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As long as you can keep your blades and hook from getting fouled, there's really no type of cover than you cannot fish a spinnerbait around. They work just about everywhere. The heavy ones can make a great pitching bait around slop and emergent weeds. I fish spinnerbaits more than any other lures, and mostly around weedcover. If my blades are getting fouled more often than not, I usually feel I'll catch more fish if I switch to frog, swim jig, or paddle-tail swimbait. If I snag the spinnerbait in the weeds, which I often do, I'll have to motor in and spook the spot to retrieve it, and the wire will get bent up.

That's a good point, especially if you're slow fishing. I would recommend using it sparingly and maybe using a scent to cover it up if you're worried about scent building up in the water. I personally like having some blades, slip sinkers, and shakey head jigs that are accented with white, red or orange.

I like the Megastrike jigheads with the barb for deeper, standard shaky head presentations, but the bargain-bin Bagleys jigheads in 1/16 oz have produced for me better than any other. Use a couple drops of glue on it to hold the bait in place, and you have a fine skipping bait thats deadly around docks.

When using muted colors, I don't think it makes much of a difference. I think a little bit of bright color may help sometimes, though. Most of my weights are black, and half have a few slashes of bright colored nail polish on them. I've had some good times with weights and baits accented with bright red/orange flake nail polish that I found at Wal Mart.

I don't like CX personally, but CXX is a very good line, in the lighter tests especially. But even good lines have factory defects once in a while. I recently had a bad spool of 12# that had a few weak spots straight off the spool. They looked all curled up like they had ben burned with a lighter, and I could break the line in my hands easily.

I'd recommend the 735C. I have one for jigs and another for frogs. The 734C is a little too soft and too moderate to the be well rounded jig rod, it's better suited to spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, and wakebaits.

They are matte black down the blank. Very sharp looking rods.

I'd recommend the Dobyns with a $145 Curado from Ebay. You might also be able to find a 2009 Revo STX that's still NIB for about $130. The Dobyns Champion series rods are a good deal better than the GL Mossyback, and I own, use, and like both of these rods.

I think the Revo STX and Curado E are comparable reels, both in quality and durability, retail and used price, and value. These are the two reels I've settled on and I own quite a few of each. I prefer the feel of the Curado over the Revo by just a hair, and the Curado is easier to do a complete breakdown for cleaning, so it gets the edge in my book. http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1277522242 Either one would be a good choice, IMO. It's hard to pass up either reel for $140 or less, especially those 2009 STXs that went on closeout last year for $100 and are now in the used markets for $120-130 shipped.

You can fish just about any lure around reeds (bulrushes/tullies) as they are somewhat sparse and allow lures to pass through them, and not prone to seriously fouling or snagging your lure. The fish can be picky as to where the position themselves in relation to shade and wind currents around emergent vegetation. So accurately casting and hitting your spots multiple times from more than one angle might be more important than what lure you're using. I believe this can be said for most situations. Around the cover you mentioned, I would throw black or white frogs to the pads, buzzbaits on the edges, light single colorado spinnerbaits on long casts through the bulrushes, and Senkos skipped to the edges and allowed to fall to the bottom and be twitched a few times.

I've had the same thing happen. It's frustrating to get up early, leave the house at 3:45am and not catch a thing for the first two hours on the lake. I recall that in my In-Fisherman Bass Location book, they state that in certain conditions in spring and summer, oxygen levels in the shallows are very low in the morning, leading to an unexpected slow bite. Sorry to be so vague. I don't have the book with me. Is anybody familiar with this?

I like Bass Insider. There are some good articles that wouldn't otherwise be available. It's worth a couple bucks a month to me, especially during the off-season. But just barely...

I like the areas where the river channel's outside bend is closest to shore, like near the landing at Victor and Wister Ridge. Especially that point and small bay at Wister Ridge Park. The outside bend is likely scoured out, deep and rocky, and there are feeding flats adjacent in the 10' range, along with shoreline cover and possibly underwater bluffs. Theres also the long, narrow depression north of Fanny Creek Park that looks like it worth working thoroughly. That Quarry Island, near the dam, looks like a great fall spot for fish to feed before wintering near the dam. I would personally want to cover some water with search lures like heavy spinnerbaits and swim jigs and find my own spots. Good luck. Looks like a cool lake. I like how it's almost completely bordered by state parks and waterfowl refuges. There must not be very many houses on that lake.

That was it.

I would chose heavy spinnerbaits with a variety of blades and skirts. A spinnerbait is be one of the most versatile lures.

Minnesota. Come September, my favorite month to fish, I'll begin taking fewer rods and lures in the boat. I'll spend most of my time with the troller on 40-50, running and gunning spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, and lipless cranks until the water hits 45 degrees or so. Then it's slow spinnerbaits, suspending jerkbaits, jigs, shake worms, and Senkos until winterizing the boat a few days before 11/06 firearm deer hunting opener. Good times. I love fall fishing.

Well put, RW. There's no reason to wait with any soft plastic lure or jig.

Try to find a sandy shoreline, beach the boat, tie it to a tree on shore if you can, grab your bug spray, and walk into the woods and kill some time. Racing across the lake when it starts to rain can really sting.

No, if the line slips through the knot, it will pull any kinks out easily. Braided line has low memory.

I use 1000 size reel on UL rods. Anything heavier is overkill and feels off-balanced to me.

It sounds like line slippage to me. Usually you'll at least get a couple headshakes from a pike before they saw you off, and the line will be frayed. Give the Double Palomar a shot next time. Just make two overhand wraps with the loop instead of one, before passing the loop over the lure.

Wow, what a nice fish! Congrats! Those $2 Super Spots are my favorite crankbait.

Both, but usually with a weight. I usually fish them on shakyhead jigs.

That's what I do too. Rather than remove the peg, I slide it up the line 6-12". I peg the sinker usually, but let the sinker slide if the bite is slow or I'm using light weights.

No. I often upsize and slow down.