Bluebasser86

I don't know about that. A lit up smallmouth with good tiger stripes is about as pretty as they get IMO. Spots are certainly good looking fish too though.

The Tighlines baits work, but I haven't seen them do anything special that makes them worth as much as a regular Senko to me. If you have fairly clear water with smallmouths in it, the Zinker on a Ned rig is almost cheating. It's effective enough for smallmouth around here that I have a rod dedicated to it. It catches everything from sunfish to catfish too. I've caught lots of walleye, crappie, wipers, white bass, and drum on them. Largemouth with eat it really well too, but it's like crack for smallmouth. My biggest Ned rig largemouth Like I said, it catches everything too.

Muddy water they stay close to cover while they roam more in clear water.

I like dark colored baits when the sky is darker and regular color baits when the moon is bright. Prey creatures don't change colors just because it gets dark out.

I have the regular speed spool on my spinnerbait/buzzbait/bladed jig rod and I have zero complaints.

Don't think there's a braid out there that can stand up to a toothy fish. I caught a 17lb muskie this fall on 50lb 832 and once she was in the net and started thrashing she cut that braid like it was sewing thread.

MH to H

Usually a couple Pb&j's and a couple ultra zero or rehab Monsters along with coffee on the way to the lake and some water. Since my doctor put me on a diet it's coffee on the way to the lake with water and a home made vegetarian black bean burrito on the water. It's just rice, black beans, cilantro, lemon juice, and some plain Greek yogurt.

Mine is brown as well and still works just fine.

That's the pair that caught my eye when I was looking at their website. Won't be able to swing them this year most likely but I'll have to keep them in mind for when next winter rolls around.

I picked up 3 of their new colors last time I was in Academy. Their new bluegill, gold/black back, and a ghost minnow color all looked too good for me to pass up. Gold/black back has already been doing work

I finally caught some fish on a swim jig. I've been fishing 3/8 and 1/2 ounce sizes and had yet to get a strike. I got some 3/0 hooks that I'd hoped would fit my shakyhead mold but turned out to be too thick. What they did fit nicely was my 1/4oz swim jig head, so I poured some and gave them a try. That light head with a twin tail grub produced good numbers of fish for me, especially around water willows. Also had some good success with a Duo Realis popper 64.

7, 7' 3", and 7' 6".

My learning curve with a jig was greatly accelerated when I went fishing with a good jig fisherman and when I bought a decent rod for fishing jigs and plastics.

I have no proof of this but I believe there is. Most of our lakes are shallow and never develop a thermacline but we get the nasty chunks of stuff floating on the surface when those lakes start to cool off and about a week of very difficult fishing before that stuff disappears and fishing improves. Even without a normal turnover the bottom of the lake is still going to be cooler and the top is warmer so when the surface begins to cool there must be some kind of water mixing that releases all the junk from the bottom of the lake.

I've used some quick set epoxy to fix loose guides before with no issues. It doesn't look quite as pretty as a professional job but it cost me a fraction of the price and I had my rod back in action almost immediately.

Long cast and camo cloths can help with spooky pond fish. An unweighted stick worm, either wacky or T rigged, is a great pond bait when bass are spooky because it cast a long ways, lands lightly, and has a subtle action. A shopping cart would certainly count as cover, but not as structure. Structure is more your bottom contours, rockpiles, shell beds, while cover is logs, docks, brushpiles, weeds, and even shopping carts

Welcome to the forums!

I pour some 1/8oz with a 2/0 EWG short shank Owner. I rig a Pit Boss Jr or small craw and the jerky action looks as good as any craw imitation I've seen.

Can't give away Curt's super secret flathead spot

Which model do you have? Love my Muck Rangers but once it starts to really get cold they leave something to be desired.

The jig weight will be the weight of the head alone. Skirt material, weedguard, paint, rattles, all of it is going to effect the weight of the jig.

Rods-Abu, St. Croix, H2O, custom build Reels-Shimano, Lew's, H2O, Pfluegar

Curt and I fished La Cygne Thursday. T'was a tad chilly, but there fish to be caught and nobody else was out there doing it so we did our best to take up the slack Curt had 2 really nice bass but apparently my phone decided it was too cold to take a picture of the first one. It did get the bigger one though that went 4lbs 10ozs. I sneaked in a cast and stole his flathead Curt was hoping for a fish dinner of wipers and whites, I think we got the job done.

French Pearl is hands down my favorite color at Melvern.