Fishes in trees

If you are just flipping, I don't think it matters, although a reel with a flipping switch is nice. If you will be pitching, I don't think you can beat a Calcutta 200 TEGT. This reel is very tight,exceptionally sturdy and with the 11 ball bearings your pitching distance is really extended. I routinely pitch at targets 40 to 60 feet away, with no extra ordinary wrist effort.

I'd consider upgrading to the biggest 12 volt trolling motor I could get. If you fish by yourself alot, you could consider getting several deep cycle batteries and wiring them parallel to extend your running time. If you need a depth finder you could get one of those Hummingbird Fishing Buddies portable depth finders. Should you need separate 12 volt power, to urn your depth finder or what not, consider a smaller, 12 volt motorcycle battery.

Nearly every time I go fishing, the Buck Perry quote comes to mind, "The fish are deep, or shallow, or somewhere in between." I've read his spoonplugging book several times and I still can't figure out if he was being profound or facetious. He be dead so I'll never know.

I seldom have the need to take a picture when I'm fishing,when I do I just use my cell phone. I try to keep the cell phone in a waterproof case when it is in the boat.

Firday 8/27 ended up not trying at different lake this week, returned to Indian Creek Lake in Livingston County. Bright sunshine & breezy all day. Significant drop in water temp compared to last week. (surface temp, don't have any way to measure temp at different depths) Last week 87 to 89 degrees all over the lake (roughly 180 acres) This week, didn't find any water over 80 degrees until after 3 in the afternoon, back in a cove, and not everywhere in the cove. Fishing was basically slower then last week. Outside of a couple of crank bait fish, all the fish (15 or so slot fish, no keepers) come on the drop shot rig. A couple of major points had the southern wind blowing in to them. Fish should have been stacked on the points. I marked a few, but I couldn't get a major bite going. A couple of crank bait fish (1 off each point) and that was it. I spent a little over 2 hours covering 2 points, which were less than 50 yards each. I threw shallow & deep cranks, t-rigs, 1/2 oz jig with a Chompers. Water was borderline clear enough for jerk baits, so I spent a short amount of time looking for suspended fish with Lucky Craft pointers. Most productive patten was Beaver dams. Every cove in that lake has 1 or 2 beaver dams in it. Drop shot 8 to 15 feet of water in front of the dam and you'd get bit. Come back 20 minutes later and you'd get bit again. As breezy as it was, I caught a major sun burn & didn't realize it until I was driving home. You can carry all the sunscreen you want in your fishing truck, but it doesn't work unless you actually put it on. I don't know what I was thinking, I just forgot to do the sunscreen thing. The first serious burn I've got this year. Ears, cheeks, back of neck - bright red. Coincidentally, the first time this year I forgot my doofus hat, it looks stupid, but it covers all the areas that got burned. I wore a ball cap instead. my mistake. I got no clue where my doofus hat is, I'll have to go get another.

I have a small Calcutta 50 I use on a Loomis drop shot rod. It handles 8 lb fluorocarbon ok. I wouldn't say it worked great. You have to pay attention all the time so that the line doesn't wrap around the tip of the rod. I don't think that is the reels fault. I use this rig for fishing deep, relatively close to the boat. Should I want to fish away from the boat more, the spinning dropshot rig fishes better. You still have to pay attention to the light line wrapping around the rod tip.

I target alot of bushes and brush in 4' - 8' of water. The Timber Tiger DC8 gets the nod most of the time. I fish it on 17 or 14 lb line. If I'm sitting in 12 to 20 feet of water and throwing at a dropping bank, I'll use a Timber Tiger DC13 or DC16. If I threw cranks around areas where there wasn't so much brush cover, I'd probably throw different brands, but the Timber Tiger comes through brush cover real well, and that's primarily where I'm fishing now.

Chompers make a good stick bait. Mann's makes a good stick bait. Bass Pro makes a decent stick bait. Berkley sink worm works good. Zoom magnum trick worm works good. I have some Culprit and some Northland Slurpies stick baits. And I'm sure that there are some brands that I've forgotten. I have most of the ones previously mentioned as well. I tend to buy all of them. When it is time to choose one, I open up the soft plastic stick bait bag (Senko's, being reserved for wacky duty only have their own bag) and which ever one screams the loudest "PUT ME IN!!" gets the nod. I realize that it isn't the most scientific system in town, but it works about as well as any other system.

I've used them for a few years now. I pretty much see them as an alternative to a rattle trap or a spinnerbait. Some days they work better, other days, not so much. Figuring out when & where to use them instead of a rattle trap or a spinnerbait is still a work in progress.

Like Wayne P, I've got an alumaducer in my boat (a Lowe 180WF). After smashing several brackets and a couple of transducers, it seemed to be the way to go. I'm totally happy with it. I can actually get a depth reading when I'm on plane, which was never the case with the transom mounted transducer. I'm not real handy with stuff like this, so my biggest problem was finding a place that would install it and stand by their work. Alumaducers are not a real common item inthe aluminum boat world, even though they have been on the market for a while. I found a place in St Louis - Tri-State Trolling Motors. I had to tow my boat across the state and then go back the next week to pick it up. I've been totally happy with their install - 3 years and it is still working.

Where you at? This seems to be stuff that you've got to look at to have an opinion. Maybe someone here lives close to you.

Got out yesterday (8/20) - went to Indian Creek Lake in Livingston County. Tough day - it was't that hot,but I couldn't get any kind of a pattern going. Every 10 or 20 minutes I'd catch a slot fish 8 - 15 feet down on the bubba drop shot rig. Started raining at 3 - variable rains the rest of the afternoon. Boat & gear got soaked, but Frogg Toggs worked. Bite picked up a little bit, but nothing stellar. One stumpy mid lake hump produced 5 fish in 5 casts (all 13-14 inch slot fish) and then it stopped. Fish wouldn't hit the shallow crank anymore. Wouldn't hit the spinnerbait. Wouldn't hit the chatterbait. Wouldn't hit the Magic Swimmer. Don't know what was up. 5 fish in 5 casts, I know I didn't catch all the fish in the area, but they just shut down. I didn't make any stupid amounts of noise and I didn't have my trolling motor very high. I don't know. Bite just stopped. Probably try a different lake next week.

P Line is bad. All of it. Do not pay regular price for it. Don't pay sale price for it. Don't buy it. P line is bad.

Generally, when I go out fishing, I take mostly waters. I am aware that the boat and the truck towing it are not fully paid for, so I've gotten over the habit of taking many beers with me while I'm fishing. But, it is ok to take a few (3 or 4) so I can upgrade in quality a little bit. My current faves are Pisner Urquels or Boulevard Pilsner (the official beer of the newest attack submarine, the USS Missouri.)

I've got an old graphite/glass blend Bud Erhardt cranking rod & it has the spiral wrap on it. I think it adds a little bit to your cranking distance, but I don't know how to prove it. I don't know why that isn't a more mainstream approach for reaction bait rods.

Back in the day, when I was fishing out of borrowed and rental boats alot, I had one of these. Hummingbird makes them now, Bottom Line made them then. I found it easy to use and I loved the water temp feature on it. I never had much use for the side finder feature. I knew a couple of other guys who had one and they had some success locating schools of minnows in open water. The only issue I had with mine was it was a battery eater. I never could get two trips out of one set of batteries, they would always fail in the middle of the second trip. Taking the batteries out of the unit between trips seemed to help some, but I just got into the habit of getting batteries when I stopped for beer & gas on the way fishing.

These are good baits, I have a few of them. They don't get wet very often because, basically, this shape, with a few alterations became the Timber Tiger - which IMO is a better bait. The DC 16 and the DC13 have the same steep diving angle, but they come through timber and brush much better.

When I fish a popper, I like to keep it moving most of the time. I like it spitting and popping and dog walking, I work it pretty aggressively. Basically, I use it in place of a buzzbait, because you can stop it occasionally and it floats.

The vast majority of articles you find on drop shot fishing are derivative, i.e., lots of different authors basically covering the same ground. Once you learn to tie a palomar knot with a long tag line, the rest is basically up to you. Experiment with different rigs, from very light to very heavy. Experiment with different leader lengths, from a couple of feet to a few inches. A good for instance is what I'm experimenting with this year. I'm fishing alot iwth a med/hvy rod and 14 lb fluorocarbon. Using a 3/8 or 1/2 ounce weight and a4 to 6 inch leader, I'm throwing this rig in places where years past I'd throw a jig or a T-rig. So far this year, it is outfishing the jig 10 to 1 at least. So, anyway, my experience has been that the more you fish a drop shot, the more uses you'll find for it.

Standing timber close to a creek channel. Approach #A would be to pitch at it, to the shady side with 20 lb fluoro and a 10" power worm - worm color depending on water color. Weight? I'd start with 1/4 oz and then maybe upgrade, get heavier. Another approach would be to crank it. A Timber Tiger DC 16 on an abrasion resistant mono - 14 or 17. You will get down 8 feet for sure, maybe 10 and with the thermocline you don't need to go deeper. I'm a big fan of cranking in trees and with the Timber Tiger, you don't lose very many.

I ain't a big fan of using fluorocarbon line as leader material. I prefer to use fluorocarbon leader material, like guys use for saltwater live bait fishing and sometimes for fly fishing leaders. It is alot stiffer than fluorocarbon line, and much more abrasion resistant. I tie fluorocarbon leaders (15 or 20 lb) to 14 lb fireline and I've never had a leader break at the joining knot. I will occasionally break the line at the hook knot, but that is probably because I went too long between re-tying.

I would buy the Minn Kota. I freely admit that I am bigoted toward Motor Guides. I used to fish BFL's as a co-angler and I had two tournaments ruined because the boaters trolling motor screwed up. Both times it was a Motor Guide.

Brewer Slider heads & 4" worms. I find 6 lb is optimal, but you can drop down to 4 should you feel you have to. Use a sweep set on bites rather than a snap set. Should you have any of the old Berkley Power Bait Bungee Worms, the smaller size works great on Brewer heads.

This could be just me, but I prefer some brand of popper, a Lucky Craft G-Splash or a Rapala Skitter Pop to a buzz bait, primarily because I've got greater control of the whole range of speeds. I can make a popper quiver in place if I want to and I can't make a buzz bait do that. I know a couple of very good semi-pro tournament fishermen (who primarily fish on Truman Lake), these guys prefer a Mann's Minus 1 (the big one) to a buzz bait all the time. So there are a couple of other options

The one thing I like about the banjo minnow is how the rubber bond over the hook barb makes it semi-snagless. I'm considering trying this rigging on other dropshot baits.