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The Detective hairs on the back of my neck are standing up. Sounds like the OP let his girl read this thread...

You're right, that's all we know and in combination with past experiences with individuals similar to what he has described, that's the advice he received. Maybe the better advice is not to ask for life advice from a bunch of strangers on the internet

Preface I wrote this report to pique the interest of anglers on a couple of "local" forums read by anglers mainly from Massachusetts and surrounding states from whom, with two exceptions, I have not heard Ned's name mentioned. My interest came from the wealth of information on Bass Resource and I thank everyone who contributed. My introduction to this report will be old news to most BR readers so go right to my day on the water with the Ned rig or review Mr. Kehde's interview on the evolution of this extremely effective finesse presentation. It's worth studying. "So who's Ned?" you ask. I'm talking about the venerable Mr. Ned Kehde of Kansas who, for the past five decades or so, has been practicing and promoting "finesse" fishing - light lines and small baits for bass. Open the link below to learn more. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqGTzPt6TIQ&t=11s Here's a video produced by Z Man who worked with Ned developing this finesse presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1CNKnbmMKU When Do-it Molds introduced their Midwest Finesse Jig Mold with Wire Keeper I had to have one. Living and fishing in Massachusetts, a state which prohibits lead jigs weighing less than an ounce, I cast these from an alloy of 88% bismuth/12% tin which is approximately 85% the weight of lead. Bismuth's expansion while cooling is not a problem with this mold; just grip the sprue with linemans pliers and lift up and out. I took my Ned heads to Quabbin Reservoir on yet another cold, blustery morning in this year's goofy spring. Starting setup was a Finesse TRD on a 7' medium power St. Croix Premier. 8 lb. Silver Thread AN40 copolymer filled a Stradic 4000. With #1 and 1/0 hooks I want a light drag setting and a "soft" rod. Here's my first customer: Actually, this was my second. Line control was nearly nil in the wind and a few casts prior to #1's arrival, I felt a fish on once I got the slack out. Good weight which must have grabbed the bait on the drop. She was on for only a few seconds, though. The merry month of May you say? Not this day. But I was able to block out the cold, the wind and the rain for a brief period while I gave a 3 lber. its photo op. The weather hadn't fully immobilized me yet so I hoisted this 2 1/4 lber. for a pic. This little one tapped Ned toward the end of the retrieve. I had been dragging, twitching, trembling, shaking and occasionally bopping Ned along the bottom thinking the water's still too cold (55.2º) for a swimming retrieve. By 9:30 I had worked this area thoroughly and headed Outside to the wide open spaces after pulling up both hoods and zipping the parka's collar over my mustache. Here's what didn't produce: deep diving suspending jerk, GYCB Hula Grub, Spin Bait 80, the Ned rig. Hmph. Water temp out here was 52.9º. Maybe should have tried a blade bait. As on the last trip, my morning hot spot was cold in the afternoon. There was still time to check another location on my way back to Gate 43, a long ridge which dropped into deep water. Here I decided to try the TRD on the lightest outfit I use on this very clear water reservoir, a 6 1/2' ML St. Croix Avid paired up with a Stradic 2500 spooled with 6 lb. Tatsu. Was it windy at 3:00? Well, I dropped anchor into 20' and let out about 60' of 1/4" nylon. It dragged. The heck with it - I'd drag and cast. Why is my brow furrowed holding this cute little 2 lber.? Because not long before this fish ate the TRD I lost a smallmouth well over 4 lbs. I don't rush fish on 6 lb. line and, after playing Big Mama carefully for a minute perhaps, she spit the bait -ptooey! - on her third jump. AARGH!!! Nevermind. Ah, redemption. This mama of slightly less than 4 lbs. made me feel much better. Played her for quite a while, in the water, in the air, away from the anchor line, under the boat until I was able to slowly slide her into the flat-bottomed, rubber-bagged net. Whew. At this point I've had enough. Nine hours in the cold, rain and wind made this gray bearded bassmaster feel a bit blurry. I'll be back in a couple of days though, and you can be sure that Ned will be aboard.

Welcome to BR, Britsabrat12. My suggestion. Let your boyfriebd, Austin11, go fishing when he wants to. A happy man is a faithful man. Or find a guy that enjoys doing what you like to do, whatever that may be. Austin, I'll pass on some sage advice that was given to me by a very wise man. Don't marry the woman you can live with. Marry the woman you can't live without.

First whopper plopper fish

Bingo. Now she's pissy with us! I'm still going fishing tho.

Had an amazing day at Perry on Sunday at the Kansas Buddy Bass Team series. Took home first place trophy with our 26 pound 2 ounce bag. We found something a little different than everyone else and it paid off.

quilt rack I made for my wife . when its raining ,cold, and I cant fish, playing with wood keeps me out if trouble!

I disagree JB. Most of the dump her advice comes from guys that have been with a woman like that. Me included. I married a woman that loves to fish, cook, and work. They're hard to find, but they are out there.

Mr. Spider sir. Buying Seaguar Tatsu is not going to allow you to cast an 1/8 ounce bait with your MHF rod (rated 1/4-3/4 ounce) backlash free. The line isn't the problem, it's your rod. It just doesn't load up enough to cast effectively. I would hate to see you drop $40 on Tatsu, get the same results and feel the BR community misled you. I suggest you use heavier baits on your baitcaster with any line you choose and fish the lighter baits on one of your spinning rods.

MEGA stands for the new Imaging frequency using 1.2 MKz or 1200 kHz either as a single frequency or CHIRPed from 1.150-1.275 MKz. There are 5 models that have MEGA Imaging: Helix 9 CHIRP MEGA SI GPS G2N Helix 10 CHIRP MEGA SI GPS G2N Helix 12 CHIRP MEGA SI GPS G2N SOLIX 12 CHIRP MEGA SI GPS SOLIX 15 CHIRP MEGA SI GPS All of those also have 455 kHz and 800 kHz Imaging single frequency or CHIRPed. I am not an employee or pro-staff. I use their stuff and help others with their Humminbird units.

My first DC reel. Her partner in crime should be arriving today.

Congrats! Your avatar says your PB is between 10-11 pounds, what was the weight of this lady?

My dad had a love for fishing and passed it on to me. It started at a very early age watching fishing shows with dad, looking through the BPS catalog like a bible, and catching panfish. It quickly grew from there, going out with my dad more and more trying to catch bass and northerns. I bought my own boat in 5th grade and I've never looked back. One disadvantage of starting so young is I don't remember my first trip or my first fish or any of that, but I really must have enjoyed it because it kept bringing me back time and time again growing this fishing/bass fishing thing into a passion I'm sure nobody could see coming haha. A few pics from the early years...

Please don't take this as me being a jerk off, but you need to think about why your with her. It's not your job, as a young man, to find her hobbies because she's bored. I think most of us have been there, done that, with this type of girl, and I will honestly tell you, get away while you can.

It's hard to get a good pic without a bad glare, but I finished my little pop-x display that I have hanging at work.

Talk to the woman herself. Not a bunch of crusty old fishermen.

Sammich making can be an excellent hobby

Fish weights can be all over the place, just like us human beings. Prime example. This smallmouth was 22-7/8" long, freshly done spawning. Only weighed 3.6 pounds. But yet this largemouth was 16.25" long, and weighed in at 3.34 pounds.

Interesting first post. I think if you read the post directly above yours, you'll see why so many responded like they did.

I reel them just fast enough to make the blade vibrate. They've basically replaced squarebills for me because I fish them in a lot of the same areas I would fish those in the past. Don't just fish the typical spinnerbait colors either. My biggest bladed jig fish have been on black and blue. Bites on them aren't always jarring strikes like most expect them to be. If you're retrieving and feel the blade vibrating, then it just feels like it suddenly stops, set the hook. I've caught so many big fish on them that I felt next to nothing except the blade felt like it quit working or caught a piece of grass or something.

I'd go with bright yellow or fluorescent orange instead of red for the added visibility, the fish could care less which color your line is.

If he wants something needy and annoying he should get a dog.Then he can fish too!

Finally someone who doesn't have a scale but took measurements!

My first bass was caught this way. A nice guy gave me a 2/0 ewg hook and a wacky rigged 5" senko while we chatted in passing on our quaint little creek. Him in a big beauty of a boat and us in a tiny 10' plastic Pelican. I was intrigued. I did't know anything but worm fishing. Attached it with my little bobber about 1.5 feet up, tossed it out mid-creek and BOOM. First cast. 1-2 pounder. Needless to say I was hooked, and he was celebrating as much as I was. In other words, try it. Hell, I may try it again now that you bring it up.

This past weekend the bass fishing was excellent. I had one of my more memorable days for numbers of quality fish. Saturday I was in my winter gear in the rain but the fishing was excellent. I had tried a few spots a couple weeks ago and they just weren't there yet. I launched the boat and found the water had cooled a bit to 53 degrees. The jig was the lure of the day. I was fishing an area with a clay shoreline. This time of year crawfish come out of there burrows and stack up in this area. Most of the fish had crawfish antennae sticking out of there gullet. A 1/2 oz jig with a rage craw trailer was the lure of the day. In 11 hours I landed 26 largemouth, 10 chain pickerel and 1 smallmouth. Of the 26 largemouth 3 were in the 5 lb range, 5-7,5-3 amd 5-1. The average size was excellent with a 5 4s, 4-12, 4-5, 4-3,4-0 and 4-0. Lots of 3s caught as well 3-11, 3-10, 3-9, 3-4, 3-3, 3-1, 3-3, 3-3, 3-12 and 3-0. A couple of the fish that weren't 3 lbs weighed in at 2-15. Fished were stacked in my spots and they were crushing my jig. A total of 18 bass over 3 lbs. It was surreal kind of day. Sunday the wind blew very strong out of the south 15-20 mph with gusts approaching 30 mph. I decided to fish a small cove that was protected out of the south wind at a local lake. I landed 11 largemouth, 4 were over 3 lbs, 3-9, 3-8, 3-4, and 3-0. With the wind I was happy just to catch fish. The water was 53 degrees there as well. I fished noon until 5. The lure of the day was the jig again. It was an excellent weekend of fishing, much needed after a long winter. It feels great to be on the water and hear the spring peepers again.

I wish I knew for sure, unfortunately my scale is at the bottom of that same pond. She was about 27.75 long and right at 15.75 girth

The new Mojo's with the SCIII blanks are extremely nice rods for the price. I would stick with them over an Abu rod at the same price point. I've handled the Ike rods and got the same 'Meh' feeling I've gotten from every Abu rod.

Might be a Yum Dinger? I believe the gander mountain branded senkos have the slot as well

Only fish of the day, probably my PB. Right at 27.75 inches long, for some reason she was just now spawning. Gotta love pond fishing!

Can't help you on the rain gear but I can sympathize. I don't quite understand HOW rain gear can shrink like that. Seems to be happening with ALL my clothes, though. : (

My only keeper from my buddy tournament yesterday. My partner did put 2 in the live well. We had a good bite going until about 830, then the wind picked up and catching just stopped. Only caught 3-4 dinks after that. 20 1/4" 4.14 lbs, was good for big bass on our pond, but 4.98 was lunker of the day. (6 pond tournament). She really looks bigger than that, but is skinny from just having spawned.

Raingear on sale https://www.wingsupply.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=frabil

I don't do much, if any, fishing purchases on Amazon. Just not worth the effort even tho I have Prime. Should clarify re: effort. Effort on Amazon Prime is as simple as clicking buy. Issue I have is with what I want that is available. I can usually find better deals on ebay or ... gasp ... Bass Pro.

Real good day at Devol with Rhino - largest LMB went about 4 lbs - the avg size (30 or so fish) was 2 lbs.

Patients. When a bed bass spooks off the nest it not locked onto it. You can cast a few feet past the nest and wait until the bass returns in a few minutes, then move the lure into the nest and just let it sit. If the bass shows no interest shake it a few times without moving it more than a few inches and let it sit again. If the bass stays and doesn't swim off, it's a mater of changing to another lure like a drop shot tube about 3" above the weight. Tom

Surely you know by now girth is important

Congrats! 16" is around 2 pounds, I'd wager, unless it was a real fatty. Chart below is a general gauge, not the be-all-end-all. There are other charts out there which differ slightly, but put 16" in the 2+ pound range.

That was my thought. Dinger.

Probably a dinger, if not,just buy the Yum Dingers.

Turn it around. Rig & fish the other end (backwards). Sort of a two for one deal . . . . A-Jay

My Dad enjoyed it & he was generous enough to pass on the passion. A-Jay

Be ready for your reel to be stained red. I put some on 2 Okuma Epixor baitfeeders I use for wipers and catfish, both of them have red stains from the coating bleeding off the line during use.

He's not to miserable, he's said he doesn't want to leave her, sounds like more he's annoyed than anything. I don't know if you're married or in a serious relationship, but I find myself annoyed with my wife at least once a day, and I don't see that changing anytime soon!

My wife was not at all interested in fishing when I got my first boat. I was lucky, she never had a problem with me going on week long fishing trips with the guys. The thing that changed her mind was that I put her on fish and she caught them on artificials. She thought she had to use worms and hook minnows. Just like kids, once she catches a few, they start to like it

You just answered your own question. She is supportive of your hobbies, loves you, and you feel she's worth it. A good woman is very hard to find, and you don't want to mess it up just because she doesn't like fishing.Invite her every time you go fishing and make the fishing trip fun for her when she joins you.Put her on some fish, give her a camera to take wildlife pictures, make a picnic for her,etc.With time she will join you fishing more often.

Girlfriends/wives don't have to like your hobby, but they need to respect and accept it is something you will do from time to time. You can encourage her to find something, but it isn't a great idea to find a hobby for her, that's up to her and her alone.