Master Bait'r

I love tubes for so many reasons. Some great info in this thread!! Just so many rigging and action options, now with solid TRD tubes too, I absolutely love the sheer number of looks available with one soft bait.

Cat crap. No, really! Not actual poop... I use it on ski goggles and it's the best I've found. http://www.ems.com/cat-crap-anti-fog-lens-cleaner/20642300012.html?emssrcid=PPC%3AgooPLAs%3A149599585245custom3_1%26custom0accessories&adpos=1o3&creative=79843455285&device=m&matchtype=&network=g&gclid=CJTmmqPt084CFQgOaQodiUwPdw

I've found these to work quite well throughout the winter months.

I use the VMC epoxied eye hooks and yes they're done at the factory. Any other baits I've identified as having potential problems with the eyelet I just put a dab of clear nail polish on the crack. Done deal.

Watch your hook eyes. When I first started using Smackdown I was breaking off constantly- come to figure out the line is so darn thin it was actually getting caught in the tiny slit part of the hook eye where they mash/crimp the end closed and it was breaking it off. I switched to epoxied-eye hooks and it hasn't happened again since. Also watch line burn on Palomar type knots. The thinner the braid the easier it can burn pulling knots.

Yes also the Keitech spin jigs and the damikis too. Eco makes a sick one too but any of those 1/8 or less jigs work great w trds.

Its a ~10 acre pond. Newly private thanks to a few downed trees. Tons of cover and maxes out around 20-25 feet or so. Pocket frogs and the smaller jawbone frogs seem to match up well for swaps. Also skirt legs get hit more for whatever reason. I don't bother. The bigger hooks leave me wanting for nothing in terms of hookups and I feel like a bare hook is asking for problems. Also I generally am not trying to walk them either. One or two little splashy twitches and a few second pause seems to be the money train. Thats a great ff fish, nice work! Got any pics?

Saturday was a good day, but WOW... Today blew it out of the water! I got stuck with a late material delivery, so rather than sit around and watch paint dry I shot out and caught some water time. Got this guy right off the bat. Healthy, perfectly round dark sider that made almost no noise at all taking the frog under. Then I battled some wicked wind gusts for about 45 mins before retreating to a wooded cove and regrouping from a direction I could work the wind. 10 or so later I got around to a point with a loosely padded mini-peninsula outcropping and casted to the pads behind it, working the frog across the open water to the tip of the point. As it neared the greenery, a huge wake kicked up behind it and in the waves and pads I couldn't see it anymore... I just watched for a second and when I saw the line move I cracked the whip into it and started reeling like heck. I got him to shoot out of the pads instead of into them and although he took the boat and my drag for a few strolls into deeper water I was able to net him relatively quickly. Definitely my biggest fish of the year and knocking on the door of my PB. Head and body like a cinder block! Had a good afternoon from there too, as shown by the smattering of dinks below. The finesse frog has been untouchable lately. Also a few I didn't take pics of. Anybody else crushing hopes and dreams with these little customs or is it just me??

You are not wrong! These are about working the very fringe edge of the weeds with minimal entry noise (sounds like a bluegill smooching the surface instead of a big splash) and a profile that is SUPER easy to say yes to as well as fully inhale... The more exposed hooks translate to great hookups even with the rod you'll need to cast a tiny frog well. I am usually trying to cast directly on the last fat pad before open water if it's heavy and concentrating on the first 2ft of open water, or working through sparse or light pads etc. I use this technique in conjunction with a heavy combo and a normal 1/2oz or so frog for actual heavy cover and deeper back into pads, not as a replacement for it.

Until you hooked a big 'un and you're going for a swim with your battery and running motor, that is. It's one of those things that works... Until it doesn't. I did mean to say I've seen a 4x8 skid with a bunch of milk jugs that were wrapped in duct tape somehow secured underneath it. The guy was moving slow as molasses but he was floating and fishing with a full deck and he couldn't have spent more than $30- most of that being duct tape. If he had a bow mount TM and a seat he might really be onto something!

Whoa! That is incredible!! Congrats for spending a whole day rubbing elbows with The Man himself!

I can't even imagine the rigs that show up with money like that on the line!

Been doing pretty darn good with the ff's lately but I snuck out after a massive thunderstorm today before I went stir crazy and had a KILLER afternoon. Nailed this fatty within the first 5 minutes. and about a half dozen decent smaller guys after that also saw a fox a heron ... and a beautiful sunset. Cheers!

It's true! Doesn't make nice stuff any less awesome though I'd pick a bigger favorite and go knocking. Put together a good resumeé and be as politely enthusiastic as you can. Show them what you did with what you had and see where you can take it!

Only you can really know how dissatisfied you are with your boat. If if its something that can be mitigated with a simple seat purchase you're looking pretty good. Also, it seems as though no fishing kayak tracks really well. They're big wide slow boats with a ton of drag for the most part, and you're better off just getting a hand paddle and calling it a day. The next boat will do it too, guaranteed. I'd get used to it, dial your Ride and wait until something came along that is head and shoulders ahead of what you have now rather than an incremental jump in function or form. Just my .02 though

I was only talking about braid tbh, and even then I was sort of joking. I am just in love with Seaguar braids after trying all sorts of brands. Even more so now that they've come down in price! Suuuuuuuuper thin and smooth. Haven't found anything else that comes close.

This is literally THE reason I stopped using Tatsu for CXX. I do not like line stretch. It's amazingly supple and user friendly, but the stretch killed me. Same for Yo-Zuri Hybrid. I'll definitely be waiting to hear how stretchy it is before buying... But I'm definitely interested!

I fish a lot of weedy ponds because I LOVE fishing cover. I usually avoid a weight on my t-rigged plastics in shallower weedy areas so that it is able to be more gently worked through the pads, grass etc. and also spends a little more time fluttering down through the open water pockets. When it hits bottom weeds that lower weight also helps it not get too hung up when you raise it out again. Nothing is 100% weedless but it certainly helps.

If Seaguar doesn't make it, it isn't the best

My favorite part of the story is that he had all kinds of mishaps and didn't even get out on the water until 1:30pm. Just goes to show ya- don't give up, and always just go anyways!

Yeah man. I heard it too. I heard just outside Indianapolis there's a Grand Master Sensei bass who will declare you an infinity-level black belt of fishing and then you just karate chop the water and they all swim up to the boat- you just choose. Or it could just be a wives' tale that guys from Indiana tell themselves to feel better about being in Indana

Dude you got LUCKY!

I honestly don't understand where the logic stops or where peoples' confusion with this line/environment paradigm starts. Who doesn't already use clear lines for clear water?? I mean come on guys. Same logic. Apply it to other stuff and it still works. Lots of plant matter on the bottom = black. Light opaque green stands out way more than black braid would. This is not rocket science. The confusion around how that works is what actually confuses me haha

T-1000 does have a nice ring to it haha

*GASP!!!* I would NEVER!