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Post 27 Mar 2019, 15:49 • #1 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 07/11/14
Posts: 1784
Location: urban Colorado
the water thawed !
I'm so excited.. and was able to get out and try some casts with one of my new-to-me baitcasting outfits.
The reel is Lews, as per bulldogs' recommendation in another thread, thank you -

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The rod is an oddity, a 7ft spinning blank, E-glass, from Mudhole. I built this with a casting handle to use with spincast reels for trout with small boys, my own and Boy Scouts. It hasn't been off the shelf in a couple of years. The action is a bit slower and floppier than I'd like, but figured it would do for a first test.

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The lure is a 1/6oz Thomas Buoyant, the standard spoon out here in the mountain west for anything that predates. An odd weight, at first thought it was 1/4oz and was quite impressed how the outfit threw it, then realized it was actually quite a bit lighter. In metric, the Thomas is 4.7g and a 1/4oz lure is 7g.

Really it was amazing how this could fling the light lure with minimal fuss, and very nearly as far as a spincast outfit with 10lb braid (2lb mono diameter). I'm losing maybe 5yds at worst on the spincast outfit, pushing the lower end of what is feasible for baitcasters. Sure there are specialty finesse baitcasters for $300 or so that could do better, for a $40 reel from the 80s I think it's quite remarkable.

Also tried an unweighted Zoom Fluke 4", also threw that without fuss to a good fishable distance. Wow.

Of course the lily can always be gilded, so I have some ceramic bearings coming from China on a slow boat, to replace the standard brass bushings. Maybe I'll drill the spool too, lose a couple grams that way. Ha.

A couple of other rods still to try too - a light graphite spinning rod, and a Browning Silaflex rated for 3/8oz on the bottom end.

This be the pond,

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No fish unfortunately, this is very public water and hard-fished. The only guys I know catch consistently here, are the young boys who live nearby, fish often, and have put in the time to figure the pond secrets.. I get the odd trout more by luck than skilz, even a blind pig finds the occasional acorn..
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=64499&p=336308&hilit=trout#p336308


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Post 27 Mar 2019, 16:05 • #2 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 02/27/16
Posts: 2327
Location: US-IL
Nice,Lews were the thing in the 80s.Hard to find to find any in decent condition around here.1/4 was about the lower limit for casting gear when i mostly used that.For anything finesse i switched to spinning gear with the new lines available.For fishing deep for panfish i use cheap composite rods and nanofil.The point being the superfine no stretch line eliminates the need for ultra sensitive and expensive graphite and a softer hook set.I could probably throw weighted flies on these setups but i have a lot of rods that do that just fine.I have purchased a couple used solid frame heavy casting reels for biggger water.We now have some power plant cooling lakes that are fishing well again due to wind farms allowing them to run the nuke plants a little cooler and not killing all the fish every summer.Big hybrid stripers and giant blue cats just roam these big lakes chowing on shad.


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Post 27 Mar 2019, 17:03 • #3 
Sport
Joined: 05/26/17
Posts: 74
Location: Ottawa, Canada
Nice! Coincidentally, Tenryu is going to be making a new line of Speed Sticks (https://fishing.tenryu-magna.com/bass/speedstick.html); they were contracted by Daiko to make the original glass rods for Lew Childre back in 1971. Don't know if the new rods will be glass, though.


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Post 27 Mar 2019, 18:01 • #4 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 07/11/14
Posts: 1784
Location: urban Colorado
the Tenryu rods look very interesting, thank you. I like the old Lews and Abu in their picture..


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Post 27 Mar 2019, 19:52 • #5 
Piscator
Joined: 08/10/05
Posts: 19078
Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
great outfit, and you have a great place and way to fish it.
I still love my old Lew's, but my BB-25SW has become too valuable to risk beating it up, so I've gone to a couple of new low-profile Lew's to take out on my kayak.
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Post 29 Mar 2019, 09:20 • #6 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 07/11/14
Posts: 1784
Location: urban Colorado
found a small walleye, throwing that unweighted Fluke,

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Post 29 Mar 2019, 12:10 • #7 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 02/12/16
Posts: 4093
Location: USA-CO
Nice!


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Post 29 Mar 2019, 12:45 • #8 
Piscator
Joined: 08/10/05
Posts: 19078
Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
way cool, improving this thread

btw, a fast boat source for ceramic sealed bearings for reels (bicycle hubs, etc.) is Boca Bearings.
On my older bikes with loose-bearing cup/cone hubs, I'm running SiN ceramic balls.


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Post 29 Mar 2019, 16:13 • #9 
Sport
Joined: 05/26/17
Posts: 74
Location: Ottawa, Canada
Well done! Can't wait to go shore fishing up here, when it's fit to do so in about a month or so.


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Post 05 Apr 2019, 12:47 • #10 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 07/11/14
Posts: 1784
Location: urban Colorado
snuck out at lunchtime to a different local pond and found some bass, amazingly. I had a variety of expensive bass lures but the only thing that worked was the Thomas Buoyant, again.. These fish were way out, 30-40yds, past my flycasting capabilities. This pond doesn't allow watercraft so it's long casts or go fish..

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having a lot of fun fishing this reel, can you tell ;-)


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Post 05 Apr 2019, 14:50 • #11 
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Joined: 08/10/05
Posts: 19078
Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
definitely putting it to good use


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Post 19 Apr 2019, 11:53 • #12 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 07/11/14
Posts: 1784
Location: urban Colorado
a smaller bass, on the first bass lure I ever owned, Heddon Tiny Floating Runt. I found it stuck on a log, while wading the local pond, shortly after it was first stocked with bass - mid 70s sometime.

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full moon last night, so dragged myself out to check on the walleye, though too tired to fish well. 3 smallmouth 9-11" on fly early. No walleye until after 9pm, then two in half an hour. Both fought so vigorously I thought they were smallmouth, both just over 18" slot so whacked them for dinner.

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I'm getting a bit worried here, too much fishing luck.. something's not right.. ha


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Post 19 Apr 2019, 12:19 • #13 
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Joined: 08/10/05
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Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
The fish probably just want to see your Lew's BB-1 reel up close


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Post 13 Jun 2019, 17:34 • #14 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 07/11/14
Posts: 1784
Location: urban Colorado
upgraded the Lews with a pair of Abec-7 ceramic bearings, 3x10x4 mm.
They arrived from Hong Kong with a return address of Pleasant Gardens, and a couple of 'Little Engine that Could' postage stamps, which added a nicely surrealistic touch..

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The bearings made a surprising difference. The reel runs much more freely, also now makes slight rattling noise on retrieve. Distinctly longer casts, noticeable with both 1/6oz Thomas Buoyant and very much further with the swimbaits.

First outing for the outfit by canoe to the far side of the lake. The state park has been under construction for going over two years now, to allow more water to be stored, to allow more houses to be built on the dry plains of CO. My usual launch site is under construction - had to paddle 40min against the wind through powerboat swells, not very pleasant. Two cormorants stayed some fifty yards ahead of me and seemed to be doing well, couldn't see exactly what they were catching though. A $40 000 bass boat sped off ahead, to park on my favorite spot. There were other boats on all the backup spots nearby. I tried a few roadbeds out in the deeper water, to no effect. One of the secondary spots opened up and I snapped it up. A number of smaller bass on the fly up to 11" or so, and a 6" bass on the 4" swimbait.

At dark the expensive bass boat finally left in a plume of water and howl of 200hp engine. Once it had quieted down and I could hear the grebes again, paddled over there and tried the fly for a bit. A few smaller bass and a nice 12" made me happy.

Tried the swimbait in the dusk - the Lews lets me fish a baitcaster at night, a considerable improvement to quality of life. A good hit in the shallow water, fish jumped multiple times out in the dark and threw swimbait up line, eventually threw it off altogether.. but the swimbait died well, for a 17" sm, lean and strong. I'm happy to see the luck of this Lews survived the bearing upgrade.

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Trolled giant Rebel 5.5" jointed minnow back hoping for walleye but none. As I wound that in after parking canoe at takeout, a fat 14" sm hit it.
I think my flies may be too small.


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Post 13 Jun 2019, 17:42 • #15 
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Joined: 08/10/05
Posts: 19078
Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
In the future, Boca Bearings is set up to provide ceramic bearings for virtually any fishing reel.


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Post 13 Jun 2019, 19:51 • #16 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 02/12/16
Posts: 4093
Location: USA-CO
Lots of frustration, but good result. Well done.


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Post 16 Jun 2019, 09:18 • #17 
Master Guide
Joined: 01/25/18
Posts: 553
Location: Brazoria County, TX
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I used this reel yesterday. I really like it. I don’t know where it came from. At some point, it and the rod it’s on ended up in my rod rack. None of the potentials will claim ownership. Anyone know when these particular Citica reels were made? Does not look to be the latest and greatest.

I had a great time using the reel. I hadn’t used a baitcasting rig from the kayak in the saltwater for a long, long time. I used a vintage Rapala X-rap 11 walk the dog topwater.

For a big lure, I believe there’s a lot of finesse to using one. I used walk the dog style topwater lures almost exclusively for over a year and what action you impart on them makes a big difference in getting the fish or not. It’s almost never a steady unvarying retrieve, rinse, repeat, if you want good results.

Yesterday was a situation that begs for a walk the dog style topwater. Lots of wind ruffed up water, difficulty spotting fish and structure, in this case flooded, broken living oyster reef. Hard to get the attention of the fish with a surface fly pattern in those conditions and the hidden shell is death to subsurface flies.

The fish were on the structure and responded to the lure. Broken cadences with short pauses seemed the most effective drawing commitments. My topwater fishing skills have degraded somewhat with lack of use. I could draw the strike, but the hook setting was poor. One 24” redfish came to hand, one top of the slot type of fish pulled me around for a while until it came off, another good fish got wrapped up in the shell and bent open the hook. Others were on for a brief time. My buddy fishing a similar set up brought 4 fish to hand, 3 slot redfish. He’s highly skilled at finesse bait casting use, especially soft plastics. Some of his presentations he makes with his paddle tails I’ve learned to mimic with flies to good effect.

We can all definitely learn from each other, lure/spinning/baitcasting gear users and the fly fishing adherents.


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Post 17 Jun 2019, 08:16 • #18 
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Joined: 08/10/05
Posts: 19078
Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
If you haven't tried Tobin's TSL grasswalker with your baitcaster, I recommend you do.
1/4-oz, casts like a bullet.
Both trout and redfish will chase it again if you pull it out of their mouth. It's neutral density, so it's always presented in the zone, dog-walks with any retrieve. It sinks a little faster than a floating plug, but you can fish it really slow in shallow water.
I always say it's the bait-rod equivalent of fly-fishing a slime line, but you can't dog-walk a fly rod.
The lure is effective on bass, as well.
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I fish pink or red for low-angle early morning and late afternoon light, which casts the color of fish guts.
High sun, birthday suit is the most mullet-looking and -acting lure made.
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and sorry, no ideas on Shimano - can give you a lot of details on Lew's...


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Post 17 Jun 2019, 14:55 • #19 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 07/11/14
Posts: 1784
Location: urban Colorado
karstopo wrote:
One 24” redfish came to hand, one top of the slot type of fish pulled me around for a while until it came off, another good fish got wrapped up in the shell and bent open the hook. Others were on for a brief time.


personally I'd call that a good day ;-)

The Citica might be this 2006 model, looks similar. But seems like they've been made for over 20 years now..
http://www.tackletour.com/reviewshimanocitica200d.html

I bought some of the TSLs based on bulldog's recommendation, they walk better than any other lure I've seen. Missed a good LM bass on one a week or so back, oddly - didn't have it rigged weedless but lure was pulled down on hook so I guess he had hold of the tail..


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Post 17 Jun 2019, 15:56 • #20 
Master Guide
Joined: 01/25/18
Posts: 553
Location: Brazoria County, TX
Thanks for the reel information.

Yes, it was a good day. We had a small craft advisory that day so that greatly limited where we could go in a kayak. I could have done better setting the hook, but I can’t complain about having some fish around to work with.

I’ve been following some threads on the TSL. I swore I wouldn’t buy anymore lures until I used up the bulk of my inventory.


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Post 18 Jun 2019, 05:55 • #21 
Piscator
Joined: 08/10/05
Posts: 19078
Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
I've never fished a lure so fun, can retire most of the inventory.
So you buy a 5-pack of 4/0 Trokar swimbait hooks, and 5-packs in a couple of Tobin's colors and give them a try.
You can fish from a small Plano box - 6 grasswalkers, 2 cocahoes, 2 SS3s, and still room for another lure if you want to throw in a dog-walking plug.
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Inshore, I pretty much fish 3 lures. TSL grasswalkers, Cocahoe on 1/4-oz Stazo jigheads, and Tsunami SS3 swim shad.
I only leave the grasswalkers for the other two when I get to deep slopes, same kind of water I would be fishing TS-250 sinking fly line; or 3+' on the flats, where I won't be dragging in grassballs on the sinking lures, and may need to get deeper.
My last trip with Josh, he posted I must have been fishing something else, but other than a cocahoe on the Little Cut slope, I only fished one birthday suit grasswalker on the flats both days.
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I've also fished the grasswalkers on weighted swimbait hooks, but the only place I really like fishing those is the glow lure off Arroyo docks into the deep channel.
Here, change-up is everything, and this lure works great in one of the slots.
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here were a couple before breakfast one morning, fishing from the boy's shack - getting up about a half-hour or so before first light and tinkering before my buddies were up for a paddling day - released a couple of smaller nursery trout, and a bigger schoolie spit at the dock, but a great way to begin the day
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when we got out to paddle, launching for the N wind at S. Padre Convention Center
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I began with a fly rod in normal fly rod water, but Steve was getting so much action on grasswalkers, I went back for my bait rod
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We also set up a couple of drifts over this beautiful, bit deeper turtle grass
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Image - another good high-sun color
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Last edited by bulldog1935 on 18 Jun 2019, 05:58, edited 1 time in total.

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Post 18 Jun 2019, 05:57 • #22 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 04/20/07
Posts: 8920
Location: US-ME
Killer bait, Bulldog. Killer. For FW, what little nonflyfishing I do, I've looked no further than the Trout Magnet, or a few others very similar, whose names I don't recall. That one is new on me but also of the type. If there is a suitable size and they are sold locally, I may have to go crappie fishing today, or even probe a boulder strewn deep run for trout, pursuant to the tight-lining topic.

Am I noticing that the bait has its own harness to the hook such that less of the hook itself is threaded through it? Do you think that is an action-enhancer, and/or does it make the bait more durable? I could throw out the Wedgees and Spidgles if that rig beats them for durability.


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Post 18 Jun 2019, 07:06 • #23 
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Joined: 08/10/05
Posts: 19078
Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
Steve, here's the swimbait hook and no, no smaller size on the lure.
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The lure has a hook slot that goes halfway through the thickness.
I'm religious about using Procure poultice on plastic baits - people call them scent attractors, but what they really are is taste maskers - bait poultice hides the taste of steel, and hides the taste of us on the bait.
https://www.tackledirect.com/pro-cure-b ... ml#reviews
In addition to coating the steel, I squeeze a little drop of procure into the grasswalker hook slot, and it takes a dump in the fish's mouth.
I've landed big trout on grasswalker + procure that weren't hooked, but were squeezing the lure in their gullet, apparently because they didn't want to let go.

Only discovered this lure myself on that trip 2 Novembers ago - Tobin posts on TKF, and sells a good line of inshore fishing videos, in addition to the lure he designed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8H0c6pOm2g
What lifetime inshore fishermen have figured out from time on the water, Tobin has percolated the art into science.
https://troutsupport.com/products/trout-support-lure

Tobin said he worked on 1000 variants on this lure before getting it right.
The same plastic formulation that makes it neutral-density also makes it tough.
Here's one after a morning of lizardfish, tourist specs, rat and slot reds
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When my BIL fished it on S. Padre flats last November trip, he got hooked, too
Green Island
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Last edited by bulldog1935 on 18 Jun 2019, 07:45, edited 1 time in total.

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Post 18 Jun 2019, 07:43 • #24 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 04/20/07
Posts: 8920
Location: US-ME
Thanks. He has a future in miniwalkers. I'll never forget back when plastic baits were relatively new--to me anyway--back around 1960. Most I knew of were detail-molded appearance replicas of actual food items--crayfish, frogs, tadpoles, and worms mostly. Static imitative appearance prevailed and impressionistic motion-imitating design was uncommon. Whereas fly choices were long developed in a range from exact imitation by appearance (when dry and set on a store counter) and impressionistic, illusion of living prey when wet. A rust-bodied or peacock herl bodied brown or grizzly hackle worked a lot, whereas a urine stained fox-belly haired imitation worked a little in a certain hatch you had to hit just right. But it was good to have some pale reddish soft hackles.

Anyhow, I caught bass on crayfish or hellgrammites quite a bit, so it was natural for a kid to try a handful of plastic copies to save the cost of bait or the work of collecting it when he could be fishing. I even got some little ones to try on trout, but never even tried them since they were mostly useless for bass--not better as some plastics today--compared to the real thing.

Nevertheless, I had a few with me stuck (literally, as the plastic deteriorated) in a Prince Albert pocket tin with some battered wet flies. That was my "lightweight" tackle box for the last leg of the Appalachian trail from the Maine border to the summit of Mt. Katahdin. I caught a few little brookies along the way, but we were mostly hiking.

The rest-up stop before the final mile-high climb was a beautiful campsite on Rainbow Lake. My Dad figured to get our boots dried out, and stay a while until we were fresh for the final miles. Knowing him, I figured that would be until about 5 a.m. the next morning, so I aimed to fish an hour that evening after I washed the aluminum cook set.

Off I went along shore, spotting fish--brookies probably--feeding just out of reach from short roll casts. Not a take, not a follow. Then I snagged my last half decent Brown Hackle on some blasted dri-ki. My boots were pretty dry, even my socks, and my feet weren't that tender from being wet half the time, as they usually are swamping along the AT in Maine. So I didn't want to wade out to fetch the fly.

Instead, I balanced my way out on one of four thousand, one hundred twenty-two and one half fallen trees on the lake shore, jutting out into the lake. The trunk kind of flopped and bounced as I worked my way out, its branches offering a hold now and then, and others pulsing the water below me. It gave me different angles to try to free my last fly, but no luck.

I broke it off. Well you can't end your last fishing day on the trail like that. I scraped a plastic faux crayfish out of the Prince Albert tin, hooked it through the back the way we did the real ones, and tied it to what was left of my leader.

I derricked it over to the other side of the tree where a long branch extended into the depths. As it sank, a huge brook trout (all of eight inches, maybe) darted out, followed, and gulped. I was so astonished, I lost my youthful angler's composure, and reared back. The little brookie spit the plastic, and it hung on the branch as I slipped and fell off the tree into the pond.

So that was the end of that. Now that I was wet anyhow, I swam out and grabbed the chunk of driki and retrieved my last wet fly. I did not bother to find the crayfish embedded in baby brook trout branch.

By now it was too dark to tie on the recoved fly again and fish any more. I went back to the campsite and hung all my clothes and my boots to dry.

I kept the piece of driki and lugged it out of there the day we headed on to Katahdin. Because it looked like a fish in profile and contour, I dried it, and my Dad and I stained and varnished it, and attached it to a small plaque. It hung on his wall for years, and now mine. It looks like a fish, even without eyes painted on it, but I wouldn't use it for bait.


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Post 18 Jun 2019, 08:21 • #25 
Piscator
Joined: 08/10/05
Posts: 19078
Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
Burke made the original plastic baits, and you could order a Scandinavian swim-tail shad lure from ads in outdoor rags.
After that, Mr. Twister and many variants showed up. They still work. Of course Creme worms have always worked for bass.
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Here's the Cocahoe minnow rigged on Stazo flex-jig head and double hook
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Here's the flounder pounder bottom-bouncing lure, and you can see how the Stazo jig-head works - it clips a double or treble hook
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Hard plugs still have their place, especially with toothy fish like jacks and mackerel - plastic lures often come back bit in half.
But for most fishing, the current crop of soft baits take more fish, because the fish don't let go as quickly.
While multiple treble hooks are harder for fish to get away from, they also gill a lot of fish.
I used to tie stinger-hook flies until I gilled a bass one day with both hooks.


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