dwtaylor

I got bit pretty good this weekend on a 1/4 oz custom snootie jig but broke off on the good colors...back to pouring, painting, and tying up more I guess. I always go by weight I need to keep bottom contact but not too much to get snagged up. 1/4 oz this weekend was perfect in the current with a sparse skirt and a 3" chigger craw trailer. A 3/8 got snagged up too much, but that was a trimmed up full sized jig to keep a compact profile. I have found to love the snootie jig for smaller compact finesse jigs as they are pretty snag proof around rock and wood which is the majority of what I fish it on.

https://www.amazon.com/Timbertech-Multi-Purpose-Airbrush-Dual-Action-Decorating/dp/B07SQYLBR5/ref=mp_s_a_1_3_pp?crid=2ZNXAEQUQNAPS&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.KqQOj_7ONJcG9no3MPe9sJA6ppEvwCctjc66waTIp_58lRzP3q3GyAR_yWXVw7e0gYqB0BrVAAiciP-qr9bwwfkycuUkBMs2bcfSjZG7ZABRPZvuLEE7yupsQylx750vj2FCoqcoGg-DfretPOFiIOf5Bw8IX1Yeb40QosAowKs5HUcBERtvbgRlbqwiijAb4yLLK1ImBdrKZu1uIdBBkg.Np1DJPbbL7AZpLU_EmcMqBvlqPRQdHuwclw4s8PfUew&dib_tag=se&keywords=air+brush&qid=1752601780&sprefix=air+brush%2Caps%2C426&sr=8-3

I was a pork chunk guy and kept it hush hush when they were hard to get (uncle josh started making them again, albeit in maybe less than ideal sizes/shapes/colors) for cold water (sub 60 degree wt) jigs. I almost exclusively use maxscent plastics as jig trailers now because they are that good. The meaty chunk for a zoom super chunk style trailer, a power chunk for a zoom salty chunk or pork frog style trailer, lil trooper craw for finesse jigs, chigger craw in both sizes for jigs, especially football jigs, and creature hawgs for flipping jigs. A local tackle shop, the reel shot, is going out of business and is clearancing stuff out like crazy so I bought several years worth of chunks and creature hawgs at 50% off.

I recommend 30lb braid with a 12 to 16 inch leader of 14 to 20lb mono for that application. Berkley big game is nice for leader material and is relatively cheap. You want heavier mono because topwaters have a tendancy to catch the treble hooks on the line if the line is too limp like braid is. A stiffer leader will help reduce issues like that. When going to a braid reel, only put like 2 or 3 spool rotations of backer line on before putting on the braid because you can absolutely launch baits and having that extra line is nice.

good work! I too keep found lures and wash them up to repaint if they aren't water logged or in really bad shape. I also sand the top coat/paint off the baits for 2 reasons...paint adhesion and performance especially on suspending jerkbaits. Painting over primer/paint/topcoat with more primer/paint/topcoat increases the lure weight which could cause suspending lures to sink or floating lures to suspend. My favorite airbrush is available on amazon for like 25 bucks and is basically an iwata eclipse knockoff and comes with a .8mm tip which is really nice for laying down heavier paints like metallics and pearls.

I use the gamakatsu superline hooks with the screw lock swapped out with an owner center pin style screw lock. I think I use 4/0, but they could be 5/0 size too but I use them mostly for horny toads. When you line up the hook where it would come through the body like a normal tx rig with the bait straight, go another about an 1/16 to 1/8 inch further back when putting the hook through the bait. This bends the bait, but make sure the bait is bending down towards the bend of the hook and not up away from the hook. That slight bend down shifts the center of gravity of the bait below centerline, which allows the bait to flip right side up. It may still land upside down, but simply raising your rod tip up and reeling in with a slight bow in your line it will flip back over, provided it isn't over a pad or something stiff preventing it from turning. I don't like the belly weighted hooks as they collect too much snot grass on it. If we had consistent eel grass, hydrilla, or milfoil instead of scum I would probably use them, but since we don't have those nice weeds, I just use a bare hook.

Just like the hok football team, it sounds like your line is only good for the first few weeks and choke down the stretch. The only difference I guess is that your team will squeak by with a late win against nebby to get you to the capital one bowl to get kicked around by a mid-tier SEC school whereas your line will probably continue to break/choke. I have had spools of line go bad before that were new from the store. I just had to trash a bunch of line from a yozuri hybrid spool that I had where multiple rods were having similar break offs. I respooled with the same line, but different spool and haven't had issues. You have no idea how long that new spool of line sat on the shelf or in a non-climate controlled storage/distribution area. Like others have said, check the guides and even the levelwind of the reel. Storing your hooks on the reel body like that and you will likely end up scratching things that shouldn't be scratched. I never recommend storing baits on the reel like that as it will only cause bad things, never good. Use your rod hook hangar or buy one like what fuji sells.

The MB 110 KOs on LPO's website are certainly not anywhere near the action of the OG MB products. Predator blanks are close, but still a little off from the OG ones too. I catch a lot of fish on my wiggle wart knock offs and the 1.5 sized squarebills from LPO so thats not to say these knockoffs don't catch fish, because they most certainly do.

1/8 oz is a good all around size for small swimbaits for me. I will fish 3/16 and 1/4 oz too, but getting bigger than that it is hard to find a small hook that doesn't steal action from the swimbait. For baits, its hard to beat a keitech swing fat impact 2.8 or 3.3 or similar baits. I also really like the big bite baits suicide shad in the smallest size for cold water fish. I don't fish underspins so I can't help you there.

not all beds are circular in nature, but that answer has more to do with bottom composition. In sand, both the bed and the fish stand out really well and that is typically where smallmouth like to spawn. In soft bottom around grass, it depends how well you see the beds themselves. Typically I see the fish first and then zoom in to get an idea of how the bed lays out. I have TVG off almost always, and ghost and noise reject typically turned off or low. I have found that having ghost and noise reject high you get filtering closer to the boat around beam intersections and I don't like that info being filtered out. FYI, I stand corrected on the depth. I don't have my depth offset or whatever set correctly and I would say that 5 FOW is more like 3.5 FOW when i click one adjustment down from horizontal.

for finesse applications, I prefer a ml power and a fast action. I have some rainshadow revelation blanks and I prefer the ml for finesse over m as their m power is a little stiffer than other brands. I also have some mhx blanks and those are pretty nice too for the money, although I do think the rainshadow revelation are a little better than the baseline mhx sj or mag taper blanks. Lurepartsonline is in springfield which isn't too far away from you. They don't have a storefront as it is a warehouse, but I was able to go inside and look at stuff. They have a rod building section that you may be able to handle blanks. They carry a lot of blank brands that may help you out.

The xr6 does not have an hour gauge on it from the factory. You cannot pull hours on this engine, unless there was a gauge installed by the boat builder, which wasn't common as the xr6 was oftentimes marketed as a lower price point engine in the 150 class, whereas the efi and later optimax were a slight increase and cost and therefore options.

Largemouth: PY-1/2 oz custom made gp jig w maxscent chunk trailer CY-1/2 oz custom made gp purple jig with a maxscent chunk trailer PB-confirmed weight 6.5lbs whopper plopper. unconfirmed weight 23.5" (length only) pre rigged purple with white dot worm Smallmouth PY-3.5" cast again tackle tube on a tx rig CY-2.75" cast again tackle tube on a 3/16 oz tube jig PB-6.5lbs dropshot yum crawbug

I use it a lot bed fishing and it is by far my most successful use of FFS. It has almost completely removed the need to actually sight fish for me. In fact, it also has shown me how effective deadsticking a bait is for bedding fish as you can real time see the fish's behavior. I have a fishobsessed mount and an lvs32 transducer. I have the mount in the horizontal/0 degree position in less than 5FOW. Deeper than 5FOW, go one click down, which is about the factory angle for the garmin perspective mode mount. I normally fish forward mode in 68 to 75 on gain and use the amber, moss, or blue color palettes. In perspective, I use amber only and 58 to 65 gain which are the only two true adjustments I make vs forward mode. Too much gain and you basically flood your screen out if you have shallow grass. Color limit on off, color gain on 60-65%, tvg off, noise reject off, and ghost reject off. I also set radial rings and only go to 40 feet max when searching and when I see fish, I go down to 25 or 30 feet or so to get more clairity. I will caution that it is hard to use around a lot of grass that is near the surface. Right now around us, we have curly leaf pondweed that is at or right below the surface in typical spawning areas so anything amongst those weeds are hard to find as the beam doesn't exactly get to bottom that well. However, on sand flats, perspective is amazing for finding beds. As far as aligning goes, point your trolling motor to a target that you know is directly in front of you (like a dock piling) and see where it shows up on the graph. For me, going from forward to perspective, I have to make one click clockwise to get it to align directly ahead.

I like them on a neko rig, but they aren't true floater worms. My favorite trickworm color is watermelon candy around grass fish that would normally feed on bluegills. This time of year before the grass/moss gets too bad and the bass are in post spawn, fry guarders typically bury themselves on the inner weedline between the grass and the bank and casting to the bank and bringing the bait out can result in a lot of fish. I like the neko rig for this because the bait sinks faster and the point of the hook doesn't get too fouled up from the moss/grass. Since its a lighter and relatively longer bait, it doesn't sink into a softer bottom too bad. Once post spawn stuff is done, I usually don't use it the rest of the year except for maybe a carolina rig offshore, but even then I prefer other baits.

Follow big sacks bass club on facebook as they usually have wednesday nighter tournaments there. Last wednesday winning weight (2 fish, 18" min) went 7.76lbs. Prespawners. Otherwise, check out lake link, but typically bass guys here don't post fishing reports. I would guess that this warm weather this week is getting the first wave of spawners done. Saturday I was on bago and little lake butte des morts and they were not spawning, but we had a cold front come through and even got frost friday morning. WT on main lake was 57, but channels were in the mid 60s so they were close to going. I would imagine Fox Lake was a little warmer with the depth and water clarity there being a little worse than bago so I would expect them to be spawning right now. The cold front coming in Friday night might make the weekend interesting, but I always like a cold front when they pull up to spawn because then they don't lock down on beds and get back to feeding to maintain their egg production. They don't go far and power fishing techniques usually do well, even though its a cold front. I would guess you have a good shot at a 5+lb female.

The og squeaky dolphin was my favorite, but it was also the favorite of pike...which is why I don't have any left...or OG ri vixens for that matter. My favorite cheapo is the northland tackle buzzbaits. Slight mods for squeaking and a trailer hook they are good to go. https://www.fleetfarm.com/detail/northland-fishing-tackle-buzzard-buzzer-classic-series-jig/0000101826675 I like cavitrons and lunker lures too, but the lunker lure is similar to the northland tackle, imo.

Prior to st croix discontinuing direct blank sales (yes I know rodgeeks sells them now), there were 2 versions of the 76mlxf blank. One used a size 3 tip (legend elite style)and the other a 3.5 (legend extreme). I have the size 3 tip blank and I find it perfect for light hair jigs and very light lures like 1/16 and 3/32 neds and the upper end of the lure ratings I would say is a 2-3/4" tube with a 3/16 oz jighead (probably 3/8 oz to 1/2 oz total weight). Because of the light tip, I would classify it somewhere between L and ML power. The 3.5 tip blank is basically what they make the current legend extreme and the current rodgeeks blank out of and the tip isn't quite as light and can handle the same as above and maybe up to a 1/4 oz 3.5" tube so there is a little more power out of that blank. I would classify this blank as a true ml power. I also built a 7'6" ml-f from a rainshadow revelation blank and would classify their power rating a medium instead of a ml. I really like this for 3/16 and 1/4 oz 2-3/4 tubes and that is about all I throw on that rod.

cast again tackle https://castagaintackle.com/ They have probably the most complete lineup of sizes and colors on the market. Goby Melt is a very popular color that does a good job imitating gobies, craws, shiners, etc and is a unique color in their lineup. They are also available on tw and omniafishing

You can still get around brushy with a pond prowler. I would recommend launching at the north end of the lake. One of the things I miss most about Iowa fishing is the farm ponds. My grandpa has a farm pond that had an awful fish kill 3/4 years ago and it killed almost all of the largemouth in it, many of them over 20". A lot of core memories and the foundation from my fishing passion came from there.

Not to further complicate things, but omnia has some awesome content showing rod actions on their site and on their youtube channel. Idk if they have these rods shown, but consider it a good resource for rod shopping going forward.

I have the power target cranker and I think it is the best medium diving crankbait rod that I own. I throw wiggle warts, rkcrawlers, DT6, money badgers, etc on this rod and it is awesome for bottom contact cranking. Very sensitive for a crankbait rod. It is also good for 1.5 sized squarebills around cover, but I don't think I need the sensitivity like I do those bottom cranks and I have other mh action glass cranking rods for squarebills that I use over this. I don't think it would work great as a bladed jig or single hook rod as it is a moderate action and a little on the soft side for medium heavy. The mod-fast action would likely be a little better and feel a little true to rod power. I have 7'6"mhmf blanks from the legend elite and legend tournament lines that would make great rods for chatterbaits and single hook baits that you are looking for. I would imagine the 72mhmf rod would be way better than the 72mhm rod for this.

Overall used. I have at least a couple dozen shimano e series reels between citicas, curados, and chronarchs. They are easy to service, perform well, and deals can be had. I have purchased some newer reels, but mostly spinning reels.

Probably the 4.65 I caught as a kicker fish in a 3 fish limit (summertime wisconsin culling rules) on a jig I made. I also made the rod too. I won the tournament too which was cool as that was my first win ever. I have caught a bunch of good fish on baits I made though, just no giants. Yet.

All, I am getting into the "medium" swimbait game and need suggestions on storage for these baits. So far I have a collection of 5" and 6" magdraft/cullshad style baits (freestyle and regular), comeback shads, 5" and 7" nessie soft glides, osakana slides, some savage gear 4 plays, and some 168 sized s wavers so far. I might add a chad shad sized hard glide too, but tbd. Right now I am planning on keeping them in the oem packaging to prevent tail warping, kind of like how I store my keitechs. However, I don't think I need to do that with the glides. I was suggested to try the thin single compartment 3700 sized lurelocks, but those seem to be quite thin and potentially warping the tails on the soft baits. They would probably work great on the hard baits though and a local store has those boxes on clearance right now. Id like to keep one box if possible, but I am open to other options. Any thoughts?