Bass Rutten

Revisiting the fg after a failed attempt to learn it a few years back. I’m using 50lb sufix 832 (.34mm) to 10lb p-line cxx (.35mm), below is a pic of the best I can do at the moment, I can make them look pretty but the problem is when I cinch the knot only about half of the 20 wraps seem to grab the leader always on the side nearest where you finish the knot. On the leader side of the knot the wraps are a bit loose as you can see in the picture, and I can slide them back and forth a little, not good I assume? Even cinching hard using dowels I can’t get all of them to grab the leader. What am I doing wrong? Ideas or help appreciated.

The 4 inchers are the perfect size for the double fluke rig.

Well I wouldn’t say I have any answers as I haven’t even tried it yet, but I’ll revisit this thread after some testing.

I do use straight copoly now. I goofed above, I meant a 25-30 foot not yard topshot, 10-15ft might be better? So my theory would be that I’d get some of braids benefit of casting distance, solid hooksets at distance, and a little stretch to make it easier for the fish to inhale the lure. Once the fish is boatside all the braid will have been wound onto the reel and you’d be using only mono/fluoro for shock absorption, hard surges, boatside strikes, etc and you’d get your leaders abrasion resistance everywhere in between. Last but not least would be long term money savings. Just spitballin’ here, I know I know sounds great on paper…

Shock absorption for boat side strikes, surges, abrasion resistance. Low visibility, debatable I know but I’m not taking the chance with a 50lb white braid direct to lure, they only offer bright blue and white. And more consistent hookups, I’ve had lots of misses on straight braid. The only benefit that I’m looking for would be the elimination of the connection knot so I can use it on my t-wing daiwa reel and this would accomplish that. The 25ft leader I mentioned above should provide plenty of stretch and shock absorption.

A 50lb braid to heavy mono tied with an Albright will not pass through my reels line guide. My choices with this reel are direct tie/no leader (not what I want), or a knotless connection.

Yes really, just to be clear the main crux I’m considering hollow core is that the t-wing system will not allow a knot tied on 50lb braid to a .35-.40mm mono to pass through the reels line guide cleanly. I have not tried the fg on 50lb/20lb braid/mono. My reel, a daiwa coastal sv tw 150, can accommodate approx. 100yds of this diameter line, so capacity is not a concern. The seagaur 50lb hollow braid can be bought for less than $100.00 for 600yds so price is not an issue either. I’m sure it’s a solid line, I love yzh, but I’d still need to tie on a leader creating a knot.

Anyone out there using seaguars thread lock (or other) hollow core braid for fresh water bassing? A recent article about it on a ttackle focused forum got me thinking that its knotless connection it might be a viable solution for using heavier braid and leader on a t-wing equipped Daiwa which won’t pass a knot cleanly on heavier lines, the 50lb version seems to be about the diameter of 17-20lb mono. I think I’m going to pull the trigger on it soon to test but just wanted to get a few opinions before dropping a hundo on it. Edit: I plan to topshot the braid with 25-30ft of mono or copoly so the connection will be wound into the reel. To be used for lures in the .5-1.5oz range, swimbaits, mag sized cranks, etc

Twice a year. Mono and fluoro gets refreshed upon ice out and is fished hard for about 3 months. Repeat on Labor day for the fall bite up until ice in. Heat and extreme boating pressure keeps me off the water most of the summer until September. For my spinning reel I like to try a new brand each year but this ygk sinking braid may see a second year of use, good stuff.

I use their 12lb for shallow cranking only because it’s the diameter of most 15lb lines.

Chucking and winding? Copoly. Chucking and waiting? Fluoro. Spinners get braid to leader. Simple as a dimple. I’d estimate 50-60% of my fishing is done on copoly line.

Rapala makes an x-rap shallow deigned to run only 2-4' https://www.rapala.com/rapala/lures/x-rap-shad-shallow/X+Rap+Shad+Shallow.html?cgid=rapala-lures&taglist=Rapala|Lures#start=1&cgid=rapala-lures

Spros, come stock with gammies.

Medium will be your most versatile considering all those presentations. Even st croixs medium light would work great for the shaky, wacky, neko, and (lighter) swimbaits. For the hardbaits it’d depend on lure weight, if you’re going up to only 1/2 oz medium will be the ticket, if you’re talking 5/8-3/4oz+ you’re asking too much from a single rod. The taper on the PS70MH is going to give you fits if you use trebled lures on it (imo) unless you use a stretchy mono.

Fyi the PS70MH is a mh st croix spinning not a casting rod.

I think a few of you are mistaking this for the medium/fast, it’s medium heavy/fast, and in st croix tradition they run even heavier than most brands, I’d say it’s a stout as a lot of mh baitcast rods. It’s been a couple years since i sold off this rod, definitely not an all purpose rod, no way I’d throw any standard size lures with treble hooks, i struggled to find a purpose for it and eventually used it for light frogging and big ol 7” senkos, flukes and large worms.

It doesn't matter as long as the rod moves where you want it to. That said I tend to lift with whole forearm and wrist as one unit which recruits the bicep and maybe a little shoulder, using your wrist only would be extremely inefficient due to the very small muscles used for that motion and you'd fatigue them fast, the more muscles used the longer it will take to fatigue.

A good approach to fishing pressured waters is showing them something they don't see much or at all, shun the trends and step outside of that box. Everything old becomes new again... I haven't seen anyone throwing a mojo or split-shot rig with a small finesse tube where I live in decades, ymmv. My second choice would be a worm on a slider style head, good ol' charlie brewer sliders are still around as well as some modern takes on them, I use owner ultraheads and z-man bulletz with 5-6" straight tail or cut tail worms. A neko rig might be worth trying too.

@A-Jay, after watching a few utoob vids it looks like they sink a bit on the pause, do you find they suspend out of the box or in certain water temp range or do you tweak them to suspend?

Relax everyone relax, it was just a Chevy ?

Amen, for me labor day marks the last hurrah for the scourge of the waters aka skiers, pontooners, and pleasure boaters, woohoo!

Love my wakes, they seem to be an overlooked topwater category.

The overlooked berkley braid knot is dead reliable for direct to lure or terminal.

Slow n steady is what works for me, the tail does the work, maybe a very occasional twitch or pause is about as much as you really need to add to it. Skip em, bang em off stuff, swim them along cover, weedlines, ambush points much like a spinnerbait. If you’re throwing bigger sizes like 5-6” or bigger you got to commit to it, number of bites go gown but quality goes up.

Netbait t-mac, bama bug. Squared off nose and more buoyant than the trick worm.