T-Billy

Now I'm confused. Is Alex the G.O.A.T, or is A-Jay the G.O.A.T? There can be only one.

King Cobra for sure, for the techniques you mentioned. The Offshore is great with swimjigs, wobble heads, C-rigs etc.

Amen brother!!! The night bite during the bluegill spawn is awesome!!! Multi species mayhem!! Here are a few bruisers I caught with a green pumpkin chatterbait during last July's gill spawn.

It ain't just down south brother. OH and all of it's surrounding states except PA are constitutional carry states. The percentage of armed fisherman is high.

Hmm...? Is Tommy Biffle guiding on the headwaters?

I dunno bout that hammer business. My head is as hard as one according to my wife though. I'm a frequent fluoro basher, but it's tongue in cheek. Sometimes it's just entertaining to poke the bear. ? Fluoro cost me a couple PB's when I was flippin with it, and I experienced some phantom breakoffs at other times with several brands. It's not for me, but I can't argue with others success, and lack of issues with it. My advice to anyone would be to try it all and see what works for you, just... stay away from fluoro. ? Me moving to braid for most applications was a long process over many years. It was a love/hate thing for a long time, but over time it just ended up being the best option for me, for most things. I still prefer mono for finesse stuff.

This is critical to a quiet entry as well. Pitch low and fast, and thumb it in to the target.

No spool tension. Set brakes to where they work best for you.

I can't speak to the other lines, but I have the Money Maker from the Tharp line and a 7'3" Mag MH Lancer. The Lancer has Mag MH printed on the blank and it's the same blank as the MM. Now days the Lancer is listed as a MH on Ark's site, and the MM always has been so...???

I just looked at the lineups. They used to call it a Mag MH in the Lancer series. It's now listed as MH in both series. It's the same blank. It's a stout MH with a nice tip. Great jig/trig rod.

Ark Tharp "Moneymaker" 7'3" Mag MH F.

^^^Yep^^^ I've got a few Lew's LFS Speed Spools, and a few Fuego's. Zero complaints with either. I've only had the Fuego's one season , but I've been 100% happy with them so far. I have shallow braid spools on them, spooled with 20# braid. Mostly use them for light Trigs. That's a plus with the Daiwa's. You can get light shallow spools for them, adding to they're versatility. I've been unable to find aftermarket spools for Lew's. That said, my oldest $99 LFS has 4 full seasons under it's belt, and it's still smooth as the day I got it, as are the others. Very solidly built reels. They're not great with baits under 3/8oz IME, but from there on up they are solid performers.

What rod are you using? You want a long heavy rod to move 'em your way on the hookset. 7'9" - 8' heavy fast is the way to roll in this situation. 40# or 50# braid is plenty. None of that lift on 'em and reel down stuff in heavy cover. Reel down, crack 'em HARD, and winch on 'em.

100% agree on the centrifugal brakes. I would much prefer magnetic on this reel. That said, the Pro SP is very good at it's intended techniques as is, and it's very compact and palmable. Hindsight being 20/20 and all... I'd probably roll with a shallow spool Daiwa if I were in the market for another pitching reel.

The Do-It rippers have a good thump to 'em. I just recieved my Swing Impact Fat molds from Bug Molds in Ukraine last week. Took about 6 weeks but they're still getting stuff out. Nice molds. I got the 3.8 and 4.8.

Whew!!! Hit THREE skunks on the way to my first well pad this morning. They all got popped under the drive tires. My truck smells SO BAD right now!!! ??

I use a Trilene knot for mono, and a Palomar for braid without issue. Both knots have been rock solid for me. I put more pressure on them when I cinch 'em down than I ever will with the rod and reel. If it's gonna fail, I want it to happen when I'm pulling on it, rather than when a fish is. Edit to add: Forgot to mention the snell. Maybe the strongest of them all. I do ALL of my pitching with braid, and a snelled straight shank. I sometimes go several days without needing to retie it, and the hook and land percentage is excellent.

Congratulations!!!

Not me!!! I never log on without wearing my hat!!!

You'll get no judgement from me for your jerkbait collection brother. I bought over a dozen Ark rods last year for cryin out loud, + four Zillion HD's, and a BB1 Pro, and........... So..... you know..... people in glass houses...... ? PS: I'm about to drop about 4k on a transmission so FFS is likely out for this year. I might just pick up a go pro 11 though. No promises, but next fall's Muskiepalooza might be in HD.

More rule changes???!!! What is this the MLF series? ?

Maybe, it gets me a bunch of 'em, and consistently gets me big bites, but when I start running into those schools of post spawn fish on the weed flats at night, the numbers pile up quick for the chatterbait. Edit to add: These two baits caught all my bigguns in 22. Four over five and one just under for the Sweet Craw, and five over four including a couple that were one bluegill shy of five on the chatterbait. The CB also caught all those big eyes last July. Both baits get numbers and size.

Chatterbait most likely. Green punkin. At night for the most part.

Me too. Now I'm old and dumb. ?