Aaron_H

This fish bent out multiple Gamakatsu EWG trebles on a jerkbait. It's been a few years but IIRC 3 of the 5 hooks that were in her were bent out. I have since switched to Mustad 1x strong 2x short and have no issues.

Congrats and welcome to the lunker club. Awesome fish, bud, you love to see it.

I may be mistaken, but is this your first over 8lbs?

I've been using this one for 2-ish years now, I have had no issues. https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Rapala_High_Contrast_Digital_Scale_50lb/descpage-RHCDS.html

Only sometimes, but I appreciate the vote of confidence. Phil's advice will get you bit for sure. Junebug is as close to a magic color as you can get for Florida. Watermelon/red or green pumpkin for clear water, or white if they're feeding hard on shad. A weightless Texas- or wacky-rigged Senko is another surefire way to get bit if the bite is slow, like Geo mentioned. Most of the fish should be post spawn now. I tend to focus on moving baits this time, lipless crank and bladed jig, spinnerbait, etc. Last time I was out, the fish were pushing shad up against the banks/into pockets, a lipless, squarebill, or spinnerbait would be ideal there, chrome or shad patterns should work well.

Glad to hear from you. Coincidentally I had been browsing the Southeast forum and was wondering how you were doing just a few days before @SC53 posted this. Praying your recovery goes well and you are able to get out there and do some fishing. @Swamp Girl I shot Alex a private message a little over a week ago, no response as of yet. Hope things are okay with him, too.

That's my father's go-to paired with an underspin. Great little bait, though I mostly use the Mayor these days myself. Nice catches! I need to take a break from the moving baits and pick the jig back up soon, those bites are addicting!

No words, what an awesome day. Congrats!

I had an 8-10 that never jumped during the fight, she stayed down until I got her all the way to the bank. Halfway through the fight, I thought maybe I had foul hooked a big grass carp until I saw color. But even then, she still had big head shakes and made several strong runs, the fight still felt like a bass, just minus the acrobatics. I thought I had the bass of a lifetime for that first 20 seconds of the fight the other day before I realized I had snagged a gator. Hell of a fight on a crankbait rod, but seeing it helped ease the pain since I knew it wasn't a bass.

Stopped into the Tampa Bass Pro today to pick up some ammo and decided to see if they had any fishing stuff. I've only ever been to the Orlando location, this one definitely had a reduced selection in comparison. However, they did have the new Knockin version of the Hammer Trap, so I picked up two in gold/black, then grabbed 3 colors of the standard one that I wanted to try, as well as two packs of the 5.5" Spunk Shads to see how they do in comparison to the 4.5" I've used.

Lipless cranks are my tackle addiction, close to 100 of them currently. I have them organized by general sound profile: rattling, knocker, and silent. And with the rattling and knocking categories they are organized by pitch or volume. I use a knocking bait a lot in the fall, as the water starts to cool a bit, rattle bait a lot in the spring and summer, and silent whenever the fish are pressured or I'm in high visibility conditions. But I'll admit a lot of this is probably more in my head than the fish's. Straight retrieve: Rat-L-Trap is the king, Rapala Rattlin' Rap for a more subtle sound (inasmuch as subtle can be used with regards to a lipless). I like the Rapala a lot in late summer, especially the 07 size in bluegill. Hopping, yo-yo, burn/pause, etc retrieves: Thunderhawk Sergeant (rattling and silent versions), Booyah One Knocker, SK Red-Eye Shad/2-tap. The Thunderhawk is a good combination of features, has a great shimmy on the fall and sits nose down on the bottom every time much like the Jackall TN, great vibration. Rotating hook hangers help keep fish from locking up the trebles and getting leverage. Red-Eye Shad needs no explanation, and people can dog the Booyah for not living up to the Xcalibur, but in my experience it does very well on a yo yo retrieve and gets hit on the pause more often than on a straight retrieve. Great sound profile. The normal RES is super loud in the water, and it vibrates so hard you can feel it in your bones, definitely one of the more aggressive lipless that I fish. The 2-tap version still vibrates like crazy but it's got a high pitch knock, not quite tinny but in that ballpark, whereas the Booyah One Knocker is a much deeper sound. I have a bunch of others that I play with to see if they're worth it, the H2OX 5/8oz RT/Medium profile lipless is a good one as long as you upgrade the hardware. The 6th Sense Quake suspending has been interesting playing with a burn/pause retrieve. Need to throw the Bill Lewis Hammer Trap more here soon, that one seems promising. They just came out with a knocking version too that I'll end up ordering. I try to keep colors to basic categories, but I'll admit I probably have too many variations at this point. My go to colors are gold, bluegill, and some sort of shad pattern. Rat-L-Trap: Blueberry perch, chrome/blue back. Rattlin Rap': Bluegill, baby bass. Thunderhawk Sergeant: Shad, Bait, Gold, Bone, Bluegill. RES: Bluegill, Gold/black, Blue gizzard shad. One Knocker: Flashy Momma, Copper Shiner, Bling.

That is no joke, Dwight is a hammer.

I may still have a few packs around of both sizes (I think in watermelon/red or green pumpkin), not sure if I gave them away or not. I bought them for a bladed jig trailer and the tail looks incredible in the water, but I just didn't get bit on it like with the Zako.

"Back" is a strong word considering how little I've been able to fish lately, but I sure do appreciate it! Been able to get out 3 times in 2026 so far (missed all of February sadly) which is already 75% of my trips last year so here's to hoping. It definitely felt great to be out there again and I was fortunate to connect with a quality fish and some decent numbers. I'd like to break the 8lb mark this year, last one was Dec 2024.

You know, I used to look at the price of a bladed jig and laugh, "I'll stick with my 5 dollar Originals," I would say. Now I have a 3700 box full of them. Looked at the price of Vision 110s and said the same thing, pushing a couple dozen of them now.... Fingers crossed I don't follow that pattern with the big swimbaits.

Biggest bass of the year so far, 6.06lb on a 3/4 oz bone lipless. Was very overcast and wind was sustained ~15 mph with gusts over 20 with a cold front that just moved in a couple of days ago. Threw a gold lipless at first and caught a few fish right off the bat, but felt like bone was a better move given the water clarity and overcast conditions. Caught 15 total plus 2 tilapia, all but one on the lipless, the odd man out was on a bladed jig. Saw some bass pushing some fingerling shad up into a pocket and picked off a few smaller fish before I got this one to hit. Accidentally snagged a small 3 foot gator on the lipless, too. Little guy was sitting on the bottom and I snagged it in the back, for that first ~20 seconds I thought I had a big DD on until the fight got too weird and I realized what happened. Thankfully the hook pulled right as I got him to the bank, and he went on his way none the worse for wear. Dying to get into a really big bass, but this one sure felt good after such a long dry spell.

I know you're specifically asking about composite rods, but I will throw my hat into the ring for glass. Threw chatterbaits on MH/F and MH/XF graphite rods for years, caught a lot of good fish on them but lost some big girls that I felt I shouldn't have. Bought a 7'2" MH/MF glass Shimano Intenza and it's night and day difference in keeping the fish buttoned. I'm sure a composite rod would have more backbone, but I was very (pleasantly) surprised at how stout the bottom 2/3 of this glass rod is, tip stays loaded but even running straight mono I have no issue getting a solid hookset, just reel into them and sweep across the body. Rod is surprisingly light after hearing how heavy glass rods are. Blank is definitely thicker than my equivalent graphite rods but not bad. I've heard the 7'2" MH/M glass Expride B blank is even thinner and lighter. Not my biggest bladed jig fish, but first one over 7lb on the glass rod.

You can't just come in here and hurt me like that.

I have close to 100 lipless cranks in my boxes currently. The ones I reach for most these days are the 1/2 oz Booyah One Knocker (Copper Shiner was responsible for my largest lipless fish at just over 9lb) and the 3/4 oz Thunderhawk Sergeant (Biggest on that one a bit over 8lb). Honorable mentions to the 1/2 oz Red-Eye Shad and the 1/2 oz Rattlin' Rapala. Colors between them tend to be the same. Shad, bluegill, gold are the staples.

The narrower width than most other 3700s is what ended up steering me away from them. Great redesign outside of that, though. Ended up getting a deal on a bunch of the blue H2OX 3700 boxes on clearance at Academy for like 3 bucks each so I grabbed like 15 when I reorganized my tackle.

I can tie it (or at least, I could at the time). However, I stopped using it because my half-hitches would work themselves loose over time going in and out of the tip guide, even though they were properly done and crossed opposite of each other. The knot is just so long and that section of line is stiffened that the hitches took the brunt of flexing into the tip guide at anything other than a perfect angle. Knot glue would've likely solved the issue, but why bother when there are a dozen or more other excellent connection knots I don't have that issue with.... Went back to the double uni for simplicity and speed.

Thank you! It felt good to be out there and getting into some decent fish, my number of trips last year was dismal. I need to start trying to hunt some spots local to me, unfortunately I can't drive back to Orlando every time I want to fish.

First time out for 2026. Cold snap came in a day earlier, wind was brutal yesterday but almost nonexistent today with bluebird skies. Figured bite would be tough but I've been itching to get out so I made the trek back over to Orlando to hit one of my honey holes. Fished for just about 6 hours from noon until dark and only managed 5, bite was definitely tough but not completely shut down. Was able to make it happen on the lipless. First fish was 2.20lb on a silent lipless Switched over to a rattling lipless to see if it was too much or if I could call in fish from further away since the water was dirtier than I expected. Next fish was a very healthy 4.54lb Casting back into the same spot, it's deeper water with a ledge that I know often holds bait, so I figured the more stable water temps and structure might be holding more fish. Paid off a few casts later with a 3.70lb that was FAT. If she makes it a few more years she will be a great fish. Both of them absolutely murdered the lipless on the pause while yo yoing it around that ledge. The 3lber had it T-boned pretty good. Last couple right before dark were dinks on the green pumpkin bladed jig. Surprised nothing on the fire craw bladed jig, and not one sniff on the jerkbait today either, which was disappointing. Still a good day, and my father managed to get out for a few hours with me as well, which was the cherry on top. We should still have another 6-8 weeks of solid prespawn/spawn fishing so I'm crossing my fingers hard that I'll be able to get out more for it this year. Not the giants I was hoping for, but I'll take a 4.5lber any day and it's a decent start to the 2026.

I use a size 4 universally as the bend seems to match better with the size 3 round split rings to my eyes, but a size 3 would also be an ideal choice.