Jake,

That is Nico-esque on the bait diagrams :D Thanks for taking the time to shoot the photos and do the diagrams.

I have been trying more lately to get dialed in on the Mission Fish, fishing it slow on the bottom like a jig. I finally got a fish doing it the other day. It was a 5lber, nothing giant, but it got my confidence up. That Okuma swimbait rod is sweet for Mission Fish, just super stiff and strong enough to drill a fish with that giant hook. Having the right setup on that bait seems key to me. You need incredible and direct hooksetting power. Drop shotting it is interesting but I think you might want to take the lead out of the head of the bait. Regardless of how you fish it, with the hook setup, you need to drop a major bomb on the hookset. Your post has me thinking ... and I like that :)