ww2farmer

I have been fishing Veritas's (and Vendetta's + Vengeance's) for a while now. I have nothing in recent memory other than St Croix rods to compare them to. IMHO the Veritas's are lighter and better balanced than ANY comparable power/action St Croix that I have had (Triumph, Premier, Eyecon, Mojo, Rage, Avid and Legend Tournament) sensitivity wise I would rate them as noticabley better than the SCII rods (Triumph/Mojo/Eyecon/Premier) I had, but to say they are more or better than the SCIII (Avid/Rage) or SCIV (LTB) might be a stretch. But that said they are plenty sensitive, and I really like the weight/balance of them better than my St Croixs, not to mention they cost less. But with the cost savings your trading off a few things, like build quality, quality of the components, and the lifetime warranties of the higher end Croixs. The same can be said about the Vendetta's, except they are a touch heavier than there Veritas counterparts............the Vengeance however is more like an SCII rod, yet they are still cheaper.

I have gotten so the only time I DON'T use a fluorocarbon leader is when frogging, punching mats, or topwaters.

Keep at it, I never fall fished much until about 10 years ago, and I struggled for a few years after I started. But now it's one of my favorite times to fish, and every year some of my biggest fish and best days are in the fall. Often the colder it gets and the shorter the day's are, the smaller the windows for success become. Spending an hour or more on a good spot before they bite, or painstakingly sticking with something, even though it's slow often yields big results if you have the patience. My best fall days are often grinds for most of the day with flurries of activity every couple hours. On some lakes, those "grinds" are a fish here, and a fish there, on others it's a whole lot of nothing. Late Fall/early spring cold water periods are the times of the season I can comfortably say that each and every body of water will amplify it's own "personality", where as in the late spring- early fall many different lakes will all fish reasonably similar to each other. Of coarse there's always exceptions to that too.

I like wind.............sometimes. When they are biting, I really don't mind the wind, if there not biting then wind bugs me. I don't have a wind speed or direction that makes me decide not to go, I just go on my gut.

When my usual stuff is not working. Or the water is in the 40's

Yes..................you have a lot to learn.

Yes....multiple times, the last few in recent memory was a 5-3 off the end of a point on a wacky jig one morning, the next morning I caught it again on topwater. The other was a fish I had hooked......to the surface and broke me off, and almost in the net. I caught it the next day with my hook/bait still in it's face, it also was a decent sized fish, a 4-8. Funny thing is...........the bait I caught it on the second day was the SAME exact bait it broke me off on the day before, that was still hanging out of it's face. How's that for the theory that bass remember baits that stuck............it couldn't even remember that it had the same thing stuck in it's head. ROTFLMAO

More importantly..................did you catch any fish off it?

I wouldn't hesitate to buy some of the more popular house brand stuff like the BPS cranking stick, or Pro Qualifier reels if they were on sale, but at full retail, I would probably go "name brand" 99% of the time.

Depends. If I plan on fishing that day, I will be there usually from dawn till dark, just like I am the rest of the year. Unless it's terrible slow, or I have other things to do. But if I just get the urge to go fishing I'll go anytime of the day, might be 9am, might be 2pm, I usually don't bother getting out there much later than 3:30 or so this time of year because it get dark at 5:30.

I don't rule anything out, BUT when the water get's into the 40's like it is now, the stuff at the top of the rotation will be a finesse jig, a small 3" or 4" bait on a drop shot, or a shaky head for slow presentations. And a lipless crank, suspending jerkbait, and a small swim bait for moving baits.

<------------------------- Does this guy look like an athlete?

I see you say this often...........and I don't know if I agree, or not. I guess it depends on the context. To me color only matters when talking about picking one that will get more bites based on the conditions, and I keep that selection simple too.

Reels: Remove reels from the rods. Back the drags off. I use braid as mainline so the line stays on, I only re-spool if I am getting low, or if the braid is looking unusually ratty. I don't start cleaning/lubing them until I am 100% sure there is no chance that I might need to grab one and go. But my clean and lube process is simple. Wipe down with a clean rag, I'll use a cotton swab to get any gunk out of small spots. Flush and re-lube spool bearings, lube the level wind gear. A little dab of grease on the gears, and that's about it. Rods: Wipe the rods down with a clean, damp rag. Check guides. All my rods are EVA handles now, but when I had cork handle rods, I cleaned them with a Mr. Clean magic eraser. Hang rods up in a rack Tackle: Brought in the house Any Waterlogged plastics, or rusty hooks get tossed. Rusty jigs get set off to the side so the lead can be melted back off them to make something else. I inventory all my stuff so I know what I "need" to stock up on over the winter I sort out stuff that I find myself not using much and sell or trade it on the flea market here. I spend a lot of time over the coarse of the winter changing out trebel hooks, trimming jig skirts, and making all the little mods. to my stuff so that when I hit the water at ice out I am ready to go.

I keep mine in the original bags, then they are placed in the large 1 compartment deep plano 3700 type boxes. I have one for creatures/craws/jig trailers, one for senkos/worms, one for drop shot/finesse baits, one for misc. stuff like flukes/horny toads/grubs etc.... I keep those boxes stocked out of a large Rubbermaid tote I keep at home full of my supply. The baits in the tote are sorted by type in 1 gallon zip lock bags so I know what to grab.

I have not used mono or copoly line in a long time, except for ice fishing. But when I did, I liked Trilene Sensation on spinning gear, and Trilene Big Game on casting.

I fish them year round...........or at least our "year".........that is from the time the ice melts till it freezes again. I catch a lot of big fish on them, and personally I think the compact, yet bulky profile attracts a "better" average size fish than a worm.

I have bought some GYCB stuff from a seller in Japan. No issues. Didn't even take very long to get here.

I have owned and fished plenty of Mojo's............they are fine rods. BUT if you want to save your self a few bucks and still get a nice rod, look at an Abu Vendetta. They are every bit as good as the Mojo performance wise, lighter and less tip heavy to boot. I sold all my Mojo's once I started using Vendetta's. Besides they look pretty slick paired with a Revo SX, and we all know how bass prefer matching gear..............LOL

I swear they give me the finger sometimes.

I use the alberto knot as well. Going through the guides has never hurt it. I tie about a 7-8 foot leader most of the time, that way I have a few reties available to me before the leader gets too short and a new one has to be tied on. The only time I go shorter is when I am flipping or pitching in very tight places and accuracy and stealth is of the upmost importance, in that situation I don't want the knot running through the guides and having the potential to make a pitch go ever so slightly off target.

Well said.

I am disgusted that you put my pets on the carpet like that to have the slime coat damaged.........................ROTFLMAO

I have fired thousands of rounds of cheap Wolf and Tula ammo............it all goes bang. In fact the worst ammo I have ever used was Remington UMC .45 acp, which around here is about twice as much as the cheap import stuff.

Some house brand gear is very good, some is not. Two shining examples of the "good" are the BPS Pro Qualifier reels, and the BPS Cranking stick rods. Like many name brands, low end store brand gear is pretty much disposable stuff.