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I used to have a guideline: 300 size reel for 6" baits, 400 size reel for 8" or larger baits. All but one of my reels are with DVT now, and for the last two outings, I threw small baits (hardgills and slammers) on my Calcutta 401TE instead of the usual Curado 301E. Surprisingly, on the same rod, the Calcutta 401TE seems to cast slightly better than the Curado 301E. I also have two Cardiffs (401As); both have gone for servicing. But from what I recall, the Calcutta does *not* cast significantly better than the Cardiffs. Other than the casting part, the Calcutta is of course the smoothest, followed by the Curado. I still like the Cardiffs though. Keep in mind the Cardiff 401A is significantly wider than the Calcutta 401TE; if you like to palm your reels. I retrieve with my non-reeling hand on the foregrip, so it's not an issue for me. I recently bought a Daiwa Luna 253L (same capacity as Shimano 300 size), but it hasn't got here yet. We'll see how it performs. I do not have any experience with Calcuttas or Cardiffs under the 400 size, but if you go onto the Shimano website, you can find data on the retrieve rates (IPT) of the reels. The Curado 301E is way too fast for swimbaiting- I don't know about money minnows though. The Revo Toro Winch in the 51 size, and the Daiwa Luna in the 253 are both slower than the Cardiff 301A. There's no Calcutta 301TE, but there is a Conquest 301TE. I have more than a few swimbait setups; from the cheapest decent one (Okuma/ Cardiff) to a pretty high-priced one (GGR/ Calcutta). I like them all. Sure, the feel with the Okuma is not as crisp as that with the GGR, but I can live with that. As far as rods, I don't have problems feeling bites with the Okuma slow-rolling 8" hudds in 30 feet of water with mono. But who knows how many bites I didn't detect? I always liked parabolic rods (Okuma/ Mattlures) for big baits. I talked with Greg (Ross), Mike (Gilbert), Steve (P) and a few others before I decided on the GGR, which has a fast taper. Seems to working out fine too.

Nail clippers work pretty well. Takes up less space in my pocket too, compared to a pair of scissors (which is what I used to use to cut any kind of line)

(This fish is from last Tuesday. I had lost my phone's memory card, and the pics. Found the memory card under my pillow this morning.) Gman is not bassresource's gman, but swimbaitnation's. Gman gifted me a really pretty custom painted 8" wood punker. Caught this fish on the second cast with the bait. It's a special fish for me, not because it's big- which it's not- but because of the bait it was caught on. Gman, thanks a lot for the sweet bait. It'll see a lot more action this summer. Didn't weigh the fish. Bonus pic: Don't bring a knife to a gunfight. I had to make do with a Citica 201D (my jig reel). It's going to be the first and only time I'll fish a swimbait on a 200 size reel.

It's my belief that the most realistic bait presented in the most realistic manner (and in the right location) will catch the largest fish (bass - don't know about other species). Big bass don't get big by being stupid. A small jig or a small worm will also catch large fish if fished right. The smaller fish are usually more aggressive than larger ones, and might hit the little jig/ worm earlier though. IMO, this too is a function of the location. I've only been bass fishing for three years, and targeting bigger fish during the last two. So my experience obviously doesn't count for much. I have caught at least a dozen of 5# + on 1/4 and 1/2 oz jigs (yes, I weigh my fish). But here's a breakdown of the 7# + bass I caught over the last 3 years. swimbaits: 6 jigs: 2 topwater: 1 P.S. I have a saying that goes like this; "If a spinnerbait is all you fish, then that's what you're going to catch all your fish on, big or small."

I believe I saw a couple of pics of a 4 lb-er with a 2-lber in its throat a while back on texasfishingforum..

Thanks guys. Shimmy, I sent you a PM. Volfan, looks like that. I haven't fished this lake a lot this year.

(Same disclaimer as yesterday: Since I'm not Butch Brown, I'm going to make a new thread for every swimbait fish I catch) Okuma 7'11" heavy, Cardiff 401A, 25 lb test Big Game, ROF5 eight inch hudd in rainbow. Went to my "old" reservoir this morning before sunrise, and fished for about 4 hours. One bite, one fish. Fish weighed 7 lbs 12 ozs. She hit with about 40-50 feet of line out. I was swimming the bait back about 5 feet below the top (almost waking). Fish in this lake are at an early pre-spawn stage I believe, and are just starting to move up. ** 5th fish over 7 pounds this year, all on ROF5 hudds, 2 on hitch, 3 on rainbow. Bonus pic: One rod, one reel, one bait.

Taut line, super sharp trebles. If I had a penny for every time I hooked myself while "preparing" those hooks prior to rigging...

(Since I'm not Butch Brown, I'm going to make a new thread for every swimbait fish I catch) Gear: Mattlures XH/ Cardiff 401A/ Big Game 30 lb test/ ROF5 hudd hitch. Armed with the new-found confidence, I went back to my "new" swimbaiting hole today for 6 hours in the afternoon. Earlier in the day, I had seen the fish follow the bait, but not bite. Finally, on the last cast of the day, she bit. Long 50 yard cast, let the bait sink, first turn of the reel handle, and she just about jerked the rod off my hand. She was all-spawned out, long and thin, with a bloody tail. No pics, camera ran out of battery. Fish went 9 lbs 4 ozs. The elusive DD still eludes me. Twice in three days, I thought I had a 10+. Oh well! EDIT: Tony, thanks for the bait. It seems to have some serious big bass mojo!

Thanks guys. It means a lot. Went out yesterday evening again for 3 hours, and got skunked. Not even a follow.

Here's mine. http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/101807-new-pb-on-8-huddy-deluxe/ 9 lbs 7 ozs/ 16 lbs 4 ozs * 100 = 58%.

Set-up: Okuma 7'11" H, Cardiff 401A, 25 lb Big Game, 8" Huddleston Deluxe ROF5 in rainbow trout. Fish went 9 lbs 7 ozs, and is for Wayne C. The last month has been pretty bad for me swimbait-wise. Only caught half a dozen 2# on Matt's bluegills- I believe those would have hit anything swimming by them, and a couple of 5# from beds. Not counting the 2 lb-ers, this was the first swimbait bite I got in the last 80 hours of big bait fishing. My new swimbaiting hole wasn't producing, so I trudged over to my old one to see what's up. I fished in pouring rain for 4 hours, and finally hooked up with the fish. I was fishing from the top of a big rock; fell and slipped from it when trying to land the fish. Miraculously, all my bones still seem intact, and the fish remained on! A ton of thanks to Matt (Mattlures), Steve P, Arden, Greg (GGR), (Mike) Gilbert, Kirke (gman), Danny K.. Also to the other Greg (NGAHB). You guys are the reason I'm still chucking big baits. A special thanks to Mr. Chan. He caught and released a bass just 4 ozs lighter, less than a quarter of a mile from where I caught this one today. It might have been the same fish. P.S. The rope in the first picture goes through the gills of the fish, and allows me to keep the fish in the water without lipping it. The first big bass I caught this year got off before I could weigh it while I was holding her in the water by her lip.. P.P.S. Sorry for the crappy pics. The flash refused to work. This fish deserves better pictures.

I went fishing yesterday in a little 3 acre pond called Mint Springs (Central Virginia). I had a ton of fun with the ultralight. I caught my first trout yesterday- a 10" brown trout. I was expecting it to give me a little fight, but no luck. I didn't know what to do with it- it was a stocker. So I gave it to a trout fisherman who had little luck after fishing all day. Also caught half a dozen bluegills, couple of crappies, and three small bass. Even caught a little catfish, which was awesome. Cute little thing unhooked itself and slid back into the water before I could take a photo. A real multi-species day, and I'm still feeling pretty stoked. Setup: Cabela's ultralight spinning rod/ Walmart Abu Garcia 1000 size reel/ 10 lb Power Pro with 4 lb Trilene XL leader Lure: 1/16 oz Panther Martin inline spinner, gold blade, black with yellow dots. Here's the trout.

From what little I understand, braid and swimbaits (4+ ozs) do not go well together. Shock absorption, or rather lack thereof, is one of the main factors. I have read too many stories on the swimbait forums about cast off baits due to backlashes. This is probably not a factor if you were using spinning gear like Fish Chris. The other factors are lack of abrasion resistance (from rocks), visibility of the line, and the braid cutting up soft baits. These can probably be taken care of with a leader. Matt Allen is one of the few big bait guys who use braid. I believe he throws them on 80 lb Power Pro and 30 lb PLine CXX leader. Matt Peters (of southernswimbait/ STE) is another, You could (and probably should) go to Matt Peter's blog, and read up everything you can on swimbaits and braid. Matt Allen has an article on his blog titled "making the switch to all braid" (or something like that). His site is called *.

Tough question. Those are pretty much the only 2 types of baits I fish! I don't flip though; mostly casting jigs, and a little pitching,,, P.S. Hillbilly is a fiend all right. He can catch an 8" bass on an 8" bait.

Mostly leisure. But I have a stiff exam that I'm taking in July to prepare for. So my laptop and books are traveling with me too!

Thanks Mike. I was going to send you half a dozen reels for servicing early next week (will be out of the country for a month starting mid-may). I think I'll add the Symetre to them, and you can be the judge on what the reel needs to be done to it!

The other day, as I was unhooking a fish, my rod/ reel slid over the rock I was standing on, and slipped into the water. I took apart the reel (Shimano Symetre 2500), cleaned the dust as best as I could, and air-dried it overnight. The reel seems to still function properly. Questions: There are a few scratches on the reel, including one on the spool lip. from sliding over the rough rock. Is the damage just cosmetic, or should I get a new spool? Any particular tips to clean/ lube the reel? Is re-lubing needed? (reel was under water for maybe 30 seconds). Thanks.

I'm looking at the baits I throw as I'm typing this.. I see about four 8" hudds (different colors and sink rates), a couple of weedless hudds, three Mattlures, couple of Ospreys, a real prey baby bass and a real prey trout. Moving on to the hard baits, I see more Mattlures, two Slammers, one Rago, and a triple trout. These are the baits that I regularly fish, day in and day out, Got more stuff new in pack, mostly softbaits. Unless it's a bluegill bait, I rarely throw anything smaller than 8" anymore. P.S. Got a Tsunaga coming. Cool stuff. P.P.S. Matt makes some really cool baits, and is a very helpful guy if you want to learn the sport of swimbaiting,

You're probably right J. The smaller one might have been the male. However, 2.75# seems to be pretty big for a male (yes, I weighed him); and if it was a male, why couldn't it find a bigger female? There are fish at least as big as 8# in that reservoir... P.S. I messed around with that megabass a bit more, and now I have a "killer" bed-fishing bait!

If I were you, I'd keep quiet about it, and learn how to catch trophy fish. Maybe I'm a little too selfish?

#1. Could there be 2 female bass and no male on the same bed? #2. What exactly is a straight-eye megabass vision 110 supposed to do? The failure: I went to chuck some hudds today in my new hole. No takers. I did find a couple of bedfish; one about a 3#, the other about a 5#, both on the SAME bed. Well, swimbaiting wasn't working, so I tried to see if the bedfish would be interested in my hudd. The little one kept biting the tail and dragging it away from the bed. No luck. Then I remembered I had a spinning rod and a megabass vision 110 in my car from yesterday. The megabass is a straight-eye, which is supposed to do something out of this world. All mine does is float with a little of it's back out, and the head down at a 60 degree angle in the water. Maybe some JDM enthusiast can say what it's exactly supposed to do? The megabass was useless as a jerkbait, but I had another idea. Took the front treble off, and tied a little piece of rock (didn't even have a sinker) to do a little dropshotting on the bed. The bed fish weren't big enough to fish for, but I wanted to try out Matt's (Matt Servant/ Mattlures) advice; of bedfishing aggresively and trying to gauge the fish'es reaction. It worked! The 3# bit after about 15 minutes of working over. It actually went 2.75# though. The bigger one took almost an hour of coaxing, but finally it did bite. Set the hook, fought her for 15 odd seconds with the drag singing (10 lb test on spinning rod), and then she came off. I thought she had thrown the bait, but actually one of the barbs broke clean off! Are these Katsuage outbarbs meant to catch bluegills or what? Anyway, I was a little mad at first. Not so much now. It was only a 5#, I tried out what I learnt from Matt's post, got her to bite. Pretty cool, all in all. Now, only if I could find a 10# on a bed, I know what to do

Holy moly! Stoked for you.

Spinning: Index finger on the blank, middle finger in front, two in the back for rods with no foregrips. Two fingers on either side for rods with foregrips.. Baitcasters: One or two fingers behind the trigger, and thumb always on the spool.. That's for regular bass fishing...

Very cool Goose!