iceintheveins

I fish mostly 1/4 and 3/8 ounce jigs because it seems bass usually want a slow fall. But I always carry 1/2 ounce jigs too because sometimes they do want a fast fall, or when it's really windy or I'm stroking it in deep water. Heavy jigs also go through weed cover better.

I trim about 3/4 an inch off the legs so it will walk better. With frogs that take on water I will drill a small hole in the butt of the frog with a 1/8 or 3/16 drill bit. Works great.

My favorite is the pepper hawg spinnerbait from pepperjigs.com. Terminators used to be my favorite but the quality has gone down, especially for the double willows, as the smaller front blade often won't even spin. I also love Nichols spinnerbaits, as they make custom lures for you. Plan on trying some war eagle and revenge, and hoping Northstar comes back strong soon. But pepper hawgs and nichols are the best companies that make custom ones IMO.

How's the largemouth fishery in Lake Washington?

Now that looks awesome.

The rage craws bar none. Like the zoom super speed and ultra vibe speed craws though too.

I use mono and a fluoro leader, because with jigs and all plastics I am a line watcher and I like some visibility.

Bingo. I love softer action rods for all treble hook baits and even spinnerbaits and buzzbaits.

Totally awesome reels for sure, my Curado 200e5 is a rockin' reel.

Try a big black spinnerbait with a single black colorado blade, like is popular for night fishing. In five feet of water I like to use the lightest bait I can, but 1/2 ounce or bigger would probably be best since you need that bigger profile in the muddy water.

I haven't used the bronze eye shad yet. The pad crasher is a very good frog and walks perhaps better than most. That being said, the regular spro frog does walk well and is a bit more durable than the pad crasher. I do like the fact that the pad crasher has a drain on it, so it doesn't retain water like the spro. My favorite frog is the koppers though. Walks great, durable, and has a high hookup rate. The koppers, spro bronze eye, and pad crasher are my top three frogs. It just takes practice to get real good at walking a frog. But keep at it and it won't take long. If I can do it anyone can.

They are a must have to adjust suspending lures. You need quite a few to make a floating lure sink or suspend though. But I prefer them over putting on bigger hooks and extra split rings.

I like the BPS crankin sticks they are great for the price. Good sensitivity too.

X2

I have over a dozen of each, usually I carry 2 spinning outfits and five casting.

I like to fish them pretty slowly on lighter line. Don't be afraid to scale down to 8 pound test and spinning gear to coax a bite from them. I let them sink to the desired depth, then give them a short, sharp twitch or two, with long pauses. Most hits come on the pause and will manifest as your line moving away.

That kit has some good plastics in it for sure. The lizards and worms are all quality.

Use a glass or a composite rod for crankbaits always. There are too many I like to list. Shad raps, dts, bombers, bandits, strike kings, and the list goes on. The main thing to do is group your cranks by how deep they run, and get plenty of cranks in shallow, medium, and deep diving. For colors, use ones that most closely match local forage in clear water, and brighter colors like fire tiger, red craw, and chartreuse in heavily stained or murky water.

Good general rules of thumb. Most of our waters don't have shad, so I use spinnerbaits with one gold and one silver blade usually. Golden shiner, chartreuse shad, white, and chartreuse white seem to be the best bet for me for skirt colors. I like black in murkier water as well.

Swim jigs seem to work great when conditions are too calm for a good spinnerbait bite, but they work any time.

My four favorite trailers are a zoom swimmin' chunk, Mr. Twister Split double tail, Missile Baits Twin turbo and a LFT Live Boot Tail Magic shad. I try as best as I can to match the colors as well.

Awesome lure, especially at night. However over heavy vegetation on the surface, the rage shad gets the call for me.

The guys are right on the money here. Minimum of 50 pound braid, at least a 6.3:1 reel (7.1:1 is better), and a heavy action graphite rod.

Lizard when fish are active, smaller ringworm, finesse worm, or centipede when they are turned off. Had good success on a mojo rig last year with the centipede when it was hot in the middle of the summer.