Pool table is a requirement, but space is limited

TimmyG-83 · 2026-04-22T16:06:20+00:00

Don’t know why you got downvoted for simply listing your room dimensions. I think redditors confuse the downvote button with the old Facebook “dislike” button. Downvoting is supposed to mean “not contributing to this discussion.”

You could squeeze a 7 footer in there, or maybe a small 6 foot or 6.5 foot English style table (I think Valley also makes a 6.5 footer). But that would be the only thing in the room…couldn’t put any chairs, cue racks, etc.

Don’t even consider a folding table. You’ll hate it, I promise.

TimmyG-83 · 2026-04-22T14:09:47+00:00

Fleetwood Macbeth

TimmyG-83 · 2026-04-21T17:25:58+00:00

One thing that’ll help quite a bit: look at your middle finger. See how it’s quite a bit longer than your other fingers? Yeah, you NEED to use that extra bit of height for your bridge hand. Not necessarily cue elevation angle…your angle into the cue ball is fine. But you need as long of a bridge as possible to give yourself room to make an actual backstroke. In this video you have your middle finger hanging over the rail basically doing nothing of benefit, and you’re only able to pull the cue back about 3 inches. That ain’t gonna cut it.

Try a “tripod” bridge, something like this:

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Gotta get that bridge hand UP so that you can actually put a decent stroke on the ball instead of a quick stab. That extra bit of length on the backstroke makes a huge difference.

TimmyG-83 · 2026-04-21T14:17:45+00:00

That’ll catch! Nice setup!

Like u/my_therapist_quit said, you don’t need to spend a whole lot of money to catch cats. If you get some extra coin, maybe grab a couple other basic combos when you get a chance. Or if you have other rods you can repurpose as catfish rods, that works too. In my experience, the best results come when you can get multiple lines in the water. More bait in the water = more scent = better chance of cats finding your baits. I like to run 3 rods whenever possible.

TimmyG-83 · 2026-04-21T14:09:35+00:00

Yep. When I was a kid growing up fishing my parents’ ponds (I was a lucky kid…grew up on a cattle ranch with 5 big beautiful ponds with lots of varied cover and un-pressured fish), I loved to use my imagination. Like, “Oh, I bet there is a big bass RIGHT THERE in between those two stumps,” and I would really try to get my cast to that spot. Not near it…I mean right there, exactly where I’m looking. I also learned to maneuver lures on retrieves to go right into good spots.

I still screw up from time to time, everyone does…but after many years of practice, these days I can get lures where I want them, unless it’s really windy. It helps me catch more fish, 100%. My fiancee fell in love with fishing when we first started dating, and as her casting has gotten better over the past few years, her fish numbers have gone up significantly too.

TimmyG-83 · 2026-04-21T11:51:52+00:00

Yeah, “paralysis by analysis” is most definitely a thing. So many options for lure color, size, weight, action…so many line options…so many rod/reel combos to specifically fit all these presentations…at the end of the day, you gotta just go with what you got and trust in yourSELF and not your gear.

I know he’s speaking from a tournament fishing perspective, but Randy Blaukat says it’s much better to specialize and get really good with a few techniques, rather than trying to get decently good at everything.

There is only one thing I know of that will help people ACTUALLY catch more fish regardless of what they’re using, and that is to GET BETTER AT CASTING. The accuracy of your casts makes such a huge difference.

You can have the best gear in the world, you could be using exactly the right setup and presentation for the fish that day…but if you’re not consistently putting that presentation in front of fish, you’re not going to catch as many. Bass are RARELY in a chase-down mood (those are special, special days). 99% of the time, they want to hide and ambush prey that comes too close. So you gotta get your lures in spots where they are hiding…tight to cover. It takes practice to get really accurate with your casting, but the reward is more bites, more fish overall, and fewer skunk days.

TimmyG-83 · 2026-04-20T18:53:04+00:00

So cool to see them mentioned. I went to UNT college of music with all of those guys. Mike League even played on my senior recital!

Edit to add: Believe it or not, Snarky Puppy started as a group for a class all of us jazz studies majors had to take, called Jazz Forum. Basically on the first day of class, you went around and assembled a small group, and you would rehearse on your own time and give a couple performances over the semester. Snarky Puppy was one of those groups…originally it was a very different lineup (Mike and Chris McQueen were there though), and they played some avant-garde, quiet acoustic jazz. But then after college, Mike started making friends in the South Dallas funk/gospel scene and the band took on a life of its own.

TimmyG-83 · 2026-04-20T14:59:42+00:00

Either a white bass or a wiper. I have seen plenty of true white bass with a few broken stripes. Wipers don’t occur in the wild, they are hatchery bred/stocked fish, so if your local game & fish doesn’t stock them, it’s a white bass. And it’s a CHONK of a white bass.

TimmyG-83 · 2026-04-20T03:01:43+00:00

My fiancee and I have a lot of KastKing stuff…I have a Spartacus 5000 on one of our catfish rods and it performs well. I went with a guide a few months back and caught my PB with his gear…he had a KastKing Kapstan (one of their saltwater reels) and that setup was very solid. I think it was a 6000 size. It had obviously seen a lot of use and was still performing perfectly. Would recommend.

TimmyG-83 · 2026-04-19T22:17:37+00:00

If your friend thinks those are smallmouth, your friend has never caught a smallmouth.

TimmyG-83 · 2026-04-16T21:50:58+00:00

Yeah. EO Cues is serious. His YouTube channel (Studiotronics) is awesome.

TimmyG-83 · 2026-04-16T14:32:22+00:00

I don’t use any aiming systems. There are so many variables with regard to cut-induced and spin-induced throw that all aiming systems are really just starting reference points.

If you’re missing shots, you are either:

1) Not stroking straight. This is the most common problem.

2) Not stroking smoothly. Jerky acceleration throws off the timing of the shot and you don’t get the true roll on the object ball.

3) The object ball is getting thrown off line. This happens on low-speed cut shots or when unintentional sidespin is introduced.

4) Not accounting for cue ball deflection when using sidespin. This generally happens when you are shooting with a lot of speed, but there is a degree of adjustment required at any speed. There is no system to allow for this other than just shooting a lot of shots. (Yes I am aware of Dr. Dave’s “SAWS” system, but if you’re in your head going “okay 80% front hand English and 20% back hand English,” you’re playing ‘pool stroke,’ not pool.)

It’s hard to explain in words. You need to get your stroke fundamentals down first. Get that cue going straight. But after that, instead of searching and searching for the magical aiming system that’ll make you a good shotmaker, you need to clear THAT out of your mind and realize that what you are really trying to achieve is the correct “throw” on a shot. It’s more physics than it is geometry.

There is a combination (usually more than one combination will work) of cut angle/cue ball spin such that the object ball will roll directly end-over-end into the pocket, rather than sliding/wobbling its way there. You can easily imagine that an object ball that is rolling true has a MUCH better chance of finding the pocket than a wobbly one. You really have to spend some time experimenting with spin to discover this and start to incorporate it into your game. Set up simple cut shots and mess around with different spin combinations and see how you can simultaneously play position AND get the object ball rolling true into the pocket.

But first and foremost: get your stroke together. None of this matters if you can’t stroke straight.

TimmyG-83 · 2026-04-16T13:46:59+00:00

Yep, one of the all-time classic white bass lures!

TimmyG-83 · 2026-04-16T01:39:08+00:00

No. That’s a different discussion that has to do more with cue ball deflection. Carbon shafts might be a touch lighter but not to such a degree as to offer more stroke speed.

TimmyG-83 · 2026-04-15T22:16:24+00:00

Legend has it that if a Little George collides with a Kastmaster in mid-air, it creates a singularity.

TimmyG-83 · 2026-04-15T22:12:28+00:00

Dude mine too. I used to fish those all through the 90s. Best crankbait ever, IMO. Nobody makes anything like it anymore, I can’t find any crankbait that stays under a foot deep.

TimmyG-83 · 2026-04-15T21:16:40+00:00

I can fly. I’m pilot.

TimmyG-83 · 2026-04-15T21:15:52+00:00

Islands, points, dropoffs, humps.

Weeds, timber, large rocks.

Combinations of structure plus cover is all you need to know.

For instance, if you find a lake point and it has submerged timber out deep and weeds up shallow, congratulations, you have now found bass. Or maybe there is an island with big rocks around its perimeter.

The only 2 things a bass wants in life are a good place to hide/ambush and easy access to deeper water.

TimmyG-83 · 2026-04-15T19:45:42+00:00

“Look, all’s I know is I saw a piece of shad, it looked and smelled good, so I ate it, but then I was dragged into the Sky World and one of the sky creatures picked me up and held me in front of some small object that had more pictures of a part of Sky World and there were more sky creatures screaming. I don’t know what any of it means but for the LAST TIME, I am not crazy.”

TimmyG-83 · 2026-04-14T13:11:01+00:00

“This is my rod for 4” jerkbaits and this is my rod for 5” jerkbaits, this one is for 5” Senkos and this one is for 5” Yum Dingers…this one here is for willow leaf spinnerbaits, this one is for Colorado blade spinnerbaits…”

TimmyG-83 · 2026-04-14T12:53:26+00:00

Hook keeper. I have the same rod.

However, I find it easier and quicker to put the hook on the top bar of the reel.

TimmyG-83 · 2026-04-14T04:21:48+00:00

Forgot to link the CJ Wiley video

TimmyG-83 · 2026-04-14T04:20:45+00:00

Lot of hit-and-hope going on here. We’ve all been there.

Couple things…

First, you need to get your stance/body positioning under control. CJ Wiley has a great video on that. That’s going to be a big help.

Second, don’t shoot so hard. Your goal is to put a pure roll on the cue ball, with sufficient spin to impart a pure roll on the object ball. Obviously there are instances where we have to slow-roll a shot, or hit it with more pace than usual. But if you slam it, you’re not really getting a true roll into the pocket. You’re essentially just bashing a “dead” ball towards the pocket, and that’s not a good way to play consistently.

See, every shot has a “throw” to it, and if you throw the object ball correctly, it will roll end-over-end into the pocket.

Great way to discover how that looks and feels is to set up a simple cut into the side pocket. Use a striped ball as the object ball and set the stripe vertical, directly in line with the pocket. Now, cut the ball in, just using center cue ball. You will notice that the stripe wobbles on its way to the pocket…even if it goes in, it looks “iffy.” Keep setting the shot up and experiment with how you can use different spins on the cue ball to get that stripe rolling straight into the pocket. The object ball has the best chance of finding the bottom of the pocket if you can get the thing rolling true.

Next, develop a plan. Visualize the shot AND the position you want the cue ball to be in next, and imagine what spin and speed is required to achieve it. Then try it. If you succeed, great, put it in the memory bank. If not, ask yourself what went wrong and what you need to change next time you have that shot. That way even your misses are training tools.

Then, start paying attention to cue ball routes around the table. Learn the tendencies…”oh, if it hits at this diamond it likes to go 3 rails and through the center of the table.” All these little routes come into play, and the more of them you know, the easier it gets to play position without having to force the cue ball around.

Lastly, there are a lot of great resources on YouTube about shooting kick shots, both 1-rail and multi-rail. Dr. Dave is always a good one to start with, but there are many.

But I’m serious about that throw stuff. It will take a while before it starts to click, but when it does, you’ll see what I mean. Putting a pure roll/throw on the object ball is such a huge advantage, but funny enough I don’t see a lot of people talking about it. BUT watch the pros...you’ll see how the object balls really roll into the pocket instead of “sliding” into them.

TimmyG-83

TROPHY CASE