Fat Ika

Gin clear smallie lakes. 1. Free rigged DoLive Shot 2. Drop shotting a 2.5" tube or flatworm style plastic 3. 3.3 Keitech on various swimbait jigheads Largies. 1. 3.8 bellows gill or bull flat. 2. Power bite will come on swim jigs, spinnerbaits and bladed jigs.

Awesome. Always looking to add other weedless wedgetails to the mix. Thanks man.

Bummer. Has to be one of the worst ice fishing seasons in Chicagoland ever. Hopefully a few decent ponds open up soon. I've always wanted, but been hesitant to try those savage gear lb bluegills. How's the balance on the upright posture, hookup ratio, and does the hook stay positioned with continued use?

@ol'crickety IME, regardless of rod, reel line, situation; I can always detect the initial bite. Sometimes it's challenging to detect if they're still on it. I've situations where a couple seconds was sufficient for a good hook set or 15 seconds was needed to get a hook in them. Speaking mostly about a drop shot or Texas rig. Jigs after a bite detection, usually waiting 2-5 seconds for hookset. Just my preferences and experience. Maybe I'm not detecting a fish sucking the bait and siting still once in a while. Doubt I'm getting slack lined this early in the year and fishing anywhere from 5-20 FOW. Might be missing bite detections at the beginning of long bomb casts while waiting to start any type of retrieve. Always more successful when I stick to 2-3 setups max and stay focused with confidence.

Thanks for sharing man! That's awesome. I tried float n fly for the first time Dec of 2021. Didn't get a chance this past November and December. So rewarding. Hopefully late February doesn't throw us a major curve ball and we can get back to some open pond/lake water soon!

Same experience here with the Slither K. By far the easiest frog to walk for me personally. Keeps me from actually developing good frog walking skills with other frogs. Hard to use anything else in it's category/size.

Thanks. And this spool in the Steez A should get more distance with 1/2 - 1 oz baits vs. the stock Steez A spool in the Steez A? Appreciate the feedback.

@ol'crickety I hear ya! Every year, always trying to improve bass fishing from the bank after ice-out. In northern IL, we deal with similar weather in March. Here's my experience that I've improved upon over the past 25-30 years. If fishing hard bottom, I'll work the bottom with a football or finesse jig using a plastic with a dense body that doesn't have too many appendages to catch air..............looking for max casting distance and minimal plastic action. Neds and blade baits can fall into that mix as well. Also, have success creeping hard bottom with various soft swimbaits, whether it's a paddletail of various sizes and rigging or a larger wedge tail swimbait. Regardless of bottom comp/structure, I'll also always try out a suspending jerkbait and try and figure out the whole cadence to get bit. When it gets a bit easier after a trend of few warmer nights, I'll still stick with those baits, and if there's some decent wind, mix in a flatside. If fishing soft bottom, jerkbait still plays along with tight wobbling shallow crankbaits, usually a shad/minnow style as my ponds are not deep enough to work most flatside over soft bottom/grass.....slow of a retrieve as possible with the crank subsurface, varying cadences. Deadsticking/slowly working a drop shot with a bouyant plastic to hover over any gunk, is what I'll focus on mostly in softbottom areas. Also, deadsticking/slowly working a dense/aerodynamic texas rigged plastic I can bomb from the bank, if the bottom composition doesn't stick to the bait. With a nice warming trend in soft bottom areas or late March, I'll usually have some success on wind blown banks with paddletail swimbaits with an underpin or not, spinnnerbaits, swim jigs. Again, various swimming cadences, with twitches, hops, pauses, to see what works best that day. All my experiences comes from clear to gin clear water. Hope some of this info may help you.

Are you referring to the stock spool that comes with the 21 Zillion SV TW? Looking to get more distance with the Steez A for bladed jigs and spinnerbaits.

I use Dobyns champ 735 and 736 cb glass and the 7'4" Med Hvy Howell tatula elite with the Steez A. I guess I'll try seeing how a mod/fast graphite rod loads. Haven't used a mod/fast graphite rod with bladed jigs and spinnerbaits in some years. My ignorant assumption is not loading as well on the cast with a mod/fast graphite, but I'll try it out. I'm getting good distance, I just have cabin fever, bored and looking to make some improvements. I'll probably give the Steez A II a try. Slightly better casting distance than the Zillion HD or SV TW?

I've had the same experience with the 4.8 bullflat. Catch larger than average size largemouth vs. any other soft plastic presentation. I do prefer free rigging the 4.8, hopping/stroking, and getting hit significantly harderthan with most other soft plastic presentations. Agreed too. Amount of bites significantly decreases with the 5.8.

I use the Steez A for mostly 3/8-1/2 oz bladed jigs and spinnerbaits with standard trailers. Not impressed with casting distance. So the the Steez A II is a noticably farther caster for 1/2-1 oz baits?

Love both those Kadens. That 715 is the perfect length, action and power for 75% of my frogging preferences. Use a 735 champ for bigger frogs and the thickest grass, but super happy with the Kaden 715 and 745 for the lighter end of traditional heavy bass fishing.

Also use the 736 for some frogging and some flipping. Love the relatively soft tip for it's power. Suits my style for bigger frogs and the heaviest cover.

Agreed. Obviously not near as much experience at you. Need to cover the synthetic smell of my favorite custom drop shot bait that's usually lubed in anise and I've associated part of the confidence in addition to the neutral buoyancy, profile and colors; all may or may not matter. Thanks for the story captain Phil. Love hearing it. I keep a bottle of Bang garlic and Bang em in those lack of fishermen etiquette situations.

Thanks for the knowledge Tom. I'll probably try it out!

That's a great idea. Love the geecrack scent and nice big bag. Thanks for the recommendation.

Favorite custom drop shot bait arrived in packs without the usual anise scent. Looking for anise or other scent (non-garlic) to store them in for as longs the packs take to use......potentially a couple years without issues. What do you recommend?

What's been your experience with the silver wolf for braid types/size with what types of baits and casting?

3.3 Keitech fats, 3" - 3.5" Keitech easy shiners. Hard to beat a DG Matt Stefan guppy head for this size. 3/0 for 3.3-3.5". 1/0 for 2.8-3" No jighead is going to have a perfect keeper to keep the material of these Keitechs locked for preferred length of time. I would still use glue when you want to. A gel glue like gorilla gel glue. If you haven't tried and you like underspins for certain situations, try these gammys for an underspin. Wicked hook. Excellent gap and bend to keep to stick them and keep them pinned. https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Gamakatsu_Underspin_Head_Mini/descpage-GUSM.html If you're talking 3.8 and higher, their are better options. Some of those options have been mentioned.

For sure. I go back and forth between a Dobyns 742 and 743 DX. Like to stay with the 742 at all time, but Hook penetration even with nano coats and standard coats like a j light hook sometimes lead to inefficient Hook penetration with the 742

Agreed. I like .325 mm for insurance and. Usually using samurai 14#. I've definitely experimented with 10 and 12#. 10# with proper drag is ok for most situations, but certain cover situations have ran some bigs in unrecoverable structures. You're right though. I should revisit smaller diameters this year when the targeted water allows. Appreciate it! Agreed. Wasn't looking for BFS, just interested to see if anyone's been able to make specific bfs spools/reels work for bomb casting the lower end weights of traditional bass casting. Nice. What specific flouro are you using, with what baits and rod? The 1012 for the Steez SV TW has definitely been on my radar.

Hi Tom. Thanks for asking. I did intend to include. Average beaver size plastic with a 1/16-1/8 oz closed-ring DS or bullet weight. OSP DoLive Shot is a also a plastic I'm partial to for free rigging clear water smallies from the bank. Feel safe with .325 mm flouro. Thanks for the advice. I've heard about the silver wolf with a stock Steez sv spool for flouro. Definitely interesting. How much .325 mm flouro will that roro spool hold? I'm trying out hedgehog 1030 air bearings with the stock g1 spool this spring, but don't anticipate a 50% increase.

Anybody have specific experience with comparing casting distance when using a moderately weighted free rig with a Steez SV TW or an Antares DC MGL III vs BFS reel? Specifically, using a traditional medium/medium light casting rod with straight flouro. Might be receptive to alternative casting options aside from the spinning setups I already value for this. Basically looking to get more bank casting distance with straight flouro than I am with a Steez SV TW or Antares MGL III DC. Steez SV TW upgrade or other custom Daiwa experiences are welcome, relative to this situation as well.

The 6 sense speed wake is a nice profile on the lower size end of the big bait class. It's light for it's size. Called speed wake for a reason. It doesn't blow out when burning, and it was designed to wake at different speeds. If there's a wake bite going on wear a noisy/slower retrieve is not required, this thing get smashed. Not really a 6 sense person, but the price/value/effectiveness is there. Rapala's DT Fat Crank 1 is a sleeper in the traditional wake crankbait category.