Team9nine

First guess would be dead filamentous algae that is often covering anything on or near the bottom. Is this a smaller homeowner type lake where they might have done some type of weed and/or algae treatment, esp. with copper ("blue water")?

The bass were showing a little love for my antennae modified craws today

In the simplest terms, the most vulnerable crayfish are the ones that leave the bottom for whatever reason. On the bottom, the craw has the ability to move/rotate in a tighter circle and defend itself than a bass has to swim around to try and grab it from behind (why you usually see antennae sticking out in a basses mouth). On the bottom, the craw can back itself against objects to protect itself, maneuver into cracks or crevices, or use it's size and pincers to defend itself. Not so once he's up in the water column. As such, any retrieve that makes my jig leave the bottom is a good one in my book, and this includes @Catt mention of the initial fall, as well as hops and swimming retrieves. The caveat is that not all crayfish species react the same. Studies here in the Midwest to determine why Rusty Crayfish are taking over so many lakes found that one possible explanation is that they don't leave the bottom when confronted by a predator. They use their larger size and their claws to face their predator and try and hold their space until they can step to safety. Native craws, on the other hand, tended to do the quick 4'-6' backward swim to escape, and when they did so, the bass simply outswam them and sucked them up from behind. They mostly become snacks

You mentioned the Guido Bug, and I remember an interview with Guido where he specifically mentioned that the longer antennae, they felt, was important, hence them designing theirs as they did. Just using a drop shot hook as a needle. Thread one end of the braid through the eye, then just pierce the nose of the plastic and pull the hook all the way through (remove any existing antennae first). Tie off the braid so it won't move, then trim the two braid ends to length, 2X the length of the pincers just like a real craw.

Yep, been using 65# green from my frogging outfit. Have tested on numerous different craws - even on some Zman stuff.

Been playing around and testing this out all summer with good success. As the commercial goes, it’s only weird if it doesn’t work - lol. More to appease my curiosity and eat up a little of that extra time I have now that I’m retired. That said, the last thing you always see when the bass are feeding on crayfish are the antennae, not the claws ?

Ditto ^^ Tried it hard for a year and a half. Lots of things to like about it, but in the end, it’s knot strength and peculiarities did it in. I play on the margins, so not much room for error. Have friends who have seemed to do fine with it once you get into the higher pound tests...just wasn’t for me. That said, the “bumps” might just be from being on the spool (?) since it’s not a level wound line? Just guessing, because I don’t recall having anything similar with all the spools I tried.

Totally unnecessary, but tie however you want. If you see any “curliness” in either main or tag, you’ll know you burned the knot. I’m just saying if tied properly, you pull both lines at same time so everything cinches together at once and minimizes any chance of burning. If you start tightening certain parts of the knot first, you risk burning when continuing to tighten other parts.

Depends on braid. With smooth/slick braid you can still pull both. Some coated braids don’t cinch smoothly so you’ll have to pull one or the other. Not sure it matters which with braid though like it does with nylon and fluoro. I think I always go tag with braid when this occurs. That said, not a big fan or user of straight braid, so been a while since I tied it last this way. I’ll double check.

Pull tag and main at same time. Don’t over tighten. If tied properly in mono or fluoro, there is virtually no chance of overheating. Moistening probably won’t hurt, but I’ve mostly given that up these days. With braid, the knot will start cinching quickly and you’ll end up having to pull on just the tag end to fully seat. This is what the knot shoud look like prior to tightening:

Same line, same bait, same cast length...same answer - no. You can search around on the web for articles related to a couple books; Precision Casting and Precision Trolling which will answer this and many other crankbait related questions, one of their most asked questions being running depth related to speed. I’m guessing just a “feel” difference between reels and gearing.

That will boost your yearly total numbers quickly....?

If talking regular old jon boats, I’d agree, though the minute the wind picks up to 10 mph and the lake even thinks about starting to whitecap, it won’t matter much.

It's not. That said, I don't know how accurately you measured casting distance between the two reels, or what lengths you were actually casting, as it doesn't take but 5'-10' of difference in cast length to make a deep diving bait run a foot deeper (or shallower).

Within the normal range of typical cranking rates, speed makes no noticeable difference on diving depth.

One day is about the longest I remember. Started on January 1 here in Indiana and fished a lot of ice covered water this spring (obviously with some open patches), and don’t recall getting skunked more than a couple times all year, and never back to back.

About 75-80% of line test or max drag setting here...but I'm a backreeler/thumbarrer

Slider, Ned, Inchi wacky/flick shake, hair jig (I know, 3 + 1 - big numbers for all, though).

Lowe 1648M jon - pretty sure it had a 15” transom. Not sure if they make it with a 20” transom

I don't think so. A little trickier maybe on the front deck because of the slight V, but the rest was pretty straight forward, and I'm no handyman Here's mine:

With his win and the topic being so current, I dug around last night and found some old BPS Monsoor swim jigs I had sitting in the garage. Decided to pull one out and hit a local pond today just to throw them. Picked off 9 or 10 bass on a shad colored swim jig with a white 3” boot tail trailer. Nothing big, but fun duplicating “the winning pattern” on your local waters.

Personally, I don’t think there is much difference between the two. That said, I’d go with the Mod-V if given the choice just because it might help a little, but won’t hurt at all. Stability should be the same with both as the V is really just a more pointed nose than anything. I ran a Lowe 1648 Mod-V I customized for nearly 8 years and never had an issue with it as long as you use common sense on the waters and weather you fish in. Lowe is very popular around my parts, and pretty affordable, so you might start there if you have a local dealer.

Several fairly recent studies done on this topic in a variety of freshwater fish. Short answer: Cut the line. Those fish that survive, which is more than those that you try and remove the deep hooks from, end up dislodging the hook/lure a majority of the time (>70% in one study; nearly 100% in another), and feeding resumes to normal within a week or two...and don’t expect most of today’s hooks to rust away or dissolve in any expedient manner.

Many years back, Monsoor worked with BPS to release a line of swim jigs, of which I still have several. Just went out in the garage and measured the hook wire, and it was 0.040” Definitely lighter wire, along with a thinned down and lighter weed guard as well as a thin skirt.

Same story about everywhere...My local Wal-Mart was about half cleared of fishing tackle the other day. Tackle Story