the reel ess

If you get the colors they're always out of in Academy you can't go wrong! But then how do you get them? I like a white or orange belly on topwaters except for Pop R's I usually (always) get silver. Well, I have one in bone. I've caught more bass on an old, black SK buzzbait than I have on all others combined.

Cabela's TZXC-73H Frog model. $96 now, but they had it for $80 a couple weeks ago. Probably upgraded it a little.

I got the grey ghost, but I have yet to get a bite on the thing.

I love BC reels . I was the opposite way completely. In my heyday, the '80s, every "serious bass fisherman" had a couple or three BC combos. Spinning was for crappie or for the women and children in the boat. BC just feels better in my hands. It's a better balance where the reel is placed and I hold ity with my less dominant hand, making my reel hand the more agile one to crank with. Now I carry 4 BC combos and 2 or even 3 spinning combos most of the time. They each have their purpose.

I haven't. Just respooled.

I would agree if it ever happened before. But it hasn't then it happened two weeks in a row after spooling two reels.

It's just odd that the entire spool to that point performed well. I've abused this line before with good results. I usually replace it about every half season because it's cheap and I moisten the line to knot it. This was brand new line on 2 reels. But I bought another big spool to give it another shot.

I've always had a good experience with 15 lb Big Game until the last couple weeks. I use it on BC reels for trebles mostly and occasionally spinner/buzzbaits. I had a breakoff on 2 rods with new line. I lost a spinnerbait and a topwater floated back up and I retrieved it. Anyone else experienced this? I threw the spool away. It was near the end anyway. It had been in my house the entire time and I keep my rods in the house when I'm not fishing. The weak spot seemed to be where the line gets a little distorted where you cinch the knot. Honestly, my opinion of it had been higher than classic Stren mono in the past 15 years. Believe me, I'm not against spending $$$ where it's needed. I use PowerPro braid on all my other LMB combos.

Something with a rattle in black/blue.I like a t-rigged black and blue Hula Grub with a black glass bead between weight and hook. That will click if you retrieve it with jerks off the bottom. I know this isn't "finesse" but my best buzzbait is an old black and blue Strike King and I have a black Midnight SK Colorado blade spinnerbait that works in muddy water. The Rat L Trap works in off color as well because bass can hear and feel it coming.

It occurred to me that these might work well wacky rigged too.

I bought a pack of soft plastics at the beach a few years ago to try for trout and redfish called Trout Tricks. I never used them because I was able to catch founder on Gulp Mullet and quickly gave up on the other species. But I made note that they looked like something a LMB would bite. Well, the bite has been slow at the local reservoir and my buddy told me the bite was very slow and to try a "do-nothing" presentation. I put one of these on a short Carolina rig with a 3/16 oz tungsten weight and the bass ate them up! They weren't responding to reaction baits but they liked these on a finesse C rig jerked off the weedy bottom.Just goes to show you you never know what they'll like on any given day. Sometimes you just show them something they haven't seen. The ones I used were an opaque purple color called mood ring.

I weigh them, but only the big ones. It's not as easy as measuring a bass but it's sort of the standard way to quantify your trophy. I'm looking for one above 6.9 lbs to be my personal best so I have to keep a scale in the kayak. I saw on Bill Dance recently a way to estimate weight that he says is more accurate than the length and girth. L x L x L/1600 if you only have a ruler. Therefore, Choporoz' bass in his pic weighs 5.79 lbs. See this chart http://www.csap.com/Bass Weight Conversion Chart.pdf I love the way guys are fishing and they'll mentally weigh a bass that was just following their bait and didn't even bite. Almost every time I ever guessed the weight of a bass I caught, I was off. I'm a little better at guessing other peoples' bass's weight. LOL.

Disclaimer: this is only my experience I bought 2 reels used off Ebay from a seller with a good rating and it kinda bit me in both cases. A lot of people will trade in their one or two season old reel at a mom and pop shop and the shop will move them on Ebay for $50 bucks or so. They'll make claims like "everything seems in fine working order" or "just a little boat rash" when in fact they've never used the reel and have no idea what might be wrong with it. But I sent one to BPS rod and reel repair and they fixed it for the minimum so now I have a $50 Johnny Morris reel that works like a champ. Now it's my #2 reel. That's the thing about reels. Most of the time it's cheap little worn out parts or maybe a tiny piece is missing. The one I sent to be fixed was missing the little retaining spring inside the cast control knob.Somebody tried to work on it, lost the part and traded it in. But I did buy a new Lew's off Amazon. Hey, new is new.

Bingo! Or the bluegill are so large the bass can't eat them and they compete for limited prey. Probably a combination. You and all your buddies need to go catch as many as you can of everything in the pond and keep them. This happens in most small ponds.

I also visited a place in the mountains that had several ponds on the property with gin clear water that I'm sure see a lot of lures. What I did there was wait until sunset and cast from one end all the way to the other with finesse baits and caught a few. They simply wouldn't bite in the daytime. But the bluegill would attack anything I threw.

When I was a kid, i used to walk to a creek and catch these little chubs we called "horny heads" because of the little bumps they had on the head. I branched out and found a nearby pond down in the woods where obviously, no one was watching. It was crystal clear and chock full of 4-6 lb (looking) bass. But they could see you from all angles and there was absolutely no way to not alert them to my presence. I went several times and managed only one strike on a spinnerbait and the fish spit it before I could set. If I were to go now, I'd probably catch a bucket of those chubs at the creek and take them to the pond for bait or I'd use a whole nightcrawler on a free line. I imagine bass are like squirrels and will forget you if you don't move for a few minutes. I just have a hard time fishing really slowly.

Might also catch a "brown trout" in the sewer.

If you've been caught coming out of a (public) dirt road that has only one house on it by the homeowner because you were casing a (legal) way to get into the town reservoir. Awkward conversation. Road is only public because mailman has to deliver to the house.

I do.

Well I do sometimes on one combo because of its imbalance but I'm always adjusting it between cast and retrieve. I even hold it by the foregrip sometimes. I usually end up with a little bruise or two around the abdomen from using it as leverage for hooksets and that's fine. I also fish from the kayak most of the time and that doesn't always help leverage. My lack of dexterity in my left hand means that I can't use both hands on the rod to set the hook. I have to keep the left on the reel handle. I work on a computer all day and that has worn out my right wrist somewhat. It just is what it is.

I palm the BC because it feels most normal and I always have. I hold the Spinning with the reel foot between my ring and third finger. I've never lost my grip on one because of a bite. But I do feel a lot less leverage on the spinning rod. The BC rod I just tuck into my gut and set it with both hands. But the spinning rod makes me set with a single wrist. I used to get a lot fewer hooksets with spinning, but I took care of the lack of leverage with Gamakatsu hooks and 20 lb braid.

And then it does! I caught a bass in my friend's pond on a Gummy Worm on a bet. It was T rigged because it just didn't have any wacky action.

Everywhere I go on vacation I look for likely fishing holes before I go. I'd never make it in the desert.

You have more pics of bass than family in your phone.

The hooks on my Jr are awesome and came with split rings, not the clevis style that comes on larger Spooks. I don't know the hook mfg though. But my hooks are bronze. I look online and I see that's not the case in the pictures. Perhaps they've changed them. Honestly, I think you just had bad luck on two fish in a row. Fish escaped trebles more than single hooks. Sharpen the hooks on it and let it go again.