ww2farmer

Sounds like a typical winter day in Buffalo/WNY..............except we still function.

That would be a fine rod for your intended purposes.

that helps.......I would go with a Med. power w/fast or xtra fast action for that as well. 6'6"- 7' would be a good length to go with. There are alot of good rods out to choose from, starting at about $80 all the way to..........well as high as you could want to go. I prefer St Croix spinning rods, I tend to like a 7' ML power/fast Avid for just drop shotting, but I like my 6'8" Med power/ X-fast Mojo for more of an all around rod. I fish tubes, wacky rigs, finesse jigs, weightless plastics, and drop shot with it. Handles 8lb line great, and it comes in the Mojo ($100) Avid($180) Legend Tournament ($240) Legend Elite ($350) and Legend Ext. ($400) so how ever mush you want to spend, there is one in that power/length/action.

You need to be more specific than that. What size line are you planning on using. What kind of cover are you fishing? You can fish tubes and drop shot on any thing from an UL panfish rod, to an XH power flipping stick. More info from you would get you a better answer.

Uhhhhhhhh no.......that was just a metaphor for how easy, AT TIMES, SM can be to catch off a bed. I wouldn't have thought that needed to be explained.............. The finger lakes can get very tough, post spawn SM around here vanish into thin air (for me) and during the summer I don't even bother. I'll catch them while LM fishing, but nothing I care to say was not by accident. I don't think we have any less competition, what we have is a C&R only season during the spawn, and that means no tournaments during the spawn, IMHO it makes for a healthy fishery. I don't care what anyone says, take a fish off a bed, take it miles away to a weigh in, and have dozens, if 100+ boats doing that.............that can't be good. I am glad NYS dosen't allow it.

YES...........exactly. I don't know you AA, but your questions are all them same..........insert bait name here......... I just tend to say things a little less elegantly than most

If you read my post, I stated that LM were harder to fool, sometimes SM get that way too, but IF the SM are locked on there bed, sometimes it can be stupid easy.We have both fish here, and I almost always pass up LM on beds if there are SM on them. And yes it happens at the same time on the same body of water often.

YOU FINALLY DID IT!!!! You finally stumbled upon that one magic lure that no bass can resist. Your search is over!! You are a genius among men airborne_angler............................. : : um let me start the count down myself ......5.........4..........3..........2.......1.............and removed HAHAHAHAHA

I have caught quality SM flipping weeds in 8-12 FOW for LM, but it depends on the body of water. They bite big flipping jigs just fine, but that dosen't mean they are always the right jig, match the jig to the conditons. If in your lake they live in the weeds pick a good quality flipping jig, if they live on deep rock, go with a football jig. While some lures catch more of one or they other (SM vs LM) there is no lure that one bites the other won't if they are where your fishing it, I have caught 5lb LM on small drop shot baits in deep water, and 5lb SM on full size Paca craws and beavers flipped in weed holes in shallow water in the middle of summer.

Yup life long Bills fan..............season ticket holder from 1989 to 1996. I was in high school/late teens during the Super Bowl years. It was the most enjoyment I ever had watching football, but you always had an empty feeling in your gut, and felt like a whole season was wasted by losing one game. SB XXV was the worst..........obviously losing on a missed kick, by the time they lost the 4th one in a row I was almost numb to it, and in 1994 when they didn't even make the playoffs I was actually semi-releived. The last 10+ years have been terrible, I would have given one trip and a loss in the SB in the middle of this stink-fest...........now that I know how to handle it. When I look back on that team 20 years later, I'm still dissapointed, but ..............I actually don't know how to put in words how much that time in my life ment to me. I went to or watched all those games, had all those good times with people in my family that are now gone..........................wow, sorry guys

Often it matters not what you put on the bed, as long as the fish is locked, and you get it in the "spot", you could be using a old band-aid and get bit. More so with smallmouth, green fish tend to be a little picky at times.

I have no idea...................shape/size looks like it might be a Daiwa, or Yo-zuri.

How much do you want to spend $50? $75? $100? $150? "not alot" means different things to different people.

I fished Rat-L-Traps almost exclusivly since the late 80's, caught plenty of fish on them, some good ones too. I have caught more fish in the last 3-4 years on Red Eye Shads than the I have on the Rat-L-Trap in the previous 20 years combined. Who knows why.......is the RES that much better? Maybe, but doubtful. I know after I started to fish the RES I started to pay attention to the when/where/why I use lip less cranks alot more, and I also started playing with size, colors, retrieves more. I used to throw a chrome/blue trap no matter what, straight steady retrieve, and never in cold water. So I guess I never gave the Traps as fair a shot as I have the RES..........but I have caught so many fish on the RES, and have sooooo much confidence in it, I can't go back now. One thing the RES has on the Trap is that it stays up right and wiggles on the fall, I got alot of bites on it after I kill it and let it fall.

My opinion ..........................keep it simple. Start with a Zoom super chunk, or super chunk jr. depending on what size jig your using. I like to match my trailer color to my jig, black/blue jigs, get black and blue trailers, green or brown jigs get green pumpkin trailers etc..... That trailer with any decent jig will catch fish in just about every condition where a jig is the answer. Learn it, gain confidence in it, and then branch out from there..............

I actually downgraded my jerkbait set up, I was using a 6'6" M/F St Croix Legend tournament. That rod was nice but I sold it to buy another LT, a 7' MH/F. I am going to throw them this year on a 6'8" M/XF Mojo, or on my 6'8" MH Kistler Mag TS APS. I will probably regret selling that rod, and have another one someday

I have that rod as well, IMHO it handles baits on the heavy side of it's rating better than the lighter. I usually dont' go much below 3/8 oz with it, and most often fish baits in the 1/2-3/4 range. Great C-rig, and big spinnerbait rod too. I usually fish 17lb fluoro on it, but am switching to braid this year.......just bought a 7' MH/F Legend Tournament, that will have fluoro on it now. With braid on it, it will also make a great back up frog rod if my current frog rod has issues.

I have found the Netbait ones to be a very capable substitute.............any thing else sucks IMHO.

I have a rotation of 3, before I even think about BPS, Gander and Cabela's. Tackle Warehouse, a store whose name wont show up no matter how a try and put it in , and Susquehanna fishing tackle. They all offer free shipping on orders over $50 now. And each of them has things others don't. Funny thing is, TW is the furthest away yet I still get my stuff from them the fastest.

YES.............the last 4 bags of Green Pumpkin I got from Dicks were like this, but they still worked just fine. The Green Pumpkin was browner/darker than usual too. But like I said the caught fish just fine. The next batch I bought from TW.........back to "normal" . The dicks purchase was in Aug. or early Sept. The TW order was in october. I haven't bought any since.

We have had 2 days above freezing since winter "officaly" began on Dec. 21. I was ice fishing on Dec. 19th if that tells you anything.

I fish opens, entry fees range from $25-$50. I set aside $300 at the start of our tournament season (3rd sat. in june) and when it's gone I'm done...........don't matter if it's july or october. I usually can get 8 tournaments out of that, I don't have time for many more any how, other than a few evening tournaments I fish most of the weekend ones I fish are inbetween busy times on the farm.

every thing I own.............if they didn't, I wouldn't have them. I buy and put them together so they feel right from the get go. However I have had a few that felt "right" but fished like crap............The Daiwa Fuego, paired with my St Croix LTB 7' M/F "Teaser" was a good example.

Usually all I carry is 4-6 colors of any one bait, my personal top 4 would be: Black w/blue flake June Bug Green Pumpkin Watermelon w/red flake I pretty much carry those colors in just about every bait I carry, I add a few more to other select baits, but It's not nessecary. I could get by just fine, and usually do with these 6 baits: Beaver Paca Craw Senko Trick Worm Fluke Finesse Worm

My first dedicated cranking set up several years ago was a 7' M BPS cranking stick, and a 5:1 BPS Extreme. Back then All I cranked were bandit 100's, storm wiggle warts, mann's baby 1-'s, and 1/2 oz rat-l-traps, handled them all very well. I don't regret upgrading, but that is one combo that I could still fish with.