T Dot

Find any sinking bluegill bait, or crank down bait and you will do fine. A crank down is probably the easiest transition for you - but there arent many out there. For slow sink - Mattlures is a good place to start.

I 2nd this. There is no right way and I believe there is no wrong way. Your way, my way and Ceaser's way may all differ. I am sure no matter which way - it will catch fish. Good luck and have fun!

I think many people over analyze things. Keep it simple and I feel you will do just fine. I will highlight a few things I try to keep in mind: When dealing with follows, know 2 things: 1 you are doing something right (as they are following), and 2 you are doing something wrong (they aren't biting). I feel the story holds true, if you see them - they see you and they may instinctively react differently when they know you are there. *Its like seeing a train wreck about to happen. Instinctively you know what is about to happen, and it appears to happen in slow motion. I have seen many times where a fish charges the lure and then happens to see the boat - once we are spotted they quickly change their mind and bail out. When there is one, there is many... and when there is many, there is many more. They do not live alone. *On more than a few occasions I have experienced this first hand when throwing the correct "wrong" bait. I would draw them out in packs of 3 or more, totaling over 100+ follows a given run (I know because I counted) - and only managed to land a few. Those are very low numbers. However, some of these trips were times where I cared more about where they live and not catching them at that exact moment. I noted all these locations and revisited them at a later date with a different or bigger bait. When seeing a follow, I try to keep the 2 above mentioned items in mind. I reel in the bait as quickly as possible, in hopes I don't draw them too close that they spot us. I note the path they followed, I wind up and swing for the fence. I try to make 1 cast well beyond where I made the last cast. This is where it gets simple for me. During that cast, I make sure I do a couple of things. I make sure I truly act like the prey. Be the bait. I make sure I throw in a couple pauses during the retrieve. Not a dead stick pause, but a pause as if you were tip toeing along a path where you know you might be eaten - but do not want to be eaten. They will ALWAYS creep closer during the pause, so I try to do many of them. Never with a cadence. Nature doesn't have a cadence - so why should the bait!? So... what happens when you are the prey and feel a presence? You don't die (or dead stick) and wait to get eaten. That NEVER happens in nature - you gather your senses and you run/flee like the little "Not Allowed" you are... Those fleeing moments are the the moments where I throw in a few hard reel turns, or a few hard rod rips. Not so big, when the fish is force to swim great length. Short and quick enough to always be within eating distance. Those are the exact same moments where the rod should load up. I do all of this when the lure is way out of sight. Where I cannot see the bait and the fish cannot see me. It works for me! Hopefully it works for you. This takes a lot of practice. To this day, I am still in awe on every fish that follows. I too still get worked up and try to catch that one that follows.

What is the story behind the lost one? How did you manage a length only. I bet this is a good story too. Hopefully the other markers came after the lost fish.

Perfect - good to know this. I think with a little experimentation you will see how truly weedless some trebled baits are. I can say I have zero weedless baits, and I throw them religiously in areas like you describe. I know some of my baits well enough where I can feel the vegetation on the baits. A quick reel down and snap of the rod removes this during the cast. You can also try to experiment with a crank down / rising bait. The depths you are mentioning are pretty deep, so you will need to seriously mod something to get it down and have it rise back up. The rise should allow you to keep above the veg. Hope this helps.

I experienced a similar lake first hand last year. Do you have a pic of how choked they are? Do you have any wiggle room right above the vegetation? If there is, would a floating lure with bottom hooks be better? I think no matter what you will have hydrilla on your line/bait. You will deal with it no matter what bait you use. Might as well up your percentages and use a bottom hooked bait that can stay up in the water column. Only reason why I would recommend this is time after time I have seen first hand many fish lost on the weedless huddleston. Even though they were not mine - still very painful to see, especially since I was the net man.

From a high level perspective, you will get a great rod from 2 outstanding companies. Most anglers will not notice the difference between the 2 rods. If you are budget minded - I would recommend the Okuma. If you are looking to throw more baits in the future - Dobyns will have a bigger variety of rods. Hope this helps.

The profile catches the fish, the pattern catches the angler. Its more about the profile vs the pattern. Take albino or black darkened fish - they are rare but a predator wont hesitate to eat it even though it doesn't look familiar. If it looks like they can swallow it - I am certain they will try.

How does that 2nd hook effect the swim? Do you have ample amount of slack after the 1st hook?

Thanks for the advice on this - this may just work.

The adverse effect of a lure helicoptering is excessive line twist. Sometimes adjusting your cast can help with this, but it does not eliminate it. I am curious to know how people deal with this or these types of baits that do this pretty often. As for me, its pretty painful to watch someone or watch yourself throw a bait that does it constantly. I have yet to lose a bait due to line twist, but I find myself throwing these types of baits less and less. I do not wish to see the end result of excessive line twist. Other than re-spooling, I am unsure how to fix line twist. Do anglers prefer to deal with said problem or do you have a swivel to fix this? I've seen and know of anglers that put swivels, but I have yet to do this myself. Do baits that have a built-in swivel as a line tie (Jackall - I have not seen many others) a better solution? I would like to hear your thoughts on this. Thanks in advance

This is very true. There are times at night where I still feel the need to see where my bait lands. My night vision is poor and sometimes I need to accurately see where I am throwing or how close I am getting to my target areas. For this reason some of my night baits have a white spot on them. To be clear, its a white spot of paint which I apply and not tape. Tape will eventually fall off or do other things you may not want to happen to your bait.

ROF and how a bait sits in the water during a pause/dead stick are the changes I always make. I personally make sure the bait stays and sits in the water the way I need it to sit. I add weight via: - suspend dots - suspend strips - upgrading hooks with a thicker gauge With some other baits (non injected) I go as far as drilling into the bait and adding lead weights.

Welcome! I am formally from Seattle too. I fished everything North of Lake Washington. Anything that resembles a trout profile gets crushed.

Sounds like good memories right there! What reel is he using?

I have fishing Dobyns rods and its closing on approx 10yrs now. Their customer service is top tier. They stand behind their product and will get you taken care of promptly. I am like some others in this thread, I own about many rods and only had 1 guide fall out. However, I am not your typical angler that takes care of these rods. They are constantly being transported from boat to boat, vehicle to vehicle and my rods rarely see a rod sock. Hope this helps.

While all comments are definitely valid, this one threw me a curve ball: It is not something I even thought about, but it opens up doors. With a spincast reel I can use existing rods I have in my lineup - Dobyns 736C (frog rod). I often use this as my travel swimbait rod, especially when there is little to no cargo room. Back on topic - I still would like to pickup a beefy spinning setup and it seems a Shimano Sedona is perfect. However, I am noticing that most spinning rods are around 7ft. I cannot find a decent one around 7'6 that has the capability of throwing a 1.5oz bait. I am only looking at TWH right now.

Hi Everyone I am looking for spinning setup to throw 1oz - 2.5oz topwater or slightly subsurface baits. This is something I will be carrying on the boat for people who dont usually fish (mom & dad, brothers...), but want the same type of rush similar to throwing a bigger swimbait. I havent looked at spinning reels, but i need something with ample drag (preferably Shimano) and that can possibly handle 12-14lbs mono or 20-40lbs braid. Any help in this department would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance -louie

Might I suggest this. If you already have knowledge you will be upgrading in the near future, save yourself some headache and buy used. If you buy used from a reputable source (like SU), it would be like leasing a reel for little to no amount. When you are done, you can sell it to little or no cost for the duration you used it. For the life of me, I cannot get myself to by anything used. What I do is buy items that are new but on sale or for lower than retail. When I upgrade, I end up selling at or around what I paid for. Look at it from this stand point, you need to crawl before you can walk. Every step of the way you will understand why or why not certain reels are working for you. This will also help you better understand what to look for when purchasing future reels (beyond the Conquest - I am a Shimano enthusiast so I mentioned Conquest). For the $300 and some change, you can get 2 used reels with 2 different line combos (mono and braid, or mono and floro) ... hope this helps!

It sounds like you have outgrown your Hobie Kayak. If you cannot put outriggers and a 12v TM on there, I would highly recommend parting ways with it. If you arent already aware, there are Kayak that can accommodate exactly what you are looking for: - stable platform - foot pedal - tm attachments - roof topper Hope this helps.

Both the Calcutta D and Conquest reels can handle the mother (approx 11oz). I havent really gone beyond that, but I think its safe to assume it can go higher. I would have pulled the trigger sooner if the Conquest was available in more brick and mortar stores. Normally I would recommend taking advantage of Tackle Warehouse's demo program (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/DemosbyVendor.html?vcode=SHIMANO), but I don't see the reel available yet. It might be too early to have this in the demo program.

Reels in the picture (right to left): - Curado 301 DSV - Conquest 401 - Calcutta 401 D