Raul

I don 't get it. Don 't get it why you being up north immediately eliminate from you bait list those big 8" swimbaits from your arsenal. Yup, I do live in Mexico, but you guys must think that in Mexico all bass are Florida strain and all grow to behemoth size and that ain 't the truth, we do have northern strain cuz it 's a native, not everywhere there 's Florida strain bass. There 's a pay to fish lake I used to go up in the sierra, there were bass, bluegills and trout, do I need to tell you how many times I caught 3-4 pound bass with a 10 inch trout stuck in their mouth ?

The faster the better for presentations where: 1.- reeling in the slack line is important ( like worming, jigging, topwater ) 2.- you want your bait asap to make another cast to the same or another spot close by. 3.- to maintain a bait on the surface without having to reel in like mad ( like buzzbaiting ) Slower is better for: 1.- reeling in baits with water resistance ( like deep diving crankbaits ) 2.- steadily and slowly reel in certain baits in certain fishing techniques ( like slow rolling spinnerbaits or for swimbaiting sinking baits ) Reel speed is a tool, use the right tool for the right application.

Watch out ..... there 's a huge pile of BS right there, don 't step on it !

One good bearing placed in the right place is better than a gazillion bearings all over the reel.

You carry a ton of jigs, you pick one, make a beutiful cast, the moment the bait touches the bottom a behemoth big momma grabs it, you "set" the hook the fish jumps and spits the jig right on your face, there you are with the I don't understand face wonderin ' what went wrong ( heck you 've done it before so many times and came out triumphant ), inspecting the bait you realize that out of a ton of jigs with razor sharp hooks you picked the only one with a dull hook. :

Fancy in looks ? probably, Fancy in price ? hardly, you can 't call a 155 dollars rod "fancy" I 'm a southern farm boy and 'round my neck of the woods we also got cows, donkeys, sheep n 'goats, we also drive on dirt roads to get to the ponds so there ain 't much difference between a US midwestern farm boyz n 'southern farm boyz 'xcept that we ken feesh year round and that we like pork rinds with spicy sauce for shore lunch. Besides cows don 't reed too good anyhow, they don 't know if u carry a Jap rod or a local one.

Nope, you didn 't see them in T-rigs posts, you saw them in mine. 12,600 yens = 115 dollars.

I like baits with lots of large metal flake, color is less important than flash and vibration so worms with C tails or creatures with appendages like tails or flaps would be my first choices.

Don 't you guys ever shop around ? :-? Compres at TW Compres at BPS I would personally choose TW and save me the shipping.

He ain 't kidding !

I still fish with the famous 7.5 inch Culprit ribbon tail worm, still got about 20 packs of those in stock plus the ones I carry in my tackle bag, not only they are "old" style but old in age, purchased them in 1989. I rediscovered last month several packs of Mann 's Augertail and Mannipulator worms in a box, they 've been forgotten for about 5 years, yup they are also old, purchased the Augertails around 1985, the Mannipulators around 1989-1990. Also fished with Jelly Worms until a couple of years ago when I ran out of them, so that would make about 25 years of fishing with them. And guess what ? they still catch fish. There you go, me fising with a Culprit ribbontail worm:

Hey Muddy, don 't know where you are buying rods, Compres rarely cost over $99; $85-$90 is the regular price of a Compre.

Yup Nope. Be bewy afraid.

Oh well, another BM attack. Death, taxes and The BaitMonkey, the only 3 shure things you have in life.

Shimano Compre rods. Shimano Sahara, Solstace and Sedona Daiwa Exceler, Theory. :

I would recommend this one: I have a spinning version of that one and it 's one heck of a rod for the money ( 12,600 yen ). It comes with a rod cover from the factory. To protect it even more you can purchase one of these, great tube for 20 bucks:

Nah, not beeg 'nuff.......And there I am ready to store what I used after a day, a couple of hooks, 2 maybe 3 sinkers and a couple of jigheads, I ask myself: do I really need to carry all that terminal tackle ? ...... then The BaitMonkey replies ----> " Better having and not needing than needing and not having", I pack my bags and go home feeling relief, The BM has spoken the last words.

Man you 've got some powers of observation.

Pure unadulterated MOONshine.

Can you control the weather ? Can you control the wind direction ? Can you control the water temperature ? Can you control the moon phase ? In other words, you can 't control the variables of nature, the only things you can control are the bait selection, location and presentation, depending upon how good you are adapting those to fish the current conditions you will catch fish or not. Here 's something a guy I know wrote in another forum: moon phases, barometric pressure, etc etc are excuses as to why a person isn't catching fish ... these things have absolutely nothing to do with catching fish in my oppinion. if they did I'd go broke offering a 50 lb guarantee ... that's 50 lb guarantee every time I go out ... I go out a lot too ... I'm booked up about 3 or more months in advance 4 days per week and if I were to miss this 50 lb minimum more than 3 or so times in a row my finances would start getting a big strain on them as it costs about $80 to $100 in expenses every time I go fishing. The things that cause fish to move to different locations are some of those things people look to for excuses or wondering why they're not catching anything but if you know how the fish react to these things then there's no problem catching fish ... moon phases have the least to do with fishing of all of them I think as I see no difference in bass fishing or cat fishing in conjunction with moon phases. the moon has been circling the earth for thousands of years and the fish are used to it by now. the only thing that causes the moon to change is it's relationship with the earth and sun and position it's in in it's rotation ... that's all it effects is how much light you have to see by at night ... if the sun is shining on the moon when it's overhead at night then you got you a light source ... that's all. the fish will be in a little bit of a daytime mode of the moon is bright so they may be holding tight to cover in clear waters but that's about all you're going to see that's different from a dark night to a bright night ... moon is out during the day half the time and no one pays any attention to it and it's been doin that for thousands of years also. the only way moon phases will help ya or hurt ya is if you pay attention to it and it keeps ya from goin fishin and finding out where the fish are holding ... that's the one thing that people need to do when they're fishing is find where they're holding ... everything else is of no concern initially. some people think that fish are located anywhere it's wet and that's just not the case very often ... they're going to be where there's good structure/food/ etc etc ... wind direction has a big effect on bluecat but not so much on lmb's in a pond ... clear sunny days in clear water you'll find bass holding in moss, lilypads, under the lumber. not so clear days in murky water they may be out on the prowl. there is another thing that moon phases are really good at .... selling calendars.

Here 's the deal, not all baitcasters cast well ( easiness and distance ) lighter baits, there are some that can do it ( like the Sol or the Chronarch Mg or the king: Pixy ) others can 't, spinning reels can cast practically any weight because there are no moving parts involved when releasing the line. If you don 't have a good light lure bc reel better go with spinning reels.

Here 's the way I look at swimbaits here in Mexico. You don 't need to match the profile and the action of the bait as close as possible color you can choose whatever color you like, as long as the bait moves and acts like if was alive and an easy prey the fish will strike it.

Better break them in early.

Dude, glue the dividers.

You can start HERE