Glaucus

I'm thinking about it because my favorite online tackle shops don't have the length I want in a rod I'm looking at. Amazon of course does because they have everything. But a tackle shop knows how to treat, store, and package a rod. I'm a little weary of ordering one from Amazon because I highly doubt they take special care of how their rods are stored. As far as packaging, do they package them correctly? Do they arrive in tip top shape?

Watch ndyakangler. He does it next to his yak when his top water gets retrieved back to the last couple of feet and even that close he will occasionally draw a strike. It's really cool. A buddy taught me to do it with squarbills from the banks on rivers. There's a lot of rocks and we stand on them by the dams and when the squarebill is basically back to us we'll just kind of drag it back and forth next to us and it draws strikes. It's freaking cool man.

That's not the issue. It's harder to work a longer rod on foot or from a yak for things like jerkbaits, frogs, flipping, etc. For me anyways. I'm 6' but still find it to be a pain.

High end usually means lighter and more sensitive. Compare it to wine. Most people won't the the difference between a 10 dollar bottle and a 50-100 dollar bottle. It's subtle, but makes a difference to some people. In some ways, probably, in other ways, not so much. But I'm OCD and admit to it lol

All gear will eventually fail, but that's no reason not to take care of it.

Pretty much subtle entry is preferred but sometimes you can get lucky with a big splash entry. And make no mistake it is luck. Nothing about throwing a spinnerbait with a splash that instantly gets ate is intentional.

We do that here after bringing a bait back to the yak or bank, and off of walls. Can sometimes pick off a bass you would otherwise not.

You're missing one of my points though. My cheap squarebill setup isn't due to its price or ant justification not to go higher. I have it because I haven't felt anything better. All of the characteristics I want in that setup was ideally met to the T in the cheap setup. I could without a doubt spend 4x as much to find something even better, but why when my ideal setup was met for 4x less? Sometimes it isn't about the name or the price tag or what one can afford. Sometimes exactly what you're looking for doesn't cost much at all. But that's just one of my points. Of course I'm not giving up my Elite Techs, Tatulas, HMGs, E6Xs, or newly acquired Okumas any time to go back to Ugly Stick or Shock or Shakespeare or cheap Abu rods of various sorts or anything like that, but I did catch a bunch of fish using that stuff when I started out and didn't want to fork over the money because I either couldn't afford it or didn't think it was necessary. It's become necessary for me, but like I said, not a d**n person can tell me my Lightning Rod and Silver Max isn't perfect to me for what I use it for.

I was a co-angler last year. Absolutely yes, there is nothing like casting from a bass boat. Very easy, very worthwhile.

I support a family of 6 on my income alone. I make a modest income with some but not a lot of wiggle room. The only way I'm able to afford nice gear is that I sacrifice things for myself. The wife and kids get their fancy phones (well only my oldest kid has a phone, my kids are young yet), nice clothes, gaming systems, this and that around the house for my wife or whatever the hell she thinks she needs. Etc etc etc for all things, just standard "got a wife and kids" stuff. For myself, I get a cheap prepaid smartphone with a cheap prepaid plan. I get my clothes from thrift stores and wear them out. I don't smoke. I don't buy a coffee or a pop or fast food or lunch or whatever. I literally cut out all of my personal luxury expenses or minimize them as much as I can, and that leaves me room to spend money where I really want to: fishing.

One of the exact reasons I hate a rod over 6'10". I wade, bank, and yak fish. Those longer rods are an uncomfortable pain in the butt.

Yes and no. I don't want to scratch or ding my cheap Berkley and Abu stuff anymore than my modest Fenwick or expensive Daiwa stuff. I'm OCD about all of my gear. I'll fish them and travel with them, but I take care of them like I would my body. I run with my body, but I don't want to trip and get scrapped up. Same principle for all of my gear.

Lower the trajectory of your bait on the cast. Sometimes a splash is in your favor, sometimes a splash is a missed opportunity. Like MN Fisher, I've had bass hit spinnerbaits upon impact, and then I've had bass back off on a Senko that was just too loud coming in.

PB LMB - around 6pm I was fishing with a buddy at a pond after work. He got skunked. I got my PB. Go figure. 4 inch Senko. 7lbs. PB SMB - around 11am I was fishing 40 yards off a river dam, wading in a foot of water, with my wife, waiting the other couple to show up so we could spend the day wading down the river. Ned Rig. 4lbs. I live in Illinois.

Yeah so getting back to my original point, I absolutely don't care what anyone else uses but neither do I advocate for cheap gear if one can afford better. I make recommendations based on given budgets. Point is, cheap, modest, or expensive, they all catch fish. Other point is, the same guy who crapped on another guy for cheap gear has a problem with my squarebill and lipless setup of choice. I could pay 400 bucks for something better, but I'll be damned if anyone is going to be able to tell me that FOR ME the Lightning Rod and Silver Max doesn't just feel and fish those baits spectacularly. But guys like that don't consider that maybe, just maybe, someone bought something less expensive because it was actually ideal for that person, price didn't matter. Just an elitist attitude I can't vibe with.

Just here adding more reasons to my Bible thick list of reasons to want nothing to do with Cali. What a disaster of a state on every level.

First time I ever tried a Ned Rig I didn't have something suitable for it. I picked up a Pflueger Monarch combo for 50 bucks to see what that bait was all about. Went an entire season of slaying fish. Now I will say that that combo did not old up and I would never buy it again, but it did its job for a season and taught me how to fish a Ned Rig. Never failed me on a fish. The cheap plastic reel just started grinding horribly and I gave it to a buddy who can't afford more than one setup.

Time and time again many people in our community of fishermen turn their nose up at cheap gear. I started on cheap gear. Most of us probably did. These days I'm so biased towards Fenwick and Daiwa, but I do branch out. My first casting setup eons ago was a Lightning Rod paired with a Silver Max, 6'6" M/MF. I threw the heck out of squarebills and lipless crankbaits with it. Today most of my setups will run me from a modest $150 upwards to a more pricey tag of $450. Because I've advanced to needing more sensitive, durable, and technique driven gear, as most of us have. But to THIS DAY, my squarebills and lipless crankbaits are primarily fished on Lightning Rods and Silver Maxs. Simple reason is that it fishes those baits so well. Nothing has felt as good to ME, that didn't put a serious hole in the pocket. I think the ego and pride of some people are so astounding that it becomes about not how something fishes or how something feels, but about how much they can say it costs. Sometimes the perfect tool for you does not cost that much. Inspired by a guy on a Facebook post who was pooping on another guys sub 100 dollar gear as if it was the worst thing ever and won't and can't possibly catch fish.

Wacky Rig by far

I and many other bass fishermen suffer from PTSD and find fishing to be the best form of therapy. I got to thinking, what it is about fishing? Well it's everything. For one, solitude. You, your maker, the water, and the fish. It's the anticipation of being on the move, whether boat, yak or foot, to find your spot. And then you find it and the world and your mind suddenly slow down, a serene silence. Click. Your reel is ready for combat. Whip. You launch. Splash. Bait is in the water. Click. Your reel is engaged, and now you're gone. You are no longer you. The world is no longer the world. You are now under water seeing and feeling everything. Over and over again you are focused on hitting specific spots with unreal accuracy, and you are losing all wordly cares under water as you quite literally become one with the water. And then there is the reward. The fish. You did something right. And you landed a fish. An innocent animal you get to admire and be proud of for seconds and a time, and then on to the next. Click. Whip. Slash. Click. It begins again. Absolutely amazing.

Some of us northerners got smacked by a pretty nasty blizzard yesterday and this morning. With the snow and the single digit and sub zero weather coming, it looks like we're finally done with until spring. Sorting some tackle this morning I picked up a spinnerbait that brought back a cool memory from a couple summers ago. I was fishing a pond that is almost entirely surrounded by cattails, and they extend out several feet into the water. There's a particular gap on the shore that's just wide enough and in a good spot so that's where I fish when I do choose to fish there. I was fishing that spinnerbait when I saw a 1.5-2lb LMB dart out from the cattails to go whack my spinnerbait that was probably 10ft away. It happened so fast that my brain couldn't keep up. I never saw the bass hit the bait, I just saw it dart to it and then the rod loaded. Lots of lessons there.

I'm looking at a MH rod that I won't mind beating up on random adventures in some tough to reach places I like to go to. Between the car ride and walking through woods gear can take a beating. On these adventures I am also limited on what I can carry. Ideally this rod will throw spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, jigs, Texas rigs, whopper ploppers. I usually use a 6 for the moving baits and a 7 for baits I work with my rod. This rod will do a little of both. I can't settle on a 6.3 or a 7.3. Which do you think would suit me best for what I'm looking to get out of it?

Berkley Cherrywood rod and Pflueger Trion reel

There's no justifiable reason to say it doesn't. That's like saying, and they say it gets colder in December, after you get a random 65 degree day in the north. Random stuff happens. Pretty cool when it does. But it isn't normal.

Well that's new