Raul

Excellent post Chris ! If you don 't mind me stepping in I would add some points: 1.- Unless you are fishing a bait like the DT, the maximum depth the lure can achieve is only during 1/3 of the distance of your cast, which is usually in the second third of the distance, so if you make a 30 yd cast with a bait supposed to run at 12 ft the bait only runs at 12 ft during the middle 10 yds of the cast. During the first third the bait is DIVING TO, during the third third the bait is RISING FROM. 2.- Line diameter affects the diving depth of the lure, most lures are designed to run on 10-12 "lb" test, the more you increase the diameter the shallower the bait will run. You loose 1 ft per every pound you increase the line diameter in 1 "lb", the same way, you gain 1 ft for every pound you decrease the diameter of the line.

Just like Chris said, there 's no best way, the idea is to make the bait move erratically alternating the speed, the twitching, letting the bait float and then begin to retrieve again. It 's very important "WHERE" or "TO WHAT" you are casting your bait.

I don 't pour but got a friend that does, he says it 's several things and a little bit of everything: 1.- he enjoys it, 2.- he can create colors that are not available, hard to get or that are not offered in the baits, 3.- he can create texture ( softness ), taste and scents that are not available in commercial brands, 4.- that there 's a huge satisfaction in catching fish on something he created. He says that one of the reasons why GYCB baits are so good it 's the fact that they are very soft giving them action that other baits don 't have, the drawback is that they break easily ( his also tear easily ). I have jig trailers poured by him and they are great, also I have grubs that are also wonderful, he had the mold made from a sample I gave him from the Paramax ( Ecogear ) that work as well as the original does.

For those who want to know more about bass, the how, where and when here 's something that you must add to your knowledge base: They can be older than dirt but the information is as useful now as when they were made: I found them here: http://www.glenlau.com/bassvideocollection.htm

Yup ! ;D If Australian beer is only half as good as Mexican beer I can survive living there.

Darren, my man, you 're serioulsy making my blood boil. ;D Dang ! I could move to Australia. :

Just remember that 1/2 oz sinks at 1 ft/sec. It comes very handy to remember it, many times you locate the fish at a certain depth and just by counting sec after your bait lands helps you to keep the bait always at that level. A couple of years ago my compadre and a very good friend of mine and I were fishing at "La Sauceda", I located the fish supended around standing timber at 7-10 ft depth, by running any bait at that depth you could bet you were going to get a strike, my friend and my compadre took out their lipless cranks ( regular 1/2 traps ) and I told them: cast near the trees or between them, after the bait lands let it fall by counting 8 seconds and then begin to retrieve, while I ate a sandwich they did that and had a blast, almost every cast caught a fish.

About the claim that fluorocarbon allows the bait to run deeper or having breakoffs I can 't say anything because I have no experience with fluorocarbon as main line. I fish with nylon mono, the only times I 've used fluorocarbon is as a leader in saltwater Matt.

That is called "POETIC AND DIVINE JUSTICE" RW. ;D And it 's a clear demonstration that God does exist !

Actually the line diameter has little to do with the drop rate in a sinking lure Matt, it does alter the depth of a lipped crank though, you loose as much as 1 ft of diving depth for every 2 "pounds" you increase the test poundage. Lipped cranks are designed to be fished with "10-12 pound test", the truth is that they are designed to be fished with 0.250-0.280 mm diameter line, most monofilament lines have pretty much that diameter in "10-12 pound test". Nope Shiloh it doesn 't work that way, you cut in half the weight and the bait should sink in the double of time, well mathematically speaking it should but it isn 't, 1/4 oz sinks at 1 ft/ 1.5 sec.

Lipless crankbaits sink at a predictable rate of 1 ft/sec for every 1/2 oz Huskertko. They are great as countdown baits.

Welcome to the forum ! Hey Reb you n 'me need to go Down Under and ketch some of them big barramundis, seen them in a show called "Fishing Australia" and all I can say is the everytime I see that show my blood begins to boil. ;D

Actually there 's no standard, the less turbidity ( or "clarity" ) the clearer the water is, the Secchi disk is nothing but a metallic circle painted in opposing black and white quadrants with a marked rope attached to it. To measure you drop the gadget and watch it, when you no longer see the 4 quadrants but all blend in a gray shadow you mark with your hand when the event happened, pull out the gadeget and measure the ammount of rope, that tells you the turbidity in inches. "Clear" as a term doesn 't exist, "clear" is less turbid. Terms like Ajj mentioned: clear, stained and muddy do not exist; "muddy" means that the nature ( origin ) of turbidity is formed by suspended particles of soil; "stained" has nothing to do with turbidity, "stained" means that there 's a chemical leach in the water ( like the "black" waters so common in the swamps of the south ) that can be organical or inorganical in origin. ' So there 's a lot of fine print that nobody reads when categorizing turbidity or color, and both along with water temperature and curren, have a deep effect on how bass see your bait and react to it. You can have "clear" ( less turbidity or low turbidity ) water with a brown "stain" to it. Decaying vegetation leach organic acids ( tannins ) that color and "stain" the water turning it brown, and that brown can be anywhere from a mild yellow to a dark brown. Coffe is a good example to describe stain because you can see it in the flesh, just add water to a cup of coffe and the stain begins to dissapear progessively as you add more water or it can get darker as you remove water from the infusion. Add milk and the tubidity of the coffe cup rises because you are adding particles ( proteins and fat ). It works pretty much the same way in fishing. That 's why in "clear" water hot or very dark colors, large profile, high noise, strong vibration are not needed, fish can see your bait. Opposed to what happens when the water is "murky" or "muddy".

And the water temperature is ?

You can lower your bait, when you no loger see it then measure the distance between the surface to the point you were no longer able to see the bait, there 's your Secci disk.

With a SECCHI disk, that 's how you measure water clarity.

Perhaps reeling them in too fast.

Enough beer and cigarettes to last all day Hey what 's the matter with you ?, those are number 1 !, skip the cigarrettes, Cohiba Habana Espl éndido, please bring two.

It don 't matter if you make beautiful casts or have the prettiest lure, you have locate the fish first. And how to locate the fish ? CONDITIONS dictate where the fish will be, knowing how the fish react to the conditions is what allows you to find the fish, select the proper bait and technique. The most difficult thing to do is to locate the fish.

No sir advertisement does not affect what I purchase, it 's The BaitMonkey the one who affects what I purchase. ;D

There 's guy with the nick "LaPala", he designs and carves fantastic crankbaits.

The kids in the towns around the local lakes use a pretty beat up aluminum can, several yards of mono, a split shot and a hook baited with waxmorms to fish for bluegills and crappies or dough bait for carp, they catch them by tons. Amazing casting abilities they have and I 've seen them land monster carp on them.

The comission is fishing ! I suffered a shoulder injury ( my casting arm ) that kept me 9 weeks out of "comission" during the prime of the season when I normally catch fish like that one and the shoulder is still not 100% operational Nick so most probably I 'm not going to catch a big momma this year, the closest I 've been to one this year 6 months ago and 6 ft away when she jumped and spitted my jig right in my face, as big as a ham. That one didn 't weight 10, very close but not enough, 9.86 lbs.

23" x 22 1/2" Nick, I caught that baby last year, this year has been rough, I was out of comission during the best time of the year to catch me a bigun and I 'm still partialy out of comission.

Nope you guessed wrong RW, more ! ;D