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I just received a message from Michel's wife Cindy that Michel passed away on April 9th. He had been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and had written about it on a SU post. I never met him, but we sometimes messaged each other and bonded as a couple of the "SU geezers" since we were both in our late 60s. Cindy reminded me that Michel always ended his posts with "GO FISH". Let's toss some big baits and catch some big fish in his memory- he would want it that way.

If you ever get back up this way give me a holler. As long as we get past the social distancing there should be room in my boat.

I still fish there occasionally. I'd call it about average for this part of the state. - not my favorite, not the worst. I do have a couple of funny stories about that place: 1) Many years ago we were having a bass club tournament there and a member (Matt A.) took his cousin with him to pre-practice. Matt jumped in the boat and had his cousin back him in at the beach. His cousin had never backed a boat in before, and somehow drove the station wagon in so deep that he lost traction and it just kept slowly sliding deeper. Matt said he got on the electric motor, pulled the boat up next to the car and his cousin said "What do I do now?" Matt calmly replied "Climb out the window before you drown". He told us when it came to rest the only thing above water was 2" of antenna. 2) Our club had a bylaw that let you bring a non-member guest to one tournament a year. One of our guys brought a guest who only caught one fish but it was right around 7 pounds. He won the money in the side lunker pool and at the next club meeting the members voted to stop allowing non-member guests. Sore losers for sure.

If you are going to use a leader with braid take the time to master the FG knot.

Any line made from nylon (mono or copolymer) will sink slowly since it has a specific gravity of around 1.18. Braid is a high molecular polyethylene with a specific gravity around 0.96 so it floats. Even though nylon sinks, it is at a slow enough rate that it is fine for topwater. Just stay away from fluoro for any topwater stuff.

Mono and copolymer lines are both made with nylon polymer. What we anglers refer to as "mono" is line made with a single type of nylon. Nylons come in a variety of chemical types: nylon 6, 6/6, 11, 12, 6/12, etc. All have specific gravities around 1.15 but they vary in strength, stiffness, etc. Copolymer lines are made not with one single type of nylon, but with a blend of 2 or more types to alter things like knot strength, stretch, etc. Mono and copolymer will both sink slowly at the same rate since they will all have a specific gravity of about 1.15. They will both be fine for topwater since the sink rate is very slow. On the other hand fluoropolymer lines have specific gravities around 1.78 so they sink much faster and don't work will with topwater because of that. Braid is the only line that truly floats because the density is less than 1.0. I find the CXX to be really strong and abrasion resistant but stiff. I would recommend using the KVD line conditioner to make it more manageable.

It looks like there are still quite a few models available on eBay. It looks like the pictures are for color only - not for the type of bill that will be on the bait ordered. So the picture (only) is the same for a wake and also a deep diver, but you should get the correct model delivered.

I have fished the deep dive (floating version) and the shallow dive (also floater). They are legit.

I have plenty of glides from Deps, Pizz, 3:16, etc that helicopter less than the 200s. But we are talking about CHEAP glides. So if someone has a better option for a glide the size of the 200s that costs $40 or less, stands up to bluefish, and casts at least 60 yards with less coptering, please let me know. I'll be thrilled to switch as soon as the stripers & blues show up here.

BigPoppa- It makes no sense to me to continue arguing about this. Lets agree to say that one of of knows what they're talking about and one of us doesn't. We can leave it to the SU members to decide which one you are and which one I am. That is the last I have to say about this.

Trackin' Trophies by John Hope.

Chris- I stayed out of the last one, but I'm in on this one! Like so many have already said: great gesture, great to have you back in SU.

I got mine today also. Thank you SU for getting the shipment out so quickly. BTW, I have decided to self-quarantine myself in a boat for the next 6 weeks- possibly until ice-up.

Nope. Lots of other are much worse.

To me the action is just too mechanical. That sometimes works a bit for me when the water is extremely cold but anything other than that, and I'll be reaching for a glide with a more natural swim. I do toss 200s in saltwater because they hold up to bluefish teeth fairly well and they are cheap. The Tactical guys have a lot of good information but you need to realize they are guides. If one of their clients loses a bait its a lot cheaper for them to replace a 168 s-waver than a 3:16 workhorse, Deps 175, Negotiator, etc. That's just my view and if other people like them I'm fine with that too.

The best way to tell is tie it direct, take a dozen casts, put a snap on, take dozen casts, and decide for yourself which looked more natural. We all have different reeling cadences and styles so no two guys are going to fish it exactly the same. Also the 200s are pretty inconsistent from bait to bait which will have an impact on which is better. Make sure you shave the joints a bit if you want to get a wider glide. My feeling is that the only 2 good things about the s-waver is that it doesn't helicopter on the cast and it's cheap - I'm not a fan.

Hi Tyler. I only fished the bait for the last hour of a trip this week. That got me 2 nice bass but I really am not sure how deep I can get it to go. On fairly short casts with a lot of pauses it seemed to be running at least 5 feet. This was on 25# line. I really need to try it on a 20# mono or 17# fluoro setup. So on a long cast and a steady retrieve I'm guessing it will get to 6 or perhaps 7 feet but that is just a guess for now. It definitely runs deeper than most crankers. The full size deep dive Meathead gets down to 10 feet for me on 25# line (deepest running SB I own). The mini dive (floater version) is not going to get that deep. With only an hour of fishing it I can say it definitely runs deeper than any Pats I've owned or any deep dive Slammer. It is close to neutral density so you don't have to really crank it fast to keep it down like those baits. A buddy grabbed one of the deep dive sinking minis but he hasn't gotten it wet yet. I'll shoot you a message when I get more hours on it.

We have Treehouse here. I'm guessing that should work.

Matt makes the deep diver in a sinking version and a slow floating version. The one I was using is the floater which does come to the surface on the pause but VERY slowly. I suspect that it would take very little added weight to make it suspend perfectly if thats what you wanted to do. I'm fishing it around rocks and wood so I want something that will float up off a snag if I need it to. I'm still just learning what it will do.

When I swim tested the deep diver I immediately noticed that it floated up so slowly it was nearly suspending. That's often a key to cold-water bass. We still have a bit of ice on some of the lakes here. Today was the first time I had a chance to fish the bait. These are my first 2 fish: 5-2 and around 4 pounds. The bait has a nice little thump on the retrieve to boot.

There are some really gifted swimbait makers out there, but I'm always so impressed with the Mattlures craftsmanship - these things are works of art. I thought I'd post these pics up to give guys a good view of some of the color patterns.

Either Ken is science-challenged or is just trying to run a gimmick by gullible anglers. The "UV" being used in these bait is what is known as an optical brightener. These brighteners function by absorbing UV radiation and emitting it as visible blue/violet color. Sunlight is rich in UV light, but unfortunately for Ken there is no direct sunlight at night and the slight ambient night light contains only a trace amount of UV radiation. So fishing a black bait with optical brightener at night has zero advantage over a plain black bait.

The Dobyns 795MT (short handle) works well for baits like this.

Ceaser and Travis were a pretty good pair of guys to get the program started!

The image quality when mounted on a trolling motor mount is excellent. Many sonars come with a transom mount and you can return that to the manufacturer for a trolling motor mount. Or you may be able to specify a TM mount when you order it. You should check this out before ordering.