fishballer06

It's most likely an algae bloom and the dissolved oxygen levels in the water are out of whack. It happens a lot this time of year. It can make catch fish darn near impossible. Your best bet is to go small and finesse.

If you need it now, buy it now. I would assume it will go down in price.

Pie pan. Complete spinning rod setup. 1/8oz. rooster tail in 20' of water...

Silver buddy style blade baits (in addition to the above).

If you like Abu, use Abu. There are plenty of Abu fans out there. With how rough it sounds you are on your gear, you might not want to start buying $200+ rods. But to each his own.

St. Croix Avid 7' Medium fast. Best Keitech rod I have found.

Terminator's are nice because they don't get bent out of shape. The titanium one's that is.

I wear Costa Cat Cay's with the 580G lens. The color and clarity in these blows a low end, plastic lens away. With your budget, I'd check out the Strike King S11's. That's what I wore prior to my Costa's, and they were the best I could find in the ~$50 range.

Yes, and it works. However, I prefer silver buddy style blade baits. The Damiki Vault is one of my favorites, along with the Lucky Craft ILV50.

Cleveland?! Oh boy... Welcome!

Around here, a bluegill/perch color will catch me fish year round. Next choice would be olive craw color.

Last June, fishing a giant bay in Canada. This bay is probably a mile wide and two miles long. We had been fishing it for probably two hours and hadn't seen a boat the entire time. The bass were surfacing and eating dragonflies and we were killing them on topwater. Out of no where, this guy comes buzzing in, shuts it down, and parks his boat about 50 feet away from us and starts flinging giant musky plugs. We literally couldn't even cast because he was so close and he was throwing his lures out and we weren't going to tangle our lines up with him. We asked him where he was from and he told us, and then we asked if he ever learned about respect? He ignored us and kept fishing. So we proceeded to just throw our topwater lures directly at his boat for the next 30 minutes until it got dark out. He never said a word the entire time...

Get the Stile. That's what I use. It's essentially the Aldebaran, but it comes in a 5:1 ratio and it has a 102mm power handle. It will sling a Shad Rap as good/better than a spinning setup.

In all seriousness. I own both. I've only used the 71 for 3 outings so far, but I can say I think it casts better than the 201. Plus I like the smaller overall size of it.

You want both, so you should own both. That's my opinion... -Bait Monkey

I don't have official weights/lengths on a lot of my best fish because I caught them whenever I was a teenager, fishing with my father and grandfather, so I can only go off what they've told me. But here's some bests from recent years. 2015 - 5lb 1oz. Largemouth - Daiwa Zillion 4.9:1, Dobyns Champion 765CB, Sunline Sniper 12lb, Rapala DT10 craw color 2015 - 4.4lb. Smallmouth - Shimano 13 Mentium, St. Croix Avid 7' M-F, 14lb. Sunline Sniper, Keitech 4.8" Swing Impact Fat on a 1/2oz. swimbait jighead 2016 - 22 7/8" Smallmouth, 3.6lbs (fresh post-spawn) - Shimano 13 Mentium, St. Croix Avid 7' M-F, 16lb. Sunline Sniper, Keitech 4.8" Swing Impact Fat Mid 2000's - 21 3/4" Smallmouth (no weight) - Shimano Curado Bantam, BPS Extreme 6' MH, 40lb. braid, Rapala Skitter Pop frog color

You look a lot younger than I remember, Francho...

It happens. Next time, keep some pliers with you so that you don't have to leave the fish. Hook removal is easier if you pinch off the barb on your hooks. You might lose a few more fish during the fight, but it will make hook removal easier.

If you're not willing to spend over $15 a spool for fluoro, I would suggest not buying fluoro. If you can steal a $5 from the old ladies purse, try the Sunline Assassin. That's the best FC I have found that is a little more budget priced.

8 pound is pretty light for most casting rod presentations... But I use leftover spools of line for leaders.

For bass, I've probably had a few like 3 in 5 casts. For crappie/perch, I've had days where I've probably caught 5-6 in a row, easily.

Agreed. They all look like largemouth. If you think you ever have a spot, put your thumb on their tongue. It will be rough, rather than smooth like a largemouth.

When the bite is tough during a tournament and I need to fill out a limit, an 1/8oz or 1/4oz Rooster Tail can quickly get me a few fish to fill my limit.

I own 3 HMG's and 1 Aetos. All four have had guide durability issues. I own 2 of the new style Crucials and they're decent rods, but certainly no where near the best in their price range. I own the new Zodias and it's a great rod. One of the best in the $200 price area. If you want the most bang for your buck in the $130-200 range, I recommend the following rods: Abu Ike Series Abu Veracity SC Avid Shimano Zodias

Exchange rate is down to 22% right now, so your $200 CAD would get you about $160 USD worth. If it were me, I'd do anything possible to get $30 and get myself a Zodias or an Avid.