deep

As far as bass fishing is concerned, match the gear to the cover and the lure; not the fish you want to catch. Eg: If you're dropshotting in sparse cover, you'd probably use 6 lb test. Flipping and pitching in moderate to heavy cover might call for 17 to 20 lb fluro. If you're throwing a 2 oz swimbait, you'd use 20 to 25 lb test line (unless you have braid) even if it's light soft cover.

This is how Matt Allen stores his...

Could someone id this bait for me? Thanks.

Not really. You apply it to the line, it keeps it memory-free and castable.

Drag is drag, whether it's a spinning reel or a casting reel. Personally, I keep drag on all reels as tight as possible, without damaging the washers. I play all my fish hard; I can always loosen the drag a bit if it's a big fish, or if I feel the hookset wasn't that good. Disclaimer: I don't get many big bites though...

Welcome to the forum buddy!

I had 20 lb test fluoroclear on my swimbait set-up for a couple of months. Double clinch or ordinary clinch, always generously lubricated while tying, worked perfectly. Never had a knot slippage. I have since moved to Yo-Zuri hybrid though, since that P-Line had too much stretch for my liking.

I probably shouldn't have brought up the topic of swimbaits. When I'm throwing my big swimmies, I'm looking for the biggest fish in the reservoir. Just wanted to say that you shouldn't get discouraged if you don't catch anything initially even after spending a lot of money. I know nothing about the California reservoirs; but from what I read, your bass are highly pressured. There might have been a few bass (or more than a few) where you were fishing. But they might not have been actively feeding bass and they didn't bite your lure. If I wanted to catch a few bass of any size, I'd probably beat the hell out of the shallow/ shoreline cover with a senko or a finesse jig. There will always be some bass up shallow. That probably won't be the primary pattern, those fish might not even be of "keeper" size. But there will be some bass up shallow willing to bite. I think you should talk to folks who fish your lake on a regular basis to know where the fish are, and what they are biting. ***** 1. If they're shallower/deeper, does that mean I need different lures (e.g. use my "deep" diver rather than my "medium" diver) or in the case of some of these, like the spoons and spinners, is it just my retrieve technique that I would adjust (e.g. let it sink further, retrieve slower, etc.) ***** I do think you need different lures to probe the different depths, AND change the retrieves from time to time if something isn't producing. ***** 2. As a beginner, is my time better spent staying in one place and trying the different depths/lures, or testing many locations? Dealing with an outboard motor, two clumsy anchors, and the wind made it a lot of trouble to keep relocating in search of the fish (while the pros strolled by with their trolling motors). ***** I believe the whole point with bass fishing is finding out where the "active" fish are, and what they are biting. Find a good looking structure from the lake map, like a point/ ridge/ hump, where you can expect active fish, and test the different depths around that. If you have a fish finder on your boat, it's easier to locate the cover on the structure. Cover on it's own is no good, it's the cover ON the structure where the bass are. Find the pattern, and when you've caught all the biting fish from a location, move on to the next location that fits the pattern. Always ask yourself why you're fishing wherever you're fishing. The water temperature tells me that it's probably post-spawn/ early summer. Which is both bad and good. The bad part is that the bigger fish probably went down deeper onto the main lake structures. The good part is that they're looking to eat. Good luck!

Location. The active fish were somewhere out there, either deep or shallow, or in between. You just didn't find them. Happens to all of us more often than we care to admit. Hang in there. P.S. I spent nearly $500 on my swimbait set-up and the actual baits. I had my first bite on the 11th trip (and I missed that fish). EDIT: I checked out the reviews of the book you linked... and it doesn't seem to be a "bass-fishing" book really. Try some of the excellent articles that are hosted on this site.

I also happened to crack the epoxy on a guide about a week back. It was probably a 1 mm long crack, maybe smaller (barely noticeable unless you knew it was there). Put a drop of superglue on it, let it dry and smoothened it out with St Croix crystallized glue. Idk if it worked or not, simply because the guide was not loose at all in the first place. Soothed my nerves though. I love my set-ups too much.

Make sure you are reeling in ALL the slack out of the line before setting the hook. Also, a little twist of the wrist, or a sweep hookset should be good enough to bury that hook point. Of course, first ensure that the connecting knot is good.

At one point, they must have thought that the market did exist -> Curado 201B5, 201B38. I think there was a low speed LH Citica too..

I know they're not a sponsor here; just giving credit where it's due. I ordered a rod from TW during the memorial day sale. When it reached me today, the rod tube was bent, and the epoxy on the first guide of the rod was cracked. Must have been the heat. The TW guys were super-easy to deal with, as usual. They are making UPS pick up the damaged rod from my apartment, and already shipped me out a new one. Hopefully, this one will arrive in a better condition *fingers crossed*. A simple phone call was all it took to fix the whole issue. Thank you TW!

what he said.

When your bait is almost at the bank, the bass has it's would-be meal pinned against the shore; strikes right at the boat are quite common for big swimbaits especially.

"Dark" works for me, even in clear water. I like the "baby bass" color too. And Gary Yamamoto all the way.

Matt, thanks for taking the time to post in the 2 threads. It means a lot to me. Now for that elusive DD! I hope she comes in on one of your baits.

Right hand retrieve = no good for me. We need some love for LH reels.

You probably want a "medium power" rod, unless you're talking about 1/8 or 1/4 (max) oz spinnerbaits.

Yeah, I guess I found there wasn't enough spool tension, and I must have kept tightening it down until that happened. I took out the shim, and lo and behold, there was a rubber washer sitting beneath it. I turned both over, put everything back, and now the reel works perfectly. I didn't do anything on the palming side though.

The 5" senko weighs about 3/8 oz. No idea about the fluke.

I have no tips on what baits to fish, but do try slowing down. The water is pretty clear you say, and a big bass is acutely aware of her environment. She knows your bait is out there. Almost all the big bass I ever caught hit the bait after I let it sit still for 10 to 15 seconds, and all of them were feeding bites. Or maybe they were guarding their "territories". Either way, they weren't reaction bites. A 5+ bass, especially a spawning bass, won't probably chase a little rattletrap far. She will have to expend way more energy to get that bait, than she will get from eating it (the huddleston philosophy). I mostly fish from the shore too, and I do believe that the spawning time is my best chance to catch the bigger ones. Good luck!

Thanks everyone. Josh, I think it's a spawning fish; you can see her bloodied tail fin in the photo. I'm not sure why she (and not the male) came up to hit the bait though. And idk why two other females (spawning too I'd guess) got turned on by her feeding. All three bass were really fat - not really apparent from the photo I took- and I don't think they were spawned out, yet. Thanks for your tip. Your idea seems to be good, on paper, at least. I did try a similar idea once, with two 4" hudd shads. Bill Siemantel displayed a 2-fer rig once on a TW video with 2 little BBZ shads as well. Sad to say, the experiment failed. The baits got tangled too many times for my liking, and casting distance was horrible; I mostly fish from the shore. It was purely operator error though. Threading both baits on the same line like you say, and using a bobber stopper or something like that might probably help with the tangles. I'll have to try that out again.

Great looking fish! WTG.

Caught a nice bass this morning at the crack of dawn from my favorite reservoir. I was fan-casting a spawning cove with a 6" Spro BBZ Jr rainbow trout floater with twitches, pauses, slow-rolls, and pauses. This fish sucked in the bait on the pause after a slow-roll. She went 7 lbs 01 oz on my Berkley handheld digital. A really cool thing happened when I was reeling in the bass. Another 6+ class fish almost tried to take the bait out of the hooked fish, and a 3+ class fish was following the two of them rather closely. I wish I had another person with me to try and catch one of them; I already had a rod rigged with a wacky senko as a follow-up bait. The other two bass disappeared as soon as I landed my catch. This is also the first big bass (anything over 5 lbs is big in my book) that I caught on a swimbait. It's only fitting that she ate a bait designed by Bill Siemantel, and was landed on a Mattlures swimbait rod. These two guys are sort of my swimbait heroes, and Bill's book was what first got me started on swimbaiting. Set-up: Mattlures medium-heavy power swimbait rod, Shimano Curado 301E spooled with 20 lb P-line fluoroclear.