dead end canal

Santone S3

I would bet a Damiki D-Lock would hold Elaztec as well

Wow, talk about flashbacks... my dad used to cast lead jigs very similar to this in the '60s for specks and reds.

When the baitfish school up, I find that it's very similar to fishing for redfish and speckled trout. Steal a saltwater technique and try a popping cork rig. You can cast the rig a long way(sidearm lob like a carolina rig) and a weightless fluke works well for me.

bigbill, you can't go wrong with anything done by Lefty Kreh. He supported his family during the Great Depression by catching smallmouths and selling them. He claimed that the fly rod was the most efficient tool for him. He and Bob Clouser(of Clouser Minnow fame) have a dvd on fly fishing for bass that's excellent, and he's also got a ton of books and articles on the web. Kreh's popper, called Lefty's Bug, is very easy to cast and has a high hookup rate. Has a non-cupped face, flat bottom, sparse tail and lots of hook clearance. In my experience, it's even better tied bendback-style. Here's one tied by lefty himself. He was also a big proponent of a deer hair Gerbubble Bug tied with marabou (and not hackle). It's also easy to cast but has a much larger presence in the water. Those marabou tendrils undulate with the microcurrents around the fly even when it's just sitting there, so it's an excellent choice when the bass aren't aggressively feeding on the surface.

That was just about the only way I could get a jack crevalle or a barracuda to chase a fly. Worked fine most of the time. But sometimes it just wasn't humanly possible to strip fast enough to satisfy them, and then it just got comical. Good point about the hookset, too. Pointing the rod at the fish and pulling the line tight until you feel the fish pull is the only dependable way I ever found to set the hook on those larger bass and saltwater flies. Almost forgot to mention: a Seaducer is a hell of a good fly for bass, too.

I'll second the keel-hooked bucktail streamer, and it doesn't even have to be bucktail. I used to make one with artificial hair (black with a thin topping of red, and mylar piping on the shank) that was always good. I'd swim it, drag it on the bottom...didn't seem to matter.

HA! Sounds like the Chauchat of hollow body frogs.

Has anyone tried that Sebile Pivot Frog?

Mais oui!

I've been known to throw one of these from time to time.

Yep, it should be fine. I used to make crab flies out of Aunt Sally's Rug Yarn. Google "merkin crab fly". Makes a big presentation without absorbing water.

Some moron released Rio Grande cichlids into a local bayou here. It outcompetes native species for habitat and bedding areas. When they move in, wildlife officials tend to see a decline in the reproductive success of native species like the sunfish. So when I catch them, I give as many as I can to a biologist at the University of New Orleans who's working to find a way to eradicate them. And if I can't get them to him, they become fertilizer. But I don't toss them at cars speeding down my street, no matter what anyone says.

Weed Demon is my WTD lure. Another one to check out is the Mister Twister Jerk Rat. It's sort of a soft plastic Silver Minnow.

Fin-tech also has a Title Shot spoon similar to what you did with the Johnson Silver Minnow. But I'm not too crazy about that Mustad Power Lock hook keeper they use.