RoLo

If your goal is minimal "line-stretch", there's nothing to prevent you from spooling up with braided line, then attaching the copolymer leader of your choice. Roger

Remove the window-dressing and you'll find that a "jig" is just a weighted hook. I can't think of any time or place where it would be wrong to fish a weighted hook. Roger

Muddy, Oh yeah, the bow-and-arrow caper works good for certain situations. However, cattails are very different from Bulrushes (tules). The foliage of cattails consists of flat blades of grass, like sawgrass or flags, topped off with punks (cattails). An angler with braided line can usually rip through the lance-shaped blades of cattail pretty easily. On the other hand, bulrushes are solid canes with a rounded or triangular cross-section, which is why their slang name is "buggy whips". The canes are lined with a nasty celluloid pith, and about half the time you snag a stalk, you'll have to lead your boat right alongside the offending cane, then run your hand down the cane until you can feel your lure underwater. The consolation to this nuisance is knowing that very few anglers will put up with this, so it's a good place to find hefty bass. Roger

As Raul pointed out, there are few situations in fishing where Muscle is so constantly needed. If I'm fishing in the rushes the way I'm supposed to be, I get in trouble about every 5 minutes. Even with 40-lb braid, you lean back on a snagged cane until your rod is near the breaking point, but instead of freeing the lure, you're slowly winching the boat over to the hooked stalk...again, and again, and again! Roger

5-pack: *** 28-pack: Bass Pro Shops Roger

WOW, nice going Matt 5.0 !!!!

Light Ripple: Chug Bug <> Strike Pro Gobi Light Chop: Magnum Pop-R In Weeds: Sizmic Pop'N Toad (weedless soft-plastic) Roger

Yes, by all means. Bass and crappies can be caught far behind the bulrush weed-line, and when their feeding, bass can be heard busting several yards back into the canebrake. This is especially true where there are boat lanes for bass to follow. The stalks of bulrushes consist of very strong cellulose fibers. When you stick a tule beyond the hook-barb, it usually means a trip into the canebreak to find the impaled stalk, so the lure can be yanked out by hand > Roger

Those are California Bulrushes (Scirpus californicus), alias "tules". Rolo is this type of Bulrush just in California? Not at all, in fact California bulrush is less than 1/4 mile from where I'm sitting right now (Lake Walk-In-Water, Florida). The common name is "Giant Bulrush" (and of course, Tules) and I'll bet you know that bulrushes are -dynamite- bass attractors Roger

I was never much good with the Banjo Minnow, I only know one song ;D

Those are California Bulrushes (Scirpus californicus), alias "tules".

"Tules" (not tulies) is synonymous to "Bulrushes" (cattails and reeds are sometimes included). The root word "Tule", I believe is Spanish. Roger

As much as I love the rat-l-trap, it's a "tight-wiggling sinker", which are best suited for open water or weeds (grass plug). Around wood & rocks I think you'd be much better off using a "wide-wobbling floater" like a Bandit series 100. The wider footprint will create more wood-contact (what you want), the square-cornered lip should get through the timber better than a rat-l-trap, and unlike the sinking rat-l-trap, every time you halt your retrieve the Bandit will float upward Roger

As Ghoti said, "Don't leave home without them" The fluke is one of the greatest soft plastics since the rubber worm. It's tough to say which delivery or which color works the best, because they all seem to work very well. One thing I can comfortably recommend is the most effective hook size. In my experience, the 4/0 heavy-wire hook is the perfect hook for a 5" super fluke, and three reasons come to mind: 1) Granted, the best descent-rate will vary from day-to-day, but on average, the fall-rate from a heavy-wire 4/0 hook offers the best compromise. A 3/0 heavy-wire hook has a slightly slower fall-rate, but I really haven't noticed that it triggers any more strikes. What is noticeable though, is the slower lure coverage that you get using a 3/0 hook. For most situations, the 5/0 heavy-wire hook falls a tad too fast for my liking, whereas the 4/0 hook seems just right for most situations. 2) On a 4/0 hook, the distance between the offset-shank and the bend-of-the-hook is on the center-of-gravity for a well-balanced minnow. For this same reason, the 5" super fluke with a 4/0 heavy-wire hook seems to offer the best zigzag action and most seductive sliding. In fact, if I were a bass I wouldn't last 15 seconds near a well-manipulated fluke! 3) As a bonus, the 4/0 hook provides a better hookup ratio than a 3/0 hook. COLORS Geez, I've tried every color available a few hundred times. It would seem to me, that if bass are presently whacking the fluke, they'll whack whatever color you happen to have tied on. On several occasions, I've intentionally changed the color after every couple of bass, but was never able to see any clear-cut preference. Ignoring my own advice I do have a favorite fluke color. Today I use "Albino" about 90% of the time (my previous favorite was White Ice). I like albino because it's a natural color and also because it's not highly visible but is translucent and difficult to see. In my view, topwater lures trigger more strikes when they're difficult for bass to see well. Other than albino, I might switch to "Bubblegum" if I'm having difficulty seeing the fluke, but that's about it. When albino isn't working, the fluke isn't working. Roger

The only time I'm concerned with the position of the sun is when I'm looking for submergent weed beds or when I'm spying for bass on a shallow flat (drive-by). During the night, I don't care which direction the sun is shining Roger

Dom I found the link below, it shows the original stickbaits that you and I remember. They were mostly walking lures but propbaits like the devil's horse were sometimes included too http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.achigan.net/images/materiel/uploads/HEDDON-ZaraSpook.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.achigan.net/materiel/3-leurres-type-Stickbait.html&h=102&w=220&sz=3&hl=en&start=14&um=1&tbnid=qL73BnbfrsuGrM:&tbnh=50&tbnw=107&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dstickbait%2Bspook%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff Roger

Nah, that used to be called a "Twitchbait" (how soon they forget) ;D

Actually, a senko is a stick "worm", not a "stickbait". It used to be, when anglers spoke of a "stickbait" (one word), they were referring to a "plug" with no action of its own, like a Zara Spook. But I realize that the meaning has gotten convoluted over time. http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.achigan.net/images/materiel/uploads/HEDDON-ZaraSpook.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.achigan.net/materiel/3-leurres-type-Stickbait.html&h=102&w=220&sz=3&hl=en&start=14&um=1&tbnid=qL73BnbfrsuGrM:&tbnh=50&tbnw=107&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dstickbait%2Bspook%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff Roger

You bet, an unweighted freefall makes a great pitching tool. Since I pitch with spinning tackle, weight is never an issue. I usually start-out looking for active bass with a 1/4 or 1/2 oz Sled-Head Jig. But I'll often wind-up pitching an unweighted plastic like a fluke, stick worm or ugly otter. However, when pitching a stick worm into bulrushes, I prefer Tiki Sticks to Senkos, because they don't fall apart as readily and hide the hook-point from the bulrush canes a little better. Roger

There is a big difference bt the Power Pro and Suffix Performance. The Suffix Performance has 6 strings and the PP has 4. I'm well aware of that, which probably explains why sufix is stiffer than PowerPro (fluorocarbon is only one strand). Roger

I can't top that 8-)

The tackle dealers will go wherever we anglers lead them, but they're often guilty of not paying attention. Zoom claims that their Trick Worm floats, but mine sink. Strike King calls the Z-Too minnow a slow sinker, but mine float! In the main, soft-plastic topwaters with a "solid" body are referred to as "toads", while soft-plastic topwaters with a "hollow" body are normally referred to as "frogs" (regardless of the distributor's handle). With regard to hookup ratio, provided all things are equal (angler, rod, line ~), I've found that the toads tend to hookup better than the frogs, but both are a BLAST! Roger

Not that long ago, "Mosquito Lagoon" out of Oak Hill, Florida was deemed the best red drum fishing in the world, followed by Charlotte Harbor. That was for numbers of course, because the largest red drum are taken from the ocean off the Carolinas (100-pound neighborhood). In the recent past however, Louisiana seems to have bypassed Florida with respect to numbers of drum, but I've never fished in Louisiana. Roger

I fish mostly with spinning tackle, and just recently I compared PowerPro braid with Sufix braid. It seems that any difference between these lines is largely illusory, but I did notice one thing. The Sufix is slightly more wiry than the PowerPro, but lack-of-memory is what I love most about spinning with braid. So for me, that was the tie-breaker that keeps me in the PowerPro camp. Roger

It's in Frostproof, it's the second largest lake in Polk Co. (~5,000 acres), Lake Walk-In-Water being the largest. Roger