AlabamaSpothunter

It's bait by bait I've found. For moving baits with exposed hooks, I almost never set the hook per say. For bottom contact baits like a Free Rig, the hookset is absolutely paramount to success. I can't imagine it being anything but extremely difficult to catch fish on baits like a Free Rig, Texas Rig, Jig, Carolina Rig, etc. without a proper hookset. On the hand I can't imagine having much success setting the hook on jerkbait or crankbait fish with a proper hookset. *Proper hookset to me is laying the hammer down, very powerful and fast.

Agree with the Swamp Queen🤣, I'm not quitting after catching a 20lb bag full of fat beautiful 4lb+ fish......that's like leaving the casino with money in your wallet 😆 All the fat short NLGM you guys up north post are the most beautiful fish posted in this thread imho. If you're able to have awesome days during October and November, consider yourself extremely fortunate in my eyes. It's hard for me to pick a favorite month for 10/12, but those two months are easily my kryptonite.

Don't forget the JDM SV TW has alumium gears vs the TW HD having brass. JDM SV TW has a plastic type drag dial, the TW HD has a metal one. To me they're totally different reels. I don't see much crossover between the two reels.

I've got both JDM models, the TW HD is like an Abrams tank. The SV TW is like a Porche 911. The HD TW feels SIGNIFICANTLY more robust than the SV TW and just about any other reel I've used besides the Shimano Calais/Antares lineup. If you're casting it, and it's under 1oz, I'd just stick with the SV TWs. If you're casting it and it's over 1oz like big deep cranks, A-Rigs, smaller swimbaits, or if you're flipping or punching and it's over 1oz the TW HD is likely the more appropriate reel.

If you could take a LVS 34 and 12" Garmin head unit back to those days, I have absolutely zero doubt that the current WR would belong to SoCal. It's actually quite shocking that a WR fish wasn't caught considering how many fish over 20lbs were caught, and then when you know fish like Dottie at 25lbs+ existed. Everybody talks about Lake Biwa, however Lake Biwa to date has produced exactly ONE fish over 20lbs (albeit the current WR), compare that to how many 20lb+ fish were caught in SoCal during the boom days. Considering I'm not currently a FFS user, my time machine trip would be wasted. I'd never outfish guys like WRB or Butch Brown without the technology, so their actual results would likely be far better than anything I could achieve.

I'm going to order a Li Time 12v 100ah battery tomorrow. On sale for $200, and lots of reviews and serious testing videos on YT.

Some of you folks on this forum live an incredibly blessed fishing life.....5 straight days of SM fishing on Erie, that's a bucket list trip for sure. Beautiful fish! I've never fished up north for Bass, sounds like fishing in the Gulf which I have done a ton of. You get back on shore and for hours you feel like you're still on the water.

Nobody puts as much effort into their posts as you do, and it always shows. Awesome trip, fish, locale, food, spirits, and most importantly friends!

I was catching them on a Shimano World Popper last Feburary in 41d water temps which is about as low as the water gets down here, so I'd say no. During the coldest months of the year, that's when I see by far and away the most surface schooling activity. In the summer and spring I rarely seeing Bass schooling and blowing up bait on the surface.

A few swimbaits are designed to minimize hook rash, but most are not, and you can't limit the rash by swapping hooks. Sure you can swap to dull hooks, but then you aren't going to catch many fish. I'd imagine those hook rash protectors work, but I've never had interest in using them. If you watch Millikens videos, you'll notice his big glides are beaten to death, messed up brush tails, etc. Honestly seeing a expensive swimbait with a bunch of rash is a badge of honor. It means you actually fish with them. Regardless of hook rash, if you catch fish on them, you're going to get messed up paint jobs. Don't sweat it, they're just tools.

Retying periodically and especially after a quality fish are best practices regardless of the bait imo. A jerkbait however doesn't impart any extra stresses on a knot that a crankbait or other moving bait does not. Just always keep an eye on that knot, and make it a habit to retie from time to time.

The relative weight chart will give you your best view short of getting an electro shock study done. Simply record each Bass's length and weight you catch, then see how their relative weight scores look. If the fish are far below 100% relative weight, you'll have your answer that the fish aren't growing to full potential. The reason why that might be isn't always population density, but most times in a small pond it is, combined with a lack of forage base to support that population.

I never use a Ned but love a whacky and still use a traditional neko rig quite often. That said after Taku Ito's win on Smith Lake at the end of June, I've been going down the sneaky JDM finesse rabbit hole, and those baits fill the same roles as the Ned/Whacky/Neko for the most part. The 'pancake' neko rig using the Nories Flap Gill 3.2 was Taku's winning bait, the other baits below are ones I put together using inspiration from Taku. They are all a combo of the concepts behind a whacky and neko rig, and the last one shown is a combo of a neko and ned at least in my mind. Taku's pancake neko rig along with a Geecrack CueBomb rig using a Cuebomb, Hayabusa Spin Muscle 1/0 hook, Owner CPS in medium, and a 1/8th nail weight. Then this is a neko/ned thingy using a Geecrack Imo Kemushi 60 Elastomer with 1/8th screw in nail weight, Owner CPS in medium, and a Gamakatsu G Finesse weedless whacky in 1/0. You can either work it slowly dragging like a ned or lift and drop like a neko/whacky. ** CPSs are used to crimp around the hook before being screwed into the bait, this saves you lots of baits especially with Geecrack non elastomer stuff. Kind of like another form of a neko hack like the Geecrack Neko Hack that is used in that pancake neko rig bait above.

@DaubsNU1 Congrats brother, that's a magnificent fish! I knew you were going to catch a 5lb class fish on that lake, and I'm excited about seeing the future 6lb class fish you catch from it 🙂

Beautiful fish, congrats brother!

Most Falcons fans are like me, we consider ourselves to be fans of the worst franchise in the NFL. I've been watching Falcons games for over 30 years, they never change. Regardless how good or bad Cousins is his ceiling for winning is capped by a historically bad franchise. I expect them to lose every game, so if they win 7 or 8 games a year it's at least enjoyable to watch them. We all know the pre-determined Super Bowl winner anyways, congrats to the Chiefs, the NFL couldn't have picked a better team 😀

I mean the Lions won by almost 2 TDs, no overtime, no last minute score to win......I think you're just a Lions fan 😉

Hahahaha, that looks like a Tactical Bassin purchase right there......awesome stuff.

Hate or love the Falcons, they've delivered the two best primetime finishes of the season. All 5 games have been won or lost by 8pts or less by them, it's a safe bet that the Falcons will provide the viewers with an exciting game.

Good for you brother, and I agree you put in the time to earn that fish! That's a fantastic fish as well. This sport is much more satisfying the more you remove the element of luck from your successes I've found. The feeling of achievement in Bass fishing is a very potent drug.

@NorthernBasser Absolutely brother, I think it's the most realistic swimbait I own. The first run ever on this bait was a Bluegill pattern that was incredible, sure hope they do another run in that color. They might have been the most realistic small bluegill bait I've ever seen. It's .8oz and 4.5", it has the same hooks as 110 Jrs have 😁 Think I'm going to upgrade them to a bigger size or at least use STX 38s on them.

This satellite image really tells a story

Got the new KGB 'Lil Guy" in Threadfin. Missed the first couple drops of this bait, but finally scored one. It's so much smaller than any other glide I own. The Chad Shad makes it look like a morsal 🤣

Absolutely, Katrina should always serve as a reminder to Americans that we should be self-prepared, and ready for these types of events. The sad thing is that after major disasters like this, not everybody is able to rebuild. There are places on the panhandle of Florida that still haven't rebuilt after Micheal.

Private pilots were in there hours after the storm passed by. It took several days for significant Gov't resources to show up. Civilians always respond faster than Governments.