Felix77

I did that last year with a lot of success in one tournament. Unfortunately it got me numbers and not weight. That's part of the problem with the "panic box" lures sometimes. It's focus is generally to fill a limit and not chase the big one. In every tournament I have 2 of them rigged and I will toggle between the more aggressive presentations and these "Panic" ones.

I ended up reverting back to PowerPro 10lb the last time. I still have that rigged on my tournament stuff. I have one rod/reel for fun fishing and for experimenting with line. It takes a lot to graduate to my tournament set. LOL

Exactly! I laughed at my last pic because I am in my work clothes. Didn't think of it when I took the pic. I usually in some grungy sweatshirt and jeans. What you didn't see is the camo sneakers I switched into ...

I tried it when it first came out and did not like it. Now that they came out with the Moss green and I am a year+ more experienced with fishing I decided to give it another chance. Namely because this line did cast a mile! My primary issues before were 1 - Knot slippage. Generally used a regular Palomar. I intend to try with the double palomar and a modified improved clinch knot to see what works. 2 - Fray - Seemed to fray easily. I was not careful with cutting the line. Maybe by paying more attention I could make this line work. I will keep you posted.

Rapala Braid Scissors - $3 @ Wally World. Own several pairs.

Definitely talk to your boater to see what he plans to fish. Not lures but water depth, structure or cover. Stock your tackle primarily for that stuff. Also have in your toolbox some things for other conditions based on any research you find online or through map study. Always have one versatile go to finesse technique and power technique that you can always rely on. For me that is the spinnerbaits (1/2 oz) and the finesse worm on a shaky head. Those are tied on no matter what! Lastly I carry only 5 rods with me. 3 bait casters and 2 spinning. 2 with my go to techniques and the other 3 to cover everything else in my tackle box. Good luck.

Chatterbait or spinnerbaits with Colorado blades

Finesse worm on a drop shot

I agree 110%. I thought it was just a replica of the world record and not which they had in store. Once I saw it was about a fish they actually had in the tank I was surprised.

Mike Iaconelli has a finesse DVD which explains this. I couldn't find a clip online but something similar which explains the direction it should come off the spool. As already mentioned you should also use KVD line conditioner. I actually wet a rag with the line conditioner and while I spool up my reel I make sure to run the line through the wet rag. This gives the line an initial coat of conditioner. The last step is to make sure not to overfill. Something else already mentioned. I used to deal with the worst loops. Getting a quality line and spooling it as mentioned above you should be good to go. Good luck.

I have begun working with 1/0 and 2/0 split shot/drop shot hooks. Not only does it hold the senko better but the light wire seems to hook them with little to no effort. Even cooler is that there are ones with weed guards on them too so if you use those there is added protection when fishing in the weeds and stuff.

LOL ... I hear ya brother. We are expecting anywhere from 6-12 inches tonight/tomorrow. Ironic because a friend and I did a drive by of several lakes to begin our fishing plans as early as next week. What a bummer!

I was asked by my job to go to Texas for training. When I first heard this I was extremely excited because where I live it's 20-ish degrees and the changes of getting to fish in Texas were much, much greater than up here. So with that said I decided to fly in early to get some fishing in. In the week prior to the trip the weather turned for the worse. Weather dropped to the mid 50's (from 60's and 70's) and that was for the weekend that I planned to be there. It didn't stop me from catching fish although it wasn't the massive quantities I wanted. 3/10 - Temp mid 50's, wind 20mph, raining - Fished about 3 local ponds. In each spot I slow rolled a swimbait (Sick Fish), a small swimming super fluke jr and ultimately slowed down to a shakey head with a finesse worm. Nothing was working. I added megastrike on my last go round and got the only bite of the day. (Pic 1). It was my first fish of the season, my first spotted bass and my first using Megastrike so I was happy. 3/11 - Same as 3/10 cloudy without the rain - Fished the same local ponds but this time I focused on some other lures I wanted to try. Tried the sick fish, some soft jerkbaits a senko and finally the drop shot. I wanted to test if Megastrike is worth my long term investment I intentionally fished without it and resorted to it once I had exhausted my options without it. Well ... using the drop shot and finesse worm I got the biggest bite of my trip ... a 3+ lber. The picture was too dark so I tried lightening it up. 3/12 - Decided to explore and try other lakes. Temp was up to 60 degrees, winds were up to 25-30 mph and bluebird skies. Caught one fish. Nothing impressive and I didn't test the MegaStrike on this one. I used it but didn't do the intentional tests I did the first 2 days. Only fished a few hours and took a trip to Bass Pro instead. There I saw a fish (Ethel) I wish I would have caught. 3/13 - Early AM. Temps were still in the 50's but the wind had died down considerably. I made a move to a hotel near my conference (30 minutes north of the airport). I found a lake nearby so I fished that before my conference started in the afternoon. I only had an hour or 2 tops. I devoted it to the finesse worm and did intentionally test the Megastrike out. I took one pass around without MegaStrike and one pass around with MegaStrike and BAM. Caught the whitest bass I have ever seen. Pic 3. 3/14 - Temp jumped to the 70's. Did not fish because of my conference 3/15 - Conference ended and I had about an hour to fish at a pond walking distance from my hotel. I caught 8 fish in about 45 minutes. They were turned on. Most likely because of the 2nd day in the 70's warming the waters considerably. I didn't even bother experimenting. I went solely with the weightless finesse worm and megastrike 100% of the time. I didn't care about testing it. I just wanted to keep catching fish. Met some guys who saw me catching fish like crazy. One of them took a pic of me with one of them. Summary: It was a challenge to fish under those cold conditions early in the week. It truly tested my patience but also resulted in some positive feedback for me. I got some bites on a drop shot and shakey head and it seemed as if Megastrike helped me turn some skunked days into at least a one bite day. When the weather hit 70's and the water warmed up the fish were just "on". Hard to tell if the Mega helped on that last day but who cares. It didn't hurt. Lessons Learned: Take every opportunity to fish and learn something. Even if I didn't catch a thing during those bad weather days I learned a lot about the drop shot and shakey head. I also learned how to present things s-l-o-w-l-y. Not easy to do.

I enjoy it but enjoy the Silver Max better. If you have the extra $10 bucks go with Silver. I own 3.

Shakey Head, Spinnerbait, Drop Shot, Senko, Jerkbait

Fish Chris ... you and your friend Josh are in my thoughts and prayers.

Agree ... Glenn has an advanced drop shot video where he used heavier line, heavier sinkers and actually used it for flipping and pitching (aka Power Shotting). I like it for those presentations.

I bought one of the inferno's to keep in my car as an emergency fishing rod. Looks good but haven't had a chance to try it yet.

Not sure if this will help but it's worth sharing just in case. I took a friend out fishing with me at a local pond. I told him I catch plenty of fish here so there should be no issues for him (a novice) to catch fish. I rigged him with the exact weightless senko I was using. I caught about a 6 fish over the 2-3 hours we were hanging out after work. He caught none. In trying to help him I observed how he was fishing it. What I observed was the key to his errors. I explained how I was fishing it that day. Cast, let it sink, pop it and let it sink and pause. Repeat back to you. When I merely observed him he could not fish that slow. He always had to so something with the rod or reel and sometimes both. The worm was never coming to rest and ultimately he wasn't presenting it slowly enough for the fish to bite. I walked him through a cast or 2 and he started presenting it correctly. After I went back to fishing he reverted right back to his old habits. Morale of the story is that you may not be doing what you think you are doing. Sometimes your version of slow is not slow enough. Keep working on it. It's an amazing way to catch fish fast once you get the hang of it.

The Vengeance is $49 on Tackle Warehouse. I have one of those in 7' Medium and use it for crankbaits.

I would call that more than a start. Nice 1. :-)

What size Senkos and what kind of hook. I generally fish the 5" on a 4/0 EWG. I fish them slowly ... Cast it out, let it sink and slowly drag them back to you. An occasional twitch or pop might entice a bite too.

I had two brand new ones snap in less than 2 days. Since then I have never looked at them again. One was throwing a 3/8 spinnerbaits and the other was a t-rigged Senkos. Either I was very unlucky or these rods are poorly made. Went to Abu Garcia and never looked back.

Patience.

I am able to do pretty much everything I want to do with the size #1 spinshot hook. I go to the 2/0 EWG spinshot for larger baits. Those are the only 2 I carry with me.