deep

Let's just assume that you got the location part down, and talk about other parts of the puzzle. What else do I have? Baits, presentations, atmospheric conditions and moon phases (don't roll your eyes, this is my post, so I'll have my say). Without going into swimbaits, you can try jigs and straight tail worms on the bottom, and swimjigs, scroungers and paddletails for swimming. Jig head shapes and weights depends on your specific requirements. Trailers, once again your preferences. Just use something proven. I have my own preferred skirt materials and colors and I'm not going to post them here (sorry), but that shouldn't matter because they'll depend on the lake. In any case, I'm no authority on jigs, or on any baits for that matter. Tom might be willing to help you on this. Note that I mentioned straight tail worms, and not U/ curly/ swimming tail. My thoughts on the worm shape, size and color have been heavily influenced by Bill Murphy's writings. But try Roboworms for a start. They make several sizes upto 7". If that's too small, you can buy some from Josh Upton (he has a website). Sometimes the fish donot want a bait fished slowly on the bottom. That's the presentation part of the equation. One day in late Spring (this was a year back), I slow-rolled hudds on the bottom all day, and caught nothing. Not even a follow. Then I had an inspiration and started swimming an Osprey near the bottom, and started catching. Maybe they wanted something fast, something close to but not on the bottom, maybe a different bait, or maybe they just turned on; I don't know. But a particular presentation isn't working, it's time to change. (It's easy to get comfortable in the rut.) I like low visibility conditions. Note that even a lot of wind to break up the surface in the middle of a clear day can translate to low visibility, After that, I have my moon phases. Several will call BS on this, but my experiences (I track the adult bass I catch) show that I have caught 60% of the fish on one particular phase, and 30% on another. The data do NOT include bed fish, and they're not just pre-spawners either. I might as well stay home/ at work the other two weeks of the month (but I fish anyway trying to figure them out). Unfortunately, my findings do not agree with Murphy's; but that's all right. Maybe he fished deeper and slower. Whatever. As long as I'm on them, I'm good. In conclusion, I firmly believe that bigger bass are more vulnerable to certain baits and presentation, during certain atmospheric conditions, and during certain moon phases. Now of course, another angler with more talent can clean them up when I can't even get a follow. And that's where I strive to be.

Let me try one more time. What's the max depth in Banks Lake? 6 ft? Think of 0-2 ft as shallow depths, 2-4 ft as medium depths, 4-6 ft as deep water.

It's all relative man. Your fish in Banks Lake don't know that SoCal reservoirs are hundreds of feet deep. There are factors like stained water, heavy shoreline cover, low fishing pressure, demersal (sp?) baitfish that can keep the bass relatively close to the shoreline, and the opposites of these would drive them out from the shoreline except during spawning. If you believe that the fish you want to catch are on/near the shore (I'm not saying this in a condescending tone, I'm making a statement- I don't know your lake), then have a go at it. If whatever you're trying isn't working, try finding new hunting grounds. It's pretty simple really, but we can all get stuck in a rut (location, baits, techniques) and actually be comfortable in that rut.

We can go back and forth on this all day, but you won't be asking a lot of these questions if you were to read the book I recommended. Ordered it yet?

Why is Matt's website's name censored?

Hey guys, for unforeseen reasons, I'll be spending a year abroad, maybe more; working/ teaching part-time while still trying to get the doctoral degree. I thought long and hard, and it was a difficult decision, but you gotta do what you gotta do. I have made several very good friends over here, and on one other forum; I'll miss you all. I'll miss this great country of yours that I called home for the last four years- I'm here on a student visa. Met lots of great people, online and offline, made lots of friends, have had lots of great experiences over 4 different states (VA, OH, IL, CA). I'll hang around for a month or more; need to sell a bunch of stuff including my car, need to find someone to take over my apartment lease, need to fill out some paperwork... I expect to come back next Fall to continue from where I left off, and hopefully get back to fishing (for bass that is), But till then, goodbye.

I think we need to respect the man who has caught giants (plural, several times over), by any standards- on jigs; and his opinions. From what I recall, none of those giants were on ragetails, or yamamotos, for that matter. We should- well at least I do- consider it a privilege that he chooses to share his knowledge on here. Rage tails are great as far as plastic trailers go, that's pretty much all I myself fish when I want to fish a plastic craw trailer; but I do frequent a coupla other forums, and maybe I'm not paying enough attention, but it's not rage tail all the way in those places. Maybe he has a point after all. I wonder if I'd have ever been curious enough about RT (to buy them) if I didn't read the BR forums? Much props to Big-O for exclusively fishing his baits btw. Says a lot about his confidence in his baits, and like I said I'm confident in rage tails too as a plastic craw trailer. I don't want to come across as combative, sorry if I did.

You can keep the hook in the hook slot (without texposing)- seems to me though that the plastic may begin sliding down the hook after a while; or you can texpose it, depending on the size of the hook. Or you can just keep the slot on the bottom or on the sides and just texpose like usual. Found one crusty old dinger with the slot you talk about.

I think that's for resting the hook point so that it has a little more room to penetrate the fishes mouth. Not sure. Maybe someone who fishes Yum Dingers will chime in? P.S. Maybe this will answer you question. http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/123131-slit-on-the-back-of-plastic/ Yamamoto senkos don't have them.

No problems. I personally like a 4/0 EWG for 5" senkos (or senko copies). Try with what you have first. If you're getting too few hookups due to the smaller gap, upsize the hook. P.S. Weightless texas rig is a popular way to fish senkos. A texas rig minus the sinker = weightless texas rig.

The picture is sort of small; but here's what you might want to do. What worms are those? I'd try with the 2/0s that you have first. Slide the sinker onto the line, tie the hook to the line, and put the hook into the worm at one end*; and you have a texas rig! *like this:http://www.probassfishing.ca/articles/images/Senko-Texas-Style.jpg You can peg the sinker at (very near) the hook (with a bobber stopper/ toothpick/ rubber strip) and you have a pegged texas-rig (which is also called a florida rig by the way). You can peg the sinker a foot or so above the hook, and you have a slip-shot rig (without a bead; but that's not very important, not right now anyway), similar to a carolina rig! So many rigs, right?

As long as you're putting that piece of plastic on a hook, you're using a rig of some kind. Depending on whether you're putting the hook through the middle of the bait, or at one end, depending on whether you're using a weight (either a standalone sinker, pegged or unpegged, or a weighted hook) there are different names for different "rigs". Some rigs are more suited to some types of cover/ presentation than other rigs. So what kind of cover are you fishing, and what depth of water are you looking to catch the fish from?

You can try a split-shot/ carolina/ mojo rig. Usually the weight (and bead etc if you use them) pick up most of the weeds, leaving the bait mostly weed-free. Use a neutral buoyancy/ floating bait (i.e not a senko) to help your cause further. If the weeds are some sort of grass with any length, adjust the length between the sinker and the hook so that the picked up weeds do not cover the bait. I assume you're good at detecting bites and avoiding gut hooks. Detecting bites is a little difficult with all those weeds and stuff fouling up the sinker.

Now that you talk about backlashing, what exactly are you cleaning when you clean the reel (to solve the backlashing problem)?

Aluminium frame sounds good; but if I wanted a reliable reel that would serve me for years, I'd take a look at a Shimano or the PQ that has been mentioned.

Don't you have a "tool" that came with the reel to do this? I also find it strange that you have to take apart the handle side every three trips.

Any day I learn something new about my green friends or about the reservoir. Yesterday, I discovered a totally awesome rockpile that I didn't know existed!

Citica and up (Curado, Chronarch etc) all have aluminium (or magnesium) frames. Get whichever one is in your price range; they all work well. The best price I've ever seen on Curado G's were ~$80. I saw that deal twice, and I bought both reels. They usually sell for ~$120 or more. Curado and Chronarch E's seem to go for ~$150 or more on Ebay. Right hand retrieve reels may sell for more or less; I reel lefty. P.S. There's no Chronarch G. Not yet anyway.

Now now Jeff, you shouldn't mention me in the same sentence as Speed! He's a beast. The only time I'm not concerned with sensitivity is when I'm fishing a topwater- I can see the strike. I caught three fish on a slow-sink Mattlures Hardgill yesterday. Let's just say two of the bites were very very light and came on the pause. Must have missed a few more that I didn't detect? Didn't Glen Lau have some videos where a crankbait was inhaled and spit out without the fisherman feeling anything?

Nice fishes. WTG!

Why not an aluminium framed reel?

TJoe, you can try spooling some braid onto the reel. tie on a mono leader if you feel you need it, and see how that performs for your jigs. Braid will help you cut through the vegetation that the fish may wrap you into. In any case, I doubt it'll be any worse than the mono you currently have; for short line jig fishing- which is what you described. 50# should serve you well, depending on how thick the cover is.. I'm guessing it's not very thick if you fished a jig that was light enough to fish on a medium pwoer rod?

You don't want to let it fall on a completely slack line. Follow the bait down with the rod, and have a semi-slack line. This prevents the bait from penduluming back towards you. If the water is tens of feet deep, feed a little line, only as much is required to stop the pendulum effect.

Sorry man, that's the only bait of this model I've ever owned.

Looks pretty neat!