txchaser

Livetarget Sunfish 3.5, match the bluegill in the pond, mostly orange around in my case. It doesn't look like anything special, but mine are shredded from bass teeth. It's bit enough to be worth chasing... The tail has a bit of a chatterbait feel to it, but not too loud. Has worked for me in muddy and crystal clear water. Go play "little lost bluegill" and see if you can get some bigger attention.

x2

One of my newish Tatula SV's sounds like it has ceramic bearings. Under-lubed from the factory? If so, where? Or should I just send it back. Works fine, just sounds grindy...really just like ceramics.

Definitely use the MH. Assuming your jig is probably the thickest hook you are throwing, you might also try a jig with a lighter wire hook. You'll have a little more margin for error. Cheap and easy to test. Also you are setting a hook into hard parts, if you don't change the jig try to set much harder.

Que? No entiendo.

Consider that if those bank spots are easy access and well manicured, everyone else is there too, so you are fishing under a lot of pressure. Or if no pressure, perhaps the lake just has better spots, when view from the bass' point of view. Can you replicate the cover or structure where you were catching from the boat? While I'm not suggesting this, I cut brush for three hours last month to get to a couple of spots on a pond, because the accessible spots weren't producing. Rewarded with a 6.4lb fish. Fished it all day from the accessible spots and just got dinks. At least one of the big girls was holding off a steep bank near some floating weeds, none of which was accessible without the cutting. @greentrout suggested looking a map. Good advice.

What are you going to use instead? All - thanks for the comments; doesn't seem like I'm digging a bad hole except in a few specific circumstances. I have a Fuego too, but I'm wondering if I were going to upgrade that the right stop would be a Tat CT, or somewhere higher in the line. Not sure I'm good enough with a baitcaster to notice the difference, but I'm all ears.

I could use some help understanding the diawa lineup. In particular, assuming I'd like to be in the 175ish range on reels, it seems like the SV spool isn't always a good choice. So when is a Tatula SV not an ideal choice, and which reel would be in that case?

Deeper pro+ is pretty good. Particularly for mapping and finding structure. And it has a kayak/boat attachment so pretty wide range of uses. It does bottom out in the three foot range, so won't map right next to the bank. Has a web app and phone app to look at the maps and historical scans. On wide scan, cone width is = depth.

TW has ball head "ewg" style hooks that let you skin hook it like a t-rig. Way less weedy than the two-wire version.

Vision 110 past the barb in my index finger last weekend. Happened right after I thought to myself "you know I should really get the pliers...nah" Note to self - the barb is on the outside of the vision stock hooks. And there's no way to just work out out like you do in a bass mouth, finger is too thick. I tried. When faced with the rest of the day in the ER, or yankin' it out, I chose to yank. Didn't hurt nearly as bad as trying to just pull it out with pressure. Sure am glad it was those tiny hooks.

After today it's a tie between a buzzbait (it was ON today) and a magnum super fluke (strike king or zoom, both in baby bass).

https://www.sheltahats.com/ They are almost silly expensive, but I can't see going back to a canvas boonie hat in Texas. Really well thought out hat.

This thread has helped me take other people fishing and get on quality fish pretty consistently, without a lot of complication, exposed hooks flying around or getting snagged, and in a lot of different conditions. Especially the Fat Ika reverse rigged. Thank you @roadwarrior

Also, the 4/0 Owner Beast hooks fit it perfectly. I wish there was a medium wire version of the same shape though.

Swim Senko (Black w/blue flake, GP/Watermelon Laminate, Watermelon/white Laminate) Fat Ika 7" Magnum Fluke (Baby Bass in Zoom or Strike King has worked well in clear and muddy water)

Daiwa Fuego is often available at that price, and the magforce is very forgiving.

Ika's are much more durable that senkos, if that helps.

Yep. Related I was thinking about whether a rod with a bit more give would help too... if I'm loaded on the rod already, and braid to leader so no give there, and drag is sticky or set too high, and not retying enough, everything has to go right since there's no margin of error. On the line guide comments, two different rods, so probably not that, but worth checking. I'm really curious to see how smooth the drag startup is, especially after I take it apart and clean/re-grease... And maybe now I can understand the difference between a $50 okuma and a $200 shimano, because I can't tell where else it would be. Thanks again everyone for a lot of interesting feedback and places to look. I'll report back with what I found, and hopefully there's enough here for the next guy to troubleshoot a similar issue.

I hope I have this problem Yes, but it's a good question to ask. Thank you. Ah! Berkley Braid on Flouro (which is close to a doubled SD Jam. It's the three-tag knot. Fish-n-Fool on Copoly which is just a uni with an extra turn through the eye. Didn't work well on flouro compared to the Berkley Braid, about 20% less break strength.

Since I got better about checking the leader for nicks or abrasions, I think it's almost always been at the terminal knot.

Thanks @WRB - set this at the 45 degree angle or a direct pull off the reel? And assuming the drag is too high vs not smooth enough, what do I do with the bass that's running off spooling the line, just hope there's no cover it headed for to get tangled in? Not recently; curious where you're headed though.

I've been having a series of breakoffs with bigger fish (not on the hookset) and I'm trying to figure out where to go from here. Drag is light enough that the fish are able to spin the drag. Seems fine under constant pressure like when they are running for deep water. But a head snap/shake gets a breakoff. Rod is a M/F spinning rod, so seems to have a decent amount of give. I check the leader for nicks/abrasions more regularly, that helped. Moved from 6lb blue label to 8lb blue label to 8 lb yo-zuri copolymer (fish-n-fool/uni with 2x through eye), each of those helped some. Have been able to boat 4.5-5lb fish with the yo-z, but have lost multiple fish on it. On one hand I could just upsize again. On the other hand, at some point it seems silly to have a finesse presentation with 10lb line. But perhaps I'm overthinking it. Two choices in front of me 1) re-tie more often, assuming the terminal knot is getting stressed or 2) just upsize. Any other alternatives?

Indeed! You know, this should have been obvious, since I have them for jigs. Will do. No tubes, but lots of Ikas. Do they fish meaningfully differently?