hatrix

You for sure should spend more for a decent reel. Something with dual brakes would be best to learn with. Also I dont get why people say you shouldn't start with braid. Cutting it is nonsense and you should never need to. Any over run can be fixed by finding the right loop and pulling. Some times it might take a minute to figure out what you need to pull but as far as braid goes its almost indestructible IMO. You can backlash it as much as you want and still be more then fine.

I haven't had any problems with them not swimming straight yet The shad and minnow have been great to me this year. They are cheap and easy.

I'm addicted to throwing weedless hudds.

The wire breaks from catching to many fish.

Do you flip with the brakes on still? I find it way easier being completely free spool and turning them off.

They sink way slow on braid. If your trying to get down more then a few feet grab a book.

I have noticed I am not as good as i used to be when using a reel with out them. From not jig fishing all year I have become dependent on brakes doing a lot of the work.

How often do you use them? Do you try to never use them? Or do you always keep at least some of them on? Latley the longer I go between using them and not using them the worse it is when I turn them off or grab a reel without them. I am starting to think its a crutch and I am loosing my touch at fishing without them.

This might seem obvious but... Hold your line and use that to detect bites. I keep my index finger under the level wind. I am sure having a great rod helps but regardless of that for me it's pretty much what the line tells me.

I can't comment on using the 8", but 6" and under I use all the time in Ohio. I just go slow enough so it dredges the bottom and I can feel everything its swimming over. If I get stuck on something where the rod starts to load up like on a stick, rock, or piece of ground I give it a fairly quick turn or 2 so it pops up off it and that is where I get tons of strikes. I have been doing really well targeting the shore swimming it through beds or across BG spawning flats. As for the ROF I only have 5 and 12 and I dont know what it is for a grass minnow or shad but ROF 5 is a slow sinker and best in say 5' or less. It takes 10 seconds to sink 5' and with braid and if you reel to quick it might want to rise on you. Another tip that helped me atleast for weedless ones was don't be in a big hurry to set the hook. I get a thump thump and I instantly want to swing but take a little time because even though the lure smells toxic they inhale it. They hold on to it for some time so give them a second to run with it.

I think line conditioner is a must. I forgot to get some originally and any imperfection in my cast or the wind made it tuff to deal with. Once it started it was hard to clear before it hit the water. I found my self constantly swinging my arm after it landed to get those last loops out. I found some off brand stuff and wal-fart and after using it the game had changed. It stayed tight to the spool and I was whipping baits easily. I picked up 15 and 8 # and the 8 worked flawless on spinning with conditioner. I never tried spinning with out conditioner only casting. I think I am going to give 12# a try and see how that goes. It is dirt cheap and outrageously stong. I tried to break it and couldn't I ended up pulling the boat in against the wind.

I just started using Yo-Zuri and I like it. At first it wanted to jump off the spool with the slightest backlash. But after I put line conditioner on it the difference was huge. I'm spoiled from braid so some times it seems stretchy. The sensitivity seems good and I have been slamming hook sets mostly with swim baits.

I caught that good fish off a bed, i was going as slow as I could. I try to tick what ever I can on the bottom. I am a firm believer hudds catch big fish, that super subtle action works. You can buy grass minnows, and shads. They are cheap and they catch everything. Every time they completely choke it like nothing.

For sure.

Swim baits cach big fish for me as of late. All 4 bass I caught this year over 5# came on hudds. I got one today that went 6.3# on a weedless shad.

Screw locks make a world of difference.

After I pull the main line on a palomar I also bite the tag and pull that tight too. Usually you can pull a little more from the tag end. I only tie a palomar with the exception of a snell for flipping.

Unless you don't care, or are a big fan of buying more line, I would say use enough backing to split the braid in half. I am not sure you absolutely need backing either. It is more economical for me to stretch it out just in case. Unless you think you can cast 100 yards

In the dead of summer or when I'm lazy I will use a small BG with a bobber. Generally though I think artificial baits will out fish live bait almost all the time. It depends on what fish your targeting also. For example artificials won't beat shiners when you get on a school of perch.

I guess I say Erie even though I got a lot and its like 20 min away. That's just about as good as it gets on the whole planet for smallies. Fork probably wouldn't be my first choice for LMB. I would like to go to the delta or big-0 if I was limited to the U.S. I like the idea of flipping for monsters. Other then that I heard Mexico is the best for LMB. A friend of mine took a fishing trip there for like $1500 and he said he was catching monster bass all day long. To top it off they are super easy to catch. Well relative to what most people are used to.

Np RoLo Thanks for the excellent post. I still think when someone makes a very detailed post like this it should be pinned in its own section like Knowledge Database or something. It is a crime when such knowledge and hard work fades away into time!

Posts like this should be saved and put in some kind of section of there own. I have seen quite a few people make a piece like this and eventually it gets lost in time and is never seen again. Of course you could make a search for what your looking for but maybe you don't know what your looking for. I think many people would want to read such a excellent post like this even if that's not what they had on there mind. I have seen many great posts like this that people spent big chunks of time on get lost in the ages. Now those posts are 100 pages deep and for the most part will never be seen again and that's almost a crime to the community and people looking for more knowledge. If you make a great detailed post like this and everyone can agree its spot on then it should be saved for members to look back on for reference or new members trying to expand on what they do or don't already know. Really there should be a new section for posts like these where only a mod can add such a great and detailed thread to it. It is a shame that in a few weeks maybe less this will be gone and all that hard work and time will be lost to the jungle of forgotten threads. Great Job RoLo

Big Hammer

Well what I know of it and say the guy doing was... Take a solid tin can like a good soup can and poke a hole in the top and side next to each other and tie your line there. Wrap a ton of line around the can because you can cast extremely far. Hook it up like your bottom fishing. I use a good sinker to really get it out there. Swing the line around your head like a lasso and let it rip and the line will fly off the can like a spinning reel. I am no where near as good as the guy who showed me how to do it. This guy was pro to the max and would get it swinging so fast and just launch it out there like you wouldn't believe.

I have one I use some times that's even smaller then that and doesn't walk all that great but gets tons of strikes. I thought it was Koppers but I think it might be River2Sea now. It is really little but when they get it they have no problem getting it deep cause its so small.