Bluebasser86

The Spin Trap was a great white bass bait for me when I was growing up.

3.8" is going to be your standard size but you can go bigger or smaller as the situation dictates.

Getting way up the creek yesterday.

This is the whole reason I've never gotten into turkey hunting. Looks fun, but not fun enough to keep me off the water in April.

Depends on the time of year but I catch a lot of them on jigging spoons and swimbaits in the winter, along with traps and jerkbaits. I find places that shad like to congregate and then find the little ditches and edges that the wipers will cruise trying to ambush shad. I spend a lot of time with my eyes glued to my electronics. Watching for birds is always a blast when that's going on.

Welcome!

Welcome!

Yeah, I fish frogs in some pretty clear water and always run straight braid and never seemed to slow the bite down.

Leader with a frog?

$40 at Cabela's, lots of places online for $40 too.

The older ones are on sale everywhere and I would have a hard time not buying more if I had any need for more spinning reels. They're not fancy, but they're built like tanks that just seem to keep on going.

Haven't had superglue in the boat since buying the Midwest Finesse Mold. So much faster and easier to rig baits, and the ability to remove a bait without it being ruined is very handy. There's a little trick to rigging on that metal keeper, but once you figure it out, it's very easy and effective.

The hooks I use are a standard/thin wire hook, but combined with the right equipment they hold up to about anything. I horsed a low 20lb flathead into the boat in less than 5 minutes on a Ned rig and the hook hadn't even begun to bend.

5 hours sleep in the last 72 hours makes reading a computer screen almost impossible I guess Haven't seen one in person but they look nicer in pictures. Problem is, none of my older Presidents have given me a reason to replace them yet.

I have the G-Force handle on mine and really like it. Easy to install and makes lifting and deploying much easier.

I only use leaders with braid when I have to. I'd rather either use straight braid or straight fluoro/copolymer. I'd never use Vanish for any bass fishing though.

Are you bending the blade or leaving it straight? Are you using a trailer? I use primarily a 3/8oz with 17lb copolymer and a 6.2 reel with a pretty slow retrieve, just enough to get the blade thumping. I bend the blades on mine, the degree of bend and location of the bend will effect the depth it wants to run and also the action of the bait. A bulky trailer will make them ride higher also.

What bait and equipment are you using?

Finesse fishing and "a beefier hook" don't really seem to go hand in hand to me. I haven't seen one in person, but that keeper looks like it would be extremely difficult to get a Zman bait to stay up on to me.

You have to have completed a boater's safety course to operate a boat in MO if you born before 84. I did mine online, it's pretty easy it seemed to me like. I was 16 when I got mine though, so that's been a long time ago, might have changed it by now.

I don't add any flakes, just try to melt similar colors. Most everything I make turns out some shade of black and blue, or green pumpkin, unless I melt a bunch of the same baits in the same color. I usually wait about 5-10 minutes for them to fully cool and set, but it depends on what bait it is you're pouring.

Early winter and early spring, like late October-mid December and then late February-mid April. Those are the best fishing times, and the times when there's the fewest other people on the water in combination.

The River2Sea Bubble Walker 80 is a very similar bait for half the price. I have a few, they're my favorite larger popper.

Also use the 795 for baits like you listed.

Spinning or baitcasting?