David Cindrich

Chazzy, have you swam this rig yet? It will be interesting to hear how it swims with all the weight now on top.

15lb test is plenty for any 6" bait. Yes, flouro will help any bait get deeper, but might not get as deep as you hope.

Garmin 93 UHD, many times you can find them on sale for 699.00. Has great side imaging and good down imaging, 2D is very good and has country wide Navionics maps down loaded. Touch screen and you also have the option to add livescope in the future if that is something that interest you. I feel it is a great value for a 9" screen.

Some good stuff, interesting to say the least.

15lb for 1 to 4oz IMO

I was always a fan of the G1 and G2 Deluxe Gill. Both solid fish producers for me. I would not hesitate to buy a Deluxe Gill. Nether was a popular bait, but simply gets big IMO.

Real Prey Swimbaits can make models in floating. Just contact Joe. He also has a floating flat tail carp that is not listed on the website.

I got a bit lucky. I brought the old bass boat in to have a torsion axle replaced, they said 8 to 12 weeks just to have the axle made. The service manager was running a demo boat that he knew I looking at the same modal last year. He told me it would be available in September. Surprisingly I got a text saying the boat is mine if I wanted it and they gave me a good trade in on my ageing rig. It is a big downgrade from the 2O” sled. But I was thinking to downsizing for a couple of year. I bought the 2021 Starcraft 16’ tiller with a 70 horse tiller. My first boat 31 years ago was a 18’ Starcraft with a 75 horse tiller so it kinda of a full circle. This all being said, this dealer is a Skeeter, Warrior, Starcraft, and War Eafle dealer. They had only 2 Skeeter walleye boats on the floor that I believe were pre sold. It is very sad to see.

The Real Prey Carp has put many fish in the boat.

Real Prey 6.5" Crappie painted anyway you want it.

The new 175's are very stable, remind me of the OG 175's.

Choose where you want your bait hangers to be. Drill hole thru lead on bait hangers, run a solid pin thru them. Now remove the weights you have and weigh them. Scrap the idea of using the other weights in the bait. Buy duck decoy weights that are soft lead. Weigh the duck decoy weights and insert them in bait. You will have plenty of room to fill with bondo or whatever you choose the fill the voids. Then seal over bondo with epoxy. I should add, seal the cavity before inserting all your weights. Then seal the whole bait with what ever you choose. Tire balance weights work great also because they are pre weighed and stamped with weight and have adhesive on them that you can stick them together. I have worked with PVC to make hard baits and the battle is always getting enough weight in them because PVC trim board is so buoyant.

Let us know how you did tonight Butch!!!!

For me it is all about bottom hooks, hard or soft baits. My go to has been the 6.5" Real Prey Alewife / Shad. Joe turned me onto bottom hooks before he made this old video. Some good shots at how smallmouth are belly biters. Bottom hooks are the key IMO to constantly land smallmouth on larger swimbaits.

As swimbait angling grown over the years, I always laugh at the different years angers get on forums and say too many anglers are swimbait angling. Of course there are going to be more anglers getting into swimbait angling, it is a great way to catch bigger bass. I know CA anglers have been complaining about lakes getting too much swimbait pressure since at 2006 on SBN, don't know if the complaining has gone on before this, because I didn't hang out on the west coast sites before this. In 2007 Steve Kennedy won Clear Lake BassMasters Elite on a Hud. I always felt this was when swimbait angling started going main stream. Swimbaits were now on the forefront of conversation with Bryron Velvick commentator on ESPNS Bass talk and he did give swimbaits there due, mentioning swimbaits all the time and even mentioning SBN. Although not every angler went running to swimbaits, anglers looking to catch bigger fish started flocking to it. When Swimbait Underground started, I felt this is when the growth started. Major tournaments being won on swimbaits. Bryon Velick won an Elite event then two weeks later Skeet Reese won another, both on Rago Baits. Somewhere in there KVD won Smithlake on the Kong. Baits were more accessible to me at the time, If I wanted a Hudd, I bought a Hud, If I wanted a Hardgill, I bought a Hardgill. Baits were still hard to get, but it was very easy to become a good customer with just about any of the makers and get what you wanted. A few years later, Swimbait Universe was started on FB. The group was moderated to try it and keep it swimbait related. Swimbait angling only or new guys looking to get into swimbait angling. At this same time, Swimbait Underground was growing their social media presence, as of now, I believe Swimbait Underground has the largest Social Media presence. So for the thought "This is the Underground" If Swimbait Undeground wanted this to be the Underground, they would have never went to Social Media to grow there social media presence into the largest on social media. They would have made this an exclusive place where only the hardcore anglers could participate and only way into the the Underground, would be by invite only. I can tell you when I started Swimbait Universe, I had zero Idea if it would work. At the time SBN had about about 6700 members and was dying, SU had about 4700 members and seem to growing slowly. It was easy to see Social Media was were everyone was at. Simply SBN and SU traffic was crashing because of FB. SBU grew very quickly and I think it was within a year membership over took both SBN and SU. SBU was growing so fast because simply because at some point of FB groups the growth of the group becomes a suggested group to users using searches of big baits or swimbaits. This is when we had to vet every new member, if they were not there for swimbaits they were banned. If swimbait angling did not grow to what it is today, we would have very little to choose from. This is why, SBN, SU and SBU has always tried to support the angler and the bait makers. Social Media is what changed everything, when someone was on FB and started clicking on bass fishing, they would slowly start being fed swimbait stuff by FB or becoming friends with people that were into swimbait angling, We had the Doctor, become the face of Deps U.S.A, now anglers saw swimbaiting, finally pay off for a swimbait angler. We also had Big Bass Dreams growing, slowly making a path for anglers who wanted something for their hard work of filming, editing and trying to influence. Like Big Bass Dreams or not, it made a path for Swimbait Anglers to try and make a path for themselves. It is no secret, a good swimbait video, will get more views that someone drop shotting. Or a swimbait review by an influencer will get more reviews than an influencer reviewing a bag of worms. For me personally I have seen, people complaining about too much pressure, bait flipping, posers for well over 15 years. So as far as swimbait angling becoming "too mainstream" We can blame anyone us who have made a video, posted a picture of a swimbait fish, shared deep held secrets with someone we only knew from FB or a swimbait forum. It all has been done with thought of what someone has to gain. Is it respect from someone we will never meet and most the time, they don't even thank you, is it you want a bait maker to make it because you like their product? Is it simply, you want someone to enjoy, something that brings you so much pleasure. We have done it to ourselves. Everything that changes, stays the same.

Maybe I did not type it out well enough for ya. I’m not talking about checking your line for teeth marks. Check your bait for pike teeth marks or tears. There is no way in hell to tell if every bite you get on a soft Swimbait is a bass or a pike, but it is the upmost important thing to do if you want to catch trophy bass on soft swimbaits with any kind of consistency in MN.

Lol

If you are fishing pike infested waters. You need to get into the habit of checking for teeth marks every time you think you have been bit. Then you need to remember the pike teeth marks for future reference. It is the only way to tell what is pike and bass. Also many times when throwing small 4” baits, many times small bass are biting the bait.

Match the profile of the bait fish and crash the hatch. Use a different color swimbait, with same profile.

I would add to this, not only one of the best guys out there. Also one of the best to deal with. I started fishing RP going all the way back to the original Pond Shiner. I knew the moment I received and OG Pond Shiner it was different, innovated and just plain one of highest quietly soft swimbaits ever made. Now years later, Joe keeps innovating and changing. Readily available, highest quality and custom paint. Pretty amazing business model IMO.

I can't wait for these. Looks like Real Prey is releasing 3 different modals of weedless baits. Also looks like Joe is getting away from screw locks to make his baits weedless. 574726905_RealPreyVideo.mp4

I throw the line for everything. Top hook soft baits, soft weedless baits and hard baits. Never had a problem with hook penetration.

I switched over to Izorline XXX about 5 years ago. 15Lb for smaller baits and 20lb for everything up to the Deps 250.

I have caught giant snapping turtles on hard and soft baits. The ones I caught bit and tried to eat the baits. One I had follow for a long distance and turn off and stopped tracking. Made a long cast and hooked up with it at end of cast. I have also caught a couple on jig and pigs.

The book E.L Buck Perry, Spoonplugger. Buck Perry is known as the grandfather of modern structure fishing. Really the only guys I hear paying respect to him is the Linders and the now In-Fisherman. After reading what Buck Perry wrote many years ago, you see how much of what he taught himself and others now regurgitated by modern “experts” as “their” own personal experiences. Buck Perry never stated anything he taught himself as “fact” until he reproduced the situation 1000 times. Truly a great read.