Chris

chap stick is a wax and retards water...braid is a string that soaks up water...silicone is a spray that retards water.

Got a website? If not build one and drive traffic to that site. The more content on that site the better to include articles that show how to fish or highlight tournament fishing techniques or winning techniques. Build a bigger presents in your community by contributing to a news paper article or create a weekly news letter that is sent to outside members who sign up for it which has fishing content.(can be a email) With the news paper see if they will highlight your tournament standings with a link to your website. If your still in school I am sure there is a weekly school paper. Approach it from the angle of teaching others how to catch fish. Give back to the community by donating time or resources (like helping with other events like kid fishing) Which can highlight your club and draw interest. Article like"club xyz helped clean up lake G" or "club xyz helped put on a veteran's tournament," "Club xyz volunteered their time to help casting kids". Let the local news or news paper know what your doing for the community. This brings attention to the club and can drive web traffic. The more attention you stir up the more people are going to look at the sponsors on your website. Just remember that you must gage if the effort worth the reward. Then run with it.

With diving lures how far behind the boat and the speed of the boat effects the running depth the lure will reach. The farther you let the lure out the deeper it will go. What prevents the lure from continuing to dive is the stretch of the line, how buoyant the line is and the drag of the line, how much surface area the bill and lure effects depth. Also weight of lure and where it is weighted. (it effects the diving angle)This is one of the reasons why most use down riggers to combat this. Most lures have a max speed that the lure works best before you loose depth.

spray it with reel magic or silicone spray will help

What I would look at is the fall rate and what style of fishing you do. For example if I was fishing pockets of grass I would fish a floating worm more so than a trick worm because it floats and I can manipulate the fall better. With a trick worm because it is filled with salt I would have a hard time making it float. The same floating worm on a shakeyhead rig will float tail up which can be good in different situations. A trick worm because of the salt has a senko fall that in different situations can be good. Both catch fish but it can help you refine what you are doing to get a few more bites.

I fish the same way I would during the day for the most part. If you have a hard time picking up the vibration differences between your lures and fish I would suggest changing to lures that you can hear or feel better. Not being able to see does effect the fishermen more than the fish and it would odds in your favor.

looks like a fungus

There is a possibility that when you hit the cove the wind or current brought the baitfish into that cove along with the bass. The baitfish turned on the bass and the day became productive. It could be a cove that becomes productive only during a particular season because of bass movement. It could be that the bass have moved deeper because of fishing pressure or the cove has low numbers of bait to bass ratio and moved. It can be a number of things but you get the idea.

Try a swim bait with one hook that comes out the top or spinnerbait you will loose less lures.

You can use mono tied to the shank of the hook then out the eye to form a 90 degree wrap it with thread to put it in position or loop the tag and wrap it around the bend once then tie back to the shank. They make weedless flies in the same way. Plan B would be to wrap the wire behind the eye with thread and then push the wire through the eye and bend it in position.

We as Americans don't make to many lures or products in general. We have high taxes, high labor rates, and tree huggers. Which kills profits and is why jobs and services are farmed out of country. Many companies turn to china products because they can make huge profits. They profit because they gage what to charge for the product either by US rates to produce a lure or they drop the price giving the customer a break that is passed onto the consumer. Companies are built using virtual employees, virtual capabilities, virtual machines. In other words company (A) is the real manufacture willing to put your name on the product or can build what you want for a low cost. Company ( is just an importer that has a great name and logo and has a great engine behind the company. Everyone says we are in the information age which is more true than you know. For the first time smaller companies have the abilities of larger companies they just neglect to tell you that they are just farming it out. Are they misrepresenting themselves no they just know more about the business than you do and know who can build what while they profit from a companies laziness and lack of information. Most people want the easy way out and would rather go with a franchise so to speak instead of building there own company. When you build a website or company nobody knows how big of a company is behind the website. Many companies slap a name and logo on a product and say look what I made. The reality is that they are just a distributor/ importer that has built a private brand not product and pushing it as their own not to say that the company can't create its own designs. Before the Internet companies had to meet with companies to do business which means it would be hard to see the company behind the company. In the information age with the Internet the world becomes smaller and with some work on your part you can find the company behind the company. You pay what you pay for lures because your not informed because most people still believe that the logo company builds the lure that they sell. (some do most don't)The company you see is the American that has the name that has built the engine that is sticking it to you. The company that makes the lure if they are lucky might make a million the company distributing does make millions. Notice as soon as the Internet took hold there was an explosion of new larger companies that make lures? More people have access to information then before and use it to build companies. I did say companies not lures, lures come after the company takes off and they go back to build their own ideas via china. Ever notice when a company has a good selling idea that everyone has a copy? Either they take the idea to a company to copy it or they find the company that makes it for them and have them make it with their logo. GLCfishing.com would be an example of an importer. alibaba.com has a listing of lures made from all over the world. These are the companies behind the company. It isn't a factor of if I can afford the high priced lures it is more of a factor that you can not afford the bulk buy that is required to buy the high priced lures cheap but there are distributors on that alibaba site that does deal in smaller quantities.

here is an email from a OEM company 1. Thank your message. Please confrim your e-mail adrress for our send the product information to you about freshwater wood lure. 2. Please you introduce your company business ? Such as: Website ; Trade company ; Whoesales 3. We're company produce the Japan top quanlity wood lure for Japan market. Our produce wood lure with other Japan brand the quanlity is same, such as : Megabass ; Imakatsu ; Gamakatsu. 4. We can provide Japan package with your company trademark for the lure package. 5. Product prices to need according customer order quantity. If order large quantity can give to you special discount about wood lure. 6. When you can receive our message, please contact for us. We look forward to hearing from you soon. And we wish with your company can establish a long time the business relationship. Beat Regards, Mr. Chan Ka Wai (Director) *my cost is $7.00 per lure your cost as a fishermen $25.00 on up. This is a hand carved high end lures I can also post emails from the plastic lure side but I think you catch what I am saying. Companies are greedy and are charging way to much for tournament quallity lures in my opinion. Dear sir: I am a seller of a fish-bait manufacotry in China, I looked through your website and took interested in be your supply . We have confidence enough to guarantee the quality of porducts and delievry time! Hetang jefflure manufactory , which located in Pengjiang District, Jiangmen City , the city is a civilization capital in our nation. And our buildup as a experiential designer group and they worked in a famous fish-bait company, as well as they have participated in designning the program as the DAIWA, EG, XPS Bass pro shops//rein&co.ltd/megabait/river 2 sea/outlink/jackall bros/pro tackler/coatac/even green... and so on. Our company is specialy in exploiture and making the kinds of lures, worms and jigs , and we have a perfect operation way on the wooden fish-bait, we use the high quality materail ,sprayer and the dope technology, to combine with the highest quality and well-knowed brand fishhook, we produce the highest level lures, and we can produce all kinds of effected artificial fish-bait on your needs in time. All serises of lures swin concinnityly in the water as a fish . Base on the excellent design, we guarantee the high quality on all products which will be 100% surveyed and export in eligible. Our market guide line is sincerely team spirit and endeavour service attitude. We will offer the highest quality products and cometition price to you ! We welcome you come to our company and dicuss with the exploitation and production on the item. Sir, please present a chance to give a perfection goods to you ! Enclose some photos of our products to your reference ! * You would be shocked at how cheap lures really are and the price you pay for a name. You can buy the same lure as they do from the same company that makes them. :-?

If you want to pay high dollar for a brand name for the status symbol of I wanna be like them.. waste your money they are more than happy to make your wallet lighter. Your paying for a name and because it takes some skill to locate the china company you pay the price they ask. They pay about $0.70 to buy it and have it packaged with logo per lure (called OEM or private branding) you pay that high price $14. Most people just say look that chinese is copying lure company xyz which isn't the case xyz just put their name on that china company's lure. the funny part is people will buy the name brand over an unknown name even though it is the exact same lure made from the same company. they will down grade the lower cost product and feel happy that they didn't waste money on the cheap imitation of the name brand they fell in love with. Janns netcraft has pointers cheap yet if you don't have lucky craft on the belly "it is just a crap copy" same lure same manufacture different private brand. :

For shallow cranks and spinnerbaits in and around heavy cover i use 14 lb test unless i am using a lure that i cant feel the vibration of the lure on 14 then i drop down to 12.

You may also have a bur on your rod, guide, reel spool, reel line guide, that has nicked the line. Also if you have no stretch in the line and your drag is winched down and your using a flipping stick for a rod, something has got to break.

Most people are more dazzled by the sparkle and shine then the meat and potatoes. The exception to this is when you have a lure that does something different then your run of the mill lures. RW also consider that water temp effects what weight a lure will suspend at. The denser the water (colder the water) the more weight is needed to make it suspend. Many lures are still using the old 70's style lure molds and weight systems that is why they tumble on a cast. Tail weighted lures and weight transfer lures solve that problem but many of the old tried and true lures are still using the old system because they fail to spend the money to fix the problem.

If your going to be swapping hooks a lot then i would suggest buying a pair of splitring pliers. As far as size hooks it depends on what your trying to do. Some people switch to a long shank treble because they feel that it acts like a stinger hook and sticks fish that swipe at the bait. Other people switch to a short shank hook because the bait protects the hooks more and helps it get through cover better. Some switch to triple grip hooks for the same reason. Some switch to a wider gap hook because they feel like it helps get a better bite on the fish when hooked. Some switch to smaller hooks because they feel like it makes the bait harder for the fish to throw the lure. A lot depends on how you play the fish that you hook and what you want out of the bait. Some change hooks to add weight to the bait to make it rise slower or suspend, also to make the bait cast farther. If you just trying to match the hook on the bait then take the bait into a tackle shop or pick one off the rack then match up the hook. Splitrings on a lure extends the distance the hook hangs down also remember that to big of a splitring will hang up the hook on the other hook or line and could hang on the hook hanger if to large. I like oval rings but thats just me. In most cases you wouldn't need to change the splitring unless it is rusty or you have a lure that the splitring is not letting the hook swing free.

The lures I have done well with in Florida are CC shad gold, rapala original minnow gold, rattletrap gold insert, bandit shallow runner powder blue back chartreuse sides, rapala shad gold, notice how the lures are the colors of golden shiners? devils horse chrome, Zara spook chrome, fat free topwater shad shad color, Berkley frenzy crank powder blue, baby johnny rattler bluegill or Jim Pfeiffer color, sugar shad gold color, I could list on and on but bottom line you need to fish with something that you can build confidence in. You know they eat shiners so try to use baits that look like shiners then expand into other lure styles. It just takes time, take baby steps and try to fool them with lures that look like bait and learn different ways to fish each lure. You build confidence by fishing lures that you believe in and your confidence grows as you catch more and more fish on them. You already took the first step just stick with it and work on it every time out success will come then you will be hooked. I grew up in Winter Springs Florida and growing up I was a big worm fishermen I an truly speaking from experience it just takes baby steps and time.

Most bass fishermen tend to hit visual cover and most don't know how to approach fish that they can't see or cover/ structure that they can't see. There is a lake i fished for years that got hammered by weekend anglers and tournaments. The bass where still in the areas that they should be but had moved off the bank. Sometimes they would be suspended out over a depth change other times they would be hanging on deep structure. At the time I was cranking some shallow fish but i was off the bank about a cast length tossing the lure up on the bank and bringing it to the boat. I had two hammer it at the boat. I moved off another cast length and located a group suspended off the first drop. Many times when you find fish hanging on deep cover in most cases you found a gold mine. In many cases you will find a kicker fish in this kind of spot and they don't tend to mess around if its active it will hit a lure quick if it is put in the right spot. Large fish tend to take up the best spot in a given form of structure. They are the king of the house so to speak and will defend it against other smaller fish. Because of this if you know how to read the cover and can identify the best spot within the spot you can generally point out where the big fish should be. Places like this that have everything that a bass needs food, cover, escape route to deep water, shallow feeding area or natural flow of food like deep shad will hold fish year after year. If everyone is fishing points motor around that area and watch your graph and see if that point has some deeper options. I do a lot of deep cranking but if that isn't your style, jigs work, spinnerbaits, worms just make sure you can still feel the lure and can still feel contact with your bait, cover, bottom, or fish.

add enough weight with suspend strips so that the lure sinks and then count the lure down to the depth you want to run and reel. if your just trying to get the lure down a few feet then change to fluorocarbon line and weight the bait under the lip. this changes the position the lure is when it starts diving and the line floats less and helps the lure dive. you can also use a modified Carolina rig attached ahead of your lures. It is hard to get a lure that is not designed to reach a deep depth deep but the things i mentioned will get you where you want to be.

when you rig the lure peg the hook inplace with a peice of 30 lb mono. run the mono through the top of the head and through the hook eye and out the bottom of the lure and trim off the tag ends. This keeps the hook from sidding down and you don't rip as many heads.

when you build a bait where the bill is as thin as thin could be to give the most depth as possible using polycarbonate materials you are walking a edge where to much pressure (from lifting fish with it) will cause it to break, smacking it on the water can and will cause it to break, smacking it against objects can cause it to break also. Your not dealing with a plastic lure and because the lure is fragile some care is needed to prevent it from breaking. If you remember bagley killer b was a must have lure in the 70's, big o was a popular lure when it was made from wood. Back then people said the same things about their products. Lure makers use wood because it swims more like a fish than plastic. Plastic is more durable but because of the amount of plastic that companies fill the lure with like rattle chambers, weight chambers, places for hook hangers, thicker lips that don't break, all give you a lure that doesn't swim like a wood bait. So what should a lure company do either build a lure designed to catch a ton of fish or build a lure that you can't break. The DT lures where designed by and for a tournament fishermen who wanted lures that dove to a specific depth on a more consistent basis. Sometimes you will get some bum wood that do split that's just the nature of natural materials. The beauty of natural materials is the cell structure of the wood that gives you lures that swim like live fish. Rapala uses the center of the tree which has a tight cell structure and the most strength. But it is still balsa which is not as strong as cedar, poplar, or other wood materials.

I use suspend dots because i don't want to give up any gap on my hook which might not let the hook drive as deep as it would with the wrapped lead. You could also change to a thicker wire larger hook which also adds weight.

worry more about the vibration of the lure than the color pick lures you can feel and smash them into the bottom, stumps whatever you can to break up the vibration pattern. color is secondary to the vibration. I have used a splatter back black crank for years at night with big catches also khaki. But both of those lures hunt so both threw off more vibration than another of the same kind.

6-8 lb fish depending on the length and girth it looks like a stout fish and every bit of 7 lbs so the guy that mounted it is probably correct. I would find a new taxidemist for your next mount it don't look like he did a great job on that one. But if your happy with it great.