Jaderose

You can do everything right and it's still a 50/50 proposition. You either will or won't lose that bass. Like every other fisherman, I have my "Personal Best (actual)" and "Personal Best (but lost to a jump)". My PB(A) is 9.3lbs. My PB(BLTAJ) is 47lbs.

I like the BPS Stik-O's as much as the Senko's. Pretty much the only thing I get at Bass Pro anymore but they work and I don't see much difference in the action

" I would not be nearly so worried if it were just me out there but when I have my wife & son with me, my protective instincts just go into overdrive and I become hyper cautious." and this is my point in my earlier posts. Ditch the wife and kids for a while. Not because you don't want to spend time with them, but because you DO. I bet if you asked THEM how they feel out there on the water, I bet you would find they hate it even more than you right now. They can feel your anxiety, too. As far as fishing with a kid, I discovered years ago that taking a kid fishing meant I would be doing NO fishing as they take up all your time. And that's ok as they usually only wanna fish for an hour or so before they get bored and are done with it

You're not going to get stuck. You WILL get out of any weedbed. I managed to get myself caught up in ridiculous hydrilla just today in a bass raider with 30 lb TM and I managed. You WILL be fine

First thing you do? Relax. It's gonna get dinged and scratched and beat up. It's called using it! Others mentioned an anchor. Use one. You'll get the hang of it and look back at this and laugh. and btw...no one is laughing at you. We've all been there. We've all forgotten plugs or didn't charge batteries or gotten good and hung up on a stump. Life happens. You learn from it and move on Ok...I've been thinking about this......Couple of things to try. 1.) Ditch the wife and kids..lol. I don't mean literally, of course, but instead of the fam take out a buddy that is proficient with a boat. Go out with the idea of working the boat. 2.) Go out and work the boat. Plan a day with NO fishing. Just boat handling. Again, without the wife and kids.

"I can’t fish till 3" There's your answer

Someone above mentioned a piece of dowel rod. That is the correct answer. You WILL eventually destroy your reel or break a rod if you use it to break off or leverage off a snag. You could get a plug knocker to undo the snag, as well

I'm living it right now. Weather in NOWEMO will just NOT cooperate

Depends on conditions but to most I suppose I would be agonizingly slow

NetBait BK Tube in "Lou's Special". I'm not that big of a "specific color" kind of guy but man did that tube catch fish

Well.....unfortunately the day I saw the topless woman ended with me in the ER having a treble hook cut out of my left thumb that was buried straight in past the bend after a little bass shivered while unhooking him from a Rat-L-Trap.

I've posted this before but I was sitting in a small cove at our local reservoir one day when a VERY attractive woman paddles by on a stand up paddle board. Topless. She saw me and flashed a big smile and said..."Beautiful day, isn't it?" Uh,....yes. Yes it was.

The list of where I wouldn't throw it is waaaay shorter than where I would.

These are beautiful and if I had the money I might indulge in one of them. That thing that in the topic? Silliness.

I bet it doesn't come with hooks. I could be wrong but I'm not kidding. Ok...I actually looked it up and I AM wrong...."Packaged with four premium Japanese Ryugi treble hooks that provide lightning fast hook sets and the power needed to land trophy-caliber bass". Of course TW does offer the opportunity to "Upgrade your hooks" lol

A-Rigs. Never owned one. Couldn't care any less. C-Rig. No reason, just never rigged one up. Drop Shot. BORING! Wacky Rig. Have all the stuff for it, of course, but always found it TOO easy and just wasteful of stick worms. Meh. Ned. Got the gear just never seen any reason to dedicate a rod to it or tie one on during the course of a day.

We've all drooled over a piece of gear that a buddy owns or we've seen on posts like the "Show Off Your Gear" thread or seen a piece of expensive equipment that we covet. I, myself, would love to have a Diawa Morethan BC just because I want one. Not because I need one. But this? This is absurd. I'm not one to tell another person what to do with his money but I guarantee that if a buddy showed me this after buying it and told me the price, the first thing I would ask is "Are you an idiot?" I cannot begin to understand what the justification for buying this would be. At least lures like the Roman Made's look good. This looks like something I would spend waaay too much time on during a weekend and then throw in the trash when I actually stepped back and looked at it.

Yeah...don't cast there

"should the color of your bait blend in or stand out? " Yes. My most productive colors are grn pkn, blue/black, etc. You know what else works very well SOMETIMES? Bubblegum and White with chartreuse tail.

I didn't catch that it needed to be shipped. YEah...if that price included shipping you did ok.

This. Decent deal at 100 if in great shape. GREAT (but not unreasonable) deal at 75

I can't begin to guess how many hours, weeks, months I've spent chucking frogs or how many Advil I've downed because of shoulder bursitis due to how many hours, weeks, months I've spent chucking frogs...lol. I know I've had MANY 8-10 hours days with a frog rod in my hand.

I am a fantastic bass fisherman. Of course by fantastic, I mean fantastically mediocre. My biggest weakness is my frogging obsession. My fishing days are broken down into "Frogging Time" and "everything else." I am solidly low to middle of the pack in my skill level of everything else. I don't really get skunked anymore but I'm no world beater. The good things is that I don't really care that much. I'm good enough to be a solid fisherman and I'm happy that way. Doesn't mean I don't try. Last year was a bad year for frogging on my home lake so I focused on other techniques, including getting comfortable with jigs. They became a "very close to confidence" bait for me.

Weather in NOWEMO has been terrible this spring. I have not been out yet. It's either been too windy or too cold or too cold AND windy or raining. Bleah.

First I'll answer the question.....I'm in 3 and 4. I want to catch big bass the way I want to. For me, that's mostly with a frog. I feel no real compulsion to teach but that's because I like to fish alone and I don't really have anyone to share it with. Maybe a Grandchild eventually will change that. Second....a story I feel compelled to share. I fished some as a kid but never cared that much about it. High school and college came and went then adulthood. Never really thought about fishing. One year for Christmas in my early 20's my old man got me a rod and reel and some tackle. A baitcaster I had no idea how to use and some generic tackle. I knew I couldn't use a baitcaster (no internet vids) so I traded the reel in on a Zebco at a local Mom and Pop. I thought it was an odd gift and set it aside without much thought. A year or 2 goes by without ever using the gift. One day, my (now) ex-wife and I get into an argument and I decide to leave the house rather than fighting with her. I was heading to a bar as I was a very heavy drinker then. (Sober 20 years now). I walked out on the porch and saw that tackle sitting in the corner. I grabbed it. I went and got some worms and went fishing. No liquor. I had a ball. It changed me. I was not bass fishing. I was just pulling in bluegills and tossing them back. I was "hooked!" I won't say I quit drinking that day or anything but I found something ELSE I liked to do BESIDES that. Fast forward a small stretch of time and I was walking to my (by then) usual fishing spot when I find a Mepps Comet Mino on the ground. What the heck? I tied it on and threw it. And caught my first bass. Would love to say it was a monster but in reality was probably a lb or maybe a little more but HOLY CRAP was THAT fun! So I got some bass lures and started doing that! It was WAY BETTER! Fast forward another small stretch of time.....Walking with my stuff to my usual spot when I find ANOTHER lure on the ground. A Scum Frog. I had no idea what it was. Did not know it floated. I tied it on and tossed it around. Nothing. I ACCIDENTLY threw it in the middle of a scum mat that was near by that I was deliberately avoiding. I cursed and started reeling...BOOM! Blow up! I did NOT catch that fish but that was the most exciting thing I have ever seen! I threw it out there again and BOOOOM! YAAAAAAAAHOOOOOOOO! This was the best thing ever! Problem was that I DID hook that fish but had NO idea how to fight it and was using a light line Zebco. I broke the line almost immediately. Obviously, this started an obsession that continues with me to today. All because my Old Man had a little foresight that I might NEED to fish some day and I FOUND 2 lures. I thanked him many times before he passed and he never could answer why he got me that gear. He just thought I needed it. He couldn't have been more right. 30 years later, I still thank him when I'm sitting on the water and chucking frogs and just loving life.