David D.

I have never in my life seen a fish of any kind 'peek' out of the water. They tend to wait below and watch for their chance to get a meal. I'm thinking you were seeing some frogs trying to get dinner.

You sure it was a fish and not a bullfrog? Bullfrogs will attack other frogs, and they scope out an area by peeking out above the water.

Because the twist lock holds the plastic on better and keeps intact through more strikes in my experience with it compared to EWG hooks. I use the weight because it keeps the bait lower in the water column so I can use a slightly faster retrieve without having the fluke riding the surface of the water. Does it affect the performance? Not the Swim'n Caffeine Shads that I fish. The bass still hit them well and the tail action looks good to me.

I pretty much only use the weighted twist lock hooks with flukes

No, the OP thought it was a bad idea... Listen to your friend; use a craw trailer.

I would get 3/8 oz because I mainly fish shallower ponds and I don't want the fall rate to be so fast that the fish don't see any action on the fall.

Here's Siebert's starter pack for you. Go with the 3/8 or 1/2 oz. http://www.siebertoutdoors.com/Dredge-Jig-Pack-100.htm

Thick stuff to me means H/XF with 65 lb braid and a hollow body frog. Vary the retrieve until the fish tell you what they want. What type of frog are you fishing with?

Realistic, hard plastic lures. Flukes and such will catch any size bass regularly.

When the fish aren't biting anything else, I can most always get something to go for a drop shot.

Except that is not how all synthetic clothing cools. There are many fabrics out there and various add-ins to fabrics that work differently than others. Some of my Columbia stuff feels the exact same as my cheap "performance" shirts because they are both made of the same materials. But there are a couple that use a different cooling method that certainly works better.

I primarily use Columbia Omni-freeze Zero for coolness and omni-shade for UV protection. I tend to catch it when it is on sale and it isn't too expensive at all. Don't think that long sleeve shirts and pants are hot to wear; I am actually cooler in my fishing clothing than if I were to wear shorts and a regular T-shirt. Less skin exposed to the sun keeps you cooler. The Omni-freeze zero actually uses your own sweat to cool the shirt down considerably; I think I read that it gets like 10 degrees cooler than other "performance" attire - and I believe it.

Heck, I would be happy catching a single 8 lb fish in a 6 hour outing right now. If I caught several then it would be the best day of fishing ever for me.

There are about 200 choices that fit that criteria. Care to add any other personal preferences to narrow it down further?

Treble hooks don't need a very hard hook set. You probably yanked it out of the fish's mouth.

I buy their 25 packs of hooks and have not had any problems yet. Sharp, durable, and they hold fish well. I couldn't ask for much else out of them. I also use their crankbaits (lipped and lipless), jerk baits, and topwater frogs successfully. Heck, I even have one of their rods that has really surprised me with its quality.

In my local, algae-infested pond it is the only way that I can get the worm to the bottom. It still catches plenty of fish for me.

http://g2gemini.com/fishing/ http://www.rayjus.com/

It looks like the top right jig has a new Rage Tail Bug trailer, and the other 3 look to be Rage Tail Craws.

I actually use quite a few H2O Xpress lures. They may be cheap, but they certainly work well for me.

T-rigged worm, craw or creature bait.

KVD 1.5 flat side in blue gill

I use the brown colored one (not sure of the exact name). It works well, just bend the hooks out a little to help your hook-up ratio.

Pretty much anything Rage Tail... I just have confidence with them and they never seem to fail catching fish.

Big worms. Like, 10" Zoom Ol' Monsters. Generally, bigger baits aren't as likely to catch smaller fish.