Bluebasser86

I bought them from a custom maker in Arizona many years ago, believe they were called "The Bullwhip". I just use them on a T-rig and yes fish do eat them. I get a lot of tail pulls but when the right fish comes along they have no problem eating them.

10lb isn't really that light on a baitcaster. I have several reels with 10lb on it I use for a variety of baits and have landed fish over 30lbs with them, you'll be fine if you take your time and set the drag properly.

Jerkbaits are a go to smallmouth bait for me year round and I have no rivers with smallmouth here. 81* surface temp in an 11,000 acre reservoir, 91* day last week here in NE KS on a small jerkbait.

Abrasx is great line. I use it down to 8lb on spinning gear even.

Netbait C-mac comes in a 15" version. https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/NetBait_BaitFuel_C-Mac_Curly_Tail_Worm/descpage-NBCSAS.html?from=basres I've got some giant hand pours up to 18" and bigger around than my thumb.

I never run a full spool of fluoro. Fill it 1/3 to 1/2 full of cheap mono and then top it off with fluoro. That way you can spool a few times off each spool of line and a big backlash doesn't hurt so bad.

The small offset heads designed to be "Texas rigged Ned heads", are really good for this kind of thing. An Owner Ultrahead Bullet Rig is another good option. The smaller size YUM Pulse swimbait is perfect for imitating smaller baitfish without spending a bunch of money.

A Tatula 100p is what I use. Great casting distance and a slower 5.4 22.9 IPT to make winching in big cranks easier. The SV reels don't have the line capacity for deep cranking IMO.

The Zman Menace, er uh, Goat Series, looks good. The BFE and Midside brush hog are both gonna be in my boat I'm sure. Pretty underwhelming otherwise.

Those are the colors they can see well. They may not see a distinct difference between black and blue for instance, but there's still a difference in the darkness of one versus the other, which causes contrast and can help a fish pick out a bait from the surroundings. Been too many times I've been fishing one color and been tearing them up, ran out of that color and switched to a different color of the same bait, and it was like someone turned the switch off. Or been in the boat with someone fishing the same bait in a different color and one person is getting all the bites while the other isn't. They may not see them the same as we do, but there's certainly times that color makes a difference, and not just red and green.

Solid blue with blue flakes is one of my go to colors. Sapphire blue, backwater blue, swampwater blue, whatever the company calls it, that color catches me a ton of fish.

I swing quick on those bites I'm sure of, but if there's any questions, I'll weigh my bait and try to be sure. If I don't get in a big rush they're not likely to spit it. My big one yesterday morning grab it on the fall into a laydown and just sat there. There's some grass growing around the tree, combined with the laydown, when a fish just grabs it and doesn't move, or do anything, it's really difficult to tell it's a bite for sure. So I weighed my bait, and she finally moved ever so slightly. https://youtu.be/tTkH-qQU7Ic?t=349

Should be a front runner in the "Ugliest in Show", category. That thing looks hideous.

A swimming grub or 3.8 Fat Impact are both easy to fish and consistent fish catchers. A spinnerbait is easy to fish also.

Hadn't planned on going this morning, but it was cloudy and not terribly hot out so I couldn't help myself. Of course a hour after getting there my "Mostly cloudy", forecast turned into not a cloud in the sky ?, but it was good for the hour until that happened. Managed to find another good one in this really tough little city lake too.

I like short shank EWG #6 Gamakatsu.

Dying plant matter sucks oxygen from the surrounding water. Bass and baitfish will leave the area until things settle down. They treat some lakes around here and the fishing is about impossible until a couple weeks or even a month later. Fishing has never been the same since they started treating them though. Algae blooms are very bad and water clarity is not nearly as good as it use to be.

Sometimes you need a little more reach and a little more torque. First I've ever used my pedestal post for anything actually.

@ww2farmer has been around some.

A 3" Gulp or power minnow on a 1/16 or 1/8oz jighead was my Ned rig before I knew what a Ned rig was.

Yes the work well. I prefer the smaller size just the same as I did with the Xcalibers.

Thanks for this. Looks good to me. The baby is just a touch smaller than I'd like most of the time. The Mid might eliminate my need to carry both sizes.

The Air Fry use to be a go to C-rig bait. The lizard was good for it too.