Bluebasser86

This is my version of the Jackhammer style bladed jig. Not sure it's much different from a Project Z or similar, but it works and it's way cheaper for me to make than it is to buy them.

Stick with the Strike Kings and get some Series 5 and 5XD.

I fish really small jerkbaits pretty often when the water gets really cold and I'm trying to get anything to bite. The Lucky Craft 65 pointer, Duo Rozante 63, Xrap #4 or #6 are all good.

I use a luggage scale and fish grips. It's kind of a compact version of what they use on MLF, which has an emphasis on fish care, so I figure it must be a good way to do it.

This is basically how I make mine, but with a swim pro head. The one I make that is similar to the Jackhammer is made with a heavily modified Poison head mold, a spinnerbait hook, part of a swinging poison head wire form, and a coffin blade.

There was a tournament out there that day. I think 12 something won it, so nobody figured it out too good. I fished Pleasanton East in the gale force winds Monday and actually caught a bunch of fish, but a majority were dinks to not even big enough to be called dinks. I had 1 exception to that rule in the form of a beautiful 5.53 pound fish on a homemade finesse jig in less than a foot of water in a willow tree. Fished Wolf for a few hours Tuesday morning before getting called off. It was really low and really slow. Dragging plastic was best but also caught them on a spinnerbait, jerkbait, and ned. Lots of my favorite spots are on dry land right now. It could be a long winter if Wolf is off and La Cygne is cold.

Usually a fish that is pretty thick, like that one appears to be, in the 20" range will go somewhere in the neighborhood of 5 pounds.

Bowfin and bass coexist in lots of bodies of water without issues. Killing one without the intent to eat it could be considered wanton waste.

Thankfully my neighbors are a retired officer, current deputy, retired military, and the county undersheriff. Wouldn't be the best road to come trying to steal packages from.

Grew up in small town of St. George, KS. Closest neighbors were my cousins. Learned to ride a bike on a dirt road, played basketball on dirt with a backboard nailed to the front of a barn. Played in the creek, caught crawdads, snakes, and lizards for fun. Ate a lot of wild game and helped on my grandparents farm. I was well aware of where my food came from at a young age. It may not seem fair or humane, but anyone that doesn't live in fairy-tail land knows that nature is never fair or humane either. I do my best when I'm hunting to do so as humanely as possible, and my grandparents always treated their animals as good as they could to the end, but something has to die for most everything to live.

I like something with a more moderate-fast action and a stout backbone. A lot of bladed jigs have a big jig hook that takes some power to drive, especially on big fish.

I've never held one but lots of guys like a longer rod for making long cast and covering water. I can cast as far as I need to and can also make accurate short cast with mine so it's the best of both worlds for me. As long as it has the right amount of action and power it will be fine.

A 6' 9" H/F Hammer micro guide rod.

So would I! I fish that lakeall the time and it's bigger than any I've caught there. I put 4 of my friends on their new PB that year, it was pretty cool. I even sort of got a video of the one Fluke has in the picture there. It was a tank and it crushed the bait as soon as it hit the water.

Googled it, wish I hadn't

Put a couple flat rocks or lay a couple logs near the shoreline and wait at least a few days to check them. If there's craws in the pond they'll find them.

You don't need anything that nice for bladed jigs. My setup is less than $200 and I fish them about as much as any other bait I fish. I haven't fished the Zman's much the last several years since I started making my own, but I think you'd be best just to split the difference and buy all Project Z baits. I've built some of my own very similar to the Jackhammer and honestly hasn't caught any noticeable amount of extra fish versus the standard baits. Even better would be to buy the Fogy's from Siebert. Get all kinds of color options with a good hook with a wire tied skirt for less money, hard to go wrong there.

Rodent, Pit Boss, Menace, brush hog and baby brush hog, Rage Craw, Christie Craw, magnum finesse worm, flipping tubes, Crazy Flapper, the list goes on forever.

https://www.barlowstackle.com/Weedless-Un-Painted-Raw-Jig-Heads-C303.aspx

Trout are a fun way to spend the winter. Kind of a change of pace and they fight good on light tackle.

The crawdads that we have here that build the chimneys very rarely ever go into ponds or lakes, they just dig next to them so their burrow fills up with water and live in there. Even when they come out at night to feed they don't go into the water but on rare occasions.

A folding, telescoping net is going to be your best option. https://www.academy.com/shop/pdp/h2o-xpress™-ultralight-extendable-kayak-landing-net#repChildCatid=980660

Nice, got to love power plant lakes! The really good power plant days you can't even see the plant though.

This is the middle of the day for me! Breakfast is dinner around 7pm, lunch around 3am, breakfast/dinner before bed at 10am. I can and have slept through a tornado, I'm lucky if my alarm wakes me up some days.

If I'm keeping fish, it's for someone else. Can't stand the taste unfortunately.