Shadowx

I kayak fish and last year bought a setup for exactly this and also for punching through lily pads. You need a rod strong enough to pull them out of weeds. This rod feels very light but seems quite stout. When they bury themselves in thick weeds you'll need the stoutness and be glad it's there. I lost a lot of fish and frogs before I got this setup because I used less strong rods. Dobyns Sierra 735c Diawa Tatula 100 Reel Caught this one on a frog today, and 4 other decent ones.

Thank you. The medium rod I have is like a $50 Quantum Fusion or something like that from Dicks. "I got a 6'10 medium xf spinning to use when it's too junkbout to use my SLX casting." - What does this mean? I'm leaning towards a 6'10" medium for medium sparse cover because people have been saying shorter is better for this. But I'm still confused if I should go with a casting or a spinning set up.

That makes a lot of sense. I actually haven’t tried nose hooking them before I usually use it when I want something totally weedless. I Texpose them. Nose hooking would probably help my hookup ratio I missed two good ones the other day.

It seems like some people prefer lighter rods for fluke and some prefer medium heavy so I’m not sure what to make of that. What is the best use for a cheap 6’ medium spinning combo? Why would that not be good for fluke? If this combo can be used for something like top water or something where sensitivity doesn’t matter then I won’t need to get a pricey rod for that. Thanks.

Alright well since I already have one I probably won’t buy another one. Maybe I’ll keep a fluke on that and think about a rod that would be better for Texas rigged worms or senko’s.

I sit in the kayak. Why would a shorter rod be better for hooksets? I would think the opposite. The issue I had wasn’t the length of the rod it was the length of the handle between the reel and the butt of the rod. It’s so long it bumps into my body. Like the next poster said that is one rod I own. Would you use that for fluke? I’ve done it and it works fine but I don’t know if it’s ideal.

That’s originally why I started the topic. I’m curious to know what rod would best round out my setups but also think I need something geared for fluke. Would one of the rods I have now work well for fluke, or would you get something else? I ask because I’ve had a lot of hits on the fluke and since it’s totally weedlees I feel like it’s going to be one of the main presentations I use. Oh ok. I had no idea you were talking about fluke fishing because I was under the impression most people used spinning in M or ML for throwing flukes. Thanks.

Why would you buy that? What would you use it for? Im looking to figure out what the biggest ‘hole’ in my setups are and buy a new rod to give me the ability to fish baits I can’t effectively fish now. I’m probably not going to spend more that $150 for the rod itself.

I have been getting back into bass fishing over the last year. I recently bought two new rods, a Dobyns baitcaster and a Tatula drop shot rod. I also have a couple older cheaper rods. I was wondering if you had the set ups I have, what would be your next purchase? I went out yesterday and the bass were around the shallow weeds. I didn't have any luck with frogs on the Dobyns so switched to 1/4 oz texas rigged worm on it and 1/4oz dropshot on the Tatula. I got some fish with each, but the fish were really hitting the weightless superflukes. I had the flukes on the Star rod, which is a long handled surf rod so that wasn't working out for me very well (I was in a kayak). Now that I can actually tell the difference between rods, I want to leave my Star surf rod home and get something else to bring in addition to the Dobyns, the Tatula and the cheap medium rod. Would you recommend a rod for fluke, or could I use one of the rods I have now for that and you'd recommend I get something else for another application? The rods I have are below. Thanks! Tatula 7' Drop shot rod, 20lb braid. Dobyns Sierra 735c Rod with a Tatula 100 BC reel and 50lb suffix 832 braid A two piece 7'6" medium action Star Stellar spinning rod rated for 10-20lb line 1/2-1 1/2 oz lures with a Diawa BG 3000 reel and 20lb powerpro braid. A cheap 6' Medium spinning combo A cheap 5' light spinning combo

I’m sorry. I certainly do not know all there is to know. All I was trying to say was that I know how to read the basics of the sonar enough to know I’m looking at fish, but wanted help identifying which fish I was seeing. Your explaining that crappie school randomly and bass more like geese was interesting and I was hoping you’d walk me through what that might look like to me on sonar. I’m not here to argue. As I said, I never implied I was all knowing in sonar. Surely there can be a level of understanding between not knowing about the a-scope feature, and expertise on the effects of photosynthesis on hydroacoustics??? My understanding of why the return shows as an arch is that the transducer beam is like a flashlight with the beam most intense in the center of the cone and gradually weakens towards the edge. As the beam passes over a fish, the weak edge of the beam begins to show a weak return. As the more intense center of the cone passes over the fish it produces a stronger return until it reaches the other edge and it again produces a weaker return. This would give the image of the return as a thin oblong oval with tapered edges on a horizontal orientation. The edge of the transducer cone would catch weaker returns off the fish at an angle (not straight up and down). At this point the transducer would be further away from the fish when it’s at either edge of the beam than when directly above it. This would be shown as the return starting lower when the transducers edge first ‘shines’ on it, highest when the transducer is most directly above the fish, and then lower again when the transducer beam’s trailing edge is all that is ‘shining’ on it. Assuming the fish did not change depth as the transducer passes over, this would change our oblong oval with tapered edges to an arch with the tapered edges lower and the top of the arch higher and thicker in the middle.

Thanks for the explanation. i don’t think there are shad in the body of water I am fishing. I think the main forage is probably panfish and maybe golden shiners although I haven’t seen shiners personally. I have seen bait balls on sonar about 3x total but I don’t know what they are. Is there a reliable way to try to catch bait fish from a ball with a rod and reel? Sabiki rig or something?

I disagree that only the air bladders are caught by the fish finders. My jigs don’t have bladders, and are visible on the fish finder. Plastic worms, swivels, sinkers, weeds, stumps all are visible to the fish finder and do not have air bladders. Weeds and worms have densities extremely close to water, so they should not register so easily if the air bladders is what is being seen. Normal 2d sonar definitely is not just targeting the air bladders. Down imaging may show the bladder more than anything else, but it obviously captures everything else besides air bladders as well. I hope you don’t read my tone as argumentative or ‘know it all’ but I believe this to be an oft repeated falsehood based on the sonar returning everything below the boat without air bladders but somehow can’t see the body of the fish? That doesn’t really add up. You mentioned that crappies school kind of randomly, bass school more like geese. Could you break down exactly what you mean by that? Thank you for trying to help! I hope I get your reply and this topic isn’t relocated to The Off Topic forum since we mentioned geese.

I really don’t understand how a topic about how to fish for bass a certain way gets moved to tackle... I’m not asking about what fish finder to get. I’m not asking about what rod to get. I’m cut out my question asking for examples of pictures of bass on sonar as somehow the mods will see that as “Oh his question involves the use of fishing gear, must belong in the tackle section!” Anyway, thanks for the responses. I actually know quite a bit about sonar after watching hours of video and playing with mine for 20+ hours on the water. I know the basics such as the graph shows the recent past and only the Ascope is a live visual of what’s happening. I’ve made it a goal to find bass off shore on the sonar and catch them with vertical presentation. I’m able to do this consistently with crappie now, which is great because before doing this I have never caught a crappie before. Now I can catch 50+ per outing, although most are only about 9” long. I do try to use a roboworm drop shotting to get any bass that might be down there, but nothing bites. I have also tried a football jig with a baby brush hog and got no bites. I switch to a crappie jig and right away I get crappie and the occasional perch. I am in the center of NY State near Saratoga.

I'd like to talk about bass fishing in this thread. The first thing about bass fishing I'd like to talk about is how people like to drop shot off shore. How does one start this? I've seen videos of guys going off shore and locating bass with down imaging and drop shotting them. Whenever I try to do this I end up on crappie and perch, not bass. The tutorials I see all say that crappie will be oriented stacked on top of each other, and bass will be down close to the bottom spread out horizontally. When I locate fish like this it still ends up being crappie most of the time. Any tips? I'm wondering if the small reservoir I'm fishing just doesn't have offshore bass. Thanks. Hoping this thread isn't moved to an equipment sub section where far fewer people will be able to answer, as this thread is about General Bass Fishing!

Thanks for the pictures. When you find a ball of bait like that is it hard to stay on top of it? Does the ball move all over or stay in a 50 yard area or what? This is going to be a lot harder for me using a small fish finder on a kayak, but it should be possible for me to find bass off shore so I'm trying to do it.

How does one go about this? I've seen videos of guys going off shore and locating bass with down imaging and drop shotting them. Whenever I try to do this I end up on crappie and perch, not bass. The tutorials I see all say that crappie will be oriented stacked on top of each other, and bass will be down close to the bottom spread out horizontally. When I locate fish like this it still ends up being crappie most of the time. Any tips? Any pictures on sonar of verified bass? I'm wondering if the small reservoir I'm fishing just doesn't have offshore bass. Thanks.

By ‘casting’ vs vertical we are talking about bait presentation not casting vs spinning reels. For vertical presentations are you guys using down imaging to find bass and dropping down on them? All I’m finding that way are crappie. Even fish distributed horizontally tight to the bottom end up being crappie.

Why specifically do you prefer the M/L for drop shotting? Does the M/L have the backbone to set through texas rigged soft plastics?

Why do you wish all your 2500's were 2000's? Just the small weight savings? Thanks for your in depth answer.

I'm pretty close to going with the tatula 7'1" ML with a tatula reel. Would the 2000 size be best or 2500?

Ok awesome feedback guys thanks. Is the hook keeper on the fenix on the end of the handle? I think it’s there on the tatula and I’ve heard people complain about that but maybe it’s for using with a sleeve.

Both casting and vertical I guess. Haven’t had any luck with vertical yet but have gotten a few casting and dragging back somehow.

I’m looking into getting a dedicated drop shot rig for bass. I’d mainly use it in 8-20ft of water near cover but not in heavy cover and weeds. Probably mostly 1/4 oz weight. I want something light and sensitive but don’t want to spend more than $200 on the rod and $200 on the reel. Right now I’m looking at the Tatula spinning 7’1” ML (non elite) but can’t decide if I should get that or the Medium power. I was thinking of pairing it with the tatula reel probably the 2000. Does anyone have thoughts on the medium light vs medium? I heard tatulas are usually on the higher side of the power rating. Is there a different rod I should look at? Thanks.

Thanks I'll try something like this when I can. Don't expect to catch 40 bass though lol

I don’t have a way of moving a row boat around. I’m going to try a kayak now and then. I’m fishing weeds.