stkbassn

Amen brother !

Probably a lot less hype with micro guides than having a $500 dollar Loomis and saying you can tell the difference between a green leaf and a brown leaf on the bottom at 40 feet....LOL ...I like Loomis rods by the way so let's not get defensive....I have micro guide rods and like them but not sure how much they're helping me, I still got skunked the other night and could've used any rod to feel absolutely nothing on the end of the line

A very talented bass fisherman who is a local told me that if you don't know the lake well or if you want to increase your chances of catching fish, you should hit every dock that you can. He said he won a bunch of tournaments doing this, fishing a t-rigged worm and a jig and pig...Not trying to hi-jack the post but seeing if this is an opinion shared by many....I know the guy that told me this is for real. He used to take with him during practice for club tournaments...and he did catch them on docks....This was a night fishing deal by the way but he also did this during the day..summer time.... Thoughts?

X2..this has just become my swimbait reel.....AWESOME!!!!

Hey, I'll admit I'd like to have more and better equipment and though sometimes I get that nagging envious feeling ...I have to take my hat off to the guys who make it happen for themselves. I definitely need more discipline! I've had two bass boats, one was a used Champion(paid for) that I wish I still had...and one was a new Triton that I should have never bought (financially....nothing wrong with the boat...I loved the boat) I've made some stupid decisions and have to live with it! That being said, I still get to fish with nice stuff though not as often as I'd like. I hope to get another boat someday soon....we shall see! On the other side of the coin, I don't need a $500 Loomis that lets me know when one of the claws is crooked on my rage craw at 30 feet.....overkill for me...but if you got the bank, go to town! Nothing wrong with that at all!

I have to admit, this hasn't yet made my list of things I've wondered about bass pros lol!

If you want a nice bait that doesn't cost a fortune I'd recommend the Mattlures Baby Bass series. He has 4 different patterns that will work well for you..I have the smallmouth, striper, and largemouth patterns. These baits are roughly 4-5 inch baits, cast a mile and the tail kicks like crazy. A straight retrieve will get the job done but you can jig it as well. You can also burn it pretty good without it turning on it's side. They are easily thrown on a MH bass rod, no need for special equipment. I'm even throwing 6" Hudds and Ospreys on a 7'2 MH rod and they don't strain the rod at all. Look at those baby bass, very nice little baits. Matt is a great guy as well.

Awesome! Now that's a lot of bass right there!! Nice work.

That's a toad! Nice fish man!

Nice fish! I always let my partner bring his scale...I'm afraid to buy one because as I soon as I do I know I won't catch anything worth weighing.... LOL Keep the pics coming!

Thanks for all of the kind words guys! Yeah, it's always fun to stick largemouth like this and especially when they blow up on a big wakebait...both of these fish absolutely smoked our baits....good times indeed! We had a good trip yesterday catching some smallmouth in a very special lake in southwest va.....We caught 18 and though none were huge, we had 5 over 3 pounds...the biggest right at 4 and 20 inches...the rest were 15-19 inches....all on 6 to 7" swimbaits....always a blast. Not sure if the big females are getting ready to spawn or where they were yesterday...fun either way! A few pics from yesterday added...the rest were fairly average and smaller than what we're used to at this lake but we had fun...

We had a slow night last night but it was worth it. We decided to go big or go home and threw some big baits on our home lake here VA....I attached the two pics of the pigs we caught...If only the shad had actually been up last night we might have had a truly amazing night but this was pretty great. Both fish caught on 9" baits.....just another nod to big bait theory I guess. It ain't always about the finesse! Mine was 6.15 and 21 inches, the fish on the golden rule. Jeffs was 6.12, and nearly 24 inches, the one he's holding up in the pic...

Yep, Quantum will take care of you. I've dealt with their customer service department before and they've been great. No worries with them.

Thanks for the replies. I have been impressed with Suffix for sure. Casts great! I'm going to keep the 14# mono for my Friday trip and see how it goes this time. If my results are the same as far as boating/losing fish I may go back to CXX and see if that's where the problem is and if not I guess I'll know I just need to pull my head of out my a$$~ Thanks guys!

Well thanks anyway...I thought I'd go ahead and call myself out indirectly so I wouldn't have to listen to the peanut gallery Just hoping to get some opinions on the line itself

I've started fishing with Suffix Elite and Siege this year and so far it casts and handles great. I was using 15# PLine CXX for my Huddleston 6" trout but now I'm trying the Siege 14# ...It's open water swimbaiting for smallies in a particular lake that we fish so no need for super heavy line. My question is , does Suffix Siege seem to have more stretch? I feel like I lost a couple last time for no other reason I can explain.It is possible that all of the jumps the fish made caused it to come loose but I also lost one on an Osprey line thru bait with a treble hook... Of course there is always operator error but lets pretend my skills aren't in question for once.... Thanks for your input in advance....

Curado 200E5, awesome cranking reel. Casts a mile!!! So far the best I've used. I'm sure the Chronarch 200E5 would be just as fantastic...also that Lews BB1 looks like a winner. I might buy a BB1 for cranking this year ..still procrastinating...

Frog Toggs Toadskinz....pretty sweet. Bibs 59, jacket 69.... pants 49.-59.... Very nice for the price!

I'd say any reel over $200. Even if I could pay more I wouldn't see the reason based on the obvious quality and performance of the Citica E and the Curado E....Certianly paying retail is out of the question these days when you don't have to the vast majority of the time. I got great deals on all of my Shimanos and Abu's so I'm thankful to have such quality equipment in my hands. IMHO, and maybe because I'm just an average Joe making a below average salary, I think all decent equipment all the way up to the top of the food chain has gotten pretty absurd with their pricing. All that said, I'm addicted. The bait monkey is very powerful indeed!

I owned a Revo S , the silver one, the one before this new generation and I loved it. I've read some mixed reviews about the new ones but most are good. I only Citica E's and I can't say enough wonderful things about that reel. Tackletour also loved it by the way. I doubt the G is a bad reel at all. I haven't owned any duds from Shimano. I'm always super impressed with my Citicas on every trip, just a joy to fish with really. Try to find an E model if you can. You won't be sorry!

E's all the way.

Thanks for the info. I'll check it out for sure. I agree completely about the lure size and have no doubts....we use 6-8 inch Hudds to catch smallies and some have been around the 2 pound or less mark....they choke em' good.! I love big bait fishing. It's definitely a selective method.

Had a good shopping trip, bought a Falcon Bucoo 7MH casting rod (30% the sale price...just under $80..no brainer) , another Citica 200E (too high in price but whatever), a 7'3 Wild Black Carrot Stix..(no whammy, no whammy...) and another Rago Velvick 5.5 Mini - line thru swimbait.... I want more... HA! Lew's BB1 and Qunatum Smoke rod coming soon I hope...

I saw something about that bait, does TW have them now? Bigger than the XD? That's bold. These two crankbaits are the biggest that have ever been made that I know of. Why did they see the need to create such a monster crankbait? Is this to select for larger fish only I suppose? What rod would be good for these? I was thinking maybe a MH Moderate, 7'6 to 7'11?

I was at Dicks today and came across the new Strike King 10XD crankbait and I was floored at the beastly size of this thing. Has anyone else here seen this bait? Better yet, has anyone thrown it or know how it feels? I know it's not really deep cranking season really.. I'm not even sure what rod to throw it with to be honest. The bait is a monster...... My thinking is it could be a great night time crankbait simply because of the havoc it would create with it's size...might get some monster reaction bites.... $12.99 isn't bad but have a plug knocker I'd say....I hang up enough 6XD's and DD22's