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That I need fancy rods and lures. The bait monkey is the gimmick. All I ever needed was the ugly stick and a senko...

Yes...my brother. "Pro's win tournaments with $100 rods" he said. I'm like "They do, but I guarantee you they'd rather use one of mine".

Only from my wife.....everyone else doesn't care.

They say it hit 50 briefly today, but it didn’t feel like it. The sun barely appeared though they said it would shine, and they claim the winds only blew NW @ 6-10, but they seemed stronger than that. Cold rain came through overnight, and water temps are now down to 43-44 degrees and still stained - and the Arctic blast and possible snow is now just days away. All that to say I made one more afternoon run to the lake. Only got one bite, but it was a decent fish over 3-1/2 pounds, cranking.

It’s a personal choice. Having been a guide, I have had all types of anglers on my boat. Those who use low dollar rods/reels and those who use ultra expensive. Personally for me, let me repeat, personally for me, I have a performance based standard that once it’s met, I feel like I am not getting anything of performance value from my gear. I am a utilitarian. Others have different considerations both higher and lower than mine. Nobody’s right or wrong. I could afford anything I want but that doesn’t override my sense of personal value. It has to be noted that my performance standard requires a higher level of performance than a lot of anglers.

The very first few versions of flourocarbon line. I was using it as leader material in front of braid on casting gear. The knot strength was non-existent. I was on a killer jig bite for 3 days and I bet I popped off 20 bites on the hookset. I was fit to be tied. You'd think I would have learned after the first 2 or 3. But, nope. Not this snappahead. I wiil say my rig got a lot lighter without all those hand tied jigs on board. You can't fix stupid. A-Jay

Start utilizing backreel instead of drag if you really want to make them angry 🤣

I can almost guarantee you the same people that hate on you for splurging on fishing gear splurge on something else. Everyone has a hobby whether it’s electronics, video games, collectibles, cars, shoes, etc. The biggest culprits around here are hunters. They scoff at expensive boats and fishing rods etc and brag about their tin rig catching as many fish. But then drop $25k+ a year on a hunting lease with a $20k side by side, $3k rifle, Sitka camo, and Swarvski binoculars to kill 2 does and a 6 point.

They’re jealous dude.. let it go. It’s your gear, that’s it. Easy peasy

I have friends who are Really well off, and frugal to a fault (scrimping for annual trip to France). They love borrowing my tackle fwiw, another friend spent his engineering career living on a sailboat in Bahamas and Aruba. He retired, sailed to Corpus, sold the boat, and runs a trailer park in fishing mecca Estes. Impossible to impress with gear, and that's ok, too. Don't let it skin your teeth... and yes, "I can catch more..." is tell-tale jealousy.

The dancing eel. Still haven't forgiven Bill. scott

Drop shot. If that's what I have to do to catch fish, I'm going home and coming back another day. Its like watching grass grow.

this thread is useless without TACKLEPORN! show us the full frontal!!

A different setup for every different bait. Believing that 7' moderate fast would have any noticeable differences over a 7'2" fast. Only a few techniques actually matter for really specialized rods.

Installing a longer handle will absolutely change the speed of the reel if reeling at the same cadence because the handle has to travel a further distance per revolution. The handle itself acts like a gear. Same as if you change the sprocket size on a dirt bike or put bigger tires on your truck. You have to reel faster with a longer handle for the reel speed to be the same as reeling slower with a shorter handle. The IPT won't change though. Longer handle = slower reel = more torque

I just tell people if I want it and can afford it I’ll get it. Plain and simple. I’ve been through the days of pinching pennies to do the bare minimum. I thankfully am not there any longer. Having nice things are the reward you get for working hard and making good choices most of the time. Enjoy life. You’ll never know how a steez, zillion, bantam, Metanuim etc feels to you try it.

Hello @ArcForce and Welcome to Bass Resource ~ Interesting first post. I'd say you can't please every one so you gotta please yourself. Fish Hard A-Jay

It’s like being a Patriots fan a few years back.

Air temp 28 deg. Today. Water temp in lower forties. Amazingly, (to me), the water lilies continue to push out new growth. The surface leaves are still alive and the submerged leaves are reaching for the surface. Had no idea these plants could flourish in such a cold environment. Pickerel Rush are dead at the surface but green growth is evident at soil line. Can't wait for spring to observe how these and other water plants react to the changing seasons.

Observers or casual enjoyers of something will usually mock people who are avid about something enough to care about the nuances such as gear quality and the like. I find it ridiculous. It’s the same with any sport. Someone who doesn’t golf will question why a golfer needs a dozen clubs for 1 round of golf. And the casual golfer will wonder why an avid golfer needs a $1000 driver. So a casual fisherman or somebody who doesn’t fish at all looks at fishing as if it’s just sticking a worm on a hook tied to a stick, and can’t fathom anything beyond that, and then mock the people who are more into it than them.

Fellow Canadian here in Ontario. I buy my gear for myself, what I want to try or what I feel is fine tuning my style of fishing. It's not for the fish and it's not for my buddies, although they are welcome to use my gear. Some people like to discuss gear, some people don't. Luckily we have this site A couple of years ago, I learned a hard lesson when a guy across the bank was catching non stop, I had a mid tier set up and he was hand lining (no rod, no reel). I stopped fishing and watched what he was doing, then spoke with him. Learned a lot that day.

LiveTarget baits. They look so good and I've been fooled by them more than once. Coincidentally, I've been fooled by them more times than I've managed to fool the fish with them. I know their frogs are good, but of course that's one of their baits I've never tried.

Oh dear, there aren't enough letters on my keyboard to list them all. I have the added joy of having to import the crackpot ideas, then try to apply them to fish that aren't bass. You'd think I'd learn, but I'm the one who is born every minute, apparently.

"What fishing gimmick did you fall for?" .... ALL

I guess we’re both “snappaheads” I have nothing against Berkley, I like a lot of their products especially in the salt world. But Vanish was a quick 3 fastballs and take a piece of pine

That's the first FC I used too. Was also the last for about 5 or 6 years. I will admit that in many respects, they named it perfectly. 😎 A-Jay

I remember when Vanish line came out and I spooled it up. What a nightmare 4 casts. I think I used it for the weed whacker EDIT spelling correction

I have the Millenium Palma horse on the front of my PT175. Love it, best front casting seat I’ve ever had. Have gone through several styles of casting seat on my father’s boat over the years. It is meant to mount flat like in the picture of it on the boat in use. Is it possible this Springfield seat is what you saw? It does pivot to 90 deg. https://springfieldgrp.com/product/1040355-kpc/

No it probably wouldn’t be too small. Just don’t mix Daiwa and Shimano or vice versa…

I don't know where all this attention to matching reels to rods came from , but it's IMO highly over-rated as an important consideration. Within common sense, within reason, you can put any reel with any rod. If balance is important to you, then check it out. It's also a fact that all reels are not sized the same, meaning not all 100 size casting reels are the same size or weight; not all 2500 spinning reels are the same size or weight. My direct answser to your question would be : No

Meant to purchase some U-40 for my rods. Forgot to add it to my order. Nobody locally carries it. Did some searching and saw a few people used Birchwood Casey Tru-Oil. I ran over to Cabela’s and picked up a bottle. Below is a before and after (2 different rods actually). Very nice finish and not slick at all. Haven’t gotten it wet yet, but a few of the “reviews” I read said it got slick with H2O. Either way, it looks very good.

Your money, your toys/tools. Do you like it? Too many folks nowadays are concerned with others opinions. On the other hand, I've got a couple good friends that I give grief about their Ford & Dodge trucks. They of course don't like my Chevrolet.

Calling DT's a gimmick are fighting words!

Wait...did you just give me a Ricky Nelson reference ...

Was that person named Kay? Because If You See Kay, tell her off

I think that's like asking how many licks does it take to get to the tootsie roll center of a tootsie pop. The world may never know. A-Jay

When I was a kid I had a cheap with a cheap spinning reel, 8 pound mono line, plastic bobbers, split shot, size 10 snelled hooks, and fished from the bank. I caught multiple species, ate everything I caught and had fun every minute I spent fishing. I even enjoyed digging the worms I used for bait. I now have enough fishing gear to stock a Bass Pro Shops store, and more on the way. I can't possibly catch more fish, or have more fun than I did when I was young, so truth be told it is all a gimmick

Slow speed reels for crankbaits. I dont carry enough combos to justify a dedicated crankbait reel . I'm back to a more versatile 7 to 1 ratio reel.

For those who complain about U40 changing the feel of cork, Tru Oil will not be a satisfactory finish. It makes the surface harder. It's a gunstock finish. I have it on a couple rods, and don't mind its feel, but I'm not as sensitive to "cork feel" as others seem to be.

Whopper plopper and jack hammer. My money would have been better off spent using it as toilet paper. I bought into the hype though.

I bought 2 SV spool reels, i was amazed by how highly praised these reels were. After 10 minutes i realized they were either on par or subpar to my other reels. Another gimmick i tried, im in the same boat with you on this bait. For me however the biggest gimmicks have been "you need a certain rod for this bait or technique or else it wont work and you wont land the bass". This was mainly for crankbaits and jig/Texas rig rods. Ive caught 1-2 dozen bass ranging from 3-5-10lbs (and even more under 3lbs) on cheap fast action rods for both techniques. Sadly i spent alot of money and bought about 10 expensive cranking specific and Texas rig rods combined before that. I honestly do not believe any of the more expensive , or technique specific rods "that you need" to fish a certain bait wouldve caught me any more, or any larger bass. But the higher end rods sure look and feel nice, and i do love the more expensive rods i have, especially my Dobyns. Another thing was Fluorocarbon, i used to buy it in big spools too. I was told by everyone who fished for trout and bass that it was sent down from heaven. To say its got a cult following is an understatement. It was nothing but a sensitive pile of a rats nest, it broke off on any and all snags (even with going through the extensive process of making sure the knot was tied correctly). If the wind blew the wrong way the spinning reels would be a mess. It casts poorly with my casting reels too. Abrasion resistance? Rocks would chew it up, Zebra mussels too. Sensitivity? Sadly i never found the titanic with it while dragging bottom. Or much else. And the price is awful.

I pitch into some really cover and my pitches are 15yrds max. I can take up that short line with a 7.1:1 reel and a bass will more often than not, head further into cover rather than out of it and toward me. I'll take the better torque of a slower reel.

Nice fish @Team9nine, sounds like you’re experiencing the renowned accuracy of meteorology in the southeast 😂

I like the red/black combo.

I just received an order of 11 custom jigs from Johnny C's California Reservoir Lures. Great jigs. I really like their attention to detail with matching painted heads and weed guards.

Irod IRG763CC MH Crank bait rod, 3/8-3/4 diving lures can handle the lures mentioned at $150 price point. I suggest using your boat to troll deep diving crank baits to learn how deep they actually dive and ideal speed. Simply make a long cast and troll at a slow walking speed to detriment how the lure feels and rod loads up, tip bounced plus determining strikes. Cover lots of water at ideal depths using a lazy S boat pattern. Tom

I want it fast for the occasional times when a bass grabs the jig/plastic and starts swimming at you quickly. Faster reel picks up the line faster. Buy a good reel with good gears and don’t worry about the gear ratio.

Got my first one on a green pumpkin swimming senko. Thanks @Jigfishn10 , for the recommendation!

First bass of 2025: Best fish on first trip of 2025 (20" 3lb 15oz):

Got the first black bass of the year today