the reel ess

Only the deep sea's revenge that I can remember.

Jimmy Houston says if you want to catch them all, including bass, an 1/8 oz. RR is just the trick. My buddy's GF caught a 7 pounder on a 1/32 RR while they were trolling for crappie early this year.

I got out this morning after a front passed through during the night. It was almost cold and there was a N-NE breeze, not generally a good sign. I managed only three bites and two fish. But the better one was this 5 lb. 9 oz. gal. I decided to try a shaky head worm a couple trips ago but hadn't caught anything on it yet. I decided to fish a little structure with a Zoom Ultravibe Speedworm. On the first cast with it I was rewarded. I had the drag loose and it's a medium combo so it was a good long fight. She nearly swallowed the hook so she wasn't coming off. It only takes one fish to make a trip worthwhile.

I would still use braid in that situation. I usually use a leader on my spinning combos anyway. But that's just me.

The Spook

Let us know how it goes. I have a place like this nearby that looks like a bass fishing postcard. I've only seen other kayaks in there once. I tried it a couple years ago. Got one bite from a dink. I loaded up and went to a state park. Got exactly one bite there too. I hope your day is better than mine. Good luck.

Yeah, that's why I do it. The water here is rarely very clear.

I use straight braid for my jigs and still catch good fish. When that bait drops in the bass's face, it's not thinking about the line. Some of the people that tell you fish are shy of braid use straight braid for topwaters.

I think that's the point of a huge lure.

If you like it, more power to you and it's a good discussion. But I've gone to braid for almost everything and thinking about it for literally everything. If I need some mono I'll use a leader. To me braid is the best for all single hook lures. It's good for big topwaters because you have less slack to take up to set a hook. I'll admit that mono is more forgiving when landing a bass. I just set my drag pretty loose with the trebles and don't horse them in. I caught my biggest bass of this year, 7.93 lb., on a Whopper Plopper using 30# braid on a 7' MH cranking rod. I had to apply some thumb a couple times to keep it out of weeds. I'm still using 15# Big Game for my MH spinnerbait/buzzbait rod. And I still have 6# mono on my panfish combos.

Every boat will have a 50 lb. triple beam scale as standard equipment. Or maybe someone will invent a rod that weighs the fish for you. I guess it could also take pics and video of the fight.

I bought a Savage Gear glide bait in bass pattern to help me catch the biggest bass in a dink factory as you describe. I threw it all day to no avail. I tried it a couple other places and to the bottom of the box it went. Now that I'm essentially targeting big bass in a big bass lake, I really should dust it off. But I wish I had gotten a shiner pattern.

So the pretty "sapphire" specks in my jig trailers are just for me to admire and I could either go all blue or all black if I desired.

Yeah, I ended up with my Jeep because my dad had it when he passed away. I can't bring myself to trade it. If I did it would be for a muscle car of some kind. I already have a 4WD Silverado. I can definitely haul rods easier with the top down. I had the windshields in my Jeep and Silverado replaced in the same day. In SC, insurance companies pay for replacement/repair of windshields. And they even gave me the windshield with the little Jeeps in the corners.

Yes, sir! Fill the reel halfway with cheap mono and the rest with braid. Braid ain't cheap. Use 30# braid for standard techniques and 50# min. for frogs.

Single hook lures, I tie. For treble lures, I use Tactical Anglers clips.

I do this with my good fishing buddy. He may tell me he zeroed on bass the day before I get to go. Well, if 6 hours Saturday morning is all the time I'll get to fish for the next week, I'm going anyway. I'm not knocking him. But he splits his time between bass and crappie. If the bass won't bite, He'll troll. If they won't bite for me, I'll try something else until either they cooperate or I run out of time. I keep trying because for me it really only takes one nice fish to make the day worthwhile.

When the bass surfaces with its mouth wide open, turn your rod to the side and keep the same pressure on it. If he is going left, apply pressure to the right and vice versa. That makes it more difficult for the bass to jump and will cut down on the thrashing. Don't do what Bill Dance does. He wants them to jump for the camera and edits out the lost fish. We want the fish to stay down until it's ready to give up.

They LOVE gold where I fish and a little orange on the belly seems to help.

It doesn't work great for me in SC. I've caught a few, but never consistently. This has a ;lot to do with depth and weediness, I believe. If you watch Roland, he wears them out with it, but the water is probably an average of 5-6' deep everywhere.

The hooks on the WP are so sharp the bass usually hook themselves. I use a MH-Mod Fast 7' rod and braid for Whopper Ploppers. It's supposed to be a big, deep cranking rod, but it's my favorite. So I set my drag pretty loose. If the bass don't head for cover I just play them. If they do I just apply the thumb as needed. The WP is a heavy lure and that gives bass leverage to shake it. Sometimes bass don't get all of a topwater or they get hooked in the head or side with just one point. That's the problem with trebles. I once landed a good bass on a Chug Bug that was hooked with one point in the nostril.

LOL. A lifetime supply. I already texted my buddy to see if he wants some.

You won't believe this. I ordered and only paid for 1 pack of #2 Gama EWG treble hooks from Amazon. I got 10 packs. They picked up the box that has 90 hooks and packaged in it and shipped the whole box.

The lure of a thousand casts. I admit I went a couple years with just one missed bite on them before they started working for me. I finally decided to dedicate an entire day to throwing just this bait and got a few bites. I have a 110 and a 90. They both have been good for big bass, but the 110 is better. This year I have a 7.93 lb, a 5.75 lb (both on the same day) and a 4 lb. I also lost a big one. These aren't the only fish I've caught on it. But the bites are few and far between. It just seems to cull small bass, though I've caught a few. And when you get a bite the bass has murder in its heart for this lure.

I had one of those Rapala ones that run off a 9V battery. Only one problem with it. Bass are always about a pound less than I thought they would be. ? It gave up the ghost Saturday. I weighed a 6.1 lb in the morning, then I caught one bigger later in the day, but couldn't weigh it. It's a decent scale, but the battery and the connection corrode and the wire pulled out as I was trying to separate them. So I have this on order. But it won't come until the 6th at the earliest. Any big gals I am fortunate enough to catch before then won't get weighed. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0043X6MX4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1