Bluebasser86

I have the LTB rod you're looking at and I love it. I use it for the exact techniques you're describing with more flipping and pitching than punching. Like WW2 said, it handles much more like other companies H than a MH. I've pulled a lot of big fish out of weeds and wood with it, including a 12lb flathead out of the middle of a brushpile, without any problems.

Haven't used the smaller mojo cranking rod but I do have the 7' 8" "Big Crankster" and like it a lot. I use one of their old pro glass rods for the cranks you're describing but not sure they make those anymore.

Deep water without a doubt. I can find a few fish on obvious deep water spots but finding them consistently in deep water is something I just can't seem to do.

You really don't need much to start tying your own jigs. I don't make the works of art that some of the guys on here do, mine are purely functional. All the tools I need are: powder paint (could get by with about 4 colors) floral wire for wrapping skirts (about $3 at a craft store) some needle nose and wire cutting pliers ($1 apiece at Harbor Freight) a fly tying vise ($20 at Cabela's or BPS) skirt material, and a toaster oven ($25 at Wal Mart). If you're going to pour your own heads it's a lot more expensive to get into. The molds will run about $20-$30 apiece, a melting pot runs around $70-$80, you'll want some Drop Out to coat you're molds, about $10, some candles to get the impurities out of your lead, plus if you can't get your lead for free it usually runs about a $1 a pound. It can be a little expensive to get in to but it sure helps pass the time during the winter months!

Welcome to the board! We have a great group of guys on here that share a lot of information about a lot of lakes around the area. I spent a lot of years fishing from a 2 man and most of us that have boats fish out of smaller, aluminum boats so we're all pretty familiar with the smaller lakes in the area. Thankfully we have lots of small lakes under 200 acres reasonably close for those of us with small boats. We also try to do area get togethers to give everyone the chance to meet other guys on the board so keep your eyes open for that if you're interested. We'll probably have one in the spring and we usually try to start planning a couple months ahead of time.

I like the sound of that, a twin tail grub, and the swimbait someone else mentioned. A pegged Rage craw flipped into the water willows has won me more than a couple Wednesday night tournaments during the summer.

What works depends a lot on the areas you're fishing. We don't have any stripers but lots of wipers. I catch a lot of my wipers on swimbaits, rattle traps, and live shad. Lots of people around here troll for them and when it gets cold we catch a lot on jigging spoons.

It's a great way to catch anything. If you do it in deeper water it helps keep away from the sunfish and bluegills a little bit.

My strength is the ability to junk fish effectively. Usually when someone resorts to junk fishing they're just covering water and hoping for a bite. I'm junk fishing almost all the time but that's how I put lots of fish into my boat. I think my ability to visualize what my bait is doing under the water is something that others have a difficult time doing.

When the other lakes freeze over I just drive to the power plant lakes, they never freeze over all the way

I'm not 100% on the weights but I'd guess 1/2oz and 1oz, neither is heavy enough to need special equipment to throw.

Drew and I fished Hillsdale today to try to catch some whites/walleye/crappie for a friend at work that's been craving some fish. Have I ever mentioned I HATE Hillsdale? The white bass were not were they were last week at all. After almost 2 hours I had lost 3 spoons and caught a carp on a power minnow. Caught a few small crappie on jigs out of the trees. Tried jigging spoons at the dam and marina area, nada, not even a bite, we did snag several small channel cats and a couple drum at the outlet. We ran back over to Gardner RD bridge to see if the whites moved up, nope.Crappie weren't in the trees they were in earlier. Just started tree hopping and finally found one with some good crappie in it. Ended up with 5 crappie and 4 whites that I filleted for my buddy. Man we worked for them and I was really wishing we would have just gone to La Cygne instead.

Like Nick said, having a place to go is the hardest part about deer hunting it seems. Second you have to decide what you're wanting to hunt with. I bowhunt, partially because I prefer it, partially because a lot of my hunting areas are off limits to gun hunters. Rifle hunting ups your odds for obvious reasons but is still a lot of fun. If you Google search deer hunting forums a bunch of them come up and I'm sure have good info on them. It's very addicting once you get into it

I won't be spending any money on DT baits anymore, they're way too fragile for me. I still have a few but it seems every time I fish one it will bounce off a rock during the retrieve and the bill will break loose from the body. Strike King makes quality baits at very good prices, sounds like the 1.5 or 4S would be good for the water you're fishing. Bandit also makes good baits that don't break the bank. The 100 and 200 series are by far my favorites in their line up.

X2, I seem to get more bites on the anaconda than the thumper.

Yep, that's them. Forgot to add the price in my post, that's part of the reason I got them. They are very warm too, even the fingerless ones and even if they get wet.

Our fish average pretty small here so I fish a lot of smaller swimbaits. The Havoc grass pig is probably one of the best economy swimbaits I use. I mainly rig it on a homemade football or casting jig head and stroke it around drops or weeds. I also fish Huddlestons weedless shad and the 6" Hudd, both weedless and regular. The Decoy Hydratail is another bait I fish quite a bit along with an ABT Banshee. Like WRB said, you don't really pound the banks with them but fish them thoroughly in high percentage areas. The smaller baits you can pound the banks with because just like a crankbait or spinnerbait, it doesn't take a big fish to eat them. I do have some of the Optimum BLT's and have had pretty good success with them. I use a 4" version rigged with a #2 or #1 VMC treble.

That's a rough situation man. I have no experience in that situation but I'll share my feelings on it. Despite your past with your dad and his mistakes he's still your dad. It sounds like he's in bad shape and may be trying to make amends for his past mistakes. I think if it were me I'd give him a chance and maybe get the chance to have some kind of good memories of your dad instead of just the bad things that have happened in the past. Hope everything turns out well for you.

I tie a Palomar for most of my fishing but have also started tying a San Diego Jam with fluoro. When tied properly one seems to be just as good as the other.

Bass Pro has the White River gloves I fish with. They have fingerless ones or ones with fingers that you can cut the index and thumb off so all your other fingers are covered. If it's cold and rainy I have a pair of neoprene Glacier Gloves that you can roll the index and thumb back and velcro. Great gloves and pretty reasonably priced, think I paid $30 and have had them for several seasons.

I use a Cabela's Advanced Angler's Super Magnum. My boat has very little storage room so I have to carry my baits in a tackle bag. It's basically just large enough to carry all my hard baits I carry but I have my plastics in binders. I think it fits 12 3700 boxes so it's probably plenty big for most guys.

I have some of the 4" shiner/shad shaped ones and they work pretty well, especially for the price. I changed the hooks out because the stock ones are pretty small. I've never caught any very big on them but they will catch fish. Haven't ever done much with the bluegill shaped ones.

I was fighting a 10-12 inch bass in on a jerkbait two years ago in a strip pit when a bass that was probably a DD engulfed the entire bass from behind up past it's eyes. Basically the only thing sticking out was it's mouth and my bait She spit it out and swam away and wouldn't eat any of the big swimbaits I tried tossing around for the next hour or so.

Yeah I was saying if it were me going I'd be going for something I can't catch at home like you're saying. I'd love to catch another DD bass but I've never caught a peacock or snakehead. Plus if you go to the southern end of the state you could do a day or two of freshwater then a couple days of saltwater. I believe there's some pretty good runs of fish during the winter months in Florida isn't there?

Already have the place to stay. I'll be there with my brother in law and a friend of mine. None of us have ever been to a big tournament so we're all really excited!