BigBaitsOnly

Most of my braided swimbait fishing consists of 65lbs power pro to an alberto knot with 8-10 feet of 20lbs p-line fluorocarbon line.

In

If you see them starting to bed, throw out past them to find actively feeding fish, probably near the first deep area by spawning flats. Young bucks may not be too interested in eating, but big momma may be in deeper water still feeding up for the spawn. If a slow crawl isn't drawing a strike, wait til a warm afternoon and speed up the retrieve. It may draw a reaction strike.

I use 65lbs braid to an Alberto knot with a 7-9 foot leader. I haven't had a break off yet. If the Alberto knot is going to fail, it does it when you chinch it down. I've only used this setup to 4 1/2 ounces.

My brother loves his kayak, but he kicks himself in the butt everyday for not getting one of the pedal drive models. If the difference from your dream kayak and one you can afford now is only a few hundred, wait a little longer.

I have a bottom hook 7.75 trout and I run 2 size 6 vmc 4x spark points with the trailer being about 1 1/2 to 2 inches back, just like the STE hudd rig.

Cashews and v8

In

Great catch. Congrats.

I've had mine over a week, but only one missed hit so far. Water temps still hovering in the 40's. These things swim great. Wish I ordered more. Even my rof5 swims on the way down. Yes it rolls if you try to swim it too fast. I switched to braid on it today and will see if I can start hammering them this weekend. I'm still using 20lbs fluorocarbon leader that's about 5 ft long. Lurejerk, nice crappie on the crappie.

Basing a pattern on ice is hard. Just because part of a lake is open doesn't necessarily mean its the warmest. Most bass school around a food source this time of year. Shad are the primary food source for most areas, and are not very temperature tolerant. They seek stable conditions to survive winter. Bass follow the food source. Find the food, find the fish. If your area is still really cold, try fishing later in the day after the sun warms up a bank. Focus on the sunny bank towards late evening. Good luck.

The f should mark the sink rate. One model was float/slow sink, another was slow/fast sink. You should have a removable pin to add or subtract ball bearings. I don't know if earlier models were made with just one sink rate.

In

Hold on to those tight. Someone on eBay is trying to flip em for $75 a pop already.

Awesome fish. I didn't get the light gill, but my rof5 seems more like a rof2 or 3, which I am very happy about as most my baits are fast sink. I hope everyone gets their orders soon. I know water temps here will be in the upper 40 almost 50 by the end of the weekend.