Jigfishn10

Great story island...that'll teach you to re-tie...LOL Sorry you missed that nice one, Man.

There's a lot of great advice on here and I appreciate all who have posted. I haven't fished tubes since the late 90's early 2000's, my apologies to all for the newb thread... B-Dozer, I got back into fishing these again this year because a member on here lost a bet during the Bruins & Flyers playoff series. He included a few of his favorite tubes with the lure that I won. I can't for the life of me figure out why I strayed from them, but now I'm hooked on them again. My son too! You saw his first fish this year I posted on the My Fishing Trip Forum? "Dad, that tube and jigs, are def my favorite lure."...LOL...Gotta love kids. A-Jay, I had forgotten about those parasite clips and sinker. I know we had a discussion about them and I totally forgot. I'm 45 and must have had a senior moment. Thanks Bud for the reminder, I will be putting an order for them soon. Bass Thumb, you can be sure I'll be doing some research this winter for my 2012 stock list...LOL basshunter81, going to get some later tonight, thanks! Jig Man, I'll be giving that technique a whirl as well. JacobK, if you still want that pic after reading all the great advice given above, I certainly don't mind posting it for you. It worked great for a dummy like me and it's real easy to rig. Just let me know.

That's the helicopter retrieve nitro is talking about and what was been posted earlier...killer around structure as well as a early and late season technique when baitfish start to die. Glad you hooked into one today.

I've been having problems with tubes getting fatigued at the tip too easily causing the tube to slide down the hook. Today I experimented with a new rigging method I read about and thought I would share it because it worked really well. I used and offset 4/0 widegap hook and took 2 pieces of line and tied them to the line lie of the hook with improved clinch knots. I cut the tag ends (4 total) to a little less than 1/2". I tied the hook onto the main line with the main line tied between the 2 knots and cut a the tag end to the same size as the others. I rigged my tube as you normally would on a T-Rig, slid the nose of the tube up and over the now 3 knots. What I got was a nice mesh of tag lines underneath the tube at the tip. I fished matted weeds and lilly pads and never had it slip down the hook shank. The only time it would slide down was when I caught fish. I hope this helps and if anyone has a better method for T-Rigging tubes, please post. I would be very interested. Happy tubing and tight lines.

Thank you islandbass, much appreciative.

BUT YOU ARE SOUNDING THAT WAY! I'm neither sensitve nor insensitive about the issue. I've been fishing for 15 years and will continue to do so. My purpose of the thread was to get some opinions of the effects of the flesh wounds I'm inflicting. To be honest with you, I am in SirSnookalot's camp on the issue. Some members answered the question and appear to share the same opinion I have prior to this thread and others offered opinions on how to minimize the problem and I appreciated that. If you don't care, don't participate in threads such as these. Your wise @$$ remarks I have read in the past used to be funny.

Would like to do it as well, but I think I will be doing it with a select group next year. Thanks Shane J, congrats, you really deserved it.

I agree about the big Colorado bladed spinnerbait. I actually use a single colorado blade more than any other combo. I think if you do go that route try not to make too many repeated casts, I find a colorado bladed spinnerbait will turn off fish faster than any other combinations. Have a follow up lure ready and also try and use a helicopter technique near those laydowns and/or other structure. MHO of course.

Not to go against the grain, because there are some good ideas here, but to me it doesn't sound like the bass are drawn to reaction type lures. You do have murky water conditions, how about a dark colored jig with a rattle?

Assuming you are solely fishing for a topwater bite and not knowing where or what conditions you have presented to you, you can try few different things: Changing the retrieve up i.e. from a steady retrieve to a stop & go, slow to fast, fast to slow or maybe just a slight twitch of your rod tip to create a little more water disturbance Switching to a lure which would be more stationary like a popper and use hard and/or soft pops Switching to a lure which would be a little more subtle on the surface like a dog walking lure Switching to a lure that would be between the 2 extremes like a prop bait. How about a buzzbait or plastic frog? These are just a few things that come immediately to mind and I hope this helps. EDIT: Oops, bigbassctchr101 you beat me to some points on your first sentence...LOL...Sorry bud...We must have posted within seconds of each other.

The 3" Pop R weighs 1/8 oz in that kit? Doesn't seem right, I would guess more like 3/8 - 1/2 oz, the 2 1/2" one weighs 1/4 oz.. EDIT: I just looked up the kit and you guys are right, it's the 2" teeny Pop R that is included in that kit and weighs 1/8 oz. I had looked at post #5 and LWD said it was a 3" Pop R which threw me off a bit. My apologies for the confusion.

Did you want the DVD or the crank? J/K...LOL Congrats and enjoy!

I did the same thing islandbass did. I had a rod in which I liked, but hated the feel of it in my hand, so I split the grip on it. As islandbass mentions, removing the cork and epoxy was pretty time consuming, so I took my time with it and prepared it well enough so I could put the fishnet pattern on. I did this a few years ago and took a pic of it when it was done, but I lost the pic when my hard drive went. I should have cleaned the cork up before taking this pic...LOL If you do decide to split a grip on your baitcaster, be sure to post it over in the tacklemaking forum. Good luck!

All look sweet BIG M.

Sam, you went to LSU?

I usually have a lure hang from my rod about 6-8" before I cast, with Pop R's and other topwater I find that if I let it hang down about 12", I can get a longer cast. Give that a try.

I pushed Andersen for years. Great window, a little more expensive and they always stick by their product. I still have clients who ask me to come and repair a window that was installed 10 years ago and i can call Andersen for a part and they have it. Can't beat that!

Shane J by a land slide...I think peeps forgot about this tourney or lost interest...LOL I had the worst topwater fishing year in my life...On the plus side I caught a limit (5) on the Wednesday following Labor day and one tipped in at a lil better than 3 lbs...oh well, I was always late for the party. I know about Mashpee, but it sounds like you all have a problem with too many non-boaters as it is and all I'll be doing is adding to the problem. There will hopefully be other outings. From a work standpoint, things have gotten better for me, so hopefully I can shed one of my 3 jobs and free up for these things in the future. Thanks anyway Grandpa, much appreciated.

What weight sizes are you planning on making? Sounds great tho!

Thanks for the kind posts guys. You're right Grey Wolf, this ranks right up there with a baseball a Rox player gave him back last spring. He still talks about that night. B-Dozer, he wanted to skip school today so we could go fishing... Tom D. I think you're onto something, I may just do that. Again, thank you all for the kind posts, I'm very appreciative.

I'm sure a few of them won't make it and Im good with that. You're right SirSnook, it is part of the sport. Thanks guys.

Sounds like you guys adjusted well and put together a great outing. Congrats to you both.

My then 6 year old son got into fishng baitcasters last year, so I got him a Pinnacle reel at the end of the season for XMas. We never got out to try it until today for our first outing of the season, but what an impressive reel! Tight drag, smooth casting and overall feel was very comfortable. I would highly recommend this reel for anyone, especially for someone who is starting out learning baitcasters. Thanks Pinnacle, I know I purchased a great product and I'm sure he'll enjoy this reel for years to come.

Pics are always tough, but an oinker for sure BASSclary. Congrats to both of you!

My son and I haven't been able to go fishing together at all this year, so today we went fishing for the first time together. We went for about three hours and spent a good amount of time getting him reaquainted with bait casting again. On one of the last casts of our outing he was able to hook into this one: