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For some reason I feel like you might be a wind up account. So many vague topics created regarding a rod, or rod comparison, or a single lure..

I contacted TravisinVirginia on this site and started a conversation about joining my local bass club. We hit it off great via the Forum and exchanged telephone numbers and he said he was interested in checking out the club. Seems Travis fishes some of the same golf course ponds I fish and we discussed them and other places to bank fish in the greater Richmond area. Travis told me he was going to the Richmond Fishing Expo and I said give me a call when you get there Friday morning and we’ll catch up. So he did and he told me that he had his young son with him. No problem. So I meet Travis as he walks into the show and we introduce ourselves and then he looks at me and says he has seen me before. News to me. I don’t recognize him. He then proceeded to ask me if I have ever been to Buford Road Pharmacy? Of course I have, for about the last 30-years. Still go there today as we live 2 miles from the village of Bon Air. Then he lays a bomb shell on me: he is Travis, Ron’s son, who used to work his dad’s pharmacy when he was in high school. Ron now owns a pharmacy on Lake Monticello in Fluvanna County. And I remember Travis running around the store. He was a nice kid. I have not seen him in at least 10 to 15 years. Travis has grown another foot; has a beard; has a successful career; married; and his young son is a cute kid and very well behaved. I asked Travis to say “hi” to his dad for me and we are going to make plans to do some bank fishing after winter goes away and also hit the big rivers in my Ranger. Small world, isn’t it? Really blows my mind.

It's a dreary, rainy, chilly day so It seemed like a great day to head to the local boat/tackle shop with the grandson. It's a given that a little time goes a long way with him so I make these visits somewhat short and try my best to look at things that he will like. That being said, had I bought everything he liked I would have spent $50,026.00. He seemed to love the Skeeter boat with some bells and whistles and a Spro BZ1 rat. While I admire his taste in boats and baits I do believe my wife would have had a coronary. lol Instead we walked out $23.00 lighter and he was happy. The one thing to always remember Is whatever the task, whether It be fishing, tackle shops, or anything you are passionate about they are little folks and for the most part have a very low attention threshold. Keep it fun for them and whether it's 10 minutes or an hour know when to leave. I'm hoping he remembers these times fondly but If not that's just fine.

Ouch ~ Personal Foul ~ Unnecessary Roughness T9, 15 Yards Replay First Down. A-Jay

when fishing really only one thing to remember. treat or speak to others as you would want them to do to you . something my dad always told me. include this in every aspect of your fishing day ,and you will definatly have a better day. for example you see an elderly man on the water or maybe loading his boat ,you notice a military hat on him. be respectful , thank him or help him. just because! this doesn't guaranty you will catch more fish. but at the end of the day you will feel you had a great day. tight lines to everyone this year. thanks for the great info you guys provide. I do appreciate it! lonnie

Ever watch a crawfish fall through the water? With their tail fanned out flat, claws spread wide, they fall through the water horizontal (flat) not nose down (vertical) like with a weight. Texas rigged craw worms both weightless or weighted are highly ignored for some reason.

Oops, lol - wasn't intended that way. Apologies, Tom . I'm just an old schooler that gets bugged by all the modern reinterpretations of the "Ned rig." Go ahead and throw it into 25' of super clear water, but at that point, you are just "fishing a grub." I imagine Tom might feel the same if "horizontal jigging" suddenly took the Internet by storm and everyone and their brother turned it into something it was never meant to be...but referred to it as such anyway. -T9

Out fishing 1'-8' of lightly stained water where the rig was designed to be fished -T9

Well, try this recipe: Begin with a cedar plank and soak for at least one hour. Remove soft tissues (guts and gills) and wash the fish thoroughly. Lightly season the cavity with salt & pepper, then stuff with lemons and finish with basil. Place the fish on the cedar plank and grill over hot coals for 30 minutes or until the plank begins to steam. Remove the fish on the cedar and let stand for 5 minutes. Throw away the fish and enjoy the plank! Bonappetit!

I knew a older fella who at one time fished a lot and he had a lot of tackle in his shop. After he passed away I was given some of these in a large amount (hundreds of these worms). I have never seen them and wondered if they were his go to worm since he had so many or if he just got a deal on them in bulk and hated them afterwards. They are fuzzy so to speak. Has anyone ever used these ? Know who made them? Just curious about them really.

I'm not sure if this will actually help anyone or not, but I thought I'd share a few things I've learned over the last few years about organizing fishing takle from the perspective of a non-boater. When first starting tournaments as a non-boater, I researched as many articles I could find about organizing tackle. Some of them seemed helpful at first, but I found that most of them are geared toward boaters. This makes sense, of course, since they have a boat literally full of lures, plastics, and other assorted tackle to have to keep organized. But almost that entire boat is available for storing that much tackle. With the design of the modern bass boat, you can have five full size boxes of crankbaits, two or three boxes of spinnerbaits, eight or nine boxes of jigs and worms, and so on.. But when you're a non-boater, you simply do not have have the luxury of much square footage to work with. You not only have a tiny bit of room available, but you need quick and easy access to all of it. And it has to be as unobtrusive as possible for you and your boater. But at the same time, you need to be prepared for absolutely any style of fishing that may be thrown your way. You're not necessarily always going to know what kind of fishing you're going to be doing at any given minute of a tournament and you'd better be prepared for the unexpected to come up. Those well-laid plans for beating the bank may change completely when they open the dam to generate power, the wind starts blowing 40mph, turning your clear water bay into chocolate milk, or a storm comes in and your planned ledge fishing suddenly turns into a run up the river to get out of the wind and elements. So what does a non-boater really need for keeping tackle organized? I originally thought it would be a good idea to have one single, large-size bag that holds absolutely everything. So I purchased one of those Bass Pro Shops tackle bags which holds six 3700 boxes and has big pockets on each side, plus a big front pocket. Big mistake. On the plus side, it holds a ton of tackle. On the negative side, it holds a TON of tackle. Soft plastics are heavy. Really heavy. Add crankbaits, chatterbaits, jigs, senkos, buzzbaits, swimbaits, drop shot weights, hooks, and all the other terminal tackle, and that adds up to a massive load of stuff all packed into one container. It's heavy enough that just picking up the bag and putting it in the boat can be a struggle. No big deal if the boat is tied to the dock and you can just step in. But often the boat is going to be parked on shore, leaving you access to only the bow, where your boater has a dozen or so expensive poles strapped down to the deck. If you don't feel like wading into the water and soaking your shoes and pants, there's not much room for hefting that bag past the trolling motor and onto the deck without landing it on one or two of your boater's poles. If you want to ruin your and your boater's day before it's even started, breaking one of his eyelets before takeoff is a great way to do it. The other problem is the expanded size of those large bags when the side pockets are full. Often (but not always) your boater will have one of the rear compartments empty for a non-boater to store a tackle bag, rain gear, drinks, etc. If they do, make good use of it. Unfortunately, the large bag almost never fits into one of those compartments unless the side and front pockets are completely empty, which they never are. And it would defeat the whole purpose of having them if they were. To make matters worse, you're going to need access to certain things quite often during the day, and if you have to keep opening the compartment every time you want to grab another soft plastic, you're going to waste a lot of time that could be better spent fishing. So... after dealing with the annoyance of one annoyingly large tackle bag, I decided to change tactics. The new, ubreakable rule is that the main tackle bag MUST be small enough to fit into the rear compartment, but still allow for easy access to its contents. This effectively limits it to four 3700 boxes, plus one smaller box that tucks into the back/outisde of the bag. Here are my individual boxes and their contents: Box 1: Jigs & Punch Rigs Includes all Craw style jigs, Bitsy Bugs and jig trailers, plus punch weights, punch skits and hooks. Box 2: Chatterbaits, Swim Jigs, Swim Jig Heads, and various colors of Swimbaits. So far I haven't had any problems with the swimbait tails taking a 'set' from being stored like this, but I may have to move things around if it does occur. Possibly leaving them in bags and keeping them in the soft plastics tackle bag. Box 3 Topwater Solid and hollowbody Frogs, Buzzbaits, Spooks, Poppers, Whopper Ploppers Box 4: Crankbaits, Spinnerbaits, Lipless Crankbaits, Jerkbaits, Wakebaits This is the interesting one, as I used to bring a 3700 size box filled with spinnerbaits and buzzbaits, and another 3700 box filled with crankbaits. I rather quickly realized that I'd use one or two spinnerbaits throughout the entire day, and maybe 2 or 3 crankbaits at most. Almost all the rest of this space was completely wasted. As a non-boater, you're not going to be going through one or two dozen crankbaits and spinnerbaits in an 8-hour tournament, so why bother bringing so many? What I found that I needed is small, carefully-chosen selection for multiple situations, which could all fit into one single 3700 box. - Top left is deep crankbaits, five of them in various colors - Top right is large squarebill crankbaits, five or six colors - Middle left is thin squarebill crankbaits, and next to it is Lipless crankbaits. - To the right of those are smaller squarebills - Bottom middle is filled with wakebaits, jerkbaits, and one large segmented crankbait. The bottom left and right corners took a little bit of work to fit in some spinnerbait holders. I sacrificed the large spinnerbait box I'd previously used, pulling out the 'rack' that holds the spinnerbaits in place. Cutting the rack into thirds, the outside portions still contained the tabs that hold the rack in place at the sides of the box. These tabs fit into the slots that make up the box separators, while the cut end of them (which do not have tabs) can either be left loose, or simply cement/epoxy the bottom of the rack in place. Now those two mini-racks hold 7 white spinnerbaits and 7 colored ones. Enough to cover pretty much all situations and depths, while taking up very little room. Box 5 is a smaller one which contains only Senkos and an O-Ring tool & nail weights. It fits neatly into a pouch on the back of the tackle bag. With all that in the main tackle bag, that leaves a second, smaller bag which remains with me, sitting on the floor at my feet while the boat is running, and on the seat while fishing. It contains the soft plastics I use the most, separated into bags of bags with the biggest possible labels on them Because this bag remains easily accessible, it also contains: 1) My most-needed/important small stuff for the day (Pliers, Scale, Line Clippers, Culling tags, Culling beam, Attractant, etc.) 2) A small box containing my most-used terminal tackle. I may need to get into this dozens of times a day, so it needs to be compact but organized. 3) A small box of drop shot hooks and weights. Drop shot is a co-anglers best friend. I can't stress that enough. Does anybody else have tackle organizing tips to share? If so, it would be interesting to see. Especially for non-boaters with limited room.

My girlfriend walks through the front door slowly when she gets home because she's afraid of getting hit with a flying jig.I fish in the house all the time lol

http://sciencing.com/differences-between-graphite-carbon-fiber-8150298.html

Mostly "natural" browns, greens, variations on blue, oranges. So an earthy rainbow

Interesting question. I'd anticipate the responses to vary quite a bit for a number of reasons including but not limited to location, water clarity & just personal preference. My boxes are more about patterns rather than specific colors but when I get right down to it, they are all mostly subtle & an attempt at "natural". Yellow Perch, Crayfish, Rainbow & brown trout, Sunfish, Bluegill, Pumpkinseed, Bass, Walleye, Pike, Frogs & a wide assortment of native baitfish are what my bait collection is all about. There are a few brighter versions mixed in there for the few colored water situations I encounter each season. For me, the choice of bait selection starts with depth, speed, size & profile well before the color / pattern can even be considered. A-Jay

I have caught a lot of bass on the 4 inch Larew Salt Craw in the past but I dont have time to fish everything . A lot of productive lures end up not getting the playing time they deserve . Plus all my tackle fits in one gear bag , so lots of stuff gets left behind . I'll have to squeeze some Salt Craws in there for next season .

Finesse presentations like the Ned rig should be ideal for pit lakes, light line, subtitle slow sinking, natural life like movements shouldn't be relagated to shallow off color water. Tom PS, no harm no foul!

A buzzbzit should be moving as soon as it touches down .Do not allow them to sink .

Holy cow, are we really going here again lol. I like Hackney's comments in his newest Bassmaster column which pertains to the color subject (YMMV): ...and on the UV subject, I've never seen a study supporting UV vision to any degree in mature bass, and I've read a few The best work being done in this area is by a guy on the East coast, but he hasn't tackled common freshwater fish yet. He has done several saltwater species as well as a few crossovers like striped bass. Again, doesn't mean that's an absolute, just that I'm not putting any stock (or $$) into sales pitches for UV baits of any kind for bass at this point in the game. -T9

Tried something a little bigger. Approx. 8" tall. Hootie

I'm always late posting stuff... I had one heck of a fun weekend during the ABA division 4, two-day championship at the end of August. Although I didn’t seal the deal with a win, I was more than happy with my 2nd place finish given the tournament location and my lack of knowledge there. I always get a tad intimidated fishing events on Lake Ontario since I’m running a little Bass Tracker Pro Team 170. It’s no secret what kind of smallmouth live in the main lake and knowing that my rig doesn’t allow me to take advantage of them is a tough pill to swallow right outta the gate. The good thing is, we normally launch out of the smaller, protected bays which are all loaded with largemouth, so I get to fish comfortably in pretty productive waters. The only downside is that there are very few 20+ pound bags of largemouth to be had which is what you’d need to compete with the anglers fishing the main lake for brown ones. And of course, there are always a few guys that make Brandon Palaniuk-esque runs around the big lake to find’em. This event was no different. The winner made an 80 mile round trip run to hammer out 41.13 pounds of brownies for 1st place. My hat’s off to him for that commitment and execution! So why am I ecstatic with a runner up finish? Well, I actually made a competition out of it and gave him a scare…with largemouth! Not to mention, it was at a place I had only fished once prior to this event. What was even crazier is that I was actually around the fish to win had I executed 100%. My two-day weight went 38.72lbs which included a 6 pounder that took lunker honors. Day 1: What I found in my single practice day a few weeks prior to the tournament had me confident I could catch 14 – 16lbs a day. Great largemouth weights given our location but certainly not enough to compete against the main lake smallmouth. It was ok though. I knew I could have fun catching my favorite colored fish the way I like to catch them inside the bay. I went to a small grass bed I found in practice and started flipping around with my heavy jig. It didn’t take too long before the bites started coming. Nothing big, but three 2.5 pounders in three consecutive casts is pretty cool. In about an hour I had a limit weighing roughly 12 or 13lbs. A decent start with plenty of time to hunt for a 4+ kicker. I fished a few other spots without much luck, then I made the decision…I remember seeing two smaller bays on either side of the one we were in while checking out the old google maps before the tournament. I told myself I should at least try one of them out because the main bay fished pretty small, even for 12 boats. The problem though, was that the bays could only be accessed by running out into the main lake. They weren’t far at all, maybe less land ¾ of a mile but that could still be iffy in my Tin Can. The wind wasn’t blowing hard so I made the decision to get away from the crowd and check one out. All I can say is that I was darn lucky to have a small boat. The channel getting in was way more narrow that I thought it would be. But I got in…and man what a spot. The bay was completely different structurally (grass, clarity, etc) but it was home to a bunch of big ones. In the next three hours I put just over 20lbs in the boat. Needless to say, I knew where I was going on day 2. Day 2: The wind shifted the next day which made the short ride over to the bay nice and easy. Of course that meant it was pounding directly into my best area. I didn’t think it would affect the bite but it definitely made fishing it so much more difficult. I managed only 2 bites, both good ones, in my key area early in the morning. I was thinking I may have caught too many the first day and that they didn’t replenish overnight. I decided to try an adjacent bank that I didn’t touch the day before. The fish were holding on the steep rocky ledges just off the bank and I began picking them off with a football jig. It was another slugfest as I put 18.5 in the boat and jumped one off in the 4-5 pound range. Over the two days of fishing I boated around 50 largemouth including three over 5 pounds! Gear and Techniques: I caught most of my fish flipping a ¾ oz and ½ oz jig on a 7’6 heavy action flipping stick, 7.3:1 gear reel, and 20lb fluorocarbon around grass and isolated wood. I mixed in a heavy football jig to catch them off the rock ledges, throwing it on a 7’3 medium heavy rod, 6.4:1 gear reel, and 16lb fluorocarbon. I also caught a couple fish on a frog and 4 inch finesse worm on a drop shot. Here's a few standouts.

Today was pretty miserable weather wise, windy and rainy with air temps in the low 40s, but my little brother and I decided to take the boat out to see how our new fishfinder would do. We went 3 hours without a bite, and he finally landed one on a blade bait. From there we pieced the puzzle together and managed to land 9 largemouth, and a bonus walleye! I also discovered that largemouth will still hit the Alabama rig even in 40 degree water, which is encouraging. Had to call it a day when our fingers weren't functional enough to change the trolling motor battery . Wet, cold fingers and wind are a bad combo!

Earthy Rainbow ~ No, like the contents of a baby diaper after eating half a box of Crayola's . . . . . A-Jay btw - I'd like to apologize to the OP for that one.

I like that description although I'll admit it sounds just a little bit noxious. Especially if you'd included the term crunchy as well . . . A-Jay

Would be a fun experiment. I've seen several pros argue they keep color selection simple, but I've also seen the garages and tackle collections of several, and they're anything but simple or selective. I've played around with such things on the water myself just for amusement. For instance, one day I brought only my shallow crank box with me. Tied on a snap (which I rarely use but wanted quick lure changes), then went fishing. The caveat being every time I landed a fish on a bait, I had to drop it in the boat (the bait) and change to another bait (color, size, brand). No using the exact same bait twice. I believe I ended up catching bass on 21 of the 23 different variations of baits/colors/depths/vibrations I got to try that day. It's a good way to prove to yourself that some of the small details aren't as critical to success as some make them out to be. -T9

My color philosophy/selection now comes down to pretty much just two factors. The first is, I buy proven colors for a given bait type, regardless of bright, natural or otherwise. So, for instance, I own bubblegum trick worms and green pumpkin variations in most soft plastics. The other factor (#2) is what catches my attention. If I like a particular color pattern for whatever reason, I'll buy it. I've never been one to overly obsess about color, in general, though. -T9

It would be really cool for a top pro to go all in on the 'color doesn't matter' stance - fish nothing but merthiolate colored baits for a tournament season. Maybe they’d do just as well as ever? It would be a cool experiment. For most people you might think there’d be a confidence handicap, but if they are truly convinced it makes no difference… I suspect sponsors wouldn’t be thrilled about an experiment to convince anglers they don't need to buy 10 colors of each bait. Then again, as in the Hackney quote, maybe that experiment would just have the masses running out to stock up on more merthiolate Catt, this debate will go nowhere until you open your mind lol. If scaleface's light penetration chart (or any other research on light transmission/absorption) was presented in a forum on physics, marine ecology, tuna fishing, etc., would you dispute it on the basis that we don’t understand bass eyes/brains? It has nothing to do with bass. Your stance is akin to disputing the theory of gravity, because a 200 lb angler feels more gravitational force than a 5 lb bass. Even if we had a perfect understanding of bass vision, translating that into situation-specific lure color preferences (that may or may not exist) would take another huge leap of understanding. We know that. Explanations of bass color preference are conjecture (still interesting, but we should take them with a few grains of salt). Measurements of light underwater are not. Measuring and understanding light underwater is a step toward piecing together what bass “see.”

Theres no standard for lb test diameters, so each manufacture will say what they believe is true. They mean that the braid is rated to 40lb but has a diameter of a 10lb mono. As far as that line is concerned, its perfect, spool it up.

Deep cranking benefits from a 5:1 18" ipt give or take, up to that point it's all about preference.

I think the key word here is "cheaper line". As I mentioned above, I start with a full spool of flouro or braid but eventually, due to trimbacks or whatever, I will be adding backing. I'm not going to throw away $10 or $15 dollars worth of mainline after some trimbacks. The key is to of course use a good knot, but also "good enough" backing in the event that you think you have a chance to connect with a fish much larger/heavier/stronger than your targeted species. OTOH, some folks fish places where it's unlikely to catch anything very large so the quality of the backing is of less importance - it's just basically a filler, or perhaps you could call it an "arbor" to keep your adequate (for purpose) amount of mainline at the top of the reel spool. For me, I occasionally connect with something larger than LMB so I do give thought to my backing. Nowadays, I tend to use 15lb Big Game under whatever mainline I have (or, as I mentioned above, I might have braid as the backing). I have found that in my, mostly open, water that 15 BG is adequate for those unexpected "collateral catches". In the past, I even used lighter backing...but it was relatively good line. These were caught the same day on 10 lb mainline with 12 lb backing - seemed to work ...

Honestly I never have! I've seen them only on the bottom running and hopping a few inches. Never occurred to me that a craw would jump to the surface making the fall back down a viable weightless option. I know now Thanks Mike

I concur . Look closely and you will see the boat is soaked . It was lightly raining in July when a bass sucked this buzzbait under . The lure just disappeared . You can see the blade between the jaw and my hand .

This ^^^^^,... engage the reel before it touches down and your good to GO!,.. As far as whens the best time to use a buzzbait?,.... when its raining! best season?,... if done right, any of them but summer is a good time for one. Typically,... I only throw one when its raining,...

I am blessed to have a local tackle shop nearby me. The owner opened his doors just a little more than a year ago. He lives in a business environment that includes a Bass Pro, plenty of Dicks Sporting Goods, a Gander Mountain and even a Cabelas all located within an hour drive. He has tapped into the needs of tournament and other serious anglers. So yes, there are some brands like Strike King and Zoom in stock, just like BPS. He also stocks full lines of Picasso, Reaction Innovation, Spro, Keitech, Lucky Craft, and others. For rods he stocks more than a dozen different models of each product line from Powell, Irod, Dobyns, Cashion, Shimano, Duckett and more. Going in and fondling high quality equipment is a joy. He has made a huge financial commitment to building the type of store that truly makes stopping in worthwhile. I understand and appreciate what it takes to accomplish that task. I also reward him with my business as often as it makes sense. If an item is close in price online and in his store then I buy it in his store. Sometimes an item is available for a lot less online than in any store, so then of course I go online. Just look at recent prices of new reels available online. Often they can be purchased for up to $50 off retail online. That is why my last 4 Tatulas reels came from online suppliers. So far I have purchased 3 rods from him and a bunch of tackle as well. I have my eye, or hands, on a couple of others that I will most likely purchase within the next year as I have been upgrading my arsenal over the last few years. I realize he is building something special. If you have a local tackle shop near you stop in and see what they offer, if they do not have certain product lines in their store talk to the owner and see if he is willing to bring it in. If he does reward him with your business. The reality of Johnny Morris buying Cabelas, Ranger, Stratos, Triton, and companies like Gander Mountain closing many of their stores means that the big box suppliers will carry more of "their" product lines and less of the mid to high end gear you are interested in. This is unfortunate but true.

I bought my first online rod this year, the Gander Mountain Vortex they discounted for $12.99. Otherwise I really do like to pick through them and buy in store. I found a good local place I'll support whenever possible but sometimes a deal is too good to pass up.

Ooh I'll play. I don't tourney fish, but I fish from a kayak so I'm very limited in space. I pack everything I need in a cheap $12 Cabelas bag that came with 4 3500 series boxes. I've purchased several others, and bring an appropriate 6 it fits along for each trip. I have room for three rod/reels so between those and 6 boxes I've got enough crap to mess around with. Here's what lurks inside. Left pocket holds the scale and a ziplock baggie for my wallet/keys/phone. Right pocket pliers/hook removers. A line cutter attaches to the spring thingy. The Panther Martin spinner baits are riding on top for now not sure where they'll end up. This box has chatterbaits, buzz bait, jigs, Strike King mini king's This one has 5" Senkos w/ 5/0 hooks, a Johnson's Silver Minnow spoon, some crawdads I've never used. Also my last couple white Slug-Go's which used to be the only plastic I threw. This one has 4" Senkos, and 3/0 hooks and some grubs for smallies, some other random stuff I'll let people use that don't have their own gear. Hard bait topwater selection here. Rio Rico's, a Sammy, chewed up old Devil's Horse I lifted from dad years ago, Whopper Plopper, Live Target Frog, mini Pop-R. Hollow body topwaters. Live Target field mice, sunfish, Spro frog, Spro popping frog, Flip in the bird red wing blackbird. Hard baits consist of a 1/4 oz Rat-l-trap,1/2 oz SK red eye shad, slightly larger Rapala, couple of Berkley flicker shads, Norman Scorpion, Shad Rap, original floating Rapala and Smithwick Rogue that I stole from dad years ago (I'm sensing a theme, but it's OK because he quit bass fishing and only golfs now). Inline spinners. Some of these have been great producers. I had one trip with my wife where that gold Vibrax in the middle caught all but one fish between both of us the entire day. The larger ones are new hoping to try them out soon. Trout and panfish stuff. Spoons and float-n-fly gear. Beetle spins, road runner, tube jigs. I fish two places that are selective gear, single barbless hooks and no baits or scents. So a box for that as well. I've also just ordered some new smallmouth stuff, tubes and shaky heads. So another box is probably in the near future.

Yep, that's Bill McDonald. Look up his profile on the FLW website. Super nice guy. -T9

Logs stumps and grass are what you should be throwing lures into.Not watching out for.

A dual pro or Minnkota will work fine but not charging all 3 of your batteries is asking for cranking battery problems down the road. I get wanting to keep things cheap but going cheap on what charges the power to your boat is silly. Unless you routinely make 20 mile runs, you aren't fully charging your cranking battery every time out. Extending the cables on the charger isn't a difficult job. A single battery charger is also an option.

You let it sink and drag it. I do this with trick and Finesse Worms. It forces you to slow way down when they aren't biting reaction baits.

I thought the poor squirrel had no nuts. But after further examination, he might be holding an acorn. Good job!

ROR

The guy is asking for opinions on one or the other reels not everyone's opinions on what to buy.

I split 150 yard spools of braid in half. Means I can spool twice for the cost of one spool. People mentioned a line counter, but if you don't want to pay to do it then just use a tree. I go to a park, tie the line to a tree, walk out the whole spool, fold the braid in half, cut it, respool half of it, and put the other half on the reel. Works like a charm and it makes people wonder if you've lost your ever loving mind. If you really want to make them wonder, do some test casts in the park with some solo cups as targets.

Straight-Shank Hook Go with a Mustad grip-pin flipping hook and the head of your craw will become a permanent fixture. Without knowing the craw you're throwing, I really can't recommend a hook size. Roger

since you already have a M spinning rod, id go ahead and exchange your rod for a MH. i think a MH/F baitcasting rod is the most versatile.

Baby ducks ?

I think people do it backwards. I fill the spool with braid and when I run low then I add backing. Granted I have spare spools and some don't so an extra spool helps. I also flip the line at the same time so the fresh line is on top.