Knightiac

Sufix Elite is what I'm always tossing whether it's 12lb on my baitcaster or 8lb on my spinning reel.

Not too long ago I realized most of my soft plastics are Berkley, mostly the Havoc line. Subwoofer, grass pig, beat shad, bottom hopper, juice worm, the jerk, chigger craws, I think that's all of them LOL.

Just about every pond down here has 5+ lbers in it. Just a matter of figuring them out... Love it.

I realized I sort of read the OP wrong. Whoever suggested wetting the knot may be on to something. The albright knot has a tendency to put a lot of friction on your line, I feel like I have to wet the line a little more when tying that one than others. It's possible you're putting pressure on the line that then gets pulled up above the knot, therefore putting a weak spot above your knot.

Caught this 7 pounder on a large berkley grass pig. I let it hit the bottom and as soon as I lifted my rod tip she was on - must have landed right in front of it. Caught the speck on a chug bug during a nice topwater bite, same day different lake.

It could be the braid if you used it successfully with superslick, but try doubling up the braid. I use 15-20 lb braid and tie 20 lb mono to it for live bait and I double up the braid before tying - wrap it eight times. When I'm using 15 lb braid for my shakeyheads with 8 lb mono I usually tie the normal way and do 12 wraps.

I hope you told them it must have been all the crack... just to see their faces for a second.

I really doubt there is much change. There's a reason each BPS and Cabela's has a different focus than the other locations under their name, there were years of studies done and they figured out what would sell best in the area. This is why certain BPS locations have more hunting gear and others more fishing gear. Changing each store to focus even more so on the other product would be incredibly expensive and unnecessary with the advent of internet sales. This will probably be nothing more than Storm, Sufix, and VMC in the end. Maybe we will even see a "by Bass Pro Shops" under the Cabela name.

Here in Orlando there is only a slowish season, no offseason. I spend my time working a shakey head or dragging jigs. I'll even toss some topwaters and lipless cranks here and there too. I'm not sure I could ever get into ice fishing, and I love drinking beer and shootin the ****.

The last year and a half have been huge for me. I'm finally starting to get into hard baits like spooks and lipless crankbaits and they produced pretty well for me. For topwater, I'm pretty much always throwing a frog or a spook, but I've got a buddy who only throws poppers. My question to yall, is when do you prefer to throw a popper and same goes for a spook? Why would you throw one over the other? I've read answers to this on many other forums and much like every fisherman's opinion, all of the answers were different. Curious what yall thought.

Spro is where it's at

Easily a texas rigged trick worm. Second, would be a craw rigged weedless on a roundball jig head.

I usually trim my skirt so it's a finger length longer than the hook, but it's not a deal breaker if I forget to. I may even push the weed guard down a little so it's closer to the hook but only if I find it awkwardly long or at a weird angle.

Feel free to move if there is a better sub forum for this, but in a world where we seem to only hear the negative I felt this story was worth sharing. I took a buddy of mine to BPS pick out his first ever bait caster. Before getting there I taught him about centrifugal breaks, magnetic, and the tension spool just so he'd have an idea and I sort of settled on showing him the Pro Qualifier and the Lew's Speed Spool just because I have experience with them and he liked the price. Long story somewhat short, he is a righty but wanted a lefty reel and they were all out of just about every left handed reel they had (I'm assuming because it was a day after Black Friday and everybody went shopping crazy). He ended up getting the display model Lew's Speed Spool spooled up and when we came back the attendant looked extremely confused. He told us that something had gone wrong and the reel had "blown up" while spooling it. Being it was the manager that was helping us, he made the quick decision to sell my buddy an Abu Garcia Revo S ($129.99) for the price of the discounted display Lew's Speed Spool ($99.99 plus 10% off). Needless to say, I was pretty happy with the end result. My buddy had yet to officially pay for the Lew's when spooling so I do believe the manager went above and beyond. Also, they apparently spool your reel for free if you let them use the BPS label XL mono. Being that it was his first baitcaster and backlashes were gonna happen, it was an awesome deal for him.

The Bass Pro Shops Pro Qualifier is THE best reel for the money come fall and spring when they hold their big sales. I believe it retails for $99.99 but drops to $69.99.

For your first setup, just go with monofilament. Berkley Trilene XL Smooth Casting is a fantastic mono and it is only $8 for a 300 yard spool. Anywhere from 8-12 is a good start, but I'd stay closer to 12 since you are new. Lighter you go, the harder it is to tie better knots and easier to snap the line - once you get more experienced you can go down in size.

I found two videos going over the texas rig for you. Ignore their comments at the beginning of when they throw it, if you're just starting out, I'm assuming you're fishing ponds. There will be fish in there, it's just a matter of getting the bait out there and figuring out how to work it. It's a simple rig but like anything else requires practice. http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-videos/texas-rig-how-tips.html Also, you NEED to learn some knots and get good at them. Google the improved clinch knot or the palomar knot. That will be a huge help. View the green horizontal bar on this website, on there it says 'fishing articles' and ' videos'. There are hundreds of pieces that can help you on this site, just research for 30 minutes, then get out and practice. You'll get the hang of it quickly.

4/0 and 3/0 are just different hook sizes. Refer to the image attached here. Hooks range from size 7 to 7/0. The single digit numbers, 7-1 are referred to as size X, such as size 7. The numbers with a / are referred to as X aught, such as 7 aught for 7/0. It can be confusing at first but stick to 3/0 and 4/0 at first and you'll quickly figure it out. The 4/0 is simply bigger than the 3/0 and better suited for the style of worm the poster linked above. You want to match hook size to bait size, so there is enough gap in the hook for the bait to slide and to be able to hook the bass. As for the weight sizes, that gets tricky too, but 1/8 oz is a very good size to start with. The purpose of the weight is to get the lure to the bottom, or wherever it is you are fishing, faster. Ideally, you want a slow fall so you go fairly light. 1/8 oz is a very good middle ground and a good place to start. As a beginner, I recommend fishing a worm WITH a weight as opposed to without a weight, it can be tricky detecting bites without a weight at first. I would google "texas rig" and learn all about it. This is the way you will fish your worm, and just about every other "soft plastic" lure you will fish with after. It's a solid technique that just about every fisherman starts with. Once you learn that, you can branch out. Find articles, videos, etc.

I'd suggest a M/F. You can cover a lot with that, grab one that has a sturdy backbone and you will be fine for setting the hooks on jigs, frogs, and all that. On moving baits where you'd want a moderate tip you can just back off of the hookset or loosen the drag a little bit. I bank fish quite a bit and got tired of having a dedicated crank rod, so ended up selling it no less than three months after buying it. I'm a big fan of the M/F St Croix Mojo Bass. It's a tad over budget but has a sturdy backbone that allows you to be versatile. If you're looking at a casting rod, it's $120. Spinning is $110. http://www.academy.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_10051_133475_-1?cm_mmc=pla-_-Fishing+Fishing+Rods+Spinning+Rods-_-Google-_-St.+Croix+Mojo+Bass+7+Freshwater+Spinning+Rod&sku=019457605&gclid=CjwKEAjw-Oy_BRDg4Iqok57a4kcSJADsuDK1dlkW5egL6OA5Qp2WhGUQJl_PeJOgMim_ceICLq6tCxoCKO_w_wcB&kwid=productads-adid^104476588398-device^c-plaid^250388802798-sku^019457605-adType^PLA

Lube is similar to freshwater, just research lubes and grease for that particular application and you're good to go. I have Penn Fierces and Penn Battles and I like the Penn lineup of lube/grease. As far as maintenance after every trip, you HAVE to do it or your gear will go south quickly, but fortunately it's very easy. I take all of my used rods, and just perch them standing up against a gutter on the side of my house. Then take a hose and hose them down from top to bottom, spray DOWN on your reels, never spray up as it could push salt further into your reels. Then I take a towel and dry off every single millimeter of my rods and reels in a wiping motion to eliminate any salt. I only open mine up to lube/grease every five or so trips if they've been used heavily.

I love mono. It's Trilene XL Florescent Blue on my spinning gear and Suffix Elite on my casting gear.

There are some very nice lakes back behind the Wateford Chase area. Some not so easy to get to but pay off.

Welcome! Make sure you don't make the mistake I did and force the baitcaster into certain techniques for you. It's important to understand why/when you should use a spinning reel or a baitcaster and what works for you.

LOL It's been in the 80's here the last month or so.

What type of line / rod setups do you guys use for cranking? I used to have a MM cranking setup but being a bank fisherman I didn't like having too many rods and sold it. I now currently use a MF St Croix with mono, and just slightly back the drag off a little more than normal when I use it for crankbaits. I sort of want to switch up that rod to flouro but I'm not sure how it would affect my cranking with this particular rod? Basically, I'd like to be able to use this rod a little more for bottom contact fishing (which is when I love flouro), instead of always carrying my jig rod around with me as well.