Tatsu Dave

Yeah I've went thru one pack of rage tails already, just one swim tube second one is still on the rod. BBB has always made tough plastic's and these are no exception, sometimes action is less but not so with these.

No but I will if I catch her.

Guess I better get the other one now then, need one more Pres XT to fill last vacancy. Thanks for heads up.

Nothing much secret anymore, just some harder to get in and out of. Catch and release is best thing to preserve a spot but others don't operate that way too much anymore. Even dangerous shallow rocky stuff is accessible with small boats. If you got a good one enjoy it, things got really bad this year from all the pandemic fisherman and they don't seem to be going anywhere.

Well yesterday was a good one for SM and crawfish lures, they are feeding on crawfish heavy and quite active as this cooler weather comes in. Water was down 7 degrees from last week and while only catching one largemouth the smallies came steady the entire day. Soon as these fronts go thru will be back out wearing out my arm. Dave

The two president xt's I just bought from TW both have anti reverse switch's. I can't talk long term as I just started using them hard but many 28 SM bass trips and they should show any weakness pretty quick. My sons president is 5+years now and as smooth as when it was new. We'll see how it goes in the long run, can't fix or replace what ain't broke I suppose.

Or do you not give him credit for trying and reaching out? Not everyone has a mentor so they learn by the school of hard knocks. Wish this site and experienced fisherman like on here had been around and given me a hand with BASICS many years ago when I was trying to learn. I think he's spot on myself and will learn on a much faster learning curve than most do. Your lure and rigging suggestion follows right along with everyone else's.........

Wow! one more post on my phantom bass, I went past fishing yesterday and of course threw a rainbow trout stickbait back on the pads and skittered out to the edge.......it happened again right at the tiny gut in the pads where a small feeder seepage must come out. Yarded my line out and headed into the weedmat and I reversed the troller and started backing away as the old dobyns did its thing it was running along the edge and buried itself into a floating weed clump with a lone stick in it. Just held tension on the line and started in to try and net her, she made a terrible thrash and pulled the stickup under, got wrapped around the stick and bang pulled off the hook. Hmmmmm maybe braid isn't a bad idea to rig up to fish for her........third time is usually the charm.

You got a lot of good advice to try, use bass resource to see any rigging or technique explained......Glenn has more videos to watch and learn from than I got aches and pains from fishing all day yesterday............Catch a big one.

Guess most on here know that I tend to lean toward soft plastics for bass, I'm pretty color oriented also. I compared two different but similar crawfish imitators this summer and thought I would give my experiences with on water fishing them. Strike King rage tail craw's have a great claw flapping action and can be used to skitter over grass and pad mats as well as casting and even trolling as a finder lure. Love the coffee smell and of course a great variety of colors for the fisherman to bite on. Ended up with 6 colors when probably 2-3 (grn pump/pearl, crawdaddy, and blue craw) would cover everything. They worked best on a light 3/0 EWG hook and life was rather short as the fish key on those swimming claws. Weighted hook for below surface and weedless no weight for running on top. BBB swimming tube craw is a large meaty looking lure with a tube design and hollow body and two large swimming arms. Solid head for rigging and just a 4" tube bait that swims. Color selection was easy junebug, secret craw, and tilapia. Those three covered it for me. OK they both caught fish well but the secret craw BBB model was a smallmouth slayer to the max.......a 4/0 EWG heavy hook works well w/ the thicker body and acted like a keel to prevent spinning. First lure caught 12 SM with jumping and fighting before the swim legs disappeared. Still had the tube left but no swimming action, rage tail is light enough to cross about any mat and seems to really catch fish as well. However they do not last thru many fish and quickly lose the flappers trailing at the back. Both are good bets to try for sure and will do the job, still if I could only have one design and color the swimming tube craw in secret craw would be the go to. I noticed one Smallmouth had pieces of craw in his mouth when he came in and it matched the secret craw color perfect. Try them both would be my advice...they seem to have different uses, but the same results. Good Fishing!

You can see it in his face.............he's a fisherman and can't wait for the next big one! Well Done

What He said ^^^^^^^Where I fish 3/16 is the ticket.

Didn't have anyone actually, my Dad didn't fish much and it was up to me. Books-video's-trial and error. Bought a 12' alum. and a 7.5hp outboard and that was the door to many adventures on the water. Fish will teach you.....I never looked back : )

I use a Ranger net that is woven net dipped in rubber, slide out handle and very large net that even large fish can lay flat in. We bought it cause the regular net we had hung up so bad on treble's that it would take a lot of time each time to unhook. We have never had this happen with the ranger net and would buy another if anything happened to it. Bought it from TW and it was pricey but worth every penny.

Improved clinch works for me and don't slip if tied wet and pulled down tight without any burning.

I use tatsu 10# tied to lure and it works very well for sensitivity and is pretty low stretch compared to mono or hybrid. In our water at max clarity you can see bottom at 3-4' w/ any runoff or storm roiling its about 1-2' max visibility. It works good for my uses and seems to catch even wary pressured bass.

Megastrike holds on for a while and sure isn't going to hurt, I put some in the tube cavity of my swimming tube craws and it lasts quite a while. I also dip in JJ's dipping dye as well just before we pull out to fish. Its all about holding on to the bait longer.......

I use and at this time that's 4 T-Rigs w/ different soft plastic lures weighted or weightless on all M/F rods 6-7', 10# tatsu. Why more than 8? We fish in heavy wood structure and laydown's as well as assorted veggie/pad fields where toothy pickerel and often now pike in with the bass. It is very hard on line and abrasion is #1 reason for failure. I'm at .010 diameter and use all 30-3000 series reels, I was only considering going lighter for a dedicated SM rod that I would like to catch larger fish on in deeper clearer water. The hybrid was a thought if I could use 4# and see about 8# breaking strength. But you are right the hybrid has higher diameter than the tatsu I use. Think I'll spool one reel w/8# tatsu and use that and see the difference in abrasion damage for now.

I've noticed that when this line is mentioned it always seem's to come with the fact its not at all the # test it comes labelled as. Where is this real # test info available? I bought a spool of 8# test clear to compare to tatsu on a finesse set-up that I'm trying to outfit with smaller diameter lower test line. I was hoping for something under .010 diameter that would still give me the strength I need to pull bass from cover, the hybrid would need to still go to lower # test to accomplish this. Need to know how the real # test is figured for it to decide, first impressions with the 8lb are more stretch than I'm used to/less sensitivity than what I already have with FC/and with the 8lb its fatter than I want to use. Question is about how low I can really take it in # test and where everyone is figuring the real break strength it has. Otherwise it looks like 8lb tatsu at .009 will be the choice, I hate the extra give on hooksets and now with a good rod can really feel the loss of bottom touch as well. With line conditioner it behaves just like FC so how it casts and acts on reels is a non-issue. I'm blaming roadwarrior for planting this go smaller line theory, because in my head I know he's right. Actually Billy W. introduced me to it originally in his quest for a huge SM bass.

Thanks I agree with you on Sierras, got a 703 and 704 on the winter list for sure. Son loves the sufix 832 and is getting ready to spool another rig with it.

This ^^^^

Sounds like you got it down pat. Comfort is everything now and keep's you sitting a lot longer. Just moved one this morning, didn't like the spot. Now I'm hooking up the boat to go fish w/son this afternoon to evening. Things get busier this time of year but it all comes together. Dave

Hey FM how goes it! China lake should be awesome when you get here, enough rain to keep levels up but helps keep water temps lower and bass shallow. Not the usual Aug pattern at all............active shallow fish. Good Fishing Dave

Will do it as concise and short as possible, Pfleuger president XT SP30 asked about them and got a mixed bag of response's so here's my experience so far. Both reels silky smooth with no tight spots or binding at all, smooth sealed drag, faster gear ratio for burning lures on top and line recovery. Cork handle a nice touch but to prevent the knob falling off as several reviews stated, remove the dust cover and remove the screw that holds bearings and knob to handle. Put a drop of blue loctite on it and tighten, then a drop on dust cover so it doesn't come off. Now you can take apart to lube bearings in handle and not be dealing w/glue. Have used both and in fact used one a few minutes ago, they are solid when you hook fish and show no signs of any issues at all. Super light weighed in at 7.6oz. with carbon handle. Will report any problems if encountered but right now am very impressed with them for the money spent, winner in my book. Dobyns Sierra 7' M/F w/micro guides, very light and casts a mile it seems. Had to recalibrate my cast's a little it had that much more distance. The FC already gives me good sensitivity but w/this rod it's beyond what I expected, you can feel slight touches and bumps on lure and the bottom very easy to tell when you hit or go over something. Still getting used to that, fought a big largemouth the other night and pulled him out of grass and landed him without any strain. Like I've said its the first of several more to come very impressed and happy. We used Sufix 832 braid in camo on my sons spinning set-up in 30#, he read the seaguar smackdown review's and opted to the sufix. It spooled easy and he used it non stop last two all day on the water trips, He was bit off once in 16 pickerel and that is better than FC in my book. He landed 2 big LM over 4# and a 3lb SM with no problems and some pretty big pickerel as well. I fished w/it for a while too and have decided to also spool up a braid rig. He's not using a leader of any kind, hard to see the camo in the water past about 2ft. He loves it and plans to change another reel over to braid now so its a winner also. All good reviews so far.........and I'm not usually easy to please. I do think that telling others your experiences good or bad can help them as well. Dave

I agree, sometimes I want and need it in the next couple hours! What this year has taught me, is to try some of the lures I never seem to throw. Its how I discovered a color and a soft plastic that I bought and never used, both are new favorites now. OK gotta go work on and spool my new reel that showed up.