the reel ess

Yes, I watch YouTube a lot. People will sometimes ask me how to learn basic bass skills and I'll tell them you can find almost anything you want to know on YouTube. This was a roadside creek so I didn't get to hike to the spot but I'd love to do that. Around my region of SC you can hike into creeks and small rivers and do some good bass fishing. You can even walk some creeks in old athletic shoes and a bathing suit. You can also catch all kinds of panfish, catfish, suckers, chubs and possibly gar. When you get to the fall line (between the piedmont and coastal plain) you can add bowfin and pickerel. Possibly eels. Since bass are easily accessible most people won't go to that trouble for some below average size bass. But the journey is half the fun. It's also a great way to stay cooler when summer fishing. I took a kayak trip down a small river near here several years back. We could walk some of the river and had to portage once. It was a lot of work for some small fish but it was a blast.

It's their own brand of affordable rod. It's not high quality, but do you need it to be? I use some less expensive rods for techniques that don't require a lot of sensitivity. You know, spinnerbaits, topwaters, lipless cranks. If the action is good for the technique I'll use it. I have to admit I have two old Eagle Claw composite rods that I paid $9 for in Walmart about 25 years ago. One is on my light creek spinning combo. Caught many a bass, bream and crappie with that one.

N/M. I see I already answered this thread.

I've been able to get a good bit more on Amazon than most store sites.

IDK, because when you feel the strike and the fish swims away, it probably isn't going directly away from you. So the fish is probably putting a bend in the line that you have to overcome to get a hookset. I'll usually just lower my rod and try to get the slack out, then set it. But on a C-rig, you yank the line through the sinker. So there's some weight for you to set the hook against. When I think I have a strike on a jig, I set it right away. But sometimes I only detect that strike when the fish is swimming away or I move the jig and the fish yanks back.

Welcome. Congrats on your continued sobriety. Keep the faith.

I spent a guys' weekend in the NC mountains with a couple of coworkers. There was a stream nearby with stocked rainbows and brown trout. I fished with corn and worms with no success, unless you count the 4" chub I caught on corn. I switched to a pink Rooster Tail and got a couple bites, but they both immediately jumped and spit the hook-frustrating. My buddy had already caught a couple on worms, but I know how I like to fish-chunk and wind. We drove to another section of the creek and I tied on a pink and white plastic crappie tube jig on a 1/32 oz jighead. After walking about 30 yards down the bank, I got bit! My drag was loose because it's an ultralight spooled with 4 lb. mono and the fish took a good bit of drag before I could turn it. I finally got control of it. I was too far from my buddy to show him the fish so I took the attached pic and quickly released it. The fish is about 14" long! I understand from my buddy he hasn't caught one much bigger than 8" in this stream. Next time I'll be looking to add a brown trout to it.

I'm sure it works. Also, it's proof that fish aren't very line shy.

I've made one but haven't used it.

I'm sorry. There's no getting over the loss of a parent. I've lost both. You gotta enjoy your dad while you have him. My dad stopped wanting to fish with me several years before he died. He didn't feel up to the hassle of launching the boat, etc. Odd, because it was he who got me started on this path. But I did get him to go to a pond that belongs to a family friend the fall before he died. He caught a couple bass and twisted up the line on my spinning combo. I offered to fix it, but he wanted to go sit on the tailgate and talk to his buddy. I'm really glad we had that day together because he passed completely unexpectedly the next spring.

I like amber. They just seem to let in more of the right light. Especially in lower light periods.

Calcutta. I'm on my 3rd pair because I lost the first two. I still don't have as much in all 3 pairs as I would spend on 1 pair of Costas. I also bought a $60 pair of Orvis glasses with 1.5X readers. It was getting difficult for me to see to tie knots, especially in low light.

I use the popping one on lilies. It doesn't dig in.

I tried one. It does get bites. Unfortunately, the legs came off on the 2nd or 3rd bite. And it filled with water quickly. I have another smaller one I haven't tried. It just sits in the box. I'm a huge Booyah Poppin Pad Crasher and regular pad Crasher fan. I have a dedicated Frog combo and the PPC stays tied on almost all spring-fall. I have a bunch of frogs, but rarely use any others. My fist bass over 6 lbs. came on a Snagproof Original Frog.

It depends totally upon where I'm fishing. In Florida, a 6 Lb. bass is pretty routine. IN South Carolina, not so much. I think in SC 5 lbs. is my lower range of a "really nice bass". There are some places I fish where 2 lbs. is a good fish. There's one place I fish where 1 lb., or even a fish with a gut, is a good bass. But I keep going there and taking small bass out of it. I'll take 1-2 lb. bass all day long though. It holds your interest. If you're fishing a place with bigger ones but catching dinks, you're just putting in the work to get one of them.

The Zoom Trick Worm. It stays tied on my MH spinning combo even when I know something else will probably work better in a certain situation. Topwaters and frog come to mind.

I use the M spinning for light trebles. Sometimes I'll use it for a light topwater like a Pop R. It's perfectly balanced for it. The MH spinning is for lighter finesse lures. It usually has a weightless Trick Worm tied on. They're both 7 footers. As for the 7.5:1 reels, I have 4 of them. They're almost the standard speed nowadays. And no apologies necessary. I got your point.

Keep the two 7.5:1 reels. IMO the two best baitcasting rods are a MH/MF for single hook baits and a medium MF for trebles. Length is up to you, but somewhere between 6'6" and 7' would be average. If you just left it open-ended and asked me for the two best bank combos, i would have said a MH BC and a MH spinning would cover the most bases. I know there's a need for Heavy for the frog. But the MH would do in a pinch and you limited it to 2 rods. I use 7 or 8 bass combos and have one dedicated for frog.

Haha. I take 8 rods when I go and sometimes use 5 of them before I get a fish. There is a place full of hungry dinks I got to where you can see what they won't bite. I caught one on a sour gummy worm there once. I made a lure from small shiny wrench after seeing a YouTube video about it. Sort of a jigging spoon type bait. But I haven't used it. I may just put it back on my tool box. It's more useful there.

If the place is managed by DNR and there's a limit and the guy isn't exceeding the limit, there's nothing you can do about him keeping a 3 pounder. Honestly, if DNR is checking the population and average size keeping bass is good for a small fishery. I won't keep a 3 pounder. But some will eat that fish.

Spending a day with a good guide would be a great investment that he won't forget.

I don't usually eat bass, but I will from time to time. usually, it's when I've fished at my buddy's dink factory pond. You SHOULD keep a lot of bass you catch from a pond even if you throw them over the dam. High population will make them smaller. There are places where that's not legal or it's frowned upon by the owner or the HOA. So you do whatever they want. They do taste a lot better when taken from a clean body of water.

Thanks guys

Their action is the BEST and they're easy to rig to run straight without a weighted hook. The most bites come when I fish them like you would a T rigged worm.

That's what I'm reading about most of them in the reviews. I've used the Zoom Super Swimming Fluke with some success. But T rigged, they don't stay upright. It's the nose that's getting ripped. They work fine on a jighead, but they're fouled with weeds just about every cast.