the reel ess

Thanks. I already ordered the Fuego CT. I know the Lew's reels are good. I have three of the Tournament MB reels. But those were $130 reels.

It was about the same price on Amazon.

Thanks Thanks

I usually just go ahead and get hung up before the fish bites. Cut out the middle man.

Thanks, guys. I placed the order for the Fuego CT for $89. It has been a while since I owned a Daiwa baitcaster. Should be here Saturday, just in time to use it Labor Day morning.

I got a $100 Amazon gift card to spend. I'm thinking I need another baitcast ree because 5 is not enough for one kayak. LOL. Actually, I'm replacing an older, heavy BPS Johnny Morris reel with a worn out cast control. It will probably be a topwater/trebles lure combo, coupled with an older 7' MH Falcon rod. I was thinking of the Lews base LFS Speed Spool reel, which comes in at $94. I've had good experience with 3 of the discontinued Tourney MB reels. But there are some reviews that compare this base LFS reel poorly to the Shimano SLX. Does anyone have experience with the Shimano SLX?

I've had that happen to me with jigs and bigger fish. Hackney said in a video, sometimes when you set the hook really hard and the fish's mouth is closed, you drive the point of the bait into the roof of the fish's mouth and it doesn't find the hook at all. The guide I fished with in FL, his name is Shane Procell-some guys on here know him, had me using a punch rig in some lighter grass. He was using some big gambler craws. They would be huge on my lake. He was using the flipping hooks, but he was only sticking the hook into the side of the bait so it didn't have far to go to get through, as well as the snelled trick. I stuck a bunch of fish with that technique that day and we went through a lot of baits. I had to look up how to tie the snell as well. I rarely use a T rig. And when I do, it's not for flipping. It's so I don't get skunked. ?

Indeed. If using an actual flipping hook, it will be exposing itself enough. Do you guys who use pegged punching rigs with a real flipping hook snell the hook to get it to flip the point forward? The guide I did this with believed in it. He also didn't rig his baits up symmetrically. He put the hook point into the side of the bait so the point didn't have far to travel through plastic.

Now you just need another combo. LOL. I have a few baits that are too big for any of my combos. I just throw them on the biggest, stoutest MH I have with braid. Maybe not ideal, but it gets it done. I also have a 7'3" XH-XF frog combo if I want to go that route. But it has a frog tied on it about 9 months of the year.

I only ever read Bassmaster in my dentist's waiting room. A handful of pros used to hold secrets and not let them out. The Interwebs is the best thing to ever happen to fishing, and many other areas. For instance, you can easily find the best value in almost any goods or services using the web. Same here. I used to have 5 years or so of F&S and SC Fish and Game mags stored in paper grocery bags. My buddy called it my "fish porn" collection. I began to notice the Game & Fish articles were recycled for several years and passed around between the states of the same region. I was also into old cars so I got Car Craft and Hot Rod mags. I probably spent enough on those mags to buy a cheap car or at least some good fishing equipment. When I got married the first time (I was flat broke throughout my first marriage), I would save the money and walk to the local library and sit and read them all.

They'll bite either. The jig is better to skip under limbs and docks. You can also just rig a plastic craw on a weedless jighead. A deadly lure is the Hula grub on a weedless jighead. But they tear up so easily. I've been told the rule of thumb is wood=jig, vegetation=T-rig. Therefore, I jig fish more. If you're going to flip and pitch a T-rig, make sure the hook is at least a superline hook. A really good fish will straighten the usual T-rig worm hooks out enough to get off when you have your drag tight. I've had it happen and lost a likely PB.

Impressive. Where do you buy your supplies?

War Eagle gold series, double willow, 3/8 oz. in gold shiner color is my best spinner bait. But all spinnerbaits work, even the dollar ones at WalMart. I just like the gold color of this particular one. Most manufacturers don't make one with a gold skirt. Of course, I can buy replacement skirts and put them on any spinnerbait.

I only want to buy a gun or ammo when gun control hysteria grips the country and you have to pay through the nose to get one. It never seems important otherwise. There is something to be said for showing the fish something they haven't seen yet or don't see often. But this looks like just a worm to me. I love watching YouTube videos of people digging out their grandpa's lures and using them with success.

Nanolight? Uberlight? Microminiairweightflyweight? If you cast it it goes up.

Storm has a medium (for swimbaits) sized line of swimbaits with a gold looking perch and bunker patterns. I ahve the bunker, but I haven't used it yet. it just came in the mail a couple days ago. My buddy has used his perch pattern one and got a 3 pounder on it. It's about 6" long, 1 3/8 oz. https://www.rapala.com/storm/soft-baits/kickin-series/kickin-minnow-/Kickin+Minnow.html?cgid=storm-softbaits-kickinSeries&taglist=Storm|Soft Baits|Kickin' Series#start=1&cgid=storm-softbaits-kickinSeries

If it's a deserted island, it better be something for saltwater. But seriously, it would probably be a Trick Worm.

Same here. I'm 50. I had 20 some odd combos for different species. My dad died and he had bass stuff that I needed to make room for. I wasn't ready to part with his stuff yet. I gave my crappie stuff to my buddy when I sold my boat because I still crappie fish with him. I gave some stuff to a neighborhood kid. And I donated some to our local charity thrift store. They love getting guy stuff. I decided to concentrate on bass and occasionally panfish.

We did this every year after Christmas when we owned a lake house. We would pick up all our neighbors' trees and sometimes put out 15-20 of them near our place. They're great for crappie. IMO, not as good for bass. But if it's the only cover they'll go to it. I'd rather spend a little time and make up something from PVC or ABS so you can fish treble lures around them without losing them. What I've read is that feeding the bluegill is supposed to cause them to spawn more often during the summer and produce more small bluegill for the bass to eat, thus increasing the average bass size. When there aren't enough bluegill for the bass to eat, they find themselves in direct competition with larger bluegills for minnows only. This is the situation in many small ponds.

By trying different things to change that.

I'm using a 7.something:1 for almost everything baitcasting. The one rod I don't have a high speed reel on is just because it's an old reel I haven't cycled out. I should. BTW, I almost never deep crank.

I didn't grow up poor, but we did live paycheck-to-paycheck. Luckily, my dad worked for a big company and never missed a paycheck. Now I'm married and we have a cushion in savings and a good retirement saved up. My wife is a state employee so she has a pension. We still live like we're a paycheck away from financial ruin. If you lived frugally in your formative years and had to labor for your wealth it's difficult to break that cycle. Not that you need to break it. That said, I use my stuff. But I don't buy $500 rods or reels. I don't have a bass boat anymore. My truck is 12 years old.

We have gold shiners on my local lake. We throw Cordell Super Spots, Rapala Minnows and X-Raps in gold. I throw the Houdini colored Zoom Flukes and swimming flukes. One of the best baits here is the War Eagle gold series double willow spinnerbait in gold shiner pattern. @cadman made me some custom gold shiner swimjigs. Other than those specific gold baits, we catch them on the usual stuff. Honestly, here bass seem to prefer other soft plastic colors. But they love gold in the hard baits.

IDK. Maybe they've been almost completely replaced by black or black/blue. I must admit I use black/blue pretty much exclusively. I have other colors, but that combo gets the job done 'round here. If course, you could certainly make your own.

I "go cheap" everywhere. LOL. Just kidding. But I do save money wherever and whenever I can.