5-20

The PT wood you buy will be very damp or wet and may need two or three months to air out and dry before you’d be able to seal it well and correctly. I think if you did an extensive online search and tried using different search terms you’d find some really good answers to your question. I’ve seen your exact question about sealing wood decks/parts come up several times over the years.

Wanted to add that my review was not entirely correct or complete. I have a couple of 7” Denalis that have a really cool and darting swim and you can fish them fairly fast to medium fast. Not all of them come up to the top. Have gotten a striper close to 20 pounds on one. And I think my PB swimbait smallmouth on another one. That smallie was maybe four and a half pounds. Not many fish but they’ve been solid ones.

I like fishing the 7" Denali like a jerk bait or slowly with twitches mixed in in colder/cooler water temps. Have gotten a few good fish on them. Not many but the ones I've gotten have been chunks. I've bought quite a few of them, and to be honest... they're somewhat all different in how they swim. I never really know what I'm going to get. Like other reviews have said, they are not a glide you can really fish fast. They will come up to the top. But that's actually sort of a good thing if you're fishing from the bank. Biggs has been really good with responding to messages and he will replace any bait that doesn't swim right. Kind of a hassle... but he will stand behind his baits.

Yeah. I have a Tranx 300hg. And I still keep on coming back to the 300e for glides. Probably just too set in my ways. You can also just use the rod to work those glides just like an underwater spook. Maybe try to find someone that has a reel with that 36” to 39” IPT and see if you can use their reel while fishing together for an hour or so and cycle through some of those glides you like to throw to see if it’s what you’ve been missing out on.

Congrats on having a great day of fishing. BTW, I wouldn’t necessarily say fishing out of a crestliner was a disadvantage. Lots of tournaments have been won out of old aluminum boats against guys with much nicer and faster boats. Someone is always going to have better gear than the other people in the field.

The Deps 250 has been more of a spring to early summer bait for me in lakes that have really good water clarity. If stuff ain't working for you, throw something different. There are baits that just don't work on some lakes even though they catch lots on other lakes.

Not familiar with either rod but would suggest you start out with a 8' heavy action rod. You'll be able to throw most of that stuff except for the swaver 168. That's a small and light bait you can throw on a regular bass rod.

#20 Inviz on a Curado 300e. It's a pretty slow reel compared to what a lot of people like to use but familiarity with a reel's speed is maybe the most important thing in getting your glides to perform the way you want them to.