snake95

Thanks, the two swimbait rods I have are Dobyns 795's rated 1-5 oz. Based on the responses will probably go with 17 lb line equivalent.

Interesting thanks. I will be fishing with Dobyns Fury and Champ XP 795 rods and revo beast x reel.

I've been collecting swimbaits in the 3/4 to 1.5 oz range: Bucca Baby Gill, Gantarel Jr, and S-waver 168. Now I need to start throwing them! I dug through older threads on this topic: Saw a lot of recommendations for Big Game and P-line CXX. I would say 20 lb was the sweet spot. Given that posts in the mid-2010's showed a lot of preference for YZH, it was notable to me to see such strong preference for CXX. Most of the posts I saw were a few years old. I'm at the point now where I don't mind paying a bit more for a line, especially with $15-35 baits on the line. But a good value is also appreciated. What are you all throwing your swimbaits on, in the range mentioned?

^^I second Boomsticks' opinions. I went with the Striker Plus 7sv in the fall (just before the sales and new vivid model came out). I later looked more closely at the EchoMap and in retrospect would go with that one for the extra money to have the touchscreen. I have used my Striker several times now and it is easy to use and intuitive with excellent images. I don't fish many lakes with maps available, but they would be nice to have. I have learned that there is a navionics app that can be used on your phone to help zero you in on areas of interest on lakes that have maps, so that can supplement a unit without maps but obviously has the drawbacks of requiring using the phone too and I'm sure is not nearly as effective as having on your fishfinder.

Nothing to brag about here, some guys on some waters catch them daily: I caught 3 largemouth weighted right at 4 lb even: 2 on weightless Xzone Core center sticks, 6" texposed green pumpkin. 1 on a Big Bite Baits jerk minnow.

I use Abu Garcia rods and reels amongst other gear. Just wondering if Abu is coming out with Gen 5? I see that the Premier and STX Rev 4 models are on "closeout" at AL.

What is the best source for getting an estimate of fair price for a 4-5 year old Hobie kayak with pedal drive? Also, has the technology changed enough that it wouldn't be worth looking at a pedal drive Hobie from that era? Just looking for a sound basis for estimating the fair market value for a particular model, year, and condition. I have a neighbor with a used one in storage that he is talking about selling and says interested in selling. I don't know which model I am talking about yet.

Considering an MHF graphite baitcasting as perhaps the most fundamental bass rod... and lengths ranging from 7 to 7'-6." All of these things being equal: MHF graphite baitcasting, same manufacturer, product line, blank modulus, etc. What are the main considerations that go into picking a length? Is it simply casting distance vs accuracy? Anything else?

If I could go back I would go with the Echomap for the maps and the touchscreen. But for the price, the Striker Plus 7SV seems to do the job well: beyond easy to set up and use, good quality images.

Thanks, you have educated me there. I have never caught a carp, intentionally or otherwise, and was utterly floored that it would slam a whopper plopper.

I've heard of a few others, but haven't seen them myself.

There may be some regional differences at play here. Growing up in Ontario in the 70's and 80's we used fishing rods. Poles were not found out on the lake.

Just remembered, last summer something else cool happened, I guess this was late May. Fishing a heavily pressured pond in a north Georgia state park with nearly gin-clear water - not common in GA. Got to the pond about 6:30 am, sun already well on the way up. Standing on the earth dam, I tossed out a whopper plopper along the shoreline. Let it sit and ripples die out while I check the time on my phone. Then "woosh!" something smashes the daylights out of my stationary plopper. I reel up and have a hard pulling fish on the other end. But instead of jumping, it dives and wrestles with the line. I pull her close to the sloping bank... it's a carp! I am shocked. A carp just slammed my stationary whopper plopper! When I go to get out my phone and take a pic, she gives a head shake, unhooks, and swims off like nothing happened.

@Fishes in trees thank you, this is pure BassResource gold. You've saved me and probably a bunch of others a ton of experimentation time. Plus, I was going to buy some VMC rigs. Now I won't! I have wire leader I might try. @Michigander also gold. Those make a lot of sense.

Have been intrigued by jika rigs and looking to put a few together. I have some pre-made versions from Mustad, haven't fished them yet. Planning to do it simply by attaching a dipsy sinker to an EWG hook with a split ring. (I think dipsey and bass casting sinkers are the same?) Any reason why this won't work? (yes I am going to try it anyway and will report back) Just curious if anyone can say they've used this type of sinker before, and if there are any pros/cons to different sinker options.

Thanks, very interesting. By flats do you mean shallow bays and shallow areas between points? Are you swimming them across the flats over vegetation or other cover, or are you covering sandy or rocky areas where bass tend to be roaming?

Good point - the S-waver is a slow sink glide bait with an S-motion, 1 5/8 oz, 6 1/4 inches long. The Gantarel Jr is a jointed, sunfish-profile swimbait, slow floating, 1.5 oz, 5 inches long.

I'm interested in throwing S-wavers and Jackall Gantarel Jr's and have been collecting a few, along with some heavier gear to throw them on. The question I probably should have asked someone first: where do you like to throw these, and under what seasonal and weather conditions? I live in north Georgia and fish both small ponds and larger reservoirs; I also fish ponds and canals down in Florida. Someday I hope to fish them in clear Ontario lakes, but that will have to wait for now. I've taken up kayak fishing this year and plan to throw these baits from the kayak.

I have a Sellus spinning rod that I use but would describe as just OK. It works for the price, but I have other rods in the same inexpensive end of the range that are better.

To the OP regarding the interest in wanting to use existing hooks, and to save money: The Owner Mosquito hooks in A-Jay's pic are not at all expensive, under $3 a pack. These have to be among the most affordable hooks Owner makes. Spend $6, get a pack each of 1's and one of 2's, and try them out, you won't regret it. If you decide to give up on drop shotting, they can be used for live bait, nose hooking flukes, and wacky rigging thinner worms. I use them for nose hooking baits for split shotting. I have used VMC's equally simple sureset hook with great success too. Also $3 a pack. Not super common in my area but if you can get them also a great affordable choice. Have never lost a fish on them that I can recall.

There are so many that are on my top list, based on following them, and on interactions at the Bassmaster classic over the last 3 years. I would take my 12 yo son, who has been to each Classic and interacted with the pros with me. I'd have to take him! My first choice would probably be Jeff Gustafson, since he's a northern Ontario guy like me. Such a versatile multi-species angler. At the last Classic he hopped off his boat in line for weigh in, unprompted and came over and shook our hands and talked fishin. Literally while waiting in line for one of the biggest weigh ins of his life. Nice guy! Aaron Martens was just like that too, sitting in his boat waiting to get out of the water Championship Sunday of the last Classic on Hartwell. Walked up to him and he just launched into talking drop shotting with my son like we had planned to get together and shoot the breeze. Other pros that have been super to talk to and I'd love to go fishing with my son include MDJ and Jason Christie. Big O is awesome with the kids, too. Man, there are so many nice and professional people in bass fishing, it's hard to know where to start.

This is pretty location dependent. Close to home in Georgia I only eat trout. Not opposed to eating just about anything but in my mind trout are for eating, bass are for catching and releasing. I really love to eat trout. I would never think to cook and eat sunfish species (I don't mean bass and crappie). Change my mind. I grew up in a place that doesn't have a lot of crappie, so I'm not great at targeting them. We don't really have populations of yellow perch and walleye to target in our immediate area. This is interesting! Why spots over other bass species? Are they better eating?

This last summer I became good friends with a blue heron. I often saw him at the closest pond to our house. I was fishing in a small shallow cove and caught a dink bass on a senko. As the bass was trying to shake the hook on surface, the heron swooped down and grabbed the bass, senko, hook and all, and snapped my line and flew off. I was worried that this majestic bird was about to eat the hook, but since I don't have wings, there was nothing I could do about it. A few minutes later I thought the heron was long gone and tried a cast with a ned rig and caught a bluegill. As I started to unhook the bluegill, the heron came back, seemingly out of nowhere, and landed about 40 feet from me. I tossed the bluegill to a spot about halfway to the heron, thinking the bluegill would be fine. The bluegill hit the water but before he could swim a stroke the heron had him in his beak. I watched as the heron stood up and gulped down the bluegill like a human might slurp down an oyster from the shell. It was amazing considering the bluegill was much larger than the heron's throat. I felt a little less concerned about the hook after I saw that, because I reasoned if you can swallow a mouthful of bluegill spines without a pause, maybe a thin wire 2/0 won't hurt too much either. Needless to say, the heron now thinks we are best friends and every time I go back to the pond I am much more aware that I have an audience.

Snake = college nickname that stuck. 95 = just a number. (Wish it was my birth year! but I'm in the middle age range now).

I have been using them a lot this fall on Zman Finesse Shroomz in the 1/15 size and doing great with them. I am a die hard Zman fanatic and have to hand it to Rage Tail, they are awesome. Also recommend getting them from Siebert. They are also widely available in slightly smaller packs at Walmart at a great price. They come with 1 or 2? jigheads that seem way too heavy. I haven't bothered with the jigheads provided.