Bass Rutten

Revisiting. Finally got around to doing a little maintenance, a few drops of oil and a little grease and it’s back to it’s initial out of the box smoothness. Replaced the stock handle with a daiwa paddle style 90mm steez handle, big improvement. Spooled up with some 30lb 832 and mated to a dobyns champion 705cb with their well known balance combined with the 80’s palmability this duo is very light in hand, and makes for one super fun chatterbait and crankbait chucking machine. Another observation, I think the t-wing opening on the 80 may be slightly wider as this is the first tatula I can reel a braid to leader knot onto without issue.

18 minutes from I want one to I ordered one, monkey been brushing up on his jiu jitsu I see ? I can’t speak to the two specific rods you mentioned but running braid for chatters I’d stay away from fast rods, I use a dobyns champion 705cb (non-glass, mod-fast) with 30lb sufix 832 braid + copoly leader for 1/2oz, for 3/8oz I use a completely different setup, I like a fast action but with straight copoly for stretch (st croix avid x med/fast). There’s currently a chatterbait rod thread on the front page with many opinions on this subject you may want to check out. As to your main question I use my jdm zillion on a bottom contact rod, a st croix legend mh/fast.

Road runners, jig/grub, ned rig, dropshot with 4” finesse wurmz

I use a 7’0” medium/fast daiwa kage, 10lb fireline, 8lb leader, 1/0-2/0 hooks either owner cover shot or robo rebarbs, 3/16 pencil shaped tungsten weight 90% of the time, occasionally 1/4 or 3/8 when the wind dictates, great setup for 4-7” finesse worms rigged weedless.

Fishing has been tough no doubt, my most productive lure the last few weeks has been the z man baby goat on a 1/16 owner blockhead jighead, not fished on bottom ned rig style but swimming it slowly old school jig n grub style, great for numbers, size not so much, gets the skunk out. Lasts forever! Was using the exact same jig and body the whole time, lost it to an approximately 6lb dogfish boatside last night, just as I was lifting it out of the water it thrashed hard and broke me off, mean n nasty little buggers.

The Junior has only 2 hooks, they’re probably just using a stock photo. If you look it up on sportsmans warehouse they show the 2 hook version, looks dang close, I could be wrong

Strike king kvd sexy dawg, clear sexy shad.

I know this is a popular and great frog rod but I’ve yet to use it for that, I don’t like frogs and they don’t like me ?‍♂️ but I second what Scott said above, this is my (almost) dedicated rod for mid-size weedless boot tails, and if the swimbait bite is off then it’s great for big plastics like 7” senkos or soft jerks.

I’ve never owned or tried a pencil popper style lure and am curious as nothing beats a good topwater slam. It seems the very hard to find evergreen shower blows are regarded as the best of this type of lure (perhaps just hype?) Would love some recommendations for good alternatives, thx!

Two is one, one is none

Nice catches! Did you have to deal with any additional red tape crossing the border due to covid?

I see, apologies, I made some assumptions. Experimenting with new or different rigging types (rather than lures) keeps things fresh for me. I’ve added the free rig to my technique arsenal this year. A couple years ago I focused on learning to use the jika rig. It’s like adding another layer of options without needing to buy new lures.

Before getting too far into what can be a deep rabbit hole I’d start with the basics, the modest venerable worm is the all time fish catching champ and at the end of the day all you really need. A few straight tail, action tailed, and stick worms in a couple different sizes gives you an absolute plethora of rigging options. Don’t overlook terminal gear either, be sure to budget for quality terminal; weights, hooks, jigheads, swivels, pegging etc. A small selection of plastics that’ll cover a lot of ground would be senkos, trick worms, speed worms, and power worms.

Got my new little jdm beauty out for a short 90 minute session this morning, 1st impressions are great smooth all around performance (as expected), was able to pop two fish, the drag sound feedback upon hookset was a nice unexpected surprise. Love the handle, a little disappointed on the ergonomics when palming though, it’s a bit bulkier than I expected, was hoping it would sit lower and melt in my hand like the curado mgl and the alphas. It’s size and feel reminds of my now departed og steez. Tolerances feel tighter than any reel I’ve ever laid hands on. Unlike my alphas and other zillions mine has a very stiff brake dial, like actually hard to change even with with my thumb nail, there’ll be no accidental changes on this reel, that’s a good thing, keep yer duct tape! ?

Solid rig, hug it up!

All aboard the zillion hype-r train, choo choo! ? Another shout out to JLS for 3 day shipping and a jackall break blade bonus gift, look out jackhammer!

I’m in northern Illinois and fish lakes with very heavy pressure and similar vegetation to what you describe and the swimjig is the first lure that comes to mind for search baits. Another option, while not finesse per se, that has done well for me lately are the new zman mini max chatterbaits, very compact with a much subtler thump than standard sizes and comes through standing vegetation very good, add a subtle action trailer for action on the drop or pauses, I like the zoom swimmin’ chunk, any grub will work too. An overlooked use for chatterbaits with an action trailer is pitching to pockets just like you would a jig.

My recently acquired alphas is the first daiwa reel I’ve owned with the brake dial at the bottom and I had the same issue of moving it inadvertently with my index finger. It was not good decision on daiwas part to mess with a good thing purely for the sake of aesthetics [imo] in order to “clean up” its looks. It took a few outings but I’ve adjusted my grip and it’s no longer an issue for me. I got a zillion incoming any day now which will be used on a bottom contact rod that I choke up on using its foregrip so [fingers crossed] hopefully no issue there.

My essential never leave home without it plastic is a straight tail worm, I like the netbait tmac, and for a smaller profile the zoom swamp crawler. As far as rigging you name it, they can do it all. In order of most to least used rigging method for me; shaky/slider head, flick shake, split shot/mojo rig, neko, weightless, jika, wacky, dropshot, carolina, texas rig.

Wut da fudge is this world coming to? Next thing you know they’ll be calling a man a woman and jig worm a ned rig ?

Considering you’re fishing in current I’d skip the light+ and go to a medium or at least a medium-light at a minimum. I use the expride 6’10” ml and fish 3 lbs+ can be a handful even in open water much less in current. Their medium rod is offered in 6’8”m/xf and 7’0”m/f, Ned himself uses short medium power rods.

Spinning: daiwa ballistic mq lt 2500, smooth and solid af. Casting: daiwa alphas sv tw 800 (jdm), no major faults I can find so far other than it was a little dry, and due to being used to the traditional daiwa brake dial being on the side not the bottom I'd accidentally flick the brake dial with my index finger, I've gotten used to it now. I caved and ordered a zillion svtw (jdm) due in no small part to all the hype and talk about it, plus that $251 price didn't hurt. I have a feeling my favorite casting reel is likely to change with it's arrival.

The ed rig?

Drop shot 3-4" worm Shaky head 5-6" worm Ned rigged trd Jika rigged beaver/creature Keitech 2.8-5.8 This is very close to my actual starting lineup for me these days as I've been gradually drifting away from hardbaits. Sometimes a wacky, flick shake, or neko will replace one or more of the above. If you want to learn to drive screws leave your hammer at home! ?

So an 8% success rate? Haha that's actually great, that's a fish every 12th cast ? I'm doing it all wrong! eeny meeny mi...