Bluebasser86

In the truck

I use both Red Label and InvisX and have had good success with both. I'd love to try Tatsu but can't bring myself to drop the money on it.

Fished the Dotte for several hours yesterday, it did not treat us very well. We'd been on the water probably close to 2 hours when I finally caught my first fish in the back of Wilson, but it was a largemouth that might have kept. My next fish about an hour later was a drum Jon was doing pretty decent and the Shhh talking was getting pretty heavy from the front of the boat. I was tossing a Ned out to the first drop on the open water side of the boat when my line jumped on the fall and my hook set was met with a considerable amount of resistance. Shortly after, a stout smallmouth was airborne and there was much scrambling going on in the boat. Having drug my bait through the razor clams for nearly 3 hours at this point and knowing my hook was rusted and bent (I'd forgotten my Ned Heads and dug this one out of the bottom of my bag). I was sure the line would part or the hook would give, turns out my biggest concern should have been my net man . I believe there was 3 or 4 missed net attempts before it was finally safely in the boat. 19" long makes it my 3rd keeper smallie ever from Wyco but still not very heavy at only 3lb 3oz. It still really made up for my otherwise bad performance. It picked up a little from there, Ned was the only thing working for me but Jon started catching a few on a French Pearl STX, including a healthy 17" largemouth and a super fat white bass. We also recovered a rod and reel from about 15' up in a tree

I have 3 of the H2O Mettles, oldest is around 3 years old and still going strong. I prefer them to the PQ, the fact that they're cheaper is a nice bonus. The PQ is a proven reel as well though. The Abu Black Max is another pretty popular bargain priced reel.

I highly doubt the fish ever see my line in the stuff I usually fish frogs in.

That's what is commonly called "memory" in the fishing world when referring to line and yes, most any mono, flouro, or copolymer will get it to some degree. If you tie your line to something solid and walk out further than you can cast and stretch it almost to the breaking point it should take out almost all of that coil.

St. Croix

Leave them in the bags and put them in worm binders or gallon ziplocks by type for me.

mono or copoly. Only reason I might use braid is if you were fishing lots of grass.

Owner for trebles, Eagle Claw for worm hooks, VMC for flipping hooks.

Welcome!

Welcome!

I fish mine on a 6' 8" m/f spinning rod with a 30 size President and 8lb C21. I have one that's over 10 years old and has caught well over 100 fish, has gone through a few set of hooks but is still going strong.

I went fishing in the kayak

Shad don't change color just because the water is dirty.

I had all 4 of mine pulled and went to work the next day.

Great baits. I really like the purple glass rap. It's a great bait for smallies and walleye around here and it cast better in our typically windy conditions than the original Shad Raps do.

You must be talking about the Shad Rap RS. I was thinking of the Glass Shad Raps, which are floaters.

I have the best success with a #5 with a few suspend dots to make it a slow riser.

Fished Edgerton City Lake (Santa Fe Lake) for about 40 minutes yesterday morning. First time I've ever caught more than 1 fish there. I caught 2 dinks, both on a black and blue BHW. I also lost a very solid fish that spun my kayak around before it came off. It hit immediately after my bait hit the water and when I set the hook my rod butt when into my hoodie pocket and stopped my hook set early. I don't think it was a monster but I'd guess probably in the 3-4 pound range. Also had a fish pop a jig pretty good twice but wasn't there on the hook set. The state has been stocking and managing that lake for several years now. I keep waiting for it to turn around a little bit but it just doesn't seem to be happening.

jerkbait, trap, jig, bladed jig. Some of the biggest bass I catch all year on a bladed jig are in water colder than most people think they're effective.

Awful news

I have bags of plastics that are probably 10 years old that still catch fish. You're worrying too much.

There's been some major walleye tournaments won trolling heavy bass spinnerbaits through weeds and timber so I'd say it's a viable technique.

You can straight retrieve some glide baits as well. you get an exaggerated "S" swimming action. The S waver and Savage Gear are both good baits with similar actions. The S waver can be fished a little slower that the Savage Gear though. Savage Gear just released a new bait called the 3D Shine Glide. I have one in route to my house right now and the folks that have them already are saying they're the real deal.