BassThumb

Lots of great info here. I try to drag uphill -- better bottom contact -- but sometimes the bottom is too chunky for that and baits get pinned in the rocks too often.

I use a lot of 3.8" glued onto 1/4 - 3/8oz jigheads. It's one of the best search lures around. When they get a little torn up, they become swim jig and bladed jig trailers. The 2.8" are decent drop shot baits. A little flimsy and expensive for that application.

An extra couple feet on the cast isn't likely to catch any more fish. There's no need to stand with your toes to the waterline. X2 to the wader comment above. I often went wet wading and fly fishing with lightweight, long, camouflage hunting cargo pants. Tuck the pants into long socks and you won't get any of those baby leeches on your legs, you know the little 1/2" gray ones you see in bass' mouths sometimes. Much more comfortable than wearing waders in the summer. Most of those waders were designed for trout anglers fishing in 50-degree streams. Even the lightest ones feel hot and clammy because the water pushes them tight to your skin.

Found some ML smallies yesterday in 6-9 FOW on tubes. They appear pre-spawn still.

Been an odd season thus far. Warmed up super quick over the last week. I haven't been LMB fishing a whole lot so I'm not dialed into the spawn at all. Almost all my good trips have been to Mille Lacs. The SMB bite is hit and miss, but the size is there. Jerkbaits and turds in under 10 FOW, sometimes as shallow as 2. A couple nice ones have been caught midday scooting heavy tubes around in 17-20 off the breaks. More than half the time on ML I'm fishing walleyes on artificials. 1/4 - 3/8oz VMC Mooneyes with 4" Keitech swimbaits glued on or 1/4oz turds. 12-17 FOW. First break rocks, north and west end. Gigantic mayfly hatch occurred on Tues/Weds and screwed it all up on the northwest end. The fish will be pounding mayfly nymphs instead of our baits for a few days.

I use VMC Neko hooks for wacky rigs. Start reeling and flick the wrist to set the hook when the line tightens down.

Interesting. I bet that's what happened. It was some East Coast online retailer with a shady looking site, and they had bulk packs of mostly unpopular colors. I think the other was pumpkin with a chartreuse tail. They were 100 for $25 plus $5 to ship. These were the real deal. Nothing else feels like a real Senko, and they have the logo in the mold.

I bought a 100-pack of GYCB Senko 'seconds' about 7 years back that had some minor flaws to the laminate coloring process. They were supposed to be watermelon on top and white on the bottom (Baby Bass), but it was disproportionate or kinda swirled, so they were being sold for about half-price in bulk. Does anyone know where more of the seconds are being sold? Thanks, Joe

I know a college student who did it for a few years for financial reasons. Otherwise, the others were due to aging and health reasons. Some people have a hard time launching a boat alone in old age.

Maybe 15 seconds at a time, and that's with topwater only. With jigs, I regularly do 5 second pauses, but that's about it. Sometimes a cast lasts 3-4 minutes if I'm fishing cold water or bombing heavy football jigs over large areas as a search lure. If I'm going to fish that slow, I need to be really sure there's fish in that area. It's always a constant mental battle to decide whether to focus on covering water targeting semi-active or active bass vs. slowing down to possibly entice inactive fish to bite. More often than not, I tend to do better moving quickly. I'm not a deadstick kind of guy.

Lighter (1/4 -3/8oz) swim jigs dragged over the top, dropped into holes, and yoyo-ed in place. I had a tourney partner clean my clock from the back of my own boat doing that last season while I was frogging. I found it's also an excellent way to catch fish that blow up on the frog and miss. It's become one of my primary techniques when the weeds get thick.

There's only the larger tests available. If anyone missed out as I did, check out eBay or this place. There are still some good buys available. https://www.foundryoutdoors.com/collections/daiwa

30-40mph is the perfect cruising speed. It's safe, I'm not beating up my gear/electronics, there's little risk of something going flying out of the boat, if there's a steering malfunction I'm less likely to get tossed, and nobody is thinking I'm an a-hole for showing off.

Local marine shops have those thin strips for bunks. I need a wider piece. The bunks are like 16x24". That's a good idea. I'll maybe give that a shot.

What do people use for carpeting their side bunks along the wheel wells? The standard bunk carpet is awfully thin for that. Mine is all sliced up along the top edge, and the plastic board underneath the carpet has put a few chips in the gelcoat during trailering. Is there a place online I can order small pieces of the heavy duty stuff without buying a huge roll? Each bunk only needs a piece of carpet about as big as a vehicle's floor mat. Thanks, Joe

I like 10# Sufix 832 with fluoro leader. I don't see the point of going any higher if the leader is 10# or less.

I killed a Brecknell ElectroSamson last season. It was replaced under warranty. Best scale I've ever seen. It was either defective or it was damaged by mild boat locker humidity. Has anyone else had this issue? The screen partially stopped working.

Invisx is the better line. Handles better and seems to be less prone to kinking. However, Red Label is still a good line; super cheap and has a bit less stretch. It's less supple and coils a bit more though, so casting distance is impaired slightly. I was using the #15 side by side on identical jigging setups last season and it was clear which line was better and lasted longer. Give them both a shot for a few months and bump this thread back up with your opinions. As far as the "old line", I wouldn't be too concerned. The stuff lasts for years without noticeable degradation if it's not exposed to extreme temps or humidity. I don't see an Amazon warehouse or any other distribution warehouse exposing products to those extremes, except for during shipping.

I had two. Sold one and still have a lefty for my flipping stick. They're nice reels when they're not squealing. Do some more research into the I-series Curado and Citica. You need to lightly oil the brake drum inside routinely or it'll make a funny noise on the cast. It's an annoying quirk about the series. Some do it and some don't. The lefty I kept never does it, and the one I sold needed to be oiled about twice a month. I'd spring for another $20 and get a Curado K on eBay for $145.

Same. I need two more of the Curado CU200K for this season for cranking sticks.

The Overton's 25% off is still going. I wish they carried Dobyns rods.

I think it's the best Curado yet.

Largemouth: Frogs, swimjigs, and swimbaits near shallow grass and pads. Jigs and Ned Rigs along weedines or deep rocks. Spinnerbaits, jerkbaits, or bladed jigs over flats and weedlines. Various pitching baits and skipped wacky-rig Senkos near docks and emergent grass. Lake Smallmouth: Ned rigs, dropshots, hair jigs, and tube jigs everywhere Jerkbaits and spybaits over flats Heavy football jigs or plastics on swinging football heads around deep boulder piles. River Smallmouth: Plastics on swinging football heads to cover deep water Spinnerbaits, jerkbaits, and Ned Rigs to cover shallow water Wacky-rig Senkos or soft jerkbaits near shoreline cover

I upgraded all my reels to the Curado K last season. Terrific reels. I have Curados from every series going back to the DHSV and the K is the easiest to tune of them all. I'll be putting a lefty Curado E7 and two or three righty Citica E in the flea market next week.

Sign up for the Amazon credit card and get $70 off. I have mixed feelings about the really high-end lines. Are they worth it, or am I better off using the half-priced stuff (Abrasx, Invisx) and respooling twice as often? Who here doesn't appreciate a freshly spooled bait caster full of smooth fluorocarbon? I tend to use the lower priced stuff and respool more often. I'd rather have fresh Invisx than a two- or three-month old spool of Tatsu on my jig rod. Tatsu is the best line I've ever used though, but I often go with 1000-yard spools of Invisx instead. Those can be found for as low as $70 at times. Been a couple years since I sprung for Tatsu.