QED

Assuming Whopper Ploppers are patented, the patent only covers what is in the "claims." Claims are a legalistic description of the patented invention or inventive feature. So if the claims only cover a specific feature, then you can copy everything else that isn't patented. Caveat, though I am a lawyer, I am not your lawyer, so this is only an informed opinion and not legal advice. I'm not familiar with the chatterbait patents other than their existence, so I'll take your word for that since you seem pretty knowledgeable. As for patent duration, the old rule (which is no longer applicable to patents now in effect) was 17 years from date of issuance and the new rule is (in oversimplified form due to some corner cases) from its issuance date for about 20 years, minus the prosecution time which is on the order of 2-4 years. The distinction is that patents are not valid during the prosecution period so they are not effective for 20 years from the earliest effective filing date.

In oversimplified terms, a US patent lasts from its issuance date for about 20 years (minus the prosecution time which is on the order of 2-4 years).

I stockpiled a bunch of bulk pack mister twister lizards in black and some other opaque purplish/brown color when I was a teenager and they are still super productive now.

So you are implying that the independent patent office search isn't very thorough, even though the Eagle Claw Eaker Shaker is readily found using trivial search strings including the search term "chatterbait?"

Balsa wood plugs (assuming plug = crankbait or plug is a subset of crankbait (or vice versa)) are still reasonably popular, current, premium products.

That's not correct, the patent office does a thorough prior art search and the applicant is obliged to disclose any known pertinent prior art. And I am a registered patent attorney, though my day job is tech transactions.

Not familiar with the Eaker, but the z-man folks got patents on the chatterbait, so the latter needed to be new, useful and nonobvious in order to obtain the patent. Otherwise, the Eaker would have been blocking prior art during patent prosecution, so something about the chatterbait must be different.

If you look through old BPS catalogs from the last century, you'll see that they had versions of most of the currently popular baits decades ago. Newer versions probably have more empirical testing iterations performed during the development phase and possibly better paint/color schemes, but otherwise not vastly different from the older versions. I think chatterbaits are new and senkos are new(er) types of baits since the turn of the century, but there was no shortage of productive lures in the late 1900s.

Just googled it. Lake Miramar produced a 20.15 lb bass back in the day. How is it now?

Back when I was in college, Lake Miramar near El Cajon had a reputation for having lunker bass. Too far to go from from Berkeley just to go fishing though…

Worth trying other rods perhaps, but do so before the return period is up. I never just try to learn to live with equipment that causes me basic ergonomic issues. That said I have several smaller vanfords (500F, 1000F, C2000HG) and I really like them for use with ultralight rods and they handle just fine.

The Complete Guide to Finesse Bass Fishing Michael Jones, Brand: McGrady Media The Ultralight Angler: How to Catch Big Fish on Light Tackle Feldman, Mark Ultralight Spin-Fishing: A Practical Guide for Freshwater and Saltwater Anglers Fishing How-To A Practical Guide for Freshwater and Saltwater Anglers Ultralight Fishing (The Freshwater Angler) Lilley, Tim, Brand: Creative Publishing international These are decent books but may be hard to find.

Constraints: (1) best reel (2) <= $150 We refer to this in math as an overdetermined system. The solution is the empty set.

This has been my favorite, most productive bait. No longer made. I swap out the tiny default blade for a hildebrandt #3 blade. Caught numerous bass, catfish, and a 10+ lb striper on ultralight gear. These lures show up on the large auction site on occasion so I restock when I can. Mann's jelly worms also continue to be productive but senkos seem to produce better. Whoever thought up the wacky rigged senko deserves a lot of credit - never would have occurred to me to try something like that.

Just put on a plastic casting plug and go out and practice. When I started using bait casting gear, I thought it was daft to switch hands right after casting so I just learned to operate a bait casting reel with my left hand. Practice everything from sidearm, overhead, roll cast, backhand cast, etc. Doesn't take long to learn the thumb control. Takes a bit longer to be able to cast with precision.

WD40 used as a solvent during cleaning and subsequently applying appropriate grease/oil seems to work fine. I use campagnolo (no longer available) and phil wood grease where grease is appropriate. Stuff I already have from bike racing.

Shimano Poison Adrena 163L BFS with a Shimano Aldebaran BFS XG. Both JDM but available via JDM internet sites. On the order of $700ish but totally worth it. About 8 oz for the combo!

Rapha makes some excellent, very small and thin backpacks (normally for cycling) that work well with a couple of 3700 utility boxes. In fact any small/thin backpack made specifically for carrying a laptop should be perfect for use with 1-2 utility boxes. For venues where I know what works, I travel even lighter with no backpack at all.

I have an Aldebaran MGL 30HG and BFS XG and neither is particularly loud nor do either show excessive resistance. Certainly no louder nor more operating friction than the various Steez I have.

I use 4-6 lb test stren mono > 90% of the time. I still also use 2 lb mono (which is becoming hard to find) for ultralight spinning and 8 lb test mono for light casting. The knot strength and line stretch actually seem to help in ultralight/light applications.

Nice find! Thanks for posting the URL to the article.

Yes, only the two top left lures are River2Sea. On the right, only the very top and bottom are genuine Rapalas.

The 2021 Limited Edition Steez SV TW was the most recent one I've seen. The CT SV dates back to 2019 but is my current favorite. Don't firms mostly announce new stuff at the major trade shows like ICAST?

Found minnow type baits. A couple of expensive River2Sea models and a couple of Rapalas.

The initial conditions dramatically affect the solution to, e.g., the lotka-volterra predator prey models, so even with simple first order non-linear differential equation pair models, the resolution isn't just to apply fixed rules to cull bass or shiners. You need data to understand, inter alia, the respective population distributions. Then you can apply fish management techniques to suit the target objective function that you are trying to optimize.