txchaser

Try raising your rod tip up high when the senko hits the water, and follow the worm down with your rod tip so you can maintain that constant semi-slack. Also watch the spot where the line breaks the surface of the water. Consider mashing down the barb of the hook for a while. You might lose a fish or two, but it'll do far less damage if they do get it gut hooked.

Do different reel seats have different trigger locations? I ask because on some retrieves the trigger feels like it is too high to put my pinky above it and too low to put it below. It is most noticeable when I'm trying to feel the line.

I'll echo the recommendation for SDJ. Solved many problems for me.

@WRB I've been reflecting for a few days thinking about what I might say; there really are no words that fit so I'll simply wish for you that tomorrow is a little bit better than yesterday.

Website suggests they are pretty much caught up, even on ground orders. Like others mentioned, the 2 day ships out the same day. Better than ordering from multiple places, maybe getting the same prices, maybe not, and god forbid I buy from bass pro and my order streams in over the next month in 9 boxes.

Just hunch, but now that you have braid, you have a winch that doesn't stretch. You aren't going to break that line, so don't fiddle around with the fish - set the hook and commence skiing that fish towards you as fast as you can. Don't give it an inch of pause or slack.

Owner CPS light (or regular) in 2/0 or 3/0 - has no exposed bend, senkos last longer on it anyway.

I had an experience this Sunday the fish would not bite a lure with flake in it. And didn't seem to care much about color, but flake was a no-no. And it happened in both bottom and middle of the water column... like a light switch. At least that's the story I'm telling myself, but fishing for for a while and getting no bites and then immediately catching fish after the switch seemed pretty clear. It only took me five hours to figure out what was going on; I knew they were there so it was very frustrating. Doesn't matter till it does... But I do think in certain lakes or spots they get keyed one something and it is the difference between a fish here or there and lots of bites. My most recent was where the juvenile catfish fry were inky black... and swapping to an otherwise identical chatterbait/zako but in black/blue was rewarded with an immediate bite out of an isolated bit of cover that I was pretty sure was holding fish. It seemed hopeless at the time, but it worked. About half the time fishing makes me wonder if I have any idea what I'm doing. I suppose that's why I enjoy it so much, 1000's of little details that when they matter they really matter, and the figuring it out process is fun.

Yesterday I re-learned why I like owner CPS hooks so much. Using a regular gammy EWG on a big worm, and didn't pin the worm with a keeper or mono. Caught fish, but the one (unmistakably) big bite I had been hunting for all day ended in a balled up worm on the hook. It was too hot for dumb mistakes or re-learning. Grrr... Not a vet, but my two biggest bass were on the hardest fishing days I've ever had. Sounds backwards, but in both cases were a result of just pushing through when I really wanted to stop.

I have better luck lightening up on weight. Also consider a rage rig (weighted swimbait hook) or Northland Tackle's Weed Wedge or the Trashmaster Jig. All three will be a good bit more weightless, with the trashmaster presentation being most like a regular jig. Fluke instead of the jerkbait. Weeds? Try a chatterbait too. Paddletail on a swimbait hook In terms of the 'where' in the weeds 1) on top with a frog 2) on the edges and holes with the senko or a t-tig, fluke, chatterbait 3) the clumps and isolated weeds set out a little bit from the outside (deep edge) 4) something swimming over the tops of weeds that dont quite reach to the surface.

A friend went to mexico via air recently. Same thing, no big deal for the travel.

Are you looking for a rod in the 100-150 or a full setup in that range?

Without question, trailers are the other half of the bait. Paddletail upside down, Zako, or a fluke.

Partial hijack, but the thread has all the right people... in southern waters when would one throw a tube and what would you throw it instead of?

Some of my best days are when I grind all day (usually in crappy weather, hot/cold/win) with very little to show for it, and somewhere along the way I solve the puzzle. That moment when it all comes together, and you can back into what the missing pieces were. And then just unleash on them because you are dialed in. Sometimes even over a span of multiple trips, where I have to ruminate on it all week, wondering what I missed... then it finally comes together. I think far too little time is spent on the -where- and far too much on the -what-. Growing up we always cast our baits into the most open water we could find. Now it feels like the opposite.

I'll usually step down in intensity of presentation a few times, and more often than not it'll pull more fish out. Example if I caught one or two in a spot on a chatterbait, and I've put the chatterbait all around the spot with nothing else, I might throw a paddletail at it a bit, then a senko or a jig. Part of what I'm trying to do is get a bit of a pattern - some days I can't get them to bite anything else, others it pulls quite a few more out. Like people, some are more aggressive than others for specific food. I won't get out of the chair for a PBJ sandwich, but bacon will pop me right out. To your question about little fish, one of the things I learned here that seems to almost always be true is that big fish don't do little fish things. They do big fish things. So they are likely somewhere else.

I'd be in for a couple dozen to start if @Siebert Outdoors did this.

Okuma Epixor spinning reel. MSRP is about accurately priced, but amazon often has them for about 40% less. At that price, they are a knockout.

So I have a bone and a black sprinker frog. Fished them reasonably often and mostly just got the occassional half-assed swipe. Tried the booyah tail frogs, same difference. I didn't see what all the big deal was on these, so I just used toads in that application; they would get strikes in the same color and same retrieve speed. And then the weight fell out of the bone sprinker. For some reason it irritated me so much I remembered this thread, ordered the stuff, and made a homemade one. Fished it twice now, it catches fish! So many today that I have to retire the first one. Tail is still fine, but after a 30 frog fish run today, the frog itself looks like the dog got ahold of it. My most epic topwater day ever was thanks to this homemade frog. Works well in open water with weeds, it was calling fish out that the buzzbait and a WP wouldn't pull. Thanks @TC Bass

I got one, landed yesterday, fished it today. Fit and finish were A+. Trigger is in a better spot than my other rods; just fits my hand really well. Tip really is just right... this is a totally different feel than my jig rod. Missed 3 out of probably 40+ frog fish today. Long casts are easy, normal casts are a wrist flick. Taper seems just right for hookset and staying loaded deep into the blank. Wasn't walking the frog though, so I didn't really get a sense for how it does there. I'm +1, would recommend to others.

Tap tap tap. <--- lift the bait up and see. This was described somewhere here as a machine gun. Peck. <--set the hook Thunk. <---set the hook Mush/where'd my bait go. <--set the hook If you ask yourself which of these is happening you'll start to feelthe difference. Sometimes, anyway. Apparently, Gary Yamamoto fishes his senkos on 2/0 or 3/0 light wire hooks. With that thickness of hook, it takes very little to set the hook anyway, so you don't lose much if you just reel down some, or give it a little pop.

Boomerang. Especially because they are impossible to put in the wrong place... I just let them go and they go back where they should be. After about 18 months the braid-cutting abilities are starting to wane. I like the idea above on cutting braid and mono/flouro on different parts of the blade. I got the long blade so plenty of space.

Keitech Fat Swing Impact in 3.8 on an owner CPS underspin 3/0. Very snagless/weedless, can be fished lots of ways and makes a great mid-column bait. Willow in clearer or calmer water, colorado in dirtier or choppier water, or in a bluegill presentation.

@basser27 When Tom says adult bass I think he means 4lbs+. Maybe a little smaller than that up north.