Dens228

I've experienced wind vs no wind with spinnerbaits but I've never noticed a difference in regards to crankbaits.........

A translucent, a natural, one that includes gold coloring.........that pretty much covers all my needs. Deep colors depend on clarity, but for the most part it hasn't really mattered between natural and translucent. I think it's the sound/vibration that brings them in.

I keep it very simple.. 20 lb 832 with a 12 pound mono leader for cranks, jerks, small topwater like poppers and walking baits 30 lb 832 for jigs, spinnerbaits, swimbaits, T-rigs, plastics 65 lb 832 for frogging and punching

I had two Quantum's, the Smoke S3's. I really liked them but do prefer my Lew's and Diawa's more.

I was out in my kayak Friday, water temp was 39. I caught 5 bass on a jerkbait. I didn't start catching them until I was pausing about 20 seconds or so between 2 or 3 twitches. All but one were caught during the pause. All of them barely put up a fight either. They were very lethargic.

I use a crankbait rod for mine. In the last month I've caught A LOT of bass with it.

I'm with you almost. All my jerkbaits are MegaBass or Lucky Craft. I love them both!

This past year was the first time I used cranks that went deeper than 12 feet. Under the right conditions they worked quite well.

Thanks!

What's a "slabbing" rod?

I live in northern Illinois and consider anything over 5 lbs to be a trophy here. At least for me. I've been lucky enough to catch about 10-15 or so 5+ in the last two years. I tended to catch them in bunches. I ended this year with 3 in my last two outings, two on jerkbaits suspended along a steep drop off that goes from 4 feet straight down to 15 feet. The other was bouncing a 7/8 oz lipless along the bottom of another big drop off in 22 feet of water. I'd bet that all of the others were all caught on jigs at various depths depending on the conditions. The funny thing is my PB is 8-03, caught on a wacky rig in a 5 acre pond the first year I got back into bass fishing which was about four years ago. I've only caught one other one over 6! LOL But I'll keep chasing them.

I can rip a swim jig through vegetation that a chatter can't get through. Well not while retaining the "chatter" of a chatterbait. I do prefer a squarebill most of the time though. No particular reason other than I seem to do better with them.

I retired four years ago. Three years ago I got a part time job working security at a high school. I don't start until 2:00 pm and have summers off. This allows me to fish A LOT! LOL

I don't worry so much about trying the match the various shad varieties offered by the companies. I get a basic shad such as threadfin, and a shad color with chartreuse. That has pretty much covered my needs.

I use a MH/Fast for weighted plastics and jigs.

There is no best for all applications. Unless you're asking for the best for each of the applications??? You are going to get A LOT of different answers!

And the two going back and forth with nothing regarding the OP is how threads get closed...lol

If you can only use two setups I'd use a H/Fast for frogging and a MH/fast for the others. I don't think the MH/F is optimum for cranks but it will work for sure. If you use weightless and light weight T-rig for plastics you could replace the MH/fast with a M/Mod, the problem with that is you wouldn't have a MH/Fast which could actually be used for everything.

I'd say backhanded cast I'm about a 7. Forehand I'm about a 4! Two summers ago I jacked up my shoulder that really affected my forehand so I resorted to mainly backhand and got pretty good at it. As payment my forehand got much worse..lol

Rod wise I used to use a MH/Fast for buzzbaits. In late summer this year I used a H/Fast and my hookups were 100%. The bass seemed to hook themselves with little need of assistance from me.

My choice would be a swim jig/paddletail mainly due to there's virtually nowhere you can't use it.

The Braillist.

Megabass Orochi XX with a Tatula SV TW for jigs and swim jigs.

Jerbait.

I use braid on everything. I only use a leader on my crankbait and jerkbait rods, more to keep the braid from tangling with the hooks more than anything else. I've never had a problem that I'm aware of with fish seeing my braid and hightailing it away. That being said, I've tried many different colors and they all tend to turn into "Ghost" when they fade......lol