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Got out with my buddy Cody yesterday on his boat and had the craziest catch I think I’ll ever have… I found a couple biters on the Kurouto monster crawler, nothing big. Then on the 3rd fish of the morning one blows up on my crawler and then it was just dead weight, no fight back to the boat. I’m looking at the fish thinking “is that a mutant 3rd fin hanging off the side?” when I realize there’s a freaking Deps 250 stuck to the side of this fish!!!!! A couple photos, got both baits loose and made that fish the happiest guy in the lake yesterday when I released him back about 6 ounces lighter!!!! Absolutely going down as an all time top catch for me…

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, we have some really standup members on here. That’s just the cherry on top for one of the best crazy catch stories I've ever heard! Never did I consider you may be able to find out who’s bait that was. I fish a 70,000 acre lake with thousands of boats on the water every single day. I’d say easily 50% are from out of town. That would be near impossible here. So it never even crossed my mind. Good on you man!

Imo you need to tie that 250 on and fish it until you get THE ONE.. NOW. The fishing gods have spoken. They handed you the very bait you need to throw. Lol

Holy moly!! That cast was worth at least 200 bucks! Lol. Way 2 go bud!

I have a c2c should i post it?

Happy to add these bad boys to the lineup

First 250 fish!!! I'm so stoked! I know its only 3lbs but I'm so hype to catch this one!!!

Haven’t posted in a while. Wanted to share this trout glide I’ve been working on.

well now i've found the guy who lost it so it's headed back to him and hopefully i'm rewarded with some kind of good fishing karma!! or any bait for that matter! absolutely, thank you!

That’s absolutely one of the all time best crazy catches I’ve ever heard about! And you have pics to go with it. That’s awesome! Definitely saved that bass. Possibly two. If another bass had tried to snatch that away, both would likely have been pinned together. I would develop those pics and frame them on the wall and sit that Deps on a shelf below them. Thanks for sharing!

Wow! Good stuff Justin! Incredible! The fact that a Bass would try to feed on your crawler with a Deps 250 stuck on its side shows you what hunger, resiliency and determination can do for survival. Congrats and thank you for saving that fish before it was too late.

Tee gives a wealth of knowledge for beginners on getting into the big bait game in this video.

My new 250 carp color threw it for the first time today, felt like showing it off.. Both are butch tuned!!

Check this thread out There is a lot more into distance that just spool bearings. You need to take into consideration rod type, line type and casting technique. Fluorocarbon or mono will cast father than braid simply because they are very smooth/round vs braid which has texture to it causing drag on the line guides. You will also notice that a short rod will still have great distance because there are usually less guides causing friction on the line. In the jdm world upgrading bearings usually means you will get the same distance will less force. The Japanese are more about being efficient than going for pure distance. Upgrading your bearings in your tranx to say a zpi sic bearing set 1154 x 1034 will get you some distance gain but the reel will be slightly noisier, far smoother and less forced required on the cast. Maybe @paulito can add some more knowledge on this topic as well.

2 things I've learned since getting into big baits. One: time on the water is the greatest teacher. Two: the only time you're guaranteed to skunk is when you're on the couch at home Always look for structure, points, drop offs, cover, weed and grass lines, pockets.... Savage gear, river 2 sea, jackall, huddleston, spro....these brands have glides, swimmers, rats and soft baits that are proven, inexpensive and readily available As far as staying dedicated, for me personally I've just become bored of conventional baits and tackle. Swimbaits gave me a new passion for fishing. Watch lots of video on technique, when and where to throw what.....

I second this. I’m running a 21 conquest 200AHG and there is definitely a big improvement over the last generation conquest

I had a local guy upgrade bearings on a Tranx 300 for me one time. He went to ceramic bearings. It was not any more smooth, but it casted farther by a mile. It completely changed the reel for me. It made a Tranx a much better reel, but it is still heavy. I fished it on an LDC white label MH. 65 pound braid to mono leader.

https://swimbaitunderground.com/forums/index.php?/topic/13248-beginnersnoobs-read-me-first/

After literally a week of fishing the Wcz K9 from the latest drop, 80% of the paint already flaked off leaving behind the silver/grey undercoat. I fished it heavily as is for a while but since I have other K9’s in different colors I decided to get this one repainted since I got tired of constantly finding flakes of paint in the bait wrap. Last week it was to the point that the all the paint in the back joint was gone and the only letter visible on top was “D” and “z” the rest of the paint in the front is practically gone Didn’t want to pay big money for a trout/bass K9 and wanted to do something unique so decided to go for a “Ghost crappie” top half crappie color and bottom half clear a buddy of mine is doing the repaint and I’m super happy with it I’ll post more pics of the final product IMG_2666.MOV

First fish on the wake n crank I copped from the last drop. Had 30 minutes after work today so I sent it. Not a big one but it's one.

Crushed the S Waver in a local creek. What a weirdo

I had a 2018 conquest 300A with upgraded spool bearings with 20lbs sunline assassin paired with a Loomis IMX pro 965C getting close to 85 yards with a 6” citizen. What part of same distance with less force don’t you understand. To me that’s a improvement in performance. Bearing upgrades work in all levels of reels from BFS to big baits. in BFS it allows the spool to get up to speed as fast as possible to get the tiny light baits out there on big baits it allows you to use much less effort to get the same results with the same settings on your reels. have you ran upgraded bearings before?

Actually, like you said, you have to step up the brakes when inserting ceramic bearings. It does make a difference when casting glidebaits. Due to how a glide bait can bend and fold in flight, it’s horizontal rate and trajectory changes, which requires braking. When the bait bends, it causes resistance and slows down. However your thumb/brakes slow down the spool, but once the bait regains it’s tension on the spool, the ceramic spool will have less resistance to speeding up again and will help the bait cast further than if you had stainless steel. Also bearing smoothness is inversely related to bearing vibration. The vibration is sure to wear down where your spool shaft makes contact with your bearings.