Master Bait'r

This is a pretty good one from a MA pond near my house. No idea the weight.

Me too. I am DYING to know when he shaved last and what he was listening to on the radio while he caught it haha

For me it's more about the transition points between weed species than just any one type of weeds. If it's all uniform, that doesn't give the fish much to key on and "own". As soon as you throw in another species of weeds though, it will create natural spaces, narrow pathways to travel in, differentiation, cover and ambush points. All huge for bass. These points are the money zone for me, not so much any one kind of weed, regardless of what substrate lies below it although certain types of weeds are far more conducive to holding large predators than others of course. Just my own fallible observations though, others may have experienced different results.

Try heating up a coat hanger or other wire that has the desired diameter of your hole and melting it out to the proper size. Cutting , snipping or drilling always seems to tear the plastic which leads of course to premature total annihilation.

Very important! Sativa only for fishing, otherwise you'll just be staring at your soft plastics wondering how they get the sparkles so... Spaaaarkly, maaaaaaaaan.

Way to go OP! Been teaching the gf a few things lately as well, she is a total beginner but learning fast. This is a shot of her PB last summer.

Blood and a little bacon grease will work great, and also makes a fantastic war paint to psych out your competitors.

My gf did that while peeing once. Looked down whilst squatting and there was literally a cloud of them swarming over her legs. After she re-entered the earth's atmosphere I am told there was quite the panicked search and destroy mission.

STICKY LINT ROLLERS. You know, the kind that are cylindrical stickers? Use them all over yourself when you get back from a hairy traipse. You'd be amazed at how many critters are tagging along and ticks are no exception. They stick to the roller really well, but it isn't a substitute for a really thorough check... Which I'm amazed you haven't been utilizing all along! Who doesn't want to get "checked for ticks all over" by the little lady? I mean it's for safety and everything!! So yeah. Lint roll yourself when you get home, and have your girl double check the stuff you can't see- especially your hair and stuff. Nobody wants to be a parasite host.

This year it's been mostly thus: T-rigged plastics (Roboworms, Slug-Go SS, Flash J's, etc) Frogs (Lunk3rhunt, KLT, Spro, etc) Snagless Sally (in a few different colors, mostly 1/2oz.) Been killing it too. I use other stuff fairly often but these have been producing almost effortlessly so far and so I have been using them a lot. I fish a lot of heavily weeded areas so weedlessness is pretty important to me.

As long as that spinning reel has a massive drag it should be fine. You really just want to be able to set that big double frog hook and the drags/retrieve speeds on BC reels are better suited to that for the most part. That doesn't mean you can't do it though, so just find one that has a big stinky drag and roll with it on a MH rod with some backbone and 30lb SX1. You'll be fine.

I am convinced that if it's a hollow body of the correct profile and thrown in the right spot it doesn't matter what it looks like, it will get slammed. So yes. Have fun, dress your frogs up and take them out to dinner if it suits your fancy. Whatever gets you feelin' the lure and working it with confidence.

Of course it is! You still won't catch me with any less than two though unless I'm walking a river bank though. I like having AT LEAST one sensitive finesse and one heavier cover setup.

Honestly, what good does a fisherman do outside of controlling stocked ponds or catching invasive species (which are both man's fault anyways)? I don't get this attitude that fishing does nature a favor, it is very much the opposite. Fishing is a selfish activity much like hunting (not that I have a problem with either, mind you) and yes, it damages fish and a lot of other things. I personally know of one local GBHeron nest that was abandoned because of increased presence of fishermen so it's not just fish either. The only time fishermen perform a necessary service is when we ourselves have screwed up the natural balance in the first place, so is of limited relevance in terms of "big picture good". I'm also a very big skier and the same mentality applies to many skiers that think they're environmentalists because they love being outside and skiing- until I have to point out that they drove their battery-laden SUV hundreds of miles to visit a place that cut down the trees on 3/4 of a perfectly good mountain, built steel structures all over it and maintain it with a fleet of diesel burning cats and lifts. Now I don't have a problem with any of that but don't pretend to be something we aren't. It's just disingenuous. You can love nature and love fishing but don't let your love blind you to the negative things that fishing inherently causes. It takes a diligent fisherman to minimize the impact he has on his surroundings, and that applies to many things- but even in our most careful implementation we are still damaging things even when we do it right. We're putting hooks through fish and filling their bellies with plastic. Lead weights, line sections floating around or in trees, gas and oil from boats in lakes... I could go on and on but you get the point and I'm sounding like a lilly-liver'd liberal right now. So to answer your question, yes. We're doing much more harm than good save for manmade situations but the modern fisherman is a responsible and well informed sportsman in general and I have high hopes that we will be a bigger part of preserving what we love than destroying it.

I tried SX1 and it took over. Love the stuff. Casting has never been better and it is very strong at a silly small diameter. Even down to 10lb it kills it in my Curado 51E and doesn't have a coating to wear off.

Try the jamaicans downtown. It won't be good but it *might* get you where you're trying to be.

I don't know about you but I think getting college credit for fishing is just about the smartest thing I've ever heard haha

This is actually not true. Plastics can block the fish's digestive system and kill it very easily.

I'd probably go with the 6'10" or 7'1" M or MH *** Black casting rod. The LTBs are very nice rods but I really love the *** series.

I think the LTB would be a fantastic pairing and the 13 *** series would be a better comparison than the *** imo, but what are you trying to do with the rod? What bait presentations do you want to use it for? That'll be the deciding factor of which . Your mojo (assuming this is a high 6's M?) is already a bit more moderate and would be a good cranking rod so if it was me, I'd probably pick up the fastest taper I could find for my next one- either a very fast, light and sensitive rod to cover the finesse end of things OR a heavier set for frogs, and jigs- depending on what matches your ambitions and your locale conditions. So what are you trying to do?

Nah, I go by whichever rhymes the best, also whatever action and blank color my astrologer thinks will align my fishing chi with the third moon of Orion best. Seriously though, just figure out what parts will work best and use them. Who cares what words or pictures are on the side of the thing??

The only time you'd see me with a locked drag is froggin' but only because you need every last ounce of power to set both frog hooks into a big bony lip 40+yds away and through pads, not so much for getting them into the boat afterwards. Besides, "big braid" is no bigger than mono. In most cases, 50lb braid is the same diameter as ~12-15lb mono. I'd ask the question why mono is so big, not the other way around. After you make a cast with something like 10lb SX1... Let's just say going back to 10lb mono would feel akin to going back to horse drawn carriage. There really is no reason aside from personal preference towards mono for whatever reason to not be using braid imo.

/thread

Just read the model number.

Frogs and finesse all the way. If you see me throwing cranks it's not been a good day.