PhishLI

If line capacity is your concern then go for the 150. It has plenty. It also has Magforce Z. The 200 doesn't.

I haven't.

Maybe they're just practicing then? I talked to a kid on Friday who fishes there. He showed me a bed where he caught a bass earlier. He felt bad about it. He's honest when he gets skunked, so I don't think he was lying. I know what I saw. That spot in the pic is near the shore. The bottom is covered in a mat of leaves normally. This spot is a perfect circle cleared down to soil with a bass on it.

I waded a local spot in LI on Saturday morning. It feeds out to the ocean. I'd never seen it so clear. The heavy rains from Friday must've replaced a considerable measure of it's volume. Anyway, I saw males on beds. They left the beds when the saw me. If I stayed still for a few minutes they came back. It's on for sure in this spot, even with the cold water. I tried to take a picture of it. Didn't come out well. The bed is on the lower left corner of the pic.

I have 12lb Advance on a Chronarch CI4+ and 12lb Big Game on a Curado K. Both are on the same OB2 MHF 7' 1" rods. The Big Game feels quite a bit more stretchy to me when fighting a fish. It could be, partly, because the Curado is so smooth, nearly fluid coupled or belt driven, that I'm making this judgement? Regardless, I think it's reasonably sensitive line for what it is.

I've had the 10lb spooled up on a Tat SV for the past few months. I haven't had any weird breakoffs. Stuck a few big one's too over that time. I have no complaints.

I mostly slow roll it with a steady retreive just above the bottom with the tip up to keep it from plowing up goo. But it seems to get bitten regardless of retreive speed, hops, pops, etc. Me too, and everyone of my buddies that bought them after I started sticking them regularly with the sleeper. It's like the wacky rigged senko of swimbaits.

Whipped out a sharpie on my lunch break and doodled this one up. Second cast right after work on the edge of a pad field and I had one. Went back at dark and got another. There're perch here so I figured I'd try. The stock color wasn't getting bit anyway. The sharpie hasn't faded at all. Fished it again this morning and the color stuck nicely.

I'm in NY, not the south, but...I night wade during the summer. Last season I was pretty far out and above my waist when a Smithsonian sized snapping turtle cruised within inches of me. It was the size of an ottoman. The reptile core of my brain told me to flee to safety, so I did. I realize a turtle isn't a crocodilian or a venomous snake, but the beak on this thing was terrifying. I sped home then googled "titanium underwear".

Congrats, NorCal! That's a whopper!

I've been following the same routine since Sunday: Work, come home, eat dinner, listen to a few of my wife's stories, walk the dog, then go wading. Rinse, repeat. Last night was chilly. The water was colder than usual. I got skunked for the first time in days. Defeated, I left the lake well in to darkness truly exhausted to my core. I told myself that I really needed a break, but I woke up quite early this morning refreshed somehow. I can't explain it. While walking my pooch and noticing the dark clouds and near dusk conditions it occurred to me that this really looks like great bassin' weather. Plus, we're on the edge of a full moon. "I can slip in a quick one before work" I told myself, so I did just that. Second cast throwing the Rat 30 in morning dawn I hooked a nice 2 pounder. Last night's defeat was instantly turned into victory! "Go out on a good note" I told myself, but just one more cast... I picked up the rig with a Dark Sleeper tied on and started working angles. Sixth cast and I'm hooked up. The bass takes a run at a stump in the water and starts to wrap around it. Instead of panicking and losing the fish, as I've done once before in this very spot, I gave it slack and it ran out of the trouble zone and I landed her. A nice 19"er. "OK, I'm really done now" I told myself, but just one more cast... I start chucking the sleeper again. Fast wind, then let it die, repeat. I lift the rod, then Bang! This one is heavy. I'm winding but the spool is slipping wildly. With so many spots to get snagged on I crank down the drag and pull her in. 22 inches and fat. "Go out on a good note" I told myself, and so I did. But I went back right after work and instantly got another cutie on the Rat 30. It was good day of phishin.

The lake closest to my house happens to be decent bass lake. I've caught a few legit donks there as have a few of my friends. A really good session here would be 3-5b fish. That doesn't happen often, but it happens. However, it never happens during the day for me or the people in my circle, and I know all the hard cores that fish this place. One way or another, some of us are fishing it nearly every day. What everyone knows is that this place is a night bite lake. It simply turns on near dark. Before I figured this out, I was convinced that the bass were beamed to another planet. I didn't catch or even see anyone catch a bass between August of '17 through April of '18, but I always fished there during the day. BTW, no boats are allowed here, just bank fishing and wading which makes things tougher. I've caught occasionally doing early morning wades, but nothing like at night. They simply feed there aggressively when the sun goes down. This is the complete opposite of my son in law's home lake where we hammer them during the day. So try working the place early evening into dark and see what happens. Just a tip; we're cleaning up with the 1/2 oz Megabass Dark Sleeper in dark shad. A small 3" bait that rides the bottom and just kills 'em.

My number one bass catching lure from way back when I was just a kid was the Arbogast Hawaiian Wiggler. I've thrown it over the past 2 years with no luck except for one mutant bluegill. Even with the lack of success I've had using it, nostalgia has me chucking it once in a while anyway. The Dark Sleeper got bitten most yesterday, but when spinnerbait conditions arose I tied on the Wiggler in perch pattern. The bassin' gods finally came through for me. That fish hadn't yet swallowed the fish it had when it smashed the Wiggler. 9 in total for me and a bud. Good times. Here's a few:

Aint nuthin' like a self inflicted wound... I was able to get out Sunday on the jon boat with my brother for a quick one. It was pretty nice out for once. This doesn't matter much at Skunk lake though. It was so windy down there that at some points there were rollers. This time I was smart enough to have a second battery for the trolling motor, but dumb enough to think that we didn't need to be cramped up by carrying the oars. Who needs stinkin' oars with two batteries for a 3 hour session? Well, what seemed like a half a mile of someone's mono wrapping around and behind the prop stopping it dead was the justice dealt out for that error. Did I mention we had no tools? One thing about a windy day and a flat bottomed jon boat is that you'll be blown somewhere fast. We ended up on the shore pretty quickly. I ran through the woods back to the truck and grabbed some tools. Ran back to the shipwreck and made things right, and we were off. I was working the 6th Sense Crush Flat 75 hard along the bottom in six feet of water when this guy bit. It took the sting out the sketchy start to the day!

A very sneaky pickerel snatched the tail right off of my lucky Dark Sleeper, so I consoled myself.

Watch the 1st 6 minutes if you dare. BTW, because he has been mentioned in this thread, The Reel Test uses 6'8" medium rods, primarily, which limits his distance. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wm4XyKf9J3U

For me personally, the thought of intentionally killing a bass is almost like killing a puppy. We'll not quite, but something like that. At least while I'm in the moment. I really try to get them back in the water as fast as possible. Yet somehow I've come to terms with blowing a hook through their faces, and worse. But I really do not wish to harm them. Chew on that! I know what the clinical diagnosis is, but I'm not going to utter the phrase... Anyway, I think the way I feel is based on the low populations in my waters. They are very hard to catch. Perhaps it makes them "seem" more precious to me? Shock studies prove their low numbers per acre around here, hence the year-round catch and release only policy they've instituted. On top of all that, the bucket brigades coming out from NYC to raid our waters to harvest and sell the fish to restaurants are merciless. They take anything and everything in quantity. Then you have the schmucks that dance around with a caught bass for what seems like an eternity. I assume they've unwittingly killed a bunch of them doing just that. I understand that it's just a fish, but I'm just not a callous person, and I wouldn't fish with anyone who is. However, having said all of that, I would, with some sadness, cull for the health of the population if there was a directive based on a study. For sure. If I lived somewhere warmer where the spawning season for all fish was longer, and the forage populations inflated the bass populations, I wouldn't judge anyone who harvested them for food. I might do the same, respectfully. But around here I have a problem with it as it's against the law and it affects me personally. I'm a Bassin addict and I need my fix. Please excuse me now while I go sharpen some hooks.

The weather's been nuts here. Woke up to 26° the other day. 33° on another. I could really feel the temperature drop in the water when wading. NW winds helped to really chill it compared to last week. There was a 67 degree day mixed in. We'll see high 50s this weekend. It's been up and down. I hit my spot at lunch time today only to be pelted by ice pellets. Not quite hail or sleet. Then it started raining. No hits. No misses. Slid back there for a quick one before dinner and got to work. It was still raining. The jerk bait bite has fallen off for some reason. I threw them anyway, fruitlessly. BUT! The Dark Sleeper to the rescue! This bait has been ? lately. I'm not sure what they think it is. A baby carp? Who knows? All I know is they like it alot. I can't get bit on anything Keitech in this place no matter how I fish it, so go figure. The Sleeper is like a short, bulky Swing Impact. Maybe it's the Sleeper's profile? Anyhow, with these results lately, I now have an excuse to buy every shade and size of Dark Sleeper known to god, man, and vegetable. Weeeeeee! Only a 16"er, but she was a scrapper I tell ya.

That depends entirely upon which gender it isn't.

Take a look at this video as it addresses some pieces of the puzzle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDXKEA9jlXQ Pay close attention to Glenn's video where he's performing a gentle overhead cast. His arms, from the elbow to the shoulder, are kept pretty close to his body. I explain this to newbies to baitcasters as "T-Rexing" . Picture a T-rex casting a fishing rod. This will limit the amount of energy you can produce while learning overhead casting which allows thumb coordination/memory to take hold. This is simply an exercise. A first step. This is not how you'll be casting over time unless you choose to! Once you get the feel of it, your casting strokes will open up and you'll be able to perform much more aggressive casts as seen in AJ's video. It's my opinion that you should start with your stiffest rod until you get your feet under you. This will limit sling-shotting which can cause you trouble in the beginning with overruns. Yes, you can chosoe a lure that will overload your stiffest rod and cause that too, just don't do it. Anyway, it's baby steps. Starting out with a limited stroke will allow you to develop your thumb control. This will eventually lead you toward the feel of loading and unloading the rod according to lure weight and incorporating your follow through cast. In time, once you've developed the basics, the things you're forced to think about at first will become second nature. When I first started out I thought it would be impossible to do what I can do now: very aggressive overhead bomb casting when I need to. It just takes time and reps for it all to click. Take advantage of your skunked days to experiment. It'll all come together.

VMC Wacky Weedless 3/0. My waters are choked, so I throw wacky rigged worms using baitcasters with 30ib braid and MH rods. I usually throw a 6" worm, but sometimes a 5". I don't recall ever getting snagged using these hooks and I throw them into tough spots. However, after enough catches, the weedguard will get mangled eventually. Not bad to straighten them out, but they'll snap after being bent enough times. In the meantime hookups are great, but they really do require stout rods to do so consistently. They have smaller sizes available that are better suited for lighter setups..

I own that rod. I've caught two fish between 7-8 lbs on it. Both came at the end of long casts and fought hard on the way in. I've clipped multiple tree branches while night fishing with it. It keeps on ticking. I have two more and they've been equally abused, but no problems with either so far. Your sample probably had a flaw. It happens

Ha! My PB came back in February. I was dying to throw my shiny new BBZ1 shad. Went out in frigid temps wearing brown jersey gloves without the finger tips cut off. That lure shot straight up as the line slipped under my gloved thumb, clipped a tree branch 20 feet overhead, and the spool was blown to smithereens. Much uglier. I strapped on my spectacles, gave it about 10 minutes, said a few parting words, then el choppo'd it. In with the new.

I just got back from a wade with 55°temps. That's the warmest weather I've used this line in since I spooled it up. So much nicer than when it was really cold. It's survived several large pickeral that nicked it up, but I landed each one. Even with teeth marks it was very hard to break it. It's worth it to tie on a heavy lure,or one with good resistance, for your first cast of the day in order to give this line a stretch. Definitely relaxes the line a bit. I'm about to spool up some 17lb Siege for deep cranks and squarebills in some snaggy spots. If the weather holds out I'll have more to say tomorrow.

TW had these on sale for the BMC. Picked up a handful. https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Eco_Pro_Tungsten_Swing_Swim_Jig_/descpage-EPSJ.html