Clint C.

Love the wacky Senko! Nice fish

Sounds like a great day! Tell your son thank you!

Nice catch! Looks good and healthy.

Thanks! So far besides this fish I've been catching small males. It was nice to feel some weight on the end of the line.

Went out the other day for about a half hour and ended up catching this. The wind was wicked but it snatched the shad rap as I was bouncing it off of rocks. The weather has been so warm here I think it was definitely feeding for the spawn, not too bad of a belly!

Nice catches! Yeah nothing beats the feeling. So happy winter is over!

We've had some high 60's getting mid to high 70's today and tomorrow (I'm about 35 minutes south of Chicago). What are you catching them on in the 10ft range? Are they suspending over deeper water? The small males I caught yesterday were all suspending in ~3ft in about 8ft deep water. Caught them on a X-Rap (XR06S). I think I'm gonna try doing some shaky head fishing today. See if I can get any big females to bite!

I got out today and it seems like the small males are getting ready. Caught a few in the 7-10" range. No big females that I saw yet though. My fear is that if they spawn now and we get a cold spell that'll be it for the fingerling.

Nice!

Yeah I'm hoping to get out Wednesday. Hopefully we get 2 days of sunlight before then and the fish "wake up"

Thanks, maybe that is one of my major problems, reeling too fast. I'll have to test out how slow to turn to get into the 21-23" range. Appreciate it!

Well I looked at a lot of rods today and ended up with the crankin' stick. I bought the 7'MF. Thanks for all of the help!

Well thanks again for all of the responses. Everyone has been a huge help. I'm heading to BPS tomorrow. I'll let you guys know which I come home with!

I can't wait for some warmer weather! I'm itchin' to get out for the first time this year. Has anyone gotten out around the city and suburbs recently?

That's the other thing. Am I going to be losing a lot of sensitivity with a graphite rod compared to a mixed like the Crankin' Stick or the S Glass etc? From everything I've read the glass rods are good for feeling the vibration of the bait but not as sensitive as determining what type of cover the lure is hitting.

I am definitely not opposed to checking out something I didn't list. The lighter the better for me too. Thanks for the suggestion! So between the Crankin' stick and the Compre which are you liking better?

Yeah, I've heard some great things about the BPS Crankin' stick. Do you think the 7'6 model would be too much for the shallower running crankbaits? Thanks for the advice guys =0)

J Francho, have you found any good weedless options for weight tube jigs?

Hey guys! Looking for some advice on a crankbait rod. I almost never use crankbaits and want to get better at it this year. I fish from shore and the reel I'm going to be using is a Curado 201e7. I will mostly be using shallow (0-5ft) and mid depth (8-15) crankbaits. Casting distance is more important to me than accuracy for what I'll be using this rod for. So far I'm looking at these 4 rods. Which do you think would be best and which model? If you have any other rods I don't have listed that you think might be good let me know, nothing over $120 though. Also what line do you like to use? Right now I have it spooled with #12 P-Line Florocarbon. Would something else give me better distance? Thanks in advance! St. Croix® Mojo Bass Glass Trigger Rod http://www.basspro.c..._10051_10210209 Bass Pro Shops® Crankin' Stick™ Trigger Rod http://www.basspro.c..._10051_10204844 Wright & McGill Rick Clunn Signature Series S-Glass Crankin Rod http://www.basspro.c..._11100805013015 Quantum Kevin VanDam Signature Series Crankbait Rod http://www.basspro.c..._10051_10210411

I'm going to have to try out a few of the different options mentioned. Thanks everyone. =0)

Yeah I believe that's what they mean. One thing I found interesting in John's book was pretty much exactly what you're asking. That they will stay along a certain "road" or "path". Attached is an image of what he was talking about. In this he says the fish won't go over the hump as a shortcut, it will always follow it's path along it.

Yeah, the reason I like inserting the weight is because it keeps the nice spiral fall of the tube. I like the 1/0 wide gap hooks for it. Great idea on bending the eyelet! I've destroyed quite a few tubes trying to perfect a method. I'll have to try out the tube weight inserts. I imagine it would keep the same spiral fall as the casting weights. These look pretty interesting http://www.lindyfishingtackle.com/productdetail.aspx?id=eztubeweight Thanks for your input guys =0)

I've done it a lot but still haven't found a great method for it. The method I'm talking about is when you put a casting sinker in the tube swivel side up, then try to get the hook through the eye of the swivel inside the tube. I can never seem to get the hook through the eye quickly. Any tips?

I can usually find the magazines at BPS. Sometimes they have them at the ends of the isles by the lures etc. That's about my only idea besides Barnes and Noble like WMD said.

I guess "picks" was a bad choice of words. The point is non the less that once a Largemouth ends up in its "homerange" depth wise it stays in that range.