txchaser

@ol'crickety those deps flat (or any of the competitive versions like geecrack) make a good gill presentation for you. You know there's at least one big fish that will only eat those.

I got to fish a high-altitude trout lake, far away from everyone. Ended up using my bass fishing skills to figure out what they wanted, which was really fun... they weren't eating the usual trout on a spinning rod stuff like a mepps.

Might try going a little deeper from where you are getting bluegill bites. Often some bass out there waiting to dash in and grab a snack, so put one in their face.

Hundreds of FG's at this point, although I don't use braid to leader much anymore. 30lb braid to 15lb leader mostly. Ring above - Great 9.00 to spend for FG knot cinching. Or the dowels others mentioned. I'll echo more wraps for slicker braid. Really hard flouro leader can require some 'popping' in the original cinchdown to get it started on the bite. I usually use 22 or 24. Also, tying the first two half hitches very very tight is important. I watched a video from japan where they put a little mushroom head on the flouro leader, and I like it, so I do that now.

Black makes a really good bluegill imitator in water like that. Craw too. So yeah, some bright white and chart stuff, but black can be the deal. Might try a fire craw or rayburn red color too. In crankbaits, I have more really big shallow fish on those colors than any others.

Thank you for making a difference!

Thanks everyone. The tug is just to make sure it's not wrapped funny, missed guide, etc. But it's like a six inch tug, not a yank or anything. It's like it just fell apart? Anyway I sent it back and they warranteed it without making a fuss or charging me xpeditor, so maybe there was some kind of issue they saw in the break. The more I think about the first time it happened I bet I had less than 1/2 of pressure on it, so it must have already been broken. Your comments about they are not known for fragile tips is very helpful, since I haven't broken any poison adrenas or kistler zbone/helium treating them the same way, I thought maybe these are fragile. I'll probably baby it anyway!

Good work!

Conquest MBR Tip snapped - Is this a known issue? Happened to me twice - pick the rod up, grab the line, tug it a bit to make sure it is clear so I can tie on, and the tip just falls off. Probably the top 6" once and the top 8" the second time. I don't leave it anywhere that part of the rod would be in contact with anything, or stepped on. 20+ rods, plenty of really nice ones, so I don't think it's abuse. It's my only loomis conquest though. Maybe this needs a different behavior from me? I really don't think I'm bending the tip 180, I'm usually really careful about going beyond 90 degrees; I've even yelled at fishing buddies about high-sticking. Thoughts?

I'll add one I didn't see mentioned - Shimano's world boost. It's not inexpensive but there's nothing quite like it.

There are two important nuggets in the video that are applicable more than just swimjigs. 100% worth a watch.

As in he brought a portable FFS setup for the back deck?

I don't think this solves your immediate hookset then jump issue... but maybe useful for others. The thing that has been most reliable for me is to stop fighting the fish. Stop reeling, bow to it a little bit. If I do that immediately when I feel the fish start coming toward the surface, more often than not they just stay at the current depth. I'd second the point about if it is coming out of the water for sure, trying to move the fish in the air eg no slack line, big sweep, etc.

For crankbaits and jerkbaits, I use paperclip style snaps, and I cut off the split rings. The micro TA clips weigh the same as most split rings.

I use a JDM zillion HD. Big handle on it, feels like it was made for heavy cover. Before that a tatula 100 worked great. If you buy JDM pick up a new handle while you are at it, usually the JDM handles are smaller and that's probably not ideal for frogging.

Optimum Boom Boom unrigged 6th Sense 6" whale

I watched Rojas throw a frog like a curveball and put it on the backside of a tree. And Alton Jones Sr cast between a guys legs, up over his shoulder, and into a ball cap the guy was holding. Probably not actually useful but certainly impressive.

Always a look in the throat, and at the coloration. Throat can be great clues on cues that might matter. This year I've started looking for mud/clay on the belly. And coloration can tell me if I caught a fish that is usually shallow or deep vs where I actually caught them. Dark fish in 10fow that's 2' vis tells me (maybe) the shallow fish pulled off the bank. Pale fish up shallow, I probably caught her moving up to feed but she doesn't live there. Regular light exposure is a combo of depth and water visibility, and regular light exposure will definitely make a difference in the color of the bass. Doesn't do much when the lake is usually 1ft of vis and all the bass are white-ish though.

I had a beautiful pair of titanium pliers I got as a gift. Always kept them clipped to my belt. One day I was fishing on the bottom so I didn't have them handy... decided to pick up a crankbait and see. Started catching fish. One was hooked enough to need the pliers - pulled them out of the bag, got the crank out, and pitched them into the water. Wait what! I was only in 5FOW so I took a shot at dragging them out with some crankbait hooks. No luck. So sad. So now it's $5 needlenose for most situations. And a pair of mini bolt cutters for hooks (saved me an ER visit more than once) and I just got these from sixth sense, 8", stainless, and they were about $20 with the military discount

Nitranium is legit. IMO it fishes about 1/2 power lighter that I would have expected. Extraordinary cranking rod if you like graphite, which I do. Fishes a chatterbait pretty nice too, probably 3/8 with a zako would be perfect, but fine on 1/2 also. Wouldn't fish deep cranks on it - too short. If I recall correctly he'll take a rod back if you don't like it. Did he say he was changing blanks or adding weight/lengths?

good stuff right here

Picasso now makes a version of these that work pretty well. It's a little heavier/bigger presentation.

width on that is really nice. Thanks everyone for your feedback. One thing that came out really clear is there seems to be a big step between 19 and 20, and prob should do everything I can to at least be in a 20. And that a 21 is a double-axle was interesting. Feels like it'd be tough to get around in tight quarters or shallow waters. Probably end up with a 20, but I'll know more when I'm in-person. thanks. checking it out now.

I have one rod from a bunch of brands and like 10 from him so yeah. I just keep going back for more. Usually if I buy elsewhere it's because there's a very specific action I'm trying to get - in particular the mod-fast selection in the kc9 blank is limited. Couple of other details that make me grumpy about rods - hook keeper or lack thereof and the forward cork or foam should be on the screw body not above it. Trey gets both of these right. Shimano poison adrena doesn't, SC's legend x doesn't either. If I had a tweak it would be to move the hook keeper to the side.

There's an airstrip there that will take a prop plane if you don't want to do that drive.