ww2farmer

Grubs, tubes, and ribbon tailed worms are as good as they ever were, yet have seen a sharp decline in use (around here). I myself am guilty of not using tubes much any more, but over the last two years the grub and ribbon tailed worm have returned to my arsenal with gusto.

I use 15 or 17lb fluorocarbon leaders, with 30 or 50lb braid as the main line when power shotting.

It's been extremes here in wny this year, one of the warmest, driest Mays on record, to one of the coolest June's with record rain fall (I had a legit 26" of rain in my gage between memorial day weekend and the 4th of July) to a cooler than normal July, a "normal" August, to the third warmest, and one of the driest Septembers on record.

I am also not a fan of Trokar hooks for many of the already stated reasons. It used to be that hooks (and line) were one area I spared no expense on. But Mustad,VMC, and Eagle Claw are making excellent hooks at reasonable prices these days, and they are about all I use anymore. I have not had a Gamakatsu or Owner hook in my boat for over 3 years and have seen no difference in hook up and landing %.

IMHO, having owned both: Fenwick HMG > SCII Mojo in the "bang for the buck" and performance department. No exp. with the latest Mojo, I don't even think they are available yet....but I have owned other SCIII rods (Rage and Avid), and am also of the opinion that the HMG offers more bang for the buck than those as well,with little to no decrease in performance despite the price difference.

Junk fishing.....that is if we're talking that true "in between seasons" transition period. I will fish everything in my arsenal during this time, and often, one technique or presentation is only good for a couple of fish before you have to almost do a 180 and go with something else. I know this time of year is coming when the 2-3 weeks before I could do no wrong and the bite was on fire. IMHO, this transition is a tougher time to fish than the post spawn period, but when its over and they settle into a true fall pattern, it's worth the couple weeks of work I had to put in to get bites.

I use "silent" ones 90% of the time, clear or dirty water. I have a few with rattles and occasionally use one, often in the same situation's that I use the silent ones.... I have never noticed a big difference in the end results.

I fish public water, there are no secrets. I do however have a couple of little known spots on one particular body of water that I will not talk about anymore. A couple bass resource members know what I am talking about. I don't mind sharing information with my friends, but I am very careful on who knows what anymore.

I'd rather discuss the best rod for $100

Same here

I only use rubber collers. Simple, cheap, effective, easy to use, and easy to change skirts.

I went through a whole pack of them yesterday evening after work in about 3 hours. I will be buying more. Word of caution.... TW and even Berkleys website say 10 come in a bag, the bag say's 8, and you get 8. Durability is nothing to write home about, but I caught about 15 bass on the pack of 8,a few got their tails bit off by panfish, with a decent amount of 3+ lb fish. It was the only thing I used yesterday just to play around with them, I used them as a finesse flipping bait Texas rigged with a 1/4 oz. sinker pegged to the nose on a 2/0 heavy wire ewg hook, flipped and pitched into shallow weed holes and under docks with heavy line and on my flipping rod. It got dark out, and they were biting it the way I was fishing it, so I didn't get a chance to use it on light line and a shaky head.

A 4" grub is my #1 go to swim jig and chatterbait trailer. As much as I fart around with things like paddle tail baits, flapping creature baits,etc...the grub outfishes them all. It just works...cold water,dirty water, clear water, warm water.....it seems to be the best all around trailer for me.

I have 5 3700 boxes in my boat holding enough Havoc and Yum plastics for what I do. Until it's time to refill the boxes, I keep them in their original bags at home. Powebait plastics stay in their original bag and are placed in a deep,1 compartment 3700.

Nice reading comprehension skills...that's my personal best. Of which I said I will take a picture of. If I top it, that picture will be replaced with another. I am not immune from dipping into full blown idiocy... Actually, I excel at it.

I used to do it, I don't anymore. In fact, it's now become one of my top pet peeves about bass fisherman. Everyone now has to hold up a fish, act like a fool in front of a camera, and put said fish pictures on Facebook so Aunt Mildred can give them a huge pat on the back, and tell them how great they are. It's a plague created by the whole Facebook/social media thing, were a society of "hey look at me,I'm great" attention hogs now. In the future, any fish pictures I have taken are reserved for a new personal best, and/or a worthwhile accomplishment.... Winning the local beer money tournament with 12lbs doesn't quite qualify.... But for those that think it does.... Knock yourself out, just know that I think your an idiot.... Fwiw ..lol

I can't think of a better budget rod than a 7' MH lightning rod shock. $40 at Walmart. I am retiring mine and going with custom built stuff, but until the conversion is complete to 100% custom, I still have a few of them in the boat and they are serving me well still. I have used that 7' MH for everything, it's a pretty versatile rod.

Interesting that you mentioned the Phenix M1 7'2" MH, that's the exact blank my builder suggested for what I want to do, plus he said it is an excellent finesse casting rod for bottom contact stuff as well. He has a rod he built for himself on that blank and pretty much does what I am thinking about doing with it.

My builder has already placed two rods in my paws that I absolutely love... A 7'3" heavy power, fast action, built on an MHX mag bass blank, and a 6'8" medium power, extra fast action spinning rod on a Batson/Rainshadow blank. He's working on a third rod now, my "swiss army knife" bass rod....a 7' MH/F,also on an MHX mag bass blank. After that I am requesting a cranking rod. My only problem..... I don't like "traditional" moderate action cranking rods for what I do.... Which is ripping 1/2 or 3/4 oz. lipless baits out of grass, ripping 1.5 and 2.5 sized squarebills out of grass, with occasional bouncing around in some wood/rock/dock cover, and casting or long lining 5xd sized deep diving on outside weedline or sparse hard cover in 12'-14'fow. I rarely, if ever, throw 6xd's anymore, or anything else bigger than a 5xd. I want one rod to handle these tasks. I want it to be at least 7' (I am plenty accurate with a 7' in tight quarters), but less than 7'6" for ease of storage in my rod locker. After looking around the one line of blanks that caught my attention and seems to "fit the bill" of what I want is the American Tackle Bushido blanks.... Specifically their 7'2" M or MH moderate fast rods in the "popping and cranking" line. Just looking for general thoughts and/or opinions on my line of thinking here, as well as some first hand experiences with these particular blanks if anyone has any. Thanks guys.

That makes two of us. If you like senkos and they work for you, AND your comfortable paying what they cost stick with them, changing the name on the bag is not going to somehow be magic. Personally, I use Yum dingers, I have not used a senko in 3 years and my results with stick baits has not dropped off at all. If they are not biting it, I switch to a different presentation altogether. Having multiple brands of the same style of bait and switching between brands hoping that that's the trigger is, IMHO, an exercise in stupidity.

Same as it ever was. Better than the last two summers, not as good as the best summers in recent memory (2011 + 2012 were fantastic) My tournament results are about the same as they have been the last few years. Out of 12 tournaments so far (10 on Silver, 2 on Conesus): 1 Win 3 2nd places (two on Conesus, 1 on Silver) 4 3rd places 1 4th Lunker once One or two places out of the money in 2 more and only one stinker.

I have both + Daiwa Lexa's (same frame as the Exceler). I like the Exceler (and Lexa) better, I don't hate the Lews, but I don't think it's for me, and will replace it with another Daiwa soon. One of the things I like better about the Exceler is they are a little "fuller" in my hand , while still being light, and comfortable to me. The Lews gear box sits really low on the rod, much like the latest generation Abu Revo's, and both (Lews LFS SS, and Gen 3 Revos) are a little "funny" feeling in my hands. I also HATE the knobs on the Lews handle, and Lews mag. brake is inferior to Daiwa's. The Daiwa's have more power. I can deep crank very easy with the 6.3 Exceler, the Lews feels labored with anything the size of a 5xd or bigger.

Leaving buzzbaits out of the conversation, because they are a different animal, the chatterbait and swim jig have all but replaced the spinnerbait for me. I like the swim jig in clear to stained water, and the chatterbait anytime the water is dirty. The chatterbait also seems to work better in colder water than the swim jig. Swim jigs come through thick grass. foreboding dock post/boat hoists danger zones and wood cover better, and have the added bonus ability to pitch it to juicy looking target like a traditional flipping jig if you see something that looks like a good place for a bass to be.

I drop shot the small pit boss quite a bit, as well as the usual assortment of finesse worms, stick baits, and assorted other stuff. I power shot the "regular" size pit boss often too, as far as I am concerned, any and every soft plastic bait I have is fair game for drop shotting and/or power shotting. If you box yourself into thinking that only worms or little finesse baits are the only thing to use, your doing yourself a disservice, and missing catchable fish. Same thing goes for this whole " a bait on a shaky head has to float/stick straight up, etc.." nonsense..... But that's another rant for another time lol.

I follow the K.I.S.S method for jig colors. Flipping, football, and finesse jigs: black and blue, green pumpkin and brown, brown and purple (pb&j), and green pumpkin with a few strands of orange and chartreuse... Swim jigs+ chatterbaits: black and blue, bluegill, and white.