txchaser

One thing not mentioned about the new Zillion, is the SV Boost spool is really nice. It's a two-stage spring, and you get a lot of the SV "I can throw a spinnerbait straight into the wind" but not much of the SV end-of-cast choked off feeling. I have one Steez SV and it has nothing over the Zillion.

I think I just bought a lifetime supply of buffs/face shields on the TW sale.

MH will be a great all-around rod for you, and is probably the most versatile for bass fishing. I can't imagine fishing a chatterbait on a M rod, I like it on a H rod if it is a 1/2 chatterbait - with a zako trailer it's .85 oz all-in.

The minn-kota battery box is decent, and keeps you from running around with exposed terminals. Has a breaker built in, as well as a 12v cigarette lighter port for your phone.

I'm assuming that the humminbird livescope is still nowhere near the garmin, if that's not true let me know. I'm seriously considering livescope+, I've fished with it a few times and it's really interesting. Seems like the Echomap and GPSmap both work fine with it, but the GPSmap is a) significantly more expensive and b) significantly higher resolution. I don't mind the buy once cry once, but 9" is the biggest I can fit, and if there's no practical difference between the two it'd be good to know. Anyone have experience with the difference? Thinking about livescope itself, 2d/si/di differences, mapping differences etc. Any general advice? Thanks!

Would you still do this on the baits with a flat back where the hook is just sitting on top of the plastic? Yeah I was confused too. It turns out the TW site is wrong, for the green at least. Had to go look at the spool for advance mono - it is .45/.018 per the spool.

I asked my wife to rewind that part just so I could see if I saw what I thought I saw. Told her the only wait they could make it better was an upside down spinning rod.

I just want to know when bass fishing is going to be ok with the idea of a caddy boat.

Ordered from amazon japan at 11pm central Wednesday night, and the reel arrived today. Basically the same as two-day shipping in the US if it overlapped a weekend... express and regular shipping were the same price Anyway, this reel is beautiful. I really like the big handle, and the metal drag star had more impact on feel than I expected. Seems like my excuses to not mess with JDM just melted away.

Couple of takeaways for me- 1) more than one mention of tip in the water, that's new to me 2) no one seems worried about the side of the mouth hook from a sweep vs a roof hook 3) was fishing Sufix Advance 'mono' (really more a copoly) - has very little stretch, especially at .508 4) I'll see about the different hookset depending on the bite, I'm 100% sure I'll be spending more time with these, my last two Saturdays were really exciting. Thinking of going to 22lb tatsu, I have some from a trip south of the border, and I'll get some give on it, and I'm ok given the longer-distance hookset with this 8' broomstick. Interesting, what do you make of this? I'd expect the opposite? Oh, one of the things I realized I failed to mention... 100% of the losses were in the air. These fish rocketed straight for the surface as soon as I got hooked up. Was this for me or one of the other posters? In my case: okuma travel swimbait rod (H), .508 diameter (they rate as 20lbs lol) sufix advance (very low stretch) line, Trokar hook that looks like an owner beast, Optimum boom boom swimbait in 6". I had no losses on the 8", different hook, maybe different sitations, but on the same day.

Any tips on landing more of these fish? The great news is it is all big fish on these 6"-8" swimbaits crawled slowly on the bottom. But yesterday was more lost big fish in a single day than I've had all year on other baits. Some potential issues: -using trokar instead of a non-cutting point. I should have thrown those out long ago. -maybe I'm cracking them too hard on the hook set. -trying to grind them into the boat quickly. Seems like every one of them went straight for the surface after the hookset. -is a sweep hookset workable or should I be setting up to try to get the roof of the mouth? Unfortunately given the cover, a line-through isn't realistic.

For me, this image is the opening shot to a horror film.

Wife asked me why I was laughing so hard.

I've had some really high payoff for experimentation, so I keep doing it. Which means I find something that works and.... stop doing it, because what if this other thing is better? And then there are a few presentations that I don't really enjoy, and I've relegated them to "if I must" instead of a place to start. At the current pace, I probably own at least a decade of flukes.

Amazon.co.jp - shipped, $303. WOW.

Whoops, I just found a new frog reel I needed. That handle/knob combo is perfect.

I bought an Avid-X MH spinning rod, and it's a broomstick to me. Feels like a H/F. Anyway try using a much longer leader, such that when your fish is at the boat the connection knot is always in the reel. I'd bet it won't make a huge difference, but it's 100% worth a try.

With slick braid sometimes I need to tug-tug-tug instead of steady pull. Once it starts to bite it will lock down and I can finish the steady pull. Sometimes wetting will actually help the dig get started. It's specific to the combo of lines. Try your new braid with your old leader and VV. I think your new braid is slicker, and if I recall correctly the FC Premier is going to have a harder exterior than red label. So you have some slick on slick, but it should be just fine once you get it to bite.

Nuun is legit. Just tablets that go in your water, with no sugar. I notice a meaningful difference in how I feel when I use them and it is Texas-hot. Also a nice water trick is to fill the bottle half-full, and put it in the freezer on its side. In the morning, fill it the rest of the way up with water. Melts through the day, but can still get plenty of water out of it before it melts, and that water is nice and cold.

You are a bit south of me so deeper into summer, but in shallow waters goto would be: Moving baits (that you haven't mentioned) - Keitech 3.8 or 4.3 on an owner flashy swimmer, or a swimjig. A silent squarebill fished slow has been really good to me over the last month. Bottom - texas rig or a bubba shot with a roboworm fat 6", z-man's bigger trick worm, etc. A lot of times I'm around sparse weed bottoms and I think I get better results with the bubba shot vs the t-rig.

^^^^^^^^^^

Magnum fluke fished slow-ish, if you are hunting the big ones. And easy to toss up on the weeds and get everyone's attention.

55-59 degrees, that's big girl prespawn here...

Top small waters baits for me in texas summers, for big fish. In no particular order -Senko, slowwww. On outside weed edges and near wood. -Chatterbait, especially in the evenings, slow rolled just over the bottom. -Buzzbait -And this thing, which is by livetarget so it isn't supposed to work but, it does. Specifically in the 3.5" version. I think it matches the hatch really well. And a 3.8" Keitech in bluegill flash on an owner 3/0 flashy swimmer underspin if you just want to catch fish. Weedless, can drag across mats, fish it on the bottom like a worm, etc.

I'm a sucker for trying new stuff. I think I like these. The blade is small enough it's more like an underspin-level of accent. Fishes like a swimjig.