Marty

Great minds think alike. ;D

The 5" Shad Assassins by Bass Assassin are equal to Super Flukes as far as ability to draw strikes. That's my personal experience after using both for the last 10-15 years. They're also more expensive and weigh about 15% more than the Super Flukes.

Outstanding lure, but... I used the 1/4 oz. with great success on bass, walleye and pike. One year within a period of just a few weeks the lips on two of them just pulled out while very little pressure was on them. Haven't used one since. On that lure the lip is just glued in, it's not anchored to the body with a screw like the larger size. There's nothing that causes a confidence loss like reeling in and seeing nothing but a lip on the end of your line. >

I have caught loads of walleyes under non-conventional conditions, i.e., the murky waters of the Erie Canal with a maximum depth of 10-12 feet. My fishing was 90% crankbaits and 10% grubs on jigheads and they hit both readily. They weren't fussy about the crankbaits, taking both bass-style and walleye-style lures. Would these baits be just as effective in more typical walleye water? Would I have caught more had I used bait on jigs? Don't have a clue as to either.

I wouldn't buy a broken rod. Unless you are absolutely addicted to Loomis, you can get some outstanding, brand-new rods in one piece for that $175.

I don't think using tiny cranks will cost you crappie.

I never used jigs for sunnies, but I don't know of any reasons why they shouldn't be hooked on a jighead that small. I've had success with small Kastmaster spoons and tiny crankbaits, like the Rapala Mini Fat Rap and the smallest Countdown minnow. The Mini Fat Rap is my favorite, but that's a subjective opinion. By the way, do you know if the fish you're missing are decent size?

Congratulations. Unfortunately, I'll never make it to the Boundary Waters, which looks like a canoeist's and fisherman's heaven.

Go for it and bring home a bass as a gift for her. And make sure to tell her you caught it on one of the gift baits even if you didn't. ;D

Google the phrase below: where send gifts to soldiers P.S. That's a very nice thing for you to do.

I don't have a clue, but will throw out one possibility. Perhaps the the company sets a floor on their products' prices, so the retailers have no choice. Yamamoto used to do this (maybe they still do) with Senkos and maybe other products as well.

Like Raul, I've been fishing the Shad Rap since its introduction and I have more confidence in it than any other crank. However, I've caught and seen caught too many fish on both rattling and non-rattling cranks when they should either work or not work. So I'd advise to use the conventional wisdom as a starting point if that makes you feel better, but don't get locked into preconceived notions and keep trying different things until you get the answers you're looking for.

Braid or otherwise, I would not trust any filament to stand up to a pike's teeth. I highly recommend a metal leader.

If it's a lure, pike will hit it readily. If I had to pick one, a spinnerbait would be my choice by a very close margin. I wouldn't rule out soft plastics, such as grubs on a jighead. In my 40 years of fishing, pike have hit all colors, but I always thought they had a special affinity for chartreuse. Many, many years ago, the 1 oz. red-and-white Daredevle was considered pike-specific, probably the most specific of any lure for any species.

He oughta start with the GM!! ;D

I say it's the latter; there are way too many occasions when bass don't conform to our conventional wisdom; we just can't predict with much degree of accuracy what they'll do at any given time.

Over the course of 40 years experience, I've learned that some reels induce twist and there was nothing I could do except stop using them. It didn't matter what line I used, what spooling method or anything else, these reels had unacceptable twist that other reels didn't, even using the same size reels, same line, same lures, same casting and retrieving techniques, etc.

All the Boise fans are rooting for you. ;D

Do you have a short memory? They played in the 2004 Super Bowl. Maybe that's the "good old-fashioned Panthers football" that the announcer had in mind.

He praised Belichick and the Pats, among other things. "Donning a Red Sox cap, Moss went out of his way to compliment his old teammates (I love you guys. I miss you.) as well as his old coach. At the same time, Moss was critical of his current head coach, Brad Childress, saying that it would have been nice to have gotten three points at the end of the first half ("I wish we could have had that three at the end of the half") on a drive which ended with Adrian Peterson being denied on a 4th and goal run at the goal line. He also showed frustration that the team didn't listen to him about the tendencies of the Patriots' offense. Moss said, at one point during the game, coaches came over to him and said, "Dang, Moss,you were right about a couple plays and schemes that they were going to run.""

Color's no different than any other aspect of fishing in that there are a variety of opinions. Bring up a subject, say, about a rod, and it's great, it stinks, and the person asking has to evaluate the various responses. As to the stained water question, I could tell you about my success in the extremely murky Erie Canal with a muted, natural color, non-rattling Shad Rap. But it doesn't matter, we all have our theories and we have to fish in the ways that give us confidence. That's why there are a gazillion permutations and combinations of lure sizes, shapes, styles, colors, etc., all of which work great for some segment of the fishing population. There are few proven facts, but we all have our opinions which we give on these forums.

That's not true. The lure manufacturing industry is heavily invested in convincing us that color is critical so that you'll buy numerous colors of the same lure, thinking that you need just the right nuance of color for a given situation. Color matters to the fishermen more than fish. Science has shown us that fish don't see the details and the differences that we do.

Don't know anything about that lure or that lake, but I'd be confident that it'd be an outstanding color if you drag it past a bass at the right time.

36" + = fun 30 and under = to quote another member slime dart. Can't argue there since 36" would break the world record. ;D

You could use it as a rough guideline, but I wouldn't take it overly seriously. For example, they include topwater plugs at 65°, but apparently exclude poppers since they say at 70° you can add poppers and buzzbaits. That doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. Like any other time, concentrate on locating the fish, then figure out what it takes to get them to bite.