AlabamaSpothunter

Fished with mine for about 15 months now, easily the best jerkbait rod I've owned. Run mine with an OG Steez and 12lb Daiwa J Flouro Hidden Concept.

Awesome fish @TnRiver46 Looks like you ate half a SM though 🤣 Your stretch of river seems to have lots of those meanmouths. eta: Thanks Katie and Pat!!!! Now I'll go another two years of chunking and winding that silly thing until lightning strikes again 😁

I'm not sure I've ever seen a bait that's more feast or famine than an A-Rig. We had a dramatic pressure drop and fast moving front approach yesterday afternoon, and it was like a light switch flipped. Caught 25.5lbs on the A-Rig in about two hours. 6.11 6.8 6.1

I've got a very fussy Daiwa JDM Certate with Mike at DVT as I type. I can't opine yet on whether the reel is as good as new, but I can tell you that he stands behind his service. That means a tremendous amount in my book.

Congrats on the job, and that's a great way to earn some money while still staying immersed in something you love to do. Granted all that earned money will just be funneled by into Johnny Morris's pockets 🤣 Don't forget they have a pretty good firearm dept. with a used gun rack. Seen some pretty rare guns bought from them like USGI M1 Carbines. Tackle monkey is married to the gun monkey 😆

Was just listening to Bass After Dark podcast and they were talking about Billy Westmoreland who lost what he believed was a WR SM on Dale Hollow on XMAS day 1970. They said until his death he never got over that fish. They also said that he would wake up in the middle of the night after a dream over that fish, and he would immediately hook the boat up and go fish the spot where he lost that fish. Quite literally that fish haunted his dreams. A panelist who currently has the C n' R state Idaho SM record lost a 10+ SM and said he didn't throw another cast that day, or for a couple of weeks after.

To me the whole 'made in Japan' becomes a lot clearer when looking at the higher end spinning reels. The complexity and tolerances on reels like Certates, Sustains, Stellas, etc. is pretty mind blowing. I honestly believe those type of high end reels could never be made outside of countries like Japan, Germany, or the US. There are only a handful of cultures and countries who truly pride themselves on quality over quantity in terms of manufacturing. Would you buy a Ferrari that was made in China? How about a Rolex that was made in India?

Yeah I've always heard the Ice fisherman are the most hot headed out of all anglers. Over the years I've heard a bunch of stories about brawls and confrontations on the ice. Turns out Grumpy Old Men was a documentary.

I feel like commenting on this thread will cause bad ju ju.....so let me make a pointless comment 🤣

Congrats @FishTax, I remember the first day I caught them on a blade, I was shocked it actually worked. To me that first fish you catch on a blade bait is the most important one you'll ever catch on it. By that I mean it's not a lure that screams confidence inspiring for a variety of reasons until you actually see proof it works on your fish. After that first it's on like donkey kong 😎 Great point about the snaggy nature of a blade bait. I couldn't fish a blade bait without the below retriever. Every trip out I use that retriever 10-20x. Earlier this week I made four consecutive casts with a snag.....I was about to lose my mind lol. Couldn't even imagine how much money it would have cost without it. They also foul up quite a bit. Daiwa Lure Retriever | Tackle Warehouse

First couple nice ones of the year on the fairy wand and minnow. The 5.14 was caught Damiki Rigging a 1/4oz Deps MIDST/Drift Fry in about 20ft using 2D sonar. The 5.8 was caught bottom strolling the same Drift Fry setup in about 20ft as well. That Deps MIDST is a great jighead to use if you want to bottom stroll as it's the only purpose built strolling jighead that incorporates a weed guard to my knowledge. Really allows you to open up another zone of life to target with your minnow game.

Nice fish @Choporoz! Last winter I had a few morning where I had to battle freezing guides, but Reel Magic and just dipping the rods allowed me to keep fishing. This winter however I've had a few morning where my reels wouldn't work. I didn't even know that was possible, but as you mentioned the level wind seems to be the weak link. I will say many of my most epic winter days all started off with freezing guides and gave way to very sunny days in the high 40s/low 50s. Something about that combo seems to make the bigger fish chew.

Vision 110 OEM hooks aren't garbage at all. Americans tend to forget that the Vision 110 is a finesse jerkbait design. It's meant to be thrown on medium spinning rods with 8lb class line. We've just increased that to medium baitcast rods and 12lb FC for the most part in America. So now re imagine making super long casts with 8lb FC using a medium action rod......finesse/small diameter hooks are paramount in order to penetrate with so little applied force from the tackle, combined obviously with super sticky hook points. The outbarb aspect to the design is another real, tangible benefit on any hook being used on a jerkbait, where fish many times only swipe baits rather than actually eating them. Just like everything else about a Vision 110.....the hooks are very purposefully designed. Not to mention unlike the Jr series, at least we can easily buy replacement OEM Vision hooks.

Totally agree with Pat, especially about the night aspect. I will saturate honey holes at night with multiple baits and casting angles. It certainly works at night, but like Pat says it's been my own experience that during the day if they don't bite right away, they likely aren't going to bite.

I constantly move until I find fish. I don't want to educate negative or neutral fish more than I already am on high percentage or confidence spots. I make a few casts and move along.

Jeeeeeez that's one big kitty!!!! The mouth on that thing is like a whale 😮

As a general rule I use the smallest line diameter I think I can get away with across the board on every reel. Outside of a few exceptions, every lure is going to be presented better and more naturally on the smallest line diameter you can use effectively. Occasionally you'll run into a scenario like throwing blade baits where you actually want a stiffer, thicker line so that it doesn't foul up with the treble hooks as much.

It's my belief that the magic happens in the water displacement of these fuzzy baits. A big aspect to Japanese lure design is based on enhancing water displacement made by a particular lure. I've never heard American bait makers talk much about this, whereas you hear it all the time from Japanese designers. It's also my belief that vibration and water displacement are superior triggering mechanisms for large fish over noise and color. Lastly you can never underestimate the value of 'novel' presentations when it comes to Bass, easily the most curious sport fish I've ever learned about.

Yes it matters greatly to me. If it's over $200 I want it to be made in Japan. Few reels under $300 are made in Japan, but for example the JDM Zillion SV TW is, and as long as you can get that reel for less than $250, there's no reason to buy a similar priced reel that's made in China, Malaysia, or Vietnam....outside a few exceptions.

At some point reducing IPT and line capacity is going to kill the action of a Chad Shad. A 100 sized reel with 20lb FC is well past that point imho. To be perfectly honest, 20lb FC on a 200 sized Zillion HD is pushing it in regard to line capacity and IPT. Arguably the biggest advantage of going with a 300 sized reel is that you can run straight 20-25lb FC or mono, and when making casts you don't burn so much of your line capacity and spool diameter. If you rely on reel handle turns alone to work a glide for example, this absolutely has to be taken into account.

Agreed 100% with @The Baron.......when a big ole Tina comes up and launches herself out of the water and you see that big ole bucketmouth and your heart sinks, that's it for me! I could never catch another species of fish besides LMB the rest of my life and be perfectly content.

The Zillion HD TW is perfect for that role, and it's what I use mine for. I throw a Chad Shad a lot, and it's about the max size glide I like to throw with a 200 sized beefed up reel. Honestly, I'd just buy a Tatula 300 that way you can throw any big bait you want without having to make compromises.

You target those big fish in quite the unique fashion Pat, if memory serves, many/most of your monsters come from shallow water, so your last reply makes perfect sense. Regardless of the time of year, the vast majority of my 7lb+ fish come from 10-25fow. They might bite a bait 3-6ft under the surface, but they'll be over 10-25fow. I think I've caught one 7lb fish in less than 3fow, and oddly enough that one came from an A-Rig two winters ago during a real big warm up in the middle of January. Amazing how unique and adaptable LMB are based on the incredible range of them. I love Spotted and SM Bass, but to me the LMB stands alone for no other reason than they can thrive in so many different habitats and locations. They're the one sub species that seems to connect us all, the one that we all can relate to.

Sure has buddy, hopefully you're getting some fishing in!

I've got some goals to achieve first, but God willing I'll be able to go on my number one bucket list item, Mexico Bass fishing. The results that both A-Jay and Jar11591 produced make the price tag much easier to swallow. If I'm paying $3k+ for a fishing trip, I'm looking for a very high percentage chance of catching a DD. IIrc A-Jay got one, and Jar just barely missed one. Either fish would be perfectly fine for that kind of price tag. Couple of places I've been looking at in Florida offer great chances at a DD, but all of them are on live Shiners. The thing that really attracts me to Mexico is the prospect of catching DD sized fish on artificials. Dang I wanna go so bad!