Fishingintheweeds

What's the differences between the Fogy and Fogy Bubble Blade?

On other posts, there have been people to swear by heavy mono or flourocarbon leaders around the pike and musky. Back in the spring and early summer, I would catch bass in the river...now, in the same spots, around the thicker cover, all pike. It probably doesn't help that most of my time fishing at the river is during lunch, so middle of the day. Before I realized that this is probably going to be the deal for the rest of the summer/fall (?) I'd gotten away with braid, no leader, until losing a pretty big one the other day. I've got 15 lb fluoro and I want to say 20 lb mono...do you think this would be even remotely suitable?

So, this might not be the most popular chatterbait out there but I have had the more fish on my rage blades. I have Z-Mans also, because I actually catch fish on them and feel confident about tying one on. I want to compare. It seems like the trade off between those two, is that one starts and vibrates sooner on the retrieve and "better" (Z-Man), and one I can get through cover better and haven't lost any to snags (Rage Blade). What are some other favorites? Are there any that are known to come through cover significantly better than most others?

I've had pretty consistent luck with them any way you could think of, including topwater. On the 4"...not so much the 5. To me, the 5 just seems too big. Somehow, it wasn't until this year that I saw the 3" though and I felt like I should have some. But I wasn't sure why, exactly. Until these posts, I'd never heard of so many saying that downsizing this got more bites. Thanks!

Thanks for the replies. I ask because I set out to spend time with a type or to specifically try and fish one into the ground and/or try color changes throughout the day and then I draw a blank on what to do next OR I start to play with my retrieve and trying different targets and angles instead. Any of a few Zoom worms are good for me. Most of what I've caught on worms lately had been 9" or larger...I keep meaning to throw in the 4" but...all I have are intentions. How does everyone decide when to try a larger or smaller worm? If you're getting feedback from the fish, what kinds of things indicate that you should try and downsize? For me...it's when I have zero bites but don't want to give up on the plastics just yet. About the craws and creature baits...I know the brush hogs are supposed to really kill em...but I have had zero on them. Same with the crawdad baits. I take that back, I was tossing them into holds in the pads and on the retrieve got a blowup on top. Ha, it was pretty cool, because topwater strikes always are, but it wasn't what I was trying to do. Maybe I just can't comprehend or process some techniques but I like the chigger bug on the weedless no-skirt arkie. That will be getting tied on soon. Do you have any specific recommendations for how you like to fish craw and creature baits? When do you choose one over the other? I have pretty good success with almost any kind of paddle tail swimbait...as my chatterbait trailer. I've caught more fish on chatterbaits, since I started using them, than almost all other ways combined. Thanks to the paddletails. But I've also had success throwing them at cover and working them through or slowly dragging them, weedless. "Swimming" them hasn't gotten me any action. Last, the Berkley Havoc Pit Boss...they've worked for me as chatterbait trailers, topwaterz (open or in pads), weightless and T rigged in lots of applications. Similar is the devil spear...but I think I'm the only person who still has some of those lying around...but they worked for me. And even though I never hear any talk about them, I see the Pit Boss is still being made so it must be working for at least a dozen other people besides just me.

Thanks for the replies. I ask because I set out to spend time with a type or to specifically try and fish one into the ground and/or try color changes throughout the day and then I draw a blank on what to do next OR I start to play with my retrieve and trying different targets and angles instead. Any of a few Zoom worms are good for me. Most of what I've caught on worms lately had been 9" or larger...I keep meaning to throw in the 4" but...all I have are intentions. How does everyone decide when to try a larger or smaller worm? If you're getting feedback from the fish, what kinds of things indicate that you should try and downsize? For me...it's when I have zero bites but don't want to give up in the plastics just yet. I say zero because fishing from the banks, spots are limited and if I know there is reason for fish to be there but I've got no action, it's time for a change.

I've caught some ok bass in the river around the Gallup Park area, all between there and the dam. I go over for 20-30 minutes during my lunch break, walking the bank and pitching in holes in cover or at targets. They were fun because they were where they were supposed to be and I caught them doing what you're "supposed" to do in each situation. I've also caught pike over there. Lately, it's like I can't get away from them. I got broke off by a pretty big one today, pitching on the bank where the bass would normally be. The short fight was fun...but I'm not REALLY trying to mess with them!

I have the two Royale Legend reels. The one I got at the end of 16 is still going the same as the first day I got it and the one I got earlier this year is also. The first has made lots of casts into cover from the bank and pulled fish through it and the majority of my casts to what look like open water involve ripping chatterbaits through or over grass. The second, I have thrown, almost exclusively, frogs into heavy pads this year and pulled some decent ones out from distances that I was a little unsure about. I guess I will start throwing something that I can work in more open water going into the end of summer. I've got this one on a 7'3" KK my/f rod also. I also get daring with my casts and have worked and pulled out more snags than I would've liked to have had in the first place. But both are holding up well so far.

I've got a few that I'm partial to and maybe I use some of them in ways or situations where they don't exactly shine. So, of a few types (worm, creature, or by open water/in cover, etc.), what are your favorites and why? What of each type is your favorite in the most situations?

What is it that is special about these that would make them less likely to gut hook, than say, a circle hook? I understand the cons to circle hooks and I'm leaning towards trying to figure out new ways I can rig circle hooks...preferably some way I can make it weedless, if possible...but back to the question. What is different about these hooks that make them less likely to gut hook?

I have one Royale Legend that I got as a gift that I used in the end of 2016, all of 2017 and through this year. I had it in a 3-4 rod rotation. I had a lot of problems with backlashes last year, fewer this year, as I learned it. I was having a problem adjusting from the feel of a Black Max and whatever the $100 Lew's combo is. Out of curiosity, I bought a second Royale Legend to see if maybe there was some variability in the reels. Kind of an experiment since it was only $40. But I had the same issues. I put lots of casts and wasted time into trying to learn those things. They got the majority of my time because I was determined to see if I could get them dialed in well because FOR ME, they were smooth, and cast very far when I didn't backlash. They seemed promising. Fast forward, I finally found a recommendation to take the side plate off and turn on 2-3 of the brakes. That helped. It didn't eliminate backlashes but it helped. This whole time, the highest I turned the other braking to was 5.5. My BIGGEST mistake was holding onto my own misconceptions that somehow turning the brake to 10 and working back would severely limit my casting distance. I had seen this recommended by a lot of people who are much better with a baitcaster than I am. Well, last night, I finally took that advice and noticed that it had a pretty big impact on what I could get away with casting both TRigs, around 1/4 oz and bigger wakebaits...I could actually get kind of reckless and still not backlash. The next test will be a frog. That was giving me my biggest headaches before with those reels. They would throw almost everything better than the fog. I guess what I'm saying is if you see multiple recommendations from people with many more years of experience than you in a subject, whether YOU think what they're saying is what you want or correct, give it a shot before declaring something a complete failure. For me, I was determined that the problem with these reels must be me but I wasn't willing to go all the way and do the things with the reel that I had seen recommended because I already had my own ideas (which seem to have been incorrect) about these recommendations. Anyways, my two have held up. For me, once I tune them, they do everything I need them to. They definitely feel better than the Black Max but feel different than the Lews. But again, I'm talking about the cheapest KK reel, so maybe that's not unexpected. ***ha, I had a typo that said, "I seen"...

The bend in the hook is towards the bottom/flat side of the worms and baits, if they have them. I'm making the hooks as centered as physically possible. Ha, I've destroyed plastics practicing trying to make it EXACTLY perfect. The weights I've been using mostly are lead bullet weights but it happens for some baits when I'm using no weight. It's something I've never EVER noticed before until I saw it on the small WP90...I tried to solve it and couldn't and then I noticed it with my plastics. Maybe I've always had this go on but never noticed. It seems like everything checks out and this shouldn't be an issue that I would have with a baitcaster...but I do! I don't mean to sound like I'm asking for help but being difficult about it, I just wondered if there may be something I didn't know about. If somebody were having this same issue and asked me about this, I would've asked them the same questions as you all have.

Sorry about that...I think my title was a little misleading. My plastics twist when I retrieve. So, I've avoided things like swivels or any extra metal with edges because of all of the vegetation I end up fishing around (on the surface, submergent and near the banks)...and because when I'm trying to make the most of the waters I have access to, I inevitably miss my mark when casting into tight spots, end up in some live, green branches and I would rather give myself a fighting chance at patiently getting the snag free. Funny enough...I saw everybody say to try that with the WP 90, and the thing still spun. So, that one is retired and I think my small plopper experiment is over. As for the reel, I'm actually not having a problem with the spinning rods. It's the baitcaster with braid. After not finding ANY reference to twist with braid on a baitcaster ANYWHERE, I almost didn't know if I should even ask. Example of plastics that have come back spinning on the baitcaster with braid: Texas rigged Zoom ribbon tail worm, TR Strike King Menace Grub, weightless and SOMETIMES TR Berkley Pit Boss.... It's not noticeably inhibiting my fishing. I don't think, anyways. But since I noticed, I figured I would ask around.

I never noticed my line twisting until I tried the Whopper Plopper 90. That was pretty annoying. That's when I started to pay attention to line twist. But now, I'm noticing that some of my plastics will do this also, if I reel them in faster or try to swim them, as opposed to just working them back. Maybe they always have been and I just didn't know any better. This happens mostly on a baitcaster. I believe my hooks are in pretty straight. Sometimes weighted, sometimes not. I have never noticed this on my spinning rods. This happens somewhat randomly with any of the different styles of bait; worm, creature, etc. I use the baitcaster most of the time for weights over 1/4 oz. because I am usually trying to make long casts from the bank. Can anybody tell me why this happens or suggest what I could do about this?