NYWayfarer

No. There are “good” rods at $100 and under. Some of my favorites are St Croix Triumph Lew’s TP1X Fenwick Eagle Fenwick HMX Abu Garcia Vendetta Abu Garcia Vengeance

Add some more bonus points for the flipping switch on the Abu Max STX. It’s the reason I bought that reel.

Glad to see you didn’t loose your sense of humor. My Prayers go out to you for a full and speedy recovery.

Before this year the earliest I caught a fish, much less a Bass was March 28th in the upper Capital Region. My first fish this year was a Largemouth Bass and it was on March 25th at one of the local ponds. It was ice free for a week before I went and tried my luck.

My father in-law and I were fishing an inlet for Fluke when we decided to head out into the ocean. We were near the three mile out buoy when a fog came rolling from land out towards us in open water. Since he was used to always fishing the inlet my Father in-law had no radio or compass aboard… We pointed the boat towards the mouth of the inlet and headed full speed towards it as the fog swept over us. Luckily we made it before poor visibility made it impossible to distinguish direction. We had a few shots that night. Radio and compass were always with us after that

Not a new bait by any means, but new to me, the Zoom Speed Worm. I finally found some at my local Ollie’s of all places. Always wanted to try them.

Great advice from @WRB That’s the way I added line to my reels for years. I have invested in a few bait spooling stations over the years. My current favorite is the Kastking Kalibrate. I bought it for the line counter feature but it has an adjustable spool mount for baitcasters or spinning reels so the line goes on without twist.

The local pond here is finally ice free. I went fishing on a 36 degree Friday morning with the hopes of catching a Perch or Pickerel. Using my Revo X 20 spinning reel spooled with 6# Vanish on a Medium Light Fenwick HMX rod, I tied on a Eurotackle Z-Spender 1/8 oz Jerkbait in Perch color. To my shock while casting around some structure I caught my first fish of 2022 and it was a Largemouth Bass. I had a lot of luck the rest of the day with a Blue Fox Vibrax in-line spinner tied on my Revo SX spooled with 10# mono on a St Croix Bass X Medium casting rod. 4 Pickerel on that lure I returned this morning with the same setup and caught another Largemouth. I am just so happy to be able to catch fish again. It’s been a long winter and these fish brightened my weekend.

Abu Garcia Elite Max $79.99 would be my recommendation

Mine is wearing a Batman T-shirt, jeans and hiking boots. Accessories include, a tablet, fishing rod and reel combo, Ray Ban Wayfarer sunglasses and a chocolate chip cookie. Action figure named “50 going on 15” and comes in a box shaped like a TARDIS

I have not seen the soft plastic Ozark Trail baits at my local Walmarts. They have plenty of Ozark Trail hard baits, except the ones I want the most. Lipless crank baits.

I have been using rubber coated split shot that I found on Amazon. I find they don’t damage the line as much as traditional split shot weights. THKFISH Fishing Weights Sinkers Split Shot Fishing Weights Removable Rubber Weights

I prefer to be clean shaven. I can’t grow a decent beard anyway. I prefer to keep my hair at a certain length so I get a haircut monthly.

I admit I like my combo colors to match. A Lew’s Pro TI or Abu Garcia Revo Ike on a Googan green rod is not going to cut it unless I was the Joker. The Abu Garcia Revo X baitcasters and spinning reels with the all black finish go with everything. I like how my Revo X and Zata reels look on the new St Croix Bass X rods.

I bought a spool of 10# Basix. I should be able to test it out by this time next month.

Do you like a full cork handle, go with the premier. Do you like a split grip cork handle, go with the Mojo. Or a BPS exclusive split grip Premier. Colors: Premier is a glossy black finish, Mojo is a purple finish. Origin: Premier USA, Mojo Mexico Personally when I had the choice I went with a Premier.

The only almost 100% gonna catch something lure I have in my arsenal is a Eurotackle micro finesse EPF swim on a 1/32 oz jighead. When I say something I mean Bass, Sunfish, Perch, Fallfish, Pickerel and Carp all on this one multi-species bait. My other go to lures to catch something would be a wacky rigged Senko and a Ned rigged TRD

For bank fishing I now use the Samurai Tactical Seigyo Slim Tackle Backpack. It’s in the Goldilocks zone of “just right” size for me. It fits my plastics, tackle box, tools and a folding net and tripod for taking pics.

I leave the Z-man stuff in the packs they come in. I have a Plano Guide series Worm Wrap that I place the packs in for traveling. No worries about melting or warped boxes this way.

Keep resting and I hope you have a swift recovery.

If I am not throwing a Rat L Trap then it’s a Warpig, Red Eye Shad or a Cordell Spot.

Those Bass Mafia boxes are great. I got mine on BF sale and use some coupons at Dick’s. Only have one though, the rest of mine are the Flambeau Tuff Tainers for the Zerust dividers.

This is true. That being said I prefer cork handles, they look classy. Seal them and they last a long time. Easy to repair if they chip. I like the handles on the new Abu Garcia Vendetta rods. They have a carbon handle that looks and feels great.