Fishes in trees

I used to be bank bound. I think that one of the most important pieces of gear that a bank fisherman should have is a good set of hip waders. Just a step or two off the bank and fishing parallel to the bank becomes MUCH easier. If you ain't going to get a boat or a canoe or a kayak this year - go with the hip waders.

I'm most likely to choose a copper blade when I have water visibility of less than 2 feet. No real reason for that choice except that is when that color of blades have worked for me in the past.

best for what?

No clue - cool old rod & reel though. I think that it is worth the time to knock off the rust, corrosion & stuff, clean it up and get it back to working order. I have a similar rig, although that rod is much older & cooler than mine. I cleaned mine up and put I don't know how many yards of cheap 50 lb mono ( almost 2 of those quarter pound spools ) on it and now it is a kite flying rig supreme, when it doesn't have an honored space on my fishing barn rod rack.

I overthink a lot of things concerning fishing, fishing rods, fishing reels, artificial fishing lures, uses for said artificial lures, actual fishing situations, potential fishing situations, etc. I'm not the only one. I think that is why god made beer in general and IPA's in particular, so that I could overthink various fishing topics, when work or weather or other variables deny me the opportunity to actually go fishing. If you accept the premise that some rods are better at throwing chatter baits than other rods, then it follows that there is such a thing as a "best" rod for throwing chatter baits. I'm totally aware that my idea of "best" is potentially and probably different from other folks idea of "best", and that is why we have forums like this, so that we can compare mental notes, as it were. Bottom line is , yeah, I do have a dedicated chatter bait rod. I ran into it at a pawn shop. I can't drive by a pawn show and not stop in occasionally to see what kind of fishing gear they have available. I have a dedicated chatter bait rod so that I don't have to take the time while I'm fishing to snip the bait off my dedicated spinner bait rod & retie. Or my square bill rod, or buzz bait rod, or any of several other rigs that I feel are suitable for a reaction bait. Fishing gear can be purchased. Fishing time - not so much. I have dedicated rigs for the various techniques I choose to employ to maximize my time on the water and not waste time when I don't have to. And there I go, overthinking stuff again, gotta go back to the cooler, day off & my beer just evaporated. ..

I got something similar last year, I'm thinking medium/ moderate rather than medium/fast. I got it on close out from Academy, for something less then $40, I don't really remember. I think it is a decent reaction bait rod for the money.

It is fairly obvious that you haven't bonded with your Curado DC. Do not sell it. That will make the reel feel like an orphan and it won't work well for anyone. (maybe it feels like an orphan now and that's why it isn't working like you'd like ) Instead, I'd recommend that you banish that reel, send it far away from Eastern Shore, Maryland, to somewhere that it has a better chance to be appreciated, where it can live with other Curado DC's, and other members of the Shimano family. I'd suggest you ship it to a home in a decent fishing barn, quietly located in the outskirts of the KC Metro area. It will, hopefully, get to go fishing once a week in season and on those weeks where the weather doesn't cooperate it will get to stay indoors and listen to old blues & rock and maybe a Royals game.

On further review, I didn't realize that this was a poll. My vote goes to "none of the above", for reasons described a few posts earlier. I think that if you're going for a glass rod to throw chatter baits you're sacrificing quite a bit of sensitivity and gaining more weight than necessary.

My current chatter bait rod is an older Diawa LT ( Light & Tough). The whitish/silvery one. It is labeled a worming/jiggin rod. IMO it has way too much tip to be a decent worm rod, but I think it has just the right amount of tip to throw chatter baits as far as I want to AND it has enough back bone to set the hook at distances if I have to. I'll probably put a Calcutta 250 TEGT reel on this rod and fill it with 17 or 20 mono.

Update & edit. . ..1 yeah the wicked wacky hook has a little tube wrapped/glued on the shaft of the hook. You tie your long Palomar knot, then thread the long tail end through the tube, keeps the hook positioned correctly ( for me) on the line. ... For me the dropper line varies - a foot or so is where I start nearly all the time. I use the half ounce BPS Finesse drop shot weights ( page 269 BPS 2020 Master Catalog, the cylinder ones ). The diamond shapes and round shapes get stuck more often for me. I considered using the tungsten ones, mostly because I've mostly converted to tungsten for tx rigged worms & pitching baits, BUT, at $8.50 for two of them - just can't do it.

This sounds like a lubrication/maintenance issue to me. A prior comment about turning your reel sideways is good advice.

I think your rod, reel & line ought to work ok. Last season I used a 7'5" Kistler telescopic flipping/pitching stick ( the blue one, Argon series I think) and a Calcutta 50 reel with 20 lb Abrazx fluorocarbon. Going on 3 years with the same line and so far it is still ok and hasn't failed. Plan is to keep fishing it til I'm unhappy with it. I used to use a rod very similar what you're planning to use. A Gerald Swindle Quantum 7' something rod. It had some serious backbone to it but a little more tip than the rod I'm using now. I messed up a guide and haven't gotten it fixed yet so it is on the bench. The jury is still out if the slightly more tippy rod is better for this technique or not. I got 7 or 8 rods that need attention, with there was someone on the KC metro area who did that sort of stuff & returned phone calls. Enough of that. I've experimented with drop shot hooks quite a bit and the one I currently like the best is Gammy wicked wacky hook ( page 274, item #M in the 2020 BPS Master catalog). I've got all the sizes available, but I use 1/0 or 2/0 most of the time. I like how when you run your line through the tube on the shaft of the hook it kinda guarantees that your hook will stick out straight and so will your bait. For baits, I like the Berkley crazy legs chigger craw in various colors, Okiechobee craw is a good color to start as are various shades of green pumpkin. I will generally bust out my chartreuse marker and color up the flappers some. The Berkley jerk shad in Albino is another good color ( I will put some chartreuse stripes down the side with my marker. ). Another Berkley bait that has worked well for me is the old Gulp sinking minnow. ( various colors, pumpkin, green pumpkin, June bug These don't take dye worth a darn. In my bubba drop shot bait bag I'm pretty sure that I have a dozen other options, but these 3 are the ones that have gotten used the most over the past couple of years. All these baits, I just nose hook them and count on the weed guard on the hook to prevent me from snags. Turns out the weight gets snagged much more often than the hook does. I experimented with tx rigged hooks for a while, some modest success, but these days I think that nose hooking baits with the wicked wacky gamma hook is just as snag resistant and gets more consistent hook ups. As far as hook sets go, I don't think that you have to power set, when I determine that I'm getting bit, I just tighten up and lift up as quick as I can. I lift up stoutly, but it isn't a power set, cross their eyes type of hook set. I have experimented with a strike indicator using this rig. Using a half inch styrofoam ball, like you might find in the fly rod section at Cabelas or BPS, using my electric drill I would enlarge & smooth out the hole, then thread it on the line above the hook. Some days it seemed to help, in that the float would move prior to me noticing it through feel. More experimentations are necessary before I come to a decision on this thing. Hope this helps. These are just my current thoughts on using this bait. I haven't mastered this technique IMO.

I like day drinking on my day off. It gives me time to think & muse. After considerable musing, yes, a plastic worm is a "lure". So the short answer to the original question is yes..

With my stubby arthritic fingers, I find it easier to tie a knot that manipulate a snap, so that's what I do.

I'm definitely a better fisherman than I used to be. No one thing accounts for that, more likely it is several things First - getting a bigger boat that allowed my to spend more time on the water. The bigger boat gets me from here to there quicker than my last boat and I spend more time fishing and less time moving from here to there. Secondly - hanging out with a better class of fishermen, fishing BFL tournaments, drawing pro & semi pro boaters, different folks on this site, etc, you just learn more when you hang out with folks who know more. Hanging out with the local club, back in the early 90's, all anyone in that club did was ride around and throw spinnerbaits at the bank. Third - just like your shop teacher told you back in high school, "Use the right tool for the job." I think decent gear makes a difference. As my employment life got a little more settled, I got to where I could afford to get better gear. One time I drew a pro at a BFL event and he took one look at my gear and told me to get my gear to match. At the time, getting all my bait casting reels to match made a huge difference, I could lay down my worm rig, pick up the spinner bait rig, and the reels worked the same. Before, the slight differences in weight & balances made my first few casts inaccurate when I switched rigs. There are lots of other examples of the principle of using the right tool for the job. There is always a catch, and as far as fishing gear goes, the catch is, "Use the right tool for the job - FOR YOU." For another example, my idea of what is and what ain't a perfect worm rod isn't exactly the same as what several of my buds think a great worm rod is. So I don't fish as well when I try to use their gear and visa versa. That is part of the charm of fishing that you get to decide what is best for you. A sad but true fact is that your wallet also has a say in that decision. Edit - I frequently do band wagon thing and try a new technique soon after I hear about them. A couple of reasons - 1 - if there is a chance a new method of fishing will catch me more fish, I want to find out about it and -2 - I'm pretty set in my regular fishing gear so new techniques = chance to acquire more gear. For instance, I can recall when nearly everyone I knew and many national publications said that the senko would probably be a fad, and run its course, just like the sluggo previously did. I got on the A-rig band wagon and while it doesn't work all the time, those times when the a-rig is working, if you ain't throwing the a-rig you're fishing for 10th or 12th place. Chatter baits were supposed to be a fad, according to many local fishermen I knew, and it turned out that wasn't the case. Same deal with the Ned rig (Although I find it humorous that the basic principles of Ned Rig fishing are VERY similar to Slider fishing popularized by Charlie Brewer in the 70's). And so it goes . .

If you can find one of the old Curado 300 E's that would be a good choice. A tranx in the size of our choice would be excellent. I wouldn't consider any other reel.

senkos .. small jigs. .. finess swim baits .. .. drop shot ... What you gonna do if you throw a senko for 5 or 6 casts and then decide to throw a small jig into the same place? Retie? How much time will that take? Looks to me like you're going to need 4 rigs.

You're never going to eliminate break offs. If you never lose a jig you ain't fishing where the fish are. That being said, use good line, check the line every so often, tie good knots is all good advice.

I like 1000 size reels. I'm not worried about what will happen should I connect with a monster fish, It has happened a few times and I landed the fish and drag wasn't an issue. Right now the only situation where I don't use a 1000 size reel is for throwing lightweight cranks and jerk baits, where I think the bigger & wider spool make enough of a difference distance wise that I can live with the extra weight.

Over the years I've tried several times to keep a log, that resolution never lasts past June, or at least it hasn't in the past. I'm unlikely to try this year. I have a hard enough time keeping track of gas, food & mileage expenses incurred during fishing.

My Berkley line spooling station has lasted well over a dozen years. I think it was worth the money. Like any other tool there is a learning curve to getting the line perfectly on the reel.

Reel wise last year I got a Curado 150 DC to throw spinner baits with. Like it a lot. Seems like I get a little more distance with the same effort than I got with previous reels that I used to throw spinner baits. At various times I've used a Shimano Calais, a Calcutta 250 TEGT, the regular Calcutta, Curado's with different letters B, D & E. The issue with the Calais and the Calcutta was that they were a little too heavy - not an issue when I was in my 50's but a significant issue as I got into my mid 60's. Rod wise, what is & what ain't a good spinnerbait rod is pretty subjective and one just needs to try different ones and fish with them to figure it out for yourself. Currently I have the Curado 150 DC on a 6'10" All Star Spinner bait rod I got on close out at Academy. ( the purple series ). In the past I thought the original All Star 6'9" All Star Well Rowland Spinner Bait rod was a good one. I have some 6'8" MH Fenwick AETOS rods ( bought 6 or so years ago, since discontinued ), that I liked for throwing either spinner baits or chatter baits. I don't know, the action I prefer is pretty much like a worm rod with a little more tip. Different companies label that action differently. I have a Falcon 7' Bucoo Trap Caster, which is my dedicated lipless crank rod, but I have thrown spinner baits/chatter baits with it and should I ever run across Another one, hopefully on close out, I'll probably buy it. A little longer that what I think is ideal but overall a real sweet rod for throwing any reaction bait, as long as they weigh at least 3/8 oz, half ounce is better.

If you got to wear glasses, polarized prescription sunglasses seem to me to be the way to go.

I got mine from Cabelas - it was allegedly made to fit 18' aluminum bass boats. When I get it on and strap it down tight, it billows a little bit going down the road, but it hasn't ripped or anything yet. It is 8 years old and gets used 6 or 7 times per year.

Yes you are missing out not throwing a jerk bait. Once you own a few of them then you will want "sets" of them to cover all the various conditions you might encounter. Most of these situations you encounter in your mind, but how much does that really matter? Nevertheless you'll want a set of Lucky Craft pointers, you'll want a set of Vision 110's (these get really pricey). You can get a set of Vision 110 knock offs from Lucky Strike for somewhat less money and sometimes they work as well as the originals. Over the years, Strike King has come out with several different jerk bait variations, you'll want a set of each of those. Smithwick Rogues are classics and there are multiple variations of that bait, so a set of each of those, in a variety of colors is nice. necessary? Excalibur marketed a jerk bait for a while, the EE Shad - when those got closed out at a local tackle shop, there went $150 for a set of those. ( they haven't gotten wet yet ).. But wait, there's more . .. There is such a thing as deep diving jerk baits. Lucky Craft makes some in the Pointer series - you need a set of those. Lucky Craft also makes a bait called at Staysee - a deeper diving jerk bait - they work and you probably need a set of those as well. Don't forget the classics - the old Rebel spoonbill - the various Rapala jerk baits, formats among these is the Husky Jerk, but you can spend well over $1000 just getting some each of the Rapala variations of the jerk bait. Bomber Long A's are classic - need a set of them. And I'm pretty sure I've left out 80% or more of the jerk baits currently on the market. So, short answer to your question, yes, you're missing out not throwing a jerk bait. There are numerous threads about the gear side of this equation as well, check those out and lighten your wallet some more.