Bluebasser86

If you're fishing vegetation, braid is the way to go regardless of clarity.

Zoom makes a trick worm with a chartreuse tail in a couple different main colors.

None that I've ever fished have required more than that but biggest I've fished is the BASS weekend series back when they still had that.

It's Casey's breakfast pizza around here. It's not even fair how good that stuff is and how bad it is for you. Doesn't help that I can walk to the nearest one.

Most tournament trails and bigger tournaments have websites that are going to list their minimum requirements. I'd also take into consideration that most larger tournaments are held on bigger bodies of water that can get too rough for a smaller boat to fish effectively.

Agreed, Owner is where it's at for replacement trebles. I prefer their conical points to their cutting points, the ST36s specifically. I don't like Rapala baits at all either, not because of their hooks though. The VMC Spark Point is an excellent hook very similar to the hook shown. I use the 4X strong Spark Points on some of my smaller swimbaits. Eagle Claw is another that has made leaps and bounds in improving their hooks. Once a hook brand that I'd only use for panfish or catfish, now their one of my first options when I'm hook shopping. I haven't seen them anywhere else, but Wal Mart carries a Fletcher Shryock signature series EWG short shank treble that I've really become a big fan of. They also carry a Jason Christie signature series HD EWG worm hook that is the main worm hook in my box now. The Wal Mart by me has been sold out of 4/0 for months now since I cleaned them out last, but I just got a bulk order of 200 of them in this last week, so I should be good for a minute.

10-20 pound braid is what I run on my spinning reels. Even 20lb braid feels like overkill sometimes on a spinning reel to me.

I use it for a compact flipping bait. Durability isn't an issue unless it's hot out, but most plastics soften up when it's really hot out. I usually get 3-5 fish per bait. The nice thing is, they're probably the best bladed jig trailer out there for me. So when I use one up on a T rig, I save it, cut it down a little, then catch a bunch more fish using it as a trailer on a bladed jig or even a regular jig.

I made the same mistake with tungsten. Then I went and did it with Tatsu. I really thought I could convince myself that neither were any better than the cheaper options, but there's no way to convince myself of that after using both of them.

We had a guy hit one at WOT several years ago in a tournament. Thankfully it hit the front deck or TM or something to slow it down a touch before it hit him, but it still broke/fractured several ribs. They're nasty eating machines. Maybe not a big deal on lakes with really big shad populations since I'm sure those are easier to hunt and catch than a bass hiding in cover, but I still hate seeing the things when I'm on the water.

Make sure you don't set the hook until you feel the weight of the fish. I never use a trailer hook on my buzzbaits and I don't miss many of them since I started following that piece of advice.

If possible, get to a tackle store where you can hold as many as possible in hand and decide what feels best to you. Personally, I like Shimano, Pfluegar, and Okuma reels paired with St. Croix, H20, or Okuma rods.

They're an awesome reel. I've been using mine since March and can't hardly put it down when they're on a jig or plastics bite.

La Cygne bass are some of the toughest in the state to catch. They do seem to stay pretty shallow for a majority of the year despite the heat or cold. 10-15 feet is about as deep as I can catch them regularly, and that's never with cranks or C rigs, although I'm sure they'd probably eat one eventually.

7' MH/F with a 6-something retrieve with 15lb mono or copolymer is what I'd go with if I needed one to do it all. It's going to be pretty rough fishing some baits with it (frogs or anything in the grass), but it'll do about everything.

Weight, retrieve speed, price, and line capacity were my big factors last time. I wanted a drop shot reel so I needed something light, that was fairly fast, wasn't overly expensive because I don't DS often, and held a reasonable amount of line.

I can't fish cranks in the lakes I fish for smallmouth due to zebra mussels. My solution has been to fish a Kietech on a 1/4oz head with a slow, steady retrieve.

Welcome!

Welcome!

All my cloths shrunk when I got out of highschool. Bought all new cloths, but then those ones shrunk again when I got married and became a dad. They just don't make stuff like they used to I guess.

I've had higher end spinning reels from Shimano, Pfluegar, and Abu the last few years. No longer own the Abu reels, never had line twist as bad as they produced. Only 1 Shimano CI4 remaining, the rest are all Pfluegar. The Supreme XT is a superb reel and Pfluegar has been around longer than any of them for a reason.

Welcome!

Around here the smallies are much more likely to be out deep than the largemouth.

Last week it was a junebug Pit Boss on a 1/4oz candy purple homemade swing head. 2 weeks ago it was an 11" Redbug C Mac worm or solid black brush hog. My favorite is whatever the fish are eating that day.

VMC are quality hooks that are on a lot of different baits for their stock hooks (Rapala for example). I prefer to go to a #2 short shank EWG treble if possible on my 1.5 squarebills, but a #4 standard round bend is what comes stock on them so you should be fine. I change the hooks on all my SK baits right away. They're better than they used to be, but as you found out, they're still not that great.