definitely NOT about color most of the time, but sometimes color can be critical and sometimes it can make good fishing better. I suggest changing colors and trying new lures when you are on a good bite. There is no way of really testing when the fish are shut down.

Caught some non-bass monsters on the Ned Rig tonight (1/15 oz. 'shroomz head with Finesse Shad instead of a TRD)... A couple of big cats, a big freshwater drum (sheepshead) and two mystery monsters that broke me off! I always have fun with the Ned Rig. :-) Tight lines, Bob

Welcome aboard! You can use straight braid if you want, plenty do, and I used to, but these days I always tie on a leader. For one, I'm 100% confident in my leader knots. Second, a leader allows me multiple reties of my hooks during an outing, thereby my braid mainline is depleted more slowly than going without a leader. Lastly, often people fish too fast. I don't know if you are, but slow down your retrieve with a TX rig, wacky rig, etc. When you think you are slow enough, slow down again.

4.... I really don't think folks on here are giving an opinion contrary to what they belive or giving advise different than what they do or use. Call me naive, but I've been on here long enough to believe that is not the case. Mike

New addition to the roster. Pflueger Supreme XT. I love Pflueger spinning reels so I'm seeing how I like their casting reels. As soon as I get a rod to pair her with, she'll be inserted into the starting lineup.

I keep track of the baits/colors used for the last 5 years on the example I gave above and how many fish were caught on each and it is pretty clear what colors work. There are a few oddball colors that got bit, but had very low numbers of fish, so they weren't what they really wanted. It is interesting to look at the list, which was started to keep me from carrying to many baits, you can guess how that worked out for me lol.

Picking color is like color picking which worm to throw, straight tail, hook tail, or ribbion tail...ya pick one & throw it. If it works ya put a little asterisk next to it & file in your brain for future reference!

see, you guys are twisting what i said here. or just completely misunderstanding. apart of the problem is you are assuming. i've personally had a person several years ago point at my gear and say "that wont catch no fish, neither will that one, and that one might" and they were dead serious about it. wasnt a case of them yanking my leg. one of them was actually a zebco 33, one was a shakespeare tiger spincast, and one was a tiger spinning combo. yes, none of them cost more than $20, but i had pulled in a bunch of fish on all of them. the only one i still have is the tiger spincast combo, and that is one lucky reel/rod combo, i've since spent more money and have bought nicer gear myself. what im getting at is, i have nothing against someone spending what they want on their gear, its their money after all, but you do have snobs out there who think you cant catch fish on cheap gear. ive personally met one of those people. a couple days later we ran into him out on the water one morning, i had 2 nice stripers i held up for him to see, he was sitting there skunked...

I've never seen or heard of any creature in any body of water that is "methiolate" in color, or anything that crawls or swims that is "bubble gum pink". For me it comes down to this... If the fish are there and it works, it works..If it doesn't try something else... I'll never know why anyway. Mike

Falling behind again.... Trip#41: Last Monday. Fished all day since I had the say off. Pretty decent day. Caught 20+ bass,all largemouth, with the best five going 5-2, 4-14, 4-1,3-12, + 3-9 Trip #42: Tuesday night for about 4 hours. Kinda slow, caught 5. But three of them were good with a 5-1,4-4,4-0. The other two were a 3lb smallmouth and a 14" largemouth. Trip #43: Last night.Held my first Thursday evening 3 hour/3 fish limit after work tournament of the year. N Bass resource member wnybassman and I teamed up and proceeded to grind our way to a middle of the pack ,semi poor 8.20 lb performance for our best three.

I think that color makes a difference, so that is why I have lots of different colors in many different shapes of soft plastics. I base my color choices on what has worked in the past in similar situations OR I open up the worm bag ( or the craw bag, or the senko bag or the semko imitator bag or the brush hog bag or the lizard bag ) and which ever color screams out to me "PUT ME IN!!" = then that is the color I go with. As you can tell,this is a very well thought out and reasoned plan.

I've seen times when color made absolutely no difference at all. I've seen times when color made all the difference in world. I've seen times when I had to change color often to keep getting bit. In my experience this tell me color charts are meaningless! How were these charts made? Some picked a color, throw it, got bit, & decided, ya need to throw this color in these conditions!

Be patient since frog fishing is a great way to catch bigger than average bass.Have caught many quality bass this way,including several that where + 8 pounds. I prefer using braid when fishing frogs since I feel it increases my hookup rate.30 pound test should be more than enough(this is what I use) but you can use higher pound test if you want.Wait until the frog disappears before setting the hook.Give a solid hookset, but there's no need for a exaggerated hookset.

Some general tips: -rod tip: make sure it's down while walking frog. High rod will set hook too early. -when you see the boil of the water/fish hitting bait: reel slack, pause, set hook. You will read a lot about waiting 1-3 seconds but I'm both too impatient and excited to do that plus feel the tug on line. I try to simply say my full name and the set hook. -pull hooks away from frog. -high gear reel. If below 7:1 you might have too much slack in line. -Lake Fork Trailor Hooks. A little more difficult to walk but will increase hookups. -FOLLOW-UP BAIT: after a miss throw a GYCB 5" senko in the spot of strike. Frog is a great search bait. You found fish now get their butt to the boat. It's called fishing not catching. Some bass are simply trying get the bait away and slap it from different angles with no intentions of eating it. Hope this helped.

First, the HMG 7 foot rod would have a 30 series reel on it just to balance best. So mount the reel with your favorite braid on it. Essentially your 832 and super slick are the same. Now all three of your rods spec as Medium and fast action. Which 6'6" rod seems to transition from soft tip to backbone first. Is it the *** or the Aetos . Whichever rod transitions quickest or has more backbone I would mount my other 30 series reel on it. I would put the new 2500 series reel on the last rod and put the 6 pound Yo Zuri copolymer /floro line on it. I would use it for finesse baits like weightless sencos, wacky worms, ned rigs and lightly weighted creature baits. That line will not sink like straight floro will, so you will get better action on slow sinking baits. When you unspool the Tatsu save it , wind it on an empty line spool or even a paper towel roll. I would respool it onto the other 30 series reel on the 6'6' rod. Again save the braid you remove to use later. Just wind it up on an empty spool or paper towel cardboard roll. Now you have 3 distinct combos that will do different things for you. Another trick I always do with my reels is to get some inexpensive mono or copolymer line like a Berley Trilene or Cajun Red Label or even a left over partial spool of P Line CXX which I use for leaders. I always tie that line to my spool, then fill half way. I then tie a uni to uni knot with the backing(cheaper line) and my main line be it expensive floro or braid. Now if I spend $20 to $30 dollars for good line that spool will fill two reels and I just saved a lot of money. Lets say I have a problem with the line or perhaps re-purpose a reel than I just need to replace half as much line. I have some reels I have not changed the backing on for multiple years. That same uni to uni knot is used to attach my leaders to my braid. I use a leader on my braid a lot of the time on spinning gear. Especially in clear water. If I can help anymore just ask. Bob

Austin, I'll give you another take. I totally agree with using braid for mainline, but for me, I always tie on a leader. Many moons ago I used straight braid and did catch bass. Thing is, for me, today, braid is expensive, and I tend to retie lures a number of times during an outing. Each time, if straight braid, I'd be cutting in to my mainline. But with a leader of say, 4-6 feet, I can tie a bunch of times before I tie a new leader on. Just need to be confident in your knot, and I do suggest the uni-to-uni or mod'd Albright.

Wow nice job and i hope you did not try to lip land that last fish! LOL

A couple suggestions. You could check the line guides, they might be damaging the line. Did you leave your rod in sunlight? UV rays break line down. Check your knot, what might seem like a line breaking could be your knot letting go. As for line suggestions, don't laugh - I suggest Cajun Red Cast. I use it on most of my reels. It is strong, the knot strength is great, and best of all, it is not at all expensive.

Actually, there was a worm made with the ring molded in to it. http://www.outdoorlife.com/blogs/gone-fishin’/2012/06/big-bite-baits-5-inch-wacky-stick-makes-improvement-classic-bass-bait

I use 10 pound test on my spinning reels and 20 pound test on my baitcasters. Many guys have trouble with 20lb on baitcasters because thinner line it can dig in and jam up. But if you don't lock down your drag or try to pull out snags using the reel, you don't have to have any problems. Braid is more expensive than mono, but for me it lasts many times longer so in the long run it's cheaper to use. The diameter comparison to mono doesn't matter to me because I don't use mono so how it compares size wise is irrelevant.

I researched this same question several months ago when considering switching to braid for heavy cover fishing and the responses were mixed. But, so many said they tied directly to the lure with no negative affect on catching fish that I decided to go the "direct tie" route. So far, I too have seen no problems with catching bass so, I'll just keep doing it.

Siebert Outdoors Bluegill pattern/ Rage Tail Shell Cracker (hard candy). Let the bait settle to the bottom and then slow retrieve. The bait creates all of the action, you do nothing but reel.

I have some too

As you can see, there is no "one" correct answer Trailer hooks frequently depend upon how much or how heavy of cover you are throwing the bait into and around, while trailers are more personal preference, though do get the nod for larger profiles (in murky water) or slower retrieves (like at night - more bulk creates more drag in the water). Try both and see what works best for you on your waters. -T9

That's because there is no one correct answer, only common guidance passed along. -T9

Most of my choices are made by weather and the make up of the pond like grass, pads, shallow, deep, clear, murky. And also time if year. Best answer I can give without all these variables is a plastic worm always works.

Poor picture quality, but I received my 2nd NRX yesterday! 852C for T Rigs and Small jigs. Going to pair it up with one of the Lew's Pro Z's i have. Going to try and get everything together for a family photo and post in the show your stuff thread here soon.

I believe they have the highest homeless population in the United States. You should fit right in

Thanks, everyone. We took the boat out this morning and I caught my first ever small mouth bass. And it was legal! . thanks again. We had fun.

Quality time with your dad under tough circumstances will make for great memories for you both.

One more bit of help. On any reel i use braid or really expensive Floro I always put 1/2 a reel of good quality either floro or copolymer (usually the remains from a spool I have been using) and then add 1/2 of a spool of my expensive braid or floro. This way my $20 to $30 spool of line fills 2 reels. Now that cuts the cost in half. These two lines are also joined with the same knot.

I'm using 50 lb. Sufix braid which is about the same diameter as 12 lb mono. I had Gander Mountain wind it onto a Lew's Tournament MB and had 4 other reels wound with mono. Total was about $50 so I can't say how much the Sufix was. My rod is a #*** BlackOut, 7 ft. medium action fast taper. Hope this is helpful.

Forget what you have heard about braid. Now my wife is a very accomplished angler. She has caught up to 8 pound rainbow trout on fly rods, can handle any spinning from light to saltwater but refuses to fish a baitcaster. So for years I have tried to find a mono or floro or even copolymer line that would give her the least trouble with knots or bird nesting. We have settled on Berkley Fireline in 14 pound test for our spinning reels. I almost always have a leader tied on and rarely does it give me trouble. I use P Line CXX in 10 pound for my leaders unless I am fishing super clear water and say a finesse bait then I may go down to 6 lb. Learn to tie a double uni or uni to uni knot. They are very easy and strong. Sometimes on my one micro guide rod I may tie a shorter leader otherwise most of mine are 3 foot long. For my baitcasters I have some Power Pro like 50 and 65 pound braid and I tie directly like on frogs. For baits like crankbaits I shy away from braid and go to P Line FloroClear It gives better action.

My opinion is contrary to many but I've been using braid for many years and have never used any kind of leader except steel when pike fishing. I ALWAYS tie directly to my lure. Using a leader is always an option, but not required. The lack of stretch is to me it's best feature but for some it takes a little getting used to. Braided line is very strong and because it is much thinner and softer than mono, it casts much better.

The o ring isn't molded into the bait, it's simply installed with a wacky rig o ring tool. I think I bought mine at Bass Pro. The Senko goes inside a small aluminum sleeve and the o rings can roll off the sleeve and onto the bait.

I would go x/f and it will make an awesome top water walking rod, and a great jerkbait rod as well. I have the new version St Croix mojo bass in 6'8" m x/f and it's a sweet rod. St Croix definitely done a good thing when they changed the blanks in these rods, complete night and day difference compared with the older version.

My name is Kenny Westmoreland, and I'm Billy's nephew. I'm the long haired boy sitting in the back of the boat on the back cover of Them Ol' Brown Fish. I certainly appreciate the kind words in regards to Billy. Two years after Them Ol' Brown Fish, Billy wrote a second book titled Largemouths and Tournaments ... Good or Bad? It's also a good read and contains a wealth of information about largemouth fishing. Once again, thanks for remembering. Kenny