Crabcakes

The heaviness of the gear is more about the conditions you are fishing (cover, current etc) and size of lure than the size of fish. That is why bass fishing gear is heavy. Also as others have said they don't fight particularly well anyway and the challenge is much more about enticing them to bite. That being said I have fished for a very very wide variety of species in many conditions and in a lot of cases bass gear is still probably heavier than needed even given the above statements. It is not that important though, as again that is not really the point.

Nic Channel cat. I don't think I have gone over 6lbs on a channel.

Haha, certainly ain't a pretty one. I know you're just joking but FYI I think that's what they call a mirror carp. Those often come with minimal scales.

Lots of the euro carp fishing is done on managed lakes with feeders, water quality control etc. Still a pretty small lake but it makes a huge difference of course.

In regards to the temperature adaptability the one in my profile pic was caught the day after Christmas in about 37 degree water. Still hit very hard.

All information on the blue cats is correct. The more immediate concern than crabs is shad and river herring populations. The Potomac and James River blue cat fisheries are both excellent. So good that it is ecologically worrying. The sheer mass of catfish that wasn't there 20 years ago is amazing. I've done about 400lbs in the boat during a 5-6 hour outing on our best day. Profile pic is of 58 of those lbs.

In addition to what others have said there are two major concerns, the first is venom, which in catfish is made up of a few amino acids and can kill tissue, blood cells, cause swelling and lead to nausea/sickness. For most freshwater catfish in North America it is pretty mild. Some catfish can kill you. The other issue is secondary bacterial infection. Catfish and the water they come from is often full of microbes and the punctures are often nut clean cuts. Make sure you disinfect the wound thoroughly once you get home, no matter what you do to treat in the meantime. I have seen some hands blown up like balloons.

I guess I do things a little differently. I fish for all kinds of species and only have one dedicated "bass" combo. It's a 7' MH shimano crucial with the full cork grips/citica 100d/ 20lb powerpro. I only make dedicated bass trips 5-6 times a year. Too many other things to fish for. I fill in other needs for bass fishing with the rest of my multipurpose gear.

Fishing with deadbait on the bottom is a very productive pike technique in cold water. I would expect you to catch pike that way. I would get the bets of both worlds and use a leader of heavier mono. This should prevent most bite offs and probably get you a few more bites. If fishing for channels the advice on chicken livers is good and will keep away the pike if you so desire.

Not trying to be a wise guy or anything but you can also just wet your hand and grab it instead of spending money. It's not some kind of poisonous monster fish. Thousands of angler grab em behind the head and throw em back every weekend. If you're set on it the fish grips are a good product. I use them a lot in saltwater. A rubberized net is a must have from the boat but if you're bank fishing that's a pain.

Ah this does make sense. A good rule.

For bass fishing the 20-30% measurements don't really make sense since the introduction of braided line. Many guys fish with both 8 lb mono and braid up to 50 or 65 lbs. You'd never fish 20-30% of breaking strength with that heavy of line on bass gear. Not only can bass reels not put out enough drag drag for that, a bass can't put that kind of pressure. Twenty lbs of drag is a lot, like tuna fishing a lot. It's actually quite tiring and much beyond that people use fighting belts. RW is right in that less than 5 lbs is your range. When using braid remember that it might seem hard to pull off the reel when set properly at 3-5 lbs because the line itself is hard to grab. It's useful to use a scale or wrap the line around a dowel to get a good feel for what it feels like to pull on braided line with the drag set correctly.

You'll probably be fine with any of those choices but without knowing your location and style of fishing it's difficult to give good advice. Is this surf or boat? Ocean front or backbay? Fireline tests particularly high above it's stated strength. I think 14lb fireline tests out around 30 if I remember right. On that reel 14lb fireline is your best bet if you want a fused line, and it looks like that's what you chose. Don't worry if it gets a little fuzzy, that's not a problem.

Are the Mojos and Premiers actually the same blank? I certainly didn't think this was the case. I know they use the same ScII graphite but the blanks didn't feel the same to me. Could be the guide layout I suppose.

Did you actually catch that up at Chesterwood by Baltimore? That is by far the furthest I have ever heard of reds going up the Chesapeake. There were many more small drum in the bay this year than usual. Lots around that size. I heard of most of them being caught from the Patuxent south. Generally every year in MD the southern bay gets a very small run of large red drum that can push 50lbs. They push up the bay as the salinity increases and are usually found down in Tangier Sound and Pt. Lookout. The world record drum is around 92 I believe but a regular big "bull red" or "old drum" is 25-50lbs with most red drum being much smaller like Sirsnook said. In the Chesapeake you won't be doing any sight casting, fishing with cut peeler crab or shrimp on the bottom is your best bet. They occasionally hook one trout fishing with lures in Tangier Sound but that is quite a ways from where you are and the trout are pretty inconsistent there with the reds being even harder to find.