hatrix

The smaller ones come in little bags. I keep them in the clamshell till they get used then they go in a box with 9000 other swimbaits. I have never had any issues like bent tails or whatever. The only thing is fresh out the pack ones have the squid stuff on them so they stay in a pack till they get used. It won't hurt them in a ziplock or a box. I have boxes with little ones all stuffed in one compartment and they are way less then in there neat and perfect and come out fine.

Spinnerbait I guess. It's actually more of a swimjig for me. It's great ripping grass and I do that a lot. I can't say I have a set retrieve for them or anything. A stop and go with tiny quick pauses it pretty common for me. I'll throw some hops into it or do a few quick turns to speed it up and make it rise then fall back down to the level it was at.

I also a big fan of the Sebile flat shads. They clear easy like red eyes and work well in grass also. For rocks or whatever the spros and live targets are great.

Spend a day beating a bank and hitting spots using only backhand or roll casts. If your really bad you should be amazing better at days end. If I need to back hand under stuff it's easy to do it like a pitch but swing it out to the side with the rod at like a 45. The lure will kind of swing in a curve and with practice you can get a ton of distance that way.

Timing along with places that will hold the fish your looking for with the angle you fish it is the most important. As someone said some places just never do as well for me as others with big swimbaits. Some lakes and ponds are just better and always produce more bites. I think timing and angles are the most important and not being afraid to thow a bait in the gnarly stuff. If your throwing off of cover cause your worried about loosing it then your not giving your self the best opportunity. You can just huck baits out there to so so spots and grind away and catch fish but what are you really doing? Hit the places right on the first cast and make that one the most important one. Make it life or death if you don't get it right the first time. I never do as well just tossing it places then by the 4 cast I'm trying to brake it down and get all technical with what I'm going to do. Have a percise plan of attack right from the start and then vary it up afterwards.

I would just have to say he knows about fish behavior and feeding habits but I would speculate he isn't a lure kind of guy. On the rare ocassions he uses a lure for something it's always something plain. I have never seen him use anything special that has some kind of science or technology behind it. They are always some basic old design that was around 50 years ago and while I don't doubt they catch fish newer more sophisticated lures work better for a reason.

Is your looking for a line to learn casting on braid is the easiest. It's rough and easier to control with your thumb and can't be ruined like mono with backlashes. Spinner baits can be like one of the hardest lures to cast. They have like the worst aerodynamics of any lure with the worst helicopter. Figuring out how to cast baits without helicoptering makes a huge difference with casting reels. The spool needs to slow down super quickly of a bait gets out of control.

Easy now Don't be giving out trade secrets.

It does depend on the place your fishing though. Some places fish just seem way more aggressive and don't think twice about attacking a 7 or 8" bait. But then again I know places where the same size fish don't ever seem to want to hit a 8" bait. You can always throw a hollow belly or a keitech ect on a swim jig, chatter bait, swimbait hook, or jig head and catch them anytime and it will appeal to any size fish. I would say for your best chance at a big swimbait fish while using smaller baits just buy some weedless shads.

Basstrix, keitech, LFT shads, big hammer, skinny dippers, sick fish, shadaliciois, grass minnow, weedless shad, 3d trout, 68 special, s-waver, jointed claw, negotiator, deps 175, s-song, ms slammer, triple trout, shell cracker, lunker punker, bull shad, bbz. Those are all proven and cheap baits that crush ponds. They are also smaller in size so a 1.5-2 will eat all of these.

They are my best producing jerk bait.

Zoom super tubes I think they are called. Whatever the really thick ones are. I rig them with a flippin hook and a tungsten weight. Another thing is once the head splits open and the weight starts hitting the hook it kind of makes it like a rattle.

I slipped of a wet dock when I was younger and went in over my head. I have flipped over in a canoe plenty of times. We go midnight canoing and it's super fun but is pretty much a gurantee someone is going in the drink.

I just hope it was a cheap one.

D-Bombs

That sound like heartbreak is inevitable with big swimbaits.

The memory a line has and that being a issue is a BS complaint really. Everyone knows L&L exists or you should know by now. Everyone spends a bunch of money on this crap so drop the $10 or whatever and get a bottle of it. If your not using it you are only shorting your self. Personally CXX is my favorite line hands down. It is the best line I have ever used and has everything you want in a line. I will also say it has the worst memory of any line I have ever used and comes off like a slinky. That is not even a legit complaint though since a few sprays of L&L and it good to go. It does some kind of wizardry to the line that simple human beings like me will never understand. I think it might actually be reel magic at work. I wonder how many people will catch that.

Any moving bait if you can get away with it.

I have a few and they work. They are basically just fixed punch skirt.

You don't sharpen back and forth. You sharpen against the point and it doesn't take much. One quick little pass per side down the slot in the file is perfect. I use a little pen type file. I think they even sell the same exact one on TW. It has a grey handle and one of those clips on a pen for your shirt pocket or something.

If I can get away with it I will always throw swimbaits/jigs ect on something more parabolic. It makes a big difference.

I have heard it a million times. People say I am only going to throw baits up to X amount. Don't sell your self short cause that won't last. It's better to be a bit overpowered and not limit yourself then be vastly underpowered. The baits have enough weight that you can easily cast them with just there weight alone even if the rod is heavier. It's not like trying to cast 1/8 oz on a flipping stick. It has no weight behind it to get it going. On the other hand I can take a 2oz bait and bomb it on a actual broomstick "that's so cliche to use that expression" but it's the truth this time. Get a H swimbait rod and anything under say 2oz you can throw on a jig rod. I thought the same way you did or everyone does. I live in Ohio and 5# fish are amazing here, but don't fool yourself that the 2-3# won't eat that 8-10" bait.

The vast majority of y hooks are owners. I have hooks from every brand and just use whatever though. When it comes to a straight shank for a creature of something I am partial to trokar. As far as sharpness is concerned that's all in your head and nothing a diamond file can't fix in a couple seconds. It's easy to make a hook sharper then they day you opened them and only takes seconds.

Those are reasonably priced as are the okums or diawa DX rods. As a general rule you want a stouter rod for top hook baits and more or a parabolic type bend for trebles. If you only had one I would go with a stouter rod so you can slam the hook home on a hudd or something on a super long cast.

There is a BBZ-Jr a dingo would be a BBZ-Sr. It's a musky bait originally. Really it was a bit of a fluke it happened. I was only trying to f with my brother really and tied it on his rod that is left hand retrieve "I use right" and way under powered for such a heavy bait. I was ripping on him since he was getting skunked saying I could catch fish with anything and he should just quit and give me all his gear. He freaked out from m tying it on his M/H LDC. Him saying you break it you buy it blah blah and me saying ya you suck it will be mine anyways blah blah. First cast as soon as I started to turn the handle something grabbed it. I fished the hell out of that bait for a little while after that but only ever got 1 more fish that was around 3 or so. It was just a unlikely situation.