BassB8Caster

Keep experimenting with it. I would love to try out the 50. Just not ready to throw $30 for another bait. I'm sure it's worth it. I'm heavily considering the savage gear 3d line thru trout and saver 168 first. Dicks has a bogo 50% off right now.

From what I have experienced, the bigger fish (2.5lbs and up) come up and grab the bait. Not too aggressive. Almost confidently. I have only lost one fish of decent size. And on that one I have no idea what happened. I had a really good hook set and got it to the side of my kayak then it came off. Smaller fish however are hit or miss. It seems like they don't completely commit. They may even just come up and smack the rat.

That's interesting. Any pics? Is this with the 5.8? I'm using 7/0 keel weighted hooks with the bait keeper. I have caught 2 fish so far on these swimbaits. One a 2.5 the other just under 3.

If you watch the guy from bbz fish the rat, he fishes it like a crankbait. He actually refers to it as a crankbait rather than a swimbait. He retrieves it fast so it is under water. I haven't had luck that way either. I like to crank it very slowly, just getting it to swim in that "S" motion. All my luck is with that slow retrieve. It takes patience, but it sure is effective. Give it a try. For the most part I cast out and retrieve. I don't notice any difference in action by letting it sit a bit after hitting the water. Occasionally I give it some twitches and walk it a bit. But 95% is just cast and slow retrieve. Just enough to hear it knocking.

I like to think I set the hook pretty hard. I always try to position myself right in the kayak in relationship to the line angle for maximum hook set power. But it doesn't take much for the kayak to drift a little and take my leverage away. That's where braid helps. As far as the hook being clear, it was sitting perfectly in the slot of the keitech impact fat. To add salt to the wound, the following cast a fish bit off the tail right at the kayak. 3 more to go. Atleast i was able to get a big girl to bite. That's half the battle.

i wouldnt think so, i just bought it about a month ago. And its not that the tail was defective. New it was great. Once one of the lines inside the tail snapped, it then can bend down 90 degrees and be right into the treble. New, or when the line was not broken (broken from fish abuse) the tail was more rigid and stuck almost straight out. Well away from the hook. Yeah once that happens the tail falls right down to the rear treble hook. I have the purple tail to switch to then ill move to worms. Have any of you guys noticed a difference in which worms work the best? Which ones to stay away from?

I agree, thus thing casts a mile (I have the size 40 as well). The rear treble issue I'm having directly related to the string in the tail being broke. When this was intact, it is more rigid and stays away from the rear treble. The front one though is directly due to being too big or too close to the square bill. It doesn't happen too often so I may just roll with it. I too was surprised with the amount of action it gets. A purple rat with yellow tail? Not quite matching the hatch. Also the bites for me are deceiving. I haven't had a bass blow up on it yet. They just come up and grab it. What do you guys mean by clips?

Ok great thanks for the advice.

I will def do that. When you fish these bigger swimbaits (more specifically the 5.8 keitech) in grass or shallow water (less than 5 feet) are you weightless? Do you want it in the upper water column? Or wait and let it sink and slow roll it on bottom? It seems that weightless the braid tends to float it up

I will agree on points made above. The tail is easily replaceable with a worm (or the spare that came with it) and it's worth these minor issues if the bait works. It does work great. I have trouble switching it up as I have had luck with it throughout the day. I have yet to catch anything huge with it (over 4.5) but a lot of 2.5 to 4.25 or so.

Nope baitcaster. I honestly thought it was 12lb mono. Went and looked and it's 8. I don't remember buying 8 but I obviously did. I have 2 rods and reels. One has braid on it and the other has mono. I will either go to a 12lb mono or just got to braid on both. I love the confidence braid gives me. Plus being in a kayak I get better hook sets with braid.

So I have been very fortunate in that the ponds where I fish there is little fishing pressure and I routinely catch 3 to 4lbers every outing. This is my 3rd summer bass fishing and for the life of me I cannot land a 5lb plus. I have hooked (and lost) a few that I'm sure were over 5. My last chance came yesterday fishing a new pond. I was slow rolling a keitech 5.8 swimbait on a 7/0 weighted twistloc swimbait hook. As expected, the bite was light, like gently snagging something, but knowing it was a fish. So I set the hook (mh rod) and fish on. I feel fairly fast to keep up and keep tension on. So far, so good. Now I can tell it's coming up to the surface fast. I keep tension as it surfaces. But a violent head shake and it spits my Lure. Man she was a fatty. So I bring in the lure to inspect it, and the hook is still sitting perfectly in the groove of the bait, where it's supposed to. Frustrating. So the hook was never in the fish. I have 8lb trilene xxl on that particular reel. I've felt that that line has too much stretch. It has worked in most situations but other times it feels like there is too much stretch to get a good hook set. Especially on long casts. Would you guys agree that it's the line? I'm tempted to put braid on this reel too (have it on my other set up). I have so much more confidence with braid. Is the stretch the problem? Do I need to wait longer on hook set with these bigger swimbait?

So I have had the day for about 4 fishing trips. This is my first purchase of a more expensive lure. After using it, I absolutely love it. I would buy another in a heart beat. There are 2 issues I have with it, however. In my opinion, these two issues are inexcusable for the price you pay and testing should have revealed it. Both issues ate associated with the treble hooks. The front hook, once in a while, hooks around the square bill in the front (it will also look around your line once in a while too). The other issue is the rear treble hook/tail segmentation. From what I can tell, there are two strands of line going through the tail. New they are tight allowing some movement between the segments but limits movement at the same time. Well in mine, after only 4 outings (around 12 hours of use), between the upper segments one of those strands broke so the tail can move enough to allow the treble hook to loop around the tail. This effects the action of the bait. When the two strands were in tact, the tail was rigid enough to stay above the rear treble. Kinda hard to explain the rear treble/ tail issue. So to fix this I need to replace the treble to a slightly smaller size and replace the tail. Before buying and using this lure, a concern was the longevity of the tail. I'm a little surprised it held up this long as many fish I have caught with it. Everyone else with these rats enjoying them? Having any other issues? Mine is morning dawn.

Strike king s11 polarized glasses are probably the best bang for the buck. If you look around online you can get them under $20.

Yep.....thats a giant! Wow. Got to be a good fish story behind that beast

I just love seeing the deep bright red gills. You know it's a good fish when you can see the gills when they come to the surface shaking their heads.

Some beasts! Nice work

2.8 lbs. Is my guess. IMO smallmouth are even tougher to estimate. I've had "huge" smallmouth ring in around 3.3 to 3.6. Don't get me wrong, that's a nice fish, but they never seem to weigh what we think. A 17" 5lber would have one he'll of a head and gut on it. Which the op's fish does not.

I agree with you 100%. I guess my angle (and my thought process for that matter) is to always take something at face value. You are right though, there probably are people out there that watch some of these videos and take away from it that its the gospel and THE way to fish. Like life in general, its all about perspective. We are all individuals and approach things differently. We also believe what we want to believe. Like you, i put more credibility in the guy who has success on high pressured lakes. Im very fortunate in that 9/10 bodies of water i fish are very low pressure. I fish out of a kayak and alot are small ponds that have no boat access. Now i cannot wait until i get my first boat. But that will change where i can fish, and how i fish. I look forward to being able to travel the country and fish some of the greatest fisheries. I also know and am ok with getting skunked. Im an outdoors guy so at the end of the day i win if i get to enjoy the outdoors. I dont have a chip on my shoulder where i need to prove to anyone im a great fisherman. I fish for the enjoyment of it. For those of us who truly want to get better every day we are out on the water, learning true technique is the key. If we simply emulate what we see on a youtube video, we could see success or maybe not. Every body of water is different. Every time out conditions are different. As a relatively new bass fisherman, i know this is the most important aspect i need to implement. I need to be able to recognize conditions, read contour maps, read the shoreline, identify as much structure and cover as possible (i have no electronics), etc. This makes me a better fisherman. That usually separates those from success and not. Granted, everyone has the chance to go out and find the feedbag turned on and have a day. One may even catch a PB or a lunker. But a true fisherman that is really passionate for the sport will never hang its hat on one catch, one one great day. Like every successful person will tell you, im where im at because i failed more than everyone else. The failure makes you better (unless you give up).

No one makes a little electric motored front back wheel? Seems like it would be a good seller. Maybe someone needs to invent one (I'm good with just 10% equity ; )

Is it possible that a good number of people don't know he dishes private lakes? I had no idea. I don't do research on everyone who hosts YouTube videos. I take them at face value. If I see a technique that could work where I fish, I give it a try. One still has to execute, even on private waters. To me, this is still better than fake catches on fishing shows. That is a disgrace and an insult to the sport. Yet we call them pros. Anyway, that's another topic and thread all together.

Congrats on what sounds like an amazing trip. My first child is almost 11 months. I CANNOT wait to go on fishing trips with my children. I got a bit to go but I think about it all the time. You are right, those boys will remember these memories forever. One day they will tell a story of.....dad remember that time.....makes every bit of it worth it. Keep up the great work!

Fishandsave.com has a few pork products. I purchased Super pork drop shot red 4" strips. They werent exactly what i was looking for. I wasnt really sure how i was going to use them so i threw them out. They are like $.80 for a container of 10. I was hoping for a twin tail type trailer bait. Once in a while they have free shipping promotions. Some great deals on plastics too.

I love fishing lizards. So far have o it fished the 6". I purchased some 8" zooms and can't wait to try them out. Last year I also bought some 10" gene larew worms (after watching a few of those bama bass vids). Have tried them a few times with no luck. Def plan to throw them more this summer.

Went out yesterday for a few hours. Once again it was very windy. I was super excited to try out the morning dawn bbz40 rat. I fished it on a mh rod, which was perfect. It cast great and never felt too heavy for the rod. I absolutely love the action of this lure. It is my first "expensive " lure purchase, but I'm very glad I made it. The bait is extremely versatile. Even with the rough water, I did ok with the lure. Caught and landed 3 smallies at 1.25, 2.2, and 2.35 lbs. Had another hit but not take it and I lost a nice one at the kayak around 2.5 to maybe 3lbs. The only complaint is have with this lure is that once in a while the front treble gets tangled on the line. Imo there is no excuse for this. I'll either down size the treble or the split ring so it cannot happen again. So overall very happy with the lure. I cannot wait to try it out on some large mouth on a calm morning around docks and trees. Highly recommend this lure!