JHoss

I have the Dobyns Fury Swimbait Casting Rod, which sounds like it would suit your needs and only runs about $130. I'm far from an expert when it comes to big swimbaits, but it was highly recommended and has done fine for me.

I've always considered myself good at fighting fish. Growing up fishing salt, I feel like I learned to play fish better than guys who grew up fishing fresh. How often have y'all caught bass that weighed more than the test of the line you're using? I'd guess the answer is close to 0. But in salt, that's commonplace. I know there's times to get fish in the boat as a fast as I can and times to baby them in. The problem I've had with the BangOLure is that in my experience thus far, if I let a fish fight for too long, they throw the hook 95% of the time. So I probably do rush them more now than when I first started throwing the bait. The most painful loss last year was a 5+ lber. She pulled off 30-60 seconds into the fight while steady swimming away from me with maybe 3-4 lbs of drag on the reel. Don't know what else I could've done there. That was on a Med F with 15 lb copolymer. This makes a ton of sense to me. Not sure if anyone remembers seeing the Nat Geo footage of tiger sharks eating birds, but there was a similar phenomenon where the wake pushed up by the shark was moving the birds out of their bite. I could see that happening, and then just getting a hook in the skin outside the mouth.

Maybe I am hitting them a bit too soon. I drop down in rod speed for a lot of other visual techniques because I can be quick on the trigger. It's probably a perfect storm of all the factors mentioned here. I'm going to control what I can control and replace hooks and go to braid rings. I'll keep experimenting with rods and throw this in practice and fun fishing to build that confidence up. Appreciate all the advice y'all.

I ordered some 4 and 5s. I plan to weigh the stock hook and split ring and pick the size that matches that, then add braid split rings instead. I've tried these and they didn't seem to help. They work fine on other baits for me, though. I would think this would mess with the weight and balance of the bait too much. Unless you went with substantially bigger or heavier single hooks. Most of the fish that come unbuttoned, do so before I get them halfway to the boat. But your post has me wondering if part of it is just a mental block of sorts. I'm expecting them to come off, so maybe I am rushing them or overplaying them. I'm hopeful I can find something that works enough to give me confidence and then I'll be good to go again- like a ballplayer getting the yips. I can vividly remember way too many good fish throwing my bait back at me and not enough good memories of landing good fish. I'm using the standard 3 hooks style spin tails. My thinking with the braid is less about the weight and more reducing the leverage a fish can put on the hooks. I just want to match the weight to stock hooks and split rings to ensure the bait still sits properly in the water. I was recently talking to the old timer who turned me onto this bait about my issues. He uses stock hooks and has no problems. He did suggest giving slack to the fish after I hook it in hopes it would shake its head and get an extra hook in it, but that seems contrary to everything I know about fighting fish.

Tides are a good point. Back Bay and Northwest River are wind driven but I would think the sound near Corolla is more tidal. Even Tulls Bay (where Northwest dumps in to) has a decent salinity to it most of the time. If you're thinking about driving to Northwest River, do yourself a favor and go to North River instead. I live 5 minutes from NW and it's nothing special. Plenty of dinks, but bass over 3 lbs are rare. Most of the guys who win tournaments out of NW are running to Back Bay or somewhere well out of the river.

Trust me, I've tried multiple different hooks. These look awesome. I'm going to order some. I was thinking about going up a size and using braid split rings to keep the same weight and balance the bait was designed for. I just added 4 ML spinning rods to the arsenal, so I had planned on trying on of those with it. 10lb braid to a 15 lb mono leader is what I'm thinking. Can anyone tell me what size hooks come standard on these so I can order them before I go home and size them myself?

I've tried M and MH from Mod to Fast in both casting and spinning rods. I've thrown them on straight braid, braid with a leader, mono, copolymer, and probably even straight fluoro. Yes, its the balsa version. I wasn't aware they made them in anything else. I've tried horsing them in and I've tried babying them in. Seems like if I horse them in, I pull the hooks and if I baby them, they jump and throw it or headshake under water and throw it. I don't have these issues with any other treble hook bait.

Not technically over the side, but off the transom. I lost my motor this past summer. I was doing Mach Jesus across the lake when all of a sudden, my arm yanked back. I looked behind me to see my 20hp Tohatsu doing death donuts on the surface for a few seconds before going under. I marked the spot well and went back the next day with scuba gear to try and recover. The water beneath the thermocline had so much sediment in it that it felt like someone closing me in a refrigerator when I went under it. Even with a flashlight, visibility was only 3-4". I had borrowed my dad's BC assuming it was in better shape than mine. I was wrong. When it was time to come up, I hit my inflator but never felt like I was rising and didn't hit the thermocline when I expected. Realizing something was up, I sunk to the bottom to try and get my bearings. I pushed off the bottom and kicked up while hitting the inflator until I saw light at the thermocline. I stopped kicking and started sinking again. I didn't realize until I was back boat side that one of the fill valves on my BC ruptured and was leaking air faster than it could fill. Went back again the next weekend with heavy duty magnets and grapple hooks but was never able to recover it. I like to tell myself that one day I'll catch the winning fish off that motor and it will all be worth it. Besides that, I've just lost lures, scissors, pliers, etc.

Looking for advice on upping my landing percentage with the Bagley BangOLure. I have a ton of confidence that I'll get bit when I'm throwing them, but no confidence the fish makes it in the boat. I've tried countless rod, reel, and line combos. I've tried different hooks. I have fish throw the bait when they're jumping and when they're underwater. The only thing I can think of that I haven't tried is switching to braid split rings. Before I do that, has anyone else found the winning setup or trick for landing fish on these things?

No problem. One other thing that would probably help a lot on this fishery would be to use Google Earth (downloaded on a computer) to view historical imagery of the areas your fishing. I think you'd likely find some images with low water levels, which you could scour for cover or contours exposed by that low water. Just a quick glance at the online version shows a lot of areas of grass and some high spots. If you google 978 Cruz Bay Lane and look off their dock, you'll see an area with what appears to be a strong grass line or contour plus a bunch of scattered grass. There looks like there may even be a duck blind or something there. Places like that can be a great place to start because you can check 4 or 5 types of cover/structure in one small area to see what they're on. The part I don't know how to advise you on is finding the salt line. If I'm remembering correctly, my buddy owns a place on Cruz Bay Lane and we caught a couple speckled trout off his dock the one time we were there. I would think that's far enough from Oregon Inlet to be brackish and have bass and some salt species in there, but can't say for sure. With the warm weather we're having and time of year, I'd expect the first wave of fish to be moving up to spawn. A lot of these fish will look for good bottom in creeks, canals, and backwaters of the marsh where they're protected. I'd be starting at the back of those places and work my way out. Do that in a couple spots and you should run into them.

When you say Northern OBX, are you referring to the Corolla area? I've fished Back Bay a few times, which is connected and very similar so I'll try to help a bit. I've found the canals and creeks easier to break down than the wide open sound or miles of shoreline. Some hold fish, some don't and I've found that to vary day to day. I typically cover water with something like a bladed jig, buzzbait or spinner bait until I find an area with fish. Then I'll slow down and pick it apart flipping a T Rig or Wacky. I'll also fish hollow body frogs, toads, flukes, swim baits, cranks, etc. There's plenty of things they'll eat. I suspect there's plenty of duck blinds down that way too. They're a good thing to check since it's one obvious piece of cover you can break down quickly. Hit a couple and you'll know if that's a pattern worth running. If I'm not finding them in creeks, canals, or on duck blinds then its time to cover water. If the water's up in the bank grass then I'm throwing buzzbaits, speed worms, swim jigs, etc. If I'm fishing off the bank, I'm going with chatterbaits and rattle traps. I'm sure there are guys who have spent enough time out there to have found hidden honey holes in the middle of nowhere, but I aint one of them. The last thing I'll add is to be cautious in your kayak out there. Sometimes when you're fishing in those creeks or canals, you don't realize how much the wind has picked up on the main sound. I once made a long run across Back Bay to fish some canals and didn't notice the wind picking up. By the time I left and headed back I was dealing with 30mph and 2-3 footers in my face. Nothing for a boat, but my overloaded kayak was taking on water and I barely made it back without sinking. If you find yourself in that situation, hug the shoreline. At least then if you have to get out to bail water or you flip, you should be in thigh deep water while you're getting things right again.

Sounds like a nightmare. I'm with many here and would withdraw from the event. I did it once as a Co with a buddy and his young son. We were only allowed two rods in the water at a time which further complicated things. I ended up just sitting back and watching for much of it so the kid could have some fun. When I was invited back, I politely declined. It sounds like there's an abundance of co-anglers and I doubt it would be hard to find more folks without boats who wanted to fish, so why pander to them? Like @J._Bricker pointed out, you won't have a club without boaters.

I doubt there's any appreciable difference in the stretch between 50 and 65 lb braid. I use 50 unless I'm going to be around a lot of wood. Then I'll go up to 65. You could try backing off the drag the slightest bit to give a bit of give. But probably would just be better to take 10-20% off your hooksets when they're not too far out.

My first yak was a 12T. It's not the best, but it's a fine first kayak. I fished local tournaments for a year before upgrading. I was able to stand and fish at 6'3" 220 with a lot of gear. I would assume a 10T is very similar but with slightly reduced weight capacity. Start on small, calm water without a ton of gear while you get comfortable.

I've got a few packs but haven't given them much run yet. Maybe a nail weight or some lead wire on the hook shank would be enough. Weightless would probably be the most realistic but I don't have the patience for that in open water.