txchaser

have you tried reducing the speed setting on the depthfinder? mine does great SI, although it is a different brand

Is that by labeled test or actual test?

Heavy Duty Hinges - HingeOutlet I'll just leave this here for later when the door is full

The damage all being in the same spot sounds like it might be passing through the tip top, and that 4 inch mark is where you reel it up to cast. I've had a small crack in the tiptop do that to line. I could only see the crack in direct sunlight from the right angle, and it was just barely picked up by a q-tip. If it isn't that, maybe hit the flouro with a lighter to at least make sure it is real flouro. Mono will catch fire, flouro will just smoke and turn black. Don't breath the smoke though.

For me, part of the payoff for spending a lot of time with the same presentation is starting to notice little things that aren't obvious, and definitely not noticeable when you are throwing the tackle box. The first bait that opened up like this for me was the chatterbait. I'm conviced people miss a lot of chatterbait bites; there's a lot going on especially if you are around grass and being able to really feel the difference between grass and a bite matters a lot, especially the dead-blade where they come up from behind. Really working to get that same feel on crankbaits, particularly coming up over a limb or finding different bottom composition. Set the hook into a lot of branches

I have the edge jig box and it is great for chatterbaits, but I wouldn't use it for lures with the trailer still on. For that, the edge flex will let you make it the right orientation and length so your trailered chatterbaits stay flat based on whether you are using the boxes longways or sideways. It's generally frowned upon to leave the trailers on for a long time though, especially if there's any salt in them - isn't good for the hooks. On jackhammers I usually put two of the same size/color in each slot and they seem to stay in fine. But my box is stored long side up so maybe it is different when they are on their side.

Not right in the middle of the school, but decent results recently throwing an a-rig around the area, running a little deeper than the shad. My guess is the bass in the general area are likely to be keyed on that food, so it is consistent with what they are looking for.

Net net cool, dry, and out of the sunlight, flouro probably lasts nearly forever. I don't even think the light does much to it, but it doesn't take much more to store it dark. On the other hand, if you are going to keep trying different brands, you might just buy the smaller spools until you are really sure.

Well I think they did a poor job of explaining... product marketing should get a swift kick in the ass, as the box has a bunch of acronyms on it that are useless. But check this out: The description from their site: Sufix® Advance™ Monofilament is a combination of HMPE and Hyper Copolymer™ creating superior abrasion resistance, low stretch and sensitivity that has never been seen before. I wondered what the HMPE stuff was so I started looking around. Sufix® 131 Braid represents a major leap forward for anglers who tend to push the limits on their fishing line. This advanced 12-carrier braid is unequalled for its knot strength and holding power, as it's constructed in such a way that it has no weak points. At its heart is a single strand of powerful GORE® Performance Fiber; it's tightly wrapped with 12 precision-braided HMPE fibers, forming a perfectly round line that's exceptionally smooth, quiet, and manageable And the wiki for HMPE talks about dyneema and spectra, as well as saying this outright: UHMWPE are used as composite plates in armor, in particular, personal armor and on occasion as vehicle armor. Civil applications containing UHMWPE fibers are cut-resistant gloves, bow strings, climbing equipment, automotive winching, fishing line, spear lines for spearguns, high-performance sails, suspension lines on sport parachutes and paragliders, rigging in yachting, kites, and kite lines for kites sports. So yeah, it's got braid in it. Edit - I'm probably oversimplifying a bit, because there's know way to know if they are actually using spun HMPE which makes the braid, or just the raw HMPE. Point is still the same though, and it explains how they could get a lower stretch result at a given diameter. One of the weird side effects is that this line is picky about knots. SDJ doesn't work worth a hoot on it. two-turn through the eye Uni-knot is bulletproof though. I didn't test the palomar because I don't like the knot, might be just fine. It's about $25 for 1000 yard spools. Frankly I think they would have sold more if they made it more expensive because it gets lumped in with standard mono.

For what it is worth, it is really big like Big Game - 14lb is thicker than tatsu 20. If you like low stretch, it is meaningfully better. If you don't, probably the same difference. They put braid fibers in the mix and it works.

Irod magic stick got great reviews in another thread. I got one and am happy with it.

These things catch fish. And so far, significantly more than the 6th sense Axis, which was surprising to me. Best situations so far have been follow-ups when chatterbaits are working, or when I need a trigger that I can't get from a regular squarebill. 90+ degree water two weeks ago, burning this full throttle was getting follows in shad, so I put on the orange/red and started whacking them. It was the only other color I had, and they weren't biting a chatterbait or a t-rig. On reflection a lipless might have worked too. It was one of those spots I knew was holding fish and they wouldn't bite anything I was throwing.

? ☝️ And lately I've been trying more white-ish/shad-ish colors in places without a lot of shad, and it is working. Seems to be worth an extra couple of fish to throw both gill and white/shad if I'm in a transitional area like a weed edge or flat near deep water.

I'm a fan of the Kigan semi-micros. They pass FG's just fine, and I'm so used to them when I pick up a rod with regular guides they look huge to me.

Thanks. Same with 1/2? I'm almost always in grass. The MH/R is great, but it's a smidge overloaded on 1/2 oz chatterbaits, and more importantly it doesn't have enough backbone to be able to really snap grass off of it. Often it does, but not enough. So between the slight overloading on 1/2 and the rod going way to deep in the blank to get a grass snap, it seemed like I needed something heavier. I want the tip soft enough that it's deflected 3-4" during a normal retrieve. Thanks everyone for all the suggestions and options.

I'm on the hunt for a Heavy Mod-fast with a lighter/softer tip. 7'4" pref, but a 7'2" would be fine. I'm often covering a good bit of water so accuracy on this presentation is less important than distance. Preferably something around $200-$300. Who makes something like this? Background - I'm moving to a heavy rod from a MH mod-fast (actually Daiwa Regular) for fishing chatterbaits and swimjigs. The average weight with trailer of my CB's is .75 to .85 oz, and while it is fine, I've realized it isn't ideal. Felt way better throwing it on a heavy, but the H/F is definitely not the right feel for me on this, especially with a fish on. I just got a H/mod-f but it isn't tippy. I'm going to try it out anyway, maybe it'll be fine. Ideas?

Yeah, it just freaks me out as a new boater when I’m fishing and i look at the helix and it says 1.5 feet. I’m mostly worried about the trolling motor. Funny, when I get those low readings I’ve never hit the trolling motor, but way too many times just slowing trolling around I’ve found the bottom or timber with it. Maybe if I snap it off the wife will let me buy a TM that’s easier to deploy and stow than the freaking Power Drive model Good news and bad - probably a bunch of flex in the shaft, it'd be pretty hard to bust off.

Guaranteed To Catch Bass - Fishing Tackle - Bass Fishing Forums (bassresource.com)

This summer it's worked for me in two situations: 1) fish were already obviously keyed on shad (busting them on top, etc) - and I knew what depth they were at and it wasn't face-down on the bottom. 2) on the drop around cover or near deep/shallow intersections. I can't really explain this one, maybe a spinnerbait would have done the same thing, maybe it was enough presence to get them to come out and get it. I was letting it drop to get to the right depth and got a bite. Happened again in another spot. They wouldn't eat it on the retrieve though. /shrug Better results on the smaller a-rigs than on a big full-size one so far.

Mine was doing that sometimes in the weeds too. H'birds answer was something like "yeah it does that, sonar is bouncing off the weeds, nothing you can do about it." I do notice it is more likely to happen when I'm still.

☝️it'll make your first few days much more enjoyable.

At a minimum they can be patterned to stimulus/response behavior. And if you don't beleive that you've never been near a bluegill feeder going off. And even better the bass chowing down on the bluegill. That doesn't mean other responses won't override override a learned stimulus/response behavior, otherwise they'd stop biting what we are throwing. One of the books covered this in particular with hardbaits - they said that besides worm-style baits (IMO jigs fit here too), eventually they stop biting it. I think this is part of the argument I made to myself about getting fish back in the water with as little trauma as possible - less likely to imprint than getting boat flipped. Do I know for sure? Nah. But it is pretty reasonable that if you can positively train a fish to do certain things, a negative stimulus would do the same. Are big fish more intelligent? Probably not. More experience? Definitely.

Game on, I'll give my bigger ones a shot.

Consistently bigger fish from a buzzbait.