Sphynx

I've done well this year with bass fishing gear...in fact I think I have spent more on buying tackle for other people than I have for myself, a buddy of mine's dad made jokes for 10 days during my visit about stealing my cabelas advanced angler bag so I sent him one, and another friend of mine foolishly decided to ask me to teach him to fish because his kids had been asking to go, I asked him 3 times on different days if he was sure that he wanted me to show him where the rabbit hole was, and I even asked his wife a couple of times...poor guy. My salmon/steelhead and fly gear is another matter though...and we aren't going to include that in this discussion ?

I've never personally used 8X on a size 22, that's 7X territory to me, bumped up to 6X if I feel like I might need it, I also don't fly fish in the same places I fish with a spinning rod, obstructions/brush are just easier to manage with a spinning rod for me, and most of the time the trout have every kind of stick, rock, and other line destroying cover available so the 6lb-8lb line gives me a fighting chance with big fish to keep them out of it, open water if I'm using spinning gear is 4lb territory, never had a problem limiting when I'm fishing for dinner, plenty more than my 5 fish limit if I'm just having fun, I can't say that I have ever felt like I have caught less because of line size.

Well, you get to jonesing real bad for a bronze fish fix even in the dead of winter, you can catch them year round in the Columbia from the WA side, never really fished to OR side but I imagine it's the same story on that bank, just be sure to mind the wind so you don't end up hooking yourself with the jerkbait when a 50+mph gust comes along lol.

I'd have to say that the line sizes you mention are dependent upon fish size, you go somewhere like Crane Prairie Reservoir and you'll be glad you went heavier, those "Cranebows" are freaking monstrosities and will laugh as they swim away with whateveris left of your 4lb line lol, for stockers/wilds in heavy catch/release areas where the average fish is sub 20in, 6 or 8 is pushing it, if your after rarely pursued fish you can get away with a bit more, same with trophy class trout.

It's from catching the fish that had a few too many the night before...

I have a Shakespeare Micro Series 7ft Light rod paired with a Daiwa Regal LT in the 2000 size that I have lined with Berkley Nanofil in 4lb test that I find works well enough as an "all-rounder" that probably costs less than $100 all in, they make the rod in UL as well but I find that it's a bit too noodly for my preference, it's way too light to deal with big 20+in trout with plentiful cover, but this set up can handle most 12-18in fish in reasonably open water competently and still makes the fight feel like fun, I normally fish either trout magnets or spinners (blue foxes, panther Martin's, Mepps and CP Swings depending on what I'm trying to do) but it also can handle a live bait or powerbait rig either suspended under a float or set up with split shot to get deep, I have some higher end trout rods, but this one is very solid, and the price just makes it that much better.

Happens to the best of us, doesn't matter if it's swimbaits, jigs, cranks, jerkbaits, worms, whatever, we all lose a fish from time to time, it's awful, and it's irritating, heartbreaking and all the rest of it, but unless you have the opportunity to see how/where it was hooked, and whether it was ripping holes in his lip, fully penetrating, etc you'll never know for sure, one thing to keep in mind is fish being able to bind up hooks on split rings, I think folks have used a second ring to help reduce this problem, but it's really not even possible to say for sure that this was your problem to start with.

Depends, if the business that developed it is gone and nobody is paying attention it very well could have gone unnoticed by anybody with any reason to initiate the legal process

And here I catch a fair few fish on a WP, do you just not catch many smallmouth on them or is it just a matter of any time you've had workable conditions for one something else works better?

I generally don't have a ton of success with buzzbaits, but then again a 3lb smallmouth counts as a noteworthy fish in these parts, and most of the fish much smaller than that don't have a great time finding the hook, now when I go to places where catching a larger (4-5lb not being uncommon) bucketmouth I find them to be much more useful in more places, don't get me wrong, river smallmouth with destroy a buzzbait (or any other lure if we are being honest) but I just don't have a very large number of conditions that one works well out here in, sure is fun when they do though, teckel sprinkers and whopper ploppers are sorta like finesse versions of a buzzbait for me, and I select one or the other based on how weedless I need the presentation to be, I generally have the best overall luck and hookup ratio with the plopper, but when it's super sloppy or lots of vegetation the sprinker frog puts in some pretty serious work.

Depends on the situation, if a popper would work and the size of the frog is roughly comparable, I see no reason why a popping frog wouldn't work just as well, same thing for walking baits and a non-popping frog, I have caught fish on topwater with frogs and no slop around frequently, sometimes you need something with rattles which kinda sucks for most frogs out of box, but some of them can accommodate a few bb's or whatever without radically altering how it fishes, I like my teckel sprinker frogs a lot too, they fill a similar role to a buzzbait or whopper plopper but are a little less obnoxious and more snagless, best way to see if it will work in your area is tie one on and toss it around for a couple hours...you might just be shocked.

Considering the wide variety of situations jigs are designed to cover, I would guess nowhere, hair jigs, finesse, football head, arkie style, micro, swim, probably more that escape my mind at the moment, each has its place, and each has its weaknesses, your best bet is going to be researching jig fishing here, and possibly on the YouTube, and then looking around for the ones that interest you based on where you fish and the conditions that presents.

Absolutely it changes the way I fish, if I'm after a feeding bite, I do everything in my power to imitate a realistic food source, if I'm doing something like a reaction cranking technique, I'll burn one in as fast as I can and then kill it suddenly, any fish chasing/tailing is going to end up with a decision to make, either open up and chow down, or quit, and I have had it work enough times that I'm sold, jerkbaits are another reaction bait that can seemingly compel a fish to bite, I am not saying that anyone else has to be convinced by my personal experiences, but I sure do fish differently based on what seems to be working, and I freely admit that at least to this point the fish have declined my offer for an intellectual conversation about why it works, so I could be wrong about all of it.

Had to? No, but nights like tonight where the fish really aren't cooperating I do like to get in half an hour of it, partially because it helps me better present baits more places, partially because I like the excuse to refresh my assortment of curse words, because they both are known to happen.

I find clouser minnow patterns to do a fair job of what a fluke does, there are probably more elaborate patterns available, but the simplicity of tying clousers makes it a go to pattern for me considering just how effective they are

Title says it all, I love the days when I can grab a single spinning rod, a few packs of flukes and a handful of hooks and just go wear them out, good cheap fun, river is up a lot lately so bank access is still poor, but the fish don't seem to mind

I believe you will find that the animal that stands out as unique is most likely to become lunch, it has often been said that predators prey upon the sick or old, but that's primarily because they behave differently to the other animals, making it easier to pick them out.

And you turned a golden fish loose?! You didn't let the golden goose out of the coop too did ya?

Our dam quit pulling water the way it has all summer, so I'm having to find new spots that have sufficient bank access, I managed to snipe a couple of dinks in close, but there is far too many scrub brush plants and trees to work with that spot right now, kind of a bummer.

You are telling me that your throwing spinners, chatterbaits, trick worms and craws, wacky worms, jigs and craws, shakeyhead, Ned, lipless cranks, squarebills, buzzbaits, whopper plopper, jitterbugs, dragonflies, and frogs, amongst actively feeding fish and they run from it? I have fished a lot of places man, but that all but runs the gamut of my tackle selection most days, and I don't think I've seen a lake that bad as long as I'm fishing where the fish are

I'll agree with fishing the vibrant green stuff, but if you find yourself in an area without any look for the nearest bit of hard structure, rock piles, docks, brush piles, whatever it might be and you stand a very good chance of bringing a fish to hand

Unfortunately this is the question that anglers will be debating forever I suspect, trying to find "the one" in rods is a quest without end, as far as the difference, the taper of the rod is different, and possibly the composition of the graphite and any fiberglass in the rod. Just like most things in life, there are advantages and disadvantages associated with every choice, and the trade off for superior performance in one area comes at the expense of another area, so a true "one rod option" isn't likely, if I were forced to have just one rod, I'd probably settle for a MHF casting rod somewhere in the 7' to 7'3" range, if I were allowed a second rod a MF spinning rod about the same length as the casting rod would be it, it certainly isn't perfect, but I have caught a ton of fish armed with that pairing and have found it to be very, very versatile.

I find it very hard to believe that you have thrown all those presentations where the fish are and they didn't bite any of it, my guess is the where your fishing in the lake/pond is wrong, if your throwing all that out there for nothing in return, your fishing where the fish aren't.

Before I would feel comfortable suggesting anything, how exactly do you know it's a hook set issue that caused the missed fish and not some other factor, or is this mostly based on intuitive guessing?

I'm with @Catt on this one, the real question though, is if your getting bit on topwater...why on earth would you want to change?