deep

This may be helpful. EDIT: Not mentioned in the linked post; but you want to do what's called a weightless texas rig on the senko, and rig the fat ika backwards.

Thank you, @BassWhole! and @WRB The blurry one in the background is a Zell Pop (smaller size).

Would like to identify these two poppers I bought as part of a lot. No markings on either one. The bigger one is 68 mm and 0.37 ozs. The smaller one is 63 mm and 0.29 ozs. Thanks all.

So I went swimbait fishing today, after a long break from the big baits. Hard to believe there was a time when swimbaits are what I used to fish like 90% of the time, and not ittybitty "swimbaits" either. Anyway, took a rat, a wakebait, and weedless paddletails. Caught one dink and a nice one on the rat, a dink on the wake, and got a couple bites from dinks on the paddletail (saw them). I still got a few swimbait fish left in me, it seems.

Looks like a flashminnow actually. Very productive bait in shallow flats/ over grass etc.

The rod you want is the IRod 754. Fred's Magic Stick. It will fish almost every bait in the 0.5 - 1.5 oz range, and fish them well. Just use the appropriate line depending on the bait/ cover situation. Although I mostly use it for frogs and heavier jigs, I've and will continue to fish spinnerbaits, punching rigs, bubba shots, big cranks and topwaters, and small swimbaits on it too. (I think IRod has a cheaper version of the same model too; same blank, different guides. Don't quote me on that though.)

If you're fishing Clear Lake (and even if you're not), go watch some of Matt Allen's older videos on swim jigs (like back from 2012 or 2013). I like 3/8 oz northern style swim jigs with a skinny dipper. I settled on this combination starting from Matt's videos and then a lot of trial and error. Also occasionally throw a 1/2 oz California swim jig with a R2S D-Walker (the bigger size). You want a bigger than normal paddletail trailer; the tail should be big enough to rock the jighead side to side. Let the bait sink to the desired depth, reel until you feel the weeds and snap the weeds off. A few rod pops here and there doesn't hurt too, weeds or no weeds.

Finally managed to get out again. Caught a couple real nice ones, both on poppers (one on a 6th Sense and the other on an Ima finesse popper); but otherwise it was a grind. Also, I realized I have taken out the kayak just once this year, and fished with my buddy on his new boat once. Otherwise I'm back to the old days- walking the banks with one rod and one reel. Both fish were about the same weight I think. The first one was longer, but the second one had a larger girth.

Spooled some 6# Maxima- which really has the diameter of 8# line- on my Curado MGL 71, and fished some little baits today- a Pointer 78, an Ima finesse popper, and a Spinbait 80. Gotta fish a ned one of these days; been over a year since I tried that The more I fish the medium power Curado rod, the more I like it. It feels more powerful than it is, but that's probably due to the extra-fast taper. Casts and fishes the little baits great, and anyway I bought it for 1/3rd off, so I'm a happy camper. Caught 15 or so bass on the three baits, plus 2 big crappies, and 3 big bluegills. One bass turned out to be "pictureworthy".

More expensive rods, in general, are lighter, crisper, more sensitive, and just more fun to fish with. I've fished Citicas on NRX's and still fish a Curado on my Conquest. In fact, other than a Calcutta TE and an Exsence DC, I don't own a reel higher than a Curado (I have 11 Curados from different generations, all non-DC). Anyway, my point is the price of gear, in itself, is not a big deal to me. The enjoyment I get from using the gear (in this case higher end rods) that I like to use matters more. Do I catch more/ bigger fish? Pretty sure I don't. I fish an awful lot from the banks, then I usually only bring one or max two rods. In my kayak, I almost never take more than two rods; and I have 13 rods to choose from. I also never bring more than a handful of baits (like literally a handful). Works just fine for me. In your multi-species angling situation, I will suggest a MH/F or a M/F rod (depending on the weight of baits you're looking to fish). Mix in a few bass-sized jerkbaits, topwaters, rattletraps, a couple small spinnerbaits/ inline spinners, and you'll catch almost any gamefish in your waters. Jerkbaits are the best multi-species lure I know of btw. Good luck.

Put the jerkbaits down and went pitching and swimming plastics today. Turned out pretty well too. Caught a real nice one, a decent one, and a good one, plus some smaller bass too. All on a Rage Menace on a 3/8 oz ZMan bullet swing jig. The second largest fish got tangled in some gnarly wood, and I had go into knee deep water and get her out. I was fairly sure that was one fish I was not going to land, but I found out again that 12# Tatsu is a lot stronger than it's diameter and rating would suggest. (First two pics of the same "real nice" fish)

I've been fishing a lot of smaller baits lately. I don't really do spinning, and casting 1/4 to 3/8 oz baits on a medium-heavy rod isn't fun most of the time. another site had a sale on Shimano Curado rods last week, and I decided to buy a 7'5" medium power extra-fast action Curado casting rod. Took it out today. The tip isn't as soft as I was hoping, but should work well for an all-purpose rod. I like it so far. Casted pretty far, and all the fish I hooked stayed pinned. I caught several bass and crappies fishing a Slender Pointer 97MR and an 110+1 Junior. Wanted to try a small underspin and a small rattletrap, but didn't get around to those in the two hours I could fish before it got dark. (Or maybe I like fishing jerkbaits too much!)

Nicely done!

The other one's a Slammer. Looks like with the stock VMC trebles too ha!

I have the 903C Conquest. I use it for 1/4 oz T-rigs and jerkbaits, but it can do a whole lot more. Very versatile rod for any bait around 1/2 oz, and with NRX sensitivity too (I used to own two NRX 893C's). P.S. Just checked the price, and the 903C Conquest now costs $720!!

Fished a little bit in the AM, and caught this one. Also caught the customary little guys.

My once a year fish-with-my-spinny-rod day happened today. I bought a couple new jerkbaits I wanted to try out- a 110+1 Jr, and a Realis Rozante 77; and the wind today was like 20 miles an hour; so it turned out well. I really like the plus 1 Jr, much better than the standard junior 110. Seems to dive ~6 ft or so on 20# braid and 10# leader, I can work it like the plus 1, and it catches fish. Definitely a winner for me. The Rozante caught fish too, as did an X80+1 trick darter (those were the 3 baits I had with me today). Caught around 15 in ~3.5 hours, mostly 12-14 inchers. Quick released a slightly larger one. Also caught a nice sized bluegill. That was cool; hadn't managed to run into one of those in quite a while.

Vision 110 Junior, Flashminnow 110, Vision 110 Magnum. All of these will stay at or above 3 feet on 10-12# fluoro. Use mono/ braid to go even shallow. (disclaimer: I have not done too well on the Vision 110 Junior, but added that in just in case you want a smaller bait.) Couple others: Daiwa TD minnow (Not sure of the exact model unfortunately. I have one of the discontinued models that dives to ~2-3 ft and is a pretty fast riser). Megabass X-120. Wander 80 (not sure if they make bigger sizes) is a sinking jerkbait. Works like a Senko in the top few feet of the water column.

So I bought a new all purpose rod during the Veteran's day sale, and took it out this afternoon to try it. It's a 7'6" MH fast Ark Lancer Pro. I'm amazed how far $100 rods have progressed even in the last 10 years or so. Also fished a Pointer and a Flashminnow after a looong time. With all these fancy jerkbaits I now own, I sometimes forget how I learnt to catch jerkbait fish with Pointers, Slender Pointers and Flashminnows, mostly walking the banks. Caught a nice one, and then 4 or 5 small fish and a crappie. Then the sun went behind the hills, and all of a sudden it got really cold.

The 110+1 will hit 8' on 10# Tatsu. The 110+2 will go at least 10'-12' on the same 10# Tatsu, depending on the length of your cast. The KVD deep 300 size dives about the same depth (~10') as the Staysee 90SP v2, or slightly deeper. What I like about both the 110+2 and the KVD deep 300 is I can work them like most shallower jerkbaits with jerks and twitches (as opposed to rips or pulls). Other baits I like would be the Live-X Leviathan and the XD Pointer. Both would dive to at least 12' on 10# line, the XD Pointer dives even deeper. But they have looong bills. Like @A-Jay, I had high hopes for the 110+2 too. I have caught a lot of fish on them, but nothing like the 110+1 or the KVD deep 300 bait.

Went out yesterday, after almost 3 months I think. Caught several small bass, one pretty big green sunfish, one large crappie, and a 13" citation yellow perch. Plastics and jerkbaits. Pretty Fall colors, and a beautiful sunset too.

Walking the banks today after almost 5 months I think. This one was on an 110 Type-R.

Everyday I'm bustlin', with the Fish Arrow Bustle Frog lol. 4 bites in 4 hours today; 2 on the fish arrow, 2 on an evergreen kicker frog. Landed 3 and lost 1. This one was the biggest.

Back to the land of big kicker-size bass, after almost 9 months. Only caught two today though, and the other one was a dink.