G-Prime

Rocked an 8ft Bass Raider from craigslist for several years but, finally joined the "real" boat club with a Cajun 174zw with a 115 Yamaha, fish-and-ski was the only way I could sell it to the other half.

Eh, seen some guys with a boat full of lightning rods and abu rods win tourneys in my local fishery. Having said that, I have a value-defect based on FOMO so I'll buy d**n near anything cool if its on sale. I've accumulated a pretty good collection of 100-150$ rods that were sale/clearance for the 50-80$ range and I'll say they "feel" better than my cheaper rods but I can't say I catch more or less fish with either - could all be in my head. As was mentioned before, the price vs performance definitely tapers off at some point. The price vs performance point will be different person to person depending on skill and type of fishing.

I'll second the Braid (I use power pro) + whatever leader, works pretty well for me and saves some money. Braid lasts a long time and since I only use a few feet of FC or Mono at a time a single spool of each has been working for a couple years now. This is especially useful when you fish with very little gear, on the kayak I only carry 1 or maybe 2 rods and switching leaders for different jobs is quick an easy. Just for me, this setup has the most utility - I don't have the luxury of having an individual line/rod/reel setup for each specific technique so each of my rods has to cover a few bases.

For me, the boat has more utility for where and how I fish. Plus I occasionally take a family member or a kid. A little off subject but have you considered one of those plastic pontoon style boats like the basshunter or bassraider? Just asking because I was recently in a similar situation trying to decide between a kayak and a little jon boat. After fishing out of a sit on top kayak for a month or so I tried out one of the plastic pontoon style boats - i bought a used one the very next week and haven't used the kayak since. Easy back of truck transport similar to a bigger kayak, can launch pretty much anywhere a kayak can, more room for tackle/rods/stuff, can stand up fish or use the swivel seats, and can also carry my brother every once in a while. It is quite comfortable to fish alone but cramped with 2 people although it is doable.

I usually use a bobber of some sort with young kids, you can still bobber a senko or a fluke and reel and twitch it, the fish in ponds around here aren't offended at all by that presentation and it keeps me from having to unsnag or retie the kids lure every 5 minutes. My favorite version of this is one of those little crappie jigs under a Styrofoam bobber, they catch fish and have fun and I can fish in between taking bream off their lines. You probably have plenty of stuff that would work fine, if he is just learning to cast, in the spirit of safety and not wanting him to have a bad experience I would avoid treble hooks for the time being, if you've fished with young kids enough you know one of them or you has gotten hooked on wild casts before, a hook in the back will ruin a fishing day real fast for a kid. Floating worms and senkos sink so slowly that as long as he is so-so reeling hes likely to never touch bottom, a light wire hook will do most of the work by itself as far a hooksets go.

May not be what you're looking for but I always catch fish around the spawn on this bluegill paddle tail I mostly use the sunfish ones, three to a pack for 6 bucks or so and they catch fish. http://www.cabelas.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=738373&type=product&WT.ac=YMAL-738373&WT.z_pg_ref=prd1707124 http://www.cabelas.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=1707124&type=product&WT.ac=YMAL-1707124&WT.z_pg_ref=prd738373

Make a list and buy on sale, especially out of season. I loaded up on cordell big O's, super spots, and Bomber square A's a couple years ago at a walmart for less than two bucks each. Another thing I do is buy discounted gift cards online from cardcookie for places that are having sales, bass pro, cabelas cards usually save you around 15% on top of whatever you are buying. Keep an eye on the deals thread and garage sale thread here on BR, and you'll be drowning in tackle in no time.

On those days I have to remind myself to SLOW DOWN, more often than not in those conditions I usually head out and cover what I can with my normal search stuff crank/chatter/fluke and usually after about 20 30 casts with no action I throw on a Texas rig worm/craw and and bring my fishing speed to a grinding halt, we are talking several minutes on casts a lot of the time and that is usually when I'm able to pick up a few bites and avoid being skunked. Aside from the Texas rig I sometimes drop-shot, shaky head or wacky worm as well, just helps me keep it slow. If you have the discipline and the patience, fishing very slow is hands down the best way to avoid a skunk.

Not sure how good of deal this is because I've seen the prices drop on these Pflueger President Spinning Reels in several places and now they are down to like 42 bucks on amazon for the 6-8lb sizes. I haven't had any experience with these but if I needed a spinning reel I wouldn't hesitate to try it, amazon have the easiest returns on the planet. Here is the link to what I was looking at its the 6935 6lb model https://www.amazon.com/Pflueger-President-Spinning-8-Pound-185-Yard/dp/B005OU1CLW/ref=sr_1_1?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1494265389&sr=1-1&keywords=Pflueger%2BPresident%2BSpinning%2B6935&th=1&psc=1 Side note, Does anyone know if LTB still does that 5$ first box? Thinking about trying one but couldn't find a promo code for it. And do the codes only work on the 15 dollar box or is it possible to get the XL first box for 5$?

I appreciate the warm welcome, I've lurked for awhile and have learned a lot and now as a genuine registered member I hope to learn a lot more. Thanks in advance !

Good evening, it's my first post despite being a long time lurker. Well enjoy everyone. Also I'm looking for some early June fishing tips from folks that fish South East waters https://goo.gl/images/V9PF6a