Greed

There doesn't seem to be any info in the video Mike put out about a year ago. I'm pretty sure it's not a Keitech or Damikii.

Don't forget a lipless crank!

Every year I do the same old thing and it seems to work. 38-42 degrees: Jerkbait only 42-50 degrees: Jig and Lipless Crankait 50-55 degrees: Bladed Jig, Swim jig, Jig 55 degrees plus: It's pretty easy to wack them on anything until they start bedding up.

My only superstition is if I get bit on my first cast it's going to be a slow day.

Take out the lure and then take your picture.

Maybe change the time you make your outing. There are always a few fish that'll move into feed at dawn and dusk if where you're fishing usually holds fish.

If you're worried about a bite off why not use a heavy flouro leader or even a steel leader? Seems like you should be using one anyway if you're fishing where there are toothy critters.

My biggest pet peeve when watching a fishing show is seeing a fish feeder in the immediate background on the 10 acre pond they're fishing. To be more direct it pains me to see fishing shows shot on small private waters.

I would also like to know if it would be possible to lower the gear ratio on my Calcutta even lower. This would be something that I'd like to do over the winter while I patiently wait for winter to end.

Agreed! My go to bait when the water is >50 degrees is a lipless crankbait. This year I've been throwing 6-7" Swimbaits all year so I'm looking forward to see how my huds work in cold water.

I would also suggest slinging a 6" huddleston in your favorite pattern. I've gotten some big bites swimming a rof 5 hud along shorelines at night. No hook ups though a wakebait if you know the fish are active.

A white 1/8-1/4 bitsy bug on a little dipper, bam!

I only fish gravel ponds in the arid region that I live. As soon as I switched from a spinnerbait/crankbait to a swimjig the size of my average catch went up a good pound. I usually use 3" Big Hammer Swimbait trailers but I recently made an order to test out the 4" version on a 3/4oz Dirty Jigs jig. Most of this year I've been using the 1/2 BooYah Swimjig. It even caught me my kicker fish and a couple striper on the only tournament I've been too. I made the discovery last year when I only brought jigs with me to the lake and no topwater. The conditions were excellent for topwater, post-spawn, surface activity, the perfect storm for a good wakebait bite. Out of frustration I made a cast with my jig as far as I could down the shoreline and burned it back as fast as I could. Right on cue a 2 1/2-3# hit it with authority. Fastforward to this year and all I throw are Swimbaits, Swimjigs, and Jigs in that order.

Same thing has been happening here in Colorado for the last 10 years or so. The managing authorities aren't protecting Salmon or Trout but Endangered Sucker Minnows. Any fish that's non native gets removed and thrown on the bank to rot.

Brush Hogs and Beaver style baits are the only creature style baits that I've dabbled with. I prefer Gambler Otters over RI Sweet Beavers but that's just me. The times I use a Brush Hog is when I'm covering water by casting compared to picking apart cover (flippin/pitchin) then I'll use a compact beaver style bait. I like to use 3/8-1/2 punch rigs when I'm using a beaver style bait, I haven't found much use for heavy punch rigs here in CO. The best punch rigs I found are the Pepper Punch made by Pepper Jigs. The nice thing about the Pepper Punch is you can essentially create you're own personal pattern if you check out their site. My favorite pattern is Desert Storm.