Troy85

Is there any better sound than a screaming spinning reel drag?????

Seems unnecessary to me. That's what the drag is for.

Sometimes? Do fish ever bite downwind? Sometimes I swear they are like deer, and can smell my boat if they are downwind. ?

Trying to setup a trip to Toledo Bend this October. Thinking of staying at Fin and Feather. I was checking out their website, looks like a nice place. Anyone here stayed their recently and can give me some first hand info on their experience? Edit: Past few years I have stayed at AirBnbs on San Miguel. I was looking to change it up this year.

It can dig in on snags, but its usually easily fixed by doing a long cast. I find its easier to cast, but it can be less forgiving if you do get a bad birds nest. I'm sure you will find others on these forums that swear the complete opposite. I use braid on 5 of my bait casters, and straight fluro on 1. I've noticed that my fluro will bird nest easier than my braid, especially casting into the wind. If you set your brake system and spool tension correctly, it shouldn't be to bad of a learning curve. If your worried about birds nests set your brake and spool tension high, you won't be able to cast near as far, but it will help prevent over spin while you're still learning. I use Suffix 832, I have no complaints. I generally use 40lb(10lb mono equiv), but you can use 50lb. I use 40lb because its more than enough strength for where I fish, and I like being able to have more on the spool, means I have to re-spool less often.

Would you consider braid? If you plan on using a fluro leader anyway, you could spool braid. I find braid is the easiest to cast on a bait caster, and it doesn't have any memory.

GFCI outlets are more sensitive than a regular breaker, if your charger is tripping a GFCI, it could be the charger or it could be the GFCI outlet. Your tripping 2 GFCIs, so I'm leaning towards charger. Add in that charger is also tripping a regular breaker, and you're feeling a shock, I'd say its almost certainly an issues with the charger. @TnRiver46 you're not lying when you say that magneto packs a punch.

I have the same experience with white. I fish tidal marshes on both the East and West side of the Mississippi river. On the east side I have much more success using white(jigs or swim baits) than I do on the West side, so much so that I don't even throw white when fishing my spots on the west side. Unless its a Shad colored crank bait, those work on both sides of the river.

I've never had to try cinnamon. When I throw a Senko its either Watermelon red or junebug, bass down here seem to like those colors. My brother loves to throw bubble gum Senkos, I think its looks ridiculous, but he catches fish so I can't complain.

My trolling motor is almost never all the way down, unless I'm fishing rough water. I usually have about about 6"-1' sticking above the mount.

Seems like your only option at this point is to use some of those savings and a buy another tackle box. ?

Thanks Francho. Question, I fish around a lot of wood and grass. Do you think I should upgrade to 8 or 10# or will the loss of lure action be affected to much by the larger line diameter?

I want to learn to fish a drop shot. What do you recommend as far as a good spinning rod/reel combo. I'd like to keep the total cost to $200 or less. 1. Rod/Reel Brand and model 2. Rod length/action/power 3.Line size(I plan on using either fluro or mono) A little info about where I fish, to help with your recommendations. Mostly wood and grass. Largemouth or spotted bass only(no smallies). Water clarity a maximum of about 4', average clarity 2'ish. Thanks in advance.

Those are some nice looking crank baits. I love fishing crank baits, probably my favorite way to catch em....Well, probably second favorite, 1st has to be top water naturally.

I've caught plenty of bass under a poppin cork while redfishing in brackish waters, but I never use a cork when exclusively bass fishing. Can't explain why. haha

I happens in SE Louisiana as well. Usually in August. I remember one time I experienced it, we were all Surf fishing in Grand Isle, it was a hot August day. It started with crabs, it seemed like out of nowhere you were stepping on crabs every step, I remember my grandma was just scooping them up with a dip net, and they would get so thick around your feet, you would have to spin in a circle to clear your path. Then came the trout and redfish, I was picking up trout and redfish from the surf.

@J Francho. I don't think that white t-shirt guy in the last pic you posted has the same passion for fishing that you do...LOL

You got me curious about the rules so i looked it up. Here are a couple quotes from the rules. "When idling in shallow areas, anglers are allowed to ask Marshals to move their sitting position as long as the Marshal can place his feet in the bottom of the boat." "During the competition days, competitors must not depart the boat to land fish or to make the boat more accessible to fishing waters" "Competitors are allowed to leave the boat to retrieve a lure." "Competitors and Marshals are allowed to leave the boat and seek safe shelter in bad weather where danger may be imminent"

https://www.bassmaster.com/slideshow/how-id-grass-and-fish-it-effectively This helped me some with identifying vegetation types.

I bought a 1.5 sexy shad and tried it out this past Sunday. Caught 11 Bass and 3 Redfish with it. Would my H2O express in shad color worked just as well? I guess we will never know, when the fish are biting, its hard to change lures just to see what happens haha.

I have 3 different jig colors that I throw. My bottom jigs are either black/blue or the Strike king Sexy Craw, I throw both with either a junebug or watermelon red brush hog trailer depending on water clarity. For swim jigs, I only throw white skirt with a white or chartreuse grub as a trailer. If I use the white trailer, I almost always dip the tail in Chartreuse JJs magic. Chartreuse just makes everything better.

I caught a couple like that yesterday. They were very light colored, like a very pale green and had almost no black stripe at all. I caught them probably 200 yards from the nearest grass on a large offshore bulkhead put in place to prevent erosion. My assumption is they live out there near that bulk head most of the year, and don't get the darker colors like the fish that live in the grass.

Funny. Sometimes I think "I wish we had less grass!" Sometimes I wish we had more rock, or gravel haha. Sometimes I get tired of of the grass.

Just curious as to others thoughts. I love to throw a square bill, where I fish is mostly shallow, so I'm almost always throwing a square bill that dives 5' or less. I've pretty much always throw the H2Oxpress square bills that Academy sells. They are usually $3.50 or less, where as the KVD 1.5 is $6-7. My question is, has anyone used a KVD 1.5 vs another off brand, and if so have you seen a noticeable difference in catch rate? Is the 1.5 worth the extra $3-4?

Wob-L-Rite gold spoons.