U-boat Aficionado

I have a black loon colored Whopper Plopper I throw in the evening and it works well. It's also fun to use with the unique sound and spitting wake. But like any new lure there's hype involved. If the fish are biting I get similar results with torpedo or spook type lures. If money is burning a hole in your pocket, it's a neat lure and well made for the price.

A swivel is needed when trolling lures or maybe with spinners to avoid line twist, otherwise a snap is convenient to use as has been mentioned. Snaps are great timesavers if you use one rod and dont want to constantly re-tie.

Glenn, I think it's a generational thing. I like and appreciate the more formal, teaching aspects of your videos. You're trying to show how to do something, not put on a show. In many ways, and unfortunately, that's becoming an antiquated concept. Look at the really popular channels and it's fishing for the ADD crowd with quick edits, nonstop gags and hipster music. So to compare channels is really apples and oranges or even apples and washing machines - they're just from different worlds.

If I were to recommend no-nonsense, informative how-to videos where you actually learn, it would be the ones from here. But right now the young guys/kids running around showing what they had for lunch and how they bought a spool of line at Walmart are the ones getting all the attention and because of that, they show up in the searches.

Channels have started to pull in sponsors and a bit of cash so they're in a race to outdo each other for crazy stunts and gags while plugging the gear they're now advertising. It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye. I don't really watch any but stumbled across Extreme Philly Fishing run by a young guy who's a real fish nut and loves catching as many species as he can, even micro fishing. His enthusiasm comes off as genuine and there's nothing at all "slick" about his videos, unlike the amateurs who quickly became "pros".

I prefer the actual fighting of the fish on spinning gear.

Great tip Blue, saltwater stuff with heavy hooks are great. I like to use bright Clousers for smallmouth. Last night, back up north here, I was using the same bugger and got a nice smallie then lost what looked like a three plus pounder. He jumped once and threw the hook.

I was trying to catch big bluegill at the pond but instead hooked into some bass! Caught a couple little ones, a couple decent ones and lost a bigger one. I used a bead head woolly bugger that I let sink through the duck weed on the surface and slowly striped it in. With a 5 wt. rod, even the little guys are a good fight, the big ones are a war. If anyone is thinking of trying fly fishing, go for it! It's easy to pick up with a bit of practice and an effective, satisfying way to catch fish.

I have both a BPS Pro Qualifier and Lews LFS and prefer the smaller profile and smoothness of the Lews. I can't comment on which will perform better over the long haul, but both are very nice reels. The rest of the reels mentioned are nice as well, I'm sure!

The Veritas is great for pond fishing, and I've gotten nice fish with mine. I think you'll be pleased with it.

It is a saltwater fly so this is my poor man's bonefish. Yes, that is the water color and clarity on my lake. Right now it's elmerald and turquoise with patches of dark blue in the shade of passing clouds and is a lot like the Keys. The fish tend to be small but I'm pretty lucky.

Out for the first time this year hunting smallmouth with the fly rod and hooked this good looking guy on a chartreuse and white streamer. I got a nice jump from him but he teased me by inviting an even bigger one to follow him up to the canoe. I plan on doing most of my smallie fishing this summer with the fly rod as I have a ton of gaudy poppers and streamers waiting to get wet.

I fished a few minutes yesterday and got another, so certainly keep on trying! One tip I tried was to slightly bend the hooks out with pliers from the frog body. It seems to have helped. If you look on the big auction site, you can find decent quality frogs for cheap from China. It's a good way to practice without spending too much.

I would. You can fit a ton of tackle into the two boxes that come with it, much more than you'd ever need for a day or two or three of fishing. I use smaller Plano 3500 boxes, so there's even more room in the main compartment. Then all your additional items fit in the other zippered areas. And, as I mentioned, I like the reflective color dealing with traffic. I also like the way the single sling sits on my back and makes casting easy with the strap coming across the left shoulder I compared this to the Spiderwire sling at Dicks and thought the Abu was the better bag for my needs. Plus the price was right with the current sale.

LOL. Was just about to post the same thing as I picked one up this weekend. Several internal zippered pockets, a soft fabric lined pocket for sunglasses, external rod holder, a big compartment on the side for a water bottle (could also be used for other things but I love this feature), and a nice loop for pliers/hemostats on front of the strap. It comes with two large boxes. For me, this is a perfect size for bank fishing or in the boat. I also like the hi-vis color when I'm crossing a road at the end of a fishing day.

Never fished a frog before and ended up missing a lot of better ones before finally getting a couple. I'm striking too early and probably not hard enough. One that didn't hook up looked like a monster. You can see the slop on the pond and this guy came in with about two pounds of muck stuck to the line. Pretty fun to see them hammer a frog in a couple inches of water. Was using 30 lb. braid on a Veritas rod and Lews reel.

The retention pond was full of big tadpoles and I bet those fish wait by that outlet to suck down the ones that flow through. Thanks for all the comments!

I was down in PA for the week and fished a small private pond. The weather was rain and cold but I got a lot of smallish bass on a wacky rigged Yum Dinger, a few on a rattletrap and a lot of hits (but no hookups) on a frog in the slop as the fish were hanging right near shore. Thursday evening I cast a wacky worm next to a drain from a small retention pond and hooked into a big one. I was using light spinning with six pound test so it was a good fight, but when I tried to pull the fish up to the dock my line broke at the hook and I lost her. Ugh. Flash forward to Saturday morning, I was getting ready to go home so I cast a wacky worm where I'd hooked into that big one. I got a bite and had another nice fish. This time I was able to land it and what did I see as I reached in with my forceps to get the hook out? The Gamakatsu I'd lost two days earlier stuck in her mouth! So I not only got the fish again, I also got my hook back plus a picture of her. Since I don't get a lot of opportunities to fish for largemouth, this is likely my personal best.

Yep, the safety pin trick will change your life! One thing, just make sure when you open up the pin to get a hook off make sure the point is facing up cause those hooks love to slide off fast.

So big it could have been a fish stick!

Sorry it's not a bass, but it's opening day of trout season here in NY and the weather was nice so I hit up the local stream a few minutes from home. Managed to get one little stocked rainbow on a Mepps spinner and ultralight tackle. Bass fishing is still a ways off up here so I'll keep hitting the stream for a few weeks.

Thanks. Seeing them stalk and blow up on a surface bait is the best!

LOL, I'd never declare anything for $55 on a customs form.

Fishing a tiny (maybe 1/4 acre at most) private pond in SE Pennsylvania over the weekend and caught a few nice ones. The fish in the photo was the second biggest and was taken on a BPS Professional Series popper. I saw it come up under the popper while it was sitting motionless no more than 15 feet from the rod tip, I gave a small twitch and it exploded on it. A nice fight getting it out of that slop on my new Veritas, Lews SS and 8lb mono. I don't have a photo of the biggest which I also caught top water but with ultralight tackle and 4lb mono on a tiny 3cm Salmo Lil Bug. That was an epic fight and I almost broke it off when it managed to wrap around the dock post. Caught fish on a bunch of various lures like the new Berkley Warpig lipless crank, wacky rigged Dingers, and the Whopper Plopper.

I'd look at the Lews LFS. I have a PQ and a Lews and prefer the Lews, it just seems to feel better to me. Plus you can get them new for under $80 on the auction site.