bigbassin'

It's a grunt, what kind I don't know. But it's definitely a grunt.

Also, I personally won't throw anything heavier than 3/4 ounce on braid unless I'm flipping. I prefer to throw the rat on 25 pound mono, I feel like its more forgiving when dealing with the momentum from a heavy bait.

Are you whipping the baits? You need to use an overhand lob when throwing bigger baits.

Both a high-roller and a risk taker...I approve this recommendation.

I sure am glad I live in Florida...I'd probably freeze if I had to deal with those temperatures year round.

It's the middle of July and still in the 30's for you?

I had always figured I had caught 3 bass in the 8.5 to 9 pound range before I got a scale...then I caught a 9 pounder and realized I've only caught 1, and it wasn't from before I had a scale.

I actually liked the Lesnar-Hunt fight just because I was personally shocked by the results, I thought lesnar would be too rusty and Hunt would win. As far as Cormier-Silvia, it wasn't anything exciting, but it was exactly what Cormier needed to do. I was shocked two judges scored Aldo-Edgar 49-46 for Aldo, I figured it would be a split decision with all judges going 3-2 for one guy or the other as I didn't really see either guy as clear winner of 3 rounds. I think Travis Browne and Johnny Hendricks just had their status as title contenders permanently revoked.

If I'm correct, Lake Ivanhoe, Underhill, and Turkey all have higher population rates of bass over 20 inches per acre than Toho or Okechobbee, the lakes are just a lot smaller so the overall number is significantly lower. Toho and Okechobbee have them beat once you get to 8+ pound fish.

That sounds like a pretty good fluke/senko/trick worm setup.

I can't think of a more efficient way to spend it.

First thing I would try is downsizing to 1/8 ounce, this may be light enough to keep the bait from sinking too far into the grass. If that's not enough (which I'd be surprised by) you could try a Carolina rig to keep the bait higher than the grass,

I'd grab some of both. As others have mentioned the action is a little bit different and sometimes they'll hit either, and other times they'll only take one. As far as colors go, chrome/blue, gold/black, sexy shad, and a red color should cover all of the bases.

I definitely feel the opposite. I absolutely crush pond bass on rattle traps, on lakes I'll typically go for a swim jig/chatter bait first.

Fish a spinnerbait at night...you'll gain confidence in it real quick.

Without reading what everyone else has posted, I'd recommend: 1 pack of straight tail worms 1 pack of yum dingers 1 pack ribbon tail worms 1 pack of zoom flukes 1 pack of brush hogs 1 pack of paddletail swimbaits 1 chrome and blue rattle trap 1 black spinnerbait 1 rebel pop-r 4/0 ewg gamakatsu hooks 1/4 ounce lead bullet weights $40 at Walmart and that will give you a pretty good variety to start with. General rule of thumb on colors for the soft plastics is watermelon for clear water, green pumpkin for 2-5 visibility, black and blue/junebug for anything with less visibility. With that being said, the straight tail worms are pretty effective worked near the surface and colors such as pink, white, yellow, etc are common so you can watch the worm as you work it back to you.

I've always liked senkos and just a regular ribbon tail worm when punching pads.

For me, green pumpkin is the only color I throw as most places I fish have bluegill as the primary forage. 7/16 has been my top producing size for a while.

I've seen some videos of people using toads instead of skirts, but when I do that my buzz bait rolls on its side.

They're good for a variety of techniques. Some of my favorites include: 1. Giving it soft but quick twitches as soon as it hit hits the water. This will keep it on the top of the water and present a more subtle walk the dog. 2. Allowing it to sink to the desired depth and working it like a jerk bait, just with softer twitches. You can pause as long as you want between twitches, this is probably where most of my strikes occur. 3. Dead sticking the fluke for 10-20 seconds at a time, hop it, then repeat the process. 4. Target casting. Just get the fluke right on top of your desired target and allow it to sink all the way to the bottom. Give it a few twitches then work it back to you. 4. Carolina rigged with long pauses. 5. Dead sticking on a wacky rig. As far as location, flukes basically work everywhere, but I feel like they really excel in grass where other subsurface lures may not be able to get to, and when targeting schooling bass. They're also one of the easiest lures to skip, so I give them the nod pretty often for dock fishing/getting under branches. Flukes are also pretty good as a follow up lure if you miss a top water strike.

You should be fine throwing the 90 on spinning gear. The rod can handle that weight for casting, but may not be ideal for working a lure due to it's action. For example, while cat fishing I use a 1 ounce weight on spinning gear all the time since the weight just sits out. If I'm fishing something that requires me to impart movement, I won't fish anything heavier than a fluke on spinning.

Whopper plopper and the Spro rat. The whopper plopper is easily my top producing topwater and has become the first one I'm throwing on any given day. The rat has become my top producing numbers wake bait. Bomber shallow a still has it beat on size though. (Kind of surprised by that personally since the rat is a much bigger and bulkier bait).

Ya the guy I went with said it can be good, we just went with bad conditions. Good Luck!

I fished it about a month back, lost about a 5-6 pounder when it jumped on a soft plastic swimbait about 5 minutes into the trip. Didn't get another hit all day between 4 people. Conditions were terrible though. We went the day after a cold front, sunny and strong wing.

Slow and steady through grass is definitely an effective technique. Another good use for them is a topwater bait through lily pads. Cast them out into the pads, keep your rod tip high, and keep the bait moving on top. Whenever you get to a hole in the pads let the bait drop for a couple of seconds. A lot of times this will out produce a frog/toad for me.