AlabamaSpothunter

Learned a new trick how to catch Bass 100% of the time today: GO CRAPPIE FISHING ? I went and bought 3 dozen Tuffy minnows because the last three days have been brutal for Bass. I made a deal with myself, I could take one Bass setup, and one lure. I took a Jackhammer, and three spinning reels along with the minnows. Caught half of dozen nice 1-2lb LGMs on the Jackhammer before the Live Magic Shad trailer gave up the ghost. In between throwing the Jackhammer a little bit, I was tossing these Tuffy minnows on a GL3 Medium Fast 6ft rod, and 4lb test around deep brush piles. Every single brush pile I dipped a minnow on, I ended up in a several minute fight with quality sized Spots. When I say I was fighting these fish for minutes, that's not a lie. I hooked 7, and 4 broke me off. Ridiculous amounts of fun, albeit moments of shear frustration. I did catch a beautiful hand sized Bluegill. Overall caught a number of Bass, and one Bluegill....no Crappie, yet that's what I was fishing for.....fishing never fails to make you look like a fool ?

Lol, that's why I want to buy from Digitaka more than anything else.....it's amazing how fast they ship these reels from Japan

Love it brother, your style of fishing is so exciting!

The reality is Economy is Scale crushes anything that's not truly innovative these days. A mega corporation like Bass Pro Shops is impossible to compete with. WalMart has been doing this for decades with every other mom N pop product or service. Just the world we live in. To me your focus should either be more innovative, or purely for enjoyment, and maybe cost saving on an individual level. Reloaders don't do it to save money, and most home tackle builders don't do it to make money is what I've found in both hobbies. Not to discourage you, just being pragmatic about it.

This the madman who I alluded to in my post regarding the member who night fished the Glades for lunkers. While this didn't happen to me, I witnessed it all first hand from feet away, and your story reminded me of it. One summer night I was admiring old salty redneck Shark hunters like rock stars at the end of an Outer Banks pier, and they'd lower a 25-30lb Tuna head down to a runner in a kayak below the pier where'd he paddle it out past the second sand bar. These guys fished year-round for sharks on the piers and would catch 500lb+ ones. Long story short, they ended up catching a big Ray on one of the smaller baits, and this old salty veteran in front of a large crowd of growing sight seers, non-chantingly placed his flip flop on the top of the Ray, then reached to remove the hook. It was at this time that the big Ray decided he'd suffered enough insult and whipped it's big poison barbed tail into this 250lb man's lower leg above the ankle region. Old boy couldn't be convinced to go to the hospital, shrugged it off immediately, but within about 20mins he had to be helped all the way back into the pier house where he was put in a chair and 911 called. Even when EMS arrived, he refused to go to the ER so the medics ran IVs and medication right where he sat. When I left that night, he was passed out with an IV in his arm. Sure as the sun comes up, dude was shark fishing with a 12pack the next night like nothing happened ? Man I loved fishing from those piers as kid in the summers, funny how your story brought back a flood of amazing tales and memories in my mind. I had to get a pic to complete my story lol. That polaroid was taken in the pier house from the story above.

Okay I'll pick some of that line up, what would you recommend in regard to 19 vs 22 vs 25lb sizes? My instinct would be the middle 22lb. Screenname checks out

Haha about the dinner plates......and going to look at that bait right now, got the TW page open in another window, the monkey makes me always have a TW tab open ?

"With a backhoe" I like your style brother.....might as well hit full send ? Thanks for weighing in.

The Gantarel Jr. is the first bait I'm gonna buy. That's the bait along with an A-Rig I already own I had in mind when deciding to go down this rabbit hole. I also really like the Mattlures Magnum Hardgill, but it's like $110 LOL Every Jackall bait I own has action that blows me away. I could just watch that Giron above for seemingly hours in amazement. Same thing with their Squidminnow 95. Also catch more crankbait fish on theirs than any others. Maybe confirmation bias, but they really seem to make amazing baits.

Yeah I'm committed for the most part already lol. I knew I wanted to fish the big hard swimbaits when I threw a Jackall Giron for the first time a week or two ago, caught a pig Spot on it the first cast. Then I realized that the Giron is just a miniature hard swimbait. Even though it only weighs 3/4th, the only rod I have that can throw it with any accuracy, and not have it create a huge splash is my new 7'2 Chatterbound.

My fishing mentor caught his PB doing exactly that. I'd have no problems catching my PB on live bait.

Very detailed and informative reply, appreciate it! Yours along with a few others have tampered my expectations, but equally reinforced my belief I must give this technique a go. I remember dreaming and reading about guys like WRB in Bass rags in the late 90s using Trout 12" Swimbaits and it blew my mind. The Tatula 300 seems like the reel for me.

Those are exactly the type and size baits I'm looking to fish. I hear lots of people talk about seeing huge fish they had no clue were in a lake follow these baits. The JDM Tatula 300 is the reel at the top of my list now. I can't find a Tranx JDM, and I want to buy every reel JDM until the exchange rates change. Thanks for the great info. Most excellent advice, thanks for weighing in. I've never had the ability to get advice from someone who has caught the size fish you have until I joined this forum. This place is great, and thanks for offering your expertise. Haha, I saw your pics in the two biggest fish of the year thead, and IIrc they had big swimbaits in their mouths.

2020 counts as two years.....it was like 1968 in terms of historical happenings lol

Lol, I used to use my Koi Pond as a barometer for going fishing, throw some pellets, see their reactions.....not once did I ever not go fishing when the Koi didn't eat the pellets ? Awesome job, beautiful lake. Those are about as fun of a project as you can have, lots of work, but very rewarding creating diverse ecology out of nothing.

Trying to accomplish a life long goal of catching a DD fish on my home lake. They are there for sure, and I catch plenty of 5lb+ fish, but I'm looking to catch 10lb+ fish. I'm sure the big smart trophy fish on my home lake have never been presented with high end ultra realistic swim baits. I've already bought a rod last night.....an Alpha Angler WideGlide 7'9. Now that I look into reels more and more, it seems my plan of going with a JDM Zillion TW HD is a little underpowered, and something like the Tranx 300 would be ideal. So what I'll end up with is a $600 setup that is extremely niched to throwing 2-6oz swimbaits, and Arigs. That's fine if this is such an effective technique it deserves it., but I won't have uses for the rod or reel if I decide this isn't my cup of tea. With the Zillion TW HD, I'd be golden using it in a number of other setups. Now I'm researching baits, and my mind is spinning. I like the idea of throwing the hard baits verses the soft baits, and those are crazy expensive. Watched a great 1.5 hr video on them, and the guy from TacticalBassin said be prepared to lose Huddlesons and the like. How do you prepare for losing a $50-100 lure LOL. Lastly, the effort required to throw these huge baits, and the size of the tackle is quite burdensome to a guy that's not in a 20" late model Bass boat. So friends, did big swimbaits up your trophy LGM game, and did you find the investment into them worth it? Thanks in advance!

This is very much me. Half the time I'm throwing a bait that is going to usually only get bit by big fish, so the other half of the time I want to fish something that is fun to me. I could catch fish all day long on a Ned Rig, but I strongly dislike using them. On the other hand it's vastly harder for me to catch fish on a crank, but I love crank bait fishing.

All the stuff made in Japan I've tried is great, but on the reels I'm trying to catch a DD on I use P line's Ultimate Fluorocarbon in 15lb. Exceptional abrasion resistant and strong. Still got enough stretch, but I think this bait excels best with a rod made for it that should have the forgiveness in that aspect verses the line part of the equation. I spooled Seguer red label 12lb on a Steez BFS reel earlier, and fished it this afternoon. High quality stuff as well. I've just come to trust the P Line with regards to pulling big fish from laydowns.

I'm a late millennial...but a clutch/5 speed/manual transmission Window cranks 5 CD rear mounted CD players 8 Track

"Warning shot" fired at us while night fishing a private lake we had permission to be on....we fired a "warning shot" back lol. Fishing below Wheeler dam in a brand-new Skeeter Bass boat when they decided to go from 3 to 4 turbines, and when we went to fire up the big engine it wouldn't crank before we perfectly squared up and hit the concreate outcropping of the dam construction. We'd be lucky to be alive had we been in a less well-made boat that's for sure. Spider cracked where we hit, but nothing structural. Night fished a golf course lake several times before realizing it had numerous Alligators. Was fishing a small private lake from the bank, not paying attention......look down and literally less than a foot from me was coiled up, ready to strike Water Moccasin. I was dead to rights in New Balances and shorts, but thankfully they aren't known to be aggressive. Fishing is inherently dangerous oddly enough. The saltwater stories I have are way more dangerous/scary, and the secondhand accounts I know of are the stuff nightmares are made of. I forget the really cool member's name we have that night fishes the Glades...he might win the thread lol

Marked as solution because it confirms the info posted by several members was correct based on a firsthand account. Thanks for weighing in.

All it takes is a day like today for me to give every Yankee a Courageous Award....wow do I hate cold weather lol. 15mph winds today were brutal. When I'm catching fish on a Ned Rig, it's time for me to go home, that's where I'm at the last two days. Grateful to not be skunked and catching a few, but something major is shifting in my lake currently. Heck I even broke out a drop shot today. I would have got skunked 100% today and yesterday without sonar. The few fish I could catch were offshore, chasing small bait balls over a featureless bottom. Third time in last several weeks I've had a huge catfish break me off. BFS Steez with BFS Steez 6'3 and 12lb CXX didn't phase the fish.....peeled off 20yds and drove right into a thick patch of dying weeds. Spent thirty minutes trying to get the dang fish out so I could get back my Jackall. $38.99 + tax is what these big trash mudfish owe me, and I'm drawing up a gameplan currently to collect. Very frustrating.

Ataboy for trying brother.....I'm about to leave right now to go get my 3-4 hours of punishment. Yesterday was brutal at 11mph winds. My belief is that those who are willing to fish in the worst, most dynamic, or general uncomfortable weather, the greater chances they are the ones who catch the real big fish. I follow a few of the guys in Texas's ShareLunker program who target trophy LRG for a living. These guys are catching 10-14lb Bass on empty lakes in frigid cold, miserable weather.....fishing every day for them. Wish our state had a ShareLunker program LOL, look at that piece of junk tied on the end of that pole in the background ? Nice pretty fish. I thought DST is going away.....you just soul crushed me with that comment

I was 95% sure last night I was going to go with the Steez because how much I love my previous one, along with a small weight savings, and things like sealed bearings and more refined fitment. The price is a wash when I view how long and how much I intend to use this future reel. The excellent advice I've received thus far has scared me away from this particular Steez model. I'll stay with the Steez line for my lightweight needs, and go with these new Zillions for my moving baits. I'm in love with my new Zillion SV TW, and it sounds like the Zillion HD is just a beefier, heavier duty version. 7.1 is okay for my needs. I love the idea of having those knobs, and it's got the clicking drag. I'll try to grab the Steez SV TW 8.1 for Xmas or something. As always thanks to each and everyone who weighed in, thankfully I waited to purchase.

Beautiful fish, and handsome sons.....way to go Dad!