MNGeorge

No such bait on Cabela's website. Went to Venom's website, but the picture is not very informative and there is no product description. What exactly is this bait? Tube, creature, other? Glenn, do you use the 4" or the 5"? Can you elaborate on the description a bit and possible other applications for it? Thanks.

I got some 7/0 and some 10/0 Lake Fork weighted EWG hooks from BPS. I went to two different BPS stores in one week, just by coinicidence, and both had some of each in stock. Barlow's told me they didn't know when they would have any and their's are from Lake Fork. Not sure what's up with that.

Seems the most popular way to rig them is with a weighted offset wide gap hook that has some kind of keeper attached to the eye of the hook. Run the keeper into the nose of the bait and run the hook up through the back so that the point of the hook will lay tight to the top of the bait thereby rendering it weedless.

Glad to hear that. Hope you do well, but the weather forecast doesn't look too favorable.

If we're talking "favorite" as the way we prefer to catch Bass, then topwater presentations of any kind are the clear winner. When they are going "on top", there is nothing else like it for us. If, on the other hand we are talking "favorite" as the method that produces the most Bass for us, then plastics are miles ahead of anything else.

Bass season doesn't open in Minnesota until next weekend way up north and not until the 24th for the rest of the state. Whatever you throw, make sure you can convince the game warden your fishing for Crappies with it. Good luck.

They're still in the current StrikeKing catalog. Never fished them.

Does anyone have a source for stoneroller footbal jig heads? These heads have a grooved surface across the football head that helps the jig rock back and forth. Thanks.

We use the Ugly Otter, the Little Otter and the Flappin' Shad. All work very well.

We second this idea, especially on windy days. Most guys don't think of a buzzer for windy days, but when fished over submerged weedbeds, they can produce some awesome results. Some of our most memorable buzzbait experiences have been on very windy days. We also second the river Smallies idea. We catch alot of Smallies in the upper Mississippi throwing buzzers.

Which Evolution Jig are you referring to when you talk about the swimming jig? Is it the finesse or the heavy cover or both?

In our Largemouth lake, it's red shad or tequila sunrise. In the river for Smallies, it's black with blue or pumpkin with a chartreuse tail.

We Trig them with internal rattling weights from Lindy. BPS also has their own brand of these weights. This has proven to be a very snag resistant set up. One thing though, these internal weights do not work well with the tubes that have a solid nose. Straight single or double pours work just fine.

We rig them on 5/0 or 6/0 EWG offset superline hooks. We use the superline hooks because they are made with heavier wire and help to get the fluke deeper in the water. Using flourocarbon line which sinks also helps to get them down in the water. The basic retrieve is jerk, pause, jerk, pause, but there are countless variations you can and should try until you find which one the fish respond to best on that particular day. If you skin hook the point of the hook in the back of the fluke, it is virtually weedless and can be thrown into just about any type of cover. This is a very fun presentation and one of our favorites.

In the fall, river Smallies form into big schools in specific areas and go on a feeding frenzy, gorging themselves prior to the cold water of winter. During these times, we have caught the same fish so many times we actually have given them names. It is not at all unusual to catch the same Smallie 3 or 4 times in an afternoon. My favorite time of the year, needless to say.

I bought a couple of bags of them yesterday and notice no difference in the hardness compared to Fat IKA's or Senko's.

I agree with HawgChaser. BPS has some very nice performing reels for not a lot of money. I have both Extreme and Rick Clunn models and have found them to be everything I need in a casting reel. One note, if you can afford to wait until they come up on a sale, that is when they are a real bargain.

We do pretty well with Bluegill pattern soft plastic jerk shads. YUM Houdini Shads and Berkley Jerk Shads have been the two best.

Not going to hope for rain, but don't mind it if it happens, so long as there is no lightning. I much prefer fishing in rain to fishing in wind.

I guess I should have made it clear we are using plastic worms, not live worms. Also, we know the difference between Bluegill pecks and Bass bites most of the time. I was just trying to see if anyone had a "go to" bait that the Bluegills don't bother so much but still catches Bass like a plastic worm. Thanks for the feedback.

On our stretch of the upper Mississippi, nothing beats the YUM Houdini Shad in Camo Pearl. When the water is murky, Chartreuse with silver flake works well and Baby Bass is also useful at times.

Has anyone ever used one of those electric heated wire tools to repair torn soft plastics? They seem kind of costly for what they are, but if they can make torn soft plastics reuseable, it could pay for itself in short order. If you've used one, how did do it? I'm having trouble picturing exactly how it would work.

We have never tried Wacky Rigging, but from reading about it here, it sounds like something we want to add to our list of presentations. Is the amount/thickness of the cover the determining factor whether to Wacky Rig or Texas Rig or are there other considerations also? When do you use which and why?

We do most of our Largemouth fishing in a 100 acre lake that holds some very nice Bass. The problem is the lake is over run with stunted Bluegills and no matter what depth we fish, we are constantly getting our worms pecked at by these Bluegills. Worm size/type makes no difference, they all get peppered by the Bluegills. Does anyone have some ideas how to minimize the Bluegill action without also reducing the Bass bites?

Never heard of the Salad Spoon before. I went to the Lunker City website to see it. It looks like it may stay on top at a slower retrieve speed than the Rage Tail. The Rage Tail will, I think, make a bigger ruckus than the Salad Spoon. Just my $.02.