BrackishBassin

I’ve found them on Amazon before. Used them for a project I did with my classes during one of our exploratory days. Decently cheap and the designs are very similar to the stuff you buy painted from the name brands. Are they high quality? That I couldn’t tell you, but they don’t look or feel any different to me.

I'm a bank guy that lugs a backpack, so I actually stick with the smaller Plano boxes (3601). They fit plenty to meet my needs. Spinnerbaits have their own little pouch in the backpack as do buzzbaits.

Haven't had that issue with my chatterbaits, but I only use the trailers that come with them. Don't think they have much in the way of buoyancy.

Only time I've managed to bend out one of the Zman shroom jigs was trying to get it out of the side of a submerged log I found. But I fish them on a med light rod with 15lb braid and a 6 lb leader. No clue how the leader held up, but it did.

I've thrown a weightless worm with my baitcasting gear before, but it's just not an optimal set up for me. The lake I fish is really tough to bank fish. I'd upload some pictures, but I'm on my phone and they're way too big. My profile picture is from that lake. You might be able to see the shoreline in the background if you zoom in. That picture was taken in March before all the low growing stuff really gets going. Most of the spots require a climb up and/or down a hill and have lots of trees overhead and shrubs/grasses on the sides. I'm just not good enough yet to cast with my baitcasters from most of the spots I'm fishing from. There's a couple where I can toss a crankbait or jig with the baitcasters, but they have to be heavy enough for me to just lob them with minimal rod movement (like a foot max) to avoid a backlash from tagging some vegetation.

I throw the weightless stuff on a spinning rod, but I've only been fishing with baitcasters for a year. Not worth the hassle throwing super light baits on a baitcaster, imo. I'm also a bank fisherman, so I don't have the luxury of a rod locker. My med light spinning set up is pretty versatile. I throw weightless plastics, Ned rigs, smaller crankbaits, floating jerkbaits, and anything else that's not at least 3/8 of an ounce on it. Can't really afford to carry a 4th rod with me. I'm fishing in tight quarters with hills that I have to climb up and down when I move spots.

I'm not a huge fan of trebles. Haven't had one hook me deep, but it's been close a few times. So, ant baits I make/paint get inline singles (since I have to buy hooks anyways), but I've found replacing all of the trebles to be too expensive. I have converted all of my saltwater lures over to singles though and haven't seen/experienced any issues.

No time to take the boat out due to my twin boys, so I'll have to take your word for that. But that's definitely interesting. I wonder if it might have to do with the fact that mono soaks up water. Can't think of any other reason unless there are differences in how smooth the line is at the microscopic level.

Curious how the drag coefficient would be different between mono and fluoro of the same diameter.

Ran across this in a saltwater forum I frequent. Interesting information and worth a read. https://activeanglingnz.com/2016/01/04/the-fluorocarbon-myth/

I don't own any St. Croix rods, but the rod I use the most (due to the heavy grass bottoms of the local ponds I fish) is a MH Abu Garcia Vendetta. I fish everything except my smaller moving baits (cranks, chatterbaits, jerkbaits) on it.

As someone who exclusively fishes from the bank, that's a bummer to hear, but I guess I understand. Never catch me with a bucket though. Just a couple of rods and my backpack. Last time I fished my local lake, I had a couple of guys in a boat ask me what I was using after I caught three right in front of them. I shared. Even tossed them a handful of the plastics because they didn't have anything in their boat that color. Guess I fall on the other end of the spectrum. Don't mind sharing at all.

Clothes with a UPF have been tested and met certain benchmarks in order to be labeled as such. You can get away with not buying stuff that carries a UPF if you do some research. For example, synthetic fabrics tend to block way more UV than their natural counterparts. Polyester or nylon are decent choices. Cotton, not so much. I have two Columbia shirts and they're decent. However, my go to is stuff made by a company out of Florida called Salt Strong. It's geared towards saltwater guys (originally I was a salt only fisherman) but we're all out in the same sun whether we're fishing salt, fresh, or brackish waters. Their stuff is slightly cheaper than Columbia, Huk, Patagonia, etc and even better, it's all made in America. Great warranty and customer service. Definitely worth a look.

I ordered a bunch of blanks off eBay for a project I was doing with some students and all the poppers looked exactly like that. Slits and all. If you're interested, just let me know and I'll send you the link.

First time I ever put a boat in, after months of work to get it working and 15 minutes of cursing trying to back it down a ramp that was created by Satan himself, I finally got the boat in the water and was admiring my handiwork when the wife says, "Why is the back sinking like that? Shouldn't it float?" Plug was at home an hour away. Pulled the boat out, tied it back down, and drove away without ever wetting a line.

I've had no issues with the 90 I picked up.

I had lots of luck at a local pond this week tossing out a Texas rigged craw with a light (3/16) tungsten weight that wasn't pegged. Just like the guys mentioned above, I tossed it in holes and around isolated clumps of lilly pads. Surprisingly, I rarely got hung up. With the weight being a bullet shape and on the lighter side, if I reeled slowly, it just came up and over the pads without issues. Allowed me to cast past the targeted hole and then creep the bait into it to avoid spooking the fish. Took me about 45 minutes to circle the pond and I hooked up with 7 fish. Nothing to write home about, but it's the first time I've been successful fishing that particular pond.

I love fishing frogs. Something about it is even more fun than most other top water baits. That being said, my most productive top water bait (so far) has been poppers by a large margin. Maybe just because they're treble hook baits so they're more likely to hook up, or because the bass in the places I fish are on the smaller size and can't get the whole frog in their mouth. Went this past week at sunset and threw a frog for a couple of hours. I had 13 blow ups on the frog, including quite a few where the bait got sucked completely under the water, but I only landed one fish.

All my saltwater stuff has been switched over. Haven't started on the freshwater yet, but all the lures I've made/painted all have the singles on them by default. Fewer snags, easier to release fish, harder to hook myself, and I avoid foul hooking bass that swipe at them. Feels like cheating.

Not in the budget at the moment, but looking at them for the future for sure. My fishing time is crazy limited at the moment. I've got twin 14 month old boys at home.

Switching over to inline single hooks would reduce you snags significantly. I haven't read about many guys doing it on these forums, but it's fairly common with those of us that fish saltwater.

Just use an FG and tie a long enough leader that there's a few coils of leader on the reel itself. I come from saltwater and it's the same as tying a shock leader for throwing heavier leads. The stress isn't on the knot, it's on the line, as long as there's a few loops of leader on the reel.

Love my Tatula CT! Really need to pick up another one as I've found myself choosing to fish even my heavier baits on the med action rod the CT is on just because I prefer that reel over the cheapo Black Max on my med heavy rod.

Alright, thanks! Guess I was just meant to miss those fish because that's exactly what I was doing. Going to give the grassburner a shot next time I go out after all the buzzbait suggestions. Unfortunately, it's white/chartreuse, but it's got trebles so maybe it'll have a better hook up ratio.

No carp in this pond. It's privately owned. Just bass and sunfish. I've got two buzzbaits, but they're both in a white or white/chartreuse. Would black be better?