the reel ess

Booyah, baby! I caught two this morning on the Booyah Poppin' Frog. The popping model walks more easily too. There's the possibility of two actions.

Bass and crappie. What do you soak them in? Thanks.

I'd rather use the cheap rod with better quality reaction lures because the sensitivity wouldn't matter as much. But I really don't want to use any more cheap reels unless it's for panfish. Some cheap rods can hold up to big fish, but cheap reels will break your heart. But cheap is a relative term.

Yes. But I wish I'd bought the larger one.

I currently have mine on a medium 6-6 Lightning Rod with 15# mono. It loads up the medium rod excessively when I cast. It would probably work better on a MH rod. I don't think this bait has been around long enough for there to be a conventional wisdom regarding the rod/reel/line setup. I used it at my buddy's pond Sunday and caught about 10 on it. It was overcast all day. I don't think I lost a single fish on it.

Spawn stress. A lot of fish survive to the spawn for only one reason-to fulfill the biological imperative. Once that's accomplished they can move on to that great pond in the sky.

I have the Perception Pescador 12'. It's a decent ride for about $550. Its major drawbacks are the seat and the stability. It's plenty stable enough to sit and fish, but you wouldn't want to stand and fish much. It has a padded seat with a back, but it's decade-old technology. There are better seats available now than there were then. I believe this model would be a decent budget-based kayak that would at least remedy the seat issues. http://www.basspro.com/Ascend-12T-SitOnTop-Kayak/product/170284/ The Pescador pro looks like a decent tradeoff as well. This is a 10' model, but the weight capacity is pretty high. http://www.academy.com/shop/pdp/perception-pescador-pro-100-fishing-kayak#repChildCatid=3342502

I'm a "bottom guy" LOL. But I saw a YouTube video of a guy using a smaller finesse hook and nose-hooking the bait. I tried it with a Mann's Hardnose fluke and it made quite a difference in action and hookups. It seems the bass bite the bait head first when they can and I was hooking almost every one in the roof of the mouth. These are almost like circle hooks. If you yank too hard you'll pull the hook out. Just tighten up and keep reeling and the fish will stay hooked up. The hook in the nose allows for more shimmy and realistic swimming action in the middle of the body. And the Hardnose fluke is made of some tough material in the nose that lasted all day. In fact, that same bait is still on that rod.

I have a buddy with a pond full of eager stunted bass and I loaded all my rods up with big bass lures hoping to catch the "biggest bass in the pond." Well, yesterday I got a good many bites on the Rat, size 40. It was overcast all afternoon. None of these bass were "big", but given the average in the pond, they were better than I usually catch there. Now I wish I had the size 50. I also tried a Savage Gear S Waver in bass pattern-no bites. I caught a good many on a gold spinnerbait. I left him 24 bass and bluegills in his basket. The bluegills were caught on a 1/4 oz. Rooster Tail. This also caught a few small bass, which are fun on the light combo I was using.

Good advice and a very hard technique to force upon yourself. I've had a bass blow up on a Spook a few seconds after it hit the water and I had a moderate backlash. I picked out the backlash as quickly as possible and reeled up tight on the fish and it was still there, maybe 8 seconds later. I think it got so many hooks it couldn't spit out the bait. I certainly don't recommend the 8-second method.

I'd like to add that going to a pond known to have big bass will get your lure in front of big bass on a regular basis. Whereas going to a large impoundment might mean a lot fewer, or no big bass or see your lure. All the bass in a pond are within reach in one visit.

Depends on what the bass want to bite because I use them for different type of lures. I usually have 4 BC combos and 2 spin combos. But I'd bet I use the spinning gear half the time.

Plastics, when I feel the bite and see it move I'll lower the tip, reel up the slack and WHAM-O! An awful lot of the time, bream will tap-tap a soft plastic, so I like to see it move or feel pressure. Bass will hold soft plastics a good while. Trebles, soon as I feel the fish. That goes for topwaters too. Don't yank the bait away before feeling the fish. If you swing and they don't have it, you'll pull the bait away from the bass's area of awareness and they won't find it. For the plastics, it's a hard, upward swing for me. For trebles, buzzbaits and spinnerbaits, it's usually a rod sweep to the side and keep reeling, keeping the pressure on the bass. I don't want to encourage the bass to jump with a lot of line out, thus the sideways sweep. This is all just my opinion, collected over the course of about 35 years. Practice will get it right for you.

NM

Because the big bass knows the difference between a real egg-gobbling bream and an artificial that she(?) associates with a person she can see.

Too much boat to be a kayak and too much kayak to be a boat. For that money, I could fix up a nice aluminum flat bottom for my bigger boat option.

It only takes one fish to an entire day worthwhile. Good job, young man!

LOL. He has been the guest speaker at our church wild game banquet before. He's authentic folksy. I'll bet he answers to "Paw-Paw".

I have one place where there are gold shiners. I use a gold metallic one year round there and the big gals like them. It's a weedy place. In the winter and prespawn, we reel them as slowly as possible without constantly reeling up weeds, and we still get weeds most casts.

Some enhanced version of 1911 and a Kimber for carry.

My wife has a variation of that where she browns a pan of ground beef (substitute whatever ground meat) and adds a jar of Heinz Chili Sauce. Put that in a square baking pan and cover with Jiffy Cornbread mix. Bake per the cornbread mix directions. She calls it Man Cooked Meal.

The Pacer X and Gremlin are becoming collectible.

Right at 7 by this chart http://www.in-fisherman.com/in-fisherman-blogs/bass-length-to-weight-conversion-chart/ Since you didn't measure the girth, there's also this one: (Length X Length X Length) / 1700, which gives you 6.93 lbs. I'd call this fish 7 lbs if I were you, especially since anything starting with 7 would be my PB

Robbie Lake Wateree, South Carolina I see you fishing a lot of spinnerbaits and even have your name on one or two. I caught my PB on one with nickel hammered willow blades. In what conditions would you prefer hammered, smooth, silver, gold or painted blades? Do you ever use a soft plastic instead of the skirt?

My dad went out once with my mom for an evening cruise in the pontoon. He had taken a rod with a deep diving crankbait because stripers had been schooling recently and it so happened that he ran across some. He started casting and catching and for whatever reason, my mom decided to walk up behind him as he was about to cast. Well, he floored her with his backswing of a Norman DD22. Fortunately, no hooks penetrated. But, as you can imagine, he never lived that one down.