Glaucus

Backup plan? That's a weird was of saying spinning rod and stick or turd bait.

Edit: The earth isn't flat. Stop it.

I don't really follow pro tournament fishing much. What is this mass exodus about?

I really dislike when people call fishing all luck. Like we just throw a bait out there and wait for a fish to come to us. First of all, we have to generally know where to find the fish we're after and that's a skill. Second of all, we have to know what baits, when, where, and how. That's skill. And lastly (and I'm no professional at all), I outfish my group and anyone I fish with time and time again. I get asked, how? Because we fish in the same spots and with the same baits usually because we're together. But I outfish them almost every single time. Why? I haven't got a darn clue other than an instinctual part of who I am that feels exactly what is going on and what I have to do. Being a good fisherman is a skill that goes beyond what you can learn but is rather a god given talent.in professional sports like football we talk about the things you can't teach that makes players so good. Well good fisherman are the same way. Some things you can't teach because you've got to simply be created and born with those intangibles.

Stock up on what you've used before that you liked via online shopping.

It's skill to know where they should be. It's luck to find that they currently are where they should be.

As of a few years ago, more Americans now live in urban areas than they do rural areas. Personally I also live out in the boonies. Town has 300 or so people. Have to drive 20 minutes just for gas. Have to drive 40 minutes for a Walmart. And yet our internet is pretty good. We stream; haven't had Dish in a few years. Also get 4G LTE. It sounds like you're in an area "they" haven't gotten to yet, but rest assured "they" will. If we go back 5 years, no high speed internet here and we had to have expensive satellite TV. You're also going to have to define big city, man. The town I grew up in has 10k people and it seems nobody I know uses cable or satellite there. That is a small town, albeit not a village, however not a big city either.

As of a few years ago, more Americans now live in urban areas than they do rural areas. Personally I also live out in the boonies. Town has 300 or so people. Have to drive 20 minutes just for gas. Have to drive 40 minutes for a Walmart. And yet our internet is pretty good. We stream; haven't had Dish in a few years. Also get 4G LTE. It sounds like you're in an area "they" haven't gotten to yet, but rest assured "they" will. If we go back 5 years, no high speed internet here and we had to have expensive satellite TV.

As does everyone. However, more people are watching television using a streaming service (or several) and not the traditional cable or satellite that these shows air on.

The thing you're all forgetting is that a record number of people don't even use cable or satellite TV anymore. More people use streaming services now more than ever. The only use for cable and satellite TV is live sports and news. However, even that use is dwindling with the sports streaming services online and through providers like Hulu. Streaming, social media, and internet in general is where most people are getting their entertainment and information. There's also definitely an age factor in who is using streaming services and social media. Younger people are not using traditional methods, while older people still are - and overpaying for what they're getting because it's what they've known for so many years. Shimano is exactly right to stop trying to reach people via traiditonal television: it's dying the same way newspapers and magazines are. The internet is and has been the future - been that way for awhile now, only continues to grow while other methods rapidly shrink.

Well first of all you can leave the finesse stuff like drop shot at home. No need in south Florida. A Texas rigged worm or a Senko are old standbys that will always get bit. It's what most people really start with because they simply produce and are easy to fish. Keep it simple with moving baits: Spinnerbaits and crankbaits to start with. Honestly if you take a pack of your worm of choice (with hooks and weights), a package of Senkos, and a spinnerbait, you're going to be just fine. Remember: most of the stuff you see on the shelves is meant to catch fishermen. A forum like this is valuable to weed out all the junk you don't need to be worrying about in the first place.

The summer of my 19th or 20th birthday is when I decided to try bass fishing. There is a little half acre pond where I lived out in the boonies (town with a population of 200). I read and read about this sport and a younger a very confused me went out there with a spinnerbait. I casted and casted, but no fish (also surprisingly I picked up baitcasting almost immediately and with ease). As I was about to call it quits, I was bringing my spinnerbait back in (I was standing by a very weedy shore - cattails, extending 5 or 6 feet out into the water). My spinnerbait got a little hung up coming back in, rode up a cattail, and then splashed back down into the water. Almost immediately upon impact what I now know to be a 3 pounder (it was a monster to me back then) demolished it. It was at that moment that I became fascinated and obsessed with bass and fishing. The LMB was much paler than normal and had a unique mark on its side. A few weeks later I walked up to the pond to see that someone else had recently caught my bass and left it to die or killed it or something, although the corpse (?) had no injuries to it. Laying next to it was a Busch Light can. Sticking out of its mouth was 3/4 of a cigarette. Apparently someone thought that was funny. Broke my heart to see my bass like that.

If you can't get in there with Texas Rigs or a variety of jigs with hefty weedguards, I'm not sure what you can do. You did mention fish getting wrapped up. Heavy braid with heavy rods - muscle them out.

Yeah it's gonna happen. No different than a crankbait or any treble hook bait really. Always gonna have some cases of the lower set of trebles snagging somewhere on the outside of the fish if they don't inhale the whole thing. I wouldn't remove them. There's 2+ sets for a reason.

2500 it is. Thanks gents. Any reason I should slap a 3000 on it with the intended purposes and rod I mentioned? I'm an online shopper being out in the boonies so I rely a lot on you guys and other online bassers as far as info goes since I can't check things out in store without a hefty travel.

I'd rather be fishing out of this abomination rather than a yak where there are gators. But yeah. You know sometimes, a lot of times, I envy the DDs they catch in the south, as well as year round bassin.... But then I remember that in the north I don't have to worry about gators and snakes.

I thought I was done upgrading and buying new gear as I head into a 2019 season that I'm hoping will be the best ever, but nope! Bait monkey really loves to hang around northerners in the winter. I'm looking at a new small T-Rig and Senko spinning setup. I'm going to get the 6'8" M/F Daiwa Tatula spinning rod. I want to pair it with a Daiwa Tatula LT spinning reel. I'll be using 15lb-20lb braid to a leader. I'm not sure what size reel though. Stuck between the 2000 and 2500. Thoughts?

"Overall this is a good platform for somebody that wants a family friendly recreational watercraft that wants to use it for fishing too, especially if you don’t have the room to store a large boat. Starting at less than $15K (without trailer), it’s an affordable alternative to pricy fiberglass bass boats. In addition, it’s a great tool for getting to those fishing spots you just can’t reach with big boats with prop outboards." .....

28 degrees today, but the river was still open thanks to relatively warm weather recently. I had a great day... Casting and losing some TRDs. The river was flooded, dirty, cold, and not a bite to be had. 2 hours of freezing. Found out with my new HMG that I can probably cast into a tea cup. Oh well. It was nice to throw a line around. Got hung up a couple times and reel set hoping it was a fish. It was never a fish. However, even seeing my rod bow felt pretty good at this stage of winter. 3 more months. I can do it (crying).

Watch bass fishing videos on YouTube

Around 5lbs. It's not even close to being in the 3s.

MH/F casting (jigs, texas rigs, spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, some swimbaits, etc) M/M or MF [I prefer MF] casting (crankbaits of various kinds etc) M/F spinning (weightless plastics, small texas rigs, etc) ML/F or XF [I prefer F] spinning (dropshot, ned rig, various finesse) * topwaters appropriate to size on any of the rods ^ that would be my bare bones arsenal of choice if I was limited and wanted to do darn near everything. So whatever you're lacking from that is what I would get. If you want to get even more bare bones than that you can axe the ML if you're in the south. If you're in the north I would axe the M spinning. But I wouldn't be happy without either.

I wouldn't buy something so cheap. Much better of getting something like a Berkley Lightning rod, Abu Garcia Vengeance rod, or a Fenwick Eagle rod, and pairing it with something like a Pflueger Trion or President reel. All depends on your budget. Cheapest route of the ones I mentioned would be the Lightning rod with a Trion reel. Cost you like 70 bucks.

Weather channel app keeps notified on wind and lightning.

Matter of fact, I take that back. There was one place this season that was private that was head and shoulders above anywhere else I've fished in my area. My buddy got us on a big private pond a few times over the summer. It had big LMB and big SMB in it. Crystal clear water. It never gets fished. We got bit on almost every cast no matter if we threw a spinnerbait, chatterbait, crankbait, worm, Senko, topwater, you name it. That was a lot of fun. I think you read my post wrong or you had an improper idea of the tone of it.