Hammer 4

Priced under your $ 325.00 range is the Irod Air Series 775 C. I have a few of their Genisis III rods, and love them. Life time warranty, Great customer service, and the rods are very light weight. Just read the reviews on Tackle Warehouse.

Geez, if that doesn't look " fishy " I don't know what lake would.

That was pretty dang cool. I hope you compensated him very well..?

One brand that gets overlooked, yet are great rods, is the Irod Genesis III rods. I have a couple of Tatula rods, which are nice. At $ 150.00 I bought several rods from Irod, from a 6'9" baitcaster all the way up to my heavy swimbait rods. Just check the reviews on TW. Imho, these are worth a look see.

Yup, go to the fish and wildlife site to see the regs re: game fish.

It is illegal in Cali to keep any game fish unless you get a permit. That includes bluegill, bass, ect.

Try some tubaflex (sp) worms, that's what I fed my baby Oscars when I was breeding them. Once your baby bass starts growing, to where its about 12" long, I'd suggest releasing back to where your son got it. Unless you want to spring for a 125 Gal. minimum size tank, bass don't do well in undersized tanks. My neighbor had a 15" bass in a 75 gal tank, and all it did was suspend.

Ditto.

I had 30 lb Diawa Samurai braid on my old Shimano 301 E7, never had a problem. As said above, it's spooled to loose.

17 lb Sniper. Had very good luck using this line.

Check here, it's S.D. based site. https://sdfish.com/forums/m/senco-48.3713/

I have the 168, and my personal preference would be to throw it on a baitcaster, only because to impart good action on the 168, it's the reel that does that. Only a small turn of the reel will have the 168 moving side to side, with no effort, but a smooth turn is imho the way to go, I don't know if you could, or would get that with a spinning reel, but there's 1 way to find out.

Depends on the application, and the conditions that you use it in. Also the size/ weight of the baits you intend to use. A little more info would be helpful.

If your fishing upper Castaic, and fishing from shore, I'd start off with a natural colored jig, and a trailer that has some good action, like a Rage craw to start off with. I might consider throwing a bluegill swimbait such as a Mattlures gill, with an exposed top hook, and I would also take along some Big worms, like a 10" Upton worm, in a purplish color. For me, I like to target the bigger gals, that's why I'm recommending these type of baits. Can't comment on SARL, as I've never been there. Good luck, and have fun. Bed time for me..haha..

Knowing which lake you will be at may help to give you an answer. I've said this a few times on here. DVL in July, air temp was 110+, water was gin clear. Everyone else was throwing dropshots, or something similar. I went to the horseshoe dam, which is all riprap, and threw a 7" jointed swimbait in about 4' of water, I was casting almost parallel with the shore, and wound up sticking a nice 6 1/2 lb largemouth. So in this case thinking outside of the box, netted a nice fish and a couple of hundred bucks for the win.. If the lake was grassy, no way would I have thrown that exact bait, so that's why I ask which lake you will be at.

Agree with the above. See my avatar.

Always close the bail by hand.

I can see Irene stopping by here .... and soon.

In true flipping, there is No casting. In pitching you make short cast's. Most all the old school guy use an 8' rod for flipping, that's not to say you can't use say a 7'6" rod. This has been brought up in the past re: Flipping vs pitching. Youtube has a good video with Denny, showing how to flip. Some view flipping and pitching as the same thing.

I'd throw something that Nobody else is...?

Almost...?

O.K., I assumed you were up here in L.A.

I would have to agree with this ^^^^.

Just to add to all the above. Try a bigger profile bait, i.e. a 1/2 oz or even a 3/4 oz arky jig with a Rage craw, or something similar.

Does the name of this " small " lake, start with a C. ?