dwtaylor

dedicated drop shot but I tie generally decently long leaders already so I could tie one up on the lake. Storage wise, I secure the hook in the rod hook keeper and just twist the leader line around the rod/reel handle area to minimize snags.

You would need diamond tooling to cut tungsten because it is so hard. Those tools aren't cheap. Most cutting tools in the machining industry are made of tungsten carbide. These tools are made from these blanks and are usually made via grind from blanks or powdered tungsten carbide pressed into shape and sintered. Most fishing lure applications are likely a variety of sintered tungsten or tungsten carbide. Many say 97% tungsten but I think that might be slightly false as there may be some alloy element that includes tungsten but it is not pure tungsten.

I always keep mine as close as possible to the foregrip and in the same line as the guides (top for casting, bottom for spinning) The angle of the line off the reel to the 1st guide keeps adequate distance and prevents the line from snagging the keeper. I pretty much only use drop shot style keepers anymore as they are more versitile. +1 on the reel being a hook keeper on big baits. Makes a big difference. Same with alabama rigs.

My wife kept suggesting I get the whatnot app for fishing auctions, as she uses it for her hobbies. Against my better judgement, I listened to her this weekend. Ended up over paying on a chop block glide and ended up getting some really good deals on terminator titanium buzzbaits and a baby 1 minus. Kind of crazy to see coikes there go for 35+, but I get it they are popular.

Using heavier jigs you are going to lose a lot more baits. Sometimes they like fast falling or cracking style retrieves. I use 1/16 to 5/16 in my river I fish the most and never use 3/8 or above due to snags. Lighter weights reduce snags, but you need to be heavy enough to get to the bottom. Most years with low river/low flow conditions, I find 1/8 to 3/16 the most used sizes for me. The 1/16 are used with baitfish style colors when I want a very slow sink or a presentation where the current will take it and 5/16 is in deeper holes along bottom. I always view a tube jig as a consumable item as you will lose tackle to snags. I make my own tube jigs, but I do recommend castagaintackle tubes and tube jigs as they sell in bulk packs to help with losing baits.

Swim jigs are very versatile baits, but there are different kinds of swim jigs at play and they each have a use. Northern style swim jigs: -predominately 1/8 oz to 3/8 oz with most using 1/4 oz -light wire hooks -lighter weedguards -sparsely tied skirts oftentimes with krystal flash or mylar flash. Southern/regular swim jigs: -predominately 1/4 oz to 5/8 oz with most using 3/8 to 1/2 oz. -heavy hooks -heavy weedguards -full skirts Northern style swim jigs is what I fish most of the time because the light hook and weedguard keeps hookups great. If the fish bite it, it is coming in the boat and it is very forgiving for a swim jig. Lethal weapon swim jigs are probably the best example of this style of swim jig a guy can find online. I make my own however, it is a relative knockoff of the formerly great Brovarney swim jig. A medium to medium heavy rod with fc line is preferred here and is a tom monsoor style hookset (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdMiu1M0fp0). I still fish it around grass and wood, but if you need to wrench on fish around really heavy stuff, its not the jig for you as you can straighten out hooks if you don't have the right setup. About 90% of the time I use 1/4 oz and the other 10% I am using either 1/8 to 3/16 oz or 3/8 oz, never heavier. Southern/regular swim jigs are basically heavier, more full versions of a northern style jig. The fuller skirt has the bait float higher in the water which helps in in submerged grass and other cover. This kind of bait you can throw on a mh to heavy rod with braid or heavy fc line and is good to wrench fish out. The hookset is a tight and hefty lean set compared to the northern style swim jig. I rarely fish this and really only when around heavy grass where the fish is coming up with a bunch of cabbage. Landing % is less with this jig and as a result, I fish it far less than northern style jigs. This is also the type of swim jigs you will find most commonly available. If I need to keep my bait shallow, 1/4 oz gets the nod. If I need to keep it deeper around submerged grass, I go 3/8 to 1/2 oz. I don't fish swim jigs immediately after ice out. But once water temps get into the upper 40s, it comes out and stays until fall when I put the boat away.

well done! I am in a similar boat with my son being born in may 2024. I haven't painted a crankbait or finished a rod since. One of my early builds was that same mhx blank and I had the same feeling...way too stiff. The sj blanks have a slightly softer tip than the mb blanks, but no where near what I would call a medium power blank in the sj series. A 3 power is a medium heavy in the mb line and I would certainly call it a medium heavy spinning rod blank. With that said, I am using my drop shot rod DS822 a lot more because its lighter tip, but still stiff backbone. It isn't quite heavy enough for consistent stupid tubes, but it does have the lighter tip to load 1/8 to 3/16 oz jigs in 3.5" tubes.

I didn't buy specialized threaders, but borrowed the largest eye needle in my wife's sewing kit. I pinch off the last carapace section of a 4" maxscent chigger craw for use on a jig and used these sections threaded with silicone, round rubber, and flat rubber. I caught fish, but I am new to the dice game and this was all summer/late summer fishing with these baits. I think it would be better for me in prespawn through post spawn though. FYI, silicone will tear easily when pulling through. Be careful and maybe lube it up to slide through the bait better. Some use worm oil. I tried megastrike scent as lube and it worked well. I did not have this problem with the rubber, fyi.

https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Spike_It_Elastint_2oz/descpage-SIE.html Spike It Elastint is made for that material. I haven't used it personally, but its worth a shot.

fish obsessed dominator mount. It is solid, reasonably priced, and offers plenty of adjustment over the factory mounts for forward, down, and perspective mode views. I have zero complaints with mine. In fact, I am very confident that their mount has been critical in my ability to refine my ffs skills and the adjustability in the perspective mode is an absolute killer in shallow water, where the factory perspective mount has a fixed angle.

I don't own any of the legend glass rods, but as far as glass rods go when feeling them on store shelves, they are likely one of the best in the industry. Great actions and light for glass rods. With that said, if given the option of a graphite rod with a moderate action or a glass rod, I am taking the graphite rod every time. St Croix makes great carbon crank rods and I swear by my 7'2" mh-m victory for dt6, dt8, dt10, warts, rkcrawlers, and money badgers. The extra sensitivity around rock/sand/etc transitions is key. With that said, it doesn't have a traditional mh backbone and the medium is very soft, but would likely be better for the light wiggle warts or bandit 200s that I also throw.

I wanted to go this year, but fear of having car troubles driving in the sub -10 degree weather made me not want to go. I looked at the vendors and there is getting to be fewer and fewer folks setting up shop there than the last time I was there in 2022 or 2023 whenever the last time I was there. Prior to covid, I went to that show, the milwaukee show, and the madison/wisconsin expo every year. I haven't gone to any for at least 2 years and don't have the desire to do so. No reason as most vendors have very minimal sales or deals for what I am looking for. Frankly, my fishing expenses have gone way down hill since having a kid.

I bought a zillion 100h older model with a custom 7'1" mh st croix legend tournament rod for 85 bucks at a pawn shop. It had a lot of boat rash, but I might clean it up and paint it eventually. Mechanically pretty sound too, but that era of Daiwa and Shimano reels are pretty bullet proof. I prefer my e series shimanos and have over 30. They work always. If I find a good deal on them, I buy them.

most fun? Frogs hands down. Not only do you get an awesome strike, you get to fight and wrestle the fish on the way through the weeds back into the boat.

Who knows. ISU will have 2 quality games before the cyhawk game and Iowa won't. I don't think it will happen, but my biggest concern is if Iowa turned the page in a drastic improvement on offense. Your new guy has a decent arm and some wheels on him and that can give a team fits, but overall ISU is used to athletic qbs in the big 12 and their defense is set up for it. Its almost always a close game between us but I think its as close on paper as it has been in recent years and ISU is starting to fill a more competitive roster with guys that play hard like Iowa has always seemingly been able to accomplish. I do think Mark Gronowski is the X factor in the game to keep their offense 2 dimensional. ISU's secondary is better than Iowa's receivers but Iowa's OL group has a slight edge (very slight) to ISU's Dline group. I think ISU has a good game plan to try to get the new guy to beat them with his arm and I think there will be a lot of punts.