ww2farmer

Same here. I find them to be either too pool que stiff and suck for skipping and flinging frogs with precision under docks, over hanging trees, etc....Plus those super stout frog rods actually hurt hook up %, by yanking the frog away from the fish too fast. With a 7' MH rod that has a little tip and a lot of back bone, I can whip a frog a mile, winch 5 + 6lb fish out of mats, walk a frog like no bodies business, and rarely miss a solid blow up where the bass actually has the frog in it's mouth.............part of that is me being dumb and slow. Sometimes not having cat like reflex's is an advantage LMAO.

Soft plastics by a wide margin. I have enough Yum Dingers, Chigger Craws, and Pit Bosses, that I didn't have to buy ANY in 2016 (I still bought some but I never would have run out had I not), and I might be able to fish all of 2017 without buying much.

Broken record time...............braid to fluoro leader is what I have been using for years. I don't plan to switch any time soon.

Another vote for Lightning Rod Shocks. I do all my "feel" stuff on custom made rods, but I keep a bunch of LR Shocks around for frogging, swim jigs, chatterbaits, etc...................other than being a little on the heavy side, they are fantastic "cheap" rods for moving baits.

Yeah same here..................but until then, just buy more seats, that's what I do. LOL..............I ain't found one yet that I can't break.

I would write down the Hull ID number, and make sure I never buy that boat once the wrap comes off. Those guys beat the snot out of their boats. Plus I'd probably loosen up some drags, and reel seat nuts...................because I'm kind of an a-hole.

The Booyah Pad Crashers are all I use.

Havoc Pit Boss..............cheap, versatile, effective, durable, cheap,comes in all the colors and sizes I need/want,available locally, stays on the hook better than most when punching, and did I mention cheap.

I started fishing in the 80's when I was 6 or 7 years old, I was a "bass fisherman" by age 10, I am 40 now. So 30 years and counting.

It may be smoother, and may be better, but I can tell you with confidence, and based on years of use. The President is fantastic reel for the $$. I have a few and they get used hard, and keep coming back for more.

I think I post in a thread about the same topic every year, and every year my answer stays pretty much the same. In no particular order: Don't break anything expensive Don't fall of the boat and/or drown Be nicer to people Take my kids out as often as I can Help as many younger guys just getting started as I can Have fun Learn from my mistakes The fishing always takes care of itself. I have a lot of good days, a few bad ones, but in the end if I can check the above things off my list, it was a good season.

When I used St Croix's I had Mojo's, Triumph's, Premiers, Avid's, Rage's, and Legend Tournament's In hindsight. The SCIII rods were the best bang for the $$$. If I were to go back to St Croix's I would just buy SCIII blanked rods and not lose any sleep over it. Now that the Mojo's are made with SCIII they look like a very attractive option to me again instead of going with what I am currently using, which are custom made rods on MHX blanks.

I assemble my own jigs out of Boss or other brands of pre-made components. I trim the skirts to about even with the hook bend on EVERY jig before it gets wet. In clear water I will also thin the skirt out a little to reduce the profile and increase the fall rate. I will often fan the weed guard out and remove a few strands............I NEVER trim the weed guard, that just makes it stiffer. That's about it.

What ever I need to do to catch fish that day. I have won tournaments with a flipping , cranking, or frog rod in my hand, and I have also won them with a spinning rod, light line and tiny baits. I never know what I am going to do until I get there. I am the poster child for the old saying..........."jack of all trades, master of none" I'll never beat the best froggers if it's a frog bite, I'll never beat the best crankers if it's a cranking bite, I'll never beat the best draggers if it's a dragging bite, I'll never beat the best chatterbaiters if it's a chatterbait bite,and I'll never beat the best senko drowners, if it's a senko drowning bite. BUT.........I can do all those things well enough to do well when I have to.

I like micro guides for skipping, other than that I hate them. I keep one baitcasting rod around with micro guides for skipping, the rest of my rods have "normal" guides. My biggest issues with them for me are: #1 as WRB said, they are not smooth with a braid/leader knot. And since most of my fishing is done with braid/fluoro leader, the micro guides don't work real well for me. #2 The amount of junk they can accumulate ranges from infuriating to mildly annoying. Come late May early June around here, if your using a micro guide equipped rod, you spend more time picking cotton wood fibers out of it than fishing...........no thanks. Also early and late in the season they ice up solid too much to be of any use to me.

The #1 time I opt for a chatterbait over a spinnerbait (or even a swimjig) are when bass are dirt shallow in cool (45-60 degrees) stained water. I will use them in other conditions, but this is when they really shine for me.

Who am I to argue?..............LOL

I am getting grumpy in my old age. The only joy I get out of Christmas is making my kids happy, and in recent years Thanksgiving has irritated me because of the constant bombardment of "Black Friday this,Black Friday that" leading up to, and following it. Que up the Archie Bunker theme song....................I'll be right back, there's some kids I have to go chase of my lawn.

My .02 on this, and it may be not worth even that. The tournaments I fish, the spot fisherman do well............when their spots are on. But they either smash a big bag, or on the trailer early and gone at weigh in time The pattern fisherman do well more consistently, always hovering close to the win, winning multiple events in a row, or are in the money more times than not. I won't get into the whole "fishing memories vs fishing the moment' deal, I find it stupid. Only a fool would NOT at least try to duplicate what has worked well in the past in area's or on spots that produced. And only a fool would stick with it and not try to figure out what was going on that day, or look for other area's and find other productive patterns for the conditions of the day if what he did before is not working. How many of these idiots who preach "fish the moment" really abide by it? I don't remember the last time on a day 2 or 3 of an Elite series event where everyone just randomly dropped the TM and started fishing...........NO, they all run to spots/areas they caught them before!!!

I am a junk fisherman at heart. In a full day on the water it's not uncommon for me to have fished dirt shallow, or offshore in 25-30 feet of water and all depths/type of cover in-between, with everything from a frog, to a jig, to drop shot, to a deep diving crank, and any number of other diff. things. If something is working really well, and my gut tells me this is "the deal today" I stick with it for a while, or maybe all day. But i would say about 80% of the time I am fishing, it's junk fishing............. and I do alright with it.

I like the Havoc Pit Boss. It replaced R.I. Sweet Beavers several years ago in my boat, for several reasons. Some of the reasons, and in no particular order are: When I am punching, I am usually using a larger tungsten sinker (3/4 oz- 1.5oz) and a 5/0 straight shank, heavy wire VMC flipping hook. The thicker head of the pit boss holds up to punching about 1000 x's better than a R.I. Beaver. I am much more efficient when I can make punch after punch without having to readjust the bait every third flip. They are also cheaper, and more durable in general, and I have not had any drop off in catch rate or quality of fish caught since the switch. What's not to like about that? And they are more versatile for me............besides a pitch/flip/punch bait or a jig trailer, I also swim them, use them as a swim jig trailer, power shot them, c-rig them, drag them on biffle typw wobble heads, and even use them as a "finesse" buzzing frog on top.

Have a good one everybody!!!

Bold Bluegill Green pumpkin w/purple flake Watermelon Candy

There's no such thing as too shallow.

I hate fluorocarbon as a mainline, no mater what brand/price point. But I almost always fish braid with a leader, and Red Label is my go to leader material.