Darren.

Nice! Ingenuity and necessity, mother's of invention!

Welcome aboard!

With that, I'd agree

Love the color scheme! Black n' Blue!

MH a great choice, though I'm not a Veritas guy. And hey, welcome to the forums!

The answer is more yes for M as opposed to MH. At least in my experience. I throw weightless Zoom Tiny Flukes wacky rigged on my ML Chronarch 50e casting setup. Not a very long cast, mind you, but quite doable. I can get 35-40' casting a "weightless" Zoom Finesse worm on a 1/0 Gammy split/drop hook. The worm is 4.75" long, not sure the oz per worm.

I prefer amber lenses, glass, in the day time, but if it is a darker, cloudy day I'd rather use a lighter polarized lens, which I don't currently have.

I bought mine on ebay from a reputable dealer with a very high rating. I think I paid $160 for the glasses. A bit less than Bass Pro, etc. They are legit, but there are fakes out there so you have to be careful.

"Other" suggestions that the 580G? Nope I bought the Brine 580G. Love 'em. Not a scratch on 'em after a few years. Great set of glasses that I don't regret buying for one minute. Tried on Maui Jim's and other brands, but the Costa's fit my head better and, well, I just love 'em, LOL. YMMV When I say "tried" it wasn't "bought", but tried them on at various sunglasses outlets...

Welcome aboard, Drew! Not sure what the issues is. I usually can find what I'm looking for when I use the search function. Perhaps you can elaborate a little more, i.e., a little more specific on what you're searching for?

Welcome aboard! Probably the best thing you can do here is to avail yourself of the site's articles on bass fishing, especially the link for beginners. There is a gold mine of information there!

No reason you can't use it as a leader. But I can't imagine one why you'd want to. I use extra braid to repair my kids' school backpacks (when they leave a lunch in it and the dog(s) shred them apart to find the awesome smelling food left therein, LOL).

Belated welcome!

Typically reel down, lower rod tip, lift. If using heavier hooks like on a jig, it is all relative to the situation. I will do a quick lift, but never a massive hookset like I see so often on TV. Just me and my preference. Not that there's anything wrong with it. Excitement is always part of the hook-setting equation, soooo.....

Don't have any of those rods, Tony. But I wanted to welcome you to the forums seeing this is your first post!

I use 10lb PP on all my spinning gear. Caught a mess of 6 pounders on it with zero problems. Swear by the stuff.

Can't speak to the Procyon reels, but I do own two Stradic 1000FI reels, and one Lexa 2000SH reel. I've compared the Lexa quite favorably to the Stradics in terms of smoothness. I really like the very positive feel of Daiwa's bail system, a tad more than I like Shimano's. But (granted, there's a size difference) I much prefer the lightness and gear ratio of my Stradics. If I had extra $$ laying around, I'd love to try one of the new Ballistics.

Welcome aboard!

Welcome aboard! I don't tie a swivel for drop shotting. So i normally tie a leader about one to two arm stretches in length, and tie the hook about 24-28" up from the bottom.

Just want to say welcome aboard, Jonathan!

Welcome to the forums! A PQ is a solid reel, easy to start with.

Strike King makes a decent pair of glasses. Some guys here swear by them. Personally, after several pairs of poly carb glasses I decided on buying a pair of Costas (with wife's approval, of course). Haven't regretted it for a moment. Not a scratch on them after years of use. Oh, got the glass, not the plastic. For me it was worth the expense. May not be for you, so be sure to read online reviews of the SK's, and other brands. Other guys here will chime in on their experiences.

Kirkland Pacific Bold - Keurig. No other energy drinks for me beside black coffee.

Fascinating! Never seen that happen before.

No experience with or opinions on those reels, just want to welcome you to the forums, Clifton.