Bluebasser86

Man that's a lot to cover, but I'll give you a brief run down. 1st picture; Frog-best around vegetation or cover. Fish a fairly long, stout rod with 50lb braided line. Fish it with short twitches and pauses in between. Popper-give it a couple twitches with pauses in between. Most any line will work other than fluoro since it sinks. Jitterbug- slow, steady retrieve, any rod/reel/line combo will work. 2nd picture-Straight retrieves will work with all those baits. I prefer a 7' MH/M rod with 10-15 pound copolymer line for crankbaits. 3rd-A straight retrieve of varying speeds will catch fish with spinnerbaits. A MH/F rod with 15lb copolymer is what I use for spinnerbaits. 4th-Any rig for soft plastics will work with most any of those baits. A Texas rig is a good starting point, as is a shakyhead.

Yes, but they'll catch little fish too. Yesterday I was fishing a 9" MS Slammer and my only bite was a 13" largemouth.

And that's why I'm not a detective

Positive we saw you from looking at your boat. All red Nitro isn't it? I think we saw you around the north end around that time as we only fishing about another hour past that before we had to leave.

Man I wish that was the case around here. I'm trying to keep it under 20K without crazy high miles but around here they still want low 20s for a Tundra with 100k miles on it, not happening.

I already have public fishing areas that few know about that I keep to myself. I'll show pictures of the fish from them but no way I'll share the location except for select friends I know can keep a secret. It's just my name on a piece of paper that nobody will know about. A world record would be a different story though.

I wish I could even thing about affording a Tundra. I'm sure they're great, but they're priced like they're great too. If I could find one with reasonable miles under 20K I'd really be looking hard at it.

Closest viable population of stripers is 4 hours away I think I've caught about 7 in my life, biggest was a beautiful 20.01lb fish on an Alabama rig at Beaver Lake, where all the res of my stripers came from as well.

It's not an exciting looking bait, but flat outfishes everything else when they're on it. On a side note, there's a lot of pictures of me on Google images if you search Ned rig

I have several E7s, and E5, 50E, and 300E, the I series is smoother than any of them. They're still great reels though and if you found a good deal on one then jump on it for sure.

Because I've had all of the big 3 (Chevy, Ford, Dodge) and the Chevy was by far my favorite and most dependable. My Dodge went through 2 transmissions and was crapping out completely at 140k. Now my Ford is waving the flag at 112k. I don't drive my trucks hard at all and only towed aluminums with them so they aren't working hard towing. Both my Chevy trucks had over 200k miles on them. One of them was wrecked and totaled, the other was still running fine when I sold it and I still see the guy driving it once in awhile. 4X4 is absolutely a must. I fish all winter long and there's no way to get up an icy ramp without it. Brian, I'm going to try that Lucas Transmission treatment. Even if it gets me through this year then the truck will be paid off and I can use all the trade in money towards a new truck. It isn't slipping really badly yet so hopefully it will help. Looks like I'll be looking for a 1500, thanks guys!

Not a fan of them. I bought a bunch when the were discontinued at a local tackle store and even for half price they weren't worth the money I spent on them.

They are a terrific shakyhead bait around here. I have yet to try them on a T rig but I'm sure they'll work well like that as well.

I use a 5.1 for a majority of my cranking.

I don't fish topwaters at night, mainly because I hate trying to dodge baits that I can't see Actually I've started to fish a Slammer at night once in awhile, mainly because they don't go airborne if I swing and miss a fish like other topwaters do. Plus fish rarely seem to miss them.

Tie direct except for spoons or anything else that requires a snap.

I don't consider it a creature bait, but since the OP listed it the Pit Boss would have to be my choice. Of the baits I consider to be a creature bait it would be a baby brush hog.

Take it with you. Unless you can store it in an unmovable container with an unbreakable lock, if someone wants to steal it, they will. Trust me, I know from getting to go through the gut-wrenching experience of having all my gear stolen once and a boat stolen another time. My gear was in a shed with a stout padlock, didn't matter since the hinges were only attached with screws. Probably took the thief a minute or two to back all those screws out then make away with my rods and tackle. The boat was just a 2 man but being that I was 15 at the time it was my only way off the bank. It was padlocked to the dock with a heavy chain. A blowtorch did the chain in and the boat disappeared into the night. It seems like a pain to have to pack it with you each time I know, but it's a lot better than the alternative.

Get a couple proven baits, don't buy cheap crap, then fish them. You can't expect to get out there and get immediate results. Can it happen? sure, but don't count on it. Look into some baits like a 7" Slammer, 6 3/4" S Waver, 6" Bull Shad, Mattlures Hardgill, 6" Hudd or 68 Hudd, Black Dog Shellcracker, or a 6-7 Jerry Rago. They certainly can catch numbers at times. The 7" Slammer has been the best numbers bait for me. It moves a ton of fish too, which helps keep your confidence up and keeps you fishing it. There's been days I've literally moved entire schools of 20-30 fish off a piece of cover. I've kind of felt a transformation since I've started fishing them. At first I couldn't stick with them very long. I'd see all the good looking stuff that I was fishing and not getting bit and just think of all the fish I might be able to catch on normal techniques. I've stuck with it though and caught some good fish. Now that feeling of "It's going to happen on this cast" keeps me chucking them even on the days where they aren't on them really well without much thought of what I might be catching on normal gear.

I fish better by myself. I prefer fishing with someone else but when I can just pin my ears back and fish without worrying about if my buddy in the back is getting a fair shot at the fish, is he snagged, does he have a fish on, am I going to have to dodge that set of trebles again, I put a lot more fish in the boat and I'm not worried about gambling because if I don't catch anything I'm okay with it and I don't have to worry about someone else being disappointed.

I can only hope that was a swimmer fish? Beautiful fish.

I shoot everyone a text this morning and let you know.

Well unfortunately it looks like I'm going to be in the market for a new truck in the very near future. I was hoping a new boat would be happening soon but now that the tranny is slipping in my current truck that's going to have to wait. I want to be ready for when that time comes though so I want to buy a truck that will be up to hauling a boat a lot. I'm going to have to stick to the smaller end of the size spectrum for boats (19' would probably be too long to fit in my garage) so I'm not going to be hauling a huge boat. I'm looking at a 1500 Silverado but have been hearing that maybe a 2500 would be better if I'm going to be hauling a boat a lot? Seems like that would be overkill for the size boat I'm looking at but thought maybe some of you guys might have experience with them to share. 4x4 and extended cab is a must but other than that I don't need anything fancy.

Give him a spinning rod with braid and a tube jig or Senko, he should be good there. Or just give him a crankbait and let him grind it through the rocks until he snags a drum A lot of the docks have stalls down there, shouldn't need to skip too much. Plus there's tons of rock banks with no docks at all.

Snaps just make me lazy and end up costing me fish and baits because I don't retie as often when I use them.