txchaser

Carried one around with me for a year and never got it out. LMK how it goes.

There's a spot for people to upload observed temps.

Which ratio Zillion are you getting?

Z-man's Crosseyes is way underrated. Twin weed guard. I have more big fish on these this year than jackhammers, probably because I can throw it at wood or nasty grass and not worry about it. Only complaint is, like the jackhammers, you'll need to replace the snap. $6.74 https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Z-Man_Crosseyez_Chatterbait/descpage-ZMCH.html

I tried some from another vendor and gave them away.

Glad to hear it went well! Sounds like they were up in prespawn.

First break a couple of weeks ago. I'm so careful with the tips around the truck doors. But I didn't notice the handle in the way of the heavy door. Slammed it right on the rod. Looked fine, but based on a bunch of posts here I knew it was going to be sketchy. First cast with it the handle stayed in my left hand, and the reel and the rest of the rod stayed in my right, but they were no longer attached

There's a youtube channel called "Old School Bass Fishing Vids"

Some random stuff that came up for me reading the thread, this is just my personal experience on going from peak athlete to desk jockey and trying to get back to athlete. On exercise, what worked for me was figuring out what worked for me. By that I mean I kept trying to do cardio and as it turns out, I really hate long-duration cardio while I'm doing it, and I don't feel great after. But when I lift, I feel really good when I do it and really good after. Which gave me some momentum. For me, I spend almost 100% of the time on compound lifts - the ones that work lots of muscles at once and generally move in natural ways. Examples - deadlift, pullups, benchpress, or getups and swings with a kettlebell. Shoulder press and squats if you have more time. You can add accessory lifts like curls and calf presses if you are having a bunch of fun and have the time to do it. I can't/won't workout every day, so no space for the extra stuff. Some days all I can commit to is making it through the front door of the gym. They are often the best days. My inside whiner has a bunch of excuses, and I can at least overpower it through that door. I only signed up (to myself) to do what I knew I could keep up no matter what. Tired? Too bad, lift. Busy? Too bad, lift. Out of town all week? Too bad, lift on the weekend. I only signed up to go twice per week, but the trade is I can't miss it. Now I often get a third day in but no stress if I don't make the third day, it's a bonus. For me, I don't do stuff that has significant risk of injury. Broke my arm once and it put me out of the gym for months, and I had to recover from a tiny gross baby arm. Heavy doesn't mean risk, but there are some movements that are higher risk than others - I've had two friends roll up a bicep doing heavy and deep benchpress, for example. The no carbs thing worked for me, trading bread but I can still eat bacon was a huge win. "I don't eat that" works far better for me than cheat days. Eventually it all stabilized where I don't worry so much about what's being served if I'm out or at someone's house, but I try really hard to eat just the way I want at home. For a while, my ego really hated that I wasn't anywhere near the shape I was in before I drove a desk for 15 years. Almost enough to keep me from doing the workouts sometimes. Brain plays funny tricks on me sometimes. My wife cheering me on just a smidge can be helpful; more important is the buy-in for whatever it is you are trying to accomplish, some decisions your spouse makes it easier or harder on the margin.

Outstanding!

Daiwa Tatula Elite Howell, 7'2" or 7'4" is perfect for this application. I like it so much I bought another one when I broke the original (handle in a car door). I even paid more than MSRP for it, because no one had it in stock anywhere. Why? Really wide range, they call it a regular. Crankbait rod is too floppy for open hook baits like a chatterbait or a spinnerbait. Typical MH/F that I have all don't feel right to me for reaction baits. Throws squarebills, traps etc really far, and gets into the backbone fast enough that it's just fine all the way up to (but not including) the heavy braid-style swimjigs. Because of the softer tip, it scales down to lighter baits really well too. I stopped throwing 1/2 oz chatterbaits on it because it was ever so slightly overloaded to me as the total weight with trailer was .85oz. And I have to rip out of heavy grass often and needed just a smidge more rod to do that. Anyway, it is one of my most used, most versatile rods, and it is also the 2nd least expensive. And it has the dubious distinction of getting used for my PB too, which was on a jr buzz frog, which tells you how far down it can comfortably cast.

Anyone put any real time in with the Z-man diezel swimmer? I've been dragging around a couple of packs waiting for a hot bite on keitechs or jackalls (my two go-tos) and haven't seen the right time to try it out.

I have a jar of u40 sitting around. Used it on my first five or so cork handles. Then I quit messing with it, probably couldn't pick out which rods have it and which don't.

Also, @Spankey tacklewarehouse has kut tails in stock and on sale, but it is a wierd assortment of sizes like they are closing them out... so maybe they aren't going to make them anymore.

I hear a lot of good things about maxima for lighter mono needs. It's what I use, I just don't fish light mono much at all, so I can't really opine on whether it is great or not, seems fine and it's good enough to not look for something else.

Yes, do this please @Glenn 100% I'm a believer that most start fishing the pre-spawn too late. Fine by me

While I can't recall specific settings for you, if you take it out of Angler mode you'll get a bunch of settings back. How-to in this video. Also this dude has a bunch of short videos that are pretty much the hbird manual but in video. I found them very helpful.

What is a decent swimbait head to throw on it? I’ll have to buy some centering pins for 2 of the wires since I’m only allowed 3 hooks. I'm still fiddling and looking for a favorite, but I don't think it actually matters that much. Ball heads will be ok, but it'll be a little more snaggy. I've heard of people using weighted swimbait hooks since they are much less snaggy, haven't tried that, and so far I prefer an open hook. Best I can tell the bigs being caught on a-rigs at ivey were on a head like this. Less than a buck per head (6th sense). Where I fish I got better results with a painted eye, in the same color of the local shad eye. (z-man swimbait eye) Please note the a-rig isn't magic... if they aren't eating shad, you are throwing 3-5 spinnerbaits in their face. There's a time and a place for it; this year I tried to forcefeed it because I was learning... much better results in open water around shad than (as an example) on a weed edge and the shad are two structure changes away.

Not exactly your question, but if it is your first a-rig I'd suggest a smaller 3.5-4' wire one, vs the 5"+ unless you have a rod to throw it on. Yum's yumbrella isn't a bad starter rig, I had one and never broke it or had it fall apart, ended up losing it. Flash mob Jr if you are looking for the smaller one, and it casts fine on a H rod. Tried another brand that was more expensive for a while, broke one in a bad way (in the swivel). Had one g-funk, and asked around here and heard lots of good things about them from heavy users. So I have multiples of them now and they are really well made.

9:00 mark is gold.

The main bass resource site has a constant stream of articles that are often season specific, so that should help narrow down your baits and places. https://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-videos/prespawn-start.html https://www.bassresource.com/hank-parker-fishing/early-spring.html In terms of seasons, you are further south than most, so you'll be running ahead in spring and behind in fall. Sometimes there's really no winter pattern except for a couple of weeks. If you're hot, the bass are hot too, it is probably summer This is oversimplifying, but fish it like fall until the water drops under 50-52 degrees. And start trying pre-spawn baits as soon as the water gets back over that range. In one of the articles above hank says 47 degrees, but my experience has been that might the peak cold water around here. I'm north of you, but valentines day kicks off early pre-spawn range. Maybe too early this year because of the freeze we just had, but by the 21st in north texas it'll be on. IMO most people don't think it starts till march, I think the big fish are moving up earlier. Search for cosmic calendar on the forums, you'll find a link to an article WRB wrote that will help. This might help too, or make it worse... The lake breathes twice per year. The top of the inhale is summer and winter, the bass are out deeper. As the exhale starts in spring and fall they start moving up more shallow, and often in predictable routes. It isn't a perfect analogy, but it helps me if they aren't where I think they are supposed to be, I know which direction to move out a little deeper or move up a little shallower. If you aren't fishing from a boat, buy a pool thermometer and tie it to a rock or something and chuck it in the water at least 5' deep. Let it sit for 5 minutes then pull it back out and see what the temperature is... it'll be the best $10 you ever spend on fishing. Last thing, just read everything you can get your hands on, including books. At some point you start to see patterns between it all.

We went pretty far down the rabbit hole a couple of years ago, including trout vision. Worth a skim if you are thinking about red or orange in spring. And if I recall correctly there was a big tourney on fork that was won on the fire jackhammer shortly after this. From the bass vision study, red and green are very visible for bass... So maybe not that it's red, but just that they are hungry and they can see it. Anyway, it works! 100% when the water breaks back over 52 or so I'll have more than one red (clearer) or orange (tannic/stained/dirtier) bait on. Two of the three 'really big' fish I've caught came out of orange in tannic water. Wife's PB (7.5) was on red in clearer (4ish vis).

Weighted ones on a swim senko. Works swimming, works on the fall, works fished on the bottom slow like a regular senko. I don't think these are seen much, so if you are looking for something new that can be fished a lot of different ways, that'll do it. And the unweighted versions are built for senkos. Senkos last much longer with them, and I figure if GY helped designed them, it is the 'ideal' presentation of a weightless t-rigged senko.

@WRB Tom - thanks for writing these up. Just sat here hitting refresh waiting for the next one, and tried to be there with you on the water. ---------------- Making these notes for myself, all of these big fish had some similarities. I think at least 2 of 3 of: 1) crappy weather 2) bit before the jig moved 3) lookit that pile of weekdays for big fish.

Some of the above, plus a wrench with enough offset to get to the nut on my trolling motor prop.