Evan K

A new pond is always fun! I would try a frog over those pads, and a shaky head with some type of worm or stick bait in the deep part. Spinnerbaits are a great new pond bait as well. If they're not biting your frog on the surface try throwing a texas rigged plastic down in there, a ribbontail worm or a beaver/craw/creature bait. Good luck!

I like tungsten because it's more compact, for larger weights. I use a combination of both, mostly lead up to 3/8 oz or so. Tungsten is really nice but man is it expensive!

Have you tried a weightless wacky rigged stickbait (senko)? That's usually my go-to fish producer when nothing else works. I also had some unprecedented success here recently with a shaky head and a senko. The fish were on the bottom in relatively clear water and ate it up.

Wacky rig gets em every time. My fishing buddies and I joke that we're sponsored by it.

P-Line CXX is the toughest I've ever used. But the memory it has is unreal.

A friend with whom I fish 5 days a week has a couple whopper ploppers and he has done extremely well with them. I haven't gotten one yet but will sometime.

I too used to think my preference for cork was just aesthetic until I bought a Daiwa Zillion rod with split EVA grips. I could not get comfortable using the foam grip. It wasn't nearly as firm as cork and I really like that firm grip. I had to sell the rod, it just bugged me every time I used it. Never used Winn grips but I'm not ruling them out, they look nice.

Well good for you being honest and polite and still standing up to the guy. Give the good guys business and let the sour ones be sour by themselves.

^^^ This guy is a troll. Best to ignore.

Wow, that's ridiculous! Like scaleface said, it would seem a ruler would be a pretty easy thing to get right. Sorry about the bad luck.

Man that's awful. Sorry for the loss. That's why literally *everything* is either tethered or floated on my kayak. Every rod, my tackle back, all of it. Good for you for wearing your PFD. I won't go out in my kayak (except down little creeks) without one.

Thanks for weighing in fellas. I should also have pointed out that the unit is running on its own battery. That battery is powering nothing else. I'll charge it up and see if it still happens. That'll be the real acid test.

Yesterday at the tail end of my morning fishing trip my Helix 5 SI sonar began occasionally shutting itself off. Just out of the blue. I found that I couldn't just turn it back on, but if I removed the power cable and then plugged it back in, it would turn on again. When it'd turn on then, it would only load half of the info bar on the left side (the bottom half- time/gps coords would just be blank) and if I scrolled to GPS view it would say it couldn't get a position fix. After a minute or so it'd get it and work fine for maybe 5 minutes, then shut off. I took the battery out that I'd been using (it's only powering the sonar) and tested the voltage and it was 11.67. I had fully charged it a few days before the trip. Humminbird says the unit will not work at voltage under 10.8 volts, which I am well above. Does anyone have any suggestions or knowledge what caused this? I will charge the battery and see if that changes it but in the meantime I'd be interested to know if anyone else has had this problem.

Budget- Seaguar Invizx. Top shelf- Seaguar Tatsu. Nice tackle, hope you catch some good ones on it!

Prager is hit and miss. At the very least they offer a conservative viewpoint to balance out the intense progressiveness in academia. But this video is very good. I think the best thing said and a good summary to the video is, well, the summary he gave- "Never follow your passion, but take it with you wherever you go". Great advice there.

Where??? How???

Just learned from the deals thread that Cabela's has the Shimano ci4+ reels for $153. That's a complete steal for an amazing reel. Snap it up, OP!

If it's legit (and I have no reason to believe one way or another), snap that up @Wulf_97!

That was one of the best things I've read recently. I tried to think of some but couldn't at the moment. I will fish pretty much regardless of anything. If any small thing with my gear is not quite right (such as last week when I broke a guide off my rod- it still worked perfectly fine) it bugs me to death but I'll still fish.

Good ones to start with: LakeForkGuy, BassFishingJersey, and 1Rod1ReelFishing. Pro tip: Avoid anything with "vlog" in the title if you're just looking for fishing stuff. BassFishingJersey is an up-and-coming young guy who's very articulate and strikes me as being a real honest, down to earth dude who loves fishing.

Depends what you're wanting to use it for, the 6.3 would be great for moving baits and crankbaits, and the 7.2 will be great for jigs and plastics, baits where you're using the rod to create the action and taking in slack with the reel.

I'm one of the rare ones. I have two Tatula Type R reels and one Curado. It would be very difficult for me to say which I like better. They're both fantastic reels and well worth the price. If I absolutely had to pick I would probably say I like the Curado a tiny bit better. I just like the shape and the way it feels in the hand. But again, that's a tiny bit. You honestly can't go wrong with either. Tip: check ebay thoroughly before purchasing either from anywhere else. It's weird, but there are a lot of stores that will sell an item there for a huge discount as opposed to their normal store. For example, I got my first Tatula for $120, MSRP is $200.

Neat looking rig! I haven't fished for carp yet but want to some day. That seems like a clever idea for keeping them hooked.

I'm with the "Spend at least $300 on the rod and reel" camp. A high end rod and reel are a joy to use in themselves, whether or not the fish are biting, and will give you pleasure and good service for years and years. Mediocre, or "good enough" $40 Walmart rods and reels will work, yes, but you'll be missing a fun component of fishing: using and enjoying good gear. For your budget I'd go with a Shimano Stradic FK and a $100 rod by the company we can't name, or a Dobyns Fury or Powell Max 3d. That setup will be fantastic. Here's the idea; a big chunk of money is hard to accumulate. You happen to be lucky enough to have one right now; use it on something that requires that big chunk of money. You can always save $10 or $15 for some extra baits anytime. $400 takes longer.

Well, ok. 13, Kistler, St. Croix, and Lucky Craft for the rods. Daiwa, Shimano, and Lews for the reels.