MassYak85

x2 on Aquabound. I have the Manta Ray Hybrid (glass-reinforced nylon blades instead of carbon). It's a great paddle for the price. Retail it's like 140 I got it on sale though. It's got a 15 degree increment ferule system called posi-lock that is VERY solid, a carbon fiber shaft to keep it very light for it's price. I would buy another at full retail in a heartbeat if something happened to mine.

This, I've toyed with the idea of trying it myself for soft plastics. You could print a master, sand out any imperfections, and then make a mold. That would almost be an entirely new hobby in and of itself though I probably don't have time for lol. But really all you need is the mold making supplies, the plastic you want to pour, and most importantly the CAD skills to make what you want.

The 110 is fine for smallies. I catch smallies on the 130. I also wouldn't give up on a bait that quickly simply based on your success with it. If the lure is performing poorly action wise that's one thing but otherwise it might just be the conditions. No lure works 100% of the time in every situation. I've had days opposite of what you experienced. Where I caught 15 whopper plopper fish and they would barely even pay attention to a buzzbait.

A braid to leader connection knot. It's the thinnest knot you can tie but is notoriously frustrating to tie until you get really good at it.

I was out Saturday morning and the surface activity was crazy. Schools of perch or bluegill were just erupting everywhere in the morning but I couldn't get a single bite on topwater or subsurface lures. There were also some trout leaping all the way out of the water all day long.

I'll be going out tomorrow as well to either enjoy some catching or share your frustration. Any day with a line in the water is a good day though. I do expect it to be tough as others have said though.

I've definitely had the vegetation with a worm thing happen to me. Sometimes I can even tell afterwards that the pressure just let go way too suddenly for it to just be slipping out the weeds. Until you bury a tungsten weight in between two rocks, then it costs 5 bucks haha. But yea for most situations I've tried to be a little more liberal with my hooksets this year, I think it is helping a little bit.

I saw his video on it and it is definitely something I'll pay more attention to. My only concern is fishing around or through cover where "extra pressure" might just be the weight/lure getting caught in some weeds or trying to come over a log etc. I'm sure we'd all be shocked if we could know how many times fish have picked up our bait and gone completely unnoticed by us.

If I wasn't perfectly content with my eye surrender's I would jump on this, hell of a deal

I ordered some of the weedless ones to try and should be fishing them this weekend, I'll let you know how I like them. Update: First thoughts just opening and rigging them: They are a little thinner from a top down profile than I was expecting. They seem like a tougher plastic than most other soft swimbaits I've fished as well, which could be good for durability but I'll keep you updated on how that affects swimming action. I rigged them on 10/0 Owner Beasts but I tried with 8/0's and they seem like they would be fine as well. They have a nice concave top as well which should help keep them more weedless. I got the Jackson Trout and Sun Fish colors and I like them a lot, especially the trout. @GoneFishingLTN Update 2: So after fishing them, unless I got two packages of complete duds, I can say I hate these things. I tried rigging them on an owner beast, 8/0 and 10/0, weighted and unweighted. To even get the tail to kick I had to retrieve at a pretty good speed which meant I could not get them any deeper than about a foot. They also do a pretty un-appealing twisting spiral on the fall. They also run with the tail up at what I would say is about a 10 or 15 degree angle which I wouldn't be too worried about if everything else checked out. Looking at them in person from my eye it's just a bad design. Pretty much every single soft paddle tail swimbait I have ever seen has a tapered tail, meaning the tail section is thinner than the body....not the case with these. Looking top-down the body seamlessly transitions into the tail with almost no reduction in thickness. I have to imagine this, along with the tougher plastic they use, is to blame for the poor action. I tried boiling one and it softened up quite a bit but I imagine it'll get destroyed after 1 or 2 fish now. I'll try it and see if it's salvageable but I'm going to be ordering some Weedless Rising Sons in the meantime.

Most of the ones I've seen are dark brown. But a lot of time my jig color choices are imitating bluegill, or if I'm fishing muddy water I'll go straight black.

Interesting read. I do have a little bit of an issue with how they addressed stretch and elasticity though. They seem to be implying Nylon is 100% elastic until it breaks, which is completely false. I think one of the articles they linked does a better job of scientifically tackling the debate. http://www.bigindianabass.com/big_indiana_bass/the-truth-about-fluorocarbon.html I do still think the articles outline plenty of positives for fluoro though. The low water absorption is a big one, along with density.

I pretty much exclusively fish the 130 and I use a 7'2" MHR Tatula rod with 30 or 40lb braid. Ideally I'd use a longer slightly more parabolic rod to keep fish from shaking it out of their mouths when they jump but for what I have that's the best I can do right now.

I was fishing a rocky point that was shallow with a 130, and a 3lb smallie just torpedoed the thing, I watched it since the water was clear, the first time it didn't even open it's mouth it just seemed ticked off lol.

If you go with the CT....70 bucks below I tried mine out this past Saturday and I am extremely impressed. http://www.academy.com/shop/pdp/daiwa-tatula-ct-freshwater-baitcast-reel#repChildCatid=3891514

Hit the upper charles in waltham today. It was an interesting day, one of my better in that section of the charles. Ended with 9 bass, all under 3lbs. It probably could have been a 15-20 fish day but I was just off my game as far as hooksets and landing fish. The largest one was probably 2 1/2, I didn't weigh it since the hook got it right in the gills and I wanted to give it the best chance of survival. All my fish came on plastics today. I started off with a heavy tungsten weight, a flipping hook and a Rage Tail Structure Bug. I got 4-5 right off the bat just casting it into the heavy pads. Other fish came on a jig and I ended the day fishing a 10" black grape power worm. My biggest fish came on the worm and I lost a 3lber inches from the boat on the worm as well...it was my fault. I played the fish too long and probably worked the hook loose. I also broke off a worm (along with a tungsten weight) on another fish, which I hope was a pickerel or else I'm going to start getting paranoid about my knots. And I lost another tungsten weight in a rock wall pitching a structure bug. I probably had another 5-10 hits on various things that I just hesitated and missed. Maybe I was just a little rusty since I haven't used T-rigs much this year. The day also started off with a slight hint of fall in the air with some mist and full cloud cover, only for the sun to come out around 1:30 and give a brutal reminder summer is still here.

Lol I use all of the exact same trailers. Only two I would add would be some sort of double tail grub and a "realistic" trailer. Something like a Yum Craw Bug or Big Bite Baits Craw Worm (for these I bite off the "worm" section"). If I am working a jig really slow on hard bottom I like to use these. Not much action but on the right jig you can get the claws to stick into the air and just let it sit their in a defensive position.

I fish with reels as high speed as I can get away with. For some baits that's a 5 speed reel because it pains me to go slower on a higher speed reel. But for example, just today I was fishing a worm on a 6 speed reel, I usually use an 8. I made a long cast and about as soon as it hit the water I see a blowup...in the opposite direction. So I start reeling as fast as I can to get it back in, and even using the 6 speed it felt slow getting it in to make that next cast. By the time I got it in I was just barely still within casting distance, and I did catch the fish. I probably wouldn't have made that same cast using a 5 speed. But it all depends. If the fish are lethargic and it helps you to slow down then by all means a slower speed reel can be a life saver.

Got my Tatula CT in the mail from the Academy sale. I must say without fishing it yet I am impressed. The reel feels solid, has some nice features, and seems to be designed really well. I'll be testing it out tomorrow. I've never used one of their magforce reels so it should be interesting.

I'm a righty. I hold the rod in whichever hand I need to to make the cast. If it's the left I do a two handed cast with my right hand on the butt of the rod, and I just bring it to the handle as soon as the lure is in the air. If I make a right handed cast it's one handed and I switch when the lure hits the water.

To throw lipless cranks and lures as heavy as 8" hudds on the same rod is asking to much. You might find a rod that can physically do it, for example I COULD do that on my Okuma Guide Select....but it is faaaaaar from ideal for either. The sweet spot on that rod is around 2-3 ounces, even though the rating is 1-6. I think a lot of the big bait rods are kind of notorious for their inaccurate, and usually over-optimistic ratings. You say you'll mostly be throwing 1 oz lipless and 2-3oz swim baits. If I was you I would get a rod aimed at that, something like a 1-4oz rating and a decently parabolic action if you are fishing mostly hardbaits with trebles. Then if you enjoy that and want to get into fishing stuff like 8" hudds, larger glides etc. you just need to add to your arsenal, not replace.

Dick's strikes again lol I also partook in both of those sales

You and me both lol, I don't even know what I'm going to do with mine yet but I've wanted to try a Tatula for a while and once a deal gets to 40+ % off is where I start making impulse purchases.

It can also be had for 70 bucks right now on Academy http://www.academy.com/shop/pdp/daiwa-tatula-ct-freshwater-baitcast-reel#repChildCatid=3891514

I have not tried the Gantarel Jr., just the standard version so if someone who has both wants to chime in on any differences that would be great, but I have the s-waver 168. The Gantarel doesn't have as wide of a glide as the S-waver, it's definitely a different action on a slow retrieve. BUT I feel like the Gantarel offers more when it comes to triggering fish to bite. The "180" turn you hear often where you can make the lure spin around to look at a follower is really nice with the gantarel, and I've gotten mine to do full 360's where it will do a sharp 180 and then the momentum will slowly carry it back to facing forward again. I also like it better for faster retreives, it just seems more stable and I snag the hooks on my line less often than with the s-waver which will sometimes roll a little bit when twitched. But the gantarel has stabilizing fins so that's probably why. The gantarel also has the option to be a wakebait since it has two different line tie options. The S-waver I like to fish a little slower and use the reel to let it glide out to one side and give it some slack. It can also be "walked" underwater with some well timed rod twitches. IMO if you are going to be fishing slower and just lazily gliding it along I would go with the S-Waver. If you are going to be fishing faster or trying to trigger more aggressive fish I might go with the gantarel. I probably wouldn't directly compare them (I know, I just tried to, but still) because I feel they do have different actions.