Reel

I use a Zodias 7 foot 3 Heavy to do that.

Curado BFS

Like it was said, use 10 to 15 pound braid of good quality + a leader if you want (small knot) Fill the spool tightly to about 1/16 of the edge of the spool. The spool should be full. Make sure the line is threaded in the right way - in the eyelets.

The Prop A is made of plastic so it doesn't float as high but is still a good lure. Getting a good hookset with the Bagley can be difficult because you often see the strike. I was very popular at a certain time up north for smallmouth. You would get so many strikes that it was worth loosing a few fish. And yes, post spawn is the time.

Survey the marina you launch the boat at ( or the shoreline) and look at water color and temperature, depth any bait fish or bass are at. Like WRB said : This is really, really, important. Something to do before anything else. It should have an impact on everything else you are going to do during the day.

In that order : Expride .... Zodias .... Curado

If you've used a Spin Tail before, you know what I mean. It's a very special surface lure that is manipulated with hard jerks that make the bait dive about a foot under water. Then, it floats back up at a 45 degree angle with the propeller on the tail spinning. It's hard to get a good hookset.

I have used Spin Tails a lot in the past " They are high floaters. When a bass strikes them, because they are wood, the rush of the fish makes them rise and you get a lot of skin hocking (hooks barely in on the side of the mouth). With the Spin Tail most of the strikes are when the bait rises with the tail spinning, making this even worse. The stock hooks are OK when sharpenend, but you can find better and sharper. To keep from losing fish I would fight the bass with the rod down. I think that's the best advice I can give you.

For swimbaits, I use the Shimano Bantam

Just rod or rod and reel ????

I think the fish have changed. At least the food bass eat has changed. When the gobies started to appear, where I fish, we saw an increase in size of fish every year. That goes for smallmouth, largemouth and other species. Where a 3 pounder was a good fish 20 years ago, it doesn't even raise an eyebrow now. Gobies are easy to eat and are numerous. This is also true in winter when picking were scarce for smallmouth.

Jigs, chatterbaits, cranks I use fluoro, topwater I use mono.

I'm not a big believer... I try things ! When scents came out I gave them a good try. Set up two identical rods with the same lure ( weight, lenght, color ) and tried one with scent and one without, for crappie. In the same spot, ten cast with one, ten cast with the other. I would say that scent improved catch by about 10 to 20%. Better results when water was cold. No improvement in size of fish. Is it worth it ? Applying scent takes time and you are not fishing during that time. I do it when fishing is tough.

Try a Tiny Child Rig - Works well in weeds

I fish mostly on a large river and I need to watch the screen (GPS) when navigating. For the actual fishing, the water is very clear so I can see a lot of stuff, from far, in shallow water. For the rest I would say 20 to 30% of the time but I prefer fishing to scanning. I've got three 12 inch screen and FFS.