Bluebasser86

I can't take the Astros seriously after last time.

What are you using the fluorocarbon for? If it's just short range applications like flipping and pitching, buy a spool of Tatsu. You're going to fill your spool most of the way with mono or braid, whichever you prefer to use as a filler, then run 50 yards of Tatsu, more than enough for flipping and pitching. Now you can spool 4 times off that 200 yard spool, bringing your cost per fill up down to that 10-12 dollar range which I believe is very reasonable for a premium line.

I like double gold or double copper but I fish a lot of stained water. I use a decent amount of painted blades also.

For me personally, it's a crankbait, because I don't really enjoy fishing them. I'd say for a lot of anglers, a jig is one of the hardest baits to master.

Level or nose down and anything from a slow rise to slow sink depending on conditions.

Sounds like your buzzbait might bent wings or a damaged rivet, something isn't right. I use a 3/4oz buzzbait a lot and it stays on the surface no problem even with a 6.3 reel.

I like the 300 size.

Right now through early spring is when you should be fishing one.

I usually peg mine.

Fished my biggest kayak tournament so far this weekend, the American Kayak Classic on Truman Lake in Missouri. There was 172 anglers from 14 different states in attendance and to qualify you had to be in the top 10 in your club. I hate Truman, always have, always will. Fished it several times when I use to fish club tournaments as a teenager. Last time I'd fished it until my buddy and I went a couple weeks ago to prefish was over a decade ago in another tournament. It's a massive maze of trees, stumps, rocks, and dirty water. I've only ever had 1 good tournament there when I was 16, most of the rest I'd have a fish or two or even blank. I was not looking forward to it to say the the least but I wanted to try to represent my club. I went for 2 days of prefishing. First day I had a spot that was just a gravel launch with a couple pockets on an outside bend I wanted to try. I almost didn't even launch when I got there, the water was gross, about 6" of visibility. I was there though, so I thought I'd at least give it a shot. Surprisingly, I actually managed to catch a couple fish on a squarebill, spinnerbait, and jig. Not big fish, but I was really more concerned about catching 5 than anything. The beautiful launch area and water I was fishing. Second day of practice, I drove to the far south end of the lake to fish another series of coves. I caught a 15.5" fish near the ramp that felt like a good sign, it was not. 2 or 3 hours later, I got my second bite. I'd pretty much decided to leave at this point, but that sealed it. I loaded up and drove north to Little Tebo creek and fished there for a few hours. I actually caught several bass, but they were so small that only 1 would have been a scorable fish even with a 12" length limit. It was not the practice I'd hoped for, but I hadn't skunked so I had something to work with. Day 1 I went back to my mudhole and hoped those fish would bite. Fishing the same chartreuse and black balsa crankbait, I picked up 3 keepers pretty quickly. Then I got to a shallow mud flat and caught a bonus keeper on a spinnerbait. There was thick fog and promise of flat calm conditions and bright sun. I wanted to get 5 before that sun got out if possible. It was burning off fast so I cut across the cove to the only other part I'd caught fish the day before. I caught my 5th keeper to make my limit, and then got a little bit of a cull up a few minutes later, both on the squarebill. For just a minute that first morning, I was feeling pretty good. I didn't think there were many fish in that area, so I left in search of other fish in that arm. I found none, not one. I'd submitted my last fish at 9:53AM, by 2PM I had not had another bite. I thought I was going to try to get to the creek in the very back of the arm I had caught my fish to see if I could get bit back there, but as I peddled that way I realized it was too far and I'd run out of time before I got there. I made the decision to try a different bait on the bank I'd caught my fish, a decision I'm not sure was a good one but I did it anyways. With 40 minutes left, I ran 1 of my 2 good banks with a homemade black and blue bladed jig, caught 4 fish, 3 scoreable, but only 1 that helped with a small cull. I ended day 1 in 8th place, just over 3 inches back from the leader. Day 2 was supposed to be cloudy and rainy, perfect conditions I thought. I really felt like I was going to go and take a run at doing well. My first bite of the morning came at the very end of my best stretch of bank on a homemade black and blue bladed jig, my line broke on the hookset for some reason. Across the cove in a steady rain, I finally squeaked out a 13.25" fish on the same bait. I went around 3 times through my 2 good areas with 2 short fish to show for it. It was after 11 and I was frustrated and about ready to just drive home. My wife called and encouraged me to get back in the game, make a move and finish strong. I pulled the plug on my spot and went to where my buddy and I had prefished 3 weeks prior with blind faith those fish would still be there. It was about a 40 minute drive, I had a little over 2 hours to catch 4 keepers by the time I got back on the water. The water was way clearer there, maybe 2' of visibility. I dropped a Ned rig around the boat ramp docks and caught a 15.25" fish in less than 5 minutes. Fish started chasing shad onto the banks right by the ramp. I caught 2 shorts in a row, then a tiny keeper, but it made number 3. I peddled to where we'd caught the majority of our fish prefishing and picked up my topwater. I'd never had a bite on topwater to this point, but I was hoping. I quickly hooked up with a keeper, and lost it halfway to the kayak. 5 minutes later, another strike, this one hooked and stuck. Only 13.5" but it was number 4, just needed 1 more. 10 minutes later I had another vicious strike, but it completely missed the hooks, my stomach was just in knots that kept tightening every time a fish missed my bait. Another fish swung and missed so I tossed back a 6th Sense Flush, saw the boil, swung the fish in. It was just barely, but number 5 touched 12" and I still had time to catch more. Now that I had 5, I could stick with the big Berkley Cane Walker and look for bigger fish. In the last 30 minutes, I upgraded twice with that, neither were large in size, but they were huge in the standings. It was not the day I'd hoped for at all, but it could have been so much worse. They had enough people to pay down to 15 spots, it was just a little more than my entry fee, but it was better than nothing. Wouldn't have made the pay line without those last 2 little culls. I owe a huge thank you to the guys from my club. The first day of practice right before I turned my truck off, the battery icon turned on my dash. It's an '08 and that's not the only light on so I hoped it was just an older truck doing older truck things. As I pulled into the campgrounds we were staying at, all my lights came on, my speedometer quit, and my truck died. I coasted into a parking area and was able to get ahold of them. One ran to NAPA and got an alternator, while another met me there and we tore my truck apart to get the alternator out. It was a 3 hour job with limited tools but it wouldn't have happened without them. Fishing against them all year, they could have left me stranded and with no way to get my kayak on the water, but they helped me out and got me back in the game.

Welcome!

I've got a solid chartreuse spinnerbait with 2 big painted Colorado blades on it I use in really dirty water. My buddy laughed when I broke it out in a tournament once when the water was cold and muddy. 2 of our 5 fish limit that won the tournament for us were on that bait.

I like Pline, but fluoroclear is junk.

Stanley makes an all pink bait, I've got one of them and the smallies do like it. https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/spinnerbaits.html?from=basres

Lots of them are a complete waste of time, but there's some good ones. You're going to do some driving to find the good ones.

Not sure what Pline you're using but the Sufix Advance is very nice line. It does have a bigger diameter than most lines so I'd suggest going a size smaller than what you're looking for if you decide to try it. Like the 10lb Sufix has a thicker diameter than 13lb of the Deifer Armillo that Tom is suggesting.

I'm the same way about using casting with my right hand and spinning with my left, but I can work a jerkbait or topwater just fine with my left hand. I do fish jerkbaits and some small cranks with spinning gear though.

I'll be camping 3 nights this week in the 40 degree weather. It'll be nice not to be sweating in my tent for a change.

Hammered blades excel when bass are feeding on schools of baitfish because you get multiple flashes goes in all directions like a small school of disoriented baitfish. They also seem to work better in stained to dirty water than clear water. They prefer them over smooth blades here in a lot of situations. They're not easy to find in many blade combinations though, so I had to start making my own.

I fish way more gold and copper blades than I do silver. I have a good amount of painted, chartreuse, white, red, and orange. Some of the blades are painted on both sides, some just one side. I fish a lot of dirty to stained water, where the gold, copper, and bright painted blades shine. Painted white blades are good in clear water when it's cloudy also. Copper is deadly in stained water on cloudy days. There's a local shop that sells them with 50/50 blades that are half silver/half gold that really catches them.

I would choose hammered blades if I had to pick.

I use 20lb for exactly what he's using it for and have no digging in issues. There's no monster hooksets with treble hook topwater baits, just lean and reel fast, so it doesn't create enough pressure to dig the line into itself. I get way more distance than I ever did with mono, I can bury the hooks at distance, and the bait is way more responsive because the line doesn't stretch and it floats.

I would suggest fishing out of it at least a few times before you start mounting anything on it. Everyone has their preferences and you're liable to mount something on your kayak and wish it wasn't where you put it.

1/2oz white or chartreuse and white with any of the blade combinations but I usually lean towards gold or copper blades, especially hammered ones.