S. Sass

I bought a Lews MR1Sh from of all places Walmart. I practiced with it in my yard for 2 weeks using Stren 12lb no problems. I used different weight dummy lures and all testing because I am a rookie on baitcasting. Ok so Friday I know I am going to a place with heavy moss and all kinds of cover and I say to myself I sure would like to refill this spool before I go fishing. Admittedly I had 2 birdsnests I could not get out and had to cut and it was not completely full to start with from what I have read. I was well below the beveled edge with only 125 yards on it. So anyway I go to Walmart (I live in a small town BassPro is 2hr drive) and look at all the line and it appears the only 150 yard braid is some SpiderWire Stealth Glow-Vis Braid 50lb test. OK I read and read and see how to spool braid and I put it on. I make sure to load the spool as I have read and its looking awesome nice and even on the spool but its dark by now outside and i cant test it. This is where the fun starts. We leave early Saturday morning and get to the pools I start by setting my reel and everything is fine I cast probably 2hrs with it no issues. Then I switch to a spinnerbait and make the appropriate settings and now its a nightmare. Not every time but random maybe every 3rd or 4th cast the line starts coming off good but then mid cast its making a mess of the spool then it finishes by unwinding the mess before the lure hits the water. Obviously not every time does it complete the cast as the "mess" sometimes turns into a birdsnest depending on the random way the line balls up in the reel. My fishing partner who uses baitcast was stumped as well. He tried it with no luck either. We played with every setting tightening loosening different lures try to change the weight to see how it effected it. I bet we spent 45 minutes to an hour just trying to fix my reel. I was so disgusted. Does anyone have any ideas? I was so ready to toss the reel in the pool but I just bought this Mojo Bass rod and this reel I didn't want to toss $160 that was on its first tip just yet. I mean I was casting 40 yards just beautiful for a couple a hours before what happened? I haven't given up but this sure didn't help my ego. haha

Maybe post some pictures of the lake and we could suggest where we would hit. Not seeing the lake it would be very hard to point to the best location in a lake. Also not knowing what you have tried lure wise I would say get some soft plastic worms. For me when nothing else is working the Texas rigged worm usually works. Try different presentations till I find something they like.

This and a few boxes showed up yesterday.

I am no expert I don't even use frogs but I decided to try some so I bought some this past winter. Before I did I watched one video (don't remember what one) that had a "pro" talking of this same subject. What he said was kind of obvious. Basically he said the fish are down here and a top water bait is up here. He goes on to say now the only side of any topwater bait that matters is where... the bottom. He actually says when buying frogs as far as the color he only cared about the bottom color he would suggest a white and a black bottom and if you wanted a 3rd frog a yellow but he only used the black and white ones. The top color doesn't matter. That was my best recollection anyway. So I would think it would be more of the strike based on the shape first and then maybe the color. I have used sharpies to put eyes or black dots like eyes on my cheap spinnerbaits and its never stopped fish from hitting them. But I do use JJ Magic on the tips of some skirts but I am sure I haven't always done this to mask the sharpie scent. It was more trying to get a color I wanted. I say go for it maybe you will find a killer combination. I wish I had bought mine at DSG for $4 they were very proud of the frogs everywhere I shopped when I bought mine.

That is the way mine were packaged just ziplock baggies nothing written on the bags. I have tried searching the net but if you put fuzzy and worm you don't get these. haha

Thanks fellas. I have been reading here for quite some time and there is a wealth of knowledge to be sure here. Thanks for the kind welcome maybe I can contribute some one day.

I will never use them all and even if I did I don't mind sharing especially when I have more than I need. I'm quite new here and want to put my best foot forward.

Yes they have little stubbies all over like hair.

No I'm not looking to sell them. You mentioned you would be interested in some green pumpkin I was just showing you what I did have. I would give you some if you were interested in the color I had.

I have a very few that are like the first 2 in my original post but I have a lot of these smoke or kind a coffee color with green flake. The body is 4" long and the tail is right at 3". I think these are from like in the 1980s or early 90s as that was the era most of his stuff was from.

Not sure if this qualifies as a monkey job but its a few things I have picked up or rather spent money on lately. I just got this 2 days ago from buy-one-get-two-sale at overstockbait.com. I have a new order coming from academy.com. I also have 2 small orders coming from basspro.com Have a few of these coming off eBay.

I find just about any dark purple worm works awesome for me. 5",6",7",8", or 10" Texas rigged all work great. Creme Scoundrel 8" in 36-Purple has been my favorite since i was a kid.

I knew a older fella who at one time fished a lot and he had a lot of tackle in his shop. After he passed away I was given some of these in a large amount (hundreds of these worms). I have never seen them and wondered if they were his go to worm since he had so many or if he just got a deal on them in bulk and hated them afterwards. They are fuzzy so to speak. Has anyone ever used these ? Know who made them? Just curious about them really.

A few weeks ago i was like the OP just looking to get back into a bait caster. I read and read and watched countless YouTube reviews and in the end picked up a $55.00 Lews at my local Walmart and a $40 cheap MH 7' Jimmy Houston (made in China) rod. I just wanted to see if I could still cast one and not be out a ton of money in case I broke it over my knee. I have since been practicing almost every day in the yard and like the reel a lot it seems smooth and looked pretty decent. My original intent was if I liked the bait casting deal I would add a BPQ combo to my collection. But after reading numerous times that the rod was more critical last Sunday I ordered a St Croix Mojo Bass MBC70MHF Spinnerbait rod to move this reel to. According to St Croix technical help we decided on this as the rod that fit me best as a all around setup based on what I fish. I am on a budget as well and don't see any reason for a starter this shouldn't work for a season of casual fishing. Of course I am a rookie with this bait casting so what do I know.

Im Steve and of course I like fishing. Anyway I have been lurking recently and decided to register.