Lead Head

I'm too old for nonsense like that, but a few years and a couple of drinks ago...

@TnRiver46 I still giggle to myself every time a picture of your boat with that "hot seat" up front shows up. I bet sitting in that thing while motoring can get interesting.

I like the green mirrored (copper based) costas. I own a pair of grey based, but far prefer the copper. To me, they are superior in low light, overcast weather, and stained water. They are close enough to equal in bright sun that I never bother to change, and almost all of my water is stained (if not down right muddy) anyway. I try to be a frugal fisherman, but after nearly 20 years of working nights the sun is hard on my eyes. I don't skimp out on sunglasses.

People catch bass on jigs well over 3/8oz all the time. The fish has to feel the weight of a jig nearly every time. I've caught a great many bass on a t-rig with a 3/8oz bullet sinker both pegged and unpegged.

@Bluebasser86 good grief! That is one FAT gar. I've seen some monsters down here in the AR river but never one built like that. He was eating good!

Be sure and let us know when you get it, and what you think of it.

The body does indeed (eventually) expel stuff. My dad pulled a piece of glass out of his foot from a 35 year old injury. My brother still finds threads from his pants and small pieces of shattered tac holster in his 10 year old gunshot scars.

@schplurg loved the "oh!". Just a guess, but it seemed like you said this on unexpected and/or violent strikes... good stuff. I also liked how you stepped it up to "oh shhh" on the good topwater hit.

One thing I absolutly love about it... when you stick a fish with it, they very rarely come off. I tried a x-fast rod for frogging and lost way too many fish after a good initial hookup.

Yes! I absolutley love the rod... for lots of applications. It will cast a wide range of weights and is my absolute favorite frog rod. I have 2, one is now raw graphite and red (in the photo), the other is primer grey and black. I should weigh them, they should be MUCH lighter now than they were off the shelf. Stripping down a rod to bare graphite is a major pain, but I was willing to do it for this blank.

New to me SV arsenal, left to right Steez 100 (sv spool added) on a Rodgeeks MH bass4 Alphas sv105 on a old green bps extreme H rod that I stripped and rebuilt SS SV with upgraded drag and 8.1.1 brass gear set on a NFC X-ray SJ-736 Alphas sv105 on a MHX mb842

When jig fishing, I like my leader to be as long as possible without entering the tip top of my rod when pitching. This usually means a few inches shy of 6'. 50lb 832 to 25lb sniper for jigs in clear water, or if the hook is too strong to bend out.

This guy uses leader at least 2x stronger than his braid, in this case 10lb braid to 30lb mono so 3x stronger. I'm 100% on board that the FG is a better knot, but since I use leader that is weaker (and usually 1/2 as strong or less) than my braid main line I don't trust that test to be applicable to my fishing. In the 10 or so trips I was able to test that "gt" knot last year, I was just as likely to fail it as I was my knot on my lure. That tells me it is about equal to my terminal knot, if thats 50% or 80% line strength I couldn't say. I just know its super fast and easy to tie and has not failed unless I wanted it to... yet. Just looking at it, I would guess a uni to uni would be stronger. With my post last year I decided to go ahead and stick with this knot for awhile to test it out. So far, I'm still "testing it out" but it hasn't done anything to make me abandon it yet.

Ok, I just made a large post on the Alberto alternative thread in regards to this video. If you care to see all my thoughts on this knot look there. The short version is... 1. I'm pretty sure this isn't a true GT knot, and not the one actually tested. Its been awhile but I think the guy in the video confirms this in his comments if you track down the original video. 2. The knot in the video works great for me and is currently all I use for both light and heavy tackle.

I posted about this knot a while back. If I remember correctly, it was pointed out to me that the knot being tied in this video is not a full blown GT but a simplified version of it. If you track down the original video, the guy that made it confirms this in the comments. (I'm pretty sure, its been awhile) Having said that, this is the knot I used all last year with great results. My only failures were snags that I had to intentionally break off. On intentional failures, it was about 50/50 between the leader knot and knot to lure with FC. I used this knot with 15lb braid to 10-14lb FC, 30lb braid to 14-16lb FC, and 50lb braid to 25lb FC all with the same results. Mostly suffix 832 and sunline sniper. When I first started using it, I was intentionally way over doing my hook sets to test out if it would hold up. It works great for me, I haven't had to tie a FG knot in nearly a year. As always YMMV.

No, sinkers hitting you that fast HURT. They can even end up buried under the skin. They don't call them bullet sinkers for nothing.

Yeah, if they made tatula sv without the T-wing I would own a fleet of them, but me and the T-wing don't play well together. Good to hear the fuego is similar. I'm not crazy about the solid red but I guess I'll make do. Thanks for your input.

Just a thought. The trashmaster jig really does a good job of not getting hung up when compared to other jigs. Maybe jigs could be next in line for something new. Fish them on the bottom around cover, and swim them on the rip rap. You could switch out your trailer between the different cover, but its not necessary. It is nice to be able to go from imitating a craw to imitating a bait fish with just the switch of a trailer though. Those trashmasters fish almost just like a t-rig to me. So if you were able to fish a t-rig without too many hang-up problems in the past this could definitely be a solution to your "no soft plastics" policy.

About 20 miles south of Little Rock. You know about this dirty ol' river I'm always talking about. I've never made it out to Dardanelle, just too long of a haul. I could never drive past Atkins anyway. They have mature Florida bass, monsters come out of there pretty regularly.

Anyone had one of these on the water yet? I'm curious to hear how they perform.

Academy has free shipping at $25 also.

I think WRB makes a really good point here. It is definitely important to keep in mind that a good knot with (heavy) braid is probably capable of destroying most bass fishing equipment. @mcipinkie I had the same experience with braid 20+ years ago. It seemed like no matter what I did the knot would slip or cut itself. I gave up on it. About 8 or so years ago I tried again using the "twice through the eye" uni knot and haven't had a single knot issue since. I'm sure the Palomar works great as well because too many great anglers have success with it, but I have never had a reason to switch from the uni.

@king fisherI understand what your saying. I'm fishing for bass, and giving my experience and opinion based on such. It was not my intention to suggest there is a knot out there that will not fail, just that I've never failed MY braid knot in my waters. 50lb braid is simply way stronger than what is really needed for how I fish, but the fish don't seem to mind the braid, and I would rather bend out a hook than break off my lure and leave it behind in the water. I guess it is noteworthy that I have recently switched to a jig with a much stronger hook. It is likely that I will be forced to wrap line around my pliers and fail (most likely) my knot at some point but I haven't got there yet. I've been using leaders way more as well, but that is a totally different conversation that ill stay out of in this thread.

Well... let me give context. Before last lear, I fished 1-2 times a week (roughly 6-8 hour trips) 10 months out of the year for about 5 years. If that is "enough" to see a failure I can't say, I guess "enough" fishing is a relative term. In that time I used 50lb braid for all jig and t-rig fishing. I have cut braid on sharp stuff a few times, I have bent out more hooks than I could possibly count, and I have had to cut my own line (as deep as possible) but I have never failed a knot. Maybe if I used the paddle or a stick or something to really yank on the few snags I had to cut I would have failed the knot, but I was mostly a co-angler and tried not to be overly bothersome to the guy I was with. I guess its possible (if not probable) that I never managed to exceed the 40lb or so of force required to fail the knot. But I definitely stand by my statement that I never failed a fishing-fool uni on 50lb braid. I most definitely could if I intentionally tried, and I agree 100% that undamaged line forced beyond its breaking point will fail at the knot. I've just never managed to get there with 50lb braid where and how I fish. This is all just my personal experience, obviously YMMV.

My biggest this year came on a 3/8oz Siebert brush jig. Its my primary pitching jig but I got my biggest fish swimming it over a brush pile. I didn't weigh her but I figure she fell somewhere between 4 and 5lbs.