Bass, Bluegill, Crappie, Flathead Catfish, Channel Catfish, and Flounder. I like them all! Which do I like best? The one that is on my plate!

I have caught a lot of fish in excess of the line weight. If you have plenty of line on the reel and are in fairly open water you can play them with the drag until they are basically exausted and then lead them to the net. I used to do this with red drum when they were running small I would go to 6 pound line and have a great time.

I normally cast left-handed and crank the reel with my right. I had a bout with tennis elbow a few years ago and so had to cast right-handed for a while. Even after I got over the elbow problem I still occasionally will cast with the right hand. I am sort of mixed handed. I throw, write, and eat left-handed but I shoot, play pool, swing a bat, and ax right-handed. Then there are a lot of things that I have no prefered hand like swinging a hammer, playing tennis, or do wood carving. I am right-eyes and right-footed.

Double posted....

I tied a clip onto my catfish rod that has 25-pound mono on it and then clipped onto a wire that was attached to an eye bolt. I broke the line before I broke the clip every time. I did break one with 50 pound braid but I am not a big fan of braid for lures except the soft plastics. I never use line that heavy when I am using hard lures for bass. If I was fishing with a line that heavy they make the clips in two sizes but I've never felt the need for the large one. Most of the time when I am using the clips I am fishing with a 10 to 15 pound line so breaking the clip is not a concern. I did catch a 15-pound catfish once on a rattle trap with a speed clip and it was no problem.

I use the speed clips and love them. They are tiny and light and don't bother the action of the lures. There is a trick to using them. People that try to squeeze them open to put them on a lure will hate them. The trick is to hold it and then press it down onto the eye of the lure. when it opens you slip it on. You take it off the same way. No squeezing or fighting with it. I use them when I am trying to find the right color and lure. These are quick change wonders.

I have never had one fail while fighting a fish. even when hung on something I have never had the snap fail when I'm trying to break off. I HAVE had the small snap swivels fail. Once I settle on a lure or if m not changing lures a lot I tie knots. Even when I am using the speed clips I retie them after every few fish. They are not replacement for good knots rather a fast change option when you are changing lures often.

The fish doesn't have a clue what kind of rod you are using. A lot of people are more about style and name brand than anything else. As with a lot of things some, actually a lot, will buy a gold plated turd if they will jack the price up high enough and pay some celebrity to say that they use it and love it.

Is a St. Croix rod better than an Ugly Stick? Yes, it has better hardware and is a higher grade of material. Will you catch more fish if you have a St. Croix instead of an Ugly stick...No or at least not enough to count.

I am a big ABU fan but the lower priced ones that they sell now just aren't all that great. I think I would try a Kastking. I have a couple and like them. They are not as long-lasting as some of the other reels but they don't cost a hundred dollars either. The thing about the better Kastkings is that you are not paying for the name and so get more quality for less money. The two kastkings that I have are smooth as silk and cast very well.

For many years I used a 7' medium action Ambassador popping rod for inshore fishing for redfish, trout, and flounder. It had a 5000 series ABU reel loaded with 14 lb Triline XL. This was also my favorite bass rod for casting bigger crankbaits, spinnerbaits and such. I never did like those older rods with the one hand grips for very much and now they almost don't exist. The same sort of set up will work just as well today as it did then.

I generally downsize my lures in ponds even when the bass are bigger. I have caught some very big bass on tiny little lures that were intended for big bluegill in the ponds.

A lot of years ago I went to a seminar that was about crappie fishing that Jimmy Houston was doing and something that he said stuck with me. "the first thing that you want out of a lure is for the fish to see it and locate it. He recommended grubs that had several colors on them to increase the chances of it being spotted. He further commented that lures that closely resemble minnows have the problem of being harder for the fish to spot. A minnow is colored the way it is so that they will be harder to see and so survive better. I have applied that to all fish and it seems to be true except with the fish are extremely shy. Feeding bass will attack anything that it sees otherwise you would never get a bite on a buzzbait or a spinnerbait. Neither is like anything that a bass would normally see and eat.

I like bright colors and shiny lures if the fish are active and only go to the more subtle when they don't seem to be very active. If you drag a realistic lure over a bass's nose they will usually eat it even if not hungry.

I grew up the same way. I still do most of my bass fishing in stock ponds and small lakes on ranches. In East Texas there are ponds all over the place. If you can get permission the bass fishing in some of these lakes is WILD with many bass in the 3-5 lb range and a few at or above 8 or 9 lbs. The best ones are the larger ones that only a select few are allowed to fish in. It often takes some time and serious courting to get permission onto some of these places but the rewards are worth it.

Howdy from East Texas. If I could only have one and was hungry I would go with either a 4" purple curly til worm with a red tail rigged Texas-style or a 2" chartreuse grub. For fun, I would go with a Zara Puppy in frog color or a Chartreuse and white buzz bait. For durability and long term use I would go with a double spinner Chartreuse and White H&H spinnerbait or a gold 1/4-1/2 oz rattle trap.

To start I usually go with lighter colors on or near the surface and then move to darker colors as I go deeper. White and chartreuse on top, gold and bass colors like a slightly darker green and then purples and darker greens and blues on or near the bottom. If that doesn't work I start hunting what the color of the day is at different depths. I often do this with spinnerbaits, curly tail grubs and plastic worms because they are less expensive and faster to change the color of the plastic part of the bait. Once I find them I may shift to crankbaits in similar colors.

My favorite color lure is the one that gets the most bites on THAT day or time. Color does matter a lot sometimes. On other days it seems to make no difference. It seems to me that when the color matters the most is on the days when the fish don't seem to be biting fast. On those days the color can make the difference between getting skunked and bringing in a nice stringer of fish. My first color to try depends on the water depth that I am fishing and the water clarity.

Bran flakes, strawberry Koolaid, sugar and Big Red soda. Make it a thick sticky dough and then freeze it. Freezing it seems to set it. roll it into little balls on a hook and toss it out with your reel on free spool. When the carp takes off set the hook and as said above Hang On!!! Make sure that you have your drag set loose enough to let it run or it will tear something up or break the line.