Team9nine

I’d guess demand - tackle sales have rocketed upward since the start of the pandemic, as well as the price of lead, about 18% higher than two years ago. You see that same expense trend in bass jigs, which are just decorated jig heads ?

We had one for pond fishing as a teenager. Worked great from what I recall.

...And it is the middle of winter. We're all probably a little snarky at this point Just ignore us - lol.

Only 12.57 - meh

Agree with @WRB and @J Francho on the In'Fisherman classification system of reservoirs. I looked at a few Iowa lake topos and then looked at the In'Fisherman reservoir classification map and my assessment matched their classification map, that being that about 90% of Iowa reservoirs are either flatland or hill-land, many with a mix of both character types depending on whether you are looking at the upper or lower ends of the reservoir.

Here’s another they rarely mess with, and spit them out unscathed if they do - those black swimming whirligig beetles.

I will admit, I was struggling a bit with the “Ned rig guru Mike McClelland” part - not because of anything related to my abilities, or lack thereof - but Thank You ?

If you think you have information overload already, coming onto a message board with thousands of participants from across the country and asking for help (more information/suggestions) is just going to make things worse - lol. Ideally, you find one or two people in your area close by that fish similar waters and that might be willing to help share information and ideas with you - act as a sounding board - and just limit your exposure to that small circle until you get some more time/experience and catches under your belt which will help you weed out things in the future; or pick just one or two YouTube persons or similar type anglers (articles, etc.) that resonate with you and just watch and follow them and ignore the others for the moment. Just my initial thoughts...

Big fan of Seaguar (and Toray ?) lines, the only fluorocarbons I throw any more, but until companies start coming out with objective data to support some of their claims, I’m not dropping that kind of coin on line (3X the price of Tatsu) ?

Ditto - but none of my waters, or my "style," are particularly amenable to them either.

In the winter, no less, without gloves and shoes

I’d say they are…and they aren’t. I learned on a pistol grip rod with a D.A.M. Quick baitcaster and nylon line. Spent hours in the yard practicing, getting frustrated, throwing the outfit down and giving up for a while before coming back out and trying again - lol. Like many from that time period, I eventually became a pretty good caster, learning the nuances of centrifugal and manual braking, then magnetic controls, and the subtleties of thumbing of the spool. Now days, the sophistication of reels has taken that learning away from people to a large degree, and it shows by the number of people who complain about using fluorocarbon on baitcasters, blaming the lines qualities (being “unmanageable”), when in reality, it’s simply a lack of well developed casting skills because technology has made people lazy (poorer casters) in some regards - at least that’s my take on it ?

Sounds very reminiscent of the old Nightcrawler Secrets rods (and technique) ?

Good video. Jerkbaits account for some of the larger bank bass I catch every single year, including a couple specific pond PBs. For me, it's best right after ice-out for the first month or so of open water before water temps warm too much. It's a fairly retrieve ratio insensitive technique, though I am usually using them on faster ratio reels (6:1 or 7:1).

We’ve lost a few good ones over the years. Seems like there is a predictable life pattern with most forums…not unlike most bass clubs.

Technically, yes, though the larger ones are usually what come to mind first. There are also regional differences in terms. In some places, the smaller ones might be referred to as ‘cuts’, ‘guts’, ‘draws’, ‘hollows’, ‘drains’ or ‘feeder creeks’ depending on size, topography and whether they are permanent or temporary flows.

You have them in your reservoirs. They are the smaller feeder creeks running into the larger reservoir proper. You might think of them as the “coves” off the main body. Here is Rathbun showing several down on the lower end of the lake.

We just had a good local show canceled here last minute, also. Was supposed to go off in 2 weeks, but city moved in and canceled the show so they could use the space for Covid testing/immunizations and related stuff.

Agreed Junebug originated with the original black-grape worm color to which green flakes were added. I researched a bit last night and was able to track down mentions of it as far back as 1986. It's probably a bit older than that, and if I had to guess based on those references I found, Florida would be my first guess of origin, also, likely Culprit or Ditto, but not for certain. Only other guess would be Ed Chambers and Zoom, which was same basic area (Georgia).

Great book! I looked at a chart of popular lines and their diameters from 1980 as determined by an independent lab, and compared it to those same lines that are still available today using the diameters listed on TW and one other site. Generally speaking, they are very similar, but some have changed over that period of time. For example (diameter in inches); Trilene XL - 1980 (.0116); 2022 (.011) Trilene XT - 1980 (.0127); 2022 (.014) Stren - 1980 (.0124); 2022 (.012) Ande - 1980 (.012); 2022 (.012) Maxima - 1980 (.0141); 2022 (.012) both Ultragreen and Chameleon

I have a Lew’s Mach I Speed Spin Spinning Reel, size 200 (but they make a 300) that I put a ton of use on for several years before the bail arm finally broke this winter - thousands of fish later. Cut it off and still using the reel ? I would certainly buy another. Lists at $70, but I think Amazon has them for $46 right now from somewhere.

They’ve implemented a new tracking feature whereby once your total purchases exceed a certain threshold in a short amount of time, they insert an “intervention,” i.e., a crash, to protect you and your finances from greater loss. If you just wait a couple weeks for some of your older purchases to drop off, the site will work fine again. It’s just to protect you ? Just kidding, obviously. I online ordered a week or two back with no issue. Could be your computer, website traffic when you were trying, or a glitch. Probably short-lived whatever caused it.

Scents for bass - meh ? I think it’s very situational, with most of those “situations” being the vast minority. Once you’ve sprayed your baits with mosquito repellent, handled them with sun screened hands and still caught fish, you realize life isn’t as complicated as we sometimes make it out to be as anglers. That said, I still wash my hands before most fishing trips, mainly because I’ll be eating my lunch with those same hands at some point during the trip ? If you believe - great! If you don’t - that works most days, too.

If I was stuck with only one color soft plastic to use for the rest of my life, Junebug is what I would live and die with

Glad you asked. They did and put the answer right on their packages for you to see