.ghoti.

I bend out the hooks, just slightly, on all my frogs. It takes two pairs of pliers, one below the frog, and one just behind the barb. Try this and your hook-up ratio will go up. A lot.

I like panera too. Great bread and sammiches.

Jeff Beck. ANy questions?

Didn't know you had 1/8oz. I'll be getting some of those asap.

My last ditch rig. I toss a split-shot rig when nothing else is working, and I know the fish are shallow. Water Gremlin makes split shot that look like mini bullet weights. These are a lot better than round shot, most of the time. I'l try a small sttraight worm first, then a tube, then a fluke, then give up, and try some other rig. I seem to always use the smaller plastics with split shot, but there's no reason you couldn't try some larger offerings.

I have access to some machine toools(CNC machines). I can run a turn in manual mode. I'm going to give this a try. I know I can get some cork rings glued together, bore out the ID and turn down the OD. Getting the core split and then glued back together on the spool will be the main problem. I think I can do that as well. Do you think the cork arbor should have some kind of finish coat? Off the top of my head, I'd say it need waterproofing, at the least. What do you think?

A lot of folks up north use braid as a leader when fishing pike infested waters. I've never tried it, but enough people do it that there about has to be some merit to the idea. I think in your situartion, as an on the fly fix, you would be fine. It's actually a decent idea.

If lonng casts are important, as I suspect they may be in your situation, consider this. The outside diameter of the reel spool should be no more than twice the inside diameter of the first guide up from the reel. Not saying too large a spool won't work; it just won't cast as far.

I'm from Illinois, where we may as well not have a football team. When I opened this thread what I was thinking was UH-OH, Tommy's roux is about to burn.

You can count to 20 if you stand in the shower.

Since i first tried the Shake2 head, I've transitioned to fishing plastics mostly with jigheads of some sort. I use skirted jigs and t-rigs a lot less. Now have three 3600 boxes full of just jigheads. There are more Shake2 jigheads than any other, followed, in no particular order, by Fin-Tech Titleshots, Gammy Skipgaps, Bass Stalker, and Tru-Tungsten Iaconelli jigheads. Bought a whole bunch of the TT jigheads when they stopped production and TW clearanced them out. I started out this year by going through my boxes, seeing what was low stock, and ordering about three pounds of jigheads. I probably won't need to order too many next year. As long as Shake2 jigheads are in production, I'll be buying them. Megastrike too.

UH-OH does this mean I'm in some kinda hot water? LOL

I wear mine in the yak. I have a sit-on-top with a pretty thick cushion so my legs hang over the side, and da feet are in da water. The five-fingers are one pair of shoes I don't have to worry about slipping off my feet.

Forgot add; if I had to do it, I would take my 7' M-F LTB with JDM Zillion.

For stock reel, out of the box, US market? ZIllion.

A man on his first trip to New York stopped an older gentleman and asked' " can you tell me how to get to Carnegie Hall"? The old gent said " practice, man, practice". As RM suggested; a "balanced" combo is key.

Sometimes they just hit the blades. It is what it is. Had a trip to Trophy Country a few weeks ago, with Long Mike. I got quite a few fish on a SEIBERT OUTDOORS spinnerbait, and only about half had the hook in their mouth. I hooked one right between the eyes. The hook went in inside one eye, and came out inside the other eye. The hook did not touch either eye, it went right through the bone between the eyes. I have no idea how that fish hit the bait. Wish I had taken a picture.

I'm with Bobby U on this. I use a skirted jig a lot less since the Shake2 head came out. I have one rod that always has a 3/8oz Shake2 / Space Monkey tied on. It's been two years, maybe longer, since that rod/reel had a different bait tied on. Another combo almost always has a 5/16oz Shake2 / swim senko tied on.

Sure, I could do it, but what's the fun in that? I like having different combos for different applications. I do think this application specific thing has gotten out of hand. And I'm as guilty as anybody. I started selling off some of my least used, or unused rods and reels earlier this year. But I've also bought some stuff, because I just can't pass up a bargain when one hits me in the face. I'm down to 15 casting combos; with three more rodless reels. Five spinning comboes; with one reel-less rod. Two muskie only casting combos. Two panfish only spinning combos. And five fly combos; with one spare rod. All those spare rods and reels; the poor neglected things, are just begging for mates, so I will most likely end up with more stuff. I started out the year with good intentions. I was going to get rid of some perfectly good, but seldom used, gear. Which I did. But I also bought some rods and reels. If I find bargains on mates for those spare bits of gear, I'll end up the year with more combos than when I started the year. So much for good intentions.

Trolling is an excellent way to catch a lot of different species of fish. But, it bores me to tears.

Not amused. Not impressed.

The gut in the second clip was much nicer that I would have been. I'd have tossed her obnoxious butt in the river about 22 seconds in.

Was going to ask the same thing Keith. Glad to see you back.

A MH spinning rod might be OK. Never tried that. I use a ML casting rod most of the time. It's difficult, at best, to throw an unweighted fluke with a MH casting rod. It just will not load enough to get a good cast.

Sounds like you need some give in your setup. If the hooks are bending out, that is currently the weak link in the system. Going to a stouter hook will expose the next weakest link. You'd best hope it's not your rod. Or your spool. Or your gears. Back off on the drag. You have to have some "give" in your setup.