Bluebasser86

They are a good bait for sure but fishing them with the belly weighted hook seems to be all anyone wants to fish them with. I've had good luck fishing them on a scrounger head also.

I had really good luck fishing them through sparse weeds last summer. I was fishing them just like a zara spook only on my frog fishing gear. Fish were blasting them but they don't last very long and aren't cheap.

Haven't fished the devil's spear but the pit boss and fatty craw have both been treating me really well! The Havoc baits seem to be really tough and the price is right! Doesn't hurt that the fish have been eating them up!

Do you have a high speed reel? If you don't it would help you keep their head up so you can keep them moving over the top of the weeds. Just keep them up high and moving towards you as much as possible. Your rod and line choices sound good to me for the situation.

x3 I'm more worried about keeping my gear in good working order than looking like I just bought it. The fish don't care what it looks like! A few scraps and scratches just gives them character!

Could not imagine setting the hook on a fish like that!

Very nice looking fish! I have to agree with you, I love it when there is a fish on my jig before it ever hits the bottom!

You could probably get a pretty close estimate if you'd measure the handle of your rod since you lined the fish up with it pretty well. Measure from the butt of the rod to that silver stripe and add an inch or two and the look at the fish weight calculator on the tools drop bar. The top one looks like about a 3lb fish to me.

I'm hoping to put my wife on a big bass like that this year, she lost a 4lber at the boat the other day that would have been a PB for her. Just gives an excuse to go back . Congrats to her on the big bass!

I was thinking a big pike not an actual gator! I don't think I would have needed my hook back that bad!

Great fish, couldn't imagine catching 2 smallies over 5 pounds in the same day!

Awesome fish! I couldn't even imagine catching a smallmouth that big! That would be big for a largemouth around here though! Nice job!

The weather sucked pretty bad the first couple days but we still did pretty good. We stopped by Bourban State Lake Sunday night on the way down. We caught a ton of fish despite the temps being in the 40's. I had the biggest one at about 4 1/2 pounds on a baby brush hog. We fished several pits on day one. My friend had the hot hand for the big fish the first day. He caught this 5 1/2 pounder on one of our homemade jigs. He caught another one about 4lbs out of the same pond on the same jig and let my other friend hold it and he held his fish. We went to the trout lake last. Thought with the clear water it might help for the sun not to be high in the sky. There are some giants in that lake! My friend again caught a 5 1/2 pounder on one of our homemade jigs. The fish look amazing out of that pond too! Next day we just winged it a little bit. Caught lots of fish but nothing bigger than about 3lbs. We went to a pit that I had saw the day before that I wanted to try. It was a monster that went on forever. We fished for about half a mile and I was thinking about leaving until a 5lber destroyed my Cavitron buzzbait. It was on after that and I ended up catching quite a few with my 6 biggest weighing 21lbs 12oz, all on the same Cavitron. The biggest one was the one in my left hand that weighed 5lbs 2ozs. Last day we headed back north to fish a little closer to home. Stopped and fished Pleasanton City lakes and my friend caught a 4lber on one of our homemade jigs. Despite the cold weather we managed to catch plenty of fish and some really nice ones! All of the fish we caught were released in good condition. Have to give a lot of credit to Ring Fry for pointing us in the right direction! There is so much water down there it would take weeks to even start to fish it all! Thanks a lot for your help Ring Fry! It was a great trip and a lot of fun!

If you saw a newer model F-150 and an older grey Ford Ranger pulling jon boats then that was us! That would be about the right time too. The weather sucked pretty bad the first couple days but we still did pretty good. We stopped by Bourban State Lake Sunday night on the way down. We caught a ton of fish despite the temps being in the 40's. I had the biggest one at about 4 1/2 pounds on a baby brush hog. We pretty much stuck to the pits you suggested on day one. My friend had the hot hand for the big fish the first day. He caught this 5 1/2 pounder on one of our homemade jigs. He caught another one about 4lbs out of the same pond on the same jig and let my other friend hold it and he held his fish. We went to the trout lake last. Thought with the clear water it might help for the sun not to be high in the sky. There are some giants in that lake! My friend again caught a 5 1/2 pounder on one of our homemade jigs. The fish look amazing out of that pond too! Next day we just winged it a little bit. Caught lots of fish but nothing bigger than about 3lbs. We went to a pit that I had saw the day before that I wanted to try. It was a monster that went on forever. We fished for about half a mile and I was thinking about leaving until a 5lber destroyed my buzzbait. It was on after that and I ended up catching quite a few with my 6 biggest weighing 21lbs 12oz, all on a buzzbait. Last day we headed back north to fish a little closer to home. Stopped and fished Pleasanton City lakes and my friend caught a 4lber on one of our homemade jigs. Despite the cold weather we managed to catch plenty of fish and some really nice ones! All of the fish we caught were released in good condition. Thanks a lot for your help Ring Fry! All of the pits you suggested turned up at least good numbers and some good fish also!

I would try a different line, Big game is good line for a baitcaster but it does tend to have a lot of memory to be used on a spinning reel. That's just my personal feelings on it though. I've never heard of running warm water on the line but it makes sense, like putting bent plastics into warm water to help straighten them out. A swivel will not interfer with sensitivity much if at all.

My favorite baitcasting combo to fish with is my 6' 2" St. Croix Avid with a Curado 50E. It's so light and easy to fish with and fun to fight fish with. As soon as my new 200e7 curado gets here and I slap it on my 7' 3" LTB I'm sure I'll have a new contender though.

It's not one of those bargin spinnerbaits with the plastic cover on the hook is it? A guy I worked with fished all day one time with the plastic cover on his spinnerbait hook, he said he thought it was to help keep him from getting snagged . I'd probably sharpen the hooks on the spinnerbait. Did you see the fish that were biting? I thought I'd missed about 20 fish in a row on a crankbait one day this winter until I finally snagged a big shad. One throw with my thrownet I had over 50 6+ inch gizzard shad, they were packed in that spot like nothing I've ever seen but they really felt like bass hitting my crank! I've never heard of a rod losing power like that and I'm sure there has to be some other reason why you weren't hooking up.

That model LTB rod would be a good choice for worms and spinnerbaits and just a good all around rod in general. I don't know if there is a real advantage to split grips other than it might reduce a slight amount of weight on the rod. Other than that I like the look of it better and it reduces fatigue on my hands from palming the reel and holding the bigger cork handle. Basically, for me at least my grip is tighter towards my little finger and looser towards my thumb and index. So I end up squeezing the rod harder with my little finger and ring finger with a full cork rod and it wears me out a little faster. That's just my opinion though and I'm sure others have theirs about why they like/dislike split grips.

It's not overspooled at all, I'd say you could use more line if anything but that's a different thing completely. Do you close the bail by hand or turn the reel handle to close it? If you turn the reel handle that will cause a tiny about of twist everytime you close the bail, eventually a big ball of line is going to jump off your reel on the cast. Always close the bail by hand, once you get used to doing it you won't even have to think about it. What brand/type line are you using? Using a good quality, soft line will help line twists a lot. What baits do you usually use? Some baits cause line twists that adding a small ball bearing swivel about 18" above your bait will fix.

No need to be sorry, that's one of the great things about this forum. You ask a question and get several different opinions or answers from several different views. Vast amounts of knowledge is out there to be had from the members on here.

Sounds like it might be the transducer that is having the problem. You can buy new transducers for them or take it in to Cabela's or BPS and see if they can hook it up to the cables for a display model. I did that with my X125 when I thought it quit on me, turns out the transducer was what shot craps. $60 and a new transducer later I was back on the water!

I like the standby 10" worm T-rigged or a T-rigged brush hog. I've got some 17" curl tail worms I'm working with but finding the right situation at a lake with fish big enough to eat one is difficult.

That's a pretty good looking bait. Kind of like a punching skirt on top of a rage craw only with a different body, you may be onto something.

I fish them around grass alot so braid is usually my line of choice. The only problem I've had is the snap coming open when a fish hits. Never lost a bait yet but a little heavier snap would probably help. I always fish them with a trailer but never a trailer hook, I don't get near as many bites and it hangs up in the weeds a lot worst.

That's a heck of a day catching that many quality smallmouth!