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I visited my favorite big-bass lake today and witnessed about 50 cormorants and 10 Pelicans floating around. I had never seen any cormorants on the lake before, and I've been fishing it for 7 years. I really hope they move on and find a nice wind turbine to nest near.

Some random Google search back in the day.

Loons and cormorants will take swipes at lures, too, especially suspending jerkbaits.

Might be a good time to visit for the first time!

My last couple purchases were from Alley's tungsten, and the product is plenty good at an affordable rate. I never once had my line sliced with the insert-free weights. My next purchase will be from Seibert because they have significantly better prices and they're a BR sponsor.

3/4 oz. double-willow spinner would work fine at those depths.

This is one of my favorite techniques for fishing football jigs with round-rubber skirts. Just inching it along with the reel. It's especially effective in late fall when the water is in the 50's.

Braid for the main line. I've found that frogging rods work well for pulling double-duty as a Carolina rig rod. The action, length and line of the frog stick are perfect for C-rigs, and rarely do I find myself wanting to alternate back and forth between frogs and C-rigs.

Frankly, I think a person can get away with a simple approach, for the most part. At the risk of oversimplifying things, here's a good starting point. Paddle tail trailers for warmer water and active fish, and subtle trailers for cooler water and less active fish. Black/blue for darker water and darker days, and green pumpkin for clearer water and lighter days. Pictured are the Strike King Rage Tail Craw and the Zoom Super Chunk. Tried-and-true winners.

Very happy with my order. Those sale-priced items were a total bargain. I especially like the bladed jigs. They're very erratic on the retrieve.

The new Citica is really hard to beat in that price range. Ebay has some.

In super clear, grassy lakes, I like watermelon and green pumpkin finesse plastics like tubes, TRDs, grubs, and soft jerkbaits.

I was always a tail-down guy, but over the last couple years I've switched. I feel tail-up makes the body of the bait wiggle back and forth a little as the tail twists. Tail-down results in action of the tail only.

Depends on the lake. I've fished in 30mph winds on small lakes where I can find shorelines as wind-breaks and where even the windy side of the lake isn't too crazy. However, I'm wary to go out on the round 130,000 acre Mille Lacs lake with even a 12-14mph wind because it can easily develop into 3' waves that'll threaten to swamp even a big fiberglass bass boat. It'll get so rough you can't stand up to fish, and when you do give up and head in, hitting waves in the boat will send spikes of pain through your spine if you try to plow through them on plane.

I fish them just like the classic spinnerbait retrieves. They're a retrieve where you burn it steadily just under the surface, with a twitch here and there; a stop-and-go retrieve with lots of pauses, snaps, and pumps; and a slow roll where you slowly and steadily bump it along the bottom or the weed-tops with occasional twitches or pauses to trigger strikes.

Are you trying to cast them too hard or with too much 'snap'? I always do a side-arm, arcing lob with those huge cranks, with the path of the rod similar to that of a baseball player with an uppercut swing. You definitely want to get some elevation to the cast! Norman DD22's have a similar issue because of that huge bill.

I fish frogs all day long. During low-light periods, the fish typically are a little more willing to get out from underneath the slop and hit baits worked on the edges.

He's right. Lead feels rather 'dead' after one gets used to tungsten. The major advantage, to me, is the ability to use a T-rig to scout bottom content and composition. You can feel the transition from mud to sand, sand to gravel, gravel to rock, etc., especially with the heavier ones. Now, on a related topic, try some tungsten shaky head jigs. Those are game changers, too.

I crushed one of the favorite rods ever, the discontinued Dobyns Champion Extreme DX792sf, in a rod locker. The lid fell on it and chopped it in half like a guillotine.

Keel-weighted, screw-lock hooks in the 4/0 size. This is made by Owner.

We make these frogs walk in the open pockets and edges of the slop. It's like the best of both worlds: a weedless floater that walks the dog.

55 lb Seaguar Tatsu or straight 20 lb Daiwa Samurai is what I like the best. I use the fluorocarbon around areas where the fish may be able to see the line, and the straight braid around thick grass.

Seaguar Tatsu is the best fluorocarbon line on the market, bar none, but it's also very expensive. Seaguar Invisx 6-8 lb test might be a better option for you. It's an excellent 'starter' fluorocarbon line, especially for spinning reels. Very soft and low memory. A lot of anglers swear by it.

Medium-power spinning sticks for me. I'm not a big fan of trying to cast those light balsa cranks on baitcasting gear.

Spinnerbait/buzzbait Squarebill/lipless crankbait Jig and craw/Texas Rig Senko/Soft jerkbait