the reel ess

Here's a secret. You don't have to walk them. I fish a couple of places with a lot of lilies and this is where I get all the bites. Just toss it on top of a mat and give it short jerks across it. Almost all of my bites come on the mat, not in the open water where you would be able to walk it. Of those bites I do get in open water, most come as soon as the bait hits the water. They will get a few bites in low light periods in open water, but near vegetation. But not many. I'll probably get some haters for that comment. But that's my experience. I do pretty well with the frog. Good advice on the Jackhammer.

Take the tiny one to a creek.

I fish from an 8 year old kayak, have decade old Lightning Rods, use Berkley Big Game and wear Magellan. To all but one of my friends, my arsenal is still overkill. That one friend has a Tracker with about 20 rods in it. He gets it. Full disclosure, I have 4 reels and 2 rods that were over $100 new. And I use PowerPro braid for single hook applications. I use quality hooks and have several $15 lures. I order several lures a week and try like hell to not run out of the plastics I use the most. I believe in putting money where it matters most.

I like their lipless crank, though it doesn't catch as many fish for me as the CC Spot. Neither does the Rattle Trap for that matter. There was a thread about it somewhere on here and someone told me it looked exactly like one of the premium bait maker's old mold. So it' porbably made in the same place with some cost cutting measures. Problem I have with it is I've caught a few dinks and the gold finish is almost gone. I have that bluegill swimbait of theirs. It seems to work fine, but I have yet to get a bite with it. I got one of their hollow body frogs because the price was so good and it was a color I didn't have. The material was too hard and it doesn't walk easily. Sort of like the first generation SPRO frogs. IDK that it won't work though. I've considered that. The Mettle has been around a while so BPS Rod and Reel Repair probably has some parts. The TAC 40 was brand new when I got it. But I figured their return policy was so good I could exchange it if it broke early. I've been using it long enough now that i doubt that's possible. I wonder if the internals, though made of different materials, can be interchanged with the Mettle or newer Ethos. Thy look to have the exact same shape.

I just realized they have a TAC40 line of rods as well. Though it appears most models are out of stock.

I use an older 7' Falcon MH rod that was advertised as the Trap Caster back then with a Lew's Tournament MB reel spooled with 15# Berkley Big Game mono. That's the primary one. I also have another combo with a 6'6" Berkley Lightning Rod M action, same reel, same line. It's a cheaper rod with a beautiful action for topwaters with mono line. If I want to fish three topwaters or I want to fish a really light one, I'll also use my M spinning combo, Pflueger Trion reel and 7' newer Lightning Rod, spooled with 20# braid. This is not my preferred combo for topwaters, but it'll do in a pinch. Sensitivity is not critical for topwaters. But the right action is and light weight is very nice as well.

I don't know for sure, but I believe the TAC40 is smaller and lighter. Also, the TAC40 claims 20 lbs of drag, whereas the Mettle claims 13 lbs. When I bought the TAC40, I was considering the Mettle, but it didn't have 7.3:1 retrieve then. Also, the TAC has carbon fiber drag, Mettle does not.

When I started bass fishing, baitcasters were de rigueur for bass fishing. This was the 80s. Spinning gear was looked upon as unsophisticated. Everyone I knew had one MH combo and one M combo. That covered the basics. We only power fished. Finesse meant a T-rig to most of us. It was assumed if you only had spinning combos you didn't know how to use a baitcaster. What did we know? I usually take two spinning combos with me. But they've never felt natural in my hands compared to BC combos. I'm not very good with reaction baits on spinning. So I try to limit them to a few finesse techniques like weightless Trick Worms and flukes.

I like the regular one when the water is a tad cooler, like around the spawn and later in fall. I like the popper in between. When you throw it on the mat, you want to make some disturbance. The popper makes a little more commotion. It also walks more easily for me. At least, the Booyah brand popper walks more easily than the regular one. Also, the Booyah is extremely durable for a frog that soft. I always have the regular one to fall back on when the popper wears out.

I have one that I don't use. But when I have, it's been my 7' MH spinning rod with size 40 reel and 20# braid. Braid won't dig into the spinning reel spool, so heavier line is not strictly necessary unless you just want it for the heavy cover. I don't want to respool the reel just to use that one bait. Honestly, I catch dinks on the regular size Pad Crasher and popping model. I have a dedicated XH/XF BC combo for frogs.

I bought this Academy Sports and Outdoors store brand reel to put on my jig combo. I gave it a positive review when I started using it. Now I've been using it for around two full years. I've had braid on it almost the entire time and pitch jigs into the gnarly stuff with this combo. I usually have the drag cinched down. I've caught several bass in the 6-7 lb range out of cover with it. It has worked flawlessly the entire time. IMO, you can't go wrong with it for $100. If there's any issue with the design, it's very compact. Thus, it's also quite light. It took me a while to learn to get a good grip on it because I was used to larger reels. It also only holds about 50-60 yards of 50# braid. It has an unusually larger diameter spool. So instead of using backing mono line I just tied the braid on the spool and put some tape on it to keep from slipping. 7.3:1 retrieve is great for flipping/pitching. Looking at the reel now, it appears it got a facelift and deeper spool. https://www.academy.com/shop/pdp/h2o-xpress-tac-40-baitcast-reel-120744101#repChildCatid=7813506

Tubes, Senko, deep diving cranks, all for different reasons. Tubes produce no bites, deep diving cranks wear my elbow and shoulder out and Senkos just aren't my thing. I'm thinking hard about giving up the walking baits. I can fish these for a couple hours with no action, take it off and replace with a Pop R or Chug Bug and catch a few. Could have been catching all the time I wasted on the Spook. I have a Sprinker and think I've used it once with zero bites.

I'm mostly done with it myself. I'll slow roll a lipless crank and even resort to a C-rig sometimes. Most places I fish now are shallow and weedy anyway.

Well, I went back this morning with big things in mind. No big slobs this time. I did catch a 3.6 and a 3.0, total of 8 fish. But those are pretty good numbers on the way to the next big bite. It's not unusual to only get a couple bites at this lake in the dog days so the bite is pretty good there right now. I try not to downsize and go finesse there if I can help it because I know there are big fish.

Yeah, I know a good many people who catfish. We have the Arkansas blue cats in our river systems. But I just don't like catching catfish. No disrespect to those who do. But to me the bigger the catfish, the bigger my disappointment.

That's another suggestion I was going to make. Go with a bass fisherman. But if none fish it, it's your playground. At least the fish aren't educated.

Congrats

Welcome to the kayak fishing addiction. I ditched the bass boat and lake for a kayak and smaller waters and immediately started catching more and better bass. Being on the kayak makes it a lot easier to target shallower areas for me. I know it's hot and targeting deeper structure would be the conventional wisdom. But the kayak really shines in the shallows. I can usually catch fish in the shallow range most of the year so that's what I concentrate on. I would think in central FL there are always bass shallow. Frogs, as you mentioned, jig/craw for the woody structure like docks, T-rigged craw for the weedy areas, spinnerbait, topwaters early and late, or even midday if they'll take them, weightless Trick Worm, flukes. I catch 95% of my fish on those things. "Shallow" is a relative term. So, in the heat of summer, I target shallower areas near deeper water. Also, in the heat of summer, I go early and/or late.

I have seen a grand total of one catfish in this place ever. And it was maybe 4" long and dying. I would have guessed channel cat. My buddy crappie fishes there a good bit and he hasn't caught any catfish. I don't really know why they don't bite there. What I know is in the lake are largemouth, crappie, bluegill, shellcrackers (redear), warmouth, gold shiners and little minnows I see around the edge, probably fathead. There are a couple ponds upstream from it so it has whatever species they have, I'm sure. I have another friend with a pond that has catfish and they can be very difficult to catch as well

From what I'm reading and watching, either freelined or under a float. I don't know about the catfish. I have never caught one in this place in almost a decade of fishing there. But I've never targeted them. I'd think a lively bait that can swim naturally would be less of a catfish bait than one on the bottom.

I don't have any St Croix rods. But it will probably suffice for both. I used to use the same rod for both with good success. If you feel like it's not ideal for one of the techniques, there are lots of rods out there specifically for whichever area it's lacking in. I just looked up that rod. Jeepers Cripes! I'd be afraid to use a rod that expensive for either of these techniques unless it came with a no-hassle money back guarantee and next-day shipping on the replacement if I broke it. That kind of sensitivity is nice for jigs, but unnecessary for frogs. But I understand the desire for nice stuff.

If you have a job and a family and go an average of twice a week, I'm jealous.

I took a bag of oatmeal and tried to chum for smaller baitfish. I gave it time and cast the net. Nothing. Thus, the 7 lb. pig with the jig down its throat. I really love fishing that way though.

I caught the new PB last Saturday. That got me thinking about trying live bait. So I went back this evening with that in mind. Didn't net any. So I took off with the usual rigs. They were on almost every piece of wood and were chomping the jig. I got this 7.2 lb off a pine laydown that I spooked some ducks out of. I figured the spot was ruined but I pitched into it anyway. It never hit bottom and when I set the hook, for some reason, the bass took off for deeper open water. It's my jig rod so the drag is clamped down. It took some drag anyway. I landed it pretty quickly. Two 7+ hogs in a week ain't too shabby for me.

I'm not sure how I'll handle it either. The reason I got into bass to start with is I like to chunk and wind. But if it increases the odds of a bigger bass, it's worth a try. I'll take my full compliment of rods in case the action is very slow. Or nonexistent.