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I fish both the 8 and 6 tophook and weedless. The weedless has the hook embedded inside the bait, the plastic is hollow and collapses hear the hook. Like mentioned above, it really is good at getting it through the nasty stuff. Some guys do much better with swimbaits. I have caught fish on both the 8 and 6 but never did make a killing with them. I usually only use them now when I'm in an area I know holds big bass. I'll throw these first, and like Deep mentioned, I will work them very slow. Bites can be bone jarring and also very light. Huddleston's are the ticket with the soft swimbaits! Good Luck!

For the shallow areas I fish, squarebill cranks! KVD and excaliburs.

Sadly alot of places I go to are being posted off limits due to al the ****** tearing up the places.

Can you post a link, love your vids!

Butch brown uses it!!

I agree with Jim, try something that makes your bait stand out. Maybe a pink fluke jerked or a spro bbz shad twitched or burned. At least you know the fish are there.

Right now around here, 1/4 - 3/8 oz bass partrol silicone jigs with a double tail Yamamoto grub has been working well for me here in Florida. Some days the retrieve still varies, dragging, hopping, or even swimming for a couple feet then killing it. Bites have been more aggressive compared to cold water days. Pb n j jig and trailer colors. In currents this has been working even better. Seems you already have it figured out! Most of my bass are coming off rocks near a drop off.

I too am a shimano guy, but after seeing the Pluton and reading that these reels are tanks I was thinking it may be a better choice. The main thing is will it toss one ounce lures like the Calcutta 200te gt. I would think both reels should last a very long time.

I am stuck on these two reels. I am looking for one that can toss baits in the 1-3 ounce range, meaning I would like to toss a crank bait, then switch to a big swim bait. Which of these two reels can do this the best. Which of these is more durable and likely to be around ten years from now still being used?

Jfrancho and primus, I've got a custom bullshad on the way in baby bass. I've looked at the HPH a lot. Do either of you know the difference in action between the two? I've never used either.

10 ft diving crank fished fast and erratic in natural color? If the bottom is too gunked up, a spro Deep diver fished the same way.

Amen, I've lost over $100 on a day of fishing before and I know some who lost much more. Thats part of the game!

Amen to the twin tail for football head jigs!

Just wondering, would time of day dictate location. Or on a broader scale time of year and time of day?

I use these and have done really good. So good that I bought seven more of these. They slowly float up so if you feel a hang up give it more time to back out of it before reeling again.

Last month I was fishing a topwater around 11:00am. I'd been fishing the same lure for the last three hours without a sign of life from the fish. Luckily my stubbornness payed off that day as I pulled one in pushing double digit. The next three hours went the same as the first three. Why that one fish hit and nothing else all day still has me wondering? I was using a buzzjet, not a spook.

I'd take a five pounder in your area anyday!! Heck, I like em alot here in Florida too. 5 pound bass are nice fish! Congrats!

Here's the story: I got an email from Lisa Alexander about a fishing trip that she and friend Regina Womack took with their new kayaks to fish in Lake Valentine up near Alexandria. On the trip, Regina caught a near-state record Largemouth Bass. I have two accounts of the event. Here is Regina's account: Thursday, May 6, 2010, at 8 PM, I caught a fish of a lifetime. I have fished Valentine Lake in Gardner, La for many of years. I would have never guessed that a fish of this size would be caught out of this lake. Someone pinch me! That Thursday, my friend, Lisa Alexander and I took one of our many kayak fishing trips to Valentine Lake. We started fishing around 5:30 PM that evening. There were at least three people including a man fishing from the pier not too far from us. Lisa and I fish the southwest end of the lake because of the grassy shallow areas which I call a bass haven. Around 7:45 PM, I was watching the top of the water for any movement and notice a very big swirl on the opposite side of the Lake. I continued to watch and noticed that the swirl happened again in the same location. I decided to give it a few cast before going in for the afternoon. I was fishing with a weightless worm, Zoom, Mag II plum. I casted out several times and on the four cast, she took it immediately. When she took it, it was like I caught something other than a fish. I was thinking an alligator at that moment. I started yelling at Lisa to come and help me. I didn’t have time to think, I could barely hold the rod and reel in my hands with all the jerking of my kayak. When I got it closer to the kayak I noticed the eye ball of fish underneath the thick grass that she had went through. I reached down into the water to grab her mouth and I felt a little frightened. Suddenly, I realized what I had caught. I pulled this monster fish into the kayak without flipping it, unbelievable! I held on to her with a death grip until my friend Lisa pulled up beside me. She couldn’t believe her eyes and I was so much in shock that I could say anything. After figuring out a plan to get her in, Lisa tied our kayaks together and made it to the pier where a gentleman helped us put her into my large storage bin of my kayak. It took us at least half and hour to get our kayaks loaded up and head back to Lisa’s house. I called my Dad, and both of my brother-in-laws, they didn’t believe anything that I was telling them so I gave up on the phone calls. We got back to the house where I placed her immediately into an ice chest of water. She was barely alive. Lisa took her old meat scales and calibrated a bucket and found her to weigh 16.25lbs at that time. We called Lisa’s dad, which was a retired wildlife and fishery employee and gave us some names and numbers. We then called our good friend, T.W. Thompson, the commissioner in Alexandria, La. I immediately took the fish to the Mayor’s house. Approximately ten people were present and making phone calls to try and find certification. It was close to 10:30 PM by that time she was weighed at Kroger’s in Alexandria, La, weighing her at 15.88 LBS. Here's Lisa's account: Here's Lisa's account: Regina Womack an myself took our kayaks to Valentine lake yesterday after work.. we go regularly and always catch a few.. but this is what we left with last night.. .she caught it right as the sun was setting in her kayak... I was about a hundred yards away when she starts yelling.. "OMG.. OMG.. OMG!! Lisa come over here quick.. come help me .. OMG OMG OMG so I paddle over just as she hauls this BIG SOW into her lap... Regina was holding on with both hands to the bass's mouth and shaking like and earthquake... it was over 16 pounds last nite.. but official weight after losing some.. 15.88 lbs.. will be number 2 in La State record books.. omg.. what a nite!!!! Both of us purchased kayaks from your establishment and have had many many good times and experiences with them!! Her's is a Native.. Mine is a Wilderness Tarpon.

Haha I thought 15 pounds was ginormous!!!

For some reason that picture looks familiar. If it's the one I'm thinking of, I read that the lady holding the bass caught it in a kayak or something out of some lily pads. If memory serves me correct, it was caught in alabama or mississippi and holds the lake record at 14 pounds or somewhere near that. That's all I can remember if that is the same picture that I saw. I checked it and it is Regina Womack from Louisiana. Her fish there was 15 pounds after spawn. Ounces from the state record. I think it was caught in Louisiana.

When I night fish, I go out anywhere from 9pm to 6am. To be honest, I have had nights when the bite was good right at dark, sometimes right before light in the morning and sometimes anywhere in between. I guess in short, it's always a different time they start biting every time I go out! I get my most bites when they aren't very active dragging soft plastics along the bottom very slowly opposed to topwater or cranks.

Try looking at the bullshad. These are herd to get sometimes but there supposed to be pretty good. I also agree on the triple trout, good durable baits.

The 316 freestyle shad, spro bbz shad, and tru tungsten trulife 5 inch have all been very good for me.

I use zoom horny toads alot. Like others have said, I always wait until I feel the weight of the fish before I set. I also set swinging straight up when fishing the horny toad. I use an extra heavy rod with 50#pp. I've had fish take the toad and have had them hold onto it for more than 10 seconds before setting. They will hold onto the zoom horny toad for awhile, they are very salty, but they smell horrible.

Good lord, that gator looks like a 12 footer!