Fishes in trees

My current favorite bubba drop shot bait is the Berkley Powerbait jerk shad. I start with the Arkansas Shiner color and then draw on them with red, orange and chartreuse spike it markers - mostly chartreuse. Crazy legs chigger craws have also been good bubba drop shot baits for me.

When I was fishing BFL as a co-angler, I had something similar. It worked great for transporting rods & reels from my truck to the dock and back. It isn't that it offered "protection" per se, just make it easier to gather & tote a half a dozen rods & reels. For transporting rods & reels inside the truck I have a Rod Saver vehicle rod carrier. Works great and I can carry over 20 rods in in.

I like a fairly stiff rod for throwing spinnerbaits, with just a little more flexibility in the tip than your average jig rod. I have 3 older (pre-shakespeare) All Star rods - 6'8" Zell Rowland spinnerbait rods, that meet these criteria. I primarily throw half ounce spinnerbaits, I think that if I routinely threw 3/8 oz or lighter spinner baits, I'd want more flexibility in the rod tip - maybe even a medium instead of a medium/heavy rod. Really, I don't know, what is and what ain't a decent spinnerbait rod is very subjective. I have a buddy who throws spinner baits quite a bit and I don't like his choice of rods for this technique - way too tippy for me. So, its trial and error, find something you might like, buy it and always be prepared to buy a different one. Sooner or later you'll get one you can live with. On a side note, I have a 7' Kistler Helium Small Swimbait Special that has worked its way into the spinner bait/chatterbait line up. It got that one on close out at the KCK Cabelas, so I don't think they are readily available any more - and I am really certain that they aren't available for $100. Last few times I went into Cabelas, they didn't have any Kistler rods in the racks. Good luck finding something that works for you.

I have looked at those, but I night fish so seldom that the LED black lights are way down on my list of toys to buy. I think that their trailer lighting kits are pretty cool also. I am considering one of those.

Anytime you find fish, I think that they are worth fishing for, at least for a while. A diving crank might be my choice if the water was somewhat stained. As a couple of guys have suggested earlier, I think a deeper suspending jerk bait or an Alabama rig might be better choices. If you are trying to count down an A-rig to an approximate depth, another off the wall option might be to try some sore of "flutter spoon", like a Dixie Jet or one of those larger 5" flutter spoons. A finesse option might be to countdown/swim a 3/16 oz ball head jig with a 3" to 5" grub on 8 lb or less fluorocarbon. I have successfully used this option several time in clearer water bridge pilings on Lake Ozark and Table Rock. So, there are a couple more suggestions to try.

Terminal Tackle - you mean hooks & weights & swivels & stuff? You just got 4 boxes? There is probably some overlap between the four boxes. I have I don't know how many,but there is more than 4. The more you break down and label different aspects of terminal tackle, the easier it is to find what you need/want that instant. The down side is that there is more boxes/bags that you have to tote around. Anyway, for terminal tackle here's how I am currently trying to stay organized. Weights - separate boxes for drop shot weights - worm weights - mojo weights - Carolina Rig weights - tube insert rig weights - florida style pegged worm weights (different boxes for goop weights and spring style weights), plus another box for "specialty weights", like nail weights and stick on weights, stuff like that. I've got a couple different boxes for jika rigs one for heavier ones and another for lighter ones. Swivels and beads get sorted in with the weights. The Carolina rig box gets some and the worm weights box gets some beads and the rest go in the specialty weights box. Hooks are treated a little differently. Last year at Walmart I found some clear heavy plastic pencil bags (with zippers) in the school supplies section. I bought some. Worm hooks, finesse hooks, drop shot hooks, wacky drop shot hooks, weighted weedless senko hooks, texas rig senko hooks, sling blade flutter hooks are all stored in separate clear plastic zipper bags. I'm sure that there are a couple of different styles of hooks that I'm forgetting right now, but they have their own plastic zipper bag also. Tools are another part of terminal tackle. Scissors, knives , fishing pliers, regular pliers, vise grips, side cutters, mini bolt cutters, church key (I prefer bottled beer if given a choice) are all necessary from time to time. I had problems not being able to find the took I needed instantly. So I got a took box. At the start of the trip, 4 pairs of fishing pliers are scattered around the boat, so that they are always close. Church key and whistle are on a lanyard and hung on the boat throttle. The rest of the tools stay in the box which goes under the console. At the end of the trip, I make a sincere effort to re-pack the tool box. So that is my current set up - as much as I remember it right now. It is winter, so I'm pretty sure that the set up will change somewhat by springtime, and I will have thought up some "better" way to stay organized. Hope this helps. Maybe it will frighten you so much that you'll condense all your gear down to one box, just stuff you'll need. Good luck with that. In my defense, I'd point out that this is just my boat stuff, and when I'm being a co-angler I carry less. Does a push pole count as terminal tackle - I always carry a push pole. How about lure retrievers ? I generally carry both kinds. Net? Fish grippers? Scale ? I generally don't bother with a scale, although I do have a compact one that is in my co-angler kit. I'm not being anal - I'm being prepared - I keep telling myself that there is a significant difference. Anyway - hope this helps.

I didn't break anything major this year - outside of a couple of rods. I achieved some competence in summer deeper water fishing - using jika rigs. I got better at finding deep weed line edges, using my electronics. Next year, I need to get better at fishing in grass/vegetation. I got embarrassed a couple of times frog fishing - a buddy fishing from the back of my boat catching good fish every 10 minutes or so and I could;t buy a bite.

There are different sizes of bearing covers, be sure to order the right size. They weren't standard on new 2002 Lowe trailers, I had to buy my own. It is possible to buy the wrong size.

If you want to make your useless tx rigged senko last longer, once you have torn up one end you can turn it around and rig the other end. It doesn't work that way either.

You might have deep seated self-esteem issues if you have to be "sold" on getting a Shimano reel. Once you touch a Calcutta 200 TEGT or a Calais, or a Core or any of the mid-level to higher end Shimano bait casting reels, it will speak to you and you won't want to fish with any other reel. I presume that applies to the lower end Shimano reels as well, but I don't have any so I can't speak to that. The hard part comes when you have an assortment of Shimano reels, some on jig rods, some on crank rods, some on spinnerbait rods, and they are all talking to you - at once - saying "put me in, coach". .. … That will test your decision making abilities.

An important life rule is, "Use the right tool for the job" Its corollary is "or suffer the consequences." Maybe it is just me, but I think that a Chronarch (even though it is a Shimano) is a little light to be throwing 3oz + baits any distance. I would think that a heavier duty reel is in order. (I think that, I don't know that - significant difference) Of course, money is always an issue, and if so, use what you got. The worst that could happen is that you tear it up and then you will have an interesting story and a desk ornament.

My first few boats were borrowed, i.e. I fished ponds & small lakes where various acquaintances kept boats and i was allowed to use them from time to time. Early on in my fishing career I bought a Minn Kota 65 trolling motor & deep cycle battery & charger. The first boat that I owned was an 8' Water Scamp that I car topped on a 1979 Datsun 200 SX. At that point in my fishing career, I was primarily focused on fishing central Missouri Strip pits. Not in Trophy Country per se, but in different pits in and around that general area, and a little further south in the Finger Lakes State Park.

The only way to know for sure if a line will work on any particular reel is to try it. After a point, heavier line doesn't work on spinning gear very well. On bait casters, I routinely use 20 lb Abrazx on a Curado 50E reel and it works great - until a back lash happens and then it is a pain. I tried 6 lb fluorocarbon on a Calcutta 50 reel and it worked great - until a back lash happened, then it was a pain. Trial and error is the only way to find out for sure for yourself. I've read about other guys who use light flurorbarbon line on bait casters and it worked fine - for them - it just doesn't work so well for me. Guys at the fishing tackle store tell me that using 20 lb Abrazx on a 50 sized reel is asking for it - but it works OK for me. i.e. I can live with the occasional back lash. Trial & error - just because some one else tells you something will or won't work isn't any reason to try it. You've got your own judgement - use it.

I like to take a shower and wear clean, weather appropriate fishing clothes when I leave the house and be certain that rain gear is in the truck. I eat breakfast on the road - usually 2 slices of Casey's breakfast pizza and a large coffee. When I get closer to the lake, stop and buy ice and anything else I might need that has occurred to my during the drive. I try to keep a couple of different sets of weather appropriate fishing clothes in the truck. At the end of the day, after I've loaded the boat and transferred gear int0 the truck as necessary, I like to change clothes. I find driving home in hot sweaty clothes is annoying and should I decide to stop at a restaurant on the way home, I think that walking into an eating establishment when you are sweaty and stinky is rude. I know that there are occasions when that can't be avoided, but for the most part I think it is rude. Other superstitions/habits would include rods rigged and ready to go. If I'm going to be fishing soft plastics primarily, I want to have my first few color choices out of storage and easy to get to.

I use the Weedless Falcon K Wacky hooks quite a bit. An alternate hook for me would be the Gamakatsu Finesse hooks. I like the 1/16 oz weighted ones best, because all other things being equal, I think the slightly faster drop doesn't hurt anything. A few years ago, I came across a bunch of the 3/0 1/16 oz size. Even given the rate I go through these, I don't think I will have to buy any more until 2018, maybe 2020.

For me, this year, my most productive summer baits were: A - Jika rigged soft plastic ( mostly one brand or another of creature bait) B - square bill crank ( primarily a Timber Tiger DC 8 or DC 4) C - weightless senko - wacky rigged D - deeper diving crank ( primarily as Timber Tiger DC13 or DC16, but I fished lots of different deep divers) E - Bubba drop shot ( Berkley Chigger Craw was best bait with a Berkley Jerk Shad a strong second.

Are you fishing from the bank or do you have a boat of some sort. Anyway, in my youth, I fished strip pits quite a bit. A boat helps a lot in figuring out a pit. If I was bank bound, I might try different methods of "chumming" and try to attract fish to you. Anyway, and this applies to most, but not all, strip pits, the most important feature to find on a strip pit is the exit. That is to say that when these pits were dug, they had to create a ramp of some sort to get the digging equipment out of the pit once they were finished digging. That area will offer a transition area from shallow water to deep water and that is where I'd focus my search. A depth finder helps in pit fishing a lot. The strip pits I used to fish in central MO were famous for having humps and stuff left over from the diggings in the middle of the lake and if you didn't have a depth finder you would NEVER find them.

I've got a rod holder similar to the Cabelas vehicle rod holder mentioned above, mine is made by Rod Saver. I pull my boat with an Explorer. My vehicle rod holder transports a dozen rods easily and I often cram 25 rods on to it. It works good.

Where you're at, the water is frozen right now and so you aren't going cranking any time soon, therefore you might want to save your pennies and sometime in the spring you can get a Chronarch in the gear ratio of your choice or if you like round reels, get a Calcutta. If you really want to get into distance casting, get a Curado 300 E. Given a modest amount of care, those reels will last a lifetime. I've got a couple of Calcutta's that are + or - 10 years old or so ( don't remember exactly when I got them) and they are just broke in, not worn out in any way. In the period between 10 years ago and now I've worn out several lesser reels. My advice is to save your money and spend it on quality gear that will last a long time… . .. . Chronarchs, Calcutta's, Curado's, you have to work at it to wear those reels out.

I recently cleared out my boat for the winter. Turns out I carry more spinnerbaits than I thought I did. Most don't get used very often. I found one box of 20 or so War Eagle spinnerbaits, the small heavy ones (1/4 oz size, 1/2 oz weight) various colors, mostly clearer water colors. I found one box of Terminators - mostly 1/2 oz with a few 3/8 oz. - various colors I got one box of War Eagle spinnerbaits - regular 1/2 oz size with a few 3/4 oz (half of them were in the "spot remover " color, both gold blades and nickel blades. I would have used these more this year, but I forgot I had them. I got a box of 10 Terminator 1/2 oz single colorado blades - black with a larger gold blade - I use these quite a bit. These are sold as "night baits" but I think that they are a good all around color in clearer water around heavier cover. I found a box of 16 old strike king quad blades - various colors. I forgot I had these. I also found my "tournament kit" that I carried when I was fishing bfl as a co-angler. These were smaller Flambeau boxes that each held 6 spinner baits. 1 box had 6 J&J spinner baits (a regional Missouri brand, long since out of business, although Chompers now sells a very close copy) These were in the "Truman Lake" color. Chartruese/white with gold/chartruese willow and a gold/white colorado blade. Box 2 had my muddy water favorites - 1/2 oz single colorado, chartreuse/purple with a copper colorado blade. ( I use this style/color quite a bit when I'm in heavily stained or muddily water) Box 3 had 4 old McCollum "Bush Hogs" 1/2 oz with 2 large tandem colorado blades - used for "bulging" I got these because one time during a tournament at Table Rock, there was kind of a surface bite. After the fact I found out that the guys throwing buzz baits (including me) caught primarily short fish, while most of the guys who placed & got money were fishing a similar pattern, but were " bulging " their baits rather than fishing a buzz bait. So like a French general, always ready to fight the last war, I got some. Thats a lot of spinnerbaits, close to a hundred counting all of them. I carry them because I have the room, but I don't use them very often…..

I use spinning gear all the the for jerk bait fishing. Currently I'm using a 6'3" med power/ ex-fast tip Shimano rod. I'm currently using 14 lb crystal Fireline and a shorter, generally under 2 feet fluorocarbon leader. I went spinning years ago, because where I live, whenever it is jerk bait time, it is generally windy and spinning gear gives me fewer problems in the wind. Notice I didn't say no problems, just fewer problems. I'd like to go with a longer rod for more distance, but then I'd be tip slapping the water all the time, so the current spinning rod is a compromise.

Allegedly, you get somewhat better accuracy with a shorter rod and more distance with a longer rod. True fact & simple physics, all things being equal you should get more distance using a longer rod. Shorter rods more accurate? That is very debatable. I think that you are the most accurate with the rod that you practice with/use the most, no matter what length it is. Me, I use a 7'4" MH BPS Extreme for 90% of my cranking. BPS originally sold this rod as a lighter action pitching rod - it is way to "tippy" for me to pitch with. Turned out, for me it works good as a square bill/ medium cover cranking rod, so I didn't waste my money. Later, one time they went on sale and I bought a couple of extra ones so that should I ever break the original, I've got another and I don't have to learn the whims of another cranking rod.

For slightly less money than the St Croix Avid or the Denali, look at the Fenwick HMG graphites or the newer Aetos line.

This is just my opinion. The fiberglass Rick Clunn rods (the turquoise ones) make good cat fish rods. I think that everyone should have a set of cat rods for tight line, slack line and sitting in a rod holder drifting techniques. I think that as bass fishing rods, they are pretty heavy and clunky. They are a little lighter, when compared to 70's & 80's era fiberglass rods, but I think that there are lots of lighter - stronger - better cranking rods out there. At 2 for $50 though, they are a great catfish rod.

I think braid is great with cranks - until you get it stuck. Once you get a deep diver stuck on braid, it is a pain. Your extendable pole probably won't reach it, even if the wind will let you get on top of it. Your hound dog type lure retriever might work, except when you first got snagged you thought it was a fish and so you set the hook and so the hooks are deeper into the branch than they might be with mono. Maybe you can get on the other side of the snag and pull it off - good luck with that. After 5 minutes of messing with it, your best option is to wrap the braid around a boat cleat and back it off with the trolling motor. Don.t try jerking on it real hard with your hands - you will cut your hand. Don't try jerking real hard with your rod - you can break a rod doing that or maybe even bend a spool shaft. Like I said, throwing cranks with braid is great. As a general rule, you cranks will run deeper. Your sense of feel might be enhanced. Once you get it stuck, it is a pain. Pick your poison.