Bluebasser86

The Wild Than has a harder thump than either of the other two, but it has no hunting action that I've noticed. It wanders on the deflection, but all baits do that.

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It's odd to me because I've never had a problem with the DT lineup except for the 6's and a couple 4's (which the 4's I marked down more as the risk of fishing wood baits, sometimes you break one). Never had a 10, 16, or 20 do it to me. The DT Thug is a good and underutilized bait that moves similar to the 6 and I haven't broken one of them yet. I haven't bought many because I'm still gun shy from the 6's, but so far they've been good.

That's what this sight is for. FWIW, I've had good success with P-Line C21 copolymer.

Agreed. I've had reels that I could tell no difference after being supertuned. Then a reel like the 200B Curados that perform on a whole other level after being supertuned. I'd suggest sending them to DVT to get supertuned. I think you'll probably end up wanting to do it to more reels after you try it with the first one.

I like it for moving baits best, like a crank, spinnerbait, buzzbait, bladed jig, or trap. It does well with topwater like a popper or spook as long as the memory isn't too bad. Some copolys are very bad about that and the coil in the line messes with the action of the bait. It does stretch, how much depends on brand and lb test. I use it for jigs and T rigs as well, but that's a personal preference thing. I don't like fluorocarbon very much and find copolymer to have a lot of the benefits of fluoro without the phantom breakoffs, knot tying difficulties, and price tag.

I'm not sure about Izorline but P-line is also a copolymer and works well for topwaters. I'm not sure that it floats, but I've never really considered mono to float either. As far as advantages, copolymers have very good abrasion resistance, knot strength, and overall strength generally.

You can use either. I've used/use both and it doesn't make a big difference.

The Wild Thang is the fatter of the two and has a very wide, hard thumping wobble. It was touted as being similar to a Wiggle Wart, but it's really not even very close IMO. It's been a good bait for me though. The Digger is more of a shad profile and has a tighter wiggle, similar to a DT6. I carry several of both and actually picked up a bunch from Academy yesterday on sale for less than $4 apiece.

Some lakes just don't produce well on top. I know of a lake that is loaded with fish that are easy to catch on jigs and plastics, but it's a very rare day they'll come to the surface for a bait. If you're catching fish with other baits, I wouldn't get too stressed about it.

I own lots of wood baits, very well aware of the fact they have to be handled with care. The DT6s and a few of the 4s were just falling apart. I had baits pull apart while fighting fish, I had bills fall out while bumping through rocks, and I had one I thought my knot broke when I cast, but it turned out I cast the body of the bait off and still had the bill. I caught plenty of fish with them, some big ones too, but I'm not dealing with a bait that falls apart on a regular basis for me. Maybe they've fixed that problem in the last few years, but I won't be finding out. FWIW, Lucky Craft greatly reduced the price of a lot of their baits recently. You can buy one for close to and even less than a DT6 if you know where to look. It's still made, and still a good crank. http://www.rapala.com/rapala/lures/all-other-lures/fat-rapandreg/Fat+Rap.html?q=Fat Rap&start=1&id=1 I wish they'd bring back the Risto Rap.

You can have all the wipers they put in our small lakes. All the big bass disappeared after the state did that and most of the smaller fish are skinny and sickly looking. They lakes that can support them, they're a blast, but they sure can wreck a little lake too.

Nice! They're really hard fighters on light tackle when they get to that size.

Well done! That is some serious grinding right there.

Beats our state record

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Welcome back!

My last topwater fish of the year are usually buzzbait fish or big wake baits like a Slammer. Once the water gets below 50 I put them away except for the power plant lakes.

I've never had a bait fall apart as frequently as a DT6. I sold all of the ones I had left that hadn't pulled apart while fighting a fish, casting, whatever. They're great fish catchers if you can find one that stays together. I'm fishin the Berkley Digger crank in it's place now and like them very well. I actually picked up several of the Berkley on sale at Academy today for less than $4 each.

Yeah, not going there. LOCKDOWN!!

I did not have a very good tournament season this entire year. Still managed to win a few, and ended up 1st for the year, but that was more because we fished almost all of them than our performance, and we still barely managed that. I've been focusing more on fun fishing lately, even fly fishing for bluegills just to enjoy my time on the water. It's cleared my head and got me excited about tournaments again. Sometimes just have to hit the reset button. How we choose to do that varies.

Yep, stained to dirty water, tannic stained water, and cloudy days are good times to try them.

Grippers are cheap and much easier on the fish. You could probably find some clips for chip bags that close hard enough and could be rigged up. Do the fish a favor and use grippers of some sort. If you're set on using the hooks, below the jaw like Glenn showed is best.

I own a single pack of trailer hooks, they're 2/0 Gamakatsu, and they saved my bacon earlier this year.