J Francho

Can't tell you how many fish I've caught tossing the rig out to the deep side, and leaving the bail open as the captain sped down a shore line. Close the bail, and check it - many times there is a fish on. Running a 3/4 - 1 oz. gumball weight and dragging is another good technique. Be prepared to lose some weights, though.

Nice!

I think location plays a bigger part, but if you have that totally nailed down, and are on a big one, then live might be the key to get that monster to bite. You'll get harassed by many smaller fish using craws and crawlers. You might dig through some of @Fish Chris posts for any clues to using live bait. He did pretty well back in the day.

Mike does good work!

I have no idea. I've never rigged one without a weight. I can test it later, and report back. My experience with paddle tails is that they don't work without using weight. It sounds like you need to write a letter to the manufacturer with your suggestions.

No, salt is part of the formula. Those are all sinking baits. You need to find floating baits. They do not contain salt. Zoom might have some unsalted baits. Not sure about trailers. Here's a thread asking for the exact same thing. Found it using the search: Anything Elaztech floats. They make chunk trailers that float. I'm sure if you do some googlin', you'll come up with more results.

Do you want to fish floating baits? Get unsalted. They're out there. You want baits that sink? Get baits that have salt in the plastisol mix. The salt in the package just keeps baits from sticking. It rinses off in the water, and has no effect on the plastic.

Anything more than the length of the rod, and I tend to think of it as a top shot. Mostly, I use a leader that is 3-6' long. If I was going to use longer, I'd just use straight fluoro or mono.

I have too many control issues to fish a bait that does what it wants.

LOL

Carnitas beats both

Which model?

Everything sounds fine, just keep practicing.

Same boat, so to speak.

All my jigs, except a few Buckeye Mop jigs, are from Siebert Outdoors, and do not require any trimming. Trimming makes them stiffer, for anyone wondering.

It's 50# braid - there would have to be A LOT wrong with it for it not to work. Braid is way over-engineered. I haven't really found any in the 12# equiv. diameter I have truly not been able to use.

On mine, most of the brush guards do not touch the lid, or just barely touch it. The jig box IS a little bit taller than the terminal and thin boxes.

I prefer fishing deeper, but regardless of depth, there has to be some factor that I feel draws fish. I don't often cast to shallow water, unless there's something there, either weeds, a dock, stump, change in the bottom, point or cut, slack water in current.... These are the the of things that draw my cast in any depth.

I don't use anything less than 50 on baitcasters. It's around the diameter of 12# mono, and easy to handle with minimal digging in the spool.

I assume you are mounting above the water line. Can you get to the inside of the hull? If not, then you need to use wellnuts. They are self sealing. There are also self sealing pop rivets. If you're mounting above the water line with a screw/washer/nut, then sealing the mounting hardware with silicone should do.

Anyone that's followed my posts for the past few years would know, I refer to I-Bay as "The City Dump."

A broken tip usually slows down the action and increases tip power. It also has an infuriating effect on me.

Fished the dump, caught some decent bass in 12-14', just off the weed edge. Ragetail Craw (Bama) and 3/8 oz. weight Texas rig did the trick. Seems like fish are doing their normal summer thing.