Airman4754

Ideally you want a 45 degree point with the wind blowing across it instead of into or away. If the wind is blowing across it position your boat into the wind and cast across it and work the bait back up hill towards you. If you have a lake with deep points use your electronics to get a general idea of how deep the fish are holding. When I get the ideal wind condition I like to throw a big swimbait about a foot from shore, then I go out deeper and work back up. If you are going to get bit on a big swimbait that first cast is when it's going to happen. If the wind is blowing into the point I position my boat as close to the point as I can and work up hill. If the wind is blowing away I go out and fish down hill. Bait goes with the wind and the fish position themselves accordingly. For the areas between points look for transition areas on the bank; big rock to little rocks, clay to big rocks, etc. If you have a bank that all looks the same it's probably dead water unless there are stumps or boulders on it down in the water that you know of. Reservoir fishing is very cut and dry from a boat and on shore. You know where the fish are, don't waste time.

If BPS stays with their insane prices and shipping costs Tackle Warehouse will lap them by 2020, and they should.

I have about 300 of them in my drop shot box and they are all crammed. It hasn't really done anything to them and the fish don't seem to mind.

I caught one last year on a 68 Weedless that couldn't have been more than 12". If a largemouth is motivated they will get anything they want.

I caught a bass with no color. Just silver. Oh, I caught a crappie too, been awhile.

Albright, wrap it nine times. Make sure you use the smaller diameter line as the one you wrap. It's very important you lubricate the lines before you sinch them. I use the same leader WAY too long. I've got entire seasons with the same leader and have still never had the knot fail on any rig.

I haven't fished one but I handled a few of them at Cabelas. They are very well made.

With the 200's shaving it down and throwing a split ring on the front of it we could get 6" of extra glide each way consistently. With the 168's it was much less, but I do like the action much better when you kill it or twitch it.

I would do all the same mods to that as I would with an S-Waver. If it's a cheaper starting platform then it's a good deal. Yep. Whenever I read Fat Impact is better than Speed Shad I laugh. A red Corvette is faster than a green Corvette, because it's red!

I have a couple of the Team Lite reels which are the SLP with a different handle and they are awesome. I might suggest a Team Lite, personally I like the foam/cork handle a lot better than the golf club. It's $20 less too.

Shooter is my favorite, but best budget would be P-line 100% fluoro. The P-line runs a little big for it's test rating so you have to go a little lighter in the rating, but all P-line is that way.

Ditto

How about that! Two future presidents and Mr. Bass all one one stage. If W, Jeb, and Hillary were there that's three future presidents, a governor, and a Secretary of State all at one weigh-in. Super Bowls don't get that kind of power.

Is that Bill Clinton standing behind Rick Clunn on stage at the 84 Classic?

2ea - 6" Sexy Shad Robo 2ea - 7" M3 Robo 2ea - Baby Bass Keitech Custom Leech 1ea- Z-man TRD in GP 1ea- Z-man Chatterbait in white 1ea- Keitech Fat Impact in Bream 1ea- 6th Sense lipless in lava craw

Just off the top of my head; 13 Black *** uses 40ton carbon. Phenix Recons uses 36ton carbon. Okuma Helios uses 40ton I believe. Dobyn's Sierra would be somewhere in that neighborhood. Whatever line uses at least an SCIV blank from St Croix should be in that price range. If you're ok with a used rod bump up your budget by $50 and you can get about anything out there besides an NRX.

I have never looked for bait fish at any point in my 30ish years of bass fishing. Don't read fishing reports. They will either give you a too negative or too positive of a mindset. Unless the weather is unsafe don't pay too much attention to it. Points, structure, cover, humps, grass, and much farther down the list is wood. That's all I look for anywhere. I fish more new water than old and can't remember five times I went home disappointed. Sure, there are slow days but I know I am on fish. They will be in one of these six areas year round, 24/7. If you show me an acre of water 90% of it is dead. A piece of advice I can give is don't let trees fool you. If it's the middle of the day, mid summer then sure, great cover. The rest of the year ask yourself if the trees weren't there would there be any bass there? If the answer is no then it's more than likely dead water. Docks fall into this too. As far as matching the hatch use common sense in a new area. It almost always will have crawfish, bream, and some type of shad/minnow. Keep the colors simple. Everywhere in this country fishes close to the same. The depth, fish transition related to time of year, current, and tides are the only real X factors I have noticed.

I use 20lb PP Super Slick 8 and 12lb CXX for a leader for shakey heads. 10lb fluoro for drop shot.

Got a 7'6" ML/XF St Croix, Legend Xtreme on the way for drop shotting.

Like every hardcore bass guy whenever a new technique hits the streets and people are having success with it all over I go out and buy it. I've fished the Ned before, but I've never done better than drop shotting or anything else with it. I always believed it was a good technique unlike the buzz bait which is absolute witchcraft. Today all of that changed. I fished three different ponds today between lunch and after work and caught at least twenty fish. I've never caught anything close to those numbers on those ponds before. It seemed like every cast I either caught a fish or had a pan fish hit it. I now believe in the Ned Rig!

I will take your word for it.

I've thrown them. I even own a black and white one. I've had one fish swipe at one and miss, but have never caught one. Sometimes it just isn't meant to be.

I will throw a 7" tequilla sunrise on a jig rig occasionally. I drag a 10-12" worm constantly in the summer.

I don't throw buzz baits.

7'8" Phenix M1, MH/F (very soft rod though), Lew's Tournament Lite 7:1, 20lb PP Super Slick 8, 10lb fluoro leader if I'm in open water, 15lb fluoro leader in grass.