Preytorien

Seems to never fail, I get to a nice spot and either someone has recently sprayed, or soon comes along spraying for overgrown water vegetation. I’m not sure of the ingredients, but it leaves a filmy blue residue for a while and you can definitely smell it. Will the chemicals damage my line, rod, or reel?

If you rig them wacky and you're getting that many middle-body rips do like I did and buy Savage Gear Armor Tube worms. They have a mesh in the middle infused in the bait. Makes both tearing them in half and also the fight ripping them off the line almost completely non-existent. I've gotten 15-20 out of one senko with them

Great video - fun to just watch folks having fun fishing (and catching)!

Just last night - had a hold of one that felt like other 5-lbers I've had on before. Swam to the surface, jumped, and gave a mighty shake. It broke my line at the knot (10lb braid on a spinning reel), like it was nothing and left with my Iovino popper and a great story with it. I was sick.

I got so tired of second guessing myself on the way home based on prior assumptions that I just started viewing every single outing as a fresh take on things. Most of the time if I get to the water, take a mental step back, and reassess my lure, color, depth, etc from the start like I've never fished it before, I find myself pulling out something I would've never expected. Sometimes it's successful, but more often than not the fish get the better of me.

Shimano Zodias - Medium Heavy or Heavy - 6'10"

Exactly Tom, the great thing about them is even if you're having a tough time with the bass, most other species will hit it too, so rarely do you ever have a totally skunked day (as I knock on wood).

I may have to give a try to the ones with minnow bodies. I do a LOT of shallow river smallmouth fishing, those look like they'd do very well

Back when I first got into fishing as a carefree 8-year old, my grandfather would often tie me on an in-line spinner. He said it was due in part to the fact that a spinner is a good lure for a kid with a not-so-tuned level of attention, and provided an easy way to catch fish. It was a lure that had been around for many many years and had a proven track record. Now my boxes are full of the latest offerings from various manufacturers. The tackle industry has exploded in the decades that have passed since I first went fishing with papaw, and the baitmonkey has bitten me more than I care to share. Fast forward to this past year and beginning this spring I started to see a trend where many of my normal lures just weren't having the same effect as usual. I was catching fish, just not nearly in the quantities I had caught in years before. I'm not sure if they were getting acclimated to my normal row of suspects or just wanting something different, but I had come up against a wall and couldn't get past it. Then, one outing, while rummaging through my tackle boxes, I thought I'd give a spinner a shot, I mean, what could it hurt? I tied on a #3 Mepps gold bladed undressed spinner....and had one of the best outings I've had in years.....using what was very likely the oldest lure in my arsenal. The Mepps was (and still is, I kept it for sentimental reasons) pretty worn out. For quite a while it was my main go-to lure, so it had some corrosion on it. The hooks were originally dressed but lost the dressing, and the hooks themselves were pretty worn and dulled. I didn't want to chance hooking a good sized fish and losing it and my old friend due to worn components. I took a look at some others at Cabela's and ended up with 2 Blue Fox Super Vibrax #2 both dressed and undressed. The concept of the free spinning shaft appealed to me since I had frequently had line twist issues. I have to say, although my old friend was a Mepps, this Blue Fox has absolutely WHACKED them for me this year. Even on big lakes with big fish, it doesn't seem to matter, it's just outperformed everything else I threw. Sure it catches all the little guys, but who's going to complain about catching TOO MANY fish? Just a quick fun story about re-connection with an old friend of mine.....you might give it a try too!

I can say after doing this exact thing, my hookup ratio with flukes and Rage Bugs has dramatically increased

I had a similar problem encountered in one of the places I fish, except is was about 10 acres. The bass used to be great, then it seemed the bluegill population exploded. Now the bass rarely beat 12in and the bluegill are huge. It's not my lake, so I can "manage" it by keeping fish out of it in the quantities it would take, so now it's just my all time favorite bluegill pond. Catching them is a breeze. It's a great place to take my 4yr old daughter to pretty much guaranteed catching a fish on her new little rod and reel.

Yea, that'd be a tough call. A Loomis of that caliber is a good rod for sure. Sounds to me like you have an enviable decision to make. The Zodias just simply felt the best of the rods I'd handled in that price range, but if you can swing that level of a Loomis for the same price range, it's going to be hard to beat. The only Loomis I've used lately that I didn't care for was when I gave my buddy's E6X a try, it just felt dead in my hands compared to my normal Zodias lineup. But the IMX TWFR is a different beast altogether than the E6X, and is going to be an absolute stunner. Take your pick, my guess is you'll be satisfied with either choice!

You won't be disappointed by picking a Zodias. I bought one after a different casting rod I had was broken, and never looked back. I just finished replacing my go-to spinning rigs with Zodias rods, they're that good.

My wife wondered why they had to spell it that way, I told her it was just a fancy play on phonetics. That said she likes their boxer-briefs they sell at Cabelas. I just can't bring myself to pay 20-something bucks for a single pair of underwear......that is until she tells me she thinks they're sexy.

I'm using it on a 6'10" Shimano Zodias MedHvy/Fast rod with 40lb Gliss line. I've never had issues throwing it either, seems to cast fine. Sure it's not going to zing as far as a Whopper Plopper or Spinbait 90 G-Fix....but most of my frogging is relatively short, but accurate casts anyways.

The Chronarch MGL does have brass gears, the Micro gearing kind. Very smooth. I use it for frogging all the time. Nice thing is that since it's the MGL spool you can get away with throwing a smaller frog for those times that call for it. I rarely throw anything bigger now than the Spro Bronzeye Pop 50. I love that thing.

I have the Chronarch MGL and it’s simply the best casting reel I’ve ever used. It’s smooth, solid, lightweight, and seems incredibly refined. I would suggest it to anyone looking in its direction

John's right. Take a look at your price, evaluate if it's competitive, that's usually the holdup. Then again, sometimes there's just not a market for it. Sometimes it's like that. Try eBay, Craigslist, or something else. Then try reposting at a lower price later if you're not getting any interest. Sometimes trades work, I know personally I don't always have the free cash, but I have plenty of items I rarely use that someone else might be looking for. There's a few ways to go about it.....just give it some time.

I'll be in tomorrow morning. Took the day off for a nice 4-day weekend. Waders are out, checked and ready, tackle's sorted and ready to work. I'll let you know how it goes.

I'm seeing mostly post-spawn and not many taking anything I throw - save for a few on a good ole' Mepps #3 That summer slowdown is starting.

True that. I have Gliss on one of my spinning rods, a medium Exage with a Sustain reel. When I put on a Spinbait or anything with a thin profile, I can sling that thing further than anything I can do with a casting reel.

Pinned on the main Rod/Reel page.....a wealth of info for those who seek it out. You'll get 40 replies here with 40 different answers.

Jerkbaits and Jigs I sure give them a try. Mike's jigs are gorgeous, and I have a couple beautiful Duo and Megabass jerkbaits, but I can't catch anything on any of them.

In my observations spawning bass are so difficult to catch that it's almost not worth it unless you see your PB or another kind of record down there. I don't even cast to them. In almost every case there's a bass a few feet further offshore that's more than willing to chase down a bait. I only have so much time to fish in a day, I don't typically consider it a good use of that time to just bang a fish on the end of his nose to tempt him to bite.

I think you could, I just don’t know how it would affect the hookup rate. Additionally I’ve found if something I’m pulling through, like weeds, is fouling my hooks, it’s probably fouling the blade too. I’m not sure what I’d do about that ?