Nocturnal

There's no way my skeptical, naysaying, "it ain't coming off there," steely-eyed quadruple-uni is fitting through micro guides. Hehehehe! It would be like one of those intense times when you're casting a lot with spinning gear and your trigger finger is on the line, but your bass brain hasn't flipped the bail with the other hand yet. THHHHWHAP!!! Hahaha! God Bless

The way I look at it is like this: I don't really think that fish care about the line (if they can see it or not). BUT, it makes me feel better and that's a big deal for my analytical grape. When you're as nit-picky as I am it's just one less thing to think about when I'm fishing and one more oppertunity for me to enjoy what I'm doing instead of thinking about what I could be doing better. Just one more box to check as to why they are (or are not) biting. Also, when you start getting into abrasion resistance, etc. it's just a no brainer. There are only two things that plague my mind with leaders (but I get over); the joining of two lines togther and the tap of the knot going through the guides with longer leaders. As a "less is more" kinda guy I don't like weak points or splicing anything together, but with a good knot it's good to go (I guess haha). You have to take anything that I say on any post with a grain of salt. Most of the things I obsess over wouldn't bother anyone else. Attention to detail is an extremely important thing to me. Mating surfaces with play in them keep me up at night, slop in anything can take up an entire day for me to adjust something so it's the perfect balance of no play with the least resistance. Haha, where fishing is concerned I have to make a mental note not to write down or witness mark spool tension/brake settings for every bait I tie on. I got back into fishing to relieve stress, not create more haha! If you aren't stressing out about it and you're catching fish then I wouldn't change a thing. God Bless

Will do. Thanks again!

+1 One thing I've found to work well is to use Dermabond, SurgiSeal, etc. (super glue for skin/first aid). I run the worm up the hook until I'm ready to rotate the hook. I put a couple of drops of the skin super glue on the hook eyelet then finish running the worm up the eyelet and through the body. You can even glue the weight directly to the worm too if you don't want the sinker moving. The stuf works great for a few reasons. If it gets on your skin its not as bad as super glue. It gives enough strength so your T-rigged worm or weightless Senko stays put (even on phantom hook sets), but breaks free if a bite needs it to break free. It's also more pliable, so it doesn't dry out plastics as bad as super glue does. When the tip of a worm does get worn out a couple more drops of dermabond fixes it right back up without hardening the tip. It also doesn't smell as bad as regular super glue. There's a pond that I fish at least four times a week with nothing but 2-3lbs largemout (very occasional 4-5lb'er). They only hit a SES5-57 Smokey Shad Strike King Shim E Sticks. That's it!!! I've went through every possible color combo on every other kind of lure and worm. That's all they want to eat, and they hit it like a spinner bait about 3sec after it hits the water. Needless to say I bought about 20 packs of that one Shim E Stick. I catch 8-10 fish every 3hr visit. That normally translates into 1 Shim E Sticks every two visits with the Dermabond/SurgiSeal setup. They last a lot longer. The original Senko's don't quite last as long as the Strike King brand but I still get about twice the life out of them than you normally would. On a side note; The SES5-57 Smokey Shad Strike King Shim E Sticks have caught me A LOT of bass in every (every) body of water I've fished in Ohio in the last four months. It almost seems like the magic combo. When they don't hit anything else, they hit that; unusually hard too. Just a heads up if you haven't tried it! God Bless

Looks like I'll be stripping some PP off of a spinning reel and trying some Gliss. If it works for me like it has for Preytorien on spinning gear then I'll be good with the only advantage being it's quiet cast and retrieve. For some reason that "braid noise" makes me twitch more with spinning gear than with casters. Then again I've only been using straight Fluro on most of my casters, so Gliss may be an all-around solution for me there as well. I've been looking for something that offers less stretch and a little more sensitivity that ISN'T braid for my casters. I'm intrigued enough to buy a couple spools worth to try for myself. Thanks to A-Jay and Preytorien God Bless

Haha, sounds like the bug I just caught! It's great to be back fishing again! Welcome back to you too.

+1 For braid I "back" the spool until it at least has one layer of mono or fluro (normally whatever I have on almost spent spools laying around). Then fill the rest with braid. For fluro I wind the whole spool just in case I am blessed with a condor's nest and I have to dig my way out of it.

I'm in the same boat. I just got back into fishing in the last four months after 15yrs. To answer your question, many of them feel like they have actually gotten lighter.

Thank you! The Elite rods are pretty nice. When I fished a lot of tournaments I used St. Croix and Fenwick rods back in the day and they were nice but these newer rods pick up everything. I bought two of the 13 *** rods (with the same blanks as the Elite's) and the only difference I feel is the tip weight. They feel the same (when a fish hits a worm anyway) sensitivity wise. So, I put the Elites on pretty much every reel I own for a third of the cost haha. It's definitely more than enough for the fishing I do now days!

Hands down, one of the best spinning reels on the market (on sale or full price) is on sale right now in Bargain Cave on Cabela's site. Abu Revo SX $89. Or for a few extra pennies you can get a Strdic FJ for $129. Also a Daiwa Lexa spinning reel in there for $89.88 Best spinner under $100 for fresh and salt water is the Penn Conflict 2500. It's only on one site for $99. Xtreme Fishing Outfitters. Also, Gander mountain Elite GSX rod on sale for $79. Excellent rod for that money.

Hopefully my new experiences can help you out a little. I just recently (within the last four months) got back into Bass fishing after a fifteen (+) year absence. The last reel I bought was a Cabela's Prodigy back in 2003 because at that time I didn't even own a rod/reel and felt I needed something. It went on a Berkley Lightning Rod, got spoolled up with some good ol' 12lb Stren clear/blue and proceeded straight to the corner of my garage until I finished out a 12yr tour in the military. It moved everywhere with me but never once got fished. Fast forward a few more years after settling into civilian life again; I pulled it out (about four months ago), cleaned all the factory grease and oil out of it and started to fish a bit. The next thing I did was get on the Internet to find out what had changed in 15yrs. A LOT!! The old Prodigy wasn't quite cutting it for me. As a boy, teenager, and young man (pre-military) Bass fishing was my life. I was a member of BASS, fished in 12-15 local tournaments, was even gifted a small bass boat to further my favorite thing in life. In those days I was pretty easy going about gear but I got a lot of great "pass down" gear from some great club members. So I guess I was a bit snobish when comparing the gritty grind of the Prodigy to the last baitcaster I'd fished years ago. So, again to the Internet to see where the spinning and caster tech had gone in all that time. Not really that far apparently (other than the range of gearing out there), but smoothness and precision are a couple of things I have noticed out of the box. I remember having to break reels in with a few hundred casts/retrieves to get them buttery smooth. Those days seem to be gone. Anyway (sorry for the wind), I started with what I knew (Shimano and Abu) and picked up a Stadic spinning reel and a Revo SX geared in 7:1:1. Locked them both down to Gander Mountain Elite GSX medium heavy (6'.6"/7') rods that I managed to catch on sale for $75, and you guessed it, a couple of spools of Stren clear/blue. I fished those two setups for about two weeks daily. At the end of those two weeks I came to a couple of conclusions. First, worming skills are perishable. At some point in time I was "the worm king of the East" (haha not really), and could pull at least one fish out with a worm when everyone else came up empty handed. I'm nowhere near that anymore, but getting there. Second, mono is stretchier than I remember it (haha, see my first conclusion). I've probably lost more fish in the last four months than in the first 19-20yrs of my life because of bad worm hook sets. I don't ever remember having to set a hook so hard. Third, Right now Abu has the best line of Revo's they've ever had. In four months I've bought five Revo's (SX10, SX20, SX 7:1, SX 6:4, Revo MGX 7:1). Just to compare (the last four months) I bought 3 Lew's baitcasters, 2 daiwa spinning reels, the Stradic, a used Sustain, a new Curado, a Quantum Exo, and a Quantum Catalyst spinning and baitcaster. Again, all on the GSX Elite rods and Stren line. The Revo setups go with me every time. Fourth, Shimano spinning reels don't feel the same. I only ever used Shimano spinning reels, I loved them. The Revo SX spinning reels now feel like the old Shimano's and the new Shimano's feel like the old hollow, light feeling Daiwa's. I used to love the way a Shimano spinner used to almost want to get away from you because they were so smooth. You could just give them a good crank and they'd spin forever. The closest any of the new Shimano reels come to the old feeling is the Spirex. That's cool because of the price point, but the trigger and lack of infinite anti-reverse is less than desirable. Not to call out Shimano, just about all of the spinning reels I've felt in the past few months have had the same light, hollow feeling. That's not all bad, just kind of miss that old Shimano feel. Fifth, the Gander GSX rods are the best value in the market right now (they are still on sale for $79 on Gander's website). They are cutting corners somewhere to get to that price point but you get all the good guts nonetheless. You can't complain about 40ton Toray blanks, ti eyelet frames, evolve inserts and reel seat for $79. I've fished them everyday (yes everyday) for the last four months and I am not nice to my gear. I normally Velcro wrap six rods together, throw them over my shoulder, and walk about a mile through the woods to get to my favorite spot (I no longer have a boat so all my fishing is done from shore). And finally I get to the relevant part.....Six, mono line is no longer cutting it for me for the all around perfect setup. I have read, read, read, scoured, read, scoured, then read some more about line. None of that reading helped. The Internet is filled with opinions and rants (much like this one) of other people that may or may not have actually done anything that they have an opinion about. The ou way to know for sure is to test your gear yourself. So, I went out and bought a spool of every line I could get locally to re-spool every couple days. Fireline, Spiderwire, 832, Stren/Berkly/Suffix/Seaguar Fluro, P-line...if it was hanging on the shelf at Gander or Cabela's I probably bought it. I stopped fishing right around when Spiderwire was just coming out. I used it a little and wasn't real fond of it so I always stuck with mono. Braid has changed a lot in the last decade. 832 and Power Pro have stayed on my spinning setups with 12lb Seaguar Fluro leaders and Fluro backer on the spool (I had a lot of line left over). 100% Fluro has stayed on all my baitcasters (except for two which have 30lb braid and 14lb Fluro leaders for ripping frogs through a pond that is 95% lily pads, 5% actual water). I haven't really felt a huge difference in the Fluro lines unless you step up from 10 to 14lb test. Sorry for the long winded response. I figured I would give a little background and how it applies to line. Since I've dialed in MY line setup I'm back to smashing fish on worms (normally weightless Senkos), and back to fishing worms 90% of the time. I fish super clear to almost mud and feel I'm covered no matter what with the Braid/Fluro or straight Fluro in every clarity or cover. But that's just me! Hope it helps out.