deep

Wow. Thanks Tom. So bigger claws are sometimes desirable? P.S. How was the catching?

Dobyns 867/ Calcutta 401TE. Have the rod, looking to upgrade the reel. Why? I can fish everything from the 6" to 10" baits on it. Pretty versatile rod.

Almost, but not quite. Thrice. (NLMBs). One of them actually puked up a trout while I put her on the stringer and getting my scale and camera tripod ready.

Awesomeness.

"Structure" is an identifiable part of the bottom. Plenty of structure there. Look for the sharpest drop-offs into the deepest water in the area, for a start. As for the "spring and summer" part, it depends on the big picture (topo of the whole lake). Walk around, and take pics AND notes. (Just an idea)

The one and only.

What kinda "swim baits"?

It'd be a pretty unwise choice for any casting situations. See how close the hookpoint is to the head. It's designed to be a small compact jig for short line situations in cover.

Ridiculous indeed! Is this awesome or what.

Lots of baits look cool, and swim very fluidly. Some turn out to be better producers than others. Matt's are hands down the most productive bluegill baits on the market, and seem to work very well all over the country. That he's a super cool dude and has awesome customer service don't hurt at all lol. Good luck with whatever bait you get.

That's terrible. She's braver than I am. Wishing a fast recovery.

Good deal, thanks.

Hit up Cadman. He might have just what you need, in case Mike doesn't.

Looks good. The two line-ties are interesting!

Thought about it some more, and I have some new questions. Admittedly I have *not* studied the book (I have the 1973 first edition) as thoroughly as I have studied a couple others. Forgive me if I sound dumb. Dead slow (or live slow lol) is not the best speed for striking fish (what I'd call neutral fish) then, correct? I hear talk about "short windows of opportunity". Apparently this is a short span of time when big bass get bat **** crazy, and bite almost anything you throw their way. You better cover water, and fish fast when the bite is on. Are these feeding bass? I thought we were supposed to slow down the presentation when the bass are feeding; or are we not?

Congratulations! (I guess?)

Bill Murphy (In Pursuit of Giant Bass).

Let me ask another question then. Why must jump type lures be only jumped, and never dragged, or dragged and stopped? Did they not drag football jigs back in the day? Does this have to do anything with the depth-speed controls?

Never mind, figured out what you meant. Need to work on my comprehension skills evidently.

Good job!

The rod has to load up correctly. With 200 size reels, baits down to a quarter oz is not a problem. Practice with heavier and more aerodynamic lures first. Rattletraps are excellent for this, plus they're supposed to be good this time of the year too. Might as well try and catch something.

Coming soon from the magician Matt. 10 inches, and 6 ozs. Enjoy.

They're on the cheap side now-a-days actually. Only going for around a hundred for the XLs.

Paul, my take on this is that with the modern baits (tools), depth and speed can be independent of each other. I primarily fish swimbaits, so I'll draw an example from there. I take an ROF5 hudd (6" or 8" or 68- different sizes, and actions), remove some lead from the belly to make it an ROF2-ish. I can (and do) fish it very slow subsurface, a couple feet down in the column. Real trouts seem to do that a lot. I can also crawl it uphill along the bottom (after letting it sink), at the same speed. If I want to fish fast on the bottom, I do so with an ROF16 hudd. I can also fish fast a couple feet down with a slower sinking bait. Maybe, the tools back in the day were not versatile enough? Also, I'm talking about casting, since that's pretty much all I do.

There's only one rule; you fish for the biggest fish in the reservoir. Everything else must be decided on the fly, depending on what the fish wants (starting with some guidelines of course).