Shad_Master

Yay, early spring - the forecast for tomorrow is that temps will climb all the way up to 8* :

Not bad - ;D

Well anybody who has done it is more "expert" than me - I'm guessing without a fluid bed the dipping is just a practice makes perfect kind of thing. Have plenty of time here in the midwest to "get it right" before the water turns soft. Thanks for the encouragement.

Thanks for all the feedback guys - this was a first attempt and it was a little disappointing when we pulled 'em out of the oven. Also, we were using a butane torch to heat 'em up and I am wondering if a heat gun wouldn't work better. Priced both at the local box hardware and they are about the same. Jake's idea for hanging them through the eye on will probably avoid the drip problem (at least until I can arrange for a fluid bed). Can't wait for the ice to melt and start thowing some of these things (drips and all - LOL).

I suspect there are a lot more fishermen willing to spend $5 to catch fish than are willing to spend $15 and even more that would balk at spending $150. Caught a lot of fish in my day with a cane pole using a worm dug out of the garden. I don't see anything condescending in his statement.

Hi guys, Well I finally gathered all the materials and tried my hand at painting jigs yesterday for the first time. The results were OK, but I have several questions that you guys may be able to help with: 1) I noticed that the various paint colors of powder paint each seemed to have their own charateristics; e.g. green pumpkin flake was very thin and white was very thick. Is this typical? Not having anything to compare it to makes me wonder. 2) After painting the jigs and letting them dry for 30 min to an hour, we hung them up in the oven to bake as indicated on the powder paint. After 20 minutes, we disciovered that most of them had dripped, leaving at a minimum a bump on the head of the jig and at a maximum a string of paint up to 2" long. What was this and how do you keep it from happening? 3) I did talk with another guy and he said to rig up some kind of device to stand the jigs up in the oven. Do any of you have any suggestions for such a device (a picture would be good if you have one). The concept is still a fun idea and look forward to catching my first bass on a lure that I "made". But I seem to be off on a rocky start. Thanks for the input.

That there's a goodun!! I shared this with my local club on our forum.

Didn't want to hijack the thread already running - Congrats to the G-Man!!! But I do have a question. In reading about this, there was a quote from his co-angler about "netting" fish for Gerald all day. Are nets allowed in the Opens, but not in the Elites? Not a big deal, but it jumped out at me.

A large part of my job is helping people find jobs - I always tell my clients - changing jobs is much easier than changing wifes or husbands - you got to get the job first and then decide if it will work for you. PS, it easier to get a job - if you've got a job.

A guy I used to fish with had a saying; "Don't throw what they bit on yesterday - throw what they're biting on today". I think any time you are fishing, you have to throw a variety of lures, techniques, etc. to see what they will respond to. I have fished from the back of the boat where my boater was catching fish on every other case with a spinner bait and I couldn't get any reaction at all with the same bait. On the other hand, after being skunked for half a day by my partner throwing a jig, I have switched to a jig and scooped up all the fish while my partner was grabbing for the net. It is one of those crazy things about fishing that keeps us all trying to figure 'em out.

I'm glad you had a good experience - unfortunately, I cannot say the same. 1) I was getting ready for a club tournament and needed a specific item - as I drive by Cabellas going to and from work every day, I decided to call and see if they had them in stock. The person on the phone said they were out but a truck was comming in on Tuesday and the order showed that they would have some. Arrived at the store on Tuesday and asked about the item - was told they don't carry it - it is a BPS exclusive. So why was I told they were comming on the truck, if it is something they don't carry. 2) A Berkley Rep visited our club one evening and handed out some samples, including a pack with 3 or 4 Power Worms in it - as I headed out to the local pond one evening, I grabbed the sample pack. Bass started exploding on the PW's and I soon ran out - decided to make a run to Cabellas to get more - walked up and down the aisles and could not find any, asked one of the floor walkers and he called a Manager over - Manager says, "Oh, Berkley has stopped making Power Worms - they only make GULP! now" - when I asked who had told him that, he said a name and I said, "Well he's a d**n liar - Berkley will never stop making the product that made them famous" and walked out. I suppose it has to do with what store you are workig with - but it seems like the one near me employs idiots.

It's an interesting idea, but I don't think it will replace the standard lure retriever. I have also seen people use a spark plug in the same way as this gadget. For those who mention using an old reel to retrieve the line - another option (I may have even learned it on this forum) is to use one of those retractable dog leashes.

That's a goodun right there - ;D

There is a guy that I fish with and he has been fishing a loooong time and mostly with jigs. I asked him this question a couple of years ago and he said that he never felt that he could every recall a time when either having rattles or not having rattles made a difference as to whether he caught fish or not. For me, I think if I knew I would only be fishing rocks or rip-rap, that rattles might be a help, but since I usually fish the whole lake at some point or the other I don't want to be changing up every few casts. My vote - it doesn't matter.

The best way to learn about crayfish is from personal observation because they vary so greatly from one lake to the next and season to season. Walk along the shore and turn over rocks in shallow water and study crayfish habits/habitats/size/color (which changes season to season). You can find a lot of research/information though through academic institutions if you "Google" it. This is what I meant by "easier" - everybody talks about "matching the hatch" - but that is "easier" to do if they all are the same - I can't remember a pro tournament where the talk was about keying in on the crawdads (not to say there hasn't been one) but the discussions about holding tournaments on certain lakes because of the "shad spawn", "shad migration" or "blue herring" for instance are common.

I'm with you on this one - it seems to me like most of the lakes where pro torneys are held do have lots of shad (or other bait fish) as the main forage. I suspect this makes 'em easier to catch and thus makes for a better tournament.

Water is more dense than air - therefore it takes longer for it to cool down or heat up. Air temp can change very rapidly, but it takes water temp longer to catch up.

This is from Yahoo news: "The sheriff said the rampage ended only after two people tackled the gunman". I have not seen any references to the shooter being shot or shot at - thank goodness - the last thing needed was for a group of people shooting at each other in that crowd with all the chaos going on.

It's called Zona's Awsome Fishing Show or something like that - it's on the same channel as Fishburne

One of the best things about Alzhiemers is that there are fewer reruns on television

Where can you get nylon pins?

Thanks guys - this is kind of a first time venture and I am not expecting perfection - Bone Head, where is a good source for jigs without the fiber guard, seems like everything in Barlow's already has the fiber guard in place. If this goes well, I might look into getting some molds eventually, but for now I just want to dabble a little.

Hi guys - I am not a frequent visitor to this thread, but would like to try my hand at making some jigs and "chatter baits". I plan to order some unpainted jig heads from Barlow's, but the old guy who is going to be showing me the ropes says that "cooking" the jig heads with fiberguards is a problem. We noticed that Barlow's sells a "Heat Resistant Tube" that can be placed over the fiberguard. Do these work? Or is there another way to powder paint jig heads with fiberguards already installed?

Well, I just finished watching the first episode on the Outdoor Channel - that's 30 minutes of my life I'll never get back.

How more creatve do yo want them to get? Buy the bait, throw it once, hang it up, lose it, buy a new one. Sounds like the free enterprise system to me