Glaucus

My dad and anyone not annoying that wants to learn or that I can learn from.

We've settled on our choices. Just got to the finale of the decision here. Two starter rods. In the past I have been a pond hopper, but now I'm a river rat so that is where he will be joining me, on the Smallie hunt. We went up in some ways and maxed out in others. What we've come to is personally aesthetically pleasing, good performance, and equipment for what we will be doing. And the finalists are: 6'10" ML/XF St Croix Spinning Mojo Bass Rod with a size 20 Abu Garcia Revo X reel. 6'8" M/F St Croix Casting Mojo Bass Rod with a left hand retrieve Shimano SLX 6.3:1 reel. Showed this reel and the Daiwa Fuego but aesthetics were important as well and the sharp look of the blue on the Shimano won. Usual lures will be Ned Rig, Grubs, KVD 1.5, Whopper Plopper 90, bisty bug jigs, Senkos, small chatterbaits. He'll do what I do. We'll expand from here over time if he likes it. I think we've got a good start. He'll get use out of one of my kayaks as well.

That's excellent and what I really needed to know. Noted that Hybrid will stay on my finesse setups and I'll try Advance on reaction and topwater setups. Visibility will matter for Neds, but not cranks, and if Advance floats better, I wanna put that on my plopper rod.

I'm a Yo-Zuri fanboy. I'll just get that out of the way. But I just found out about Sufix Advance. How do these lines compare? Looking at them, they both have that thick diameter compared to what's typical of the listed test weight. I'm seeing that Advance has little to no memory and casts well? Are they even comparable at all? Does Advance boast a great breaking strength? Would Hybrid fan be happy making the switch?

Excellent suggestions guys. Looking into all options. Right now the best take away is that I forgot about the Revo X. Precisely why I asked here!

We're talking rods and reels at or under 100 dollars, best bang for the buck, bought new and not used. My dad hasn't been fishing in many, many years, but he wants to get into it this coming season to see what all my fuss is about. He doesn't like to buy anything used, but he also doesn't like to break the bank. When I say at or under 100 dollars, preferably under, but we need to also go best bang for the buck. I'm thinking Daiwa Aird X rods, President spinning reels, and Shimano SLX casting reels. I feel like we can go with cheaper rods and spinning reels that are still really good, but we don't want to go with garbage casting reels because that's asking for a bad time. You guys have any ideas as well?

Fish them all little by little. Pick some at random, give them a go, move on to the next. Keep a checklist.

The plopplopplop is a fish catching machine.

I want to catch a 4lb SMB*. The Illinois state record is 6.7 and before that it was 5.5, so I don't want to get too crazy thinking I'll catch a (or some) 5's, but 4lb should be a good target. Of course bigger is absolutely welcome as well. Other than that I pretty much do everything I want to do within realistic expectations. The only other thing is that I've never fished with my dad but he wants to get into it with me this season. *I may have already caught a 4lb SMB, but I have no way of knowing what either of these fish weighed because I didn't have a scale on me and I didn't measure. I caught them this year. If anyone has a guess on their weights please let me know.

6lb Yo Zuri as is my standard. It's more like 8lb diameter as many people well know.

I'm getting a new 7' spinning rod. I prefer 6'6" rods, but there's a couple river dams I like to fish; I can't put a kayak down there and I can't wade it. I come up a little short on some good looking spots because of my inability to get into the water (just dangerous obviously) and the shorter rods. My question is: what size President would you put on a 7' ML rod - 25 or 30? I go with 25 on my 6'6" ML rods, but I'm wondering if I should bump to a 30 on a 7'.

MH for 110 and 75. M for 90. Don't fish the 130. 110 is way too heavy for a M, but 75 can be fished on some M rods. It's 9/16oz or about 3/5oz. It will load many M rods passed the comfort zone. The 110 is well over 1oz. The 90 is only 3/8oz.

My favorite lure isn't something I would just always fish with, but it's the Whopper Plopper. I just love to bomb it out there and fish it back to me knowing that there's a good chance it's going to get annihilated. I also like squarebills, lipless cranks, chatterbaits, Senkos, Ned Rig, jigs. That pretty much does it for me. Chatterbaits do me way better than spinnerbaits, and I like jigs way more than Texas rigs (I started on the Texas rig years ago but honestly just don't like to fish it anymore), Senkos are always good, Ned is my favorite finesse tactic, squarebills and lipless are always good.

Because of smartphones I haven't used a computer in years outside of work lol

I personally hate the cold weather. I can be found fishing a little ways into November, depending on the year, and maybe a couple of times in December, again depending on the year, but after that I'm done until spring. Ice fishing isn't for me, and fishing a decently warm December day to grind out a bass or two isn't my definition of pure enjoyment the way warm weather fishing is pure enjoyment. Other than the fact that I don't like the cold and that ice fishing can be dangerous, drilling a hole and dropping a line isn't for me. I like to cast and work my lures. So meh. My wife and I are planning to move out of Illinois very, very soon. Maybe in a year or two. Other than work and economics, our top choices on where to go will come down to the fishing. On one hand, going south we can fish year round. On the other hand, places you can fish year round don't have Smallies. Happy medium might be Tennessee or some such place where we can fish later than we do now, and start the season earlier than we do now, and that has the Smallies as well.

Tennessee Smallie fishing any good in Jan/Feb? Being an Illinois guy it's not too far a trip to make a weekend out of it, if it will be any good.

I'm aiming for March 31st here in North Central Illinois. Around that time is typically when fishing resumes. March 31st of 2019 will be a Sunday which means I'll be off work. Just hope Mother Nature cooperates.

The TRD Craw is amazing. I liked it on a traditional ShroomZ Jighead. I had been using the Baby Rage Craw for the Bitsy Bug. Didn't even register in my mind to use the TRD Craw until I saw that my favorite kayak angler and river smallie chaser on YouTube switched from using a Kalins grub on his Bitsy Bug to using the TRD Craw. Amazing results.

Based on this past season, probably Z-Man. I spent all season chasing river Smallies. I like the Ned Rig, I like their mini chatterbait, and I started using their TRD Craw as a trailer for the Bitsy Bug. Then it would have to be Strike King for their KVD squarebills and, of course, the Bitsy Bug jigs. I also use 75 and 90 Whopper Ploppers and 4 and 5 inch Senkos.

This is typical of bass fishing. Bass slow down and don't work as hard for food. Anglers have to slow way down and downsize their baits. A good day is catching a bass at all on winter days. Use baits such as Ned Rig, grubs, shad rap, drop shot, shaky head, smaller jigs. Finesse stuff. It's going to be a struggle but it's normal to struggle right now.

I already throw dead artificial baits in the burn pile. I never leave a soft let alone a hard if I can help it.

These stories are why I can not and will not fish in the dark alone. Unknown fact around here is that I have Aspergers. The dark can spook me.

I'm not sure you're aware that the market is flooded with quality reels. Price range would give us a better idea on how to help you.

The internet has destroyed a lot of things. Toy stores, newspapers and magazines, tackle shops, book stores, etc etc. It's a digital age.

I guess for me it's that I don't fish for panfish. I drown live bait and I get a gill or crappie. I drown dead bait and I get a carp or cat. Not my thing. Once in a blue moon I can get a bass. What I can get a bass on most of the time is bass specific lures that I have fun using.