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Today's world is different from the world I grew up in as a kid. I'm 35 but the world has changed tremendously in the last 20 years. If you only watched the news you'd think the whole world has gone to hell. Just yesterday about 45 miles southeast from where I currently live and much closer to where I grew up there was a mass shooting. When you reflect on these kinds of things the world seems like a really scary place full of bad people. What the hell am I talking about this on a bass forum for? I purchased a very nice reel from a very nice member of this forum. The communication was great and he even engaged me in some conversation. I thought the questions a little strange but nice enough. When I received my reel the I noticed the heaviness of the box; the reel I purchased is one of the lightest on the market. When I opened the box I found it jam packed with soft plastics, jigs, jerkbait, lipless, etc. This gentleman had no reason to send me all of this stuff but he did out of the kindness of his heart. Gestures like these keep my faith in humanity strong, they take away the negativity. It may be a relatively small gesture in the grand scheme of things but if more people made an effort to do things similarly the world would be a better place. I vow to pay it forward and become more like this man I don't know, with more kind gestures wanting nothing in return. Thank you @BasserJim

WEATHER JOKE .... It's late fall and the Indians on a remote reservation in South Dakota asked their new president chief if the coming winter was going to be cold or mild. Since he was a chief in a modern society, he had never been taught the old secrets. When he looked at the sky, he couldn't tell what the winter was going to be like. Nevertheless, to be on the safe side, he told his tribe that the winter was indeed going to be cold and that the members of the village should collect firewood to be prepared. But, being a practical leader, after several days he got an idea. He slipped off and called the National Weather Service and asked, "Is the coming winter going to be cold?" "It looks like this winter is going to be quite cold,” the meteorologist at the weather service responded. So the chief went back to his people and told them to collect even more firewood in order to be prepared. A week later, he called the National Weather Service again. "Does it still look like it is going to be a very cold winter?" “Yes,” the man at National Weather Service again replied, "it's going to be a very cold winter." The chief again went back to his people and ordered them to collect every scrap of firewood they could fin Two weeks later, the chief called the National Weather Service again. "Are you absolutely sure that the winter is going to be very cold?" "Absolutely," the man replied. "It's looking more and more like it is going to be one of the coldest winters we've ever seen." "How can you be so sure?" the chief asked. The weatherman replied, "The Indians are collecting a s***load of firewood."

My last scheduled tournament of the season was last weekend, the FOBA Classic on Lake Gaston. This lake has really changed over the past several years with the spotted bass population finally reaching 'tournament quality' size. The LM fishing was pretty tough, so the majority of fish weighed in overall were spots, I'd guess at least 75%. I was one of the few that got on a LM pattern and weighed 4 LM and 1 spot on the first day and then 2 LM and 3 spots on the second day. Weighed 9-0 on day 1 and 11-12 on day 2, which was good enough for second place...But only 3oz behind the winner . Only two patterns for me...Covering A LOT of shallow water with a spinnerbait for LM's and fishing a Vision 110 on points for spotted bass. On day 2 I had to give up on the LM pattern after getting only 2 fish by noon, spent the rest of the day targeting spots, worked out OK but I wish I would have pulled the plug sooner - might have had time for 1 more cull . Oh well, still fun and getting paid is never bad!

Pics from my 2 early bird tournaments the last week of October. Took first at both with my father taking a close 2nd in both. All largies that Saturday (20+lbs) and 26.5lbs of Lake Onatrio smallmouth that Sunday. I NY!

No giants to see here, but some solid chunks that I'm pretty proud of. Been bank fishing a few new ponds, and this one particular one has been very stingy. It's clear water, very shallow and dishpan like, coverless, with grass growing over the bank edges. Turns out, that's where the bass like to just hang out, nose to the bank (literally) in just 4"-6" of water. If you walk fast or heavy, or get close, you get a splash of water at your feet as they spook and shoot straight to the center of the pond. Throw a heavy bait along the shoreline and splash the entry, they're out of there. Land more than 2 feet off the bank, they won't come out and get it. Too close to the bank, your line ends up over the grassy edge, bait spending half the time out of the water. Needless to say, this was a tough nut to crack, and catches have been meager, but I finally put the pieces together last night and managed over a dozen bass. Something special and satisfying when you finally make a good catch from a place that seems to have your number most days

Took my bait caster out and headed out into the rain and over cast. Finally i have landed and caught a almost three pound bass on my white chatter bait and strike king rage swimmer swimbait as a trailer. I was also told by Extreme Philly Fishing people open chatter baits in the store and steal the trailer that come with it and most people don't even know they do come with it "I didn't know and i didn't have one in mine so i guess someone stole mine in walmart" Regardless it felt good to catch at least one on it.

@npl_texas you’re very welcome. Like I said, I was out of packing peanuts and couldn’t let that nice reel just bounce all around in the box. It was some stuff I had laying around that doesn’t really any longer suit the type of fishing I prefer to do (I’d much rather be finesse fishing). I’ve had many random acts of kindness gifted upon me over the years, and I try and pay that forward as often as possible. Both because I’m able to do so, and because I have a 2 year old little boy who I’m trying to lead by example. He’s still a little young to catch on, but I’m trying to stay in good practice. Hope you enjoy the reel and the baits and have a great holiday season.

Took out my little boat after having it on the water all summer. I caught 1 nice crappie and snagged a dink with a bladebait. Took the boat out and switched lakes. In less than an hour I had around 10 with most of those keeper sized, on a blade and lipless crankbait.

The first 3/4 of October, life was good and the steelhead fishing was easy. Then the salmon finished spawning and the nasty fall cold-front hit. It has been a skunk-fest for the last few weeks. Looking to regroup and change tactics. Should be interesting to see what happens from here up until ice-fishing season. Temperatures look to be <40 from here on out. Did manage these two nice males 10-22 on the pre rapala short wart and magnum wart though. Smaller one was given to the neighbors and the bigger one tasted amazing on the grill. Did also manage to capture both on GoPro, although it looks like I have a scratched lense now. Fish On

Had a totally insane day today! My friends and I did a little exploring, and we found a spring creek with a network of beaver ponds, all of which is loaded with bass, who seemed to have never been fished for before! We caught well over 100 fish, triple hookups were common, the water was clear and the bass were gorgeous. The creek never gets wider than 20' across, and no deeper than 5'. All the damage was done with a ned rig but I'm sure they would have eaten anything. Biggest bass was the 4-13 that I am holding, and our best 5 were somewhere in the neighborhood of 17-18lbs.

You can't joke around with the wife over the amount of shoes she has, for fear she will start counting your rod/reel combos.............. Continue.

It's sometimes hard to remember that the original Ambassador 5000C gear ratio was 4.7:1, high speed 5.3:1 and remained that way for the 4500C reels my generation fished with. IPT wasn't part of any conversation back then, everyone wanted the high speed 5.3:1 ratio reels. The 5000 was the wide spool and 4500 the narrow spool, I opted for the 4500C and fished these reels for decades. Shimano comes out with the Bantam 100 with 6.3:1 and this reel is nearly 1/2 the weight and 3/4 the size of the 4500C, so I bought one and added it to my arsenal. The faster gear ratio 6.3:1 felt the same as the 5.3:1 as far as casting and retreiving crankbaits etc. Along comes Daiwa TD HTSA103 $ 105 in the early 90's, smaller, lighter than Shimano green Curado and had instant anti reverse no other reel had then. The HTSA was the fastest spinning light weight spool of the decade and I retired my other reels becoming a Daiwa reel users with 6 new HTSA with 6.3:1 ratio. This was the first time I noticed that after making a long 50 yard cast the retrieve was vey slow and hard to keep up with and control hooked bass. My partner used the green Curado with larger wider spool and higher 7.1:1 ratio and I had no issues keeping up the bass with these reels. Was it gear ratio? So I measured the spools diameters and compared diameters of spooled line after making a long cast...wow what an eye opener. Measuring recovered line my HTSA was 18" per turn, the Curado was 23" per turn, my old 4500C was 24" per turn after making a long cast. The slowest ratio reel was faster then the highest ratio reel, no wonder I was having issues. When Daiwa came out with Tatula R100 I bought 3 with 8:1 ratio to equal my old 4500C IPT when casting my standard distance and it feels the same. There is more to small bass reels then gear ratio indicates, IPT is important during the cast and retreive distance. Tom PS, Appologize for the long post.

My grandpa on the left and old man Sims . Grandpa use to come and get me before the sun rose and we would sit on the bank of the Mississippi trying for a carp or channel cat . I dont remember ever catching a fish but I remember eating cinnamon rolls .

Fished Monroe Saturday with some friends. It was tough fishing. Of the 4 of us I was the only one to catch any. I caught my first hybrid striper and a nice 6 lb LMB along with a few smaller ones. The water temp was in the mid 50’s with some wind creating some current around the weeds.

Giant drum on a finesse jig Monday. Couple of wipers on Keitechs Tuesday.

That's how my girlfriend drives.

Must be hard water season already

Hmm, It would seem things are currently pretty tough right now. I would said it's because it's much colder out, rained a bunch, water level has went up and current is much faster. However, I could be wrong about all of these and almost all my spots seem dead or show no sign of fish at all. We couldn't get a single bite no matter what we used, I did however finally get a few but not fish i wanted. We even went to catch bass and we did get a bunch of taps we just couldn't manage to hook into one, The closest i got was a bass swimming towards me with my senko in his mouth, I was very excited and then as he got closer to me on shore he dropped the hook and senko yeah she wasn't even hooked. This was when i remembered our rods we had with us were spooled up with four pound test for rainbow trout. Pretty much just not that great of a day but we did manage to catch a few small fish and even found three new lures for our tackle box so there is that.

1st drum. Dragging a c rig with a centipede. Felt like a good bass till i saw it and was sorely disappointed lol

Threw on the wading boots again this morning and landed 6 in a couple hours. Largest were these two 3.8(top) 2.9(bottom). They’re eating up. Nearly every one I caught had a bit of a pudge belly. T-rigged Smartbaits color changing Smart Bomb plastic worm. Quick shots of these 2:

It's almost always an adventure fishing in south Florida, even when the bite sucks, like this morning. My friend and I fished the canal on the Boca Raton/Delray Beach line. The first interesting sight was a great blue heron on a dock trying to swallow an large oscar and practically choking on it. He finally managed to spit it out onto the deck and just stood there looking at it not knowing what to do next. Fishing was a struggle, just three small bass and a miniature peacock. A boat near us, though, landed a clown knifefish, quite an interesting creature. And then I caught on a jig, for the first time, a jaguar guapote, seen in the photo. I thought it was a crappie for a few seconds, then I noticed the cichlid fin pattern and recognized it as a guapote from photos I had seen.

Due to matters that were out of my hands, I had to move back up to Shreveport. That being said, before I made the move yesterday, I spent Thursday and Friday fishing the smaller pond. Only caught one each day, but I had a good time anyways. My son came with me for about an hour and a half on Friday and then yesterday before I left to come up to Shreveport my son and I went back to the pond for an hour. Didn't catch anything still had fun. Never caught the big un that is in there. Almost did Wednesday night. I'll have to make a post about that. The pics below are from Thursday and Friday. Hoping to have some latest catch pics from up here soon to post. I'll actually have an opportunity to get out on a boat occasionally now.

Got in a couple hours last evening. Decided to fish the N. end of the lake closer to home. Its shallower overall, and weedier. The middle and south end is deeper and usually holds more quality fish and numbers, so I fish it more. So the bite was off compared to the last several trips. Could be the high pressure system. Could be partially that the lake was slick calm. Could be it was that part of the lake, although I caught my pb.in that area. Still caught 7-8. Still biting the 4 inch tequila worm .Nice evening on the water anyway. This was one of the better ones.

Took a trip to BROWN TOWN today!

I'm with @Catt on this one. I prefer a slow retrieve for these baits. And a slow reel helps me achieve that.

Why can't you define sensitivity? You seem to have a handle on the meanings of "weight" and "balance" as they relate to fishing rods. All these words are part of popular nomenclature and have common, functional definitions. A quick lookup of the word sensitivity = "the ability of an organism or part of an organism to react to stimuli." Replace the word organism with fishing rod and you get "the ability of a fishing rod or part of a fishing rod to react to stimuli" (stimuli being line vibration from a strike or some other underwater contact). Yes, the line vibrates and transmits that vibration up to the rod, but different rods, made with different components, will receive those vibrations differently. When those sensations are more pronounced in our hands, we say the rod is more sensitive. I think that's more than a reasonable definition/description of the word sensitivity in the context of fishing rods.

Join a fishing club. There are several multi species clubs, or tournament clubs around Chicago that will help you speed up the learning process. A club will connect you with other fishermen who will show you how and where to catch bass much faster than you could ever do it on your own.

Sluggo or Fluke, but usually start with a zara spook to see if they want topwater. I actually go at night after work and even though it is November and not considered the season for night fishing, I actually have been doing well, and they hit topwater as long as we don't have cold fronts, if it gets warm out, I usually just throw a senko cause stick worms catch fish as good as advertised. "Hope I didn't give the stick worm secret away". You can fish a senko/swim Senko anywhere anytime and catch as many fish you would with any other technique in my opinion. Sometimes the Senko is my fluke, or spinnerbait if I add some flash.

In my mind, You should have one of each, same with any lipless crankbait, I always mix a one knocker or the 2 tap when fishing the Red Eye shad & lately I think I catch better fish in the 2 Tap. I have only been fishing it for a few months, but I prefer it over the other one knockers I own. I throw Traps at offshore weeds all year long, the Original Red eye shad is maybe the best lipless bait on the fall, but the 2 tap will usually get me extra fish if I go through an area with an identical loud version & then start throwing the 2 tap. I would say they are both equal, but I think I like the 2 tap better than other one knockers even the silent traps because it sounds unique, Bass see thousands of lipless cranks and everyone fishes the same ones for the most part. The different sound with Strike Kings colors seem to pull a few fish that wouldn't touch the standard and sometimes the other way around. I have been messing around with different models, sounds, sizes for years to try and figure out why some guys pay $15 for certain baits, and I noticed a few years ago that often the baits with a deeper rattling or sound produce better. For example, I love the Yo-zuri Vibe which has a high pitch, and usually I catch good numbers when I throw it, but I never catch bigger fish (Could just be me) but if I switch up to a different sound same color, size etc..I find more often than not I will find a few bigger fish in same area. When fishing a trap on calm quiet days, I believe the one knocker's and deeper sounding not as much of a ruckus produces for me much more often. I love both baits, But I plan on buying some more 2 taps since the flat out work, plus for the price, and stock hooks, hard to beat the price...I would buy one, you won't regret it, I also like to always have a smaller trap and larger trap to fish the same used water. Hope that helps. For stained water I absolutely love that sexy gold color, in both versions, the Neon Bluegill for stained or deeper water also seems to be one of my confidence colors. But siver blue or anything white will always work in any lake.

The first thing I would try is more padding on the bottom of the seat. A cheap solution is to use a foam gardener’s knee pad. Ocean State Job Lot sells them for less than $2.00. A more expensive option is a gel seat pad. I use one from Purple: https://onpurple.com/seatcushions/buy?type=Everywhere it works for me.

Amen Used to give away fish when younger....neighbors started calling and putting in orders for fish because company was coming or whatever. DONE Now I just like giving away tackle to high school teams or kids at ramps.....mucho better

Reminds me a lot of the Zoom Magnum Finesse worm, which is one of my favorite shakyhead baits, just for almost twice the price per bait. I'm sure they'll work just fine, most baits in that genre of baits do, but I've really been attempting to pare down my gear and that's an area of soft plastics that I'm 100% comfortable with the small selection I've whittled it down to.

Swim jig

Squarebill or chatterbait

You tell your wife you can’t cut the grass because it’s too hot outside, but you go fishing in the bright afternoon sun when the temp is 90 degrees on the water.

So what are you using now?

As much as I like “rolling my own” tackle, I find the Zman Ned Rig jig heads with the wire barbs are hard to beat for holding Elaztech plastic baits. I recently fished a very grassy lake in Canada. Those jig heads, without a weed guard, worked perfect. It was one jig head, one bait, and 30-50 smallmouths up to 5 lbs per day. And the hooks were rigged exposed. I was hoping the fish would bite a variety of baits and presentations but the Ned was catching 10 to 1 so it was Ned Ned Ned all week long. I’m not complaining.

The mainstream media would ruin everyone's attitude if that's all you listened to. They have thrown true journalism under the bus and become headline grabbing, politically influenced, sensationalists. I watch for the local "bread and butter" stories and disregard everything that is obviously more editorial than news.

Awesome story. My family just experienced the same kind of self-less act. They had their alternator go out and were broken down about 1.5 hrs from home. A nice guy in a service truck was nice enough to let my grandpa use his tools and take him to a parts store to buy a new one and made sure my grandpa got it fixed before leaving. He wouldn't accept money or even dinner. He just said "pay it forward". There are still good people out there!

I have caught hundreds of DD LMB using jigs the size the OP is asking about therefore qualified to answer this question. First there is no such thing as fishing rod sensitivity, that sense is in your finger tips. I have caught most of my giant bass on rods you wouldn't buy today because they are short and too heavy for today's bass anglers.Some were Eagle Claw tubular fiberglass rods and some were early Fenwick graphite and most were Lamiglas graphite rods, all with mono line. My point is strike detection is the key factor catching bass using jigs. The rod weight and balance with the reel, proper guide train location allows line movements to be detected by the angler. If the most expensive rod in any way dampens line movement you miss detecting the pressure strike. I use custom ALX NG+ (s/n 201202, 203 & 204) 5 and 6 power, 6'10" jig and worm rods with micro guides that weigh 3.8 oz the past 5 years. Most bass anglers wouldn't like using 5 & 6 power jig rods because they are too stiff. It's the combination of stiffness with flexibility that makes graphite rods so appealing because the angler can feel the slightest line movements. As you lower the power the rod looses it's stiffness and becomes too flexible dampening line movement and reducing your ability to set heavy wire jig hooks and control big bass. Tom PS, I have broken 1 bass rod in over 50 years, early Fenwick HMG and the reason I changed to Lamiglas for over 35 years.

Most sensitive rod that doesn't break? Ugly Stik. Agree with JF that you need two (or more) rods to cover 1/4 -3/4 oz jigs. My advice would be to focus on putting your jig in the right place (work on your casting/pitching skills), use the best quality and right line for the situation (braid, fluoro, copoly), and get in tune with what the jig is doing down there. But if you want my choice for jig fishing it would be Falcon's Cara Finesse jig, Head Turner, and Amistad for 1/4th, 1/2, and 3/4th oz jigs, respectively. NRX are probably more sensitive but they are also double the price of the Caras and in no way going to get me twice the number of bites, or bass.

This is probably my favorite fishing photo. It’s of my oldest daughter with her limit of salmon, her grandfather (my dad), and me after our salmon fishing trip to the Farallon Islands, which are located about 26 miles west of the Golden Gate Bridge. Our first salmon trip together was when my daughter was 10 years old and she also caught her limit. I am glad for the memories of this day as two weeks after this photo was taken my dad died of leukemia.

Beautiful photo! This is my most exotic fishing photo. This is a catfish caught in the Lufupu River in Kafue National Park, Zambia, Africa (the Lufupu is a tributary of the Kafue that joins just above our camp). I had the chance to go fishing for one of the three days we were at the safari camp in Zambia, so I took it. We caught several African Pike, similar to pickerel, but the guide and I both hooked one of these big cats. He said it was actually quite unusual to even see one cat on a 6 hour outing, so 2 was very rare. it was an interesting day, finding fish while keeping away from the hippos that were numerous in the river. This is the cat that the guide caught... unfortunately I didn't get a photo of mine, although it was virtually identical. The second photo is the sunset over the Kafue River that night after we got back to camp.

I have switched just about all of my rods to St Croix legend extremes. Awesome rods. I was throwing Loomis GLX's. Those are also a good choice but for me its the Extremes.

St. Croix Legend Xtreme, Kistler Helium, and Shimano Zodias.

Powell Inferno 7' MH Extra Fast 1/4-3/4 oz ?

To cover that range a GLXMBR gets the job done. if you narrowed the weights, go glx edit. I think the GLXMBR’s are some of the most versatile rods out there

To cover 1/4 -3/4 is 2 different rods for me.. I would say the NRX and Zbone are the 2 most sensitive rods I've ever fished. The reel nut issue on the NRX goes back to when they first came out, fixed long ago. They will all break given the right circumstance. For me, I can catch just as many on a good quality rod in the $200 range. So, I go by what I feel most comfortable with and tournament rewards programs and incentives. But, if you've never owned a high end rod and it's in the budget, what the heck.

When the UPS guy starts bragging to you about the fish he's catching.

First, you need to buy a $70,000 bass boat. The bass boat will need to be rigged with $10,000 worth of electronics. Second buy a jersey covered with patches because you must look the part while riding around in your new bass boat. Third, you will need 15 combos consisting of $400 rods and $300 reels ( I realize you can only use one at a time, but having the other 14 rods laying on the deck will allow you to switch setups quickly when you are not catching fish on the one you are currently using). Now, what good are all those rods and reels if you haven't spooled them up with 100lb braid. The 100lb braid prevents you from losing fish under all conditions. You will land 100% of the fish you hook. Speaking of hooks, you will need to replace the hooks on all your $20 crankbaits because, for some reason, $20 crankbait hooks don't hook the fish the right way. They must be replaced. You must also buy lots of scent. I think garlic and coffee work the best because they can be found naturally occurring in most underwater ecosystems. A pair of $300 polarized Costas or Oakleys will allow you to see deep into the dark depths of the fishes soul and shame it into biting your hook. Based on the above advice, all I can say is buy a bunch of Powerball tickets this week. With $650M you should be able to become a better fisherman.