J Francho

I have a heck of a time waiting, too. Owner is selling pre rigged treble stingers, but you can make your own. A couple of other tips: pre rig them before you go out fishing. I like the hook to be perfectly centered. Smear the belly cavity and hook shank with Megastrike. I think it helps the plastic slide out of the way for easier penetration. You can use the pre weighted hooks, but I find I always have to adjust the weight with lead strips. Good luck!

I'd think you'd also want to know what size Money Minnow he was using as well. Get some of these in 8/0 for 6" baits. A 4/0 would work on a 3-4" bait.

It depends on the boater, and it isn't always about what the boater will allow. there are some guys in my club that live and die by one type of water. Some guys like to fish heavy slop, others like to fish deeper, open water. I generally bring 6 rods. No point bringing you're light spinning gear if your going to slopping it all day. What club are you joining?

I thought the same as well this past weekend. Nothing to show for it, until I started throwing a finesse jig into a fallen timber. It might have to do with temps dropping that day to below freezing, water temps dipped to 44°. Today its been warmer, and on the rise. I expect the spinnerbait will crush this Saturday.

Since there aren't many weeds shallow up here, yet, nasty wood is about all the cover you'll find, and any shallow bass will often associate with it. Don't be afraid to look for deeper coontail. Many of the ponds up here are supporting quite a good amount growth, deep weeds look fresh.

Great color for tannin stained water and ponds with lots of dark silt from decomposing vegetation. The water is dark, but not muddy. In this "blackwater" the bait looks like something is there, no definite shape, but there is a splash of color. Looks edible, gets bit. That's my theory, anyway. Sort of the opposite of why really reflective baits work in crystal clear water.

Its very important to thoroughly chew your corn.

LOL, it just so happens that is the color I use.

GYCB Senkos come in Smoke with Purple Flake - 157. I like this color.

Advantage.

Banded Water Snake: http://www.snakesandfrogs.com/scra/snakes/images/banded_watersnake_juv_1.jpg Cotton Mouth: http://thesnakechaser.com/snakes/Cotton_mouth.jpg Its a corn or rat snake. It lacks the head shape of a pit viper.

I always consider a Texas Rig as a slip weight, hook, and the plastic rigged weedless. But many refer to the weedless style of hooking a plastic as Texas Rigged. I just didn't get what you meant by a "t-rigged pole." I thought maybe you meant something else. Texposed is where you pass the hook point completely through the bait and leave it exposed, but snug to the bait. Many, myself included, like to "skin hook" it by burying about 1/8" of the point back into the bait when fishing around light cover. Depending on you water temp, I'd stick to less "active" baits below 50°. As it gets closer to 50° and above, start adding some baits with flapper, claws, curly tails, etc.

That's a cool story, and a beautiful fish. You have some beautiful scenery around that lake shore as well. About the closest I have is a similar situation, fishing a causeway from one of the local bays off Lake Ontario. There were the usual assortment of locals fishing the shoreline for panfish. I ran into a great school of smallies turned on to the TW bite, and put on quite a show for about an hour. Men were crying, women fainted, children's' minds were forever corrupted. OK, it wasn't that big a deal, but pretty cool. Nice job out there,and keep the reports and pics coming, even if they are "dink" 5 pounders, LOL.

I don't know much about those models. Just get something, and get to learn all the settings, and how you can use them to read the water.

Not sure what it means for a rod to be "Texas rigged," that's usually a term used to describe a bullet sinker and weedless hook with a soft plastic. As for jerkbait sizes, Pointer 100, Rapala XR-10.

Both have an aluminum frame.

The second really has an alewife look to it. Nice stuff.

Goldfish carry some of the scariest viruses and bacteria around. Do not use them as bait.

So far, my two fish this year (yeah, just two, LOL) came on a 1/2 oz. finesse jig - no trailer - and a Pointer on a long pause. The Pointer did have a dressed tail hook. Water temps were in the mid 40s.

Back in my "spoonplugger" days, we used pinch on barrel weights to add depth when trolling cranks for smallies. 4 to 6' up the line should be fine. Any longer, and you'll have difficulty landing the fish.

Sahara, hands down. A very well built reel.

Regardless of depth, a dual beam model would be preferable. Wide beam for scanning for structure, narrow beam for detail like fish and cover.

50# braid. If you want low vis, use a 12 to 20# FC leader material.

Always use trailer hooks. Two consecutive misses, or fish hooked on the trailer, and its time for a color/blade change.

You wouldn't want to use fluoro with a topwater bait anyways....