wisconsin heat

Depends on where I am and what I want to do. I keep all of my tackle in 3600's and 3700's in my car. If I am going to walk down a bank away from my car I have a few options: 1. Just stick to one bait (almost never do this haha) 2. Bring a few baits with. If I am using a T-rig or a jig or plastics, I will just throw a few plastics of a few different colors and styles into one bag (like the ones that the baits come in) and I will carry that around in my back pocket. If I am using a hardbait, I am using a snap and I can change them quickly, I will put some baits in one of these - (they can hold a 4 inch jerkbait / multiple cranks, spinerbaits, you name it. And they will fit in a jacket pocket. 3. If I want to take a longer walk and I am not sure on what will work, or I want to try multiple things I sometimes take this because it can hold a bit of tackle and it isn't in the way.

I can remember when there was a time when a lot of baits were like this for me. Didn't have a jig bite til a nice 2.5lber showed me why they work. I crossed off Spinnerbaits and Lipless cranks the same day when the fish were nailing them. Chatterbaits this year when the water was murky and the fish hit them hard. As of today, I can't remember ever catching one on a buzzbait (maybe when I was a kid and learning how maybe), and the A-rig. No fish on them yet, but I will keep trying because I know they can and will catch fish. Well I'll keep trying the A-rig in certain situations. I may have to force myself to pick up a buzzbait because I would MUCH rather throw a frog.

When I saw the topic I thought to myself, 11 inches. And its funny that everyone else is i agreement that up to twelve inches is a dink.

Only 140 days for me!! Thats not that bad, is it??

A good sized order of various H2O Hard Baits from Academy.

Wisconsin can be tough though. I agree that there are a lot of lakes and little pressured ones at that. Central Wisconsin isn't the greatest, southern wisonsin lakes seem to produce more bigger fish and up north there are a ridiculous amount of small lakes to fish.Unfortunately for me I do not live in that part of the state. Another thing is lack of shore access, dense woods and brush up to the shore make it impossible to walk and cast along the shores. Also a few lakes around my area are having stunted growth problems :/ . If you can find the smallmouth though, that is crazy fun. Also, because bass fishing starts in May and they pretty much shut off in late September there is only about 5 months to fish.

^^ I was watching the game as well and it was not a clean game at all. Lots of penalties on both teams. Saw the same two plays not get called on seattle, but I also saw a pass interference on the eagles that didnt get called, which is surprising, cuz their DB's were all over seattle's receivers and most of the time they get em on that. One thing that shocked me was that Russel Wilson threw an intentional grounding and it WAS CALLED. I swear when I watch the seahawks russel wilson when he is under pressure will 1-3 times per game throw an intentional grounding and it will not get called. Yeah he runs 15 yards backwards but he is STILL IN THE POCKET. Between the tackles, and the ball lands before it reaches the line of scrimmage, doesn't matter how far he runs back that is an intentional grounding and it should be called.

Probably a Rapala Original Floater in a smaller size like an F7 or F5 even. Bass love it, Im sure the toothy fish would jump on it as well. And the bluegill never seem to get bored slapping the bait. That would be my choice.

Thats awesome, have no idea why it would do that though.

That Rick Clunn is truly an awesome lure. I was using it bass fishing opening day this year and in addition to bass I caught 2 11+ inch Brooke Trout and a massive 22 inch Brown trout.

Those are Sick! How heavy are those weights?

Picked up a Pointer 100, used it a fair amount on a few outings but didn't catch any. I like the 78 size a lot though. A lot of times when I don't catch a fish on a new lure is because I lose it on the first day haha. I bought a bandit squarebill, and I really liked the action of it, caught a fish and then lost it

This is my Favriot Jig, Extra Favre

Lions looked good this weekend, their offense needs to put drives together better, but all in all they beat a good dolphins team. I don't think they are on the same level as Green Bay, because GB is very consistent, but the Lions keep finding ways to win games, and that is what matters.

I agree with all of you, Chicago's performance tonight was downright unbearable, they got embearassed by the packers tonight. It was so bad I could bearly watch. I agree the packers should have pulled their starters earlier, no need to be overbearing. ...I'm sorry

I have tried using FC once because I was lazy and didn't want to grab a different rod, my frog sunk. I have used mono around shore when I was making short casts and it works. But the further you are from the strike, the harder it will be to set the hook with mono. It is better just to stick with the braid, as you won't want to lessen your hooking percentage or limit yourself to shorter casts. You can always tie a Flouro leader to your braid when using a jig, mine sometimes come undone though

Cranking from shore can be really difficult. It is usually not a good tactic for bank fishing. Crankbaits have certain depths that they run at, granted they can run deeper or shallower depending on speed of retrieve, but that isn't using a crank to its potential. When you are on a boat you can position your boat so that you can work the crank the way it needs to be worked. From shore, you are at the mercy of the lakes bottom composition. For example, a shallow running crankbait might not bump anything for 1/3 of the cast, bump some bottom for another 1/3, then the last third it cld get caught in slimey grass, or the bank cld be too shallow for it to work. A shallow crankbait cld work well casting parallel to the bank, but then you are covering a lot of High potential area with one or two casts, hoping that the crankbait is the right lure to catch them that day. This can be a big issue if you are fishing a smaller pond with not a lot of shore access (most places where you can shore fish have limited access). So most of the time, shore fishing, it is a better option to slow down and milk the spots you do have with a jig or soft plastic. This is because these weedless baits will mostly not foul during a cast or flip, not ruining a potential fish holding spot. And because you have limited spots, you don't want to ruin the few spots you do have by running a crank through it while it is covered in weeds, leaves, slime, or anything else. I experimented with cranking from shore this spring when there wasn't much grass to catch. I had it pretty much limited to using a small squarebill on a long bank of laydowns, the bank was maybe 1/2 mile long and this was the only part on the lake where I found using a crankbait was the best option. It was the best option because although it had a lot of good looking laydowns, there weren't many fish there, and because it was 1/2 mile long, I had to cover the water quickly.

I've added Feathers to the back treble of baits before, used supsendots, scraped off the paint on a topwater for a different look, markered and painted cranks/jigs/spinnerbaits heads and blades, bent spinnerbait blades, shortened spinnerbaits's arm by cutting wire, added beads/different blades to spinnerbaits, swapped out hook sizes on cranks, peeled off the outer skin on hollow body swimbaits, sharpie'd 2 foot sections of braid to reduce visibility, used spike-it dye markers on plastics, bent the bend on hooks, added plastic keepers, and a lot more stuff I am sure that I can't think of off the top of my head. One thing I really don't like is that spinnerbaits almost always come with a super long arm, I want the blade to be parallel to the bend of the hook. Anywhere between mid blade to the end of the blade in line with the bed of the hook but nothing longer.

one time...... I split the tail of a Sweet Beaver in half

One thing I can't justify is the price on spinning reels. I use $40 Abu Cardinals and I see no reason to go any higher. One of these retails 39.99 and the other 249.99. They look nearly identical. I know that the outside doesn't really matter, but is the inside of the revo 6 times better than the cardinal, that is how much more it costs. The main selling points for reels to me are: 1. Castability, how well/far does it cast 2. Ergonomics, is it comfortable to use 3. Durability, how long will it last 4. Drag, high rating and smoothness. I have never used a revo premier, but this is what I predict is are the differences between the $40 cardinal and the $250 Revo Castability - Same. With spinning reels, the line just falls off the spool, there is no spinning or anything. I really think these reels will cast the same distance. Ergonomics- They are made from the same body, you can see it in the picture, the handle is slightly different and the materials are different, but I don't think it makes the revo significantly more comfortable to use. Durability- The Revo will likely last longer than the Cardinal. That being said, I have used the same cardinal for 4 years with no signs of performance reduction, I think that is pretty good. The materials they use on the cardinal are not bad and aren't going to break under normal conditions. Drag- This is where the Revo will kill the Cardinal. High end spinning reels always claim really good drag, but I think that is all they can really improve on. But the Cardinal doesn't have bad drag, just because it is a cheaper reel doesn't mean the drag is going to suck. I fought a 36 in Northern Pike for 5-10 minutes on 10lb braid and the drag worked absolutely fine. Bass fishing with spinning reels, I don't think the drag is extremely important. Maybe in certain conditions like light-line big smallmouth on Michigan or Erie. But otherwise, we as bass fisherman don't often target large bass with light line and spinning gear. So in my opinion, I don't see a big advantage to a higher cost spinning reel. Not enough of an advantage to justify the cost anyways.

Thanks for the info, That lure has had my eye ever since it came out, I think I will pick up one, or three.

My two favorite jerkbaits are both under $10. For shallower water and when I need a more subtle bait I use the Xcalibur EEratic shad. And for mid-depth and otherwise all purpose jerkbaiting, I like the Lucky Strike Rick Clunn RC STX, the larger size. I don't have a problem with the rings or the hooks. I've tried a lot of jerkbaits too, I have used the Mcstick, and numerous LC's including pointer 78 and 100, Staysee 90, the Slim Shad d-7 and d-9, and the flash minnow. But my favorite are the RC STX and the EEratic shad. Edit: I'd also like to add that the EEratic shad has the same dimensions as the smithwick rogue, The EEratic shad is pretty much Xcalibur's version.

I wouldn't believe them haha. It is so easy to mis-judge the size of a bass when you do not catch many (especially of a certain size class). I caught a large 3lb 9oz bass a few years ago, when I first landed it, I thought it weighed 6 pounds. After 1 minute of looking at it, I was thinking 5 pounds, I was kind of surprised when i saw it was only about 3 1/2 lbs. A year later, I catch a fish of the exact same size (3lb9oz), at first i think 5lb, then I was realistically thinking 4 1/2. A year after that I catch a fish of similar size and I say "that fish will go 3 1/2 pounds." It ended up being 3lbs 5oz. Point of my story is that a person who doesn't usually catch these fish and recognize the actual size of them will over estimate the fish's size. So unless those guys regularly catch big bass and weigh them, don't believe them, it was probably a 2 1/2 pounder.

That was a nice Black Drum in the video

Those are pretty cool! I get a new one of these each christmas