ww2farmer

IDK.....but I would close that sink drain before a screw, small part or spring finds it..

Strike King and Bandit have been good to me.

Used, they pop up all the time on here, ebay, etc..... I wouldn't hesitate to buy a nice used one. They are warranteed for life by St Croix, you can use the Gold Star service program they have, which is a no questions asked, original owner or not, $50 replacement fee for a broken rod. Avid and up are eligable for life, Mojo's Rage's, Premiers, and Triumphs for five years.

Squarebills and lipless are the way to go IMHO if your just starting out. You can fish the squarebill in 1-5 feet of water and the lipless in any just about any depth. I like Strike King baits, a KVD 1.5 is a good all around squarebill, and I have a ton of confidence in a Red Eye shad. Keep the color selection simple, Bluegill, Sexy Shad, and Red Craw all work in just about any water clarity.

This.... plus..and it seems to happen with smallmouth way more than LM , but sometimes they just clamp down hard on a bait, and you don't get a good hook into them. One of the better smallie fisherman I know, sets the hook a couple times on deep water jig smallies.

I use the #4 Mustad KVD Elite 1x strong, 2x short, triple grips on 1.5's and #2's on 2.5's. Those are the hooks KVD uses on those baits, good enough for him.....good enough for me. He states he upsizesthe hooks on those baits one size and it dosen't change the way the bait runs, I don't, I just stay with the stock sizes....which is a #4 or #2

If money is no object go Avid, but Premiers are fine rods too. I wish St Croix would make the Avid with the Premier rear grip, not a fan of the "hump".

Cover, cover, cover. It dosen't matter if those docks are in 2' of water or 200...fish will use them. Skip weightless softplastics way up under them with a stout spinning rod and some braided line, and/or work a top water bait down the sides, or under them.

I have that exact spinning rod, as my truck/pond hopping rod. Decent rod for the $$, but I only fish it with braid. The actions seem to be a little bit more moderate because they were designed for low stretch braid, hooksets with mono might be iffy on anything except exposed hook lures.

Green is fine in clear water. If your worried about "line shy" fish use a flourocarbon leader. I fish clear water both ways...with, and without the leader. I don't think it matters much for LMB....smallmouth maybe. I use the leader for other reasons too. Mainly abbrasion resistance, brain is terrible at that.

20,30, or 50 lb Power Pro with 12,15, or 20 lb Seagaur Abraz-x leaders as needed. In grass, wood, or dirty water I tie straight to the braid. The Seagaur line is new to me this year, and it's far and away much better than any of the other flouro lines I have used before (Vanish, BPS XPS, and Trilene 100%)

I am not much of a a soaker or dragger either. I fish it fast. Cast...fall....drag/shake and/or,deadstick (depends how they want it) for a lil bit......repeat.

Well, your just down the road from me a little. I am in Warsaw. Also a Bills fan. If your house is around the stadium, I apologize.....for there is a good chance I have puked or wizzed on the lawn. Other than that ......welcome.

Bluegills will hit a 6xd so hard they will knock slack in your line. I have also seen them knock a spro frog out of the water. Some of the biggest "thumps" I get when dropshotting are from bluegills. More often than not a bass will just suck it in and swim off with it.

I had a Red Eye shad take on water...........sent it in, got two back, A+ in my book. Better than Rapala's policy of sending it in for inspection, and will be replaced if they see fit...........and oh yeah, only if you have the original box/reciept, if not.............tough luck.

I have caught plenty of 4, 5 and 6lb fish around here on Senkos, but most all of them have been on "tough" days when I have not had any success flipping/frogging/cranking and have resorted to either a Senko or dropshotting (some time even a senko on a dropshot LOL) to get a few bites. I will say .... rarely do I catch a big one in and/or around an area where dinks are on fire.

Depends on what i am doing. Most of my rods are 7', but I like longer rods for flipping(7'11") and deep cranking (7'10"), and shorter rods (6'6")... for topwaters (except frogs), jerkbaits, and skipping docks.

Yamamoto D-shad has more plastic than a fluke, so does the Strike King Caffine shad. I prefer them both over the Zoom Superfluke, with the nod to the D-sahd for the better of those two. An often overlooked way to fish them over the top of grass is to just burn them across the surface. They will skip, hop, flop, splash there way back to you and get some pretty violant strikes.

I had the 7' Heavy power, Fast action Premier. I hated it for frogging. Too heavy, stiff tip. Poor caster of frogs, unless you are going to just toss a frog out and drag it back across a mat 100% of the time, I would get there MH rod, much better "all around" frog rod. Has enough power to pull big fish out of thick slop, light enough with enough tip to cast and walk frogs all day.

Really????....................cause you basicly described my boat, except I have $300 graphs, and only a 25HP motor. Most of my rods and reels are second hand used, and I don't buy many $15-$20 baits, yet I compete just fine. Do I win them all?.........nope, not hardly, but neither do the guys with bigger boats and better stuff. Do I have a few stinkers?......yes, every one does. But I cash my fair of checks, and am usually not too far out of the money when I don't. But, it dosen't matter what I say, you think latest/greatest/most expensive stuff ='s success, and you think guys with stuff like I use makes us some sort of a hack. Like I said in my previous post, your young and ignorant, perhaps more so then I first thought, but hopefully you learn.

Same here man. And when you do get home, anytime you want to go fishing give me a hollar.

No, they are younger than me and still in collage. They are just good, and the lake we fished suits there style of fishng very well. Your not getting it. It's not the equipment that makes the fisherman. They just kicked my butt, and a field of some pretty good sticks butts yesterday, no $50K dollar boat with $10K worth of electronics would have prevented it. I know another guy who does the most basic, mind-numbing thing I can think of, with cheap spinning reels, line most people think is garbage, but does it better than anyone else I know. And thats dragging a tube for smallmouth, if that bite is on, and he's doing it, he will make you look foolish. Your young, and ignorant, you'll grow out of it, if not............life will be a challange.

I know a couple guys who use average gear, have a beat up old boat, basic electronics, and whip the pants, off most of the dudes running 21' rigs with 250 HP, and all the bells, whistles, and fancy gear money can buy. It's no fluke either, for 3-4 years now they have been doing it. I know when ever I see them pull in you have to bring your A game, or they will embarass you. They never seem to have an off day/night. Not too bad for a couple guys in a tin can boat with average Joe stuff. I expect them to beat me, I suck, but I do enjoy the fact they seem to crush most of the wannabe pros who have blown there wads on toys to be "just like KVD"

Heck, the dinks I culled with 2lbers today, got me excited.................for a moment. Then I realized how pathetic that was. Usually I gauge my exictment over fish size based on how much irritation it causes those who can not be on the water. Early in the year it might be any fish, but by now it's just 4+ lbers.

It's a Carrot Stick..........so sooner or later it will have it's second technique it excels at...............staking vegetables.