Fishes in trees

Since the Hibdons (Guido & Deon) relationship with Diawa dissolved, they have become spokesmen for US Reels. They did a product demonstration at Rogers Lures in Liberty, MO earlier this spring, I got to talk to Deon for a while. They like these reels. I understand that they are getting paid to say that they like these reels, but still, Deon seemed sincere, and he said that they fished with them for a while prior to the decision to endorse them was made. I've got 4 of them & I think they work fine. I think occasionally long casts are important and I think that the larger spools on these reels help me make longer casts. I can't speak to their bait casting reels.

Stuff to consider: A - It is a Tracker. For just a little more money you can get a Lowe or a Express or a Triton Aluminum. All 3 of which are heavier, sturdier boats IMO. B - It is a Tracker - so your customizing options will be limited. With the standard 50, it is a little underpowered, or depending on your point of view, it is a lot underpowered. What is the max HP you can hang on that boat? My 18' Lowe has a 100 hp 4 stroke and often I feel like it I'm underpowered. That feeling is tempered by knowing that I bought all the hp I could afford at the time. When my boat is fully loaded, it is doggy getting on plane. The Tracker 175 is only 5" shorter and it comes stock with a 50. How is it going to perform with another person (or two) and a full tank of gas and gear on board? C - Trolling motor issues. The standard 46 lb thrust, 12 volt trolling motor, it is definitely underpowered. I've got a 74 lb thrust 24 volt Maxxum on my boat and there are lots of times I wish I had more power. You can aways dial it down to go slow, but when you are trying to hang on a point in the wind, there is no substitute for trolling motor power. On a positive note - the trailer comes with a swing away tongue - that is a positive feature. The storage on the boat is laid out better than on my boat. I haven't fished out of a Tracker for a long time, so I can't speak to trim/ finish issues. From a tournament perspective, that boat is underpowered. Almost anybody who wants to beat you to a spot will be able to. Also with that boat, you will be able to get shallow, shallower than most guys with fiberglass will want to get. When you get shallow, sooner or later you will get stuck. Does that boat have enough trolling motor to get you unstuck? I don't know. I would think that a push pole would be a necessary option. Basically, IMO the gas engine horsepower issue is something I could live with. The 12 volt trolling motor will drive you crazy. If there is no way to upgrade to a big (70 lb thrust or bigger) 24 volt trolling motor, I wouldn't get it. I hope this helps.

Drag it- shake it - bounce it - do nothing. Those are 4 options. There are more. Think about what you're doing with the dropshot. Like any other technique, there are plusses and minuses associated with it. A major minus is that it isn't a fast, cover the water type approach. There are more, but I'm not going to go into right now. I've been fishing drop shot alot this spring and summer, so I'll focus on the plusses. The primary advantage to this technique is that you can anchor a bait a given distance above the bottom and make it dance and quiver. So far this year, I've been carrying 3 dropshot rigs all the time. I've got a 7' spinning rod with 8 lb test, a 6'10" m/h bait cast rods with 14 lb. fluorocarbon and a 7 1/2' flipping stick with 20 lb fluorocarbon. Whichever one I pick up depends on what kind of bottom/cover I'm dealing with. LIght weed/cover & clearer water I will probably go with the spinning rig. Most of the time, I've got the bait casters in my hand. Just throw it out and fish it like you would a t-rig. I don't throw it very far - I seldom throw more than 30 feet and I often work it very close to the boat - depends on depth. Just be secure in the knowledge that your bait is dancing around - x many inches above the bottom, depending on how long of a leader you've chosen. On the heavier rigs I tend to t-rig the baits as opposed to nose hooking them. On the spinning rig I'll nose hook most of the time. On the heavier rigs I'll use bigger baits - senko imitations with a tougher plastic, flukes, especially the 7" mag fluke. The powerbait 4" crazy legs chigger craw has been a good producer the past month. Experiment with leader length - I'm currently mostly using a 5 to 10 inch leader on the heavier rigs. On the lighter rig I'll use whatever length will put me a few inches whatever bottom grass is present. 12" would be short - 24" would be long. The basic approach is to drag it along and make it dance. When you stop, you know for a fact that your bait is X many inches above the bottom. Another thing to remember is that once your bait is on the bottom, it is essentially weightless. There is no weight to interfere with your feel between your bait and your rod tip. Once you get into drop shotting, the more you will get into it. These days It seems I spend the majority of my fishing time drop shotting. It is almost getting to the point of if an area doesn't look like it has good drop shot potential, I'll move on. Kind of like years ago, when sluggos were the hot bait - if an area didn't look like it had good sluggo potential, I'd move on. Once again, I've ranted too much about drop shots - I'll stop now. Thanks for reading

Arkie type heads are a good compromise. Basically, I've found that rounder heads come through timber & bushes and better and pointy heads come through weeds & grass better. If you are dragging the jig over rocks, I've found football heads work better. If you want a large profile jig - there are dozens of options out there. Should you want a smaller profile, I think it is hard to beat the Eakins Heavy Cover jig.

I've been having some success using these baits. I don't care if they have a whole lot of action or not, hasn't been an issue. I've been fishing they Bubba Dropshot style, i.e. flippin stick, 20 lb. fluorocabon, 1/2 ounce dropshot weight, 4/0 hook. I've got the bait t-rigged with a 5" to 10" drop leader. Throw it out (preferably into or very near gnarly cover) drop to the bottom - semi-tight line - quiver it for 5 to 10 seconds - drag a little bit and then repeat. Should it get stuck, quiver and try to make it dance for 20 or 30 seconds before you try to get it back. If the bait is stuck, you''re screwed, you have to break it off. Much more often than not, it is the weight and it is just lodged, not totally stuck. Dancing the bait 6" off whatever it is lodged on is more often than not when you get bit. So, back to the point, I don't care what action the bait has, I can give it all the action it needs. I think they come in some pretty neat colors, expecially the bluegill color and the purple python color is a great murky water color. The fact that they are made out of a thicker, sturdier plastic is a bonus when you use them like I'm using them. I can't speak to using them weightless or wacky rigged. I know this post got a little long - anyway thanks for reading.

Cerestliner 2008 has the right idea. Save your pennies and get yourself one of those Fishing Buddies portable depth finders. I bought one of those years ago, (when they were made by Bottom Line). They are incredibly handy and will save you alot of time so far as figuring out how deep where goes. Mine also had a temp. guage feather, which I found really hand in the early spring for finding the warmest water in the lake. The only down side I found was that they were battery eaters, i.e you pretty much had to buy new batteries every time you went - really not that big of a deal, unless you forget to buy batteries as you are heading out.

Had a decent day Friday 7/30 after getting skunked Weds 7/28. Weds. was miserable hot, had 18 waters & 4 beers in the cooler, When I got home, there were 5 waters and 3 beers left. Friday was a different story, it was supposed to be miserable hot, partly cloudy with a 30% chance of showers. Well, it rained off and on all day. Frogg Toggs are cool. 4 different times, it rained so hard you couldn't see 100 feet in front of you. Water color was moderate to heavily stained. Visibility averaged less than a foot. I caught fish off and on all day long. Lost count - more than 20 but probably less than 30. Mostly slot fish, but 3 solid keepers.. A few fish came on cranks and spinner baits, majority of the fish came on the Bubba drop shot rig - 20 lb fluoro and 1/2 ounce weight. I experimented with baits alot - best bait was the Gulp sinking minnow - green pumpkin with the tip of the tail dyed chartruese. I would have used that all the time, but the Gulp dries out quick. Driving from one end of the lake to another - 10 minutes - would dry it out noticeably. I'd forgotten how much fun fishing in the rain is.

The Charlie Brewer book on Slider Fishing is a great book. You can still get it through the Brewer tackle company. There are lots of fishing books out there, but I am really at a loss to say which ones are worth re-reading. I think everyone should read the Buck Perry stuff about Structure Fishing and Spoonplugging. You will end up saying "huh?" and "I don't understand" alot, even so he is the father of structure fishing and for the most part defined much of the language we use to talk about fishing.

Today, I had the time to go to Cabelas in KCK. I got a couple of the Sebile Magic Swimmers in the 3/4 ounce size and a few packs of 3/8 ounce drop shot weights. I'm going to get the Magic swimmers wet tomorrow or Friday.

If you want the rod, go buy it. The question I ask myself is "Is there a chance in hell that this rod ( or reel or bait or any other piece of fishing stuff) will help me catch a fish?" If the answer to that question is yes or maybe, I'll probably buy it. I don't skip fish alot, and I understand that you can execute a skip cast with almost any rod and reel combo. That being said, I find a 6' medium action spinning rod does skip casts better and more accurately than a much longer rod. That's probably just me, I don't know.

At different points in my life I've had different smaller boats. They all work ok. Check out the Buster Boats "Trophy" model. That is the finest 2 man boat I've ever fished out of.

I was off the water for a couple weeks due to a couple of minor boat issues. These are resolved and I got to go yesterday (Friday 7/23) Might as well not have went. 200 acre Mo conservation lake. 90 degrees water temp. 90 degree + air temp and windy. very windy. made boat control a pain. Water color was stained - around a foot of visibility. Tried shallow - nothing. Tried cranking trees - DC16 Timber Tiger - nothing. Ended up catching 7 fish all day - Okie keepers - 14 inch slot fish. 8 to 10 feet deep in a shade pocket on a drop shot rig. Tried several drop shot baits. Only hits came on a green pumpkin crazy legs chigger craw (legs dyed chartreuse) I had every intention to fish til dark thirty, but I got hungry and unmotivated and hot so I quit around 7. I'd like to catch one of these hot days when it is cloudy and still rather than sunny and windy, I think I'd do better.

One time at Bass Pro, I came across a crankbait tuning tool. It works better than needle nose pliers.

I try to get out once a week from ice out to ice over - basically March through November.

Finesse fishing is more about an attitude than any particular gear. You can finesse fish with bait casting gear and you can power fish with spinning gear.

I think Timber Tigers come through wood/brush cover the best. That being said, if you're going to fish cranks in & around wood & brush cover, invest in a heavy duty extendable type pole retriever, the longest you can get and a plug knocker style crank retriever. Over time, they will pay for themselves in retrieved crank baits. For the most part, I throw cranks on mono, 10 to 20 lb depending on conditions. Occasionally,I throw them on braid. When I get a crank on braid stuck, I don't waste time with the pole retriever or the plug knocker. I wrap the line 4 or 5 times around a front boat cleat and back off with the trolling motor. More often than not, the hooks will bend out and the bait will release. Lots of other times, you will break the branch you're stuck on and you'll get your lure back. Occasionally you will break the line, but a least you haven't wasted a bunck of time using the pole retriever.

Shoreangler - I've got to know.. How goes the quest to get on private lakes ? Are you making any progress? Have you talked your way on to any decent waters lately? Enquiring minds want to know.

Every winter, Walmart has a fishing tackle close out. Over the years, I've acquired a number of decent borrower rods. Some of my better finds have been: a couple of Team Diawa Flippin Sticks for $15 each. Numerous Berkley Lightning spinning rods of various actions for between $10 and $20. Several years ago, Mitchell had a "fulcrum" series of rods, the first split grip rods I'd ever seen. Fast forward several years, and now I've got borrower rods for nearly any style of fishing imaginable and they are all better than the stuff I started fishing with in the 70's. I find close out reels kind of the same way, but most of my closeout reels have came from Dick's or Bass Pro. Especially Dick's. You get an un-motivated 19 year old GED type and put a price gun in his hands and bargains happen.

For me, red shad is mostly a dingy/muddy water color, should you have visibility of a foot or more, there are probably better colors out there.

If you're around sunken bushes or wood cover, it's hard to beat a Timber Tiger DC8.

Start by thinking about edges. You already know how to fish edges, i.e. the bank/shore edge. Your depth finder will show you more edges. Should your lake have a thermocline - that's an edge. There will be places on the lake where the depth contour is sharper than elsewhere - that is an edge. Is it a man-made lake? Somewhere out there are flooded bushes or brushpiles or rock piles. Until you get real good at orienting yourself on open water, get yourself a few structure markers and use them. Should you go over something that looks interesting - throw out a marker. Do not throw it directly on top of the object - throw it off to the side. Should you catch a fish you don't want it running you into the marker line. Then, just fish it. Try to hit whatever you've marked with a bait. Anything 15 feet or less, you can probably hit with a crank. Or drag a jig or texas rigged plastic through it. Over time, you will learn what different stuff feels like. For me, that hardest part was waiting on the bait to drop, to get to the bottom. A countless number of times, I've started the retrieve too early and ended fish above my intended target. Another approach it to use your depth finder to look for bait. As soon as you find wads of bait, fish will be somewhere near. Your depth finder will tell you the hardness of the bottom. Solid rock is one thing - mud or soft bottom looks totally different. What you're looking for is a semi-firm bottom - a mix of rocks and clay. At that point, you've probably found where some crawdads live. Fish a jig or shakey head there. There is lots more to getting good a fishing water away from the bank. I'm not an expert, but that is what I try to do most of the time. Good luck

I've been mostly sticking to smaller Conservation department lakes. Buffalo Bill - outside of Cameron, Maple Leaf - outside of Higginsville, Indian Creek Lake - outside of Chillicothe, Tri-City Lake - outside of Centralia, Happy Hollow Lake - outside of Savannah. It has been a good year so far for crankbaits - medium & deep diving Timber Tigers around medium and deep trees. It has been a good year for rattlebaits so far. pulled over the tops of grass on flats. 3 fish over 6 lbs doing this so far this year. The senko bite for me has been off so far this year, I think mostly due to water clarity issues. The jerkbait bite that normally happens on all these lakes every spring didn't happen at all for me this year. A combination of me not getting out all that much early this spring and the weather being funky when I did. Jigs & soft plastics on jig heads hasn't really been happening for me this year. I can't explain it. I think that the issue is primarily between my ears, but bites on jigs and soft plastics on jig heads have been few and far between. I'm talking all kinds of jigs & soft plastics on jig heads. Eakins jigs ( heavy & light) , swim jigs, assorted other brands, shakey heads on 8 lb fluorocarbon & heavier stuff on 14 lb fluorocarbon. Spinnerbait bite has been very hit and miss. I'm starting to get arthritis issues in my hands and after 30 or so minutes straight of throwing spinnerbaits , or square bill cranks or deep diving cranks, my hands start to hurt and so I stop doing that for a while. I have had a number of decent days though. For me a decent day is 20 or more fish touched with at least some of them being 15" or more. The drop shot has created most of these decent days. A flippin stick, 14 or 20 lb fluorocarbon and a 38 or 1/2 ounce weight. Most of the time I'm using a pretty short drop line - 9" or less. I retie when it gets less than 4" I've been texas rigging Bass Pro Stick-os and chigger craws and beavers and paddle tail worms on the heavier drop shot rigs. So far this year, this rig has turned rotten days into decent days. Hope this helps. I think should we go a couple of weeks without rain, the water should clear up quite a bit and the summer senko bite will be on. So far this year, visibility has been less than a foot and a half and I have trouble making senkos work consistently. Should it keep raining as often as it has been - once or twice a week, we still got options. There will be an intermittent reaction bait bite. Every time you find bait fish and larger humps on your screen, there is a chance of that happening. My other plan is to keep pitching the bubba drop shot rig into places where the base of trees and bushes intersects with the top of the thermocline. This has been between 7 and 12 feet down for me so far this year. My best results and the vast majority of the keeper fish I've caught have come from not throwing directly into the shade pocket but by being close (6-12") right next to the shade pocket. I hope this gives someone food for thought. I'm having a number of minor boat issues occur all at once and I won't get to go this weekend.

A good question. Good enough to make me realize that I don't read labels all that carefully. I probably ought to start.

I thought the breen was a cool color and I bought the beasts and chigger craw and crazy legs chigger craw in that color - but - I've yet to get bit on it. I get bit on green pumpkin. I get bit on watermelon. I get bit on the watermelon & green pumpkin with glitter mixed in - but I havent gotten bit yet on the breen color. I don't know what the deal is. I understand two different lakes isn't a complete sample and yet, I think it is enough to make me say - huh?

Where do you live at? Where do you fish? Bank or boat? Pond or reservoir or creek? Dropping a c-note for gear, you'll need different stuff depending on where you're at. Different parts of the country require different gear. Different waters required different gear. One example - If I'm going to be fishing farm ponds from the bank, the first piece of gear I get is going to be a good set of hip waders, that are sturdy and fit good because I know I'm going to be walking quite a bit in them. There are lots more examples, but I think you get the idea. Good luck - always be mindful of the fact that there is no such thing as too much gear. You don't have to take it all with you every time.