Dorado

@Fairtax4me great reports brother! Keep me coming!

I’m from Denver and you have some decent options in the city. Chatfield Reservior is excellent for walleye and smallmouth. Concentrate on the riprap parts of the dam. Gizzard Shad and crawdads makes up the forage. Rocky Mountain Arsenal is a nice little gem that is full of largemouths and bluegills. 4” GP w/ Black Flk wacky-rigged will catch bass all day, at the smaller pond. Lowell Ponds have huge catfish and are super easy to catch. There are a ton of bass there too and are partial to bluegill patterned Squarebills. If you really want to enhance your Denver metro fishing experience, Invest in a float tube. Trust me

1) Squarebills/Chatterbaits (tied) 2) Ned Rig 3) Grubs either on darterheads or underspins This^^^. Here way far south, in Arizona, they definitely work like magic here too during those times

I like the 3/8 oz most of the time and 1/2 oz when I’m fishing > 25-30’ of water or when it’s windy. It fits perfectly and those Owner hooks are sharp. Happy fishing. It’s my favorite type of jig!

Does the swivel add more action when you attach it to the split ring?

I wrote a question about this same issue in the “other species” forum regarding trout fishing a few months back. The older kastmaster spoons were not equipped with split rings. One day, the manufacturer made the smart switch to include them and there ya have it!

Took the kayak out to Bartlett Reservior, AZ on a very windy day. Caught several of these guys all on Gary Yamamoto baits. Numbers came from Shad Shaped Worms (Blue Pearl Silver Flake) on a winter drop shot and the largest from a Hula Grub rigged on 3/8oz Football Jighead (Watermelon w/ Black/Gold). I videogamed it in 19 ft of water by dropping it right on top of his head from honing in on my sonar. Finally getting the hang of my electronics!

Weightless trick worm Bitsy Tubes on 1/8oz tube jigs Ned Rig Wacky Rig GP w/ Black Flake Senko Roadrunners paired with Sassy Shad or Grubs I could finesse fish for bass the rest of my life with those top 5 baits and be one happy angler

@JustJames nice combo (Roadrunner and Baby Shad) you might not meet a deadlier crappie lure than that my friend. Keep the reports coming!

I like this thread already....

There is a reason why I always have a 3” white Grub rigged on a chartreuse Roadrunner in my panic box, 24-7/365 Grubs are snacks to most gamefish. They will chomp on these, even when they’re not actively feeding. They will chase these when they are actively feeding. Thinking Grubs increase my odds quite a bit. Subtle like a Ned Rig, but supercharged with the natural propeller-like swimming motion from that single tail that covers all the water columns so effectively. Kalin’s Grub In Ron’s Craw Fat Albert in Junebug these are just a few of my favorite things?

That’s just cheating.......

I couldn’t bear it. I even went to Cabales and a local tackle shop to have the guys demo the exact same reel, straight out of the package, and same issues. Even the tackle shop owner couldn’t believe it. I exchanged it for a Pflueger Supreme 30x and couldn’t be happier. It’s light for its profile, super quiet, and smooth like butta! No more Daiwas for me

I wish I was. I’ve used black cavitrons, fished after rain, fished during windy conditions, fished them at night, use higher speed ratio reels, used white buzzbaits, and so on. I don’t get it.

Ton of great responses from everyone. I’m going to try your solution here and eventually migrate the hooks, safety pinned, over to a new Plano thin box one day and revert that standard 3700 solely for lures

Taking a bunch of kids fishing today and rigged them all up with 1/16 oz chartreuse roadrunners with 2” Powerbait Grubs in Pumpkinseed. That’s a killer combo! So many anglers underestimated the effectiveness of Grubs, especially for stocked trout. They were great for sight fishing too because you can finesse them slowly in a school and usually always pick out a gullible fish as opposed to burning inline spinners past em

Any type of buzzbait. Not even a single missed strike. But, I see how many BR members praise em, and I never loose hope.

The 1/4 Oz Kastmaster is a staple in my trout fishing arsenal. Sometimes they like to feed in the very middle of a pond and the casting distance of a 1/4 compared to an 1/8 is just the ticket you need

Went thru the painstaking chore of organizing, labeling, and storing various hooks in my Plano tray. After a couple outings in my backpack, I discover that the hooks got all shuffled around and intermixed now outside of their compartments. There has to be a better way. What do you guys do? Shouldve left them in their respective packages and stored them elsewhere?

Owner flashy swimmer mated with either 3.8” Keitech FAT Swing Impact or RI Little Dipper were my #1 producers out of my yak in 2018. Second was the trusty ol’ 1/4oz SK Red Eye Shad in Chrome Blue Back

@E-DOG I ordered that exact same Daiwa Fuego spinning reel and it came into the mail a couple days ago. It makes the exact same sound as you described with each oscillation. I haven’t put line on it yet because it’s really bothering me and I’m thinking about returning it. Did you ever get it to run quietly?

I share the same exact feelings. When I discovered LC 1.5 I felt like I graduated in the Squarebill realm. The Black Moss has caught me more bass than any other crankbait I own. Hooks are so much sharper than KVD 1.5s and 2.5s.

Epic!

@robbiez111 One-Minus caught my PB Largemouth (on avatar). Fireshad Crystaglow was the pattern. It’s an all-time classic hardbait!

What tube jigs do you recommend for Weedless or stupid rigging tubes. Tubes were one of my top producers this year and I’m tired of snagging with exposed hooks Mostly use 2.5”-3.5” tube baits