Black Hawk Basser

Perhaps you could just butt the plastic up to the head and use a dab of super glue to secure it. Maybe that will allow it to stay in without threading it all the way over the lead part.

I'll stick with my Chigger Craws ?

My favorite way to fish plastics is weightless and aggressive on top with Flukes, toads, & creatures. When it is very tough, I'll bottom hop a lightly weighted Texas rigged Chigger Craw or finesse worm.

Baltimore and Minnesota

Zoom Ultra Vibe Speed Worm

I see. The last time I was out, I used a 3/8 oz jig and caught 3 fish on it, all 13" or under. Just food for thought. You can trim the skirt length down to make a more compact package on a bigger jig to make it more of a finesse deal.

I've been surprised plenty of times, especially in early spring, when I've burned a bait in to recast and got a hard hit. Now I always employ the full gamut of retrieves no matter what the water temp is.

I wouldn't be afraid to throw a regular sized jig. I've caught the majority of my bass so far on 3/8 oz jigs that I make myself. If I didn't make them, I'd most definitely purchase from Sieberts.

Ditto. That's one of the first baits I reach for in spring.

If I wouldn't have thrown one tonight, I don't think I'd have caught a fish. Tried a jig, several cranks, a popper, & Grass Pig but the only thing that caught was a white and black SB with silver Colorado blades. Water temps were mid 50's.

Yeah, I know. ? I bought at least 15 packs of Grass Pigs when I found out they were to be disco'd.

I love the whole Havoc line, especially the Pit Boss, Grass Pig and Craw Fatty.

Maybe a deep diving crankbait or two. Strike King or Bomber are pretty affordable. I like to "troll" these baits with my kayak. The stop and go action of paddling makes for a good strike trigger. I should also mention that probably a fair amount of what you used in saltwater would translate to bass fishing. I've used some baits for bass that were marketed for "saltwater". The fish don't know the difference on where the company tells you to fish it!

Fish Whistle, among some of the other aforementioned items. ?

Doesn't the Shadow Rap slowly rise, not sink? Edit: Nevermind!

I like to run something like a spinnerbait or chatterbait down the length of the blowdown to see if any aggressive fish come out and smack it. After doing that a few times, I then start to pick it apart more with a jig or T-Rig from the outside-in.

I've done just fine for decades using straight braid. I've tried fluorocarbon leaders and I'm not convinced that it makes much difference for me.

Not exactly that, but I've definitely "killed" a lot of toads along grass edges and let them plummet toward bottom. I've also gotten some really quality bites doing that.

I've changed out hooks on Bomber squarebills, Storm Chug Bugs and several models of lipless cranks.

Yep, I still have a white/black and a firetiger. They work.

You're complaining about fishy hands? Come on, man!

The above post from @JediAmoeba was well said. I have gone out on many a hiking trip around shorelines with one medium spinning rod, thrown everything in my box and have done just fine. The sky is the limit for how many tactic-specific rod/reel combos you could amass, but that's not totally necessary.

Thank you for mentioning that! I may look into getting some for my mold, although I have had great results with the normal Mustad hooks.

Do what works for you, man. I have found that I catch a whole lot of walleye in my river with bass plastics and an offset EWG hook. That isn't supposed to happen, either.

I don't know if it means I have a great memory, or that I just don't go fishing enough, or I don't have enough baits to forget, but I almost always remember which baits have caught fish and which have not. I can generally look at a bait or bag of plastics and think to myself "oh yeah, I had a good day with that at Lake X last spring", or "nothing on those/that yet".