Airman4754

Your brain. Trust me, once you figure it out what is on the end of your line doesn't really matter. At that point it's just matching gear to weight and bait to cover/structure/conditions. Also, you're probably going to need to fish deeper than you're used to or comfortable with.

Beast!

I bet that thing is awesome. I have a Scorpion Antares with the magnesium spool for my spinner bait reel and it's ridiculous. The new ones have to be killer! I'm peanut butter and jealous.

My swim jig, chatterbait, square bill, and frog setups all have MB's on them and they have been bullet proof. I have from the Pro Magnesium to the MB and they've all been flawless.

Kalin Seizmic Shad, Kicker Fish Tail Slapper, and BPS Speed Shads are the exact same bait as the Keitechs. I fish the Speed Shads mainly now because they are the only one I have found that makes a 6" model. I have all four brand's 4.8" in a bag and I have no clue which one is which and neither do the fish. If you do your job they will do theirs regardless of packaging.

Yes. ODFW has ruined the trout fishery in lakes here. There are 8" planter rainbows and bass for the most part. A small number of lakes have German Browns and three lakes have lake trout but none of those have bass. There are only bullheads in lakes and the state record is 4lbs so no luck there. So, I know what is in the lakes I fish. The little school of turd trout in 15 feet of water are a dead giveaway. Everything else is a bass. Where I was last weekend has planters and LMB. I catch a lot of fish vertical drop shotting with my electronics so I know about how big the line is from experience.

I mostly have UMBX rods, but I do have an M1 that I throw Keitech's on and I really like it.

My jerk bait rod is a Rage which is the same as the new blank and I like it. For the price I don't see how you could do much better than a Mojo.

I'm a Phenix guy and they under rate rods power wise. I wouldn't fish anything in their spinning lineup under a Medium power.

As far as I know there have been seven double digit bass caught in Oregon and a couple of those were the same fish in the guy's private pond. I had one on my finder in 35ft of water last weekend that I know was pushing 10lbs. I'll do it here, I'm not sure when, but I will do it. I've caught well over 25 fish that would be 70% or more of the state record fish's weight (non-private pond record) and I'm in my early 30's.

I have that reel on a Megabass Orochi XX shaky head rod and I really like the combo.

In cold water with a hard bottom there isn't a better technique for me.

Buy 1/8 to 3/4 and use what feels comfortable for your equipment and fishing depth. I loathe finesse hooks and nose hooking the bait. A light wire size 1 straight shank worm hook will catch you infinitely more fish. Like you'll literally never miss a fish. Make sure you use your drag a lot and remove the hook with pliers or you'll straighten out the hook.

Kalin Mogambo Grub. I used to use a paddle tail trailer and my production more than doubled going to that huge grub. I tried a Kalin Seizmic Grub at night once this year as a trailer and did well also.

I use sheet metal screws. 8 x 5/8 and 8 x 3/4 for worms 6" and over and 6 x 5/8 for 4" worms. They're about $1.30 for 20.

Agreed. I run braid with a 17lb fluoro leader. It works through all applications.

For big fish I've never found it to make a difference. When a big fish wants to eat it eats. For overall numbers I think there is a two day delay. Water takes way longer to heat and cool. If it was 75 yesterday and 52 today the fishing will be much better than if it was 52 yesterday and 75 today. Just go fish. If you think fishing will be slow use big baits. If you aren't catching fish you might as well not be catching big fish.

Stren Fluorocast is pretty decent.

I take them out and store them in 3700 containers. I've never had any sort of problem.

Nothing now, but they came up with a great design. The BPS Speed Shads and the knock offs Kicker Fish make all fish the same at the same speeds. I'm sure there are more companies that make great knock offs now too. If you're not into the reality of one or two bites per thousand casts that comes with fishing the big swimbaits the Keitech style allows you to fish in a similar way with a lot more production as well as some other techniques. One bait I think Keitech has done a great job with that doesn't have an equal to is the Noisy Flapper. That thing has a monster profile and a ton of action. I love fishing it.

Truer words have never been spoken. You have to play the big ones out.

Paca chunks, KVD chunks, and Rage chunks. If I'm trying to catch a kicker a Gambler Mega Craw.

I agree. I started using the jig rig a few years ago and if you aren't using it you are seriously missing out. I don't T-rig at all anymore and I fish jigs about a quarter of the time I used to. Overall numbers have greatly gone up and I haven't noticed a difference in the size of fish either. Jigs obviously work and people that know how to fish them do really well. If you're a novice though and you know you're probably never going to get past that level throw a jig rig with something big like a Noisy Flapper and you're going to catch way more fish and you'll catch the right fish as well.

Thank You. I've caught a lot of fish over 5lbs here but getting over the 6lb range is tough. That's kind of the crux of being really big here is that 6lb mark which is lame in a lot of states. These northern strain fish just don't weight out very well. The 6.4 I caught a couple weeks ago was 23" and this one today was 26". My PB is from a little local lake that has Florida strain with an absolutely unthinkable amount of food for them and it was 8.1 at 22". Oh well, it's still a lot of fun.

Second large mouth trip of the year. We had a good day. Overall we landed 20 fish or so with the smallest around 2lbs. My buddy caught a great 3.5lb bass and I hooked into this 7.4lb momma. Great great fish for this area. We hooked all but a few on M3 Roboworms, but all the bigger ones were on a jig rig with a Rage Space Monkeys.