Bazoo

Thanks for sharing. I like the Black Max reel on a Zebco rod I have, it makes a nice rig for casting lighter stuff. The Black Max rod, for me at least, serves for a medium/lightish all purpose rod. I can cast 1/4 ounce lures well with it.

I look for things of interest... not to me, but that would be interesting to the bass. Bass like a change, any change. Change in current, depth, or wind, from cover to open, or a lone rock. Any change gets a few casts. If I see bass taking off the surface, yes, I cast to them, and occasionally they respond positively. I have seen bass come out of the water when feeding. I've also seen a bass jump halfway up a log to snag a bug. My buddy has seen a bass take a bat that was skimming the water. Now where did I leave my bat lure? I don't use electronics, I don't have any. I'd use them if I had a boat so suited and had some... probably. I do like being able to fish a smaller body of water and be successful without electronics. For a larger body of water, finding open water structure, I could see them being my best friend.

Thanks for sharing. I haven't tried that model. I use a Black Max rod and reel. I use them separately though with another reel on the rod, and another rod under the reel.

Congratulations. What model reel did you replace?

Oh very nice!

Awesome! We need more details. How many did she catch, and on what?

I forgot to mention that I've never caught a fish on a chatterbait. Hmm

Thanks. I thought they'd work well by themselves, but haven't done much with them yet.

Awesome. Hope it turns into the best trip you've ever had!

I often take a break from certain lures that I'm comfortable with to focus on learning one technique or lure. My self assessment: I am very confident with a lipped crankbait, Texas Rigged soft plastics, Beetle Spin, topwaters to include: Spit'n Image, popper, frog, and the Jitterbug. I'm pretty confident with a spinnerbait, buzzbait, and Roostertail. Somewhat confident with, jerkbaits, lipless crankbaits, spook and ploppers. Not very confident with jigs, neds, or some of the more weird soft plastic techniques including neko rig, wacky rig, drop shot, shaky head. Lately, I've been building my skillset with soft plastics. I've been moving away from the Texas Rig, and learning the Carolina Rig and Split Shot Rigs, as well as Flukes. I figure that soft plastics are the most useful thing for me to focus on. I suppose my goals are to be very well rounded. To be able to catch when others aren't, year round. What else should I focus on, and what am I overlooking?

I don't use a trailer. I do use a trailer hook if I'm in the notion. I forgot about those. I have had a couple of them a friend gave me, sure does look good, I might have to give them a try. I did try them as stand alone bait, rigged on a ned head. I didn't get anythign the couple times I tried it, but that's not much of a test.

Thanks yall. That's what I thought too.

Thanks for explaining.

To my knowledge I haven't ever caught a Spotted Bass. But I generally check them over. I caught this one and it had a small patch of teeth on the tongue. I think it's a Largemouth, what do yall think? You can see that dot in the center of the tongue, that was teeth. I take it that Largemouth with teeth are uncommon?

Interesting discussion, thanks all for sharing. Nice one, and awesome story.

Thanks for everyone's replies. I almost always grab the bass with my right hand, then... switch to my left hand for pictures/weight/unhook. I can hold the fish left handed, but need my dominate hand for unhooking and working the phone. I don't follow. It seems that what you describe is that of reeling the fish in, but I am talking about the transition to when you go to actually grab the critter.

I am wondering about your reel hand when landing a fish. Lets say you catch a fish, you have the reel and rod in your left hand, the fish gets close to shore (or boat for that matter). For whatever reason you don’t want to flip the fish and you don’t have a net. Do you move your reel hand from the reel seat and put it somewhere up the rod, or perhaps hold the line? Or do you keep your reel hand on the reel seat? I’ve done both, and I feel much more confident when keeping my reel hand on the reel seat, but I find myself almost instinctually grabbing the rod about halfway up. I also don't feel like I have as much control because with the fish being close, the rod tip is up and it doesn't have as much spring pressure on the fish. But I feel like this is a mistake. So I want to know what’s best and why, then I will ingrain this into my habits. Thanks, Bazoo

I'm not familiar with the reels mentioned. Abu Garcia Black Max combo is about $70 or so from Walmart and is a decent rig. I use both the reel and rod, but separately currently. The rod is as much or more important than the reel in my opinion. The way the rod loads with the lure weight is very important. A reel with dual brakes is better because it allows you to dial in the help where you need it in the casting cycle. The Black Max only has magnetic brakes, but is easy to work with regardless.

It looks good. I like the bit of translucentcy.

Found this awesome Ott Defoe video. He really shows the knot well.

Howdy @Fishing_Rod, did ya ever hook up with that crankbait?

Thanks. I had no idea it was a thing, and I didn't know how to search for it. When I searched soft split ring I started getting some results.

Some time back I saw someone post a fish and a list of the gear used to catch it, which included a lure that had hand tied split rings using braided line in place of the metal split rings. I think it would change the sound of a crankbait, and that might be beneficial. I've been giving this some thought. Would anyone like to share if you've done this and why? What kind of knot did you use?

I have confidence in the plastic worm. Ranging from, Berkeley power worms, Zoom finess and trick worms, Zoom lizards and U tail worms, Zoom Fat Albert grubs, GY Senkos. Confidence in those is not that they make me feel good, but rather, I've caught bass with plastic worms all seasons when the bite is hard. I can't think of anything else that will work year-round, but if the bass can be caught, they can be caught on a plastic worm of some variety (and by that I mean something "normal" not the latest and greatest). Now if I had to pick a specific color and such for my confidence bait it would be split shot rig with a watermelon color Berkley Power Worm, followed by a Zoom Fat Albert in green pumpkin. However, the former must be rigged carefully to keep it from spinning. Barring the plastic worm, am I confident? kinda. I know that bass ain't going to hit a lot of the other stuff at any given time, and I could likely catch a few fish here and there, but not nearly as many.

Split shot for me has become my favorite. Before that, it was a weightless Texas rig, which of course still sees action. The split shot I can throw on my baitcaster, while the weightless Texas rig is normally a spinning rod proposition. I can throw the heavier worms with casting rods, even down to a Zoom 6" lizard. Right now, my favorite worm is a Berkley Power Worm in watermelon, followed by a Zoom Finess in either watermelon red or green pumpkin.