bagofdonuts

I like either the zoom split tail or zoom z craw.

speed worms work really well on a swing head style hook as well. just sayin.

I remove at least half the skirt and add a plastic trailer, z craw's are good, also like the plain old split tail spinner bait trailer.

Nice fish, and a cool hat.

That's an H2O square bill in the face of the bass on my avatar. I think the color was hickory shad.

I usually have both tied on this time of year. the thicker the cover the more likely i am to use a swim jig. the sparser cover gets the speed worm. speed worm makes for a killer follow up bait to a buzzbait.

another vote for a split ring and a feather on the back hook.

Two pieces of advice. 1.) If you want to be good at it, practice. Even when you can't fish you can pitch around the yard. Still do it all the time. My neighbors think i'm nuts. But, if you can pitch a jig into a rose bush and finesse it through the branches, then you can do it under water. Soon you'll get use to how it feels to crawl the jig over a branch, it feels the same underwater. you'll begin to trust what your feeling and when it doesn't feel right, set the hook! been bass fishing for 50 years and can still tell if i'm outa practice. 2.) Don't be in a hurry to move your bait out of the cover. So many times I see someone new to fishing finally make a good cast, then rip it out of the cover. I'm saying "what's your hurry". Give the bass a second to check it out. Most folks are fishing too fast. The pros look like they're fishing fast, but a lot of times, they're covering water but fishing the bait slow.

Wooly Buggers, poppers, and bunny leaches are my most used flies.

mono will work fine. I'd go at least 15lb for pitching jigs into the bushes probably 20. or buy lots of jigs and retie often.

buzzbait texas rigged lizard swim jig

Man your old shimano looks way better than mine. That's show room new.

Agree. One of the things I like about buzzbaits is either everything wants to eat it or nothing, and you'll know pretty quickly. Throw a buzzbait over the top of that submerged grass and it'll get bit.

I have a couple of the old greenies and replaced the drag washers a couple years ago with carbontex. Piece of cake to replace and fairly cheap. Smooth as silk now. Love the old curados.

Denali rods are made in Mountain Home, Arkansas. You might check with them-they make good rods.