matuka

I'm no big fan of Mr. Biffle, but I sure like his bug. I flip it mostly. I tried it on the swinging heads but it didn't work out well for me.

good: spoons, lipless cranks bad: 1/4 oz spinnerbaits into the wind, especially with a trailer

If I had one of those I'd probably have to take up golf.

Docks and grasslines. Don't have pads where I fish but it looks fun.

I'll take a little stab at this, though it's not quite high level physics that I am trying to convey, (no can do). First off, we all are going to lose fish from hooks shaking loose, single hooks, jigs and all of our favorite treble hooks. The way I have pondered this to sooth my nerves after dumping a fish is with treble hooks we often never get a good hook set anyway. If a bass swallows say, a squarebill, there are potentially six points to pierce the flesh on the inside of the fishes mouth. Then it needs to penetrate into more secure cartilage or bone past the barb. If three or four hook points connect simultaneously, then the force needed to get these four hooks to penetrate quadruples, I would think. With stretchy line and a softer cranking rod that produces a lever arm of say, 2/3 thirds it's length, I'm not confident we can apply all that force. Now if one hook sticks solid, that crank has no more room to advance and penetrate subsequent hook points. Some may stick in the mucosal layer in the mouth, but penetrate further? I'm not too sure. You are left to fight with one small hook. I don't recall ever unhooking a treble that forced it's way all the way thru the bone like a jig hook would in the top of the mouth, (not the thinner lip or the membrane connecting the two). There are a host of Delta fisherman here who subscribe to the braid and flipping stick mode of cranking. There point is more power for hooksetting into hard mouth parts of big bass and the leverage to haul them in. Dee Thomas says we put to much concern in how well a rod casts a particular bait, not how well it can another site. He adds "I'll throw it out there by hand if I have to". Well all this is for a swallowed bait. When part or all of the bait is hanging out of the mouth obviously you have more problems. Sometimes I wonder if we should strive to have two points in the somewhat tough lip and one more point from the back hook stuck on the outside of his head! Okay, I'm no physicist or engineer and I've gotten tangential and my fingers are tired. Hope someone else picks up where I exit.

Ok, so I will chime in. And I have to guess the importance here is whether that relative force of that wave created by the displacement is a good or bad thing to the bass,at that moment. I suppose only the bass knows.

Although those aren't my usual suspects, you might want to test them in a pool or pond where you can track it on a quick retrieve anyway.

In "Ghost", Demi Moore asks Patrick Swayze why he kept an ugly chair when they moved to a new apartment. Moore: "it doesn't go with anything!" Swayze: (sitting in the offensive chair) "it goes with me"

This is Great! Physics! I'm afraid physics too often made me wanna puke back at the U, (ie intra abdominal pressure producing force greater than contractile force of the esophageal sphincter resulting in ...see, you did it again). I enjoyed the subject, but have bad memories. I too will follow. Reels and rods you closet geeks! Let me have it! luv that stuff ! BTW I too have read bout physics and baseball.

Hey Fisher, nobody has asked you what lure you are throwing. There are a lot of my soft plastics which will spin if reeled in just a bit too fast. Leaches, and reapers come to mind. Almost anything you dropshot has the same tendency. It may have nothing to do with your equipment either way. And just my $.02, 8lb fluoro is my absolute max I'd use on a spinning reel.

Don't give up on the floater! As the designer himself said about all baits, "they all work.....at some time". I have had decent success with these by chucking them into dark spots in cover, tules mostly. Let it sit there, maybe a bit of a twitch, and let them stare at it a bit. Then slowly reel it in and expect the hit then or as it passes cover. There are vids on the BBZ website as well. As wakers go, most would not consider the 4 incher even a large bait. Siemantel designed it to be more like a big crankbait

Unfortunately too long.......

Do you have any idea if the Pierce family is going to be involved at all?

I don't have the link, but Andy "Cooch" Cuccia did a video for his website of power shotting on my favorite fishing hole. He wasn't punching mats with it though. He does have a vid on punching the mats as well, and it will give you an idea of the thickness of the stuff I'm talking about.

I do have them and I use them for other flipping purposes. But yes, the unwelded eye is potentially an issue for punching. As it is, since these have a vertical orientation of the eye, threading the line back thru the eye turns the bait sideways. I like the split ring idea. Owner Hypers are beastly strong for their size. I'll try it out, but I think I'm going to glue the rings shut too.

Main tank holds 32 gallons. Two more side mounted tanks in the bilge hold, ten each. Or is it fifteen? These days I prefer to keep these empty. When full, they make the boat drag the backend too much. When I used to fish tournaments I could easily use the the bulk of the main tank.

Very close, but I'm thinking of beyond bubba shotting. We are all doing that here and it does work great. But I am thinking of giving the fish under the mats beyond the edges a different option. The mats are real thick at times depending on which plant you're punching, tides, etc. I'm using my regular punching gear, and at least a one ounce weight. I can create the hole for the weight to go thru, but more often than I like, the bait hangs up on the mat, or worse, the bait gets pulled down the hook shank wasting the presentation. I have tried screwlock hooks with variable success, but I don't know if anyone makes a bad--- punching strength hook with a screwlock. I really would like to get a ten inch power worm under there efficiently. I'll continue tinkering and keep you posted.

I'm staying clear of the banter, but I can honestly say that the rods I'm buying now perform better for me than the high end stuff I bought 15 to 20 years ago. And I'm paying much less now. We have so many more brands to choose from the manufacturers could no longer ignore the middle of the road guys. And durability has been taken into account, I've broken a lot of them LOL!

I think we have all seen the pros displaying their tackle boxes on you tube, and they have ALL KINDS of colors in hard baits. They're still pretty basic, but they know how to make a difference with color changes. (Wish I could say the same for me). So I would have to agree, in the right hands, it may be important.

I'm curious to see if a fish can delineate those individual minnows when it is wobbling all over the place.

I guess I'm just lucky too. I've heard of others having problems but mine have held up, except for the hooks.

Over the years I've done all kinds of dropshotting, but I haven't come up with a satisfactory way of really beefing it up for punching the mats. Any help?

I'm another in favor of the D&M originals. For a "finessy" approach I've beenusing the Z Man, but I'm trying out the SK rage blade. I see a lot of folks like the revenge bait. I have'em but I seem to hang the blade on the long wire too frequently. Has anybody figured a quick fix for this?

I use the older Lami Big Bait special for all eight inchers though my shoulder doesn't allow this much these days. Dobyn's Mike Long SB for six inch solids that I mostly just slow grind. Both have long handles. Some hate em, I like em. I have a Mag Topwater Dobyn's that I really like! Any swimbait that needs a bit of twitching, pulling, popping etc gets this rod. Almost all of my hollow bellies are thrown on an old Heavy action 7ft Loomis IMX, circa another century. Many get away with a flipping stick for big baits, I hated it. There you have it, but there are a lot of then out there. I'm interested in the I Rod series as well.

Agree with all of the above, really. I'm finding myself going lighter these days if I can get away with it for the particular weight of the rig. 17lb to 25 lb mono leaders on 50lb braid.