Team9nine

Go back to the origins of the term from that time period; a sliding bullet sinker, a worm, and an oversized hook threaded through the nose of the plastic, pulled through and rotated, then reinserted into the worm to make it “weedless.” Before the term “Texas rig” gained traction, the setup was most frequently called the “slip sinker” rig or “slip sinker” worm. Updated with link: Texas rig

Fishing pants I don't do shorts any more walking the banks, even in summer. Helps slow down the ticks, chiggers, and other sundry critters you always seem to encounter around woods and uncut shorelines.

Sunny, but an approaching frontal boundary tonight has us with steady winds of 15+ mph gusting to over 30. That kept the boat in the garage, but was still able to sneak another ProjectZ installment in today.

Catching a fish on my first cast (or two) always makes for a great day because the skunk factor (pressure) is gone, so I can just relax and fish/enjoy the rest of the trip. I don’t put any stock in the environmental factors or activity levels so frequently mentioned because they’ve all let me down enough times over the years to know they can’t be trusted. Big believer now of simply being on the water as often as possible, as you can't catch ‘em if you're not there...and if you’re there enough, sooner or later good things will happen.

I would agree with Tom on this one. While you can stretch nylon mono and eliminate some stretch and actually strengthen the line slightly, fluorocarbon appears to have a lower yield point, and as such, prestretching is probably a bad idea.

I think this ^^ is the answer to the unasked question. You’d be in good company, as another current and ongoing thread had half of all the people recommending good old monofilament line over the newer alternatives. Your same old knots would still work and everything.

You don’t need a ton of different ones, but should play around in the beginning to see what each does and how well a particular style works on your waters. I check new versions out, but routinely only stock and throw about 5 or 6 styles that will do most everything I need. The best way to learn open water/deep water bass fishing in many places is by starting with crappie. I used to only fish them after tourney season ended, but once I stopped tourney fishing, I’ve been able to fish them year round. I’ve caught over 3200 so far this year already. Shooting for 5k by Dec 31 ?

You should see me slay crappie in my bass shirts. It’s rather impressive ?

I usually catch about a thousand bass a year on them in some form or fashion, give or take. Been throwing it for ~10 years, so I’ve got most of the nuances down

Post frontal day with strong NE breezes, but continued with my ongoing Zman project, good for 14 more bass including this one better fish.

Yeah, but that isn’t how it works in real life, unfortunately. Lots of current rules are only in place because of something someone did first.

Some interesting rulings going back many years. Roland has been responsible for many rule changes over the years. Back in 94 he won the Connecticut R tourney when he switched to a jet drive aluminum right before the event. That resulted in future rule changes like having to declare and fish all events out of a single boat for the entire season. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailypress.com/news/dp-xpm-19941002-1994-10-02-9410020144-story,amp.html Then John Cox won on the Red R in 2011 out of a small aluminum he brought just to be able to squeeze through a small culvert and access water no one else could. That resulted in a minimum boat and engine rule that ended up getting Keith Poche disqualified in 2020 shortly after bringing in the Day 1 leading weight out of a smaller boat: https://majorleaguefishing.com/pro-circuit/2020-08-03-breaking-down-poche-s-disqualification/

I have two, both original SJ2 6’10” telescopic jigging rods ?

Nope, not at all. I run aluminum myself. Just thinking if I ran a league from scratch to determine the best anglers, I would want to keep the boats relatively the same so that a single angler couldn’t use the boat at an advantage to the field. Go as big as you want, but set a bottom limit for parity - then if you want to sneak through culverts, run over 6” of boulder strewn water upriver, etc., know that the boat/engine wasn't the primary reason you did since no one else could.

This is close for me. Off the top of my head, I’d go: Equipment: > 1 bow graph, 1 console graph; > No FFS, no GPS, no 360 > No spotlock TMs > No PowerPoles > Fiberglass-type outboard driven bass boats only - no aluminum, no jets; min size 17’10” > Lake off limits once announced. > 2 full days practice - 1 day off, then 3 or 4 day tournament > CWR format, best 8 or 10 fish count daily; total accumulated weight over all days wins

Minimum 15 as a good all-around, but you know your waters best, and a bump up to 17 or slightly higher could be in order depending on cover and corresponding worm and worm weights used.

If you knew you’d be in the slop bays and canals all day long, I might consider braid, but for the majority of situations, I’d personally be using fluoro for your given your scenario.

It was a double Rapala bonanza at one of the ponds today

Boat trips - 3.5 to 4.0 hrs. Bank trips - 1.5-2.0 hrs ...But I fish an average of 5-6 days a week. I never arrive at the lake before Noon.

Young grasshopper - All you ever need to carry is: 1 rod, 1 reel, and whatever you can put in your shirt or pants pockets. In the last 10 days, I've managed 110 bass following the above guideline. Here is my tackle pack: Beyond that, I have a pair of line cutters, a towel, a pair of forceps, and a small tape measure. Add or take away from that little baggie as necessary. Depending on season I might add a small swimbait, a jerkbait, shallow cranks, a topwater, etc., but everything always fits in the pockets. Right now I'm heavy on soft plastics because of the heat and drought. They seem to be working best, but I caught a bunch in the slop this evening which was a nice change. "The purpose of discipline is to live more fully, not less." -Master Po

Lots of studies in this regard, it just depends on the species and hooks in question. High level summary: Depending on study/species/hook-type, anywhere between 45%-100% of the hooks/lures get expelled by the fish over a period of time ranging up to 10 days. Pike were the best at shedding lures, doing so 100% of the time. Delayed mortality averaged around 12.5% for fish that couldn't expel the lure, and most fish eventually regained normal feeding patterns regardless.

But it won an ICAST award! - lol Found the write-up: The ICAST BEST NEW PRODUCT AWARD WINNER is designed with Crankbait fishermen in mind. Its trademark extended extra wide gap branch eliminates the risk of short bites and enhanced your hooking rate to guarantee you catch more fish! The eye of the SureSet® has been rotated to be inline with the largest branch so it provides lures with perfect balance, exceptional swimming action even at high speeds. The SureSet® hugs the lure body to prevent the hook from pivoting during attack. It features VMC® premium ConeCut® point for instant penetration and perfect hook setting.

I forget the name they gave them, but it was basically a treble hook with two round bend hooks and one EWG hook to form the treble (see pic). They were only placed on the rear hook hanger and were designed to catch fish that just “nipped” at or short struck the bait as I recall. I used them for awhile, and did have an instance or two where that was the only hook in the basses mouth when landed (the longer EWG), but it was rare, and the longer drop back seemed to hang more frequently. I eventually removed them all from my Rapala baits and went straight round bends. Edit: It was called the SureSet hook. See added pic for details.

I've got one in service being heavily used, I believe at least 2 yrs now, and has been flawless. My only “complaint” is the silent drag mechanism, but otherwise...

File down the barb (barbless). The design style should offset most odds of losing the fish.