JustJames

I wanna say 7lb 12oz but you never show a fish less than double digit plus you look a lot bigger than when I saw you last lol.

Yup another invasive fish from Southeast Asia and again only in Florida ?. These fish eat everything from soap to dead animals. They can stay in mud and out of water for a long time. A lot of Asians like it my wife included, but not me never have one. The meat is soft, fatty, oily and kind of yellowish. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarias

Late Congrat sorry, such a nice hawg.

I like this ^^^^^. And this is from a guy that still own and use SLX regularly.

Not totally agreed but closed ? And situation like this when left reel come in handy.

Who is the second said SLX cast further? Anyway this topic is about curado K, you recommended SLX which is nice of you, but I doubted you ever handle curado K yourself.

Nuff said.?

Maybe she fished different spot where a lot of rock/pebbles vs mud/sand. HMG isn’t cheap nor expensive but i’ve heard good thing about it.

I’m pretty new to jig fishing too and I don’t modify any jig. I started with some cheap brand like booyah and strike king. As of now I learn how to work jig uphill and downhill with less hang up, and how to detect bite. I use mostly natural color green pumpkin, brown/purple and black blue. The trailer that work for me Rage Menace, Rage Craw and Missile bait D bomb.

Any pic where do you clip your? (Would the largest one fit into handle?) it might be better than hook a jig onto the reel or bottom guide. Anyway I start to love this rod even more when pair with bantam, don’t feel any tip heavy and balance well with bantam. I pair the rod and reel this morning and caught 2 decent size ones.

If I know how to find bullgill and crappies that would be fun. I have not touch my crappies rig for months, even I promised myself to do more crappies fishing.

For me is swimbait type or anything that swim for that matter like lipless, paddle tail, underspin. I can’t seem to figure out how fast or how slow to reel in. I can dance my Fluke all day bottom or between water column but don’t have patience for those.

Knot failure for me only 10 - 20% The rest is too lazy to re-tie failure, I’m so d**n guilty of it. Lol Add*** Come to think of it only weightless worm Senko included, less than 50% that I felt any strike before I set hook, it always some type of line movement or tension of line that noticeable difference. So if I wait until I feel bite it might be too late or get a gutted hook fish.

If I use heat shrink tube, I rig it through the tube pass the worm just like you normally wacky rig without tube. No glue need and I don’t shrink the tube either (burnt smell might chase bass away)

I used to fish a lot lighter line, I’m talking #4 - #8 copolymer line, even caught a 20+lbs carp with #4 Izorline on Calcutta 50. Over the years I gradually go up in line diameter 6 - 15lb line since bass is not so line shy and to avoid line break off on hookset. I do sometime caught bass on my panfish setup #4 Izorline. it was fun but I wouldn’t target bass using this rig.

My pixy is only 3lb max drag and have no problem catching bass. Once a while it feel good to let bass pull some line out.

It will get bigger for sure lol

To clean every bit inside the reel is a little too much and i’d leave that for professionals. I normally would flush spool bearing, clean out old grease from gears and any visible parts as much as possible. If you trust yourself you can remove worm gear and clean those part as well. I use rem oil spray just for this by spray rem oil into worm gear without removing it. I also don’t remove main shaft since I don’t think we need to clean either bearing or bushing that support main shaft. I also don’t touch AR bearing or bearing under pinion yoke (unless it is Shimano). After you clean all necessary parts include frame, put back together add just enough grease to gear plastic/metal a drop of oil should be enough for spool bearing. I forgot drag stack and not so many talk about this, I clean excessive moisture from every parts with paper towel, I don’t add grease nor oil to metal washer just a little slim coat of grease to felt/carbon fiber. I only use Shimano drag grease and bantam oil.

Best bass ever you caught there @Catt congrats

My new jig rod, Shimano Zodias 610H which is properly broken in. Will be pare with Bantam MGL once I take out of the box and spool with 15lb AbrazX.

Let us know how it goes, I love fishing Fluke even more so than Senko.

As @primetimementioned Sluggo seem to be rigid compare to others, but it would give you more dart action like Senko with a little wiggle on the tail. I have 9” version but have not caught any fish with it. If you really wanna fish Fluke style bait, you can’t go wrong with Zoom Super Salty Fluke.

Junk fishing is me, “always have no idea what I’m doing and have no plan”. When I’m on a boat i’d stop at first visible structure and throw everything I have at it, if that doesn’t work I move on to the next and replete the same thing over and over until I get tired and go home. Lol

This is why I do laundry for myself ...............and my wife lol.

You are d**n right about that lol. anyway this is same fish. And this is my weight.