deep

Pro-cure gel. It lasts for a long time. For masking my own scent, I have some cheap stuff from Walmart.

Congrats on the fish. Considering that it's your wife's uncle's lake, I'd say you missed a chance to catch a DD in a few years. That's the only reason I let my bigger fish go back- so that I can catch them again when they get even bigger. No hating on you; stoked that you caught a new PB. Now go catch a bigger one for all of us.

Congrats to both of you!

I think the rod is as important.. Rod doesn't load up well => bait doesn't cast well.

I see.

Does it have a white belly and a dark back?

Used to have a couple of Matt's old hardgills, and I thought they were great. Now I have his "new and improved" hardgills. If the old ones were great, these are out of the world. I don't know if it's the joints or something else, but I have to try really hard to not "overwork" the bait. It comes alive in the water, and that's no exaggeration. I don't even fish the hardgill with the rod anymore, quarter and half turns of the reel handle makes it do 180's, and that's only one in the bag of tricks the new ones got. I've been fishing the new slow-sinker for only like 10 days, so it's sort of early to tell if my fish like it. But I LOVE both the newer hardgills I got- the slow-sinker, and a 2-piece wake.

Yeah, that might be it. Some braids like Samurai are limp right out of the box.

I got a great deal on an used Daiwa Luna 253L, and I went ahead and bought it. I was originally looking for a Curado 301E, or a Cardiff 301A, The Daiwa I got for $120, so I thought I'm not going to lose money on it. If I don't like it, I can sell it. Well, turns out it's the first non-shimano baitcaster that I actually like! It casts a mile, and the braking system doesn't seem too finicky. I'm never confident with magnetic brakes, but this one works just fine. Drag works great too, and the retrieve is pretty smooth. Not Calcutta-smooth, but certainly Curado-smooth. Great buy, I'd say.

X2 Some other baits at the price range you're looking at would be the Tylure sunfish, and the CL8 bluegill bait. I think Ryan (fish30acre) may be releasing a bluegill bait in near future. You might want to contact him. He's a nice guy, and did a custom sink rate and paintscheme for me at no extra charge.

A little late to the party, eh? I have limited experience with the smaller (6" and weedless hudds). I do think for the smaller ones, the ROF12 might be a better choice. The ROF5 smaller hudds I tried mostly didn't swim right outside of a small speed range. The ROF5 68s (only tried 2) swam great though. Now for the 8", fishing from the shore, I do not like the ROF12. It gets snagged too easily on the bottom (sinks head down, whereas the ROF5 sinks parallel to the surface). And I can't keep it (the ROF12) at the depth I want to if I reel slow. The ROF5 I can fish at any depth, as long as I don't reel too fast; and until I learn a lot more about big baits, I'd like to keep working hudds slow. If I want to fish fast, I'll choose a paddletail, like an Osprey..

I saw an absolutely amazing sight yesterday afternoon. A huge school of 1.5 to 2 pounders followed my Tsunaga to the shore. There had to be at least a couple dozen bass in that school, maybe 30. I lost count at 15. I had no idea bass schools could be this big. I seen 6-8 bass in a school, sometimes, on very rare occasions, up to a dozen. I still can't get over how big that school was! These were northern strains, btw. EDIT (after 00mod's post): The Tsunaga swimbait, I believe, was designed for DVL - Diamond Valley Lake. I see no reason why it shouldn't work here...

jab9411, the only reel seat I ever had trouble with was the one on my St Croix Triumph. I fixed it with some tape, and frankly, it wasn't that big of a deal. I do think the Savvy 703 SF is a more all-around rod, compared to the Powell Maxes (703 and 733 spinning). The Max works very well for my style of bottom- fishing, but the way I fish, I have learnt, is quite different from that of most people. I have had guys fishing with me say that the 733 Max is too *heavy* (weight), and more of a *pool-cue* than a fishing rod, so really, what works for me may be terrible for someone else. I have heard nothing but good things about Fenwicks, though I have no personal experiences!

I love casting jigs in light/ moderate cover. 30 lb Samurai braid + leader for spinning setup, and 55 lb Samurai braid + leader for casting setup for me.

The Powell Max 733 is a medium power extra-fast rod. I do believe the power tends a bit towards a medium-heavy, rather than a true medium. The baits I've fished most on this would be a 1/4 oz jig with rage craw trailer, 5" weightless T-rigged GY senko, 1/4 oz swim jig with RI skinny dipper trailer, and a 5" weightless wacky-rigged GYsenkos, in that order. The action is pretty close to an extra-fast, while casting. The length of the rod helps in casting the bait pretty far out, as far as I'd like it to anyway. While playing the fish, the power of the rod comes into play, and the rod bends quite far down the blank. The rod is probably as heavy or may be heavier (weight-wise) as comparable rods. With a Shimano Symmetre, the balance point is on the front screw of the reel seat though, so I like the balance. I don't have any higher priced rod to compare the sensitivity to. But I think the 733 Max is more sensitive than the Shimano Compre, St Croix Triumph, St Croix Premier, and the Dobyns Savvy. I fished a lot of bottom-bumping baits with braid on slack line, and more often than not, I felt the bump of the bite. Although feeling for the bite is never my primary technique for bite-detection unless the wind is too hard to keep a slack line. I'm a line watcher. I always place my index finger of the non-reeling hand on the blank though. Unfortunately, once I set the hook, my goal is to land the fish as soon as possible. I set my drag *very* tight too. I have fought larger (5+) fish on the 733 Max- I don't drag them to the boat/ shore straight away, unless I can. I get a very good feel of the fight, but I use braid, as I said. The power of the rod gives me an absolute control of the fish though- I usually am fishing in moderate cover. I haven't managed to break a Powell in the last two years. I baby my fishing equipment when I'm not fishing, but I'm pretty hard on them when I am. I have boat/ shore -flipped 3-5 lb bass with the 733 Max, although it's probably not recommended. I don't think I can ask for a hardier rod that is as sensitive. I can't really understand what you want to know about the reel seats, but I might be of help if you'd clarify. When I am shore-fishing, which is often, I have fished topwater poppers and spooks with the Powell. I have to be a bit careful not to rip the treble hooks out of the fishes mouth! Onto the Savvy; I think the 2 Powell Maxes I had are more sensitive than the Savvy 703SF. With the Max, I could, and can differentiate between different types of cover (rocks/ grass/ wood etc); with the Savvy, all I could feel was a mushy feeling that something is *different*. Workmanship was a little shoddy on the Savvy- excess epoxy etc. I fished the Savvy for less than a month, so I can't comment on the durability, It didn't seem to be fragile by any stretch though. The power was lighter than the Powell 733, and the action was a little more moderate, as may be expected from the rating. It might have made a good light spinnerbait rod, I think. Also, I didn't really fish the Savvy for any length of time, and it might have been an one-off rod. But what I saw, I definitely didn't like, compared to the Powell. Feel free to ask for more opinions,

Citicas are great! So are the PQs. Or an used Curado B. Good luck on your search. P.S. I won't even keep the Revo SX is the same ballpark for a first baitcaster lol. I've had bad luck with Abu reels.

jab9411, I've owned and fished the Powell Max 703 M/XF spinning, 733 M/XF spinning, and the 753 TW football jig casting rod. And also the Dobyns Savvy 703SF (I think) spinning. I'll be happy to answer any questions you might have regarding these models...

I don't fish senkos as much as I used to. But, I was out of town for 5 odd weeks, and lost touch with my favorite big bass lake. So yesterday, I took nothing but a bag of senkos, and tried to figure out what was going on there. And indeed I did. I didn't catch too many (only half a dozen little ones), but I wasn't trying to catch dinks. I was trying to figure out what the *forage* was doing, I was bottom bumping weightless T-rigged senkos in 25+ feet of water btw, amongst other things. Just takes a little patience. There are probably easier ways to catch fish that are 25 feet down though...

You should take a look at Powells. I have been very happy with my 7'3" Max, been fishing it for the last two years. I love it for senkos and small jigs. I'd hate to use it for topwaters and stuff like that though. EDIT: My big jig rod, a baitcaster, is a Powell Max too..

Mine had Zoom and Yamamoto plastics 20% off, and probably some hardbaits too on sale.

Owner ST-36 and Gamakatsu short shank round bends.

I sometimes throw 4" wacky senkos with a weightless Gammy finesse hook on my ultralight rod with 2/10 braid. It is a lot of fun.

Probably not the response you're looking for, but I'd really love to learn live bait fishing for big bass someday.

Congrats. May this be the first of many.

The Revo Winch is a smaller reel than the Revo Toro Winch I was talking about. I tried chucking big baits on a souped-up Citica 201D once, because all my swimbait reels are with DVT as I said. I hated the reel for that purpose. For jigs upto 1/2 oz, it's an absolute bliss to use though. While I personally won't use a 200 size reel for 6" baits, I do see a 201TE Calcutta with 23 IPT on the Shimano website.