Hook2Jaw

I feel you on the jig and topwater. I haven't had much luck frogging my local PFA, but it's a fun way to catch them. Anyway, back on topic. @NittyGrittyBoy, I noticed those hooks are missing the black finish on the point. Did you sharpen them out of the package before they ever touched the water? It could be a bad sharpening job preventing the hook passing plastic and penetrating flesh. As for the bend towards the eye, I have no idea how that happened. All of my shanks give before I'm able to deform that bend. This is some very weird stuff you've got going on.

I taste pine trees at work all day, hard pass. If you have to go that route, you should remove frogs, punching, and flipping/pitching from your repertoire. I hope you're familiar with the Ned rig.

It's that Georgia farmboy strength. I have the same problem. I prescribe one year of not busting firewood, engaging alligators in hand to hand combat, and shooting a 100# draw weight compound bow. To put more noodle in your 22" pythons, I suggest a diet of white meats. You'll also want to stop drinking a case of Budweiser a day and have one IPA at dinner. Also, grab a winch for your truck so you can stop lugging it out on your shoulder. We'll cityfy that set yet, @NittyGrittyBoy.

Columbia Flexfits, L/XL...because I've got a noggin that weighs more than your PB.

Gonna go with Chop's choice, minus the father.

I stepped into jigs this summer and caught a bass I may never best, but my experience with Texas rigged plastics really transferred well to that realm. What taught me the most was the brief time I spend fishing a squarebill this fall. It taught be the subtle differences in what my lure is doing during both slack line and taut line contact, and I believe it's going to transfer wonderfully to other presentations.

Welcome, fellow Georgian! I'm down here near Savannah and really jealous of all the lakes you have up there.

I'm very new to the squarebill game. I've used them in the past just chucking and winding in open water. I was convinced that trebles could never come through cover. I finally took the plunge and started feeling my way to deflecting off cover and pausing it over the same stuff. It has been an absolutely addicting way to catch them and I hope to become better at it in 2019. Squarebills, and crankbaits in general, are a much more precise presentation than I had ever thought possible. The report of a crankbait up the line, through the rod and into your hand...those subtle changes exist and without being told about them I would have never known what to look for. A piece of grass to clear with a hard rip, the dulling of the vibration as your line contacts cover and prepares you for the deflection and the bone jarring strike that often accompanies it, and every other subtle nuance of cranking are truly addicting. My two current favorite squarebills are the H2O Xpress squarebill and the Berkley Squarebull 5.5.

@Troy85, it's Troy87 here. That is the best video I've seen in a while and that dude deserves all the followers.

Man, I almost forgot about that rod. Well, the Lightning Rod Shock. When I first returned to fishing and before I had started seriously educating myself on techniques, I had just bought a Jon boat. I was armed with an ultra-light BPS spinning rod all of 5'6" long and knew absolutely nothing, all I knew is I enjoyed the fight on the light rod, seriously fun but seriously inneficient. All I was armed with was that rod, some storm swimbaits, and a single white spinnerbait. The first day of my glorious return was an entire day all for one fish. That light rod was bowed nearly in half all day, wearing me out with that 3/8oz spinnerbait. Sometime shortly after that I decided there had to be some advice online for catching more than one fish. That led me here, and shortly after that I had an idea about this weird weightless plastic presentation with a funny looking worm called a senko. Everyone here recommended the Pflueger President, almost like a lot of us recommend the Daiwa Fuego today. I grabbed up a Pflueger Trion instead. I wanted a budget spinning rod under 50 bucks, and many people mentioned the Berkley Lightning Rod Shock. Many more seconded that suggestion. Shortly thereafter I grabbed a 7' MF, tightened my Trion onto it, learned about watching braid on top of the water while my stick worm dangled below it, and was catching way more than one bass a day. I thought I was the best bass fisherman there ever was with that Berkley rod. The only way to catch fish was a weightless Texas rigged senko. Thanks for bringing the memories back, @Catt, my Trion and Lightning Rod are resting somewhere in the Atlantic ocean. Sucker put a whooping on redfish too!

@Choporoz, rage rigged?

@Fishingmickey that's the vibrationingest son of a gun there ever was and ever gone be.

Your favorite lure costs more than most of my reels! ? I'm getting my budgety swimbait setup for Christmas but plan to stick some Hudd 68s and Gills on the end of it, as well as an S-Waver or two. Do you Texas Rig this feller or what? Weightless? Tell me more, turtle tosser. Wait, I've got it. You throw it weightless, Texas rigged on top of logs with the other shelled critters and drop it off the side and get your shoulder dislocated!

@Spankey, I totally feel that. My local lake...er...pond...er, 55 acre impoundment is a mess of pads towards one end and during the summer I do pretty decent. Public fishing area, ludicrously heavy pressured body. A lot of folks throw hollow frogs, me included. This year I'm gonna grab a Johnson Silver Minnow, throw a grub or worm on the hook, and hit those pads with something they haven't seen.

With ya. What currently catches is my current favorite.

Let me guess. Ned and senko.

I threw them quite a bit when I was younger, and have tied them on a few times and caught quite a few since my fishing return. I'm a big fan of slow rolling them and throwing them into heavier cover ever since I was informed they're pretty weedless. There is something very fun about a lure that really tells me what it's up to down there, whether it be a crank, chatter, or spinner.

I feel like I'm pretty bad about fishing lines that are at the low end of what is required for the presentation except finesse. I've drop shotted with 4#, but beyond that I'm typically using 8 or 10. I have a spool of untouched six. What pound line and type are you using when throwing the ned? I want to know, which spinnerbait?

I still speed up or slow down and have both low speed and high speed reels to accentuate it even farther.

@Arlo Smithereen what's the pay like in the necromancer field, if you don't mind me asking?

Catt visits the first BPS at the grand opening, circa 1893, colorized.

I'm not a pro or tournament fisherman, for sure, but I'm still happy to have an 8 speed reel in my arsenal. It only takes a tiny amount of time for a fish to reject a bait. Often, I'll be zoned out and not react as quickly as I would want to. Oh, and it also gets my frog, flipping bait, or jig back to me more quickly. It might only be a second, but if that second adds up to two seconds it might add up to me getting another cast in. I love catching fish. More presentations in fishy locations ends up as more fish. So yeah, it makes sense for me to have a high speed reel. I enjoy it. Plus, it only cost 5 dollars more than my 6 and 7 gear ratios.

Nothing about a spinning reel is comfortable for me. I situate the reel arm, leg, whatever you wanna call it, between my pointer and index finger when casting and retrieving and it gets sore after a day of casting.

I can't catch a cold on a finesse worm, much less a magnum finesse worm. That's not entirely true, as I can and have caught fish shakyheading, it's just not my favorite thing to do.

You have dishonored yourself, your family, and your cow. ?