MIbassyaker

I've got some but haven't used them. They look like they'd be great to drag around on a swinging jighead.

Habit and compatibility with a wide variety of other plastics if I swap it out for something else. I'm sure a round bend would do just fine.

I use 3/0 EWGs or 3/0 owner twist-locks. A Zoom super fluke jerked and twitched over submerged weeds is one of my very favorite early summer baits. Lots of good colors and they all work, but I'm partial to green pumpkin magic.

I'm in that boat too (as it were). I've only got 3 or 4 with me at a time, so Every combo is going to have more than one duty.

That's what the likes are for, no? I'm always partial to the, "I bought Fancy Lures X,Y, and Z and can't catch any fish, so what's wrong?" posts. It's always helpful to remember, the "black" basses have been getting caught by humans for thousands of years, long before bass fishing became a major industry and lure companies entered the scene. There may not be another fish on the planet willing to strike a wider variety of baits and presentations, including virtually every artificial lure design ever conceived. You could not dream up a more perfect fish species to build a multi-billion dollar industry around. When a thorough skunking forces you to confront the fact that they don't strike absolutely every lure, all the time, everywhere you throw it -- and you are puzzled by this -- it typically means it's time to invest more effort into understanding your quarry and its environs, rather than simply sinking more money into your tackle box.

You might have fewer problems with stretchier line, like going all mono or fluoro. Also, for trailer hooks you want to look for hooks specifically made to be trailers; they have a much wider eye to slip over the barb of the main hook, and they'll come with rubber tubing, either already covering the eye or in a separate piece.

Without a net, you're just going to lose some, and that's the reality. I think this problem generally has less to do with lack of trailer hooks and weak hooksets (though fixing those couldn't hurt), and more to do with not keeping a tight line. This happens a lot in the kayak trying to bring the fish in, given the limited space you have to manage both rod and fish, and a range of motion that essentially amounts to creative use of your armspan.

Here's one I've been using. I think it's an eagle claw 1/0: I like to let the hook swing freely below the rubber piece. The other option is to slide the rubber sleeve over the eye of the trailer, then put the lure hook through the sleeve and the eye together. That holds the trailer hook more rigidly in place behind the main hook.

Looks like you beat my own crankbait snagging record from earlier this summer, a 3 inch brook silverside.

Lol, that's exactly what it looks like up here during a steelhead run.

Up until this year I had never caught a fish on a buzzbait despite having several and using them off and on for years. I bought some cavitrons on the strength of recommendations on this board, resolved to be a little more persistent than usual and, boom, like magic, they produce. They've been far and away my most productive topwater this year.

Sounds like the issue is whether you want the third rod to cover heavier presentations, or cover lighter presentations than what what you're using the other rods for. I suppose it depends on what kinds of presentations you use the more in your waters, and where you think the other rods can pick up the slack. I personally get a lot more mileage out of lighter gear for weightless plastics, jigworms, shakey heads, split-shots, drop shot, etc. than I do heavy gear, but that's because I don't do a ton of frogging (although I do some) and virtually never flip or punch really heavy stuff, or use lures over an ounce; of the heavier work I do, I find I can get by just fine with an MH/F.

Go small and go slow. If plastics work, stick with plastics. Things you can let fall, let sit, lift, fall again. Or drag or hop slowly back to you. Ned rig wacky rigged senko Split shot rig with a 4" worm

3lb-ers make my day. I've never been consistent with frog hook-ups.

As of this morning, my best of 2015 is also a pb: 5lb, 2oz:

Left home at 6. On the water by 7. PB at 9:35. Made it to work by noon. At least I think it's a PB; It's my longest bass and the heaviest I've weighed with an accurate scale. 5lb 2oz, and just short of 21" The pic does not do it justice: On a 3/8 Cavitron, black on black.

Earlier this summer I met an old guy fishing out of a kayak who gave me a tip on a "hidden" lake not far away, but I had never heard of. No public access, but you can paddle in 1/4 mile from a small creek, accessible from a gravel road out in the middle of nowhere. Part of me wanted to say, "Dude, stop talking! You don't know who else I'm going to tell!" But after visiting the place, I saw why he didn't mind letting me know about it -- it is awkward to get to, and importantly, there is no way you can get to it on foot, or in anything wider than a canoe or kayak. I've been there 4 times now, and never seen another person on it. I'm not sure yet whether it's a Honey Hole, exactly, but there are some decent fish there. Suffice it to say, I haven't disclosed it's location to anybody yet...

The simple answer is, I don't flip jigs into really heavy vegetation, kayak or no. I tend to think that's a job for a streamlined plastic rigged weedless behind a big bullet or punching weight. And In lighter weeds, I have better luck with heads that have less of an angle on the tie, like 60 or even 30. An arky, brush or perhaps ideally a bullet head.

Almost 100% of my fishing this summer has been over weedy bottoms. The ned will hang if you throw it in really thick stuff, and it does get caught here and there in lighter weeds, but usually It's so light it doesn't dig in and a quick shake gets it out. I have actually been impressed by how little it hangs in moderate submerged weed growth. It's wood and rocks that have been my real nemesis. I can get the hook to bend out of wood, but I've had the hook break when I try to bend it back.

Denial is always the first stage...

Yeah, the little pond magic spinnerbait is the only Booyah one I have and I like it quite a bit, never had a problem. Did the blade arm actually break, or did the wire bend out, or the split ring fail?

I do not fish tournaments, so I can't really comment on tournament strategy. And I've never fished in Kentucky, and only very rarely fish reservoirs. So none of this may be useful. But it seems to me, if you don't know how far along the transition is, you should bring enough things that will cover multiple depths and speeds. If you need to cover water, consider a fast-moving topwater like a buzzbait to work along the banks or spook over more open water. If there is very little wind, I can sometimes use the drag of a big moving bait to pull my kayak along with just enough progress to work a small area without pausing to paddle. Subsurface, a bladed jig or spinnerbait would provide a similar effect, or a larger lipped crankbait. You will want something to work slowly at these depths as well -- a fluke or other soft jerkbait could double as topwater and subsurface, and may be a good choice for a forage base of bluegill and shad. Bring worms, weights, heads appropriate for shakey head and/or drop shot in case they are still deep and sluggish. All-arounders like Jigs, texas rigs, and/or wacky rigs should always be in the mix. Edit: Ha! Just saw the date -- you probably already are on the water or already had the tournament. Come back and tell us what you did and how it went.

The true fixation is not on minimalism, it is on always bringing everything and encumbering yourself awkwardly with things you don't need and won't plausibly make use of during an outing. By selectively downsizing you save energy lugging it around, you reduce frustration of keeping track of it all, you save time searching through your stuff and making decisions about lure selection, and you cut the risk of losing or damaging some of it. You spend more time fishing and catching, and less time fiddling and fumbling with your equipment.

I always have to confront this issue, as I am limited to one backpack on the bank, and one backpack plus a part of a crate and a small hatch in the kayak. Usually I've got 2-3 plano 3500 (or 3600) boxes for hardbaits and terminal tackle, and a bunch of plastics in their original packs inside the backpack. To choose baits to bring, the first thing I do is make sure I have covered three areas of the water column: topwater, mid-depth, bottom, maybe a few of each. Then I want to make sure I cover different speeds. I want some faster moving baits to swim, buzz, walk, jerk, and some slower baits to fall, hop, drag, twitch, shake, or deadstick; preferably some of each at each area of the water column. For instance, consider this combination of 6 baits: Buzzbait (fast top), Popper (slow top), crankbait (fast mid), wacky-rig senko (slow mid), jig (bottom), texas rig worm (bottom). That might cover the basics. Of course, you'd adjust depending on conditions, type of cover, forage, etc. Maybe bring an alternate or two of each kind. What I don't do is bring an entire box of poppers or entire box of crankbaits, or 7 packs of senkos. One or two of each, three max, maybe different to cover different sizes, shapes or styles. For color, I choose based on water clarity and light. For clear water and bright days, I want natural colors -- greens, browns, and forage patterns (bluegill, perch, shad, craw, etc.) -- and flashy things that catch the light -- silvers, chromes, and flake patterns. For murky or stained water, or overcast/dark I want darker or bolder colors for contrast and visibility-- purples, blues, reds, golds, chartreuses, firetigers. When in doubt, black is never the wrong color for any condition. I avoid bringing multiple colors of exactly the same bait.

I have never understood the fixation anglers have with "best times vs. worst times", aside from general seasonal patterns. Local weather patterns, local temperature trends, and local ecological conditions will overwhelm other general trends, On top of that, an angler's ability to find fish, choose and execute effective presentations will be the main drivers of success. In principle, it would be shocking if moon phase didn't exert some effect on fish behavior, and therefore affect fishing. Holding everything else exactly constant, I'm sure it does, if for no other reason than moonlight intensity influencing the amount of light penetration. In practice, though, none of the other things that affect success are ever constant. I have never found it useful to look at moon phase and say to myself, "well I'd like to go fishing, but I won't because the chart says the fishing should be bad."