Bazoo

I had a few minutes at the lake earlier. The golden crank works on bass too. https://i.postimg.cc/Bby1CqnC/8-FE525-E1-3-EF8-4-DBF-B9-BE-F5-C4-C5-BC03-B7.jpg

I have a friend who picked up this vintage box at a thrift store. He poked at it for a while but finally decided to gift it to me since he got tired of seeing me drool over it. I didn't have a large box before this one, and it's perfect for the overflow that won't fit in the tackle bag I normally use. I love vintage stuff like this. I reckon it takes me back to my childhood.

I think 25 yards or more is a long one. 15 yards or so is where my accuracy starts to fall off. When bank fishing, on the lake, I often will lob a distance cast out there with a spinnerbait or crank. 40 yards or more would be what I consider long distance. With a heavy lure in the yard, I've cast 60 yards... but I can't do it consistently without backlashing. I can however, cast a weightless Texas Rigged Zoom Lizard on a baitcaster. With that, or with anything else 1/4 ounceish 25 yards is what I consider a long cast. I practice much more for control and accuracy than distance. Me and the boy, who's 4, often practice casting together. I have an old lawnmower tire we move around the yard and aim for. Him with his little Zebco, and me with a baitcaster with an old spinnerbait on. I practice overhand, side, underhand roll casting, and left handed. Left handed is hard... so is casting to the right when you're right handed.

I'm what most would call a minimalist. Not truly because a real minimalist wouldn't have as much as I do. I primarily use: Spinnerbaits Spit'n Image (Hedden, need to get me a vintage Bill Dance one) Texas Rigged Zoom Lizard, Fat Albert Grub, Senko/Yum Dinger Medium use is: Popper Squarebill or small/medium cranks Buzzbait Beetle Spin Frog whopper plopper I do use, but more sparingly: Swim bait lipless crank ned rig various plastic worms/paddle tails/creatures jig jitterbug jerkbait fluke deep diving crank curly tail grub on a jighead tiny cranks Rooster Tail chatterbait shaky head Carolina rig I have a tackle bag that holds 2 3600 sized boxes, with a pocket for soft baits. Most everything I have will fit in that. I do have a larger tackle box for overflow. So I have extra packs of worms, extra spinnerbaits, some extra hooks and sinkers, along with anything I find that I don't use. For me, I most always try something I'm not so confident with to build technique and confidence. Either first, or if the confidence baits fail, last. I also try new areas of the lake that I'm not familiar with, or not good at, either every trip or every other. I enjoy learning new techniques and lures. I read here a lot, and I also read a short stack of old fishing magazines I have.

Thanks for the info.

I know... The H2OX mark on the belly is a dead giveaway. Thank you though. I might not have known. It does have a nice wobble to it. What made that spook different from all the others?

I got this pretty little crappie the other day: On this gold crank bait I found the day prior.

Been finding a few. Does anyone know what that tiny crank air is?

I cast my own bullets, and even have my own cast bullet website (bulletmatch.com) though I haven't gotten into making lures yet. Incomplete fill out will most likely be due to a too cold mould temperature. If you have a mould with a lot of detail, and or your want super crisp corners, adding 2%Sn to the melt will lower the surface tension and help fill out as well. Using beeswax for flux instead of paraffin will also lower the surface tension and aid in fill out, for the first few casts after you flux. Having the hooks heated a small amount, even if you can get them to 100º vs 60º, it'll help keep them from sucking heat from the melt, which in turn will help fill out.

I wonder if could find those locally... I know the Academy has some Owner hooks on the hook wall. I do like the look of that. It'd let the body have a bit more action.

Thanks for sharing Tennessee Boy. I'll have to dig around and see what I have that will work. I think I have some 2/0 Gamakatsu EWG, though I prefer regular offset worm hooks over EWG anywhere I can get away with them. Our local Academy was out of the Gamakatsu 1/0 worm hooks whenever I've been over the last month.

It is a standard worm hook. It was Eagle Claw hook as thats all the 1/0 I have currently. I didn't have any issues hooking up. I had him hooked deeply in the roof/sidish of the mouth about 1.5 back. Wasn't in the corner or something just barely.

All of my larger sized hooks are too long for the grub. I was using Eagle Claw 1/0, as it's the only 1/0 I have currently.

I seen somewhere, on this forum I think, where someone mentioned Texas rigging a grub instead of using a jighead. I thought it sounded neat, and I liked that it would be much more weedless than a jighead. The other day I was fishing a bank that was pretty tight for casting clearance and into some heavy cover just off shore. I used an 1/8oz bullet sinker, a 1/0 worm hook, a 3" Zoom Fat Albert grub in green pumpkin, and was able to coax old iron jaws into nibbling at first... then full commit. The result was a nice little fighter, probably 1.5 pounds. Was my first catch on a Texas Rigged grub, but it won't be the last I'm sure. The lake I was fishing is pretty heavily pressured, so using this is as much of trying to find something out of the ordinary as anything else. My buddy whom took the pic caught a similar sized bass on a ned rig, so we both left happy that day.

Interesting replies, thanks all for sharing.

You can see my holster and gun in this pic. A Ruger Blackhawk 44 Special in a Simply Rugged Sourdough pancake holster.

Looks like a spotted bass to me... but I ain't no expert.

I got this guy yesterday. 2.7 pounds. weightless Texas rigged Zoom Lizard

This is a neat thread. I'm learning a lot. I will have to try some anise oil for my soft plastics. It seems that is uncommon now and might just give me the edge where I fish. Thank you all for sharing.

After checking them out on their website... I'll bet the secret ingredient is anise scent, not the worm specifically. Has anyone else tried anise scented worms?

Awesome, hmmm. I just need to see a pic of how they are rigged, and what shape they are when laying "natural" and I'll figure out a way to duplicate it with a Zoom Trick Worm. I'll have to research it some. Never seen anything like it. I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for them.

Dang that's a cool setup. I never would have considered it. There are a couple places that I fish, something like that would benefit me, though I don't know that I could ride one.

I don't have anything to add, since I'm learning! I will say... my gut tells me there is something special about those orange bladed spinnerbaits. I'd have confidence in it throwing it. Confidence doesn't always equate to fish on the thumb but it does help to get the lure in the water.

I fish both with trailer hooks and without. I make my own by using some trotline hooks I have with some clear tubing. If I'm going to be throwing into some heavy stuff, I generally remove the trailer hook, but I will throw a spinnerbait or buzzbait that has a trailer hook into heavy stuff if I'm not in the notion to take the time to remove it. Like yesterday when I threw my buzzbait and spinnerbait, both with trailer hooks into a couple fall downs on the river I was fishing. No bites, I tangled up a couple times but worked free. On Freeman Lake, which is heavily bank pressured. I've gotten a bass on a spinnerbait, on the trailer hook. I got a nice 5 pounder on a buzzbait, which had a trailer hook, but didn't utilize it. Prior to that strike. I had witnessed a smaller bass nip at my skirt and miss the hook, so I added the trailer hook. I witnessed the same thing on 2 separate occasions a few weeks prior, when a bass nipped at my spinnerbait skirt but didn't get the hook. For these bass...I think a trailer hook is better. But I'll throw either, and I have spinnerbaits and buzzbaits rigged both ways. Personally, I would use a normal short hook, and a trailer hook, rather than lose the versatility.

For baitcasting, I cast with the right, switch hands, and reel with my right. For spinning, I cast with the right, keeping the rod in hand, and reel with my left. That is was feels natural to me, though I've tried the visa versa methods. I read (on this forum I think) that using spinning in the right hand and casting in the left is good because it separates them in your brain, since you use different techniques for the two types.