I agree, but regardless I am very anti-Berkley Vanish.

so am I ...

I hate shearing this secret because it 's probably the BEST...something I knew...but saw it demonstrated by a pro...

I went to a certain spot that I had previously caught a lot of hogs 20 years ago..maybe longer..I was happy catching 8 fish ..lost about 6..THEN a pro pulls up in a nice bass boat..

And here's the tip..and the style I plan to fish at this lake for the next 3 months..He pulls up to the shore line..and instead of flipping in front of the structure like me...He puposely lets' ALL that go..and reaches over into the slop that is on top of 12 inches of water..I'm thinking .."What are you doing LOL ?"

Then WHAM!!!! he's pulling out #4 of the day;;another bass over 5 pounds..Huh....I put my spinner bait away and started flipping...He continued to work around this one pit...IGNORING all the easy flipping stuff and concentrated on the soup...and in 12 inches of water..WHAM!!!! I turn around and lo and behold he's tackling a 10 pound plus..but big mama hung up on him..and he lost that battle..

I was very impressed as I had covered all that water..but on the easy acessable side..probalby the biggest lesson I've learned ever..and he only said one statement..I watched and learned something very powerful..The statement was an answer ot my question..How many fish have you caught..."This is number 4 "

Well I may be alone here, I am pro-berkely Vanish, Caught my personal best on it, but if it even thinks about hitting a rock or dock, its bye-bye fish. I wish I could show your guys my knot, I dont know the name, but it works for Flouro, Braid, and Mono. I make my living fishing, and its all based on knots so I cant have knot failure.

My age old tip, Dont leave fish to find fish, I never listen but its true.

Here is something different that I am looking forward to trying this year.

The bass invasion of the sport of fishing heavily promotes longer rods, and 6'6 is now really the minimum, as most rods are 7', 7'2", 7'6", 8'6" or longer.

Although these rods offer solid characteristics, the longer the rod the worse the accuracy. I built a new 5'5" MH worm rod for flipping, skipping, and accurate placement under docks in precise situations. Just another interesting idea.

yep..I considered a longer rod as well and came up with the same conclusion...shorter is more accurate...and I aint spending more money on a fishing rod..

Does anyone know how to tie on a rod guide..?i'm missing one on my 7 foot Lighting rod..the tiny one right before the rod tip..

I do like the 7 footers for flipping..but my arm was killing me ..,,some of that cover I was talking about is waaaay out there..

I have began tying my own rods this year, finishing up number 3 sometimes this week.

Is the guide a middle guide or on the end. I'm assuming middle as you would know enough to superglue the end on for a quick fix.

There is no easy explaination on the internet. Best guess would be to go to youtube and video it, im sure there are great demonstrations.

I think a rod tying company, mudhole.com, has videos that are great.

Tag ends of knots.
Take good care to make sure they are trimmed down tight to the knot. When jigging, the knot is the very first thing to come into contact with weed snags, and most knots have the tag ending pointing forward of the knot. If you dont trim the tag end down tight to the knot, you are begging for weeds, especially with a non-limp line such as flouro or mono. The issue doesnt seem to arise as much with braid knots, but a tag end that isnt cut flush with the knot on mono will act like a barb when pulling the jig through grass, even if its less than a mm in length. My tag ends are almsot invisibile they are cut so close to the knot, and I have lost zero jigs as a result of knot failure. Just make sure to cinch/snug the knot good before trimming the tag end. Granted, I retie every 3-4 fish, but the knot has never failed on me while jig fishing.

Rod Action and Length
Though many people prefer medium heavy rods with fast tips for worming, I have only found them useful in heavy vegetation when I needed the assurance of a strong backbone on the rod for horsing a fish out if need be. For all other purposes, I prefer a medium action rod with a moderate speed. This allows me to feel everything so much better since the sensitivity is that much greater. Since I dont use heavy gauge wire hooks for worming, the action of the rod can be much slower and still have the backbone required to set the hook with authority. Most of my non-vegetation worm rods are crank bait rods by other people's standards. Don't hesitate to try different rods for techniques that they were'nt designed for, you might just find that you prefer it in certain situations that it was never "intended or designed" to be used for.

My only concern about this is that, to me, it soudns like in such situation you would be using monofilament. With the combonation of mono (strettttchy), and slow hookset (lighter rod), and less power, more fish would be hooked poorly.

Braid spool with Mono or Flouro leader :). My leaders are generally no longer then 3-4 feet.