TorqueConverter

Terminator Titanium. The titanium wire is a "memory metal" meaning that it doesn't get all bent out of shape and instead snaps back into its original shape. Pricy but really resilient baits.

Yep. Braid rocks.

There were three depth ranges. A shallow, medium and mag diver. I think it's like a DT6, DT10 and DT14 range.

The walker is junk. The BPS Slim Dog on the other hand...

Braid doesn't want to go onto or come off of the spool once it becomes too soft and this can casue the line to tangle as it comes off the spool causing backlashes. I'd cut soem line off to get into some fresh stuff to see if the problem goes away. You aren't using PP Super 8 Slick are you?

Nope. "squarebills" are just shallow cranks and good cranks can pull water and get clobbered by fish.

It depends in the type of bait but baits will little to no built in action will benefit from an ultra soft plastic where as a bait with a lot of built in action will not. The durability argument is not just a matter of how soft a bait is but how elastic it is too. A bait that wants to stretch before it tears is going to be more durable than one that does not.

I love the Iowa climate. I could deal with one less month of winter, but I need those seasonal changes. You can fish year round in Iowa too. I hear it has something to do with drilling a hole in the ice. I dunno.

I wouldn't get too caught up in the reviews. The reel is a rebadged Doyo but so is a Lews and just about everybody else bar Daiwa and Shimano. I'm sure it's nice but I'd rather get two Tatulas for $200 or one of those *** reels.

Super 8 Slick looses it's roundness much more quickly than 832 and becomes too soft too quickly. I've found that 832 just ages better than Super 8 Slick making 832 the clear winner in my book. There may not be much of a difference at the higher pound tests but at #30 832 outshines S8S IMO.

I'll take beautiful summer water temps and fall turnovers over freakishly hot summer water temps any day of the week.

Big fish that eat little fish, eat Shad Raps.

If you're wacky rigging the baits, then their are wacky circle hooks you can use to prevent gut hooking. Beyond that. switch to baits without salt or pour your own and replace salt content (for weight) with sand. Unless I'm mistaken, the only taste buds a bass has are located in the backs of their throats, and are used to detect the presence of salt in whatever item they attempt to ingest. Tastes like sale = ingest Does not taste like salt = reject Salty stickbaits in their mouths too long = actually eating them.

I was being tongue in cheek because a swimbait is the best spinnerbait trailer out there by miles. It puts more bass in the boat but it REALLY drives pike, walleye and apparently 25-30 pound channel cats, wild,

On a M powered rod? I way go jr/puppy, or whatever they are called. The super spook is my fav but too heavy for a M. Check out Sammys, Slim Dogs, KVD stuff and Vixens too.

Muskies have hard mouths are are notoriously difficult to get hooks into and that when they even bother to open their mouths instead of just following and staring the heck out of it. My best hookup bait for muskies is the bonus fish I catch on shakey head Flappin Hogs. Go figure. Don't let muskies sway you one way or the other on the performance of a bass bait. Muskies are awesome so if you have a bait they want to put into their mouths, desperately try to make it so you can hookup. As others have said, try bigger sharper hooks, big braid and a powerful rod. You can try a flipping stick or a big swimbait rod out of your arsenal but if you have muskie willing to bite, go get yourself a muskie rod and some muskie topwaters. Man I wish my muskies ate bass topwaters instead of Flappin Hogs. I got like a hundred bucks in unused muskie topwaters that I would be throwing.

Terminator titanium and War Eagles.

I can't get my head around this: Most people think that it's OK to spend what amounts to a $1.00 a bite with soft baits, yet it's abhorrent that a similarly priced thin lipped, balsa wood crankbait, that could catch hundreds of fish, will eventually break. It's like people think crankbaits are supposed to be indestructible and soft baits are supposed to melt in your hands. What's even more mind boggling is that no one in their right mind should expect a thin billed balsa crank to be as durable as plastic crank yet they should expect soft baits with a lot of built in action by design, to be made from a stiffer material than baits will little to no built in action. Why is everything bassackwards? Is it an emotional decision, because it sure as heck isn't based in any logic? Do people just go "crankbaits are expensive so they should last forever but soft baits are cheap so its ok that they don't last long."

Sammys are great but so are BPS Slim Dogs and they're a heck of a lot cheaper.

Whatever you do, never add a swimbait to a spinnerbait. Don't do it.

I wish I wasn't addicted to Flappin Hogs. ZERO durability.

Walking the frog is a learning experience. Here's a couple things I've picked up: Not all frogs will walk and the one that do require a bit of trimming on the skirt legs to reduce drag. Sometimes adding a split ring to the bait can help it to break into that beautiful wide glide walk. If your rod is a absolute broom handle then it has a tenancy to yank at the frog rather than pull at it, making walking the frog very difficult. You'd be amazed how a a rod with some give in the tip will make walking the bait easier.

Try a space monkey instead of a rage craw as a jig trailer. Its got all the action of business end of a rage craw and durability is fantastic. I've caught dozens of fish per bait.

Depends how slippery the braid is. I'll do up to 10 wraps on Power Pro Super 8 Slick and up to 15 on nanofill. I usually do more wraps on the braid end than the [insert translucent plastic fishing line] side for fear of knot failure with the plastic line. Braid loves unis but monos, not so much.

Hows the action on it? When you scale up a bait like that you can expect a loss of action, unless you tweak parts of the bait design to compensate. I wonder what they're tweaked on it. That one big crank and I thought the old Big Os were huge!