MassYak85

Good to know, thanks

Mine isn't the glass but I've considered getting the glass version. Does yours load up well enough for cranks as well?

There's plenty of open water down here in VA but I've been holding off for now. I'm reading spoonplugging and a few other books right now and want to get a better grasp of structure fishing before I try and tackle the reservoirs down here, especially in janurary/february. My attempts last summer were miserable to say the least.

I use the 7'2" MHR Tatula casting rod for spinnerbaits/chatterbaits and really like it!

I've only just started toying with making wooden baits. But I've made a couple stencils so far in solidworks (I know you said you don't need 3D, just letting you know what has worked for me). You can create the solid piece of "wood" you plan to carve in the program, make a Top and Side view cutout templates, and then see in 3D what the final product would be if you cut it out. Plus you can then make drawings of the cutout profiles.

I used to have an Excel file where I could plug in the backing line diameter and braid diameter and calculate how much I would need if I wanted to use half a 150yd spool of braid. But like others said there are too many inconsistencies for it to stay consistent to my liking. I don't use it, what I will do is take a spool to a field and actually halve the spool.

Cool thanks! I guess my only other question would be how well they swim? Any tendency to roll over, and how do they act on the fall?

I am not a fan of bottom hook swimbaits because not only are they much less weedless, but I feel the chances of hooking them in the gills is too high. Now with hardbaits you don't have much choice, but with softbaits I always go top. Just my opinion. I have the jumbo and regular shiner, both are awesome but the jumbo is a beast. I got one made special order in crappie pattern and it looks killer, I plan to give it a lot more time this summer, but man it's a cannonball landing in the water. Keep in mind the Jumbo's you have to rig with a hook yourself. The smaller size you can get in a jig hook.

The trash fish are really nice but if a pickerel even looks at one funny you are losing the tail. I had to say goodbye to one of mine before it caught it's first bass last year.

The great thing about real preys is you get awesome action with top notch durability. Could a pike/pickerel chomp down and bite off the tail, maybe, it would have to really not want to let go, but I do have teeth marks in mine from pickerel. But you won't find a more durable soft plastic bait out there IMO.

How have you found these to hold up? I've heard they are pretty soft. Also what hook works best? I've got the larger owner beast sizes laying around.

What I do is just take the metal drag washers and squish some grease between my fingers, and then just grab the washer to leave some "grease fingerprints" all the way around. It's a small amount but I'd rather the drag be a little smoother than have more pure strength.

Let us know how it works out, I'm curious too. I've been using the owner safety caps to help with the tangles hooks issue, but yea I agree when you get one good in a fish it can be hard to take out. Especially with toothy critters!

Why the single barbless hooks? Just curious.

Real Prey Shiner, I want to try out the Smashtech Shiners though, those can be rigged weedless and look pretty good.

Oh if we want to talk fluoro vs mono then I won't disagree, as leader material I don't think it makes much difference. I use heavy mono leaders when Ice Fishing and it's plenty abrasion resistant for sure. I took Tom's comment more as a shot at using any leaders when bass fishing since the knot can apply to either mono or fluoro.

I'm in Virginia right now but I did get some Ice Fishing in while up in MA in December. I almost exclusively use tipups with shiners, targeting bass. Biggest I got out of 4 trips was a 4lber. It's weird because live bait doesn't do much for me open water (I don't find it as fun), but ice fishing I find using tipups more fun than jigging. There's just something about seeing a flag go up, running to it, and seeing the spool racing off and hand lining in a fish that gets my blood pumping.

Abrasion resistance?

Like the others said, I would be very worried if the magnetic brakes on my reel were grinding against the spool.

If it is slipping out it just means you either didn't do your wraps tight enough or you did not cinch up the knot enough when you finished the wraps. Also, I don't know if this would have any effect because I have not used that line, but if the P-line braid had a really slick coating on top of being 8 carrier, it might not bite as much into the leader. Just speculation, I wouldn't think it would be an issue.

If it's a mass produced bait I try and wait for sales but the custom makers don't do a ton of sales themselves and the ones that sell to places like TW have unpredictable delivery dates due to the nature of custom bait making. I bought a slammer from TW and I finally had to cancel the order out of impatience 3 months after the original backorder date. To me getting the bait within the week is better than saving 5-10 bucks. If I find it available and I'm ready to buy I just bite the bullet at this point. But I'm always on the lookut for a good deal.

I'll second that, I'm not currently using mine but I have liked it.

The swimbait game is a slippery slope for sure lol. You start out hesitant to pull the trigger on a 20 dollar bait and all of a sudden Phoneys and Hinkles start showing up in the mail. I'm not too far down the rabbit hole myself....yet.

I fish everything I buy but there are definitely some baits I'd consider swimming for under certain conditions.

Same, I mostly look for lesser known accesses (not a paved boat ramp) at places I haven't tried yet. If the lake is being drawn down for winter that is one time I will try and scout out lakes I fish a lot.