Hello everyone, I have a question and need some opinions regarding the set up changes I’m doing with my equipment.
I used to live for bass fishing 25 or so years ago. To make a long story short I had to go back to work. I was lucky enough to pick up a career with the same company where I left off.
I haven’t had a boat in years. And as I’ve gotten older all I wanted to do is get a Jon boat with a deck and catfish. I had been keeping up with the way people are fishing now on a lot of YouTube. I loved the idea of catching huge fish on a rod and reel instead of jug lines like we used to.
Now retired and fixed income. My wife saved some money without me knowing and told me one day I could get a Jon boat. She didn’t know how much the used rigs were selling for plus I was not going to be in anything unstable. Something like that was still out of reach.
Finally out of the blue I saw it sitting in a field. Talked to the owner and it hadn’t been touched in a while. We went back and forth and he understood I was taking a chance. I pulled it home for little money. 1983 16’ extra wide with a 1992 40hp Yamaha. I stripped and rebuilt the whole thing. Took a long time but it’s up and running and that Yamaha will make it get a little skippy across the water since I took a lot of weight off the boat the way I built it and used lithium batteries etc. I set it up with custom rod holder that are 1/2 inch thread and I put bases all around so I can set them up for what I’m doing that day. Drift sockets everything and I am now drifting and catching catfish.

Now here’s why I’m here on the bass fishing subject. I still live to bass fish and I live between Fayette county lake and Lake Bastrop both great bass lakes and both 20 minutes away.
I have all Abu Garcia reels for years now I maintain them and take care of them.
But only couple big enough for what I’m doing. I went and got budget equipment for starters until I learned more. I have rods like broom sticks etc.
Time to upgrade. I got my first order from Whisker Seeker the other day. Full Metal jacket rod and a 60 reel. All designed for setting that circle hook enough back bone to get it to the boat.
I owned All Star nano rods that will now be what they were born to be. Great bass rods. I do a lot of pitching and flipping. My eyes aren’t what they used to be so I have Sufix neon tangerine and now a couple thousand feet of Whisker seeker hi vis orange. These are great for catfish. They’re not line shy and I usually fish deep enough with a clear leader. I just went with what everyone else was doing, A lot of times they’ll pick up the bait and run towards the boat or other direction they don’t all pull straight out. And the hi vis line is awesome for me to react faster because I see it if does anything funky.
A couple of my bass reels are going to have braid. While flipping and pitching or any finesse fishing I need to see the line and would like to use hi vis.
I figured I’ll need a fluorocarbon leader to keep from spooking the bass. Casting in open water I’ll use low vis green. One of the lakes is clear pretty far down.
Since I’m now overstocked with orange line I might use some of it on something.
What kind of advice can yall help me out with about hi vis line for bass?
I’m big on top water early morning and afternoon especially buzz baits.
I apologize for the long background. I tried to keep it short to. While rebuilding the boat I became friends with a lot of guys on a forum that is all about tin boats.
They helped me learn a whole lot about aluminum boats. But they gave me an award for the longest post ever one day.
I appreciate any thoughts y’all can give me.
Thanks

Hi vis braid to fluoro leader is great for weightless and light finesse presentations.
You will visualize and detect more bites earlier; giving you more of an advantage to hook the bass well and get her in the boat.

I use High visibility.



I also bought a pack of, "Slate Grey" Sharpie. Had to order it.


Then I colored 10 feet from knot.


The blaze looking yellow takes a darker color really well. Orange, white. Slate Grey Sharpie.

I appreciate it. We didn’t have all these options back when I was ripping lips.
I used Big Game a lot under docks and other structures. I tried braid one time and was having good thoughts until I pitched way back under a dock and pulled out a mess of spider webs all over my line stuck like glue.
Things have come a long way since.
I had also thought about using a marker on a good section of the hi vis and not having a leader on so I’m connected right to the hook. But I don’t know what color would do what. I might make it into something that’ll really spook em off.
I have a spot I found a one of these lakes that I had trolled right past several times. It looks like a small brake in the reeds but there’s a cove that goes back about 200’. It’s narrow but stays 8’ of so deep in a channel. If I’m quite and sneaky enough I can pitch creature bait or worm, and there’s been fish in it every time I done it right. I go quite and weightless first then pick up the rod I can punch through things.
That y’all.

May be kinda late but I'm gonna drop my opinion on using braid. Braid has its uses and "places" for its use but for the most part it has way more cons than pros. The biggest is having no stretch. Depending on how you set a hook, you can rip a hook right out of the fish's mouth. If you get hung up deep you usually have to cut it or risk bending your spool if you try pulling it free. Cut the line 2-3 times and now you have way less on the spool than you actually need to make casts properly. Reels like to be filled at about an 1/8 inch shy of being full. As for Hi-Vis, and this is just my opinion, there is no place for high-viz anything in bass fishing. I've literally seen fish spook when they see the line. If you're using it for finesse applications you need to have a particular very "Sensitive" rod to help you detect more strikes, cheap rods simply won't do. Now for flipping in heavy cover braid is pretty much a must. But other than that you're losing out on a lot of fish that you would otherwise have caught. Many years ago I had cheap equipment and used braid when they first came out on some applications. I found myself losing more fish on the hook set, and simply wasting a bunch of money because that stuff is not cheap. After I started using more sensitive rods and near invisible line, my catch rate drastically increased.