the reel ess

My buddy trolls the 1/32 and 1/64 oz. for crappie and has caught bass up to 8 lbs. on them in winter. Stripers too.

We caught schooling LMB, white bass and stripers off those things. I remember the first ones being difficult to cast with my old baitcaster. I found an old, larger gold one in my dad's stuff and used it with success this past winter.

That's what Jimmy Houston says as well.

That does sting.

My dad only used a plastic worm form most of his bass fishing career. He used to tell me if bass were there, they'd bite a worm. And he was often right. Later we discovered the C-rig, but that's still a plastic worm. I finally turned him on to cranks and spinnerbaits. The last time we fished together I handed him a spinning rod with a weightless Trick Worm and he caught a couple before he got tired and sat on the tailgate and watched me. He didn't really want to go, but did for me, and I'm so glad he did. He was gone a few months later. I started crappie fishing with small white and chartreuse grubs and quickly noticed bass liked them too. As did all other panfish and catfish. I still use them in creeks or ponds where I suspect the bass are small.

I have a Rebel jointed minnow that I used once with success, then forgot about. I'm going to pull it out of retirement and fish it tomorrow morning.

Same. I had to go with Rebels. Now it seems a mid-range priced bait. How things have changed!

Use braided line if that's an option. I've been dragging kayaks since I've owned them, about 10 years. No problems yet.

I would like to qualify my opinion. From the kayak, my idea of pitching is usually a sidearm cast. I either try to cast low enough to get under some overhanging cover or structure or I skip the bait. Sometimes, it's just a one-handed cast. But I'm usually pretty close to the target. Rarely do I flip.

I still have some 5-6 and 6' rods. The problem with the old pistol grip rods is when they got longer than 5-6 they were pretty tip-heavy. I like the longer rods today. Two-handed casting saves a good bit of fatigue and gets you better distance, I still use a couple 6-6 rods. But when I replace them they'll probably be 7 footers, except for the pitching rod I bought specifically because it's 6-10. I say intermediate size rods are most accurate for pitching. But the leverage of a longer rod is nice when you need to get a bass out of heavy cover. My pitching rod is a compromise at 6'10".

I bought one of those. Caught a bass on my very first cast with it.

I have a couple of these in gold/black as well as a silver/black small jointed Rapala. I've had some good days with them. But they float, so they must be worked pretty quickly or they're back on top. I have better luck with the X-Rap, even when it's warmer water. I think it just keeps the lure in their strike zone longer. The original Rapala minnow is also a quiet bait. Usually, ones that rattle are going to have an advantage, at least in my dark waters. A lot of alternatives have come along since the original Rapala. For me, that small, jointed Rapala is the real deal for creek bass and panfish.

I saw a YT video of Scott Martin saying he used a 7/0 shaky head for his monster worms.

I've been hit in the side by a Whopper Plopper 110. IDK how I avoided even getting a single hook in my shirt. My stupidest moment was when I unwittingly pulled the kill switch on my boat and got a tow back to the ramp. I didn't have the money to get it worked on so I let it sit for months. One day my dad called me out of the blue and said "Go check the kill switch". I missed most of a summer over that bonehead move.

Check the Falcon Bucoo and LowRider lines. They're a lot of rod for the $100-130 range. The most sensitive rods I own, not that great sensitivity is a must for a frog rod. I'd actually put weight ahead of sensitivity. But you may want to use it for pitching. I use my frog rod for T-rigs in colder weather. That way I have one rod for jigs and one for T rigs. A frog rod will also double as a heavy C-rig rod if you want.

Does a bear poop in the woods? Even pros get them. Just when you think you can't anymore, you will.

When I catch one that has been shallow for a while it's darker green/black. When I catch one deep it's usually "grey" as you say. When they're shallow they tend to darken up. They're prettier to me when they're darker.

In that case neither do mine because I rarely fish public waters anymore. But I also haven't got near a DD bass yet.

IDK if you follow Bama Bass on YouTube, but he fishes some private trophy lakes and catches some serious toads. It's funny how much angrier his bass look on a topwater strike than I'm used to. Sometimes the bigger bass just slurp the bait in.

Check this out. It has worked for me a few times.

Keep us informed about how many you catch multiple times.

LOL. Shiners, frogs, snakes, mice. I get the "match the hatch" idea. But sometimes they get really turned on by something new.

Bass never transition away from shad if they're present. But they are opportunistic feeders and will take a bluegill if it presents itself, especially in a pond with little other forage. It's important for bass in that situation to eat bluegill because if they don't the bluegill get so big bass can't eat them. Then they're both competing for minnows and whatever else they can scrounge. Bluegill are spiny as I'm sure you've notice when holding one. I imagine at some point they get unpleasant for bass to swallow. And bass will learn from a negative stimuli to avoid them unless they're starving. So the presence of shad or larger shiners is a wonderful thing. Yellow perch is one of the best patterns in the south. And most waters don't have any. Then there's firetiger. To me that looks like a psychedelic perch.

Welcome from a fellow South Carolinian. But you may not have moved far enough south for a reasonable expectation of a double digit. There are some, but not in the numbers they are in FL or TX. For public waters, your best bet for a DD is Santee-Cooper lakes. What region of the state are you in? I'm in the piedmont about halfway between Charlotte and Columbia.

I either throw the smaller one or a Chug Bug. The larger Pop R doesn't get many bites and the small one is too light. The Chug Bug is what Goldilocks refers to as "just right". When I throw the smaller Pop R it's usually on a medium spinning combo.