txchaser

x3 on the trashmaster or a slither rig (bullet with a skirk). IMO the presentations are a little different when it is on the bottom, because the trashmaster is more likely to stand up than just lay flat.

Kistler H3 is regularly available on sale below $300 and is made in Houston. For what it is worth, my experience of sensitivity is dramatically different than an Avid-x I have.

If you want to stay with the 3600 size, the bass mafia icebox has been really good. Except for not having foam slots to hold weights, it seems like it was made for this use case.

One of my rods is always setup with slick 8-carrier 50lb braid and a 20lb hard leader. It took a bit to figure out how to make it work. Here's what works for me: 1) someone above mentioned scraping coating off the braid, if it has some. Do this. Just takes a sec. 2) Get the line out of your mouth, why try to tie a knot right in front of your face. I can't see a d**n thing that close. +3) So tie it to a belt loop or a button hole on your shirt. [do the wraps here; I don't think more helps, I think more makes it harder to cinch all the way down. YMMV] 4) Cinch the two half hitches down really really tight. And don't trim the leader yet. 5) Start the pull. If it slips, instead of a steady pull try a pop-pop-pop motion until it starts to bite. I have to do this on most 8 carrier braids. If popping doesn't work, just wet the braid. Wetting it seems backwards, but it has worked for me. 6) After it is locked in, I mushroom head the leader with a lighter (H/T to Seth Feider) 7) The rest of the finish doesn't really matter. It doesn't hold anything, experiment till you find what you like. ps: look at the knot in the light, it should be very obvious where it is really locked in. It'll change color a little, and be hard to bend. If it doesn't go all the way up the wraps, you need to set it (pull) harder. TLDR: pop-pop-pop instead of pull may fix your issue.

I think this is a great point. For example, if you are talking about fishing a dropoff, show what it looks like on the map, then show a side view of a ledge and how the fish are positioned on it. I can't recall who does this with these quick hand drawings, making it visual was really helpful. I still think there's space for a BR podcast. So many of the existing ones are too much guys chatting and not enough new info or good stories that contain info.

I weighed for a while, with a target of 1/3 based on what I learned here. I just eyeball it at this point, seemed pretty easy to remember what each of them felt like. On really light line I probably under-do it, as I shouldn't need much to get a thin hook in. If I can keep my wits about me and/or have a good wingman in the boat I'll back off drag pretty quickly on a big fish, when the fish gets near the boat. I figure a hookset breakoff is a knot or an overdoing it problem, and a boatside breakoff is a drag or a rod position problem. I had a fight recently where a fish was peeling drag on 14lb line. Very exciting. It was a LM, so it didn't surge for long, but exciting nonetheless.

I wish this for you, always.

At the intersection of numbers, catchability (even crappie bite it), size (just shy of 9lbs is biggest), versatility in the water column, versatility in different color water, weedlessness, and castability on nearly every rod I have, the win for me goes to a Fat Impact 3.8 on an Owner colorado underspin.

https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Owner_Hyper_Crosslock_Snaps/descpage-OHCS.html Owner Hyper Crosslock Snaps 70lb I upgrade JH snaps with these when I get take them out of the package. That weak little snap it comes with is the only thing I don't like about them.

^this

Well I finally got around to getting the Jig box. I give it an A+ and now I wish the rest of my stuff was this organized. And importantly it doesn't seem like I'm wasting a lot of space. I'd definitely buy it again.

I'm shocked that somehow I never came across this nugget anywhere. Maybe I'm the last to know? Seems kind of obvious with the benefit of hindsight, but ... wow. @WRB Please please write that book everyone keeps hounding you about.

Biggest this year was my PB (11 1/2) on a 6th sense flatside (75x) fishing it pretty slow. Second was around 8.5 (batteries in scale died, just measured and eyeballed, was around the size of my PB2 which was that weight) on a 3.8" Keitech Fat in bluegill flash with a dipped tail, put on an owner colorado underspin, fishing it a bit like a toad in the weeds, but subsurface in the holes. Slurped it right as it was about to go back up on the mat. It was a little stressful with a big fish in that much weeds, but I managed to keep her up high in the water column so steady pressure broke the weeds a little at a time. No real way to get the boat in there. Luckly, but lesson learned. Both on -very- windy days.

Based on advice from a bunch of threads on bass resource, I bought the Irod Fred's Magic Stick. It is well built and the tip is just right, at least for me. My other rods are more expensive by a good bit, and I was a little worried I'd hate it. Nope. Glad I bought it and I'd do it again.

Humminbird Helix SI 7" - mounted with https://www.fishfindermounts.com/ I needed a lot of portability and ability to remount on a wide range of boats. It is really well made, and has that "small machine shop" feel in that the threads are well cut, everything fits, etc. They have mounts for just about everything, and I liked that the battery box is part of the mount. 7" is plenty for the an SI/DI/chirp view, but a map/SI/DI view is really crowded.

After searching to find "the one" I have a lifetime supply of ned heads. No way I could fish an open hook where I fish. Here's what I came to after buying pretty much every style I could get my hands on: I like the Lifted EWG heads, but they are a little longer than I would prefer so I went in search of a #1 hook. Owner finesse ball head has a smaller (#1) hook with an ewg bend. And there's another japanese brand that has a similar ball head with two mono weedguards. Maybe hyabusa or jackall. They both work really well, and I didn't notice any difference on the 90 degree line tie vs the 45 on these but perhaps it would make a difference for others. Z-man's #1 EWG heads land mid-november at tackle warehouse. With all that said, the thing that has helped the most is 1) small hook like a #1 2) lighten up on the weight and 3) if it feels a little snaggy just pop the line a tiny bit (sort of like the bow/arrow style) - the light weight will pop right up.

I got some good advice here on picking a depth finder, and ended up getting one with SI. One pitch for having SI - you are likely to find cover that other people would only find with luck. That totally submerged laydown gets a lot fewer lures thrown at it. If you are fishing the same structure everyone else knows, and the same cover everyone else can see, you might get the same results. I don't look at it all the time, but if I'm in an area I haven't fished before, it is definitely coming on.

Since it hasn't been mentioned yet, Keitech Swing Impact Fat in 3.8" on an Owner CPS Underspin. Weedless/snagless, it gets bit. Even big crappie will take a bite. You can also use the Keitechs on the swimjigs others mentioned above, as well as on a t-rig, either swum or fished on the bottom. It's pretty much the senko of swimming presentations. I use bluegill flash more than shad colors or solid no-flake colors like green pumpkin, but that is probably habit more than precision around color/flake. It kind of looks like everything and nothing specific, unless you dip the tail and it takes on more of a bluegill look.

Bought some 6th sense 75x this year for early pre-spawn. Caught my PB on it. It is a bigger presentation than the frittside, which I also got but haven't fished much.

Sunny afternoon and very shallow water extended the frog bite for me last year. But the water here might only spend a month or less touching the high 40's.

Somewhere there's a marketing analyst at Yamamoto trying to figure out what is going on with a spike in orders on 975. Next week they'll be begging to rearrange the production schedule.

https://humminbird.johnsonoutdoors.com/mapping/autochart-pc-north-america This is overkill for what you asked for, but it will get it done.

I think you should email them, I doubt he changed all the rods to mod- only. 2019 were mostly XF on the heavies I looked at, and the one I have. With that said, I use it for a jig/bottom rod and use something with more give in the tip for the frog.