T-Billy

God bless ya Aaron. Go get 'em.

This was my experience with Advance. It's a little lower stretch than XT, with similar abrasion resistance, and memory. I think Advance is very good mono, but I can buy XT in bulk spools for a lot less $$$. For me XT is still the way to go.

I've recently purchased two of the Tharp series. Guntersville Special, and One Eyed Jack. I'm happy with both so far and will probably buy more. Love the handles and reel seats, Fuji K guides, 40T japanese blanks. I'd say they're as good as anything else at there price point, and probably better than most.

7' is short for me these days, 6'6" used to be long. 7'3 - 7'6" is kind of the sweet spot for me, but I keep finding more uses for my 7'11"s.

Golf is a terrible waste of perfectly good fishing weather. Like everyone else, I twitch those Rapala's on the surface. Waking them has been effective some days too.

Yes to both, but they happen MUCH less frequently as you gain experience. My advice, stick with mono until you really get the swing of it. It's cheap and handles well, and it REALLY sucks having to cut out a nasty birds nest of brand new braid. Don't try to cast it into the next county. Just focus on being smooth and accurate. Wind knots can be greatly reduced by closing the bail by hand and putting a little tension on the line before you begin reeling.

All of 'em I catch right after ice out are very pale. I get the same way by the end of winter. ?

40# 832 is what I throw in that kinda cover. Best I've found. Plenty strong and abrasion resistant.

Give those baitcasters a whirl after dark. With a little practice you'll be glad you did. Your ears will tell your thumb when to start slowing the spool instead of your eyes.

Trilene XT works for me. Almost as good as Suffix Advance IMO for a lot less $$$.

Papajoe nailed it. A little preventative maintenance goes a long way, and bearing buddies are your friend. I give mine a top off every third trip. Don't feel alone. I learned the hard way too.

Someone told him BFS stands for Big Freakin Smallmouth!!! He's all in!!!

You'll be a light bait throwin, big smallmouth showin, son of a gun baby!!! WHOOOOO!!!

You'll be glad you did. Very versatile rod. It'll throw that pad crasher plenty far. Mine almost never leaves the boat. Frogs, toads, jigs, T rigs, tubes, chatterbaits, spinnerbaits, wobbleheads.... Dobyns rods run on the light side for their rating IMO. The 735c isn't nearly as stout as my other heavy actions but it's got plenty of backbone and a great tip. There's a reason it's so well liked by pretty much everyone who owns one.

Right gear for the right job is important. 3 or 4 trees piled up? That's what I'm looking for. I'm going in with a heavy flippin stick and 40# 832. Chances are that bass is coming to the boat. Giant Flatheads are another story. I got my butt kicked by another one today. That's twice in three trips my flippin stick and I got manhandled, and wrapped up by one of those beasts. They seem to like T rigged beavers. I'm begining to think you need Goliath Grouper tackle to winch a big flathead out of a log pile. Todays fish had me wrapped up about 6' down. 80 and sunny, I thought what the heck, I'm going in. I emptied my pockets, pushed the thumbar, laid the rod on the deck, and went after it. I followed the line down to the limb it was wrapped on and managed to snap it off. Climbed back into the boat, reeled the slack out and @#$%^&*!!!. That son of a gun swam out deeper and wrapped me up again. Wrapped the braid around my plier handles and gave a pull. Braid gave before the limb. Catfish 2. Me 0. Oh well, it was quite the fun calamity, and a refreshing dip.

I feel about the same with my rod and line selection, 1/8 is about as light as I can throw and still get good distance and accuracy. 1/4 is about as heavy as I want to throw on it. This is the range I was looking to throw with this setup though so, WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER!!! LOL. Side note: The One Eyed Jack is a sweet rod.

I bought a Curado BFS, but not really for the purpose of throwing tiny stuff. I just wanted a light duty baitcaster with a shallow spool for throwing 1/8oz - 1/4oz or so stuff with braid. I paired it with an Ark Tharp, One Eyed Jack rod, and spooled it with 15# 832. It's proving to be a sweet and versatile setup. Small cranks, jerkbaits, grubs, tubes, wacky, light T rigs, topwater... It's awesome for my intended purpose but, I'll stick with spinning for neds and other really light stuff.

I'm in the "controlled slack" camp. How much slack is bait and cover dependant. I tend to let ribbontail worms or other baits with an action tail fall on a fairly tight line, so that it swims back to the bottom. I let tubes and beavers fall on a pretty slack line because they need the slack to get that erratic spiraling fall that fish love so much. Thick weeds I always want a straight fall, so I give it a fair bit of slack, and use weight size to determine fall rate. Rate of fall can be critical to getting bit. So, I guess when I think about it, I always give a certain amout of slack. That amount can vary from just a slight bow in the line, to completely slack on the fall, but it's always controlled. If it's slack on the fall, it's barely slack. I'm watching the line, and I'm not out of touch for long. I also try hard to stay in my batting stance. Rod in that 9-10 o'clock area, so I'm ready to swing the instant I feel/see a bite.

Atta Boy!!! FULL CONTACT FISHING!!! I'm gonna wade my local river for some smallies and saugeye this afternoon.

ALWAYS have a ned and aTrig on deck. Other stuff comes and goes with the seasons and conditions.

I still have a few IR4's on my catfish rods. I reckon they'll likely outlive me. As J Francho said, built like a tank. Great for pulling big cats out of log jams.

I make a habit of fishing the stuff most folks won't throw into. My local lakes get a TON of pressure. 90% percent of people won't throw into the thickest most tangled cover. Those same people generally make a cast or two to the obvious more easily fished stuff, and move on. Slowing way down and picking every inch of it apart, and making repeated casts to the high percentage spots pays off.

I'll second this. Big Game has great impact and knot strength, and the price is definitely right. I also argee with WRB. Fishing grass, no leader needed or recommended.

Every... Single... Time!!! Been at it more than 40 years. I'm excited to get out there on the water, or in the woods everytime.

I'll second this. I've never had an issue with Mustad. Consistant high quality at a fair price.