AManWearingAHat

I fish for what's biting so I flip a coin where I'm going to start. I generally gravitate towards finesse because it puts more fish (temporarily) in the boat, but usually a lower percentage of "keepers". The inverse is true for me for power fishing. Taking size over quantity. I just fish for fun though. I have no desire to ever enter a tournament. Fishing is supposed to be relaxing

Gamakatsu #4 Octopus Circle Hook with your soft plastic of choice. The fish basically hook themselves.

Lead bullet weights have always worked fine for me. Slowly transitioning to tungsten just to be environmentally conscious. Probably stick with the same traditional shapes

I was unaware of that. Good to know. I have two others that I run with straight Fluoro and have mostly eliminated backlashing from my cast. Why mess with success?

Got it. Thanks for the help everyone. I have fished a similar combo before with straight fluoro and had good luck. Maybe Ill just stick with that and skip the leader knots all together. Ive got the line anyway, I can always try down the road.

Why opt for Fluoro / CoPoly over Braid? I had read braid is preferred for moving baits due to tight line sensitivity, and Fluoro for bottom contact / slack line sensitivity?

Size wise on this set up I top out on 5" Paddle tails usually rigged on flashy swimmers or weighted 5/0 EWG hooks Im not hocking anything like the giant 2 ouncers or A-Rigs or anything like that.

Its worth it alone in the aggravation it saves from having to untangle treble hooks from a traditional string net. Rubber all the way.

Sorry, dumb of me to leave out. Reel is a Daiwa Tatula TWS SV, 6.3:1

Simple question. Have a dedicated casting set up for swimbaits now. 7'1" MH/F that is going to be 100% dedicated to single hook moving baits. I have two spools of power pro sitting around. A 40# (10lb ED) and a 65# (16lb ED). Planning on fishing with a Fluoroleader because clear water. Which diameter would you spool up and why. I was thinking the 40# for less line resistance but figured I'd poll the brain trust

Meat in the chest freezer. That's it for me. I don't have any particular attraction towards trophy hunting.

That right there is one of my favorite combos to fish by far. I'm a big Keitech fanboy and the bait monkey knows it. I have a ton of their plastics. Probably one of the few brands I can say has caught me about as many fish as they've caught me for purchases Regarding going weedless. Mesu Raptor swim jigs are my favorite or a weighted twist lock hook with a fluke.

I was actually going to make that comment. And I do This is such a dumb sport, but I love it.

I use shaky head jigs that allow you to screw the plastic on and skin hook them like any other worm. Let it sit on the bottom, give it a few light shakes, then Ill "pop" it to the next spot and repeat.

Long casts, natural colors, less "noisy" presentations. Swimbait on a swobble head or a swim jig would probably be my search bait in these conditions.

Keitech Impact FAT 4.8" in Arkansas Shiner, on a 5/0 Owner flashy swimmer with a silver willow blade. Oddly enough in Arkansas. I guess it's not just a clever name on the color

I haven't seen floating rattle traps in forever.

Okay not to be a contrarian, but someone honestly tell me the functional difference between these three (besides the color , nice try smart guys). All weedless, all approximately the same size hook all in the same weight range. Ones a "Ned Rig", one's a "Shaky Head", and one's a "Texas Rig". Unpegging the T-rig can give a more fluttery fall on the plastic, Ill submit that one. But pegged, the three fish pretty similarly in my eyes.

https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Danielson_Rubber_Bobber_Stops_10pk/descpage-DANBOBR.html These are the ones I use. Probably no better or worse than anything else you'll find.

I wouldn't say dead water, it depends on conditions. My last out of state trip we were fighting unseasonably warm water. Only place we found active fish holding was suspended on the structure you just described. In that case, for me anyway, fishing it semi vertically worked well once we found the band the fish were suspended on. In this case because the bite was slow, down sizing was very successful. I didn't bring in a single fish on the baitcasters that whole trip.

I throw my lipless on a 7' MH/Mod-Fast Baitcasting set up. Little bit of give for keeping the treble hooks pinned, but not a full glass noodle.

Those are some expensive foul ups. My god

Love the owners, on a fluke they saved me from getting skunked a few times.

Did someone forget to tell the smallies that those are far too cheap to catch fish?

still another 8 weeks to go here or so before anything starts warming up and biting...