Sphynx

I have found my answer to warmth in inclement weather to be tied inextricably to wool, as far as I know it's the best material ever discovered for retaining heat even when wet, and some of the newer garments are just as comfortable as any cotton fabric, not at all reminiscent of the itchy, uncomfortable wool clothing of the past, I could be off a bit, but I believe it retains something like 75 or 80% of its insulation value even when wet, so gloves and watch caps in particular benefit from this material.

As a bank angler I happen to prefer rising water as a general rule, they love to feed in the newly submerged areas, the exception to this is when the water rises so much that bank access becomes either difficult or impossible...don't really care for that

In-line spinner of choice (I like Panther Martin, but Blue Fox, Rooster Tail, Mepps and CP Swing all have a place in my collection too) Flutter Spoon (I like the Thompson Bouyant, but Johnson Silver Minnows and Kastmasters are great too) Hair Jig (I am a fan of the zig jig, but there are plenty of great alternatives) I 'd say that I have probably caught the widest diversity of fish on these three lures than anything else.

Buck model 301, tobacco pipe and pouch, lighter, golf tee for a tamper...probably a dozen other things that escape my memory at the moment.

They are readily available still, and they still catch fish too, I don't fish flutter spoons under very many conditions, but every so often I'll tie one on and it does pretty well.

I don't catch very many fish on swimbaits, but the ones I do catch are always good fish

I'd say that my definition has changed over the years, early on I went through progressive phases of fearing the skunk, measuring success by PB breaking, by numbers, by outfishing my friends/co-anglers, and I find that after a few thousand fish caught that I am drifting ever closer to the "just being out there" group, granted I am at a point where I rarely skunk anymore, and on the rare occasion I do it kind of helps me refocus, it's not such a big deal anymore to me, and I have had lots of days where I have caught more than 30-40 fish in a trip of a few hours, those days are still fun, and I certainly don't get upset if it happens, but it doesn't get me cranked up like it once did, I would love to end up in the double digit club some day, but honestly it's more stressful than it's worth to get worked up over a day of fishing if it doesn't happen, and I rarely compete with folks over fish these days, it's kind of fun still, but it's definitely less competitive, which kind of leaves me back at "A bad day fishing is still better than the best day at work."

Yep, @A-Jay said exactly what I was thinking, there's definitely a magic combination of heads and plastics that you kind of have to do some trial and error with to get it exactly right for your fishery, but boy when you do you can absolutely obliterate the fish, some of my best days ever have been on the paddletail pattern, both numbers and size

This isn't as easy to answer as I wish it was, I use a number of different sized heads when I'm throwing paddletail baits, just depends on the depth/current I'm targeting, gets a bit more convoluted because the weight of the plastic is a factor too, the size depends on the size of the forage I'm seeing, if all the baitfish are little 2in fish, use the small one, just try to match the hatch, colors are another variable, as a general rule with this I try to match the hatch, but I guess my basic categories are shad colors, sunfish colors, and bold/attractor type colors, I like the Owner Inshore heads, red and white both show up in my box, I also use the Owner underspins when I feel like the extra flash would help.

St. Croix Mojo Bass 6'8" MXF paired with a Shimano Curado 70 MGL, and anywhere from 10-20lb Sunline Assassin FC depending on what I'm trying to do, overall I am pretty pleased with this combination, and I have found myself using this technique a whole lot more than I thought I would.

Why does it have to be one or the other? You can't have a moon and barometric pressure align?

Gotta say, I have eaten bass that are both delicious, and terrible, my theory is that a ~12in bass caught in clear, cold, running water is a treat for the gods, but a fish like the ones I used to catch in Louisiana in hot, chocolate milk colored stagnant lakes/ponds are flat no good, I also find that about 12in is the ideal size, the great big ones too mushy, too small isn't worth the trouble...now this could all be in my head, but it works for me, and I'll continue to use this theory until it no longer works for me.

Got a picture of me somewhere buried in the family pictures of me in diapers holding my first trout next to a sinfully proud maternal grandfather, I don't think I had a lot to do with bass until about 18-19 though, which is when I graduated basic training and got stationed at Ft. Hood, and met a buddy from Alabama who used to fish the SE circuit and sell boats before he signed up...from that moment forward if we weren't deployed, in the field, or on leave, we were finding places to hunt and fish on post somewhere, been fishing for bass since then, probably around 06-07, some years more, some years less as life and opportunities have come and gone, but if our latest plan works out, I'll be fishing 200+ days a year until I get my marble hat.

I am a fan of a lot of the GrandeBass stuff, I find the airtail worm to be really nice for summer shakeyhead presentations, in the river you don't even need to do anything with it, just toss it out there and let the current do what it does with that tail going nuts back there.

This kind of falls into the realm of a lot of other goods, it's absolutely saturated with products, first off, the harsh bit, nobody cares about your name/brand, it simply isn't going to impress anyone, unless your rod line is doing something that nobody else is already doing better, the tackle shops have absolutely no reason to be interested in you, now if your bringing Megabass or G Loomis quality for Black Max prices, you might just have something, but if your just another mid priced rod doing the same thing as any other mid priced rod, what possible upside do you offer? Your taking up valuable shelf/shop space, are completely unknown to both retailers and customers, it's extremely high risk and low reward. The easier to hear bit is that if you are willing to make the sacrifices to get the thing off the ground, you can attend tackle conventions/shows, run your own website and procure private capital to fund your venture if you look in the right places, and you will learn a whole lot about manufacturing and selling products too, just remember to be realistic about your expectations, your not going to be outselling Lews or St. Croix or whoever in a very, very long time.

I'm like your mirror image, I almost never tie on a chatterbait lol, got a bunch of them too, only time I ever really use them is when I go to Alabama to go fishing with my buddy.

Just picked up a ton of Bobby Garland Baby Shad and Johnson Beetlespins from Cabelas, $1.89/18 for the baby shad and $0.99 per beetlespin

That's my theory, and I think that a chatterbait pretty much offers a similar enough option to fish that the same fish that would bite a crank would likely bite a chatterbait.

This is never bad advice.

How big are the casters? 3 guys standing at 5'6 or so are going to need less room than 3 guys standing 6'2"...I have done the 3 man boat thing before and I can't say I enjoyed the experience, constant worry about where everybody else is and whether or not I'm going to end up with a hook buried in me.

Not getting too specific here, but one of the things I have done in the past (and still do when necessary) is to limit myself to a handful of options, so for spring I might grab 3-4 lures, and leave absolutely everything else at home, obviously you'll be limited, but that's kind of the point, pay attention to time of day, weather, what cover/bottom composition/vegetation your around, are you enjoying the trip or are you getting annoyed at how much vegetation your picking out of your hooks/getting hung up too much? Write those thoughts down and give them a nice long ponder later on, before long you'll start finding your own patterns and you can start to experiment from there...at that point the only limit you'll have is time and money.

That's one reason that year after year I spend a sinful amount of time perusing this site, the exceptional quality of the members and the management style of the staff are up there too.

One issue with reviews is there is no objective standard between reviewers as to what constitutes a 5 star item or a 1 star item, what you think is the greatest bit of gear ever may be less impressive to me, and only merit 4 stars...neither of us are wrong, there are certain things they are useful for, problems with manufacturing or durability that repeatedly appear in a wide range of reviews are worth keeping an eye out for, I generally live by the theory that "no news is good news" and that the vast majority of people only review products to avenge themselves of a perceived slight, "how dare they sell me a piece of junk...I'll show them!" This is ALSO done (usually) without giving a company a chance to correct the problem, the people who are happy with a product are, as a rule, too busy enjoying the product to be bothered with writing a truly useful review unless they have a vested financial interest in it selling well. I think it's a step in the right direction that many platforms are enforcing policies that compel reviewers to tell you whether or not they are being paid/sponsored/compensated or whether or not the person purchased the item at their own expense, it helps me weed out the sales pitches versus the people who have no motive to mislead me intentionally.

I prefer a moderate rod, this style of rod works well for a number of other techniques, it also works for mid depth crankbaits, and some folks I know like throwing chatterbaits and spinnerbaits on them too, that said your choice in line has a big effect on which rod works best, if you fish mono I'd definitely go with a faster tip to help combat the line stretch on long casts, if your using braid you might want a bit softer action, it will also depend on which hooks you run on your lipless, thicker hooks want more power to penetrate lips, thinner lips can get by with less, they even make Rat-L-Trap in like 1/4oz sizes that work great on a spinning rod, the technique is so versatile that the world is pretty much your oyster on this, you almost assuredly own a rod already that will work great for this, you just might need to modify your hooks/rings/line to complement it well and your off to the races.

Don't overlook the humble Bill Lewis Rat-L-Trap, I probably fish those and a Cotton Cordell Super Spot as much or more than any other lipless, this is a year round favorite of mine, and I almost always have one tied on. My favorite rod/reel/line are a St. Croix Mojo Bass Glass Crank rod, I think it's 7'3", I pair this with a Shimano Curado K 7 speed reel and 12lb FC, I like a Palomar knot but be careful about burning the FC by not wetting the line. I probably catch more fish burning and throwing in an occasional stop to my cadence than any other technique, but the actual speed they want on a given day varies, I like to toss it over any kind of chunk rock, or rip rap, bang it off the tops of these; along weed edges and if you can get it to just hang up on the tops of the grass until it reaches up too high and ripping it free will get you clobbered more often than not. I don't really like the Bill Lewis or Cotton Cordell for yo yo techniques, they tend to get hung up pretty easy, but Lucky Craft, 6th Sense and a bunch of others work pretty well with that in colder/finesse type conditions...it's a great lure and it'll catch you a pile of fish if you put in the time to learn it.