deep

Walking the banks this evening.

Most megabasses are at least slightly "see-through", except for the metallic colorschemes (they start with an M). Second, they have a lot of slight variations of the same-ish paintscheme. The G in GP is guanine (or something like that). Basically mimics the scales. The P indicates it's a phantom color. GP Pros are all (more) translucent. The prefix in the colorscheme name (GG = guanine on a less translucent bait/ GP/ PM = pearl mica/ HT = half tone etc) indicate the finish on the bait. Some of the colorschemes come with a suffix to indicate highlights or accents etc. OB = orange belly etc.

Buddy took me out on his boat and put me on some fish today. Well, he did put me on one fish! Only dang thing I caught all day, and it was 50% of the day's yield between the two of us.

Depends on the bait, but far enough to catch fish I guess. 30+ yards. I don't really pitch/ skip a lot, and I don't even know how to flip. Disclaimer: I like longer rods (7'6"+), thinner line (as light as I can get away with), and my reels are set looser than "recommended".

I like them in general. Haven't experienced any cons yet! In particular, I feel my curado 71's- I have 3- have tiny knobs, and I don't have huge hands either. Instead of replacing the knobs, I just put reel grips on them. Solved the problem,and a whole lot cheaper. My 4 Calcuttas and Cardiffs have them too. My other 5 regular sized Curados do not.

No idea how smallmouths are supposed to act, but I have watched plenty of largemouths follow other hooked fish to the boat/ shore...

^^ I don't know if they're Katsuages or not. They're not the "Katsuage outbarbs", that's for sure. Several megabass jerkbaits do not use the outbarbs actually, although the different 110mm size onetens usually do. Anyway, all stock hooks are sharp and roundbends, which suits me fine.

Stock hooks on 110 Jrs are actually size 8, *not* size 6. They're not Katsuage outbarbs either. Finally, the 110 jr is a suspending bait, unlike regular 110s (slow-floater).

Try out in shallow water (where you can see the bait), find, and remember, how rocks, wood, brush, grass etc feel. While fishing, set the hook on anything that feels different. Yes, you'll feel like a fool more than once; but you'll also catch more fish. Quick tip: Count your bait down and watch and feel the line. If it stops sinking before it was supposed to; or keeps sinking after it was supposed to hit the bottom; reel in the slack and set the hook. You probably have a fish on. If and when you find out you're setting the hook *on instinct* and not because you felt a bite, you're starting to get it.

Paul, I'm not trying to offend you; but I assure you I've caught plenty of northern strain largemouth females (bigger to much bigger of the two) from beds. I've also watched them pick up my bait off the bed and deposit it away from the bed (on those occasions I didn't set the hook either because she didn't have the hook inside her mouth, or because I was just practising my bed fishing skills). Also seen both male and female chase away other fish (sometimes egg-eaters, sometimes not)... I will concede it is a lot harder to catch the female usually. If the male is doing his job, she usually just hangs out in deeper water. I have seen two females attached to one bed several times over the years too. Can't say if they were more catchable though because of that fact.

Sure. Turn on the fishfinder and look around for fish. When you find them, note their depth(s). Next, find some structure with breaklines (and/ or breaks) at said depth(s). Fish those breaklines with baits that can reach those depths, and try out different speeds. If you do catch fish, great. Either finetune it, or fish breaklines/ breaks at the same depth(s) on other structures. If you do not catch fish, troll (as in trolling motor, not troll a bait although you can do that too) around and see if you can find suspended bass. They might just be inactive at that time, and you can try other structures and hopefully find active bass there. Luckily, not all bass are inactive at the same time. More luckily, only 10% of the water holds 90% of the fish (or something like that). So you needn't flail away here there and everywhere trying to find active bass. Buck Perry had this really neat plan. Fish the shallows on the bottom and then mid-column. Then fish deeper water on the bottom etc etc. Not randomly, of course. @Team9nine is your man. Part of the puzzle is the forage. What are they up to?

The male makes and does guard his own bed, but you can bed fish for the female too. One female will spawn in multiple beds in one season (I think that's nature's way to spread out the genes) but only in one bed at a time. I'm no biologist, and obviously bass all look almost the same (in the water); but that's what it seems like from what I've observed (firsthand). I don't bedfish a lot- primarily because I haven't been able to find a potential new PB on a bed. I still practice on 4-5# fish a few times every spring. The trick (one of the tricks anyway) to bedfish for the female is to show her that the male isn't doing his job. This is assuming the female is attached (well enough) to the bed to protect it. Then there's the matter of finding the right spot, and the right angle. Neither bass is trying to eat your bait off the bed; they're just trying to remove it off the bed. I've seen females attached to a particular bed for upto a week; but usually it's only a few days. Not all bedfish are catchable, in the early stages, and especially right before she's about to drop the eggs. (But otherwise, most are. It might take half a day though.) After the egg-laying's done, she moves out; and the male takes care of the eggs and then the fry from his bed. I guess the females do feed in between releasing eggs in different beds. Can't confirm one way or the other.

Well done. Congrats.

Tough day. 5 fish in ~4.5 hours. Sunny, windy, and surface temp in the mid 40s. Malnourished 18 incher:

A lot of fish hang out under or on the non-bank side of your boat too...

Not sure if "this guy" refers to yours truly; but if it does, the short answer is room temperature. Figure 70 F. The long answer involves the line I'm fishing the bait on, usually fluoro. 45 degree water is less dense than 40 degree water IIRC. So a bait that suspends perfectly in 40 degree water should sink slowly in 45 degree water; but honestly I doubt I let the bait sit long enough (while fishing) to allow the density change (from 40 to 45 degrees) to affect my catch rate. Also, when the water is warmer, I tend to fish baits faster. So there's that. *However*, some baits seem to be more susceptible to temperature changes. I do have two sets of certain baits; one set tuned for water above ~60F (give or take), and the other for under that temperature. If and when I find a bait that catches a bunch of fish, I don't mess with it's buoyancy and use it as a reference to tune other baits. A jeweler's scale is a great tool to have btw. In general, I hate to add weight. I feel it lowers the center of gravity and kills some of the action. (I don't have enough first hand data on whether or not that affects the catch rate). I've even messed around with putting bits of suspenstrips on the top/ sides too!

I prefer MH to even H power, and fast action, especially for ripping out of grass. Graphite. Think jig rod. Braid is ok I guess. I prefer fluoro for most baits, not including topwaters/ punching.

Top to bottom: Flashminnow, vision 110FX/ Slender pointer/ Pointer, Ito Shiner, Vision 110+1, Staysee 90v2, KVD 300DD, Pointer XD. Plus ~20 more different models *not* colors I probably can do without, but still own and fish. I didn't include the regular Vision 110 in the list because it's not a suspending bait, but I do have a JDM suspending 110 that works fine. Other than a couple KVDs and jackalls, half of my jerkbaits are lucky crafts and the other half are megabasses. Some of them have over 100 fish on them, a couple have over 200. And those estimates are low.

Hey @A-Jay and @NHBull (and everyone else); so I tried out the Type R+1, and the Type R+2 today. Nothing much happening, although I did catch a scrawny 17" on the first cast with the Type R+2. Went up and down a few breaklines in the main lake where I figured there might be a few shallow fish; with not much (zero) luck other than that one fish, I might add. Too cold I guess. What I can confirm is that both baits seem to dive to their advertised depths (or maybe even deeper, 10# Seaguar Tatsu), and cast exceedingly well. However, I think I'll stick with my confidence jerkbaits until there are a few more fish in the shallows. Pretty much on a whim, I fished around a (regular) 110+1 along the same breaklines. Hooked and lost a dink, then hooked and landed another dink, and then caught a 4#. Maybe they moved up for a while. Who knows. My fingers were too frozen to retie either Type R's (I only had two rods with me); and anyway, I had enough of the cold wind and the overcast afternoon. So I made it back to the ramp to try the Type-R's again another day. Did catch another dink on a plastic near the ramp on one of the last casts of the day.

You guys fish these? Any tips? Going to try out the two deeper diving ones on Thurday and report back.

You did good! Way to go.

Don't let the rod bend past 90 degrees and you should be good.

Clear lake has hitch.

Nope, no problems at all. I twitch, rip, jerk, pull jerkbaits to the side from the yak all the time, and the fish haven't complained yet. I don't have a rod shorter than 7'5"; so I do the same deal from the bank or a boat too...

Try some electrical/ adhesive/ painters tape on the reel foot (feet?).