Big Hands

Yea. If I was going to try to eliminate gear issues, I would want to be able to be able to keep pressure on with lots of room to spare, so a mod or regular action rod that matches well to the line I am using. Same with hooks; sticky sharp and the finest wire that isn't likely to fail, and will set past the barb with the power of the rod I am using. Proper drag setting. If it's too loose, the fish can make it difficult to keep the rod bent down far enough. As for technique, if you see them headed for the surface (and a Bang-O-Lure doesn't run much below it), you can alter the pressure you have on the fish to see if you can get them to have difficulty being in a good jumping position right when they are going to jump. With small-ish treble hooks, you're not in a good position to horse them over as they get to the surface (maybe a little, but not a lot), so the opposite approach could work. That is to ease the pressure a little before they about to jump which sometimes gets them headed somewhere other than the surface. A rod that will stay loaded if you ease up on the pressure helps a bunch. Changing the angle you're pulling from can also discourage them from jumping. The other thing that comes to mind is that seeing that you list smallmouth as your favorite species. The Bang-O-Lure is a long skinny stick bait, and a smallmouth may be having a tougher time fully eating it deeply enough to get the hook into it's mouth. Just a thought.

Zodias or Tatula Elite. . . . . if you can stomach the hypalon grips.

I think I saw a video of Mike Long using one of those very successfully.

From the BASS website: B.A.S.S. officials received a call on the morning of Feb. 26 from Elite Series pro Scott Martin, self-reporting a violation of Rule C3. 3 PRACTICE AND COMPETITION (ii) a. and j., concerning the receipt of information to gain a competitive advantage from a non-competitor. Martin admitted to having a conversation with a local angler about conditions at certain locations on Lake Okeechobee after the no information period was in effect. Due to the infraction, Martin has been disqualified from the 2025 Champion Power Equipment Bassmaster Elite on Lake Okeechobee and has been assessed a fine. “Unintentionally and inadvertently, I received information that violated the no information rule,” said Martin. “I was rigging my boat at the marina and was engaged in a conversation with an angler and simply did not shut it down quickly enough. This really hurts, as this lake is special to me and I was really looking forward to the event. That said, the integrity of our sport is paramount, and I have to deal with the consequences. This is a situation that can happen to any angler in the Elite field and in today’s world, we have to be vigilant and simply do things differently.”

It's actually quite moderate IMHO. I have one and knew this going in. You're going to have to lean on it a bit with single hook swimbaits. JMHO. Thinking a rod would have enough give to keep treble hooks from pulling out, while at the same time, thinking that it could have the backbone to drive a big single hook past the barb and keep those fishing coming to the boat? I'm not sure you can expect to have it both ways.

Well, where you're fishing is a factor. Even where I live, I've had my backside handed to me with 4 lbs test on a few occasions, so I have chosen to not go quite that low. I'll fish with 6 lbs mono where I live all day long with BFS gear. Still, you'll have to pick your places out carefully to fish with BFS gear in your neck of the woods. My biggest Texas bass (8.5 lbs) was caught on a 1/4 oz slab with 8 lbs test on a spinning rod on the Community Hump (no side-eye, I didn't pick the name of the spot) at Lake Fork. The same place where I have been destroyed with 15 to 20 lbs line on other occasions. Even on a lake like Fork though, there are places where there isn't much cover and you can fish with lighter gear. KastKing has a few different models of the Kestrel IIRC. The Kestrel, the Kestrel Elite, and the Kestrel BFS. I don't think the original Kestrel is still a current model. The Kestrels are all (IMHO) BFS-ish, but the Kestrel Elite is more BFS-ish (and newer) than the original Kestrel, and I will go out on a limb and saay that the even newer Kestrel BFS is a little more BFS-ish than the Kestrel Elite (but the Kestrel Elite does have a better build quality than the Kestrel BFS). If you have the original Kestrel, if you pair it with a light or medium light rod and maybe 6 or 8 lbs line, maybe it would be a more satisfying user experience and not quite as impractical in a wider variety of places where you live. You can have an absolute blast catching two to four pounders on a setup like that, and if the water is a little more open, you can definitely have a chance with fish up into the double digits, even on 6 lbs line. You can fish Texas rigged plastics and get a hook set into a bass with 6 lbs line. You can also fish small jigs, weightless plastics, underspins, slabs, poppers, small topwater plugs, crankbaits and jerkbaits. You do have to be careful to not fish thick wire hooks, and keep them sharp. It'd make a dandy crappie rig too.

I don't believe I have any sort of bass fishing superpower whatsoever. Or any superpower period. I am decidedly average and dull all around TBH. If I could choose a superpower to have, it would be to have the ability to have conversations with animals.

I am lucky to have a very good local shop that is stocked pretty well with relevant products and decent pricing as well as an excellent staff so I try to support them as much as possible. They also have a website that's decent enough that I have used a few times. Then there's a Turner's Outdoorsman about a quarter mile from them that I occasionally wander into and I might check the tackle section of my local Walmart now and then too when I am picking up some groceries. I also occasionally order online, but I still mostly support the local shop.

I prefer a rod that's faster than fast (meaning more towards extra fast at a minimum. That said, the angler's input can make up for some of that, but it takes extra work to be able to stop the jerkbait on a dime and have it return nine cents in change. I personally value that aspect of an extra fast jerkbait rod. On a medium power rod, it is still easy enough to keep a fish pinned once hooked. Some anglers prefer spinning rigs for jerkbait fishing. I don't find it works well for me, especially since I can still cast lighter baits with casting rigs marketed as BFS. Bottom line is that you are best off using what works well for you. Wow, I wonder what she'll weigh all plumped up with eggs?

I have the SLXCX610M which is supposed to be the SLX version of that rod which is allegedly very similar. Definitely an excellent budget jerkbait rod that will certainly throw and retrieve small to mid-size crankbaits, and the medium power means that it still has enough give to keep fish pinned effectively. But I do have other rods that I prefer for crankbaits that are both 7'6" with a mod-fast action.

You'd have to ask Glenn, err. . . . the Bait Monkey, to be sure but I do seem to recall line strippers being on the approved list for creating a separate post to share your joy. Glenn, err. . . . BM will be pleased to know that this has me interested in a line stripper as well.

Daiwa has at least one "all-around" Tatula rod too. It's the 7'3" MH/F casting rod. They have a rod with the same specs in the original Kage line as well as the newer Kage line, but the new one is now called "multi-purpose" instead of "all-around". All nano plus and x-45, but different reel seats and the Kage's have Alconite guides instead of the Fazlite guides on the Tatula rods. I own Tatula, Kage, Tatula Elite, Zodias, and Expride rods and find them to be priced about right for where they compare to each other, but I don't think the Zodias rods are noticeably better than a Tatula Elite, and TBH I am not really a fan of the hypalon grips on the Zodias. With the exception of the Expride (clearly a cut above), I think the rest are comparable enough that if I liked an action, grip or reel seat of one over another, I would own rods from any of these lines without reservation. For me, this is where I live in terms of value that I feel I can afford. ============================================= I thought that the reason for the existence of the entire Kage line was that they were to only be sold in brick and mortar stores (i.e. no online sales of anything 'Kage') so they could have a line of gear that online sellers couldn't undercut them on price? It looks like they are being sold online now.

I have recently found out that there are Wakasagi in my home lake that made their way down the aqueduct. Hadn't heard that before. Thanks for the deadstick tip.

I have had the tinsel tail Wakasagi for a couple years now and TBH, I'm not sure what I was thinking when I decided to shell out that much for it. Swing and a miss for me, but maybe someday I'll figure out how to catch bass with it. YMMV.

At first thought, I would be inclined to agree, but to share my anecdotal sample size of one: I have been fishing Castaic for over 40 years and lived here since 1987. BITD, the heyday of big bas fishing at Castaic, I fished live bait quite often (mostly crawdads and mudsuckers) and I have never caught a bass over six and a half pounds on live bait. I would even say that most people I know here caught their biggest bass on artificial baits.

Interesting. I sent one in a couple years ago, and it took about a week for them to get me a shirt mailed out. Excellent quality shirt too, one of my favorites.

I was very interested in a Daiwa Elite AGS 7'6" MML rod for quite a while for a rod that was just slightly more powerful than my St. Croix 7'6" MLXF hair jig rod that I adore for Senko fishing. I nearly bought one a few times online, but really wanted to put hands on one before pulling the trigger. I finally came across one and there was a tag on it that advised against using braid to leader if the knot would go up into the AGS guidetrain, and thus be cast with that knot travelling through the guides when casting. Apparently there may be a chance that the knot could catch on the backside of the AGS ring and pop them out. So, you should keep your connection knot from ever travelling into the guides. For me, as much as everything else about the rod appealed to me, that particular warning made it a 'no for me Dawg'.

At one time I owned a Daiwa 7'2" M/XF spinning rod. I struggled to find a useful task for it to assume in my quiver. Looking back, it might have served as a larger jerkbait rod. . . . maybe. I ended up selling it. All the rest of my spinning rods are fast action (1 @ MH/F, 3 @ M/F, 1 @ ML/F, and 1 @ L/F). Then, a few years back, I had been on a bit of a vision quest for an ultimate weightless Senko rod and had found a 7' Expride L/F rod that was better than the other half dozen rods (both spinning and casting) that had come round to audition for that role. But it only just a bit better than everything else I had tried. I decided to take one last shot with a 7'6" St. Croix ML/XF that was marketed as a "Hair Jig" rod and it was magic. The XF tip and ML power play very well together, and at 7'6" if I get a hook set, they're headed for the net. In fact, it just occurred to me that I should name it "Lucille", after B.B. King's favorite guitar and Uncle Phil's favorite pool cue.

That's what I get for late night thread skimming 😵‍💫

And a nod is as good as a wink to a blind horse. Most boron rods from back in the day were also wrist-wreckers, err. . . . I meant to say pistol grips, which is it's own special kind of unpleasant compared to pretty much any modern day rod. =============================== My $0.02: Best $50-$55 rod: Daiwa Aird-X. The Aird-X compares well to other rods costing up to $100, but that is where is gets some good competition. Best $100 rod, probably the Shimano SLX is as good as any, at least in certain models. Around $150, there are several decent options. My choices would likely be St. Croix Mojo BASS and Daiwa Tatula. If you can stretch to between $175 to $200, the Daiwa Tatula Elite lineup has some really sweet choices. Phenix Feather, Daiwa Kage, and St. Croix will also get looks from me. There starts to be several decent choices in this and the slightly over $200 range. This is all to say that my suggestion would be to take the reel you intend to pair this rod with you and go hippity-hop to the tackle shop where you can put hands on rods with the reel that it'll be used with. Doing this has shown me that what looks great on paper, or due to the recommendations of others often has some "feature" or small detail that will be a deal breaker for you. What I (or others) love to the moon and back, may very well grind your gears.

That would be my choice for sure. I have two Tatula 200's and a Curado 200K. For what the OP has described, I would go with the Curado 200K. That Tatula is a bigger reel, and IMHO, that extra size is not giving you anything you need to use it the way you described.

I've had the pleasure to share my boat with Tom, and one day he showed me how he does it and what the jig looks like when it moves. When I saw the movement of the jig, and how the way he holds the rod puts you in a position to effectively set the hook the instant you sense the bite. . . . well, that was an epiphany. ===================================== Many excellent anglers have their own peculiar and unique aspects to what they do, but if there was a common trait that I notice the most, it would be their very intentional attention to fine details. And for professionals in particular, it would include efficiency and economy of motion. They have to make the most of limited time on the water, and some really short windows of activity. If I had to choose one or the other for myself, it would be the attention to details because I am not counting on my weight total to put bread on my table, but I do appreciate the latter trait. ===================================== If I were ever to hire a guide to fish, it would not really be to just go fishing, it would be to learn about something I feel they would be able to teach me, and that would be very clear up front. Basically a coach. I would consider being a co-angler for a tour event for the same reason, or even a marshal. "Monkey see, monkey do" IS my preferred learning style for most any subject.

In that regard (and probably others), you are indeed fortunate. Just to give you an idea of the factors involved where I live (draws a long breath): The population of Los Angeles County alone is about 9.6 million people. Orange County and Ventura County add about another 4 million people to that. In an area that people has pretty good weather year round, that means that people are able to pursue outdoor activities all year, though you would need a good full wetsuit to surf or water ski in what we call winter. In Los Angeles County, there are exactly two "lakes" that allow boating with gas powered outboards. One is Castaic Lake that has a maximum surface area of 2,200 surface acres, and Bonelli (Puddingstone) that has 250 surface acres. That's 2,500 surface acres for a population of 14 million people that are within an hour and a half drive of Castaic Lake (where I live) which is at the northern corner of the county that can operate a gas powered outboard boat in a freshwater lake. It's a wonder the lake is as clean as it is. Especially considering that I have observed that Los Angeles is one of the most garbage infested cities I have ever visited in this country. I mostly notice it when I travel to other cities and don't see nearly the volume of litter that I see here. The only thing that saves it from being little more than a landfill (well, aside from the very onerous and restrictive Quagga mussel restrictions that I have previously droned on and on about, LOL. And the fact that they charge $25 to park and launch a boat) is that very little of the shoreline is accessible to foot traffic, and those areas are mostly steep rocky banks. If both ramps are operating, they have the parking capacity for up to 500 boats. . . for a lake that has a maximum surface area of 2,200 acres. The 180 surface acre lagoon has two swim areas that has had problems in the past of people leaving diapers in the water to the point that swim areas had to be closed due to the contamination. Simply lovely. It hasn't happened for a number of years, but it could certainly happen again. Yes, the same Castaic Lagoon that has produced bass over 19 lbs. . . Just call me Mr. Sunshine 😘

That knot looks so simple on the diagram, but for me in real life it is a complete PITA to get the loop to where it isn't ridiculously too long or too short.

I considered that. This particular area wasn't exactly in need of spawning habitat. I asked the lake staff if they wanted me to leave them or to get them out, and they definitely wanted to get them out.