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I've done this before but used a trick worm or finesse worm instead of a senko. These worms weight a lot less than a senko so you can get away with using a smaller bobber. As stated, works better when there is a little ripple on water to move the bait.

My Dad & Grandfather got me started, but mostly it was my Dad. My Dad & I still fish together a few times a year as our schedules allow. About 43 years ago, I hooked this 7 & half pounder. It was a bedding fish that I caught with a dead shiner on a Zebco 33. We could see it in about 2 FOW in some weeds. Near end of day & all the minnows in the bucket were floating. My Dad said to put one of the dead minnows on and shake the rod when it got close to the bass. When my bobber got too close to the bank, he said throw it back out & keep repeating. Did that for about 30 mins when she finally hit it & boy did that Zebco start screaming. Dad had to come help me reel it in. Here's a pic after we got home. I was 7 then, and the rest is history. Heres a more modern pic of my Dad who mostly likes bream & crappie fishing these days.

Yeah, I can't stand when we catch a few in our boat, and then 2 or 3 other boats start encroaching on our area. Same when bank fishing. The other side of that coin is pretty sweet tho. I've gone right behind others when they didn't catch a thing along a stretch of bank or a particular piece of cover & have caught a few. A weightless senko works wonders in this scenario. I've gotten a couple of disgruntled looks too. ?

I fill my spool about half way with some super cheap mono before topping off the rest of the way with fluoro. I feel your pain tho. I tried a number of fluoro lines before settling on Invizx. It is by far the easiest handling FC I've tried. Yeah it's got some stretch, but I think that's the compromise you gotta pay for getting more "manageability". Plus, I'm using it for cranking applications where stretch is needed. Vanish is terrible line, I hated Vicious FC also. P Line Halo is by far the strongest and most sensitive of the FCs that I tried, but it's super stiff with a lotta memory, so again, tough to work with. One rat's nest on your reel & that stuff is toast. But you can get some good hook sets with it. Halo seems to be hard to find now. As is Berkley 100% FC, which was decent line, just kinda expensive. Which again brings me back to Invizx. IMO, decent line with good price point, especially when on sale. Another option is just use mono. A lotta Berkley Big Game fans on this forum. I just started using some 15 lb Big Game on one of my set ups for topwater. It's got relatively low stretch & handles very well. Super cheap too. Can't attest for sensitivity that much since I've only used it for topwater so far.

I use lipless cranks from early spring thru late, late fall - even early winter if it's warm enough. Caught some on a 1/4 oz redeye the day after Christmas last year with some 60 degree weather. I mostly fish the 1/4 oz shallow around grass, but will fish them deeper occasionally using a 1/2 oz. In warmer water the best retrieve is to burn it with occasional 1-2 sec pauses. When the water is colder, I'll let it sink to the bottom and pop it up & then pause, reel slack, sink to bottom & repeat. Sometimes this works better in warmer water too. Never know what mood they're in so you gotta play around with the retrieve. I prefer the redeye shad but use rattle traps and a few other brands at times.

Been there & it's frustrating. Number of baitfish schools with packs of bass busting on em. You can throw everything but the kitchen sink at times & nothing seems to work. ?

I haven't been much lately. And the few times I've been I haven't caught anything noteworthy. Just a few dinks.

I normally highlight my baits with chartreuse or red garlic scented Spike It.

I'm guessing they broke forum/website rules with over the top advertising or spamming like some other companies have done.

You might be ok with that color. If the water starts getting too stained or muddy, I usually switch to darker colors like junebug or black with red glitter.

Watermelon magic is one of Zoom's best colors for clear to slightly stained water imo. I use trick worms a lot on shaky head jigs and Texas rigs. They also work great rigging weightless & weedless. I like to rig them with a 5/0 EWG superline hook to give them a little weight, but not too much. They work well slow falling around weedlines & sparse grass.

+1 on the popper style bait. If you can learn to walk the dog with one, they can be really effective. And it doesn't have to be an expensive popper either. I've been playing around with the Academy Sports house brand poppers in the small & big sizes and they both work well. They come with decent vmc hooks too. They're like $5.

Can't believe nobody has mentioned this yet. Or if they have, I missed it. One of the other online fishing websites (not Tackle Warehouse) has had the Curado I on sale for $130 for a few weeks now. Cheapest I've seen them elsewhere is $150.

I keep expecting Jack Sparrow to jump out from behind that chest yelling, "I found it! It's all mine". Lol. That's some seriously beautiful work.

Yeah, those baitball series of baits always seemed a little "gimmicky" to me so I never pulled the trigger on one. I would think you'd need really clear water conditions for the baitball pattern to even be visible. Most of my fishing waters are stained to murky. I'd rather buy 3 baby 1 minuses for the price. But as I admitted in another thread, I did purchase a Dance's Eel back in the day. ? So go figure.

Bought one of these back in the mid 80's. ?

According to the specs, the Ima Roumba dives 0-2 ft. Not sure that's gonna be what you want either. Try the Storm Arashi wake crank. It's only like $8, but you can find them cheaper on sale at times. As long as you're not wanting to burn it back, I would think it'll work. You can check out videos of them before you purchase to be sure.

Where did you get the Mann's Wakers if you don't mind telling? I've got 2, one of which is bluegill. I bought mine a few yrs back from Bass Pro. I didnt realize they were discontinued. I might wanna grab a couple more before they're hard to find.

I'd say the baby 1- isn't a secret either. They're great baits & seem to get a lotta love on these forums. Prob cause they just flat out catch fish. ? Mine would prob be a Zoom ultra vibe speed worm and magnum speed craws. Yeah, yeah I know these are well known, but prob not the way I fish them at times. I like to rig them weightless & weedless on a 5/0 Gammy or Owner EWG hook. I'll swim em near surface around sparse grass and lily pads like a finesse buzzbait. On calmer days this tends to work better than a noisy buzzbait or a ribbit swimming frog. I've caught bass up to 8 lbs doing this. Plus you can kill it and let the bait slow fall into gaps. That speed worm really comes thru grass & lily pads well too.

I'm guessing what you want is something with that characteristic "V" swimming motion bulging just beneath the surface. I have some Lucky Craft wakebaits that stay near surface well, but they're little pricey. You can check out Academy Sports H2O Express wakebaits. They are def a bargain at $4 and got some good colors & good stock vmc hooks. Deepest they go is about 6". I think the Storm Arashi Wake crank stays near surface & has a really wide wobble. But I've heard it's tend to blow out when retrieved at high speeds. Mann's also makes a wakebait that bulges well on the surface. It looks kinda like a fatter & little bigger baby 1-. But it doesn't go as deep. Usually you can do a couple of things to help keep the bait at the surface. The easiest is to raise your rod tip & gradually lower it as bait gets closer to end of retrieve. Also, a slower retrieve helps while raising the rod tip. I haven't tried it, but I'd assume going to a larger diameter line would help keep it closer to surface. Mono line would be best since fluoro sinks a little.

Ok, I got to thinking so I just checked my rods. I don't pay attention to the rod tip ratings much because I buy according to what applications I'll use the rod for. I'll play with a rod & check the tip repeatedly to see if I think it'll work. My 7' MH is a St Croix Triumph with a fast tip - it's fairly stiff & I use the 15 lb FC with it. The 7'6" Rage Rod is MH with mod fast tip, so it's got little more flex but I'm using 30 lb braid on it. I also use this rod for frogging & weightless/weedless flukes & senkos. I like a fairly stiff tip on a rod for single hooked baits so I can really drive that hook point home. Maybe the mod fast tip on your okuma has a little too much flex to get a good hook set. Dunno for sure since I'm not familiar with that rod. You could maybe try braid to see if it helps or try another rod with a slightly stiffer tip. Don't give up tho. I've had good success with swimbaits for bigger fish over the last 6-7 yrs. They really produce well. Best of luck.

Man, that's hard to say. I use 4.5"-5.5" solid bodied and hollow bodied swimbaits quite a bit. And I use a similar set up: 7' MH rod with a somewhat stiff tip. Mostly I use 15 lb p line halo FC bc it's got great sensitivity and very little stretch. Occasionally I'll use my 7'6" St Croix MH Rage Rod with 30 lb braid. I always use the Gamakatzu 5/0 keel weighted swimbait hooks, with hook point skin hooked on top. I miss the occasional fish but not to the extent you seem to be having. I sometimes wait a sec or two to make sure they have the bait good before I set the hook. But I always try to set it hard like you would with a jig or t rigged plastic. Sometimes they blast the swimbait so hard there's no waiting. You just gotta rip back immediately. Maybe there's some slack in the line sometimes so you're not getting the best hook set.

Put some new hooks on that bad boy & let it rip. That's kinda always been one of my beefs with jitterbugs, tiny torpedos, hula poppers & other old school baits. They have great action & get the bites, but they have terrible hooks. And those old style hook hangers are horrible for changing out to high quality trebles.

+1 on the popper baits. Can't believe I forgot to mention that. It's become one of my go to topwater baits since I learned to walk to dog with one the last couple of yrs. It works so well walking it up to cover, then let it soak. Couple of extra spits & chugs, then BOOM!

I saw that video too. To me, Clunn is a different breed and a class act. He's also a straight shooter. I've spoken to him at length twice now. Both times when he's made public appearances at Bass Pro in Memphis. I have thoroughly enjoyed both conversations & he's just old school with his outlook on fishing and life in general. One of my all time favorite pros.