snake95

I used a MH ugly stik spinning combo with 65 lb braid. Agreed you can only chuck it so far and maintain good contact. I thought about buying a "Tile" or similar tag for lost items to insert inside the Deeper in case I lost the whole thing. It would be cool if you guys started a thread on using the Deeper in the electronics section. I'd love to hear more about who is using it and what they find it helpful for (but don't want to threadjack).

There are a lot of posts about the STX suspending bait out there... Has anyone used the floating version? I can't imagine going out of my way to replace Rapala floaters with these. I accidentally bought a box full of them from Ollies - thinking they were suspending baits. interested to hear if anyone has fished these.

Yeah, let everyone yuk it up. Looks like a good, simple idea. Seems like it would be less prone to swinging vs a non-pegged T-rig. Probably good for tossing at targets and having the bait follow that bombing dipsey down. Sure, it isn't new. We used this "rig" with a nightcrawler fishing for walleye up in northern Ontario in the '80's. I'm sure it's been done for bass once or twice. I get the rig overload feeling. However, why not give it a name? Simpler than "Unpegged T-rig with a dipsey sinker" or "Jika rig without a connection between the hook and sinker."

Mustad KVD snips. They die after about a year of use. But they've worked well.

I tied 10 lb braid to 8 lb flouro and to 8 lb YoZuri Hybrid several times yesterday. I had to break off several snags, and the hook connection knot always broke, never the line connection knot. Some thoughts: I don't try very hard to get the wraps nested right between each other. I feel like it should help, and I make a half-hearted attempt sometimes, but mostly I just wrap the mainline over itself and hope it slides into place. I don't believe it is super critical. I would say my approach (right or wrong), is: I make some effort trying to keep the braid wraps tight to the leader, as I wrap -- especially that bottom loop where you start coming back towards the mainline. (But not excessive/obsessive effort). I focus carefully on making sure the braid comes out exactly the same way it went into the first loop. I wet before I cinch. Ideally, with chapstick. But that's about 1% of the time. I primarily cinch down the braid. I believe the main goal is to get the braid to dig down tight and even into the leader to compress it at the scale of the lines. I pull on the leader tagline to make sure it's snug, but I'm not reefing on the tagline. I don't know about the kinked fluoro. I've never seen that before. Maybe you are holding it to tight and pulling too hard? Hope this helps!

This is one of those things where the results should be relative, since we are all in different stages of the bass' year, and our conditions vary by region and even by angler. I'm mostly fishing small GA ponds from the bank so far, and my most productive bait in terms of numbers has to be the neko-rigged TRD with a VMC neko hook size 2 inserted chicken-rig style and a Zman neko shroomz head. I've done well with the regular old TRD in Drew's craw.

That's very interesting. I took my son out to that kind of pond one night last week; we were fishing keitechs (including the ones without scent) on jigheads and just slow rolling them along the bottom and getting one bite after the next.

@ChrisD46 I followed the same path to using the smaller Kietechs. Found some 2.8s on sale in our area a couple years ago and then got quite a few more after having good success with them. Recently I fished a 2.8 in one of the silver/minnow patters on a size 2 or 4 VMC dropshot hook with a 1/16 oz tungsten cylinder drop shot weight with 8 lb fluro. The bait was about 8" above the sinker and fished from the bank in a pond in stained water. Caught a few bass pretty quickly using this. Have had great success using this same set up at night in the dark. I have no idea how they find this bait in a stained pond let alone the dark!

Stars so far: 1) Neko rigged TRD and big TRD. (Prespawn in staging areas). VMC 1 and 2 Neko hooks. Zman Neko heads. Chicken rigged. 2) Kietch swing impact fats in the smaller sizes (2.8 and 3.8) on a jighead. Post spawn, dragged slowly.

Joe, when I first studied the range of options for braid to leader connections I struggled to decide. In my opinion, the Alberto is every bit as easy to tie as the Albright, once you've practiced a couple of times. I routinely tie the Alberto in about 30 seconds and it has become my main connection knot. I fish with kids a lot - so time is always at a premium. I feel the Uni-Uni is also very easy, but personally I like the Alberto. Lots of other popular connections out there, including the good old blood knot and the controversial FG knot. I also like the FG, but the Alberto is my go-to.

@A-Jay as always, another awesome and educational post. Thank you for taking the time to pull all that together. Pretty sure that ice fisherman was Alex Keszler. I have to admit, I tried in back then and the bands all deteriorated and got sticky on me, so I stopped doing it. I think I used an inferior quality band, and will "upgrade" from Dollar store bands to those top shelf Walmart bands. ?

Zman Big TRD. I've been using the Shroomz Wacky Rig Neko head. I've been "chicken rigging" them (basically Texposing) near the top of the TRD, using a VMC Neko hook in size 1 or 2.

Interested to see this post resurrected. I bought a bunch of packs in my first year fishing them from TW and Lurenet. The primary downside I found is that they are not very durable. The upside is that they are extremely effective as topwater toads. (Yep, I know they are craws). No longer surfacing in Walmarts that I check out. I think the stock is pretty well exhausted. I will miss the bait, but others will suffice.

I do. I tried it for the first time a month ago and downright shocked by the results. However, I'm a relative newbie and still plenty of methods I've been slow to try and slow to practice. It is only in the past year I've started to force myself to finesse fish and stop just going for reaction and topwater bites. It has not been easy. But it has paid me back in terms of vastly better performance. Since I picked up Neko I expect it to be my primary. Also looking to try shaky head and dragging craws/hula grubs on jigs this year.

I couldn't agree more with the above, and I fish a lot with kids. In fact just last weekend my 7 yo daughter - who has recently decided to take up fishing with the boys - caught her first crappie and bass with this very rig. Toss, crank, wind; it works on the fall, it works fished slowly on the bottom (deliberately or not). Catches bass, catches panfish. I use Zman mushroom heads with 3" Yum grubs in white, green pumpkin, or whatever else you come across. Ball heads are just fine, of course. Sometimes I get them to put a TRD on. All of the above available anywhere there is a Walmart. (And I will also often fish the grubs if I'm getting skunked).

Nice post. As always the stickbait debate rages on. I really like the Ocho and have done well with it. Met Steve Parks and he's a super nice, and very experienced and talented guy. The Ocho plays a role in my tackle. I'll also still toss stickbaits from various producers, including the senko and the dinger.

Do you mean Terminator? War Eagle is now part of Pradco.

Hm. That is interesting. How do you know that? Ah... now I see. Bassmaster reported it and showed a nice clear pic of Ott with the "unnamed bladed jig." I honestly think Evergreen/Zman should name the next iteration the "unnamed v2". That unnamed bait sure gets a lot of press.

@A-Jay you are the master of Amazon deals.

Welcome @national19. I live in Georgia and fish for largemouth primarily, but we also fish the Ottawa River Valley each year for smallmouth.

Zman baits and rigs are buy 3 get 1 free at DSG this week. Similar to last week, buy 1 get one 50% off, except you need to buy more to get the same deal. Not a super deal on Jackhammers if that's your thing, since they list for $20 in most stores. However, if you have a $10 off $50 coupon you can wind up with 4 for $50 which works out to $12.50 each, not a bad way to try them out.

Normally they range from an OK to poor deal, depending on the bait included. The better YUM deal is to get 5 full packs for $10 when DSG runs that deal, which has been periodically. Otherwise, you can get more baits for $3 about the same per unit price. The main benefit of the Walmart YUM pricing is to get uncommon baits without having to pay shipping from Lurenet or TW. Watch for times when the price drops to $1 or so - but you never know when that will be.

Agreed. Has worked for me on many a rod. I think it helps to point out the sticker price dates from last decade. I usually quote the prices guys are reporting on this thread. Arguably, it would be better (less effort and a new, quality rod) if I just bought direct online - but trying to get deals is a sport, too.

After looking at a wide selection of stores around the country for several years, talking to managers, etc, this is my theory about it: - Stock and pricing are primarily dictated by corporate, on a store by store basis. - I guess computers do a lot of the stock and pricing decisions. They don't have a person sitting in an office deciding when to reduce pink creme worms at store 7584 in Wichita from $3 to $0.50. - Late winter/early spring, the stores are issued "mods" - with nice paper plots that show them how to lay out the gear for the next season. - They determine which items in which stores will go on clearance, what the prices will be, and when they will drop in price. - The stores just try to keep up with labeling the prices, setting out tags, culling clearance from the revised display, and displaying the items where their store determines they can/want to (usually they struggle to keep on top of this because they're overwhelmed with stuff to do). - There will be certain items that tend to be targets for clearance - examples are the rods the guys are noticing above. So, if corporate decided to target clearing out 6'6' Vengeance Spinning, they will start putting those on sale at certain stores (not all). If you find a certain item (take, say, KVD 1.5's in shad) at $1.50 in one store, those will be targets for clearance at other stores. - What happens is over the course of a couple of months, the prices will drop in "steps" until they hit rock bottom - After hitting rock bottom they will do one of the following: 1. sell out, especially if the store is near a lake or has heavy traffic for another reason 2. send somewhere for re-distribution or liquidation 3. languish until sold 4. toss in the trash 5. jack the prices back up and put back in regular display (case in point, senkos were $2 in a store near me a couple weeks ago. They are now about $8 again). *Exception: store managers can and will override clearance pricing. For example, found some KVD cranking rods that were on clearance with tag dated years ago - price rang up at current display price! They agreed to knock the price back down to modern clearance pricing. Happy hunting! **Just want to emphasize: the great prices you get at one store may or may not be the same that can be found at another store, regardless of the store location.**

I absolutely understand where you are coming from. I was/am in the same boat. Time is at a premium for me, too. To boil down what some of the guys that sound frustrated are trying to say is that there is no magic bullet, and you're wasting your time looking for one. However, I see your perspective. I started getting into it avidly with two small kids 4 years ago now. These days, I fish most weekends, and I'm decent at it, at least on small waters. I've become that neighborhood Dad and Uncle that takes all the kids and teaches all the kids who's parents don't know how. My son can tell you all about the major Pros (he's met many of them), and just the other day we went to our second Classic. Here's my 2c: - Consider the most basic, and most versatile lures first, they all can work: grubs, plastic worms (trickworms), senkos (stickworms), lizards, flukes, spinnerbaits, Rat-L-Traps, Rapala originals, in-line spinners, maybe Pop-R's, buzzbaits, the list goes on and on, but you'll quickly recognize the main types. - Consider the most basic rigs: Texas Rig, basic jighead, Carolina Rig, and I would say Ned Rig - Most of these (except topwaters, in general) work most of the year and in many places Flowcharts might be a useful place to start, but quickly you'll learn that these common, versatile lures will work in many more situations than indicated in the charts. The point about figuring our where fish is a good one. Most of these baits will work if placed near cover or structure (if you don't know what I mean, look those up), under the right conditions. You can really only get to know them through reading, watching, and most importantly fishing. Then: start reading, visiting this site, listening to Bassmaster podcasts, following Pros on Social Media, checking out the YouTube stars, etc. etc. Most importantly, FISH. My secret is I don't get obsessed with having to fish on a "trip" to call it a success. I carry rods in my trunk, a few packs of gear, and a scale. If there is a pond with water in it, with access, and I have time (yes, 15 minutes for a few casts is enough), I fish. Time on the water - ANY time, ANY water, is the key to learning bass for sure. As for kids, you want to take them and get them interested. Get them gear, and be patient. The first couple years I spent a lot of time untangling lines and cursing lost lures. In the long run it has paid off. Now my kids are the ones that set up others, tie on their baits, teach them to fish, and unhook the fish. Its awesome, and just means more acceptance of my hobby by the others in my family... Good luck!!!