Glaucus

That is a really broad budget with dozens and dozens of fantastic options. From the Fenwick HMG at $100, to the Daiwa Tatula at $150, to the St. Croix Avid at $200. There's a world of difference from $100 to $200.

Beetle Spins under $1

I think you meant the Fenwick HMG, and those are great rods.

No, the weight will catch far more weeds.

Fenwick will always replace your rod.

Could be where you're fishing them. There's one pond I fish where they won't touch a Plopper period, but use a Popper and they slam it. And then at my home river I can use a Plopper from sun up to sun down and catch Smallies all day long as long as the water isn't hard.

I'm not going to buy a Choppo when I already have several Ploppers, but I lose Ploppers to trees embarrassingly often, and when the last one gets lost I'll be making the switch to the Choppo unless R2S brings the price down to compete.

Spincast reels are notorious for constantly messing the line up and otherwise malfunctioning. It takes all of 2 minutes to learn how to use a spinning reel. You can get something like the Pflueger Trion or Abu Garcia Silver Max for the same price as a Zebco 33. Well worth learning the spinning reel to avoid these problems.

They are amazing for me in my rocky river. If I use the ones without the guard I get snagged almost instantly. Around grass and other vegetation wire guards won't prevent it from bringing that crap up. I view wire guards more of a deflection off the hard stuff my hook would otherwise dig in to.

Weightless soft plastics and topwaters are the best way to avoid brining up weeds. If something has a wire guard I look at it more like I'm going to be able to fend off wood, rocks, and other hard debris, but not vegetation.

Funny but I would legit be interested in your stock squarebill trebles because I never change the hooks on my KVD 1.0s, 1.5s, and 2.5s. I never have an issue with fish, just the rivers rocks I get snagged on.

I'm a sinner and typically fish them like a mini shaky head which gives me my best results.

Medium Power, Moderate Fast Action is my favorite for cranks. Of course you need to go up in power for heavy cranks, but keep the same action. Casting. Anything that moves feels terrible with spinning gear.

You won't get nearly as good action with small finesse worms and 3-4 inch Senkos with larger hooks. I use 1/0 for those and rarely ever gut hook bass. Gary says the 5 inch Senko should be fished with a 3/0. Yeah I typically use octopus circle hooks for Wacky Rigs and I'm not sure one has ever gut hooked my fish. I use 1/0 though.

Plano trays and a waterproof backpack. I also have a little Plano handbag that I use for Senkos, Trick Worms, TRDs, Ned Heads and hooks for when I'm taking a spinning rod and going on foot to finesse some numbers.

With moving baits, yeah, or throwing a soft plastic down the bank and dragging it back.

Quantum, Lew's, Favorite, and Thirteen all have one thing in common for me. I wouldn't touch them or recommend them to anyone. That's how good they are.

I've never been a big jig guy. Most of my jig fishing is done with Bitsy Bugs for river SMB. This season so far I've been stuck in the ponds due to flooding and I'm killing it with jig n craws. It feels more natural than it ever has when it comes to fishing them, feeling the subtle bites, and hammering the hook home. It's so much fun setting a jig hook and muscling in LMB from the nasties. I never thought I would prefer a jig to a Texas Rigged worm. Meant to put this is tackle, not rods. Sorry.

Some people like their own things. I don't like to fish with other people's stuff. I like my own stuff. He might be the same. However my gear is good, adequate gear, so that might not entirely fit this situation. I wish I knew old bass fishermen. All the old guys I know who fish use a bobber and a live worm with a spincast reel. Not my style at all. It's funny too because in the remote pond I fish, I only ever see 2 other people there and they are old guys on opposite ends with their worms and bobbers and competing with each other. They get to cussing and it cracks me up. Every fish counts. Bluegill, crappie, bass, catfish, it doesn't matter, size doesn't matter. Who caught more matters. They're a lot of fun but we're in 2 different worlds when it comes to fishing.

Everyone says I need a 7' rod for most things but I rarely go above 6'6" for anything. I don't throw big swimbaits though. Mostly because we don't have giant bass in Illinois and I'm not willing to grind out fishless days in the hopes of breaking a state record if something does finally bite. Different strokes. Nothing is universal.

There's a guy on YouTube called lojo. He does bass fishing videos. When he's fishing plastics he does the whole, "I got a fish, he has it, he has it, see him running with the line" then he goes to set the hook, and nothing, after he watched his rod bend and line run. Then he shouts, "What is going on here?!" Rinse and repeat. It's annoying.

I gut hooked one pretty bad yesterday. I must have thrown the finesse worm on its head because I felt nothing and saw nothing. I just felt the weight of the fish when I started to engage the worm. I knew right away I would be dealing with a gut hooked bass. Sometimes it's unavoidable. In no world, however, is gut hooking almost all of them not user error and poor strike detection. You will get better.

I'm done waiting on my river to be fishable. I fish the Vermillion River all around Pontiac and well outside of it, all around Humiston Woods, etc. It's still extremely flooded chocolate milk with no signs of stopping anytime soon. How are the other rivers up north? Kankakee is supposedly still pretty bad too. I need my Smallie fix. Got to find me a fishable river.

It's public but remote. The fish definitely doesn't belong there.

1/4oz black and blue jig with black and blue craw trailer 1/4oz Red Eye Shad in Sexy Shad Finesse Trick Worm in watermelon red (not to be confused with the original trick worm) I haven't been able to hit the flooded rivers for SMB yet. They're too dangerous and a waste of time at the moment.