Bluebasser86

I'd guess a Lucky Craft Saltwater Flash Minnow, either a 110 or 130.

Had a request for a Blueback Herring bladed jig. Never seen one in person, hoping after looking at a bunch of pictures online that I got close.

I like the 1/4oz size of that mold to tie the same finesse cut skirt as your bottom picture. Kind of a heavy finesse style jig with the heavier hook and weedguard than most finesse jigs.

After all the rain and cold temps the last few days, it was a tough go this weekend. Finally found some up way shallower than I expected and they were flat trying to swallow my spinnerbait. Wish I'd found them sometime sooner than the last hour before I had to leave.

Welcome!

My guides were icing up while I was fishing Saturday morning. It didn't feel like the day before spring ?

Even 25x21.5 comes out to over 13 pounds. Without just adding random numbers into a fish calculator until something close to what your fish weighed comes up, it's going to be tough without solid measurements. FWIW, I used the fish calculator here and put in 24"X17" and got 9.6lbs You could always weight something with a known weight with your scale just to make sure it's not off also. I've had one Rapala scale that was wildly inconsistent on weights. I used it to weight 2 of my largest bass I've caught in my home state, both come out to over 8lbs on the fish calculator, but neither were over 8 on the Rapala scale. The tipping point was when I weighed a healthy 18.5" fish on it and it came up to just 2.5lbs. Weighed my 20lb anchor on my johnboat and it came up to just over 11lbs.

Wahoo! Grand Lake, OK Lake of the Ozarks, MO Table Rock Lake, MO

Easy, there's none in our lakes so I don't have any to target ?‍♂️

That does seem odd for a ML to be rated up to 20lb line? Usually more around 12/14.

It might change it very slightly but it's either that or not have it and be able to use it.

Close, but not quite. https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Savage_Gear_Pulse_Tail_Bluegill_Line_Through_Swimbait/descpage-SLTB.html

I've caught some nice 'eyes from Bull, mine have been on Keitechs and A-rigs though. My problem in Arkansas is the variety. I get around stripers, big brown trout, lmb/smb/spots, and hybrids, I start having a hard time keeping my focus on fishing for other stuff.

It's really easy to do yourself with one of the rod repair kits you can get from Walmart for a few bucks. I've done a bunch of my own and several for other guys, it's a quick and easy fix and if you don't get it right the first time, it's easy to adjust it.

Exactly. I use a regular 7' M/F rod for walking baits, and a 6' M/F for poppers. I don't set the hook, just reel into them and lean into the weight. The huge advantage to this is I never take the bait away from a fish when they miss the bait, like when a fish explodes on a walking bait and misses, I just keep fishing it because I know I don't need to set the hook to stick them no matter how far out there they are. I don't pull hooks because I've got my gear set to fight a fish on a no stretch line. The line tangling on the hooks is so blown out of proportion also. Maybe if you let your bait sit for a long time after twitching it, but if you keep it moving for the most part, tangles rarely happen and not having a leader is one less knot to have to worry about breaking. I tried it despite everything I heard and won't be going back.

Like others said, very strong and great abrasion resistance but also quite a bit of memory. Makes a good leader but using it for a mainline gets to be a hassle.

InvisX, picked up a 1000 yard spool for cheap that works well for those if I want to use a straight fluoro.

Good idea. I made some out of cord and carabiner clips and wrapping the clip around the rod and clipping it back to the cord but it's kind of hard to do depending on which rod I'm after. Looks like I need to check those cable cuffs out as a way to maybe make it a little easier.

At some point you're just going to have to get out and let the bass answer the questions for you. Will a bass eat a finesse jig with a Keitech trailer? Sure. Is it the best option? Probably not. What's the best finesse jig trailer? Depends on so many different variables that nobody can really give you a perfect answer because even in a tournament where a guy might win on a finesse jig, the bass might have eaten another one better if someone would have just fished it. Fishing is about trial and error, mostly the latter at the beginning. The key is learning from those failures and how to avoid them and paying attention to the successes and learning how to duplicate them. You can ask every question you can possibly think of until the end of time about every possible little detail of fishing and still not have learned half as much as the guy who gets out there and grinds on the water to actually figure out the answer to his questions.

What most folks call 'murky' is what I'd call clear ? If I can see my trolling motor head, that's pretty clear water where I fish. It's not 'murky' here until a white bait disappears a few inches below the surface. I wouldn't fish a fluke in it, but I wouldn't fish a fluke in almost any water so I'm not a good person to ask.

I have some, they work for me.

The realism on these things is just nuts.

Favorite trailer for what? I use trailers for some types of baits that I never use for others.

BPS puts such terrible hooks on their hard baits, no way I'd trust the hooks on their jigs. Buy from Siebert's, get a quality hook and pick from like 50 different colors instead of a few. A few dollars more but at least you won't be crying when a big bass wrecks that hook.