JoePhish

I have trouble catching fish on a drop shot. Meanwhile, it's the go to rig for some guys I know. When I fished from a boat (or a bank) I had no problem pitching a jig or T-Rig exactly where I wanted it. Now that I fish almost solely sitting on a kayak I am having problems with it. It's what I plan of working on/rectifying this year. I need that back in my repertoire.

Been wanting to add another Shimano Sedona 3000 spinning reel to my arsenal but I didn't want to spend $70 on a spinning reel. I have some older Sedonas that I bought for $25 when DSG was closing them out a few years ago that have served me just fine. BPS has a Sedona/Fish Eagle combo on their 2 Day Hot Buys sale for $50. Someone gave me a $25 gift card recently for my birthday. I used that plus the $10 (off $30 purchase) coupon that was emailed to me. So my out of pocket cost for the reel (plus a rod) was $15 plus tax. Probably won't put the rod in my regular rotation though, rather I'll let my grandson use it. Also picked up a 1/2 oz Dark Sleeper; something that I've been wanting to try out.

I used to use trailers, swimbaits, grubs and sometimes worms, but for some reason I strayed away from it. In fact, my go to spinner bait was a Redfish Magic which has no skirt and is made to go with a swimbait trailer. The last few years I've been using trailer hooks. I think this season I'm going to work in more trailers again. One of the reasons is that I can cast farther. I also felt that I lost too many fish on spinnerbaits last year. Could be for a bunch of reasons though.

What mag pouch/carrier/holster do you prefer for your EDC? Bonus questions: How many do you carry? Where do you carry them?

I throw the Zerek Sabre Dance 85 often. In fact, I catch a lot of fish on it. I'll fish it along rip rap, around and above rocks, wood and weed lines. I love it most when bass are popping shad on the surface. My favorite color is BS, whatever that is. I'm guessing Black Silver or Black Shad as the lure is chrome with a black back and white belly. I will occasionally switch to a floating Yo-Zuri Pin's Minnow when I decide I need a color change to Chartreuse Silver. It doesn't have the same erratic action as the Sabre Dance though.

Even though it is already out there I'm sure the Strike King KVD 1.5DD square bill will be chatted up at ICAST. Have some coming this week.

I attach a glass rattle to my shakey head and wacky jigs with a heat shrink tube. I won a tournament using it so now that's what I do. Someone told me about it so I know I'm not the only one who does it. However, none of the guys I fish with/around/against fish it except for the one guy I told about it.

Dead sticking a lipless crank bait on a flat bottom in about 10ft of water.

Love my Costa 580Gs in Green/Mirror. This is my second pair. The rubber on my first pair came off after years of use and abuse and I also had a scratch on the lens. Since it was a discontinued model they sent me a new pair of my choice. Great warranty and customer service on top of a high quality product.

I have one on my T-rig set up and slide it up or down depending on what I throw into.

My go to in this situation would be a small floating jerk bait usually chrome with a white bottom. I also try a Little Dipper (some kind of shad color), a small Popper (white, bone or chrome) and a neg rig (white lightning TRD). If all of this fails I'll switch to a chartreuse lipless or spinner bait.

Thanks for all the advice and opinions given here. I couldn't find exactly what I had in mind so I decided to buy hook weights from BPS. I grabbed a box of 1/16 (50 pack) and a box of 1/8 (32pack). At around the same price of 2 packs of keel weighted hooks (6 -8 hooks altogether depending on the brand) I find it to be cost effective. I've never used these so it will be an experiment for me.

I come across a lot of custom lure painters on social media who offer knock offs of DTs, S-Cranks, Whopper Ploppers and others. Are these copies any good? I'm sure they can catch fish but I was wondering what the biggest differences are.

What are some thin keel weighted or weighted swimbait hooks? It seems most swimbait hooks are pretty thick. I'm looking for something I can fish on 8lb FC. I sometimes use the Owner Weighted Twistlock Light but I'd like a wider gap and something available in 3/0. Any suggestions?

I hooked up with a few the other day throwing an 03 in Homer's Buddy in about 2 ft of water fishing a gravel/rock bank. I accidentally bought the 03 instead of the 06 but I'm glad I did. It runs shallower than my usually KVDs. I have a bunch of the the old Xcalibur XCS100s that I would throw in the real skinny water. Too scared to lose them now so I'm glad these Brats came along.

Jig - Swim, Casting and/or Flippin', Shakey Heads, Whopper Plopper and maybe a Hollow Body Frog.

Producto Tournament Worm on a shaky head.

Depends on what the main forage is in the bodies of water you fish. There are tons of shad where I fish so I opt for colors like Guntersville Shad, White Trash and Bad Shad Green. I also carry a few Spike-It markers to make custom adjustments.

I've caught a ton of fish in both fresh and salt water on the XRap XR10. I often downsize to the XR08 to match the hatch. Another jerk bait I like that does not get mentioned at all is the Zerek Sabre Dance. It's a floater and I like the 85 size. Not even sure what they are running for these days but I think they go for under $15. Shipping might put you over that mark though. Can't really find them in stores but sometimes eBay has them listed.

Biggest Largemouth was a bit over 20 inches on a Strike King 6XD in Black Back/Chartreuse. Biggest Smallmouth was 18 inches on a Chrome (BS) Zerek Sabre Dance 85.

I have problems with walk the dog type top waters like Spooks. Shame because they are my favorite top water baits. The Whopper Ploppers are very popular in the kayak fishing community because they are so easy to fish while seated, just chuck and reel. Every type of presentation takes some adjustment when fishing sitting down though. More time in the seat on the water is the best way to iron out the kinks.

I'm another guy in the SK KVD fan club. Chrome Sexy Shad in 1.5 & 2.5, Black Back/Chart in 1.5 and Natural Shad in 1.5.

#5 in Brown Crawdad is one of my favorite pre-spawn lures especially around rip rap/rocks. I throw it on spinning gear using 8lb FC but I still feel it's too light to cast as far as I'd like so I add a swivel. That also helps with line twist.

This is my second full year of fishing in East Tennessee (mostly out of a yak) since moving here from Florida. The technique I embraced and succeeded at this year was deep cranking. Caught my biggest Largemouth of the year doing so. I've fine tuned my overall cranking game too. I threw shakey heads more this year than I have in the past. Won and placed in some tournaments fishing them. Going forward there's a lot I'd like to work on like Drop Shotting, Ned Rigs, A-rigs and Neko rigs. I'd also like to get back to some jig fishing which was something I excelled at in FL but can't seem to do well with here in TN.

Yup, the schools of shad will start moving to the back of the creeks soon. As of last week they haven't yet, at least where I was fishing. I'll be on Ft. Loudon tomorrow evening for a few hours on my yak so we'll see if they are further back now. I'll be throwing anything that looks shaddy; spinnerbait, swim jig, soft plastic swimbaits, stick worms and flukes, lipless, topwater, jerkbaits, dropshot maybe even an A-rig.