MassYak85

It will depend on the cover you are fishing mostly. Some people like to walk frogs in open water almost like a spook or a popper. In that case you might be fine with 30lb braid and a Medium Heavy Fast rod. For moderate/heavy cover I like to use 50lb braid and a Heavy Fast rod. I've even heard of guys using 80 or 100lb braid when fishing the California Delta but that's pretty extreme and for most of us unnecessary. I like my Spro frog, but also like the good 'ol Booyah Pad Crasher. I also picked up a River2Sea BullyWa over the winter and on first impression I really like it. The most important thing is that the frog can compress well and expose the hooks. Some guys will take the stock frogs and bend the hooks up and out a little bit so they are exposed more. I primarily use them in the summer when the fish are tucked up under pads during the heat of the day, but you can have success on them spring through fall. If you are fishing from the bank I would tell you to be very stealthy walking up to the spot. If there is cover near shore I would try and hit that before you get too close. I'd try to target weed and lilypad edges and also right along the bank. Somewhere the bass can either ambush or pin it against. It's not going to be the most effective topwater at all times obviously but I'd argue it's one of the most versatile. It can be fished in basically any conditions while many topwaters can't.

for the applications you mentioned I'd go 7.5:1.

Nice! This week of rain were about to have should free up most of the state.

I like it, I got the ghost minnow color when TW had them on sale a while back. Hooks are nice and sharp, and it has a nice action when jerking it. I haven't done a lot of jerkbait fishing honestly, still learning but figured I'd pick this one up as a "confidence bait" and just stick with it. I might try taking the back hook off and see if that does the trick. I'm not sure what size it comes with, maybe a 6 at most, might even be smaller. I don't think I have any small enough to downsize it though. Here's a graph of water density though. Pretty much covers both extremes of water temps we see up here (32 - 85°F). But even then we're only talking about a 0.5% change in density. But it's enough where even a small material impurity when making the jerkbait could probably throw off it's ability to suspend.

Yea I guess you're right I switched it around in my head. It's a brand new jackal squad minnow so I don't know why it would sink when it's that cold. The hooks are already pretty small to begin with so I don't know about changing them. As far as the pros liking slow sink I know around here we can get winter kills so maybe that comes into play a little, but a lot of the pros are fishing lakes that don't freeze.

This. And I would also recommend saving up a little bit more for a better rod, I'm not talking a lot but maybe more around the 100 range. There are certain technqiues where skimping on the rod might not let you down....swimbait fishing is not one of those technqiues.

Lol at least you can say you lost one. I'll be home this weekend and I'm hoping to launch my kayak, weather is looking to be warm and hopefully the forecasted rain will speed it up and get them hungry.

Sorry to hear about that OP, but I'd say get a long net like @DogBone_384 suggested and try to scoop it up. It sounds like it's not too deep and that you know the exact spot more or less. Beyond that it sounds like a strong magnet or diving gear is your best option.

Went to Cochituate from shore for another skunking. Was there fore a couple hours and tried the hudd 68 and a football jig again. It's a delicate balance when the water is this cold. If I feel like I'm covering enough water I feel like I'm fishing too fast but if I really slow down it feels like I'm not covering much water. There were some casts I spent 5+ minutes retrieving.

It's pretty much inevitable that the wire will break eventually. Whether it's after 20, 50, 200 fish will depend on the thickness and quality of the spinnerbait arm. I personally like War Eagles.

I have the LFS and really like it. I'd definitely recommend it especially if you found one for 75.

x2 You can experiment with how well the fish respond to a leader vs no leader. I assume these quarries have pretty clear water? If so and they are finicky I'd probably go for a longer leader. I usually don't go any longer than 10 feet personally.

Mine is a 5.8:1. Not sure what the inches per turn is. I'd say it really depends, if you are a patient person who can reel as slow as they need to and stay sane then the higher gear ratios might be fine for you. If you are like me and need a little help in that department when slow crawling hudds and other soft plastics then the 5 or 6 speed reel might be better.

Lowest I've ever gone on a baitcaster was 20. Now I don't go below 30. I would definitely say avoid using 10, it will dig in a lot.

Looks good! I've personally decided to keep my hooks in their packages to avoid labeling the compartments.

This is what I've been doing so far, football jig and a hudd 68. Only been out twice from shore so far since ice out for like 1-2 hours. I got skunked both times though.

I have some for all of my combos. They aren't on them all the time but when I am taking a few rods with me in my car the rod covers really do help with the lines not getting tangled. The reel covers I primarily use when I store my rods. Right now they are down in my dad's basement (woodworking shop) on the ceiling. So I can't imagine the dust that would build up if I didn't have them.

x2 If it's not that my guess is it's hook eye was broken off.

I've had some good luck at that spot from a boat during the summer actually. How is parking in that area? Do you have to park on one of the parallel side streets and walk over?

x2 on the Silicote. Did all my reels with it this year and haven't had any issues the previous years I've used it.

I gave Quinsig another hour and a half from shore today. This time I tried near the beach. I figured it might be a better spot since it drops into about 30 feet of water pretty quickly. Tried the hudd 68 again and also a jerkbait. Water is still so cold that my "suspending" jerkbaits are more like slow sink. Didn't get bit on either so I switched to a football jig. No luck with that either. Good luck man. Let us know how you do down there.

I'm an hour from Plymouth. I usually don't drive far to fish if I can help it when there's like 10 lakes/ponds within 15 minutes of me. And where do people usually fish from shore on the Charles? I keep hearing good things about people fishing it when it's cold.

I also fish a lot of lakes that have weedy or mucky bottoms. I'd say that's about 80% of my fishing. I've found that a t-rig can be your friend in these conditions. I really like fishing 6-8" worms with a light weight (1/8 - 1/4 oz). You can really work it through the weeds and get a good feel for when the worm comes into a pocket, in which case it's a good idea to slow down and let it soak in the pocket a little. I also like using pointy "grass jigs" or swimjigs that have a pointy head design since they come through the weeds so well. As for hooksets I reel down until I feel more weight than just the bait and go over the shoulder for these techniques.

I might see if I can find somewhere to fish from shore tomorrow or saturday. If nothing else so I can test and get used to fishing my new Swaver 200. My main problem fishing from shore right now is the shallower places are pretty frozen, and the deeper places that stayed open are hard to access the deeper spots from shore.

I own the LFS and I love it but this is important. The LFS has 4 handle bearings, so casting performance is unaffected. It makes reeling extremely smooth but is not something I take into account when buying a reel.