Fat Ika

River Bream in the hammered glass series I'm partial to in clear water/dark skies/low light or most conditions in slightly stained water. Sucker for purple.

Agreed. My experience has been better with swim jigs vs chatterbaits as well in 40 plus. If it's 8 plus mph winds, low light, and/or stained muddy water; I'll run a double willow spinnerbait (sometimes a single or double colorado depending on the conditions) alongside a swim jig. Aside from a jerkbait, swim jigs and chattebaits are my preference in these colder waters with grass/soft bottom.

Gotcha. Standard blades usually don't work for me below 55. What body of water types and depths are you having success in 45 plus degree water?

Cabin fever curiosity in the northern midwest, I figure I'd ask if anyone has had success with the big blade chatterbait in an estimate range 48-55 degree water temps. I don't have success with a standard bladed jig until around 55 degrees minimum in prime chatterbait conditions. Anyone have experience in last spring in the Northern Midwest or Northeast with the big blade for largies in these colder water temps? Obviously, I'll have to find out from personal experience, but it would be great to hear any experiences. Thanks in advance for sharing.

Agree with all the copoly recommendations. Izorline, Armilo, or Yozuri Hybrid around .015. Personally use 15#/.016 Yozuri Hybrid on small rivers/bank fishing and Daiwa Samurai Flouro 22# off boats. All I throw is 1.5-2.8 oz glides with a 7:3:1 Tatula 150. Have never broke off with Yozuri Hybrid.

Yeah. These things are the most legit wedgetail on the market. He's making some 5" shiners for me. I need to stay under 2 oz to mitigate anymore damage to my spine and shoulders, 7 inchers are a no go for me. My dog got ahold of a 5" rp perch and destroyed it. Grateful he ships them with jig hook covers, but that was $25 down the drain.

Intimidator has good durability. Standard circumference. https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/search-tackle.html?start=0&count=30&searchtext=intimidator Net Bait finesse tube is pretty unique. Nice and fat for a 2.5" tube. Body is a little shorter in proportion with a longer ratio of tentacles. Something the fish haven't seen if dragging on a tube jig head. You can fit goby head in these little guys. https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/NetBait_STH_BaitFuel_Finesse_Tubes_8pk/descpage-NBFTT.html?from=basres

If you're talking specifically for the beast coast workingman's swim jig, it's a compact swim jig with a shorter than avg swim jig hook. If using a paddletail, I like bass assassin boss shiner 3.5" for this specific swim jig. If rigging parallel to hook creature/craw, I like cutting 1 or 2 segments off a zoom speed craw. Sometimes, I use the midsize rage bug. It's almost a perfect size creature for this jig.

What he said. If the right set of situations/conditions presents themselves, anything can work from a blade bait to an airborne frog. As many have said, it's really hard to know without understanding the type of water your fishing. Some waters, certain topwaters may never work regardless if the weather conditions set up for it. Might smash a certain wake bait at mudhole down the street and the bass in another water might never get fooled by the same bait regardless of how the fish setup, what they're feeding on, water clarity, structure, weather and other conditions. With all the social media today, even a young child can learn various techniques and conditions to start having fun catching bass fairly quickly. Also, go on Fishbrain and see what the kids are catching them on in your local waters. My apologies if I sound like an old curmudgeon. Good luck, everybody has potentially great suggestions, have fun experimenting and hope all is good!

What they said. $50 retail, nothing touches the Aird-X. $62 if you need a Med/Hvy, the old Tatula XT is a steal. My nephew has broken 2 defy blacks. His one Aird-X has been great. No troubles with any components. IMO, if you need a Med/Hvy and you can swing $62, the Tatula XT is a no brainer.

As some people have mentioned, that BPS rod and many other BPS rods do not even have guide inserts. Obviously, no bueno for braid, but it's not going to fair well with nylon either. That Daiwa rod/reel combo is a very good value if you absolutely cannot afford to bump up to a better rod and/or reel. You would be hard pressed to find a brand new combo for $115 that's even close to that value. Just do general reel maintenance, don't try to horse a snagged cinder block out of the water, and it will last some years.

I never really got into the 3.8-4.8 paddle tail jighead deal until this year. Lots of experience with weedless paddle tails and 2.8-3.3 finesse jighead swimbaiting. I would say I miss 30-40% of the bites getting, getting unbuttoned in the first couple seconds. I would say, I'm mostly using medium/light heavy gauge hooks. Scottsboro hellfire is the thinnest I've tried for 3.8-4.8s. Bite me busters, DG's tactical bassin finesse, g money, outkast golden eye's (silly expensive and the eyes come off very quickly), Trokar swimbait jigheads. I usually throw 3.8/4.3s with 1/8-3/16 oz heads on a Dobyns Champ Extreme DX 742C SH/7:1:1 reel with 12 Daiwa Samurai flouro. Sure, it's probably a bit light for these baits. I usually throw 4.3/4.8s with 1/4-1/2 oz heads on a Dobyns Champ Extreme DX 744 FH/7:1:1 reel with 14-16 Samurai flouro. I also throw 1/4-7/16 oz swim jigs with 3.5/3.8s with this setup if I'm not going in, going around grass. Usually I'm just straight retrieving swim jigs without much cadence variation in my personal swim jig confidence conditions. Mostly su Inside grass. I also throw the same swim jig on an ALX Enox BMJ 7'2" Med/Hvy+/7:4:1 reel with 30# Suffix 131. Sometimes I use around a .016"/.405 mm nylon leader for clearer waters/higher light/calmer conditions. No issues with this setup. Straight retrieves, burning on the tops, sometimes more cadence variations. On all these setups, drag settings obviously make a difference.........sometimes it takes a while to get dialed in after a few bites as my judge of drag testing prior to the first cast is not great. I was thinking of possibly trying a more moderate graphite rod for the jighead swimbaiting/swim jigging outside of heavy cover. Why am I wasting so much time compiling this inquiry, and not working to make more money to afford 75% of the tackle I'll never see my roi on? Any reasonable suggestions/further questions are welcome. Thank You. Peace and happiness to all.

@Ohioguy25 Generally agree with all comments. Agree with everything @ChrisD46 said. Mono in that similar diameter. No braid due to a moving trebled topwater, plus Curado K in my experience isn't the greatest for distance casting/line management with braid specifically. I'm sure you're upgrading hooks after a fish or 2 with the stock hooks?

@Cbump Rod 1 - Tatula XT casting, 7’ MH FB (I don’t know what FB is but it’s a F action), 1/4 to 1oz lure, 10-20lb line. If using flouro. I've used similar rods for larger than average jerkbaits or jerkbaiting over heavier grass. Tight quarter/target casting various T-rigs, jigs, weedless paddletails Rod 2 - Tatula XT spinning, 7’3” MH Fast, 1/4-3/4 oz lure, 8-17lb line. I would do the same......20 # braid to leader. Heavier finesse, light/moderate t-rigs, heavier cover dropshot/power shots, weighted wacky rigs, heavier neko rigging, shakeyheads, finesse jigs, maybe medium/larger poppers and smaller walking baits.

@JustinKoh With the braid, on the composite, I'm definitely not hitting the snaps as hard......but the composite plus braid is not too dissimilar feeling to me. I'm still a little more conservative with snapping on a composite/braid setup from comparing visual bait action. Head-head, I do feel, during the warmer months, the oneten with flouro is my preferred setup for more aggressive snapping, feel safer with casting setup/flouro when around violent smallies. For casting distance, the spinning setup (7'2" Powell Endurance Composite w/ Stradic 3000) blows away casting with a fast or moderate graphite casting rod (6'11" - 7'2" rods) w/ a Met DC

So many opinions and experiences with jerkbait setups. Spent 15 years using 7-7'2' med fast casting rods with mostly straight 8-12# flouro. Recently started experimenting with a 7'2" medium composite spinning rod for 115 mm jerkbaits and less, poppers, small cranks. 15# braid - leader. It's worked well. Powell, Phenix, St. Croix all make composite spinning rods if you ever want to test out jerkbaiting with a glass rod / braid. I was always resistant to Megabass jerkbait rods and the whole minus 7' jerkbait rod trend. I did try my brother's Levante oneten stick with straight 10# flouro and was very impressed with the tip and taper. Fun to throw and no problems with hookups/landing.

@casts_by_fly This is fun. Thanks. Smallies 2.5" Deps Cover Scat w/ 1/0 Ryugi Infini on a medium spinning braid-leader setup OSP DoLive Shot w/ 4/0 Owner J-Light +1/16 or 1/8 oz DS weight on medium heavy casting flouro 3" Spark Shard w/ 1/8 oz DG Stefan Guppy Head - Switch between spinning/braid-leader and casting straight flouro Does a marabou hair jig count of I tip it with a little plastic? Howie's 3" Tube and 3/8 oz goby tube head - med/hvy casting Drop Shot wacky 3" stickbait, DS ned, or DS 3-4" DS worm/baitfish profile Largies 3.5" Deps Cover Scat w/ 3/0 Ryugi Infini on a med/hvy or hvy casting straight flouro Horn Toad Hvy casting straight braid 3.8 - 4.8 Keitech depending on the my mood/cover. Maybe Trokar swimbait jighead in sparse cover, Owner Beast, or Owner Flashy Swimmer Zoom Mag Speedworm w/ 5/0 Gammy G-Finess Hybrid Worm Hook on med/hvy to hvy casting straight flouro or braid in heavy gras 4.5 Adrenaline Craw or Mag Rage Bug - T-rig, free rig or jika rig depending on the situation Fat Ika w/ 4/0 Ryugi Infini on med/hvy to heavy casting Wacky 5" General on Decoy Hunter Hook size 1 Shakeyheads /neko rigs always considered

@walleyecrazy Thank you!

Freakin fantastic! Thanks @ghost @Bluebasser86 Thanks for all the info! @Triptych Nice! 2 scum launch recommendations. I order a sloppy toad color yesterday......even though black is what I use 90% of the time. Very very helpful! @Mike L A 3rd scum frogger! More useful info. Where's the mindblown emoji? A sincere thank you. I found it. ?

I fish gin clear water with hi-vis. I don't notice a difference with generating bites between low and hi-vis. I retie copolymer or flouro leaders when they get less than 6 feet long. Just a confidence thing. Not sure if it matters. Definitely matters if you're fishing straight hi-vis braid. I'm assuming you were not implying that.

@EWREX & @Brett's_daddy Thanks for the suggestions!

Hi All - I've only been frog fishing for the past 7-8 years with not many frog hours logged. Terminator walking, RI's swamp donkey, Deps Slither K has been my progression. Looking for a walking frog that has thin/strong sharp hooks, ideally hooks at an optimal angle out of the package, casts well, easy soft bite. I use a ALX Enox BMJ 7'2" Med/Hvy + with 30# Suffix 131 G-Core which is the best baitcasting braid I've ever experienced for long casting and line management during long casting. Any suggestions for frogs are welcome. Thanks.

What he said. Maybe you're already dialed in with your speedworm gear, but if not, I'd focus on the whole chain...... from rod in hand > hook for optimal hookups and landing.

Gotcha. I do not have enough experience with bfs target casting, but I have no doubt bfs is superior for specific situations.

Very little. Just used a alde bfs xg 4-5 years ago for 1 year with a buddies 5 1/2 ft bfs rod. I don't see Cory Johnston or any other elite smallie anglers launching a 1/16 oz hair jig on the great lakes flats for spooky smallmouth utilizing bfs gear. Maybe elite anglers don't have time to tinker with this stuff as much as a local tourney/rec angler. Maybe their are great big water smallie vertical drop shotters that have a ton of both great lakes DS and bfs experience that can control and feel just as well as with bfs equipment while battling 4-6 footers? So maybe you can sling 1/16 oz hair jig on the best bfs setup as far as I can using a 4000 vanford on a 8' st croix avid hair jig rod with 6# j-braid?