IndianaFinesse

If it's for use as a leader, I would recommend getting either line designed for leaders or tatsu. But for use as mainline, red label is what I would recommend, unless you can afford tatsu which from what I heard (I haven't ever actually tried it) is the best.

I have tried it as a main line, but it has so much memory I have come to hate it. I haven't had any problems with breaking off, and the knot strength is decent, but the casting distance in squat and it is forever getting tangled because of the memory. I do use the fifteen pound as a leader, it actually has pretty good abrasion resistance and knot strength. And the memory doesn't matter at all with leaders. But some people love it, and some don't, so even though I hate it I would still recommend trying it since its super cheap anyways. I might take it up to at least twelve pound test for fishing jigs though.

This morning I managed to get out for four hours before the full force of the pleasure boaters destroyed the fishing. Caught about thirty five bass, with five over fifteen inches for a total of 10.8 pounds. Most ate a spook early in the morning, and some ate a Ned rig skipped under docks. I targeted the same areas as yesterday. In the late afternoon I decided to try to go catfishing, figuring they would be up shallow feeding heavily before the spawn. Well, I was right. In 45 minutes I caught two channel cats, on weighing twelve pounds and the other twelve and a half. They are up shallow in traditional spawning areas, protected from the wind, sunken tires, etc. I caught them on a strip of bluegill meat fished weightless, that sounds pretty normal but the retrieve isn't. I was doing what bluebasser calls, "bass fishing for catfish" which means that instead of casting out and just waiting for the catfish to bite, you cast it out and allow it to sink to the bottom before slowly reeling it in. It covers a lot more water that way and is much less boring than watching a rod tip.

Fished this morning and late afternoon for about five hours total. Don't know why, but the size was much better today. I caught 33 bass with eight over fifteen inches, and my best five weighed 12.4 pounds. I started out throwing a basspro slashbait that the bill had broken off of, and it actually has much better action without the bill and walked quite well. I targeted submerged weed beds in two to eight feet of water, and later on the docks next to the same shorelines. Around 10:30 or so the bass moved under docks where I caught them skipping the zeach-z underneath them. The heat (and pleasure boaters) were horrible this afternoon, I had to make sure I got snagged underneath docks a few times as an excuse to go swimming to get them out.

I would guess a brown bullhead, but I wouldn't bet on it.

It looks like a brown bullhead to me. It looks similar to a small channel cat, but channels have forked tails unlike bullheads so it must be a bullhead.

Very helpful and well written piece. Thanks for taking the time to write it, you should submit it as an article to bassresource.

I use the Alberto knot for braid to flouro leader connection, and haven't had any problems with it. Everyone has a favorite, try a few to see which on you tie best. As far as the knot breaking, it is the weak point in the line but not by squat. I have caught (and weighed) carp up to 38 pounds, channel catfish up to 16, and bass up to 8.2 pounds using a eight to ten pound flourocarbon leader tied to braid without breaking off on any fish, aside from fish with teeth or when they wrap the line around something. FFO stands for fishing factory outlet, which it basically is. They sell deadly discounted items from several brands such as pfluegar, Abu Garcia, Fenwick, pen, Berkley, Shakespeare etc. They sell items that don't have this year's packaging, last year's models, and reconditioned items that are like new. I buy nearly all of my rods and reels from them, I can't normally afford two hundred dollar rods but from FFO it's only sixty. And although for the most part they aren't this year's model (except for reconditioned itmes), there usually aren't that many differences between year models and certainly not fifty to seventy percent difference.

Yeah, you're probably right. I didn't think about the fact that catching a bass causes them to lose weight and spend a lot of energy.

I wouldn't worry about it. Unless you are keeping them it doesn't really matter anyways.

I would suggest a ~6'9" m/f or a ~6'9" ml/f spinning rod depending on what you normally use. Spool that up with eight to ten pound braid and adjust the leader line to the situation. For the baitcaster a 6'6"-7' mh/f rod will definitely be the most versatile. Spool that up with thirty to fifty pound braid, and again adjust the leader to the situation. Now for the specific rod/reel/lines. Get the spinning rod from FFO, they have a Abu Garcia Verdict in the right specifications and it is only fifty bucks instead of the retail price of one hundred and thirty. Again from FFO ( I love that place:), they have an Abu Garcia Orra for forty dollars instead of the msrp of seventy. This combo will only cost you 90$. As for which brand of braid, I'm not picky but I very slightly prefer powerpro. Just get whatever braid is on sale. Now on to the casting rod. Get the Fenwick hmg from FFO. And I would get the H20 mettle casting reel from academy, it is one of the few casting reels under one hundred dollars with a centrifugal braking system and it performs more like a reel in th 100$-150$ price range. This combo will run you right at one hundred dollars, but it is well worth it.

I would use ten pound, (the actual breaking strength is about double the advertised test so it would actually be twenty pound test) it is unlikely that you would use a leader over fifteen pound, so the leader knot will always be the weak spot. Fifteen will work fine to, but I like the thin 8#-10# test braid because of the increased casting distance. Just change the leader strength to match the different situations you face. But you can use as heavy a line as you want, I don't really know why they chose those pound tests.

Fished for about four hours today. It started out slow, but ended up with seventeen bass. I tried an upsized version of the zeach-z using four and a half inches of the zinkerz hoping for a little better size. Most of the bass were still little 13-14 inches long, but five were over fifteen inches, so I guess it was a success. I haven't been using the swimbait anymore because I broke it off yesterday when the leader knot caught on a guide during the cast, causing the line to break and the swimbait sailed off. I ordered another one so it should come early next week, but for now I'm just going to enjoy catching more than a fish per hour.. The water clarity is down to a little over a foot from all of the algae and the mud from all of the boat traffic. The bass were under docks in two to eight feet of water on or near points, so the bass must be slowly migrating out to there summer areas.

Get a pfluegar Trion and match it with a medium-lite lightning rod from FFO. The combo costs just under fifty bucks, and both the Trion and the lightning rod perform well above there price.

I hope savage gear releases a 5" version of the line thru trout, it would be awesome for bass feeding on shad. I have the six inch and like it, but would love it if it was a little smaller so that it catches more of those important fifteen inch bass in tournament's but still gets kickers. I wouldn't mind trying the savage gear rat to, all of there other gear is awesome so I have high hopes.

I prefer carpet as it is easier to kneel on and it dampens the noise a little. The down side to it is that it doesn't last forever, gets dirty easily, and is hard to clean. Even with all of the downsides, the good things about carpet out weigh the bad.

It's not quite like that, and I have tried the hula stickz. Picture starting with the scissors at the back of the bait and cutting it length wise up to the hook. Then cutting one of the halves off, leaving the plastic not on the hook shank cut in half. The video is on page one of the 2016 icast wish list.

Thanks for all of the advice! I was planning on buying a spro rat, but unfortunately I broke off on my line thru trout yesterday so I can't afford to get a rat in addition to that. While ordering I saw the savage gear 5" trout for 7$ and it looked interesting, so I decided to give it a try. Next time I order I will definitely pick up a spro rat in the morning dawn color and hopefully a glide bait to.

I use a 6'10", medium-lite Abu Garcia villain spinning rod with a 2500 size Abu Garcia Orra. The Orra is spooled with a 8 pound gliss, usually with a short 8-10 pound test flourocarbon leader.

30# braid is a great multi-purpose line. I might try 832 instead though, it's much rounder and casts farther than regular powerpro.

Finesse fishing works just as well in muddy water as it does in clear water. They just rely on there other senses more. The water around here usually has two feet or less of visibility, yet the Ned rig still catches a ton of fish even when the water clarity is as low as a couple inches. What I do when the water gets very muddy is switch to either the coppertruse colored trd or the junebug color and smear some megastrike on it.

You will be blown away by how many fish it catches. I know I sure was the first time I tried it two years ago, and I expected it to be just a gimmick. If you have any questions on how to use the Ned rig, just ask us. Got out this afternoon for about four hours. I tried a Ned rig modification called the "zeach-z" recommended by bluebasser. It's basically a little over half a zinkerz that has the tail cut length wise through the middle up to just behind the hook so that it has more action. I caught 43 bass, all of them on the zeach-z skipped underneath docks on or near points with rip rap shorelines in two to ten feet of water. I also hooked a monster something that broke my line, my guess would be a big walleye because the line broke an inch above the bait and not at the leader knot like it usually does. The line didn't have any frays in it, and I didn't feel it rub the line on anything so I think that it's teeth cut it.

Same here, it works so welI that I just can't put the Ned rig down.

If the keeper is made of lead, it won't work on elaz-tech. The only keeper that does is a sharp wire keeper that is on the z-man finesse shroomz, and it is impossible for it to slip down with that style of keeper. And if you could send the z-man stuff you don't use to the rest of us, that would be great.