Fishes in trees

Hard to say. Could be a gear issue, could be a technique issue. I know that the rods I use for spinner baits have a little more "tip" in them than the rods I use for bottom contact baits. The rods that I use for spinner baits are a little less "tippy" than the rods I use for other moving baits, like cranks & trap style baits. The notion of trying a roll cast is a good idea. The notion of turning one or more of your brakes back on is a good idea. The notion of backing off, and not trying to muscle each cast for maximum distance is a good idea. Probably you just need more practice using that bait. I know that often when I go down a 30 yard stretch of bank, I'll do a roll cast, maybe an overhand or 3/4 overhand cast, maybe a pitch, maybe a backhanded roll cast, more of a "sweep" cast really. Point here, don't limit yourself. Sooner or later, you will find yourself in a position where an over head cast won't work but a pitch cast will. Conversely, if you are burning a spinner bait across an open point, why wouldn't you go overhead with your cast, to get maximum distance? My advice would be to learn them all, to the point that you can execute any cast in any sequence. If you want to learn the roll cast, watch a couple of Jimmy Houston shows and do what he does.

A few years ago, BPS marketed a center console bass boat in their Nitro series. Prior to that, in the late 80's-early 90's Skeeter marketed a center console bass boat. I have a buddy who has a center console Gambler, he got it second hand, but that boat is at least 18 years old. The reason that there are so few center console bass boats is that they don't sell very well. My buddy's Gambler, which is a very fast boat and fishes extremely well, doesn't have the readily accessible storage that comparable 20 foot dual console boats have. The boating industry is loaded with examples like that, i.e. great ideas, that for some reason, didn't take off. Generally the reason was cost, i.e. they couldn't sell enough of them to make the manufacture of them cost efficient.

I use a 6'11" Kistler spinning rod for this duty. I got it a number of years ago. It is rated as MH, but I think it is on the light side of MH. It is the blue on, I think the Argon series. I don't think they make it anymore. I remember that I got it on a close out at the KCK Cabelas and they don't carry Kistler rods anymore. For cranks up to half ounce or so, it works great. It kind of takes the wind out of the equation - compared to trying to throw cranks into the wind with a bait casting set up. For what you're looking for, lots of readily available spinning rods will work. The 7' Berkley M action Lightning Rod, readily available at Walmart most places, isn't a bad choice.

I don't use the alberto knot. I use the back to back uni-knot. Every time that knot has failed, it has been operator error - not the fault of the knot. Once I'm done tying the knot, I slobber some super glue on it. I also knot that no knot lasts forever. I have a few rigs that I use a braid to fluoro leader connection. If the line breaks at the connection and all of a sudden I realize that the knot was tied over a month ago, that's on me too. I'd echo the previous advice and practice my knot tying. Remember that as you are tightening up the knot, slobber is cheap so don't be afraid to use it.

Flambeau makes a small spinner bait box - model 0220 that will hold 4 to 6 spinnerbaits. I have several. They work great for spinnerbaits. They don't work for buzz baits. Unless you find the, totally necessary because of cover issues, I'd leave the buzz baits at home. Walking a Pop-R or similar bait very fast makes a similar noise on the water, you can stop it and it won't sink, and you've got a couple of treble hooks to catch a fish rather than 1 fixed hook. Anyway, my opinion, I like poppers over a buzz bait the vast majority of the time. But I digress. No clue where you'd get those boxes in your neighborhood, call Flambeau and find out I guess. I got mind at a family owned independent tackle store in the KC Metro area.

After a lot of experimenting with different brands and styles of hooks, weighted Falcon K-wacky weedless hooks seem to work best for me. A 1/16 oz weight on the shank of the hook seems to add to the feel, for me, as opposed to a non weighted hook. I don't think that the slightly faster drop speed gets me any fewer strikes. In years past, I threw this bait on bait casting gear, a 7' rod on the medium side of medium heavy and 14 lb fluorocarbon line. This year, I've went to MH spinning gear, 14 lb Fireline Crystal and fluorocarbon leader, with the same bait, primarily because the easier to see line works like a strike detector. Jury is still out on how much I like this rig.

I'm an IPA fan, but seems like for the past few years, in the summer time, I'm liking something a little lighter with less ABV. All time favorite summer beer has been Shiner Ruby Redbird. Lately, I've tried some of the "session " IPA's, which have less ABV than a regular IPA. My local brewer, Boulevard - has a POP UP session IPA that is tasty and lighter than a regular IPA. My brother in law turned my on to Founders All Day IPA. On a couple of occasions this spring, I've found it on sale at $17 for a 15 pack in cans. Allegedly, Boulevard is coming out with their Pop Up IPA in cans, but I haven't seen them in the stores anywhere, and I've been looking. l had a bud leave 3 bottles of Red Nectar - all natural ale - Humboldt Brewing - Paso Robles, California. No clue where he got it, I haven't seen it in any of the grocery or liquor stores that I frequent, but it is good beer and I'd buy more if I found some. New Belgium, out of Fort Collins, Colorado generally puts out a good product, but I'm not impressed with their session IPA that has come out this spring. I'm not a big fan of any of the brands of "shandies" that have come out over the past few years. I can't get past the overly sweet and metallic taste that they seem to have.

I know that they say that the internet has fouled the magazine business, but I will keep buying magazines until I install some method to use my computer while I'm on the pot.

I don't think that system would be any better than what I use. I think that it would put unnecessary holes in your senko, or whatever other bait you were wacky rigging. I use 0-rings to attach the hook to the bait. I imagine that those weights would work best if they were used on some wear resistant, stretchy, elas-tech version of a senko or a worm. You wouldn't worry about that little hole tearing up your bait at all. If I want to adjust fall rate on wacky rigs, I use a different weight of hook. Primarily I use Falcon weighted K-wacky hooks. I start at 1/16 but I have heavier and lighter ones as well. I've thought about fine tuning weights even further by using sticky lead tape, suspend dots, stuff like that. Haven't gotten around to experimenting with that though. The other way to adjust fall rate on a wacky rig is to switch line sizes. The past few years, first choice in line has been 15 lb Abrazx. Maybe drop down to 10. This year I've gone to MH spinning gear - 14 lb Fireline and a shortish 20 lb fluorocarbon leader. I like the way the Fireline Crystal works as a strike indicator when you let the bait fall on a slack line. Wacky rig presentation is always a work in progress, nothing is set in stone, but that's my current approach.

I'm pretty certain that where you live, no matter where you live, there are guys who throw crank baits more often than they throw other artificial bait styles. What brands/models within brands and what colors do they throw? That, it seems to me, would be a great place to start.

I don't get ignorant with it, but I think that a beer or two during a fishing trip is a good thing.

son, I'm just an older geezer, who lives in another state, I will most likely never meet you or communicate in any other way than this forum. HOWEVER, when you put at the bottom of your posts that you would drag yourself through broken glass, JUST TO WATCH ME CEASE TO EXIST, I genuinely don't care if you get better or not.

I keep it moving and popping, very similar to a walk the dog style retrieve. I don't move it as fast as I might move a buzz bait, but I keep it moving.

For the most part, I think that poppers are poppers. However, I don't think that you can convince the guys who have shelled out a few bucks for the Yellow Magic poppers that is so. I don't think that the guys who have shaved and tuned their Rebel Pop-R's will believe that. Some guys with their Chug Bugs and double Chug Bugs ain't buying the idea that poppers are poppers. Me, I have a dozen or so poppers on the boat, when it comes time to throw one, why is it that the Lucky Craft one is the only one that ever gets wet? Beats me.

The first thing I look for in a reel for jig & soft plastics is how much it weighs. Secondly, it needs to carry enough line, but a lot of line isn't necessary. I used to use round reels, regular Calcutta's and Calcutta 200 TEGT. Over the past 6 or 7 years, those reels started feeling heavier and heavier and so I went to 50 size low profile reels. I've got a few of the Curado and Chronarch models, in the 50 size. They come in a 6.4 gear ratio and I haven't found the need for anything faster. Should I happen to mess up the line, I carry a couple of older green curado reels to finish out the day with.

My primary issue with the ned rig is that the open hook hang up ALOT - for me, anyway. I'm ring to keep all the ned rig stuff in my boat and when I get around 45 degree banks or steeper, with clay, or creek rock or bigger rocks, I'll break it out. For me, where I fish, I need a tx rigged bait so I don't get hung as much. Therefore, more often than not in the future, I'm taking the rod I use for ned rig fishing (5'4" Fenwick HMG spinning rig, 1000 size Shimano reel and 10 lb Nanofill with an 8 lb fluorocarbon leader) and I'm throwing 1/16 and 1/8 oz Brewer slider heads with the Brewer 4" worm. That bait seems to come through vegetation better for me than the open hook ned rig.

To echo previous posters, you don't need a specific drop shot rod. Many different rods will work, probably some you already have. A 6 1/2 to 7 1/2 rod, Med to Med/hvy, spinning or casting. Line can vary from 4 to 20 lbs. However, if you've got the hots to buy another rod, a drop shot rod is a good one to get. I'm not really the guy to offer specifics, I generally carry 4, 3 of which are rigged and ready to go and a 4th, a pretty generic spinning rod I can use in a pinch. Most of the time, in the lakes that I fish, which are pretty gnarly cover-wise, I fish the drop shot bubba style, which is a 7 1/2 flipping stick, Curado 50E reel filled with 20 lb Abrazx. My advice would be to play around with drop shot rigging using the rods you got, and then if you feel you need one, go from there.

A long time ago, I bought a couple of this model on close out at Walmart. I found the hook holder screw on the shank of the hook to be useless - more double than it was worth to install the trailer.

Have you thought about your rod? You are asking it to perform in a different function that you asked of it previously. Oftentimes, people freak out when this happens to them. Fishing rods are just like people, except they don't audibly talk, or breathe or stuff like that. I'd be concerned about the mental health of your rod, if you are consistently asking it to switch duties.

I have issues with very long rods, because they don't store well on my boat or in my fishing truck. I have found that the BPS Extreme 7'4" to be a decent compromise. The model # is ETR74MT. I bought my first one at $99 and many weeks later when the price dropped $20 I bought a couple more. I think that they have enough tip and flex to be decent deep diver rods and they have enough back bone to be decent square bill rods. They're readily available at BPS, so that is another thing to check while you're there.

I have a couple of that model. They are very light. I like that. One I use for soft plastics, one a slightly different model, I use for spinnerbaits. I'm pretty gentle on my gear and I don't do dumb stuff very often. I have four different pals who got the Black Wild Carrot Stix before I did. They are much more aggressive on hook sets than I am. Their Carrot Stix are all broke now. We are all aware of the warranty issues that occurred with Carrot Stix. One thing I didn't like about the Carrot Stix was the placement of the hook keeper, I cut that off the second day I used it. Carrot Stix are neat, light, sensitive rods. You will like yours until you break it. It is just a matter of time before you break it. I expect mine to break on every hook set, but it has been 2 years now and it hasn't broke yet. I think that means that I don't have a very strong hook set and I need to work on that.

Every club has different rules and customs, but every club that I've ever had personal contact with has a live well requirement.

Bank fishing or boat fishing. If you are bank fishing, but best piece of gear you could get to assist in this situation would be a pair of hip boots or waders, to allow you to get off the bank a little bit and make it easier to parallel the weed edge. If you're boat fishing, every one else's suggestions will work sooner or later. Me - for deep weed lines - in the 10 to 15 foot range - my best bait the past year and a half has been a home made, half ounce jika rig.

A decade or so ago, BPS marketed a "Missouri Rig" based on a rig that was having some success on Table Rock Lake, and to a lesser extent on the other lakes in that chain. Basically the rig was a half ounce football head jig with a brush guard. Coming out from underneath the hook on the jig head and extending to 6"or so behind the curve of the hook there was a light wire leader. The notion was that you would put some soft plastic on the football jig - most often a large lizard or choppers type bait. Then a foot to foot and a half fluorocarbon leader would be tied to the light wire leader and some other soft plastic would be tx-rigged to that. Most often, a Zoom trick worm was used. This rig came out shortly after In-fisherman magazine came out with a lengthy article extolling the virtues of the football jig for fishing/feeling bottom structures, mostly hard bottomed lakes were referred to. So, the idea has some merit. I bought some, but never got in a situation where it made sense to use that bait. The clay/ weedy brushy bottomed lakes I was fishing then didn't easily lend themselves to crawling a football jig. My advice would be to try it and see. That is just one application that I've seem marketed, I'm sure that there have been others that have been brought to market as well as many others that have been tried experimentally. My best advice would be to experiment for yourself and find out. That is how the A-rig was invented, some guy trying to figure out how better to catch suspended fish.

Here's my opinion on the matter. Woody cover is woody cover. Fish are know to often, but not always, hang around edges. There are hard edges and soft edges. A shade line would fall in the category of a soft edge. I've had many decent days fishing what I call "shade pockets" By this I mean, there is cover, sun is hitting the cover, causing shade. I try to drop my bait - jig - tx rigged soft plastic - senko - what have you - on the sunny side of the cover, within an inch of the shade line. The notion is that a fish, using the shade line for cover, sees the bait in the sun and darts out and grabs it. This doesn't always work, but it is an approach that I always try when there is sun on cover. Carried another step farther, there is such a thing as degrees of shade - deep shade, semi- shade, openly lit by sunlight. Water clarity affects all these decisions. A bubba drop shot rig - with 20 lb or so fluorocarbon line, dropped into a "deep shade" pocket and just loitered there for a few moments has worked for me at different times - more often than not an afternoon summer thing. I might also guess that fish in a semi-shade area might be more active than fish in a fully lit sunny area. The area you've fishing is 3 to 4 feet deep. I'd probably do more spinner bait/square bill fishing in the semi shaded area and more pitching to specific shade spots with soft plastics in the sunny areas. So, that's my current thoughts on shallow woody cover with/without shade. Another thought comes to mind and that is current. You mentioned it was a wide creek - is there any current to speak of? Current makes a big difference on how fish set up on cover. I don't think that it trumps everything else, but it is an important element to consider.