txchaser

My 10a lithium will barely run a helix 7 all day if mapping is on. I agree with @casts_by_fly - 30ah.

This one leaves a little bit of white sheen on my face and hands, but that goes away after a while. I can put it on without getting on my hands. It's a little hard to wash off at the end of the day, but that's more of a bonus as I don't need to reapply. Big hat, long sleeves, etc. And I really don't like gaiters at all. Gloves go on as we get past spring though.

I have a stack of Heliums and keep buying more. NFC blanks and the new ones. Can't tell the difference between them. At the sale price there's nothing I can find even close to it, even if that stuff is on sale too. The rods I have that fish in the same class - Poison Adrena and St Croix Legend X; and I have a Conquest that's certainly another class above it, with the price to go with it. I have one z-bone which is great but the helium its so good the zbone wasn't better enough to buy more. A nitranium because I had to know; it's an MBR-style rod and fishes lighter than the rating. I have a two complaints - I like the old open-style hook keeper, and I'd really like a mod-fast (like daiwa "Regular") in this blank. Anyway Trey is really available and it's nice to be able to talk to an actual human responsible for the business when you are trying to figure out what you want. In fairness, Daiwa has been really solid dealing with issues and the new Zillion rod has a lot of promise. I don't have one though, and they are a good bit more expensive. Shimano was the opposite - I knocked a ring out of a poison adrena and the best they could do is "go buy some on mudhole and find a local guy to fix it"

I sure would love some details on his inflatable. In particular, was it an auto- and which brand?

Chug electrolytes, lay down flat for 15 minutes, get up and drink some caffeine then go hard for part II when everyone else is fading. 15 minutes feels like forever but it'll help keep you from droning and robocasting the second half of the day.

Frogging bite is often a punch bite too, so carrying the extra heavy rod rigged for that could pay off if you fish grassy areas/pads/etc. Use the champ for bottom contact and the fury for frogs?

Did you set the spool tension to "loose enough to click" with the spool free? If you set it up like a regular baitcaster it doesn't work very well. It casts a little shorter than the non-SV but like 2-3 meters. Also the comment about a smooth cast is important vs a whippy one - basically don't try hard - you don't have spool friction to overcome and when you whip it the magnets just get to work. Set yourself on "lazy" and see how it goes.

Fished it a few times, albeit not from the bank. The difference between current and no current is night and day. For us, it was "please give me current" - when it was all shut off it was pretty rough.

Like zillion smooth?

100% Because they are so tall it's a big response on screen too. And then it bites and it's all soft and mushy.

Yep I use mostly 17lb tatsu, given the cover around here. If it was getting sole duty as a treble hook rod I might back off to 15.

I like these high-effort threads. Always some nuggets in there. Of particular note from the 2019 study: We note that in both Experiments #1 and #2, group dynamics appeared to be important in these assays: 1 or 2 bold fish appeared to do the choosing. The fish grew rapidly between September and November and were approximately 15 cm (6 inches) when we began training. By the end of our assays, the bass were subadults and ranged from 20 to 30 cm (8–12 inches) in standard length. 1) the leader behavior seems to match what we see with the idea of "firing a school up" 2) these are dinks! I wonder if adult bass would have different results.

I like these high-effort threads. Always some nuggets in there.

100%, and sometimes they are really big and aggressive. I'll add this to the list - bass know about even the wee little tiny baits, and big fish can and will (often) chase a presentation down that looks like a single little lost shad. Watching a jig with no trailer or a damiki pull a big fish out of a brushpile is wild. And that same fish wouldn't budge for an a-rig. Lots of big bass guys with spinning rods all over the deck.

Great article! Two additions from me based on this year's fishing: 75x or other flatside is good from early prespawn to late prespawn some crank in the 1-3 range like manns baby-1 or a 6th sense mvmt 80x for those really warm days, but when a trap is too fast

Congrats. I have that exact rod and it's really nice. The mod action makes it fish more like a crankbait rod to me, so first and foremost it is a moving bait rod. Bomb 1oz deep divers to the spool? Yep. But the length and tip let you throw fine at the low end of Throw mid-depth cranks and feel every little tic? Yep Blade baits rattletraps if you like softer (I don't) Chatterbait mid-thickness hooks on a swim jig deep spinnerbaits etc etc For me, It's too long for most squarebills. And a little soft/mod for bottom contact baits, unless it's a thinner hook. If you gave me five rods only it would 100% make the cut, and might be the only moving bait rod because it can do everything reasonably well.

Oh that's a new one. And pretty easy to navigate and find stuff too.

5/0 ewg will be fine

Texas waters, largemouth only, so YMMV: LC makes a great jerkbait that's ... meatier than most, good for texas waters. It's the same 110, it's just deeper. Bigger meal. And the aurora colors are amazing. Shimano's world boost is special. When that's what they want, there's nothing like that flashy mirror. 6th sense are very legit, and have some colors that are the deal. Hooks are great, and I know they are sharp by how little it hurt when one went through my finger this weekend. I can't catch anything but dinks on the MB jerkbaits. I don't understand it, but it's real.

If you find yourself on a pattern, immediately stop fishing that pattern and fish something close to it. Biting a chatterbait? Try a swimjig and a crankbait, or maybe a paddletail, and see what happens. Or fish it a bunch faster/slower and see. Biting a jig? run a t-rig with different shaped trailer through and see if you pick up more fish. Here's an example that I used to do regularly in a shallow grassy lake that was primarily bluegill: 1) cover likely water with the chatterbait until I find a fish 2) chuck the anchor when I catch one 3) work the area with the chatterbait, maybe trying different retrieves, maybe not 4) downshift to a keitech with an underspin. still bluegill-ish, weedless, midcolumn, but less noisy 5) catch fish on the keitech (very common) 6) change to a senko (slowest/gentlest) 7) catch fish on the senko Somewhere in there you start to notice stuff like the sun is out and there's not much wind and you are catching most of your fish on the senko. Maybe time to try something else on the bottom. You could probably make a pretty quick matrix of top, mid (in 5' increments) and bottom baits, fished slow, medium, and fast. Just about everything will fit in there, especially if you can add forage base to it too. There'll be plenty to try there, and you can do it inside of a system. Biting at 5' deep on a big loud thing moving fast? Keep going at 5' but try slow and quiet. Or bright vs dark. Basically experiment within some sort of boundaries or system vs just random stuff. And remember that every day is different, so you won't get rules just probabilities.

Inspired by @Bass Junke who suggested this thread, lets go for it. - Sometimes the really big fish hunt in packs and they are moving very fast when they are active. Like watching four submarines go by on FFS. You get one cast at them. - Big crappie can inhabit the same part of the ecosystem as a bass. They look kinda the same as a bass too... not exactly, but close. And when it's setup solo off the crook of a tree, crappie isn't what comes to mind. Anyway they are eating bass lures, living in bass spots, solo. Always chunky. -Better to be a little high than a little low with your presentation. -Bass on the bottom at 20ft deep, in 3' visibility, can sense a jerkbait hitting the water and can come up off the bottom to get a look.

Heh that helps. And yeah it could be the deal in open water with no trailer. Although it seems like everyone moved to moping; I don't hear about the bare swimjig anymore. Or they just got quiet about it.

I decided to shock test them against each other, because I'm curious. On a 3/0 hook (probably gammy but I don't recall) I would tie SDJ on one end of the line, and double SDJ on the other, with another 3/0 hook on the other end. Hooked one side on a door handle and the other side on a dowel. Yank hard enough to break the line, observe where it broke. Swap the sides of which one is closer to the door or my hand (just in case that was affecting anything). Repeated at least three times. Double SDJ always won - I think it's more resilient to that specific time of load, an impact load. That's where the breakoff risk seems to be anyway - not the slow pull but the shock of a hookset.

Are those the mirror trout ones up on TW?