Hammer 4

To bad it's not a 301 E...

I own 6 Diawa's ranging from the Fuego to the Tatula 200's. I own 2 Shimano's, 1 spinning, and a Castaic baitcaster. When I bought the Castaic, I used right out of the box, it was spooled with 14 lb mono, but casted like it had 80 lb mono. After some cleaning, and lubing it's sorta normal, But, not anywhere near as buttery smooth as my Diawa's, even the $ 99.00 Fuego. 6 or 7 years ago, I owned nothing but Shimano reels, and they were great, but back then they were made in Japan. Seems like unless you buy their higher priced reels, the performance isn't there any longer. I'm super happy with the Diawa reels, and for usually less money.

Ragetail Lizzy...

^^^^ This. A rod with an upper rating of 1.5 oz isn't the best option for a swimbait rod. For non treble hooked baits, like 6" hudds, a rod rated 1 to 4 or 5 oz would be much better.

Careful...In some states it is Illegal to use live bait, except for night crawlers..

Cavitron, white skirt, red blades..3/8 oz.

Do you use a leader for Froggin..?

Ditto re: the type R..Love mine, and all my Tatula's..

Curado 301E..

Mattlures bluegill.. https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Mattlures_Hammer_Tail_Swimbaits/descpage-MU2HAM.html

For me here in So. Cali..I do the KISS thang..99% of mine are natural colors, or blends there of. Some years ago, all white jigs were popular during the spawn here locally. What I found was color didn't matter that much under those circumstances.

About 10 years ago, yozuri offered 2 types of hybrid line, the what they term regular, and super soft hybrid. I used the supersoft for years, very little memory, good casting distance, and good strength. When I saw they no longer offered the soft type, I changed brands.

Go fishing late at Night..?

I would suggest, being that the OP stated he was "new", that braid wouldn't be the best option in this case. Some 10 or 12 lb Quality mono would be better to learn with. There are several good lines that are non memory that would fit the bill.

Both lines have the same diameter, could it be that the Yozuri is an older spool of line, i.e. lost some of the softness..? And, did you spool the Yozuri so the line was taught on the spool..?

I'd always used spinning reels. About 1984 or 5. Bought my first BC, was a Shimano Bantam, I also bought the shimano trigger rod..What a game changer that was..Had blow ups for about the first 20 cast's..lol

San Diego jam knot, or uni..Forgot to add, Palomar for dropshot rig.

If I feel weight, I'm settin the hook, after all, hook sets are Free..

I just mounted a new Tatula 200HL on my 7'mh SLX rod. I did have a 201 citica on there, which I didn't care for, the balance that is. Now it feels really nice. Gotta say the new 200 Tatula outta the box is silky smooth..

Use Google Earth, you would be surprised at that things that show up under water..

A bit late, but I use a Surfing backpack, very roomy. Unfortunately the brand I have is not made anymore, but if you google Surfing Backpacks, you will see some good ones, not real pricey either for what you get. As for keeping a Big female bass, I'm also in the camp that would suggest you release her back. Bass that grow large, and I'll say over 6 lbs, can be few and far between in a small pond/lake. Keeping in mind, 1 out of 1000 baby bass may be lucky enough to reach that size, much less make it to adulthood.

There is another thread on this topic..

What you may want to try is get some 1/2 ans 3/4 oz football jigs, and maybe a couple of trailers, like the rage craw. Make as long of a cast as possible, let it hit bottom, the hop it about a foot or so off the bottom every 5 seconds or so, let hit bottom again, do this over and over. You may have to experiment with colors, green pumpkin or craw colors should work. This isn't a sure fire way, but jigs are well known to catch good size bass.

The weight is gonna move up some, even with 2 bobber stoppers, not a problem.