the reel ess

Inline spinner, Beetle Spin, plain ol grub, small tube jig (crappie size), live minnow. I've caught some crappie at the local reservoir on the Rat L Trap. I've caught bluegill, redbreast, stripers and bass on the Rebel Wee Craw. Agree on all counts.

Anywhere there are very large bluegills, I'll tie on a tandem Crappie jig and Beetle Spin and have a field day catching both species.

I went out and fish till almost dark last night at my local reservoir. The water is getting that bath water feel, which to me signifies I need to end the day with topwaters. So confident was I that I had three tied on. A 3.57 lb, a 2.5 and a dink just crushed the Chug Bug. I missed another fish twice. I got a good look at it. It was in excess of 5 lbs. I also caught 3 on the Chigger Craw. Check out the gut on the bigger gal. Unfortunately, she caught a treble in the left eye. So I sort of have her "tagged". I made note of that in the journal. Maybe we'll meet again and I'll weigh her again. Sorry for the haziness. I have a waterproof cover for the phone and sometimes it gets a bit cruddy.

LOL

Check this out: http://www.another site/blog/fishing-line-guide/ It ain't the Gospel, but it's a good guide. I really don't foloow it though because I don't want to carry 20 rods on my kayak (I carry 6 as it is ).

Wow! When I was "college poor" I was a $20 rod guy. I worked at WalMart and my buddy was in the outdoors/automotive dept. He would tell me what was going on clearance and I'd hide them until payday, at which time I'd also use my employee discount. But there are so many good rods in your range you should have no problem getting a good one. My BEST rod only retails for $129. It's an older Falcon LowRider that I bought used from a guy for $50. I also have a Cabela's Tourney ZX that retails for $100. You won't go wrong with the Cabela's or BPS rods in the $100 range.

I can't seem to get my Lew's to backlash either. Even when I set it too loose. Next time I need to replace a BC reel, it will be a Lew's.

If you go online and sign up for an account, they'll send you emails about what's on sale. I get several a week.

I'm with you. I like them on a 6'6" MH BC combo. I usually use them weightless and that's not a problem to cast on a good reel.

Do you have the same line on both? This happens a lot to me too. You have to see your line twitch or move off to know a fish has it. An octopus hook would cut down on it some because it's almost a circle hook.

It will slow down quickly when hooked and thrown into water.

It's all I used until I was 13. Well, that and an ultralight Daiwa spinning combo.Now I'm too old for such a slow retrieve. Life is short. I do have an Academy UL spinning reel and an old el cheapo $8 Eagle Claw rod that i use when I feel like putting myself at a disadvantage. Like when I know they're all small or the bluegill are as big as the bass. I've caught a striper and some chunk bass on it before. Good times. But if you like them, more power to you.

Use an ultralight spinning combo. They'll be more enjoyable. Or you can just try another place. But stunted bass ponds have their advantages. Lots of stupid fish. You can gain confidence with a new technique.I caught a bass on a gummy worm at a place like that just to show I could. Start eating them or giving them away. There are too many there for the average size to increase. Try some larger craw imitator. Bigger bass eat more craws. T-rigged Chigger Craw is my fav. Use bigger lures. Spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, Rat L Traps and frogs tend to be bigger bass baits. My PB came on a frog. And, of course, swimbaits, but I haven't had much success with those. I caught a 6.5 lb out of my buddy's pond the very first time I fished it 13 years ago. I haven't caught one over 3 in there since. Hey, if nothing else, after you strike out with the larger baits, it'll make the little ones more fun.

I just use a bare hook. I tried making them more weedless and was disappointed. Most places I fish, I can just go get the worm if the hook gets hung up. Or you can buy this and use offset worm hooks, rigged weedless. https://kickerfishbait.com/shop/the-original-texas-weedless-wacky-worm%C2%AE-6-14-copy/

I got all my frogs out and weighed them on a small food scale. The Pocket L unker Frog was 1/8 oz. I haven't used it, but when I do it'll be on a spinning combo. The Pad Crasher junior was 3/16 oz. I would have guessed more. I haven't cast it yet. The Snag Proof Original and the Scum Frog were 1/4 oz. I would have guessed less. 1/4 oz., while not ideal, is heavy enough to cast on BC equipment. I use 3/16 oz bullet weights on the same rod with no problem. But for some reason, these are almost impossible to cast. Probably due to the size and wind resistance (drag) vs weight. The Pad Crashers and SPRO were 1/2 oz. The L unker Frog standard size was 5/8 oz.

My first big ol bass was missing an eye and most of its fins and had bleeding sores on it. It was a major disappointment. But somehow still feeding. This looks like nature taking care of the problem.

From my experience, you need to at least look for a BC reel with a solid metal frame. Unless you're only going to fish a few times a year, a composite framed reel will let you down. And it won't fail on a small fish. Some will argue with that advice (but they're wrong ). Lew's is a very good choice. I have the LFS Tournament MB reel and it has NEVER backlashed, even when I try to cast something too light with it. I also agree that the Academy H2O Mettle does seem to be a lot of reel for the money. It's $20 cheaper than the name brands for the same features.

You ever get the feeling people ask a question and never return for the answers?

Yeah, I have a buddy that doesn't think you NEED to spend more than $25 on a rod. And he's right but he catches a lot of fish and some pretty big ones, I might add. We spend a lot on tackle because we want to. However, there are some fish I would have missed had I not bought some good rods. But they're only fish, right?...Right?

Florocarbon is a little stiff for baitcasters. You can use it of course, people do, but you have to put it on with some tension to get it to take the spool's shape. Braid is as limp as you can get. I think that Bama Bass (of the YouTube channel) uses heavy mono for frogs in clearer water. I only use braid for almost all applications that aren't trebles. You'd be better off with 20# mono than 20# floro for 2 reasons. Mono floats and it's less stiff than Floro. You need to learn to walk the frog like a Spook and I can't imagine doing that with florocarbon. Another good reason for the limp quality of braid. On the bright side, if you do spool that rod up with braid, it can double as your jig/T-rig rod, assuming you didn't buy a pool cue (stiff). If you want them to do double duty, get a MH/Fast. I have an dedicated XH/Fast 7'3" Cabela's Frog model now and I'm not sure I like it yet. I liked the tip of the MH better. Being any good at froggin', which I don't claim to be, requires some special hardware. That's just how it is.

Take apart and give a good cleaning and grease those moving parts. It may be that the mechanism that does that function is so dirty it won't engage. If you can't get it, BPS will probably fix it for $19.95 + shipping. They've fixed 2 reels for me for minimal cost. I had the same problem with a BPS Rick Clunn reel that I bought new. It was basically a $100 reel on sale for about $70. I had some buyer's remorse. I took apart and lubed it and it has slowly gotten better over time. Now it's one of my favorites. Kinda like a good 191A1 pistol, it needed some breaking in.

I have a 7' MH with a fast tip. It's an old BPS Viper Combo that I bought for $70 on clearance there about 12 years ago. It just never seems to wear out. Really got my $$$ worth there. I keep it spooled with 20# PowerPro braid. This combo is light enough to cast weightless worms but enough backbone to set a thick EWG hook. The braid helps a lot with that.

Here they are. Notice the cork coming apart. You can tell the one I use the most. Also notice I'm breaking my rule and using the M spinning for a single hook application. But sometimes you gotta use what you brought.

I have two BC Lightning Rods and one spinning. They're good for what they are in that price range. I have a couple $100+ rods that put them to shame but they should for that price. But once upon a time, I would have considered even a $40 rod a needless expense.I still use all these LR's though. I have a MH 6'6" that I use for spinnerbaits, chatterbaits and a backup topwater rod if I want more than one topwater hardbait tied on. It's spooled with 12# mono for use with trebles if I need it. I have a M 6'6" that I use for lipless cranks and topwaters with trebles. It's spooled with 15# mono. This rod action is almost perfect for this application. It casts a mile and has just the right flex to not rip out bigger trebles. But it's short enough to allow me to walk the dog on a topwater and allow the fish to take the bait before setting the hook. The spinning rod is 7' M and I use it for wacky rigs and smaller treble baits like Rapala Minnows. It's spooled with 20# braid. The tip is great for casting lighter lures and good for trebles as well. This could double as a crappie rod in a pinch, but I've caught some big bass on it. None of these presentations require a lot of sensitivity. I use those higher dollar rods for that.I would add that after some years of use, the cork foregrip is coming apart on the BC models. No big deal really. If i had it to do over, I'd probably spend a little more on the Ethos rods from Academy.

You can get away with 30# braid most places. 50# is good for weed-choked places. I'm not sure you EVER need 65. Why? Will 50# break off in the weeds? You'd break your rod in two places first. 30# is the diameter of maybe 10# mono so you'll get the added casting distance of a lower dia. line. I intend top switch to 30 on all my BC reels next time I need braid.