FishDewd

Depends on what I am fishing for... if I am going for bait perch out of my creek, then I will use a small size 1 or so Gamakatsu dropshot hook. Deadly for perch with a small piece of bait of choice. For most other bigger things, I've gotten to where I prefer a spinshot hook, size 1 to size 3. Reasons being that I like that I can attach a sacrifice line to the end eyelet in case of a snag- this way I lose the weight but not the whole rig. Also, I like the fact that the spinshots cannot get tangled onto itself because it has a built in swivel that always has the bait facing underneath the line no matter what. I get better hook-ups with this set-up. But that's just my personal preference.

Definitely don't trash it, it's a good line. Personally I don't have luck with baitcasters with anything other than braid, but a lot of that could have to do with memory. If you have your brake all the way and it's still jumping off, that sounds like the likely issue if it's happening at the beginning of the cast. That spool of p-line is pretty big compared to the small diameter of the BC spool. So it may just be a matter of needing to spool it tighter and letting it sit for a bit before you use it. I need to try that one day actually since I've had the same issue with mono/CP/FC lines on baitcasters. I really only use p-line on my spinning set-ups though, and for that purpose it's excellent. I normally dunk the spool in some warm water for few minutes though to help reduce the memory then it never gives me an issue. Just be sure to regrease your washers before fishing if you do that. Not sure I would do that with a baitcaster though cause of the spool bearings. Others may chime in with thoughts on that.

I've tried various types of cranking baits with a small snap swivel that is both a snap and swivel (as the name would imply) and I haven't had any luck with catching anything with them, despite having tried many different types of retrieval methods. By the suggestion of others, I have since changed my set-ups as an experiment. Firstly, I removed the snap rings from the top cause I was running the cranks with them attached. Secondly, when I run the cranks next time, I will simply tie on a small crankbait snap that has the wide rounded end on it, and connect the cranks onto that directly. So basically, no swivel. I'll see if this helps me or not, but I figured it was worth a try since what I was doing before didn't seem to work well. What the best way is... no idea. That's why I'm experimenting.

Lol I'm sure they are. Kinda like on this game. You can hold them out of water for ages and they never suffocate!

This winter has been pretty brutal for pretty much everyone... most of you have had it much worse than I have, at least I've been able to actually fish now and then on days that are actually warm. Not that I'm rubbing that in or anything (okay fine maybe I am, just a bit ). Luckily, there exists a free game/fishing simulator for both PS4 and PC that can help you to reduce your cabin fever and stir-craziness while you wait for the ice to thaw and the snow to stop. It's called Fishing Planet. Now I will say it is not the easiest game to advance through, it's one of those types where they offer it for free because there are incentives to spending some money on the game because some things like baits, poles, lures, etc, are difficult to get and may take a while. They do offer some expansions packs too which don't look half bad for the price but I try to earn my stuff personally. I'm hardly an expert at it, but it is fun, and somewhat accurate as far as how you can work artificial baits and whatnot. I've been playing for about a week now and it's good for these days where I can't get out and do much due to cold, wind, or rain that never stops. One downside: it makes me want to go fishing even more! So for PC, you just go to fishingplanet.com and looks like you can play directly from there without a download, though I haven't tried that yet since I prefer my PS4 controller. For PS4, if you don't have a PSN account, make one. Connect your PS4 to internet, log in to the PSN network via Account Settings, then just download it directly onto your PS4 from there. Anyway... just a thought for those of you poor souls who live in ice buckets. You can catch a lot of fish on it, from catfish, to carp, to trout, to bass. Some people catch some really big fish on there but it really is bait and luck dependent.

Nightcrawlers definitely do like coffee grounds (I feed my fridge-kept canadians used coffee grounds, they do seem to like it as they've been alive for like 3 years now). Whether it helps them to be better fish bait? I don't think so... but they tend to be effective either way who could really tell?

This is true, I don't use mono as often as I probably should. I usually have my reel spooled up with either copolymer or braind, depending on which reel it is. I do have a spare or two that I could use to hold the p-line for me while I spool my main reel with mono. I'll definitely have to try that.

I have both a speed stick (american hero) and a TP1. The SS is IM6, and the TP1 is IM8. They're both pretty light and seem to have a fair amount of sensitivity, but it's hard to say which is lighter or more sensitive. And I've never owned many mid-high end rods to compare them too. What I can say for sure is that they are less sensitive than my Diawa Fuego 8' drift rod that only gets used once in a blue moon when I go up north to fish the fast rivers of northern TX. And they certainly can't compare to the Carbonlites I've handled in stores. I've never had or held a Veritas though, so can't help much there.

I bought some KVD perfect plastics finesse worms not realizing they were coffee scented... I just liked the way the baits looked and felt lol. I haven't really used them yet, but they definitely beat just smelling like plastic! My only complaint so far: they don't come in breakfast blend or classic roasted scents. It smells like some sort of artificial coffee extract you'd buy from the spice isle at Walmart to me. This coming from a pot-a-day coffee drinker lol.

This is the same way I run mine- with a carolina keeper. I like it because it allows adjustments of distance between the weight and lure. I don't really run c-rigs very often though because I find it hard to keep the lure off the bottom, and it always gets covered in mud, grime, grass, or scum by the time I pull it up. I've never really caught anything on it, but it is a good way to feel around what's down there. Good rig to throw to test out a new environment but I always end up turning the rig into something else at some point. Maybe I'm just not real good at detecting bites because of all the snags in the places I fish, idk.

That's a Lake Fork Trophy Lures Ring Fry. I have a pack in chartreuse.

Since it hasn't been mentioned: tubes. Everything bites tubes. Weightless t-rigged, or with a small 1/16-1/8th jig depending on the size of the tube. Can even use the Z man ones on a small ned rig and let them pop along the bottom.

I've used these before when the water is really murky and.or nasty. Doesn't have to be a TRD or even a Z man to make a successful ned rig. Keep in mind these lack the buoyancy of the TRD but the action they provide underwater is amazing:

I can kinda do the FG on heavier mono line, but I have issues getting it to work for more standard sized lines, especially if it's FC. I'm not much on FC anyway, but I did try it once and the cinching down part was painful to say the least. Until I have a need for really long leaders that reel up into the spool and have to go through eyelets, I don't have a need for this FG knot to attach lines. I like the J knot for mono-mono (or copolymer-copolymer) and the Alberto for CP or mono to braid. These are easy enough to tie that it doesn't matter if the lines break and I need to make a new leader now and then while fishing. I can do both in a reasonable amount of time. If I could find a way to attach 12-15 lb copolymer to braid with the FG I might use it, but when I try that, every wrap of the braid tries to travel away from the knot rather than coming into it where my fingers are clinching the lines. Just a pain really... I did try the tackle advisor's method of doing it but no worky for me.

Let's see... I have paddled around in a few kayaks, but never fished from one. They are surprisingly stable depending on the weight inside of it. However, I have fished from a few john boats, and I have to say, I would probably feel a lot safer in the boat lol. There are alligators and such in the waters around here, I wouldn't jive too well with that in a kayak. So I pick kayak for fun and recreation, and leave the fishing for the boat.

We had one somewhat nearby about 10+ years ago... I actually got my first ever stereo from there in the late 90's, but it has since closed, and I became a Best Buy before closing again. Not sure what it is now, or if there are any more around here. I'd have to google lol.

I only have one chatterbait, an original Zman in white/chartreuse. I'm still figuring out how best to fish it. I might decide to make my own because all it seems to be is a skirted jig head with a blade attached to the eyelet, and an attachment of sort sort to the blade itself. There are plenty of videos on youtube showing this process. I noticed some of you making the blade attach via split ring. I've never actually thought about doing that, but I assume it works pretty well? Thing I don't like about the Zman one is the hook size. It's massive and chunky, I don't think there are many fish where I usually go that can actually bite that thing. I recently added a little white mini craw thing from BPS to my chatterbait as a trailer, it matches pretty nicely. No idea how or if it'll improve anything though. Time will tell on that.

Okay cool, thanks. I'll bring some gear up there. Have a few things that are definitely fishable.

What if it's a catfish and they swallow the hook to the eyelet? Would this still work? I have bad luck hooking catfish that way, they tend to just kind of suck it in and swallow it. Not sure I would want to stick my fingers inside a catfish's mouth though. They clamp down and don't hardly let go lol. Lost some skin on some fingers that way once.

Circuit City is still in business? o.O I haven't seen one of those in ages!

Okay that's what I thought, just wanted to be sure since I didn't see any actual details on that. Granted, all the reels are fairly easy to fix I think, I just haven't had the extra cash to fix them. I have some good rods I could take, but those are just spincasts. Probably not worth much credit though. If it has to be both reel and rod, then I probably won't bother dealing with that cause some of them don't have dedicated reels anymore. All I really want is a Carbonlite rod, I was told the rods would be on sale for sub-100 range. I don't really care about the reel that much for $120, I already have a reel I want to put on it.

I made the mistake of buying a 300 yard spool of it... I've given fluorocarbon a lot of chances. I just cannot like it. Red Label cut the heck of my finger once, so my opinion of it is the same as other fluorocarbon I've tried so far: meh. Too thick, too much memory, too hard to tie and deal with. I'd rather wrestle a bear or an alligator than try to wrestle Red Label into submission.

I agree on stiff, I have a medium-fast that is rated from 1/16-3/4 oz. I'd say more accurately that it's a 1/2-1 oz rod with best performance at 3/4 oz. I use it for drop shotting or as an actual inshore rod for redfish, etc, but not much else. I'm looking to get something for finessing cause I enjoy fishing lighter tackle.

Anyone know if the gear has to be in usable condition or not? A salesman there on friday told me they would take broken rods, but didn't mention anything about reels. I have some reels that would work given some new parts, but I don't really want to mess with them to fix them. Then I have some really old gear, like wooden rods and old conventional/spincast reels that I don't really need or want anymore. I also have a reel with a broken reel seat, but it works otherwise. I wondered if they would take those for any trade value, and if so, how much roughly would they be worth?

I don't like fluorocarbon... it's slippery, it cuts you when you try to pull knots tight, knots don't hold well even if they are tightened, it has tons of memory, jumps off of spinner reels, and is stiff as a board with little give to it; therefore, easily breaks. It's just a pita to me, I've seen no benefits whatsoever to using it. I've used the P-line fluoroclear for a while now, it's a good middle ground between mono and fluoro. It's basically mono encased in fluorocarbon, so a bit more neutrally buoyant whereas mono is bouyant and fluoro sinks. It can be used for most any situation really, mainline or leader. And it's strong and easy to cast and deal with. I only run it on my spinner reels atm though, so I am not sure in what scenario you'd need a backing on it. It seems to do fine held on with a 3-4 wrap pitzen knot for me, straight to the spool. I agree to stay away from the Vanish fluorocarbon... it just doesn't seem to be very good quality at all. They call it Vanish cause it'll make your rigs vanish, never to be seen again into the depths of Davy Jones locker. Go with Seaguar if you want to use fluorocarbon.