BobP

I've sent/received rods in several kinds of tubes. I think the best were HVAC tubing. Thin enough to be lighter than PVC or cardboard, strong enough to stand shipping abuse.

In clear water Ghost Shad is great - but I have a Gary Dobyns Staysee 90 in his ghost chartreuse shad that is even better.

I've tried a number of scents through the years. The one that stuck is Kickn' Bass. It's a fish oil based scent with very strong garlic odor and stays on the bait (or your hands!) for a long time. The garlic will drill you a new sinus cavity. The anise and crawfish KNB variants are milder. In addition to its masking scent, the oil in Kickn' Bass lubricates the plastic so on most bites the plastic will slip up on the line and not get balled up or torn up. Water and solvent based scents don't last long in the water unless they are impregnated in a special non-plastic bait like the Gulp baits . You have to decide if you believe water/solvent based scents disperse a scent that attracts bass to bite, or if you think its better to use an oil based scent that will stay on the lure longer and mask unnatural odors when bass mouth your lure. I think bass are sight feeders and the oil based scents are better, but it's players' choice.

The level wind is the hardest part to reassemble on many reels. Not that complicated but you have to maneuver several pieces into alignment before you can add the clip to the end of the worm shaft to lock everything in. Save yourself the aggravation and send it out to be upgraded if you aren't experienced in reel assembly. Taking a reel apart is child's play. Getting it back together correctly is not.

If the pond doesn't get a lot of fishing pressure and has lots of vegetation, I'll bet there are 5+ lb fish in there. The negative is that an over population of bass tends to stunt the average size of fish in the population. But that doesn't mean there aren't lunker bass in there somewhere. If you catch small and medium size bass to 3 lbs, that's an indication that there are probably a variety of year classes of bass in the pond. If the pond is rarely fished for bass and you have access, I'd count my blessings and keep fishing it.

Most guys consider visibility of more than 5 ft "clear". Visibility of 1-5 ft is "stained" and visibility less than 1 ft is "muddy". Officially, clarity is determined with a secchi disk (a disk with alternating white and black sections) which is lowered to a depth at which it disappears to the naked eye. Most tournament fishermen consider stained water the best clarity for bass fishing. Clear water is tougher since bass get too good a look at lures and muddy water is toughest. Bass have better sight than humans under water and a general rule of thumb is that they distinguish shapes 3X farther than the depth that a secchi disk disappears.

IMO they have their place. A jointed lure has a vastly different action than a non-jointed variety and it has a more natural looking movement through the water. But they move less water, which to me makes their attraction more a "feeding" look than a "reaction" look. The same lure in a jointed version will dive shallower than its solid counterpart. Personally, I favor lures with a single joint.

If you don't want the hooks to foul, there are several choices. #6 on the front and #8 on the rear. This works well if they are high quality hooks like Gamy Round Bends. Second, you might try Mustad KVD #6 short shanks, if you don't mind their in-bent hook shape (I really prefer regular round bend hooks for their better initial hooking power). Gamy also now makes #6 round bend short shank hooks, which should work as well as the first Gamy option. I just won't use trebles that can foul on the cast.

Siphon brushes work OK, just not as well as gravity feed brushes. They require a little more air pressure to suck the paint up into the brush and there is more to clean between colors and at the end of the day. The best and cheapest gravity feed brush I know of is the Iwata Revolution B, which sells for around $85-90 retail. It is made in Japan, has great quality, is durable, and its .3mm tip is right sized for painting crankbaits in my experience.

There are quite a few online sources: Predator Baits, Bustin Bass Lure Bodies, Dakota Tackle, Jann's Netcraft, Lure Parts Online to name some of the more popular ones. Pay attention to the bait descriptions, especially if they state the country of origin (most often China) or indicate the relative quality of the body. Just because an unpainted body LOOKS like a $25 Megabass lure, that doesn't mean it is internally the same or that it will behave like a Megabass. You're buying 2nd party knock-offs. In fact, none of the bodies will come from the major lure manufacturer that builds the bait they copy. So you need to sample a few to separate the wheat from the chaff.

You can't keep braid tightly wound on a reel spool because the weight of the lure is the only thing putting it under tension during retrieves. Using heavier braid helps because it's less prone to digging in than 20 lb braid. However, you also get thicker, more visible line with heavier braid. Some guys think heavy braid doesn't make a difference in the number of bites they get. Others think it does so they use mono, fluorocarbon, or at least tie a leader onto their braid. If you are a neophyte with a baitcaster and are getting regular backlashes, I think spooling up with expensive braid may not be the best idea. A bulk 1/4 lb spool of a good copolymer line would be as cheap and provide you with a lot of refills needed to replace the line you have to cut out of your reel after bad backlashes. And it's easier to pick a backlash out of a copolymer spool than a spool filled with braid. JMHO Baitcasting requires a smooth consistent casting stroke and it takes awhile for guys to develop the discipline to do it every cast - but you get better as you get more experience.

Balance is a "human factor" in rod sensitivity that is often overlooked but shouldn't be. You sense strikes and hold the rod with hands filled with fine motor control muscles and sensitive nerves. If your rod/reel line combo is unbalanced, your hand becomes less and less able to detect strikes as the hours pass. I'd rather use a well balanced $100 rod versus a poorly balanced $400 rod when fishing plastic baits or jigs because after an hour of fishing, the balanced rig will have more perceived sensitivity. If your fatigued hand isn't transmitting sensory data to your brain, the rod vibrations that signal a bite might as well not have happened. The most sensitive MH rod I've fished was a Bass Pro Extreme with balance weights installed. It was much heavier but more sensitive than the St Croix Legend Elite rod I use now because I was too chicken to add weight to balance the high end, super light St Croix. Vanity can be a *****.

Being a lure builder myself, I tried a couple of the Scatter Shads and was somewhat disappointed since the hunting action was only apparent on a slow retrieve and the lures blew out with a fast retrieve, which I want to use more often. The ideal hunting crankbait will hunt at any speed, including warp speed without blowing out. They're rare and difficult to build, but that's what I want. I'm otherwise a big fan of most Rapala crankbaits.

Through rocks, I like anything with a circuit board lip. It has superior rebound off rock.

Short answer, if you go from 12 lb to 10 lb mono it will give you 6" more depth. aavery2's point about how you hold your rod is spot on. And yes, if you go with 20 lb braid, you'll get even more depth since it is 4 to 6 lb mono equivalent. All that said, I think it's more important to know how deep your crankbaits actually run on the gear you want to fish with than trying to re-equip yourself to make them run to some predetermined "advertised depth" - and it sounds like you are doing that. I'd rather select a different crank, of which there are almost endless choices these days, than tailor my equipment so that it conforms to someone else's idea about how deep crankbait X should run.

Many line manufacturers sell a softer line formulated for spinning gear and a hard surface line for baitcasting. Trilene XL (soft) and XT (hard), Izor Line XXX (soft) and Premium (hard), etc. If less stretch is important, buy a hard surface line. They have less stretch, cast a little better, and usually also have better knot strength. The downside is they also develop spool memory faster than their soft stable mates, which can be an issue in cold weather. I like Izor Line Premium, especially when I can find 1/4 lb spools on sale. But Trilene, Sufix, and other companies make similar lines.

I've used Mean Green copoly for a number of years (among other brands) and it works especially well in cold weather because it doesn't develop spool memory as fast as others. I also like the color, which is a good match to the lakes I fish most often.

I catch a lot of fish on a craw colored Bomber Switchback Shad. Color is medium brown translucent. You can switch the rattle on or off to suit conditions. It has a slightly narrower lip than the regular Bomber Fat Free Shad with a more subtle wiggle. I catch more fish on the smaller 2 1/2" model.

I really like Super Lube grease. It is fortified with PTFE and is not so thick that it will slow down the action of a spinning reel. Buy an 8 oz can at NAPA for around $10 and you'll have virtually a lifetime supply.

I don't think the kind of handle or the number of guides is useful in evaluating a cranking rod, per se. You really aren't going to be able to judge on those features unless you can use both rods on the water for awhile. I do have a personal opinion about glass versus graphite. I've never handled a glass rod that was as light, or that cast as well, or was as sensitive as graphite. The graphite crankbait rods I've used have no trouble hooking fish and keeping them hooked so I don't feel I'm giving up anything in that area. Graphite sensitivity is important to me when I'm cranking through cover or when a bass engulfs my crankbait from behind and the only indication is that the bait's action has changed. So it's just personal preference, but I prefer graphite.

If you crack open the case, that may void the warranty. Best bet is to let the factory tell you what they will do to help. If it's a new unit and still in warranty, H'bird should replace it.

X2 on straight spooling with line. That 50E spool is pretty small!

There aren't many guys who have ridden all 5 brands. Between Ranger and Triton, I think Ranger probably gets the nod in rough water. I have a 19' Triton and love it for the medium size southern lakes I fish, which seldom occasion rough conditions. Rangers have a reputation as 'lead sleds', which is both good and bad - but good in rough water. I've fished a 19' Ranger on Lake Erie in spring and felt secure because the driver was experienced in that environment. But if the waves are over 5 ft, I think it's folly to be out in any bass boat.

X4 on the RAM. The only problem I see is the cable bundle for a H'bird with GPS and Side Scan is fairly thick which makes turning the head unit 180 degrees sort of awkward. Besides, do you really want to have to turn around while you're fishing to look at the screen? If you ever fish a dropshot or jigging spoon, that just won't work very well, IMO.

What I often do in that circumstance is go toward the bank where 12' first hits dirt and look for cover/structure at that depth, then throw bottom baits.