txchaser

I haven't, but I will. I suppose that's where they are finding the craws

Thanks y'all. I also found this (but backordered). https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/catpage-NRTHLTT.html?from=basres I have some of the cps springs separate too, ok to just bend the hook so it'll be parallel with the back of the soft bait?

It saved my butt this weekend. I was going to fish regardless of the score, but it suggested a much slower presentation than I would have guessed based on conditions. As it goes I fished whatever I was going to fish for a while and only pulled in a few and those were halfhearted. Pulled up the list, hit the second lure on the list, and it was on. Wife showed up to bring lunch and fish with me for a while (how awesome is that) and I tossed it in while she was unpacking lunch and pulled another healthy 3 pounder out. It cost me about a bag and a half of senko's, so if it gives me an extra dial-in every now and then it paid off. @Koz my hunch is that it's best dialed in for bigger bodies of water in terms of the actual score. I'm interested to see if I can figure out how it is different; best guess would be that it's early/late depending on rising or falling water temp, under the assumption that the small bodies are changing temps faster.

I'm looking for something along the lines of a sled head or a freedom hydra head (basically a hook with an integral front weight) but that has a CPS instead of a traditional EWG. I tried replacing the hooks on the freedom with a CPS, but the eyelet is too small with the CPS in it. It just seems like I trash fewer baits with the CPS. Does this exist?

Thanks @A-Jay I can see how that would work. Change anything (other than t-rig it) if there are a lot of standing weeds even in the channels? edit: a lot isn't a great description, it's fine to take a trolling motor through, but I'll definitely end up dragging the kit through some weeds.

On one of the lakes I fished recently I noticed multiple fish with 1"+ craw pinchers (orange, if it matter) poking out of the stomach. So these craws were on the bigger end. What I'm trying to figure out is the best way to present a craw given the weeds. Channels of weeds, submerged weeds, grassy weeds, etc. Oh and weeds on the bottom too. So my jig run was miserable, as I had to move very fast to stay off the bottom, and they would often drop too far into the bottom mat to be seen. Stuff like rage craw flaps an awful lot moving through the water. Seemed to pick up some dinks on it, but nothing of size. GYCB Kreature and hula grub did ok, but not great. Bigger fish were happy to bite other stuff, like a magnum fluke. Same bigger fish were the ones that had craws poking out. Didn't try a craw rattletrap as they seemed to want more time to stare at whatever I was throwing at them; fast moving stuff was mostly ignored. Maybe really light neko rig weight to get the standup as it rests on the weeds? So I'm thinking weightless (or nearly) plastic, but which one? One thing I didn't try that crossed my mind later was just tossing a fat ika in pumpkin, but maybe there's something that would match better?

I have two of the 30's. They seem well-made, and they are smooth.

I have the H/XF helium and like it a lot. Anniversary sale (21% off) is still going on too.

Try a six-turn surgeon's knot. Strong enough that the flouro line will break at the terminal knot, fast, and hard to get wrong regardless of light, moving platform, etc.

Diameter and ABS below.

This is good advice for everything that isn't a daiwa. Not trying to be snarky; apparently the Daiwas have a different setup process.

I've done some forging along the way, which required some hardening and tempering. While I don't know the exact steel used for hooks, I do know that tool steel tempers start in the 350 degree range. The good news is that the hooks are really thin compared to bar steel, so heat shouldn't transfer very far. What you are likely left with is a softer (less brittle, easier to bend) part of the hook shank. May be that on a normal pour the lead cools enough in the mold that not much heat makes it into the hook. But putting the lead back in the hot lead... if it's tool steel it is reducing hardness.

Perfect, thanks!

Do you find that the bobber stop helps keep crud out of the fastach?

After seeing the extra-deep open 3700's used for plastics here I gate it a shot. Works great! But I need to haul five of them around as a refill kit when I head out for longer trips. Replacement line, backups, etc. I suppose I could just toss them into about any old big bag, but it's nice to be organized. Favorite bag that can hold this much? It'd be workable if it could do four deep and one regular, but five deep 700 is preferred.

Amazon has the Okuma EPXT-30 Epixor Spinning Reel for 33.00. It was a nice buy in the mid-40's. Probably 100 fish in on the first one I bought, got another. Seems really well made, smooth, etc. I use it for finesse stuff.

Monkey beat me with a stick. Ordered a Kistler Helium. Liked it so much I got two more. On one hand I really enjoy all the interesting stuff, occassionally I do miss the hula popper, crazy crawler, jitterbug, few mepps spinners, jointed minnow, and a bag of purple worms being the entire tackle kit. But not enough that I want to go back.

Maybe the good stuff is gone, what's left ships from china from a seller with 31 reviews. Seems risky.

Thanks @Further North Anything change if the join is going through your rod eyes?

I'm only keeping fish if it's from a pond that needs culling.

Kistler will take the 21% when you put them in the cart. And the TW price looks to be about the same after that 21% it's just not showing the normal price on the TW site.

Thanks for the poke. Helped me realize I needed to test it anyway, and forced me to find a better way to get tension on the braid. Belt loop worked great.

Got worse by about .5 lb on both runs.

Anyone know a good way to test the actual breaking strength of the line itself? % rated strength is interesting but not nearly as % vs actual

tested twice, uni to unit with 3/9 failed in the flouro part of the knot at ~10.5 and ~11.5