Bluebasser86

Are the split rings stainless steel or standard wire? Stainless steel ones will stretch and stay stretched without returning to form much more often than the standard wire.

We have quite a few of both and the occasional black-nose crappie here. White crappie are by far the more aggressive IMO.

IMO, yes it is. It's a slow, quiet, non-aggressive presentation.

Took the whole family to do some "social distancing", Wednesday. The wife and boys are stir crazy from being stuck in the house so I thought they'd be up to spend some time in the boat with me on a fairly nice day. It drizzled off and on, which it wasn't supposed to happen, but only got heavy enough once to make them want to run to the truck for a while. Didn't catch a ton of fish, but it was steady and great variety. This lake has some of the biggest crappie in the state. We caught 3, 14.5", 15", and 15". I weighed the one I caught fishing by myself, 1.93lbs. Friday I met my dad at the lake by his house that I use to fish a ton but haven't because the fees are so high now that I don't live in county anymore. It's so heavily pressure, I told him I was going to try to make my $100 back in lures I'd find and I got a good start on it already. The fish were still tiny for the most part, but dad and I put over 50 of them in the boat on jerkbaits and jigs, with a couple on spinnerbaits and one on a new bladed jig I made the night before. I had the one "real" fish that went 3.40 pounds and we both caught a trout a piece.

In clear to moderately stained water, hard to beat a suspending jerkbait.

Hard to tell the size of the holes but of the several old johnboats I've owned, I've had great luck patching small holes with this stuff. https://www.lowes.com/pd/J-B-WELD-WaterWeld-White-Epoxy-Adhesive/3389026?cm_mmc=shp-_-c-_-prd-_-pnt-_-google-_-lia-_--_-glue-_-3389026-_-0&store_code=721&placeholder=null&gclid=Cj0KCQjw09HzBRDrARIsAG60GP9pSZrA6KYkLXosUtK2mVsl8BRyW4-DLOzChTRnRRx1iDhwEWtnWQ4aAl0CEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds Lowe's and Home Depot both carry it and it's pretty inexpensive. You'll need at least a few sticks of it for that number of holes but for what you'll pay to have that many holes welded, you could just buy another used one.

Probably already has it out. I saw the same study as @Way north bass guy and the pike seemed to have no issues freeing themselves of the hooks even ones that were placed deeply in their mouths.

Welcome!

Welcome!

Congrats!

It works too ?

Sold out everywhere, so I had to make them myself ?‍♂️

I have not, I'm also not brave enough to grab them by the razor blades like that.

Brave soul holding that fish with those hooks right by your hand like that.

Chloe is clearly stressed out about things in the world today.

Buying someone something that is intended as a gift that they decide to return on their own recognizance is a lot different than someone deciding they want to field test a couple rods and return one later. Having worked at a retail sporting goods store, regardless if the tags were left on, that product could no longer be put back on the shelf as new and had to be either returned to the maker, or on clearance.

I stopped tossing plastics in the lake many years ago due to the issue of fish eating discarded baits. It's not hard for me to toss them into the bottom of my boat and then toss them in the trash when I'm done for the day.

I use a deep 3700 Plano. It's packed full of cranks that are all tangled up. Sometimes I'll give up trying to untangle one and just use a different one instead ?

MS Slammer, Shine Glide, Bull Shad, FishLab Bio Gill wake, Savage Gear Pulse Tail shiner.

I pay extra for them to be perfect in that little package, so I leave them in the package they come in.

Found a couple from back when I use to be able to hop or drag a jig for smallies. Missouri craw jig/blue pork chunk. Grasshopper football jig/blue pork chunk

I've never caught one, I'd like to sometime and that's not a terrible drive.

I'd like to take mine out but, wind ?

Doesn't look like the eye is wide enough to allow the free range of motion for the blade to really vibrate. Not sure there's going to be much you can do to fix the problem with that jighead.

I have a TW order I keep almost placing, and St. Croix has a rod on sale that I want. I'm trying to show restraint, but it's not easy.