ww2farmer

I use braid with flouro. leader for everything (except, topwater, frogs, and punching heavy mats), I am not changing anytime soon.

I used to use the Flickshake worms, until I realized that a Zoom finesse or trick worm on a wacky jighead catches just as many, if not more fish, and you get 3 times as many baits per pack for less money than the Jackall worms. I know a lot of people who use the cross tail shad, I have used it, it works, but it's not any more effective than other drop shot baits that cost less, so I don't use them much.

Green Power Pro for me.

You really need to come down here when the jerkbait bite is on, you'll catch plenty of bass, and you'll also go home $300 poorer.

Exactly.............could you imagine the ammount of the pre-mfg'd. hook/sinker combos you would have to carry around to cover different situations. It would be semi-rediculous, yet a couple backs of bullet weights, worm hooks, and bober stops, you can cover all your bases with 2/3'rds less "stuff"

IDK how you do it????.............that is, have the stones to toss $15+ baits around here. I know what I lose a year in sub $10 baits and I can hardly afford to replace those as fast as I lose them some times.

Well that's unfortunate........, but I see what your doing here, and I refuse to play along any further.

Because you can get something decent for $250, and then put $250 in the bank, so when you need a couple of bucks you have it. But maybe your parents should teach you this.....

I have never been on the great lakes in any butt hole puckering weather, and on the inland WNY lakes I fish the wind waves never get too terrible that I can't handle them..........sometimes I have to go a lot slower than normal, but still not terrible and un-manageable in my smaller alum. boat. My biggest fear/concern is lightning. I have fished plenty of times with thunder in the distance, and lightning several miles away, and usually get off the water if it gets close. I have often heard other guys talk (mainly wnybassman) about buzzing rods, floating line, etc....and though haha yeah right............untill it happened to me last year. I made a cast with a frog towards the bank as a storm was building on the hill just west of the lake, and my line just hung in air, almost all the way from the frog to my rod tip. The guy I was fishing with said, rather nervously "reel it in, put it down, and lets go"....I did. Now my boat dosen't exactly haul azz, but we did manage to keep just ahead of the rain, and lightning hit the water about a mile behind us..............................after we started the boat and gone about mile

I always use backing, but then again I use braid for mainline on all my reels. For stuff like pitching and flipping, I will use as much as 75% mono backing and only 30-40 yards of braid. On spinning gear, and the rest of my casting gear it's more like 50% of the spool with backing, and 60-75 yards of braid. And then on things like my cranking, topwater, jerkbait and frog rods, it's just enough backing to keep the spool covered and the braid from slipping and 100 yards of braid.

Fishing wise................the first tournament I ever entered. Life in general............just about every day since I turned 25 I have something (or someone) remind me.

Well my "junk" as I stated before is: Shimano curado 51E spooled with 20lb Power Pro braid, and a 12 or 15lb flouro leader on an Abu Garica 7' M Vendetta...........I use this for 3/16, 5/16, finesse jigs. Abu Gen 2 Revo. STX, spooled with 30lb Power Pro, and a 15,17, or 20lb fluro leader on an Abu Garcia 7'6" MH Vendetta.........."GP" jig work with 3/8-3/4 oz. jigs Abu Gen 1 Revo STX, spooled with 50lb Power Pro, and a 17, or 20lb flouro leader on an Abu Garcia 7'6" H Vendetta.............heavy cover, flipping and pitching jig work.

My best day was also on Erie near Buffalo, in the fall of 2010. It was an odd, slick calm, 60+ degree Nov. day. We crushed them from the time we got there till the time we left...........tubes and drop shot. NOW........when I say crush........... it was/is comapired to the WNY smallmouth fishing I am used to on the inland lakes like Silver/Conesus/etc..., where a great day is a dozen or so fish, with most of them being in the upper 3-4lb range. In the 8 or so hours we were out there that day on Erie, we probably boated 30+ fish each, both of our best five were over 20lbs, and we each had multiple 5lbers, and I had one pushing 6. Again not "fantastic" by some Erie standards, but still my best day for just brown fish.

Yeah but............................when pitching and flipping with braid and backing, if your down to the backing and need to re-spool........often it's a pretty short length of braid that needs to be replaced. If your doing a lot of long casting that might be a different story.

I agree.........I have fished a ton of frogs. Spro's, Strike king KVD's, Snag Proof's, and more that I can't remember. The Booyah's and KVD's are what I fish now, and it would probably be Booyah only if they had a translucent color for clear water.

Is it just me or should a teenage kid NOT spend $500 on a combo???? IDK...............must be the old fashioned country bumpkin in me.

I have, but not since they came out with all these flipping hooks with the the barbs molded to the shank. They are a good strong hook, but I don't like straight shank hooks, and you have to add a shrink wrap barb to them or the baits will slide down almost every flip or pitch in heavy cover............it's annoying as all heck. Honestly, if I was going to buy straight shank hooks again, I'd just buy ones with the barbs already on them.

FWIW.......those are the 150yd spools of Power Pro at Wal-mart. At BPS that is aprox. the price of the 100 yd spools.......I buy from Wal-mart. To the OP, I have several 51E's, I use braid on all of them. Since they are smaller reels, I only fill the spool up about a 1/4 of the way with mono backing, and then I can usually fill two 51E's with one 150 yd spool of Power Pro. I use or have used those reels for everything, flipping/pitchng, frogging, jig/worm work, cranking, etc....they take everything I throw at them. They are my favorite reels of all time, and I buy them up any time I find a deal on one.....about the only thing I don't use them for is deep cranking.

For me, EWG hooks (both superline and reg. wire), tungsten bullet sinkers, a barrel swivel, and bobber stops. You can pretty much do anything with those items, even drop shot if you slide a bullet sinker on your "drop tag" and tie the swivel at the bottom to keep it from slipping off, with a bobber stop between the swivel and sinker to proctect the knot, and one above the sinker to hold it in place.

Me too. BUT.............I bet you I catch just as many, if not more jig fish on my "junk".

I have made a "few" BPS, TW orders, and been to Dick's and Gander Mtn a time or two.

IDK, never had one higher than the President (which are great reels), but I have gone lower then the Pres. with the Trion, and honestly, I don't think there is any thing better for the money in that price range either.

#1 should be fine. I throw them on a couple different set ups. A 6'9" MH/F casting rod with 30lb braid and a 20lb fluoro leader around heavy, shallow cover. A 6'6" M/F casting rod with 20lb briad and a 12 lb fluoro leader when I am coing over the top of submerged grass, or down weed lines, and a 6'6" M/F spinning rod, with 20lb braid, and 10 or 12 lb flouro leader for skipping under docks.

I have had a smartphone for about a year and a half now.............and I really don't need it. I only text, check the weather, and use it as a phone. I only "do stuff" with it out of boredom, and I am really thinking of going back, I am sick of the higher phone bill that I have now because of the data plans, texting plans, and other crap I was told I "needed" when I "upgraded" to a smart phone. My wife and I both have smart phones, my grandfather and daughter are also on my plan, and my phone bill is like $200 a month for those 4 phones....rediculous. Especialy since about the only smart phone "thing" I do is get on here at work when i am sitting in my truck waiting to get loaded.

I'll play using teenager to 20 something year old logic..........................What's the best? Why of coarse what I own now, and then that will be junk when I get something new and shiny, and then that will be the best of all time. Why is it the best? Well.............duh..........because I own it. What ever you have is junk because I have, like, owned 2 or three reels over the 18 months since I started fishing the local pond and have become pretty much a bass fishing expert, so I know what I am talking about.