JediAmoeba

I scoff when people recommend Tatsu Fluorocarbon and then immediately exclaim you will need to buy 15 dollar line conditioner for it...if I am spending more than 40 dollars on a 150 yd spool of fishing line it had better be perfect out of the box.

There are some great threads here. My passion for night fishing started about 30 years ago with jitterbugs. I used that and some other top waters for about 10 years...then I started using spinnerbaits and kicked butt. And a few years later I learned they will hit just about anything at night. Some of the hardest strikes you will ever get are at night. And they will literally strike right next to the boat or shore - its honestly a lot of fun!!! As mentioned there are some GREAT articles here for night fishing.

I am desperately trying to upsize my catches...and I do fish other waters but 99% of the bass I catch are less than 2 pounds. My PB last year was 8 lbs. This year we are sitting at 6 lbs. The thing is I only caught 4 fish last year over 3 lbs. This year only 2 so far.

I see you didnt forget how to employ gif's! Welcome back

I got a few things - fun thing about that Tomato Craw LVR Mini... I ordered that from Russia back in February and just received it today. I figured it was gone...however it wont be doing me.much good on this years spring bite. Lol Also, @Glenn you should look into putting together a Bass Resource hooded sun shirt and/or sun mask request to see if there is any interest. I am interested...

Bringing up an old thread here... I had a 175 about a year ago and quickly unloaded it because the swim wasn't what I expected. I recently got another one because I realize it is a really good size and the S-Waver 200 which is about the same size swims like a turd in pudding. Revisiting this bait I threw it a few times and remembered my problem - you can swim it from slow to fast very well as long as you remain consistent on your retrieve. If you do a burn/pause it will glide out fine and do a 180 without issue. The problem arises when you try to continue retrieving after a burn pause. I have tried some added weight in the front and back but the bait takes 2 - 2 1/2 glides to get right again. In the water it looks very awkward and kills your control if I was to have a follower. Has anyone figured out where the ideal location is to add weights, which line or anything else to correct this? Today I tried changing the front and rear hooks to a 1/0 and 2/0 in all sorts of combinations. I added putty to the nose, I tried mono 15#, braid 30# and a weight strip moved around and wasnt able to really change it up too much.

As good as it is, it doesn't equal that much better of an experience or more fish. It definitely helps with sensitivity, but losing a weight that costs that much on back to back casts, keeps me away from them for the most part.

Your best bet when targeting pike with bass sized jerkbaits (pike do seem to prefer this size when numbers fishing) is to get floaters, put those stout hooks on them and suspend strips to get them where you want them. Also, I have found the right steel leader mixed with those big hooks is usually the ticket. Otherwise, loosen your drag and take your time bringing them in so you dont bend out the hooks as much

Ok...cool, but where are the swimbaits????

Use the color you like best. No seriously. If you like a color, it will imbue confidence in your casts and retrieves...confidence = fish!

When it gets hot and the sun is beating down, murky lakes heat up quicker so they fish great at night. But so do clear lakes. Something that astounds me at night is how shallow you can catch big bass. They literally will go within inches of shore. As far as colors it honestly doesnt matter as much as one would think - I think size and cadence matters more. I upsize everything and you would be amazed at the small bass that are hitting a spro 50 Rat. As far as cadence I keep it simple and slow - you get some misses but you also get that tap of the lure when they just catch it followed by a brutal THWACK when they hit it. I love fishing at night. Except for the fact I threw my spro 50 rat at mach 10 the other day 50 feet high into an hemlock tree. I had my light on retying a lure and thought I was further away from shore...my eyes hadn't completely adjusted so I let her sail....the worst backlash I have ever had since I wasnt expecting it at all... I did get the rat back but needless to say i had to respool that reel.

6'9" medium power, fast action.

If I thought colors mattered to fish more than they do people I would... I dont even care if my lures have eyes or any fine detail. Sure, it looks nice but most if the fish I see are ugly...lol

I got rid of a bunch of stuff that was just sitting in the box so I could get BETTER stuff! I had 4 gigantarels...and that's honestly a bait that is too big and awkward for me to have 4 - I whittled it down to 2. I also got rid of all the live target soft baits I had - honestly think they are hot garbage. Also canned the swaver 200 because it is probably the worst swimming glide bait in eternity. I also have another bait coming if that makes the monkey happy - I traded 2 of my 8" rainbow hudds(had 6) for a DEPS 175...

Sold off most of my entry level swimbait stuff to get a few good pieces to throw... I am really excited about this guy!

I love fishing at night - I love fishing spinnerbaits and more recently chatterbaits have moved to the front of the pack. Probably the past 3 years I have moved from Spinnerbaits to almost exclusively chatterbaits for that moving bait bite. Cranks and squarebills still get used but those are situational for me. Anyway, one of the problems I have had was missing fish. I figured most of this was due to the fact your senses are heightened in the dark so when you feel a bite you instinctively slam it. I was using my traditional spinner/chatter gear which was a MH fast action rod with 30 pound braid. Due to many fish being missed to me yannking it out of their mouths too early I added a 10' mono leader thinking this would help a bit. It didn't. So last fall I started experimenting with a 7'6" mh crankbait rod with straight braid. As of now this is off the table - I am hooking almost all the fish but on long casts where the fish bites early on I end up losing them- probably due to not being able to bury the single hook and they easily shake it when airborne. So I am back to the drawing board. One of the reasons I like the chatterbait over a spinnerbait at night was I get a lot of fish at night that hit the blades on the spinnerbait...this doesnt happen on the chatter. I don't use trailer hooks on the chatter because that really messes with the action on the trailer and at night that can be key. What are yinz using for your night time chatters? I think I am going to go back to a mh fast action rod and train myself to delay a second on the hookset.

No way - my most expensive gloves I own are Cabelas guide wear I got on clearance for 20 bucks for ice fishing

I want to see these fishing gloves.

Squarebills - all brands. I just don't fish any waters where these are the ticket. They either snag on weeds or just harmlessly crank over the cover holding fish. I would much rather throw a bladed jig where I can control the depth and snag less weeds. Glide baits are probably my favorite big bait nite - so much fun to fish and I can choose when to impart crazy action over structure or when I have a follower.

Direct tie, no swivel. I see people doing this with spinners/bucktails and all it does is kill the action.

But my birthday is in 2 days. I wants it.

My problem with these baits is castability. They are probably the two worst baits to accurately throw ... you need a pots license for those bad boys.

I feel they should absolutely use them for practice but come tournament day can not. Everyone I see fishing anymore has their eyes firmly planted on a screen. A lot of that is people that give way to other bigger names I think. Also, some people have to fish for sponsorships and don't prefish it at all. The biggest waters there is almost no way you will do well without marking some spots with bigger fish - especially when they are suspended offshore. Kayak tournaments are the absolute dumbest thing I have ever seen - those are the tournaments that should allow no electronics, no motors of any sorts and keep it "authentically simple". Dudes out there running 10k+ outfits should be competing against bass boats.

For me the deps 250 is the most fun - it pulls fish from seemingly nowhere out in the open. You need a bull shad bait for sure - the 4×4, regular bull shad in 6 or 7 inches or a wake gill are fantastic. There are a lot of other customs out there like KGB, 3:16, Pizz and toxic baits to name but a few. Join Swimbait Universe on facebook and venture down the rabbit hole....

I totally screwed the pooch today. Awful awful morning