RB 77

The hooks on the WP are some of the stickiest sharp I have ever used. Durable too. I have only ever changed out the older ones that were a much thinner gauge. The new ones are beefy on the larger Ploppers. Cant speak for the MB PM, haven't used one. would like to some day though...

Yup. Always have a 4.5" plastic worm ready to go. Has saved the day on a D-Shot rig with light line many a times...

Plastic worm. Initial start up cost is very affordable. They are proven fish catchers. You can often times catch multiple fish on the same worm before its too worn to use anymore. Can be rigged weedless to help prevent loss due to snags. Spinnerbait would be another good one. One can get several dozen catches before the bait becomes too bent to be serviceable or losing one to a snag.

That's saying a lot since she's from some of the warmest weather in the country!

I honestly don't know how you do it. My hats off to you for your perseverance. That just sounds flat out insane to me! I was born and raised in Southern California and have lived two blocks or closer to the beach for the last two decades and couldn't even fathom this. Yes, we do pay a "weather tax" and gas is $4+ a gallon, but good grief that sounds crazy indeed. If it dips into the low 60's out here people start to pipe up and layer up... Back on topic, biggest hit, hopefully still to come as I finally talked Pops in to a Picachos/ El Slato combo trip coming up here in a few weeks. Hope to end the year with a bang! Hopefully Santa shows up early and masquerades as our guide and puts us on some fish. Biggest miss is not spending more time on the water. Seems to be the case every year. Same resolution as always it seems, spend more time on the water. Here's hoping to that coming true...

Well, all depths, but that style of color is more of a clear water color for me more than anything.

Pops and I use the Bass Pro manual/ auto inflate ones. Fortunately for Pops, he has never had to "use" his. Myself on the other hand, well lets just say those things work like a charm. Glad to know they work great. Not so glad I got to be the test pilot. That style really is the way to go. I hardly even notice I'm wearing one at all.

Yeah, I listed two of them earlier this year as a package deal on a local site, as I use my Calcutta's primarily for bigger reel needs and cherish all my 200 and 50 size E's. Everyone wanted me to split them and then when I was just about to, I thought better of it and decided to keep them both. I'm so glad I did! The E series just have that mojo.

Inline spinner if they want to cast, drop shot otherwise.

Like mentioned already, its all about having the drag set correctly and using the rod to correctly fight the fish. A smooth, correctly set drag is a must, usually 1/4 to 1/3 the breaking strength of the pound test. The lighter the line, the more I lean towards the lighter setting. Using the rod to help move and guide the fish away from potential structure and cover and into open water is crucial.

Mine is pretty simple, its 7' MH/ F Shimano Crucial Worm Rod, full cork. Not the fanciest rod by any means, but it just fits my style of worm fishing so perfect. It just has that "mojo" for me. I would probably have to take a knee for a moment if I ever broke that thing.

I absolutely love this! Haha

50-65 lb braid. Always.

Cork fore-grip. Always. While we're at it, full cork handle as well.

1 Big Bass can be caught on light line and at times it is often a prerequisite to even get bit in the first place. If most angles had their druthers, all their big Bass would be hooked on heavier line to give them the best chance possible of landing the fish. However, getting them to bite in the first place is always the first step in landing a big fish. I subscribe to the school of fishing as heavy pound of test that the fish will bite. DVL can be crystal clear at times with 20+ foot of visibility and these are the times when light line rules the roost.

There is some pretty good advice in this thread already. While not always required, it can quite often be required to use more finesse presentations to catch fish in the incredibly small, highly pressured reservoirs in this area of the country. This could mean 10 lb test with a T-Rig. It could mean 5 lb test with a drop shot. Spent many a day at Diamond Valley Lake (a reservoir recommend earlier in this thread) drop shotting 5-6 test in 40+ foot of water for bites. It was either that or make an almost 200 mile round trip road trip from San Diego with nothing to show for it. Good luck and tight lines.

This. For example, at the largest reservoir in So. Cal. the ramp is over 800 feet long. No, that is not a typo.

That could of ended a lot worse than it did for those people. When I saw ol' boy get ejected from the boat I cringed. When I saw him hanging on to the bow of the boat, I cringed a little more. Glad to see the surfers paddled over to come help those guys out.

Bottom line is thieves suck. Don't feel too bad, it happens to a lot of people. I once had some one steal a couple BUNGEE CORDS out of the back of my truck. Now that's some petty crap. It's something we all have to deal with on a constant basis with leaving our trucks and trailers behind while we are our fishing often remote locations. I have all but given up hiking in to remote locales now because of this. Even if they don't steal my truck or anything out of it, I now have a $500 broken window to replace. Screw thieves!

Agreed. These are my top-five HOF style of lures.

This. I can't stand hot, windless days.

I taught my self how to maintenance, repair and tune reels several years ago and it has proven to be an invaluable skill that has paid for itself many instances over. I also build and repair my own rods along with injecting my own plastics as well.

I'm not a fan of "cutting" point hooks at all. IMO, they "cut" too big of a hole in the mouth of the fish. I use needle point 100% of the time.

Those are some TANKS you two caught! That last one your wife is holding... HOLY COW!

Well, I had a very "unique" experience there in December last year (that's a whole other can of worms), but the one thing I absolutely slayed them them on headed down a main lake ledge one day was a jerkbait. LC Pointer 100 in Ghost Minnow (might have been Orange Sexy Ghost Minnow). Fast rips with moderate pauses. A lot of time they would just crush it on the pause. A few times if I even got it close enough back to the boat with out them eating it first, they would track it on the "rips" and turn off last second and then just explode on it on the pause. This is one bait (aside from soft plastics) I would NEVER go down there with out. Fished that thing until my wrist hurt.