camman

Hard to beat the LC 1.5 Silent...but on heavily pressured waters I agree silent models seem to work better. One of my favorite baits to throw in these scenarios are old Bagley Balsa B series baits. From what I see a lot of people don't throw old school balsa baits so I think its different wobble to the fish. Unfortunately they don't offer that many colors so most of my Bagleys are all repaints I had done.

for skipping docks, I've found I actually prefer the swinging-head football style jigheads. I find without the skirt I can get the bait further back underneath the dock. I usually use a RI Beaver and either a 1/4 or 3/8 oz head

You also better check on the cost for the airplane to take a 80” tube. If I recall some airlines charge a pretty hefty fee for that size. Cheaper option would be to mail the rods to you and mail them back via USPS.

I'm partial to the Delta, though I'm always in my boat. The only thing from shore which makes it tough (IMO) are the tides. It can be pretty good on a high tide from shore, but once it drops it makes it tough to fish from the shore. That being said if you do choose Italian Slough or Tracy Oasis you can bounce between the 2 places pretty easily. Also with Italian you can always swap and fish Clifton Court for stripers. In the summer you can catch a ton of shakers on a jerkbait as they push bait against the grass lines.

either reel will be fine, its more up to user brand preference. My question would be why do you need a 8.1 for swimbait fishing? I'm not sure on Musky, but for bass usually the bigger the bait the slower you work it.

5" Senko 6" Roboworm 4.5" Roboworm 3.8" Keitech Swing Impact Fat 5" Yum Dinger Reaction Innovations Sweet Beaver SK Rage Menace Zoom Trick Worm Berkley Chigger Craw

Jackall Squad Minnow in Ghost Minnow...unfortunately they discontinued the bait, but I probably have 10 or so

Are you sure they are bass? A few years ago we were in a similar situation and found a decent group of fish suspended. We tried for a bit and gave up when my buddy who was working a spoon, ended up snagging a fish and it was a carp.

Switch to a spinning rod...may not be conventional equipment to fish a frog, but you may be able to get the movement down better.

I had a friend who bought a new Crestliner (if I remember correctly) aluminum boat. He had a similar issue where his auto-bilge would run periodically throughout the day. At first they told him it was normal (which it’s not to the level he was getting it). After taking it a number of times, they finally found a leak up in the front of the boat. They fixed it and his boat was dry after that. It took them over a year to find the problem. To me there is a big difference between a few cups (which I would not worry) to a my bilge running for 30 seconds to a minute (which is of concern). Also would be curious on what caused your original drain plug to dry rot on a 2 year old boat.

I have an old Penn Senator from probably the 60's. Its spooled with 65lb braid on a busted saltwater rod that I use as a ghetto downrigger for the occasional time I troll for trout.

I've fished them with blades and without. I've tossed both the Yum 3 wire rig and the Flash Mob. Since here in CA, we can only have 3 hooks on it, on the Flash Mob I put 2 dummy baits on the top wires. I will say I prefer the 3 Wire model over the Flash Mob. The Flash Mob gets tiring after awhile of winding it in as there is so much resistance as it moves through the water. I can't say that I've noticed a difference between catching fish between the 2 rigs. My buddy and I tried to see if it helped where one person would toss a rig with the blades and the other without. We didn't notice the difference so that's another reason why I've stuck with not having blades. The only time I use the Flash Mob now is trolling for stripers and I only have 1 bait on the center wire.

Walmart use to allow overnight parking based on the local laws. I’m not sure if they still are the same or if it’s safe especially if you have a boat. One of my favorite spots to fish was close to BLM land. My buddy would head up the night before and crash for a few hours there in the car and fish. This was before we had a boat. Another spot we had, you could rent a campsite for 15 bucks. We would rent a site and crash there. By this time we had a boat and 1 would sleep in the boat. The other option we’ve done a few times is crash in a neighborhood close to the lake. We would drive into a neighborhood and sleep in the car.

California doesn't really have Sea Bass...they have White Sea Bass which live in saltwater. They will get the occasional catches out of Monterey area, but most of them are caught in Southern California. They also have Striped Bass which you can get in California in saltwater. Near to Santa Clara you can either fish the San Fran Bay or the ocean. Close to Santa Clara, I know they fish for them off Foster City around Beach Park Blvd. On the ocean side hit up PCH and basically any of the beaches along there. For baits to use, I'd hit up a local tackle shop and ask them what works. They can also point you to a better beach.

Yup it comes with fishing. I try and keep my reels protected, all of them are covered to/from the lake. Once I take a few out and put them on the deck, the reel covers are off and have gotten some wear. I try and keep maybe only 3-4 on the deck at any one time which seems to reduce them from banging into each other. I'm also one of those guys who swaps out reels every 2-3 years so my reels don't look too bad. My saltwater reels on the other hand are pretty beat up. I've had a few of my favorite reels for probably 15-20 years and they have taken an abuse...especially when I'm on the kayak

Easier and cheaper to just make a punch skirt. Go to Home Depot or any hardware store and buy the smallest rubber grommets they have. Tie your own skirt and use any bullet weight and you are good to go.

I'm wondering if you give sample bags to those Monthly Tackle Box companies. I'm guessing a lot of stuff they get is either for free, or even some of the new companies may pay them for some of the promotional advertising. The other option is to look for people who have a youtube channel with a large amount of followers. Again provide free baits as well as you will probably need to pay them to use your baits, but again it may drive interest. Also assuming you have a website up already? If not thats probably a good starting point. I had a friend who use to pour baits for a hobby and ended up a few local small shops to sell the baits. I don't think he really made any money but enough to pay for his hobby.

i use 30lb powerpro on a baitcaster with no issues. The one thing where I've noticed that it slowly starts to dig into the spool when its not wound on tight (usually when I'm fishing a senko or other plastics). Every now and then I'll throw a long cast and wind back in putting tension on the braid to pack it back on the spool tight.

Make them yourself...just get some 1/2” chicken wire

its been a long time since I've fished Shad. We'd use an ARC Dip net to get them at Casitas back in the day (can't use cast nets in Socal). We'd just use a normal bucket with an aerator and change the water out every hour or so which was key. When it was hotter out, we would change the water more frequently. We found that as long as we were gentle with them in the netting process, they would survive with no issues. We never kept them more than the day as if we had some left at the end of the day we would just dump them back into the lake.

maybe Owner Mosquito hooks or Gamakatsu finesse wide gaps?

you make a good point on jigs. I pour my own. I don't put the weedguards in any of my jigs I make. I feel that they impeded the hook set. I do lose a few more jigs in the process around wood, but I feel I hook more fish.

One of the things I've picked up from watching the Pro's fish is to not care if you lose your bait. They will throw them anywhere or at anything and they don't worry about losing the bait. Once I adopted that philosophy my catch rate went way up. I also don't think the rate I lose baits has gone up either, granted I do carry a lure retriever and an aluminum pole to help retrieve some errant casts.

Swimbaits will work fine on a drop like that. I use them when I fish walls, which sounds pretty close to what you are describing. I fish them parallel and the one thing I've found that fish will usually try and associate to changes in the wall, like a cut/overhand/small ledge/even shade line etc...I also find they normally are all around the same depth. So if its 20 ft deep, they may all be sitting around the 10-12 ft range again focusing on something that makes it slightly different. I'll cast my bait and work the first 5 feet depth rante and repeatedly cast until I slowly work down the water column. I also try and usually have my bait hit something...the wall...the irregularity, etc. Years ago i had a buddy who liked to fish spoons against a rock wall. He would cast more perpendicular to the wall and drop to slowly have it flutter down the wall hitting it. He would lose the occasional spoon but would do quite well.

My favorite weighted swimbait hook is the Owner Beast hooks, unfortunately its too big for a 4" bait. I also use the Owner Weighted Twistlocks for the smaller baits (IMO its better than the Gamakatsu version with the Spring lock). I prefer 1/16 oz if I'm fishing 10ft or less. I fish them a variety ways from just winding them in, fishing it like a jerkbait, or slow rolling it over the weedline and just letting it drop in pockets like a jig. If I'm fishing it deeper than 10 ft, I'm usually fishing a submerged weedline which is normally just a slow wind or dragging it along the bottom.