MIbassyaker

Bruiser Baits Rad Shad has that same kind of jointed midsection, so that could be it.

Oh good grief. I'm going to buy a bunch of these now, aren't I...

Theme song for me trying to cast with BFS tackle:

My top 5 for the the whole year is about a pound or two shy of 20, but I haven't weighed every bass. I've caught 2 bass over 4lb this year that I know of, and might have cracked 5 for 15 once or twice, but that's it. Pretty sure I have never had 5-20 in one day by myself. 100 fish day? eh, I got 20 a couple of times.

I caught my current pb largemouth on a rage tail space monkey a couple summers ago -- I don't leave home without 'em!

used to catch these all the time in the river back home growing up....and that's what we did with them too!

I don't ask anybody for information, but I also keep things to myself, so if you give me intel, I suppose I become the one-way street.

Four this morning at the "tough lake" which has good-sized bass for this area, but a low catch rate, and gets a lot of bass fishing pressure for its size. Today they were about average. Here are three: Bass on left is not orange, just reflecting the sunrise -- it was very long and skinny, nearly 18". I should have taken the pic on the measuring board. The other two were 15". a fourth that I didn't take a pic of was 16". All were caught on a spinnerbait along the edges of pad fields. Spinnerbaits seem very popular with the bass in my lakes this summer. Maybe they're just sick of chatterbaits...

I have heard for years that fishing is bad in Indiana and Kansas. And then I see this kind of stuff by you two, and I don't know what to think.

Yup, that's what I use too.

Wind+Kayak = bad. Over 15mph, I stay home. Over 10mph, I may go if there are fishable places leeward, or at least away from open water where I can stay out of the worst of it. Otherwise, safety, comfort and free time are my only considerations.

My rules of thumb are mostly in line with @gimruis -- clear = natural, murky = bright. In water that is somehwere between the two, but stained, I like some constrasting highlights -- a little chartreuse in algae-stained water, and a little orange in brown-stained water. I also think flake colors are underappreciated, and may sometimes be a greater reason for a color preference than the base color. I think they may add some trigger potential on occasion, especially in cover where light penetrates inconsistently in a dappled manner.....a dark body slinking through the murk, suddenly flashes as the flakes catch a ray of sunlight.... I use junebug pretty often when pitching into vegetation, even in pretty clear water; not because of the grape base, but because of the green flakes.

Still not sure I want to go all the way down the BFS rabbit hole, but I was thinking it would be fun to have a light baitcaster for slinging around little moving baits in streams and ponds. Found this on AliExpress a few weeks ago and it arrived today -- Tsurinoya Dragon II C662L:

Not sure I would want to be known for that.?

It doesn't float, does it? If so, you could try a "Walk-The-(pterano)Don" retrieve...

Brief stop at a small dam tailwater. Little bit better one today, but just one: Another hooked up on a 3" grub but got off.

I remember seeing magazine ads for the "blackbird" Hula Popper when I was a kid:

Mepps spinners and Mister Twister curly tail grubs were the first artificial lures I learned how to use as a kid, and we caught everything with them. I still use them sometimes for river smallies.

yeah, it's not a super stealthy option despite being clear. it's another thing on top of the water that will splash down at least a little, and will move when you move the line, so I'm not sure how well it would work with a popper.

You can try putting an adjustable bubble float on the line a couple feet ahead of the fly. Typically a round or cylindrical clear plastic float you can add some water to give some weight, and they'll make it castable.

I'm sure I've had that spinner for 25 years or more. It has caught bigger fish.

I wanted to show off a big smallmouth, but I didn't catch any of those today. So here are a couple tiny ones instead:

I try a bunch of stuff to see what gets bit, and that's the one I choose. Not really. But sort of. I show up with educated guesses about the mood and location of fish, based on time of year, time of day & light conditions, current and recent weather, and other environmental information (water temperature, clarity, cover types, weedgrowth, forage species, competitor species). I use these guesses to select a handful of presentations to start with and rig up a few rods to switch between. I usually want at least one topwater, one mid-depth, and one bottom presentation, as well as some lures I can work horizontally some lures I can work vertically. As long as I have those bases covered, I'm usually confident I can at least get a strike by something, and when I do, I make finer adjustments from there. If I go for awhile with nothing, then I try something new. But the point is, other than initial selection of a few things to try, I don't really "choose" until I get more information from the fish, which I use as feedback to tell me what I should be doing more of, and what I should be doing less of.