txchaser

TLDR: If you are fine on a regular baitcaster, you'll be more than fine with that DC. Just spool it up with whatever line you are already using and see how it goes. Long version: Braid to leader has some great use cases, but it's not the be-all/end-all it sounds like. Casts just fine through even small guides. Knots take a little time to learn but aren't magic. And... I went from mostly braid to leader to almost all flouro across my rods over the last few years, just noticing what worked better and what I liked more. Braid's slack line sensitivity is basically zero. Here's where I'm using braid to leader: Yes: -Chatterbait and swimjig - I need the snap because of how and where I usually fish them. Basically open hook moving baits. Maybe: -Keitech/flashy swimmer - considering doing it here because it can be hard to get a good hookset on the 5/0 hook in certain circumstances, and I'm not fishing it on slack line. Fishes mostly like the chatter/swimjig anyway -Considering on crankbaits so I can quickly change out line diameter depending on what the cover looks like. If Fritts is using braid on crankbaits it can't be too crazy. No: -everything else Everyone here tried to convince me early to just go straight flouro or mono. They were right.

I hope they do some impact/shock load testing along with the rest.

Did they ever publish?

I like flat vs shiny better, but I have no real reason for that, I just think it looks more natural.

This goes in the +1 column for why I should get FFS.

Thinking out loud, I’ve found them sometimes picky in that setup. Feeding down or up usually not bad, but feeding horizontal can be a mess. Bubba/drop shot in their face or a blade bait or silent lipless fished in a lift and drop have worked for me. Or a crank that isn’t quite deep enough to touch bottom. Or you can cuss at it and call it a catfish or a carp which it might also be. I know all the ones that won’t bite my lure must be one of those

Bonus item, Yamamoto 10″ Ichi Worm launching at icast. Big ringed worm with a ribbon tail. I don't know if it'll be any good, but I bet it gets a shot from a lot of anglers. And so there's no confusion, I don't have any relationship with GSM or Yamamoto. I do however like to watch when companies start changing things to see what they are up to, and so far it looks like the playbook is "we have a really good thing going with this brand, we can probably launch other core baits and grow the company" instead of "we could save 25 cents per bait by using crappy hooks" like some of the other acquirers do.

My current getup for Texas in the summer is below. For every thing listed there are three or four in the drawer that weren't quite as good. Not kidding, I like to fish year round so there's a lot of payoff in little changes for the July-August run here. Simms makes great stuff, but not for Texas summers. Huk Icon X shirt (the a1a is nice too, but only in lots of constant wind) Anetik pants (by far the lightest long pants I've found. They feel like a fishing shirt) I'm surprised that none of the fishing companies make super-light pants. They are all fine till the mid 90's then they are hot. ON shoes if I'm staying dry-foot, Huk AT-something brewster if wet, they are kind of like light crocs. In both cases the lightest thinnest socks I can find. Shelta or Huk wide-brim hat - they both have stiffener in the front of the brim so it doesn't fly up. Deep summer the shelta is a little hot. OR makes a great boonie, it's the lightest but poor in the wind. Columbia or OR gloves and gaiter. Lightest gaiter material I can find, with cooling dots. Same for gloves. The Huk gaiters are horrible, they are too thick and feel claustrophobic. Gloves usually go on from the beginning, I can wait a while on the gaiter. And a $5.00 cooling towel from amazon. They really work.

The HMH is my current favorite 1/2oz chatterbait rod.

At least on tatsu, Double SDJ is stronger than the single SDJ on a violent hookset. Knot strength under impact is not the same as knot strength on a slow pull, at least on flouro. If I recall correctly there's some crystalline structure that makes it respond differently under different kinds of loads. Anyway that makes most of the knot tests poor at simulating the actual conditions of fishing, at least for presenations that want a serious hookset. Five turns for 17-22lb, six for 12-15. I tested SDJ vs doubled-line SDJ (what I am calling the double SDJ) with 15lb tatsu tied to two 3/0 hooks, one connected to the door handle, one connected to a dowel, and yanked hard enough to break the line somewhere. 100% of the time it broke by the knot on the single SDJ. I was swapping which hook was on which knot to make sure it wasn't an imperfection in the hook eye, and swapping which knot was on the dowel or on the door in case that changed something. It's just a guess on my part, but the guess is that the structure of the knot provides some sort of insulation against the violent hookset. For all of these knots on flouro, taking a little extra time to dress the knot well seems to make a difference. As an example, instead of yanking on the main line to tighten the knot, pull gently, and use the other hand to slide the knot down till it makes contact with the hook. On the list to give a serious shot are the trilene and the HH tornado. Edit: watched a video, best I can tell the Berkely Braid knot is a double SDJ without the last step. I've been trying that knot for weedy or algae spots where three forward-facing tag ends is bad. So far it has been a winner.

I think GSM has done a great job with Yamamoto so far. It kind of needed a kick in the pants, so much power in the brand, and they had the opportunity to make core shapes and sizes where they were missing stuff. 1) bulk senko packs for the die-hards 2) yamatanuki (seriously though if a bait is hot in japan, bring it here, it'll catch fish) 3) slinko (floating ring/fry worm, great on a t-rig or a c-rig) 4) craw (the yamamoto craw is really good. it's posture on the bottom is nice too, just a little float up but below 45 degrees) 2-4 are good baits, they catch fish, and they were nearly guaranteed to sell well because of the brand. Not all the aquirers in the industry are good acquirers, but so far GSM is doing ok. My only complaint is the D2C (their web site) operations needs to be taken more seriously.

Feeding flat with a dropoff into deep water, tasty.

I'm sure I learned this on BassResource, but I couldn't find the thread anywhere so here goes. If you want bigger fish, find smaller ones and then turn around. Those big fish are often deeper unless you've got a good canopy to punch. Sometimes they'll be at the same depth as your boat so a parallel cast will do too, but part of the point is over and over again I find that big fish don't do little fish things. Generally I have far better results sitting shallow and casting deep when it's hot; I don't know why, but it's pretty consistent. Also, it's been discussed before, but it's really important - the intersection of the thermocline and structure or cover is a really important depth to look for big fish. This weekend, the little ones were in 15 FOW and nothing bigger than 2lbs. They were about 10ft outside the outside weed edge, in the sparse grass. I turned around, and well, the day changed dramatically. Best three fish went 24lbs. No new PB, but I've never stacked up three fish like that ever. They were just further out chilling and were more than happy to eat a deep crank. Turn around I'm sure @WRB and @Catt will have a bunch to add, and this is probably their lesson the first place... but it worked so well for me this weekend I had to share.

For those of you that do see a difference in dialing in flake color, what's your process to recognize you need to try something else, and how do you pick what to try next? I spend a good amount of time on new water so I don't often have the reps on a specific lake to get that dialed in.

The large is about the same diameter as a trick worm. A little bit too big for a 5" senko but definitely right for the monster, or a 6" senko, 3.8" or larger keitech, Fat Ika, etc. Medium for me really should be labeled small, I replace those on all my 3/0 or larger flashy swimmer hooks. They come with a medium and it tears up the baits really fast.

I took a frog to the forehead once, hard enough to break the skin. And I didn't have glasses on...even though I owned low-light glasses. While the glass costas have better visibility and clarity, the polycarb ones are safety glasses too so I wear those.

It's more about when they want fleck/flake, how much does the color of the flake matter and what should I be looking for to think about different color flake? I fish a lot of different water so rarely the opportunity to get dialed in to 'blue flake is great but if it is green or gold they won't eat it' ... 100% in most texas water that's my starting flake color if I'm going to throw flake. GP/watermelon laminate with or w/o red flake, or GP/maroon laminate with or without flake are probably my best four. Smelt (a z-man baitfish looking color) has been really good around shad too. After that, there's a bunch of stuff I haul around but rarely fish; I'm fortunate enough to rarely be in muddy water. What I'm not hearing from anyone is "well, flake color X only really matters when there's a certain color of baitfish or water color" as an example. Thanks everyone!

Followup, the STX-45 are brittle like some of the reviews. Perhaps I just got a bad hook, but I was horsing a 3lb fish last weekend on a size 2 hook and one of the tines snapped right off. Ugh.

I've had plenty of times where flash in a flake (or not having flash) has made a difference. Usually sunny for flash and cloudy for no, but sometimes the opposite. When have you found the color of flashy flake to make a difference to the size or amount of fish you caught? One of my favorite baits just changed from blue to green, it probably makes no difference, but it got me to thinking about how many different flake colors I have in soft plastics, and wondering whether it matters or not.

Watermelon juice in 8oz glass, 1/2 lime worth of juice, salted rim or just in the drink. Ice cold. Best sports drink ever!

GP back, maroon belly with some flake. Like Falcon Craw from Rage. Netbait makes a -great- trick worm in the color, Yum makes a stick bait. In pre-spawn, or when they are deeper, I've had some flavor of this color produce extremely well.

Daiwa Zillion HD (JDM) - this reel feels like it was built for frogging, nice big handle, built like a tank.

15lb big game is slightly smaller than 22lb tatsu or 22lb armilo. Point being it should be very tough to break. Get a new spool, mono degrades in the sun, maybe the heat too. It's either a bad spool, a bad knot, or mussels growing on the sticks that are now above the waterline. BG is pretty forgiving of a bad knot, mussels are possible but kind of a stretch. But bad or degraded mono happens for sure.