J Francho

I nose hook them on a senko hook.

I'd grab the smoke in 6#.

Last summer I fished a lunker tournament at Upper Saranac. I fished for big smallies all day. Probably caught fifty or more, all dinks. With an hour to go, I went exploring, looking for "familiar water." I found a shallow cove with docks and laydowns. Pull out the jig rod and have at it. I got three bites from fish still on beds. This is the third bite pictured below. Not quite 4 lbs. - a monster on that particular lake. Yes, I won.

A bait that suspends perfectly at 50* will slowly sink in 65* water. If you want it to suspend perfectly, then you want to do it on the water that day.

Tuning is best done on the water at the time you'll be using them.

The Limited and Super Rogue series have red eyes. Standard floating and suspending Rogues have yellow eyes. http://www.lurenet.com/brands/smithwick-lures

Roboworms 6".

Original. Don't leave home without it.

There's a reason there's so many PA plates at the launch ramps where I fish. I'm not going to PA to find out why!

I don't bother with the keeper. Never understood the "I'm wasting my time on a limit, then I'm gonna fish for culls." Seems like a waste of time. I've come in the money with three fish - no shame in that!

Yes, it is and it's the roundest line I've tried. You should try this. They are offering a spool of it for $5. I've got some in 30#, and based on back yard fishing, it's pretty nice. On a side note, Power Pro Super 8 Slick is pretty nice too. Both are at least as good as 832 - very quiet. The TUF-Line has a bit lower stated strength than other braids due to the mono core, so go by diameter. 30# Supercast is like 14-15# mono.

Water may be too cold for it to truly suspend. Replace the front hook with a 3X treble, and/or add some suspend strips.

I grab a jig rod and start looking for shallow cover. There's always a couple of shallow fish.

Didn't it come with an extra? I know my bow mount has an extra in the base.

For whatever reason, firetiger is a northern pike magnet on my local waters.

The Jika rig has all but replaced the Texas Rig for fishing craws and creatures in moderate milfoil. The swinging weight leads the bait down through the weed canopy to the open water below more effectively than a traditional Texas rig, or even a jig. If you make your own, I highly recommend you use a pencil style weight. I find you can step back a size or two under what you'd normally use with a T-rig.

At least you didn't try dialing the fish.

That would make you a shoe in for the "Plug Award" in my club. I seriously can't stop laughing about this.

Happy Birthday!

I rig it head first on the hook, ridges down. I generally use this with 3/4 oz to 1 oz.. weight or more, in shallow slap.

The best is when you cut the tag off after tying a jig, but you actually cut the mainline,and the jig drops into the lake.

Tuf-Line Supercast, Sufix 832, and Power Pro Super 8 Slick are all relatively quiet braids.

That's temporary, the drums live in my dining room.

What you need to realize, is MLF was created to be a TV product from it's ***. BASS Elite events are tournaments, and TV coverage is secondary. I'm not even sure live broadcast is possible from boats in many of the locations they fish.

When a Mag - Z/V brake magnet slips, the magnets are naturally attracted to a point where polarity is "in phase" which is the maximum braking force. Zero brake setting is out of phase with the magnets. In other words, they pretty much never slip to zero, but they do slip to ten. Luckily, there are notches in the magnet drums, and you can easily check this. Take the side plate off and set the brakes to "10" and the notches should line up.