BlakeMolone

Fish around here are starting to feed like crazy, especially in the smaller bodies of water that are rapidly warming. I’ve been successful with several new to me techniques this week, get out and put that gear to use this week if you can swing it!

I appreciate all the advice guys and I have every bait listed here, I will make sure to pack plenty of finesse stuff. Can’t wait to get out on the water there and if the bass aren’t biting it looks like I can try for trout just down the road too. Anyone know if there are good populations of crappie or walleye in this area? Been working on my jerkbait game a little bit, I will probably spend a lot of time with a pointer 78 tied on, hope they go for it!

On Easter weekend I will be spending three days on the southwestern side of table rock lake. I will have access to canoes and kayaks and will also bring my float tube, if the resort allows me to hook my trolling motor up to their canoes I should be able to fish anywhere in the map area. Looking for advice on baits to throw, what the water clarity is generally like that time of year, and what stage of spawning the fish will likely be in plus any pointers or advice people familiar with the lake can give. The stared area is where I will be staying, thanks in advance!

Ned cutters, trds, zoom UV speed worms, 4 and 5 inch kut tail worms, finesse worms, trick worms, senkos and other stick worms, Power worms(my favorite) and also divine shakey worms. I need to pick up some of the 4 inch power worms too.

Berkley half head, I honestly don’t know what more you would want out of a ned head and they are the cheapest I have found as well

Love the berkley half heads, and at 50 cents a piece I don’t feel like I’m getting ripped off.

Let me know how it works, I think we go to the same bass pro and it would be nice to have something I can pick up in store instead of having to make another big tw order

Yeah I was thinking of using it in shallow areas around grass or maybe even around wood so the blade can bang into the wood and just give it a little extra flash. You are right, I actually shortened up the distance between the hook and the blade and tested it out in the bathtub, looks good now and is short enough to not wrap around the bait.

Playing around in my fishing room today and ended up with this, this is a simple ewg hook with a blade attached by wrapping a suspend strip around a piece of mono that was tied to an Underspin blade. I super glued the line to the suspend strip as I was wrapping it around the hook so hopefully it will stay in place. Not really sure if this fills a niche that isn’t already filled but if anyone wants a cheap and basically weightless and weedless Underspin this might do the trick.

Swim jigs, bought a bunch of the ones at Walmart that come with 2 menace trailers the other day. I fish out of a float tube and these seem really versatile, space is limited on the tube so versatility is great.

Fluke, trd, pitboss, powerworm, senko, rage craw, rage menace, baby brush hog, keitech fats, and a fat Albert grub. All of these come with me all the time

Same!

Do you ever fish those red eyed shads in areas without grass for smallies or largies for that matter?

Hate to bring a dead post back to life but I picked up a couple of the quake 70s at an expo yesterday and they are some amazing looking baits. They both have a relativley light rattle and one definitely has less rattles than the other. Does a lipless bait need to be super loud? Will I catch more fish on one or the other? I know I already bought them so I should just fish them, I just hate that they aren’t exactly the same ?

I would just like to add that for 30 bucks the original berkley lightning rod is just great and has the right action for both soft plastics and moving baits. I am hard on my gear so I have just started buying those until I’m in a situation where I can easily transport rods and where I don’t have to lay them on the ground when bank fishing etc because I break rods sometimes and when those are higher end rods it really is upsetting and I don’t always have the money to replace them even when I really need them. Yup I have the 7-4 medium heavy slx combo and it is tip heavy, it’s also a straight up heavy action rod if you ask me. It has been a great combo but not very balanced and not as versatile since in my opinion is actually is a heavy rod and the action is extremely fast and the tip is stiff.

Yeah I’m no expert but when the fishing is tough and I get skunked a few times in a row at a particular lake I usually switch it up and go somewhere else.

What scent were y’all using?

I had no idea anyone made a single tail hula grub, guess I need to get some. What colors do you usually use? I mostly fish white grubs but I want to switch it up a little.

Poppers are one of those baits where I don’t see how buying a more expensive and fine tuned bait would actually produce more fish, the rebel pop-r just destroyed for me last year.

Do you mostly fish the actual rat-l-trap?

I love collecting fishing gear and I absolutely love going into my fishing room and tinkering, rigging up rods, pulling baits out and admiring them and even smelling them ? when I’ve had a hard day at work I grab a beer and just head to my fishing room to mess around and let go of my stress.

I love the idea of spinnerbaits and I do catch the occasional fish on them but I’ve never had a great day throwing them and I pretty much always start out throwing them. I’m going to tinker with some different baits and skirts and maybe even trailers this spring and see what happens.

If you have never casted a baitcasting reel please buy a spool if 12lb big game, run it under warm water before spoiling it, and use a bait in the heavier side of what you normally would and just start slow and train your thumb. Some people say that braid backlashes are easier to pick out but my experience has been the exact opposite.

Do you find much use for the cheap original chatterbaits?

I’m excited to throw the slider spider pro heads I got, I think I will actually give them a try this week. I’m gonna keep it simple and just them for grubs, finesse worms, and rage menaces. I have tried them out in a rocky and snaggy area and they really do seem a little more weed less than a similar sized t rig or ball head.