galyonj

Yeah, that'd work. My laziness and the speed with which I go between plugs of all sorts is well-documented here, so I use clips fairly often. I mention that to say this: Tying to a split ring, then clipping that split ring to another spit ring puts a surprising amount of weight out on the nose of a lure.

I would agree with this. Further, the marketing materials for fishing line seem to pretty intentionally muddy the water, if you will. I'm not picking on Berkley, but they make for an easy comparison because they have so many monofilament product lines, and it'd be reasonable to assume they source the raw materials for all their monofilament lines from the same materials manufacturer (and if they don't, they're hurting their bottom line and, boy howdy, wouldn't that be embarrassing). Anyway, Berkley has like 10 different monofilament product offerings, and the descriptions all read like ad copy mad libs, touting toughness, controlled stretch, remarkable knot strength, sensitivity reminiscent of that time we had to climb the ropes in gym class, hair regrowth, fuller and longer-lasting...you get the idea. The salient point here is that, at any given test rating, Sensation, Transoptic, Big Game, XT, and XL all only differ by a couple thousandths of an inch. Of course Trilene XL has lower memory and more stretch than Trilene XT. It's thinner.

One other useful trick for rigging on a straight shank hook (or any other shape hook, really, if one is terribly worried about the worm sliding or being pulled down the hook) is to pull the head of the worm up past the eye of the hook a little bit, then running a piece of heavy-ish mono through the head of the worm and the eye of the hook. Clip the mono flush with the soft plastic, and you've got yourself a worm that's not gonna go anywhere without a fight.

In an effort to save myself from myself, I've made a conscious effort to keep things simple with regard to color selection for lures. If I don't get bit with one the colors below for whatever presentation I'm using, I bet I ain't gonna get bit with any other color, either. Worms/craws/creatures Black Black/blue Junebug Green pumpkin (maybe with some chartreuse) Pink Paddletail swimbaits/soft jerkbaits White (or some variation thereof) Green pumpkin Swim jigs Black/blue Junebug Bluegill lookalike White (with some variation if I feel fancy) Casting/pitching jigs Black/blue Junebug PB&J Topwater White Black Jerkbaits/traps/diving plugs Shad patterns (sexy shad and the like) Bluegill patterns Chartreuse/black

I may well be in the minority on this, but I really like EWG treble hooks. Full disclosure: if I'm throwing a spook, it's 99 times out of 100 gonna be a junior instead of the full size. I just get more action on the smaller size. For hooks, I use a couple depending on what I get ahold of first. The short shank makes it a little easier for me to go up a size without worrying as much about the front hook getting fouled in my line. Gamakatsu EWG Treble Short Shank 2X Magic Eye Mustad KVD 1x Strong 2x Short Triple Grip Treble Hook Much the same as you, when I change split rings, I just grab something that looks to be about the right size out of the pile I've got from plugs that have been consigned to the scrap heap.

Big fan of Nate Marling. That video was my introduction to his work.

Not for nothin', but the little zipper bags that come with some of the Ryobi tool kits will fit four 3600s with some incidentals packed around them quite easily.

I'm so scared I'll hurt either the rod or the line that I motor over to where I want the lure to land, open the bail, gently place the lure in the water, and then motor back to where I was.

I don't blame you. I've seen people launch there and still have to walk a yak out about a dozen yards before there was anything under it to float.

Worry not. The only way I'll go to that last one is in your boat.

Hey, I know a coupla those ramps!

That's what the bait monkey was hoping you'd say.

Lord have mercy.

This thread is timely and resonates with me. Even though I grew up around boating and on the water, this is also my first season owning a boat and dealing with all the things that entails. This includes, of course, ramp etiquette (or the lack thereof), loading, and unloading. Jean-Paul Sartre wasn't talking about the boat ramp when he wrote, in Huis Clos, that "hell is other people," but he may as well have been. So here are some things that I've learned that apply to ramp activities (and, honestly, a lot of other situations I've found myself in): @A-Jay is 100% right when he says not to do anything quickly. When you rush, things get broken, and people get killed. Be methodical. Plan out an order of operations for launching and loading. Grind that plan into your brain, and the whole process becomes a whole lot safer, and a whole lot less stressful. There are an awful lot of people in this world that are just determined to find reasons to be an *******, like the guy that shouted you down for going to get your truck so you could load up and clear the ramp. Don't sweat it, and try to be kind if you bother to engage with them at all. DO NOT let those people rush you. Stick to your plan. Absent an emergency of some sort, remember that you have every bit as much right to be there and to do what you need to do as every other person at that ramp. Do. Not. Rush. Other posters too numerous to mention have made suggestions for what to do if there's a line and you find yourself stuck in your boat waiting for a spot. At some point, you're going to have to assert yourself and claim a spot. If that doesn't sit right with you, you're gonna have to pick ramps or times that aren't as popular.

Ooooh dang. I'm gonna launch a line of fluorocarbon crocs.

Fluorocarbon's great line for other people to use. I'll stick to cheap copoly.

I've window-shopped these a bit out of curiosity. The only review I've found that didn't feel like an ad for them is one posted here by @th365thli. Didn't buy one because I just talked myself out of another casting rod at the time, but that's maybe changing in the near-ish future. I'd be interested in what you think, since the model you bought is the exact one that I was looking at.

Thanks for the tips. Usually when I get it started as early in the retrieve as we'd want, it happens because I've started panic-reeling before it's even hit the water (because the cast before I didn't do any of the things I was supposed to do, and it wasn't on top until about halfway back to me).

That's what's up right there.

I feel you on the self-inflicted buzzbait problems. I just have such a hard time getting them started; it feels like I waste a big part of the cast just reeling for all I'm worth to try to catch up and get it on plane. For me it's a hard walking bait, and it's not even close. Second is floating propbaits (shoutout to a bone Choppo for saving me from the skunk a little while back) with buzzbaits coming in a distant third. For all the good they've done me, I may as well not even let poppers take up space in my bag.

Exactly this. Seeing swirls and little splashes on the surface tells me that panfish or shad (or something that eats similarly small crunchy critters) are feeding on bugs and whatnot. And that's still awesome, because SWMBO and I have a great time catching panfish, and we always take ultralight stuff with us just in case we get a chance. But I'm not gonna throw a spook or whatever into that hoping to get bit on topwater. I have been bit, and well, throwing a fluke or wacky rig into the swirls and boils and letting it sink down into the bass that sit there under it like the lazy pigs they are, waiting for a stunned fish to float down to them.

Not to mention lizards that shout invectives at you (I used to own one).

It absolutely could, but I feel like it's rare that the drag's the only culprit on not getting the hook completely seated.

Check out Kinky Beavers, too.

My boat's a 1984 model Ebbtide with a 15'6" LOA, and it has next to zero storage. The rod locker is a little cubby that runs up the port also got my nav lights and emergency stuff in it, so none of the rods we take are gonna fit in there. Best I've figured out to do is lay the rod butts down in front of the passenger seat and let the tips rest on the deck under where the trolling motor stows. There's a little velcro scrap that's riveted to the front deck there and I (very loosely) secure that strap over the rod tips to keep them from beating themselves to death whilst we're underway. That strap gets undone when the big motor is cut off and I got forward. It's a crappy solution, but it's the best I've come up with.