dink

I wrap mine simply for grip in the winter while wearing gloves. I use tournagrip made for tennis racquets. No loss of feel for me because I palm the reel with three fingers in front of the trigger ON the blank during retrieve.

Put a normal rubber skirt collar on it first. Now put the skirt on the bait and flare it or space it however you want. Finally, wrap the wire just above the rubber collar and secure it (the wire). Now you can slide the rubber collar off and use it the same way with the next one.

Gambler. Mashed taters or fries?

I'm with Ronnie. 95% of my billed crankbaits are still in mint condition ;D ;D.I take them with me because they look pretty in the sun. ;D ;D ;D

The rod will be the deciding factor reagarding lure size/weight. That being said, I throw Shad Rap SR5's with a 5:1 BPS Rick Clunn (blue one). The externally adjustable brake system makes for easy "tweaks" when throwing these featherweight cranks. I have put 8 and 10 lb. test line on this one and my Prolite Finesse. No problems with casting.

As I am sitting here this morning browsing through the new batch of posts and replies, morning light is slowly creeping over the horizon. Then, I hear the tune of a songbird outside my window. Ahh... the sounds of Spring... but it is 1 degree outside with a wind chill of -10! Yet, in three days time a 50 degree temp change will occur bringing with it an entirely different weather pattern for the midwest. What takes us billions of dollars in technology and countless hours of research to learn the birds (and all other animals for that matter) already know. I think I'll sit here until the song is over.... you gotta love Mom Nature.

I always thought brush was cover. :-? Nonetheless, here they are: 1. Big worm (10 - 12 ") 2. Dunn's Honey Bug 4" 3. 4" tube 4. Jig 5. 8" needle worm

Save the extra money from not buying a Steez? What, no faith in the beloved Shimano? You gotta have a "back-up" for it? That's too funny and speaks volumes about bandwagoning. ;D ;D

Roger took the fluke rght off of my rod ;D. He and Kent are right on. If at some time I want to work it back quicker, I'll use a Superline Gamakatsu 5/0. Keeps it down well.

Is there any steel in a TDZ for a magnet to stick to?

KU... a fellow "K" junkie ;D ;D. A buddy of mine has a Karaoke gig on the weekends. I've been known to do a little Bono once in a while. 8-)

A T-rigged senko with a 3/16 or 1/4 weight and a bead is one of my favorite baits for a tough NIGHT bite. I stumbled onto this one night when the fish quit hitting the salt craw and big worm.

Thanks for the kudos, guys! The specific baits we were throwing were 1/2 oz chrome/black back Super Spot (me) and 1/2 oz black/white Red Eye Shad by Strike King (my partner). We started off running them pretty quickly straight in, but soon realized they wanted it slowed down with brief pauses. this is what we used for the Largies. The two brown bass hit a C. Rig on a rocky point. A three foot leader behind a 3/4 weight tipped with a Zoom centipede in watermelonseed. No "super secre patterns" here .

All fish came out of 48 - 58 degree water (surface). The smallies came out of 48.

It's been awhile since I've posted something in this category, but today deserves the effort. St. Louis area (Baldwin Lake - Baldwin, IL) 20 degrees air temp @ 8:00 am, high temp 33. Bluebird skies, WNW 5 - 10 mph My fishing buddy and I decided to give the old "bath tub" a try today. The bath tub being Baldwin Lake. This is a 1,000 acre power plant lake shaped like a rectangle and surrounded by riprap. It has one man-made jetty (point) that separates the north and south ends of the lake and two areas that discharge the hot water and create current. We started the day with him catching a 4 lb. hybrid striper near one of the discharges on a lipless crank. He caught a couple more LM in the area before we headed to the jetty. I caught nothing in this first area. At the jetty, I started throwing a C.Rig with a 'pede and he continued cranking the lipless. We were getting ready to move again when I swung. After a brief struggle, a beautiful 3+ smallie was in the boat. Nice. We circled back and worked the point with C. Rigs for another 90 minutes. I put five more fish in the boat which included a 4+ LM and another even bigger smallie. He only caught one fish here and was beside himself. You see, this is the guy who taught me how to throw a C. Rig years ago. The student bests the master! This was a good day in itself.... but it is not over yet. We proceeded to the other discharge area when the jetty slowed down (he realized he wasn't going to beat me there...he he he). No sooner did the trolling motor hit the water, he commenced to administering a whoopin' to me with that lipless crank. It started with a 5 lb. drum and continued with bass after bass. Hope seemingly gone, I finally connected with one... then two.. then three. We were on some very aggressive fish gorging on shad below. All these fish (20 - 25) were 1 - 4 lbs and chunky. The race was on for total numbers, but I was still behind. BANG! Something crushed my lipless crank and doubled me up. What a fight in heavy current this sow put up. 5+ lbs. Oh happy day! We finished the day where we started and got one more good hybrid and a couple other decent LM. I am still smiling.

The guide will definitely point you in the right direction. Personally, I contact local bait stores and ask questions. Most store owners will not lead you astray especially if they think you will be paying them a visit to spend some money. Then when you do the map exercises and exploration, you at least have a starting point.

Gotta side with Catt. Location trumps ALL other factors. If the fish are not there, the entire equation or analysis isn't worth the paper it is written on.

Sic 'em, Bud!! ;D ;D ;D

www.barlowstackle.com They have all the components including the special jigheads and step bystep instructions on how to build them.

I recently watched an episode of Fishing U. where charlie said they were catching fish on lizards. Yet, the fish that were caught on tape clearly had baby brush hogs stuck to their faces. I thought, "Is he trying to keep creature baits a secret?" ;D ;D On the other hand, much respect to Hank. He is able to teach without the "look what I did" syndrome.

Googlelure. ;D ;D ;D ;D sorry, couldn't pass it up. Spinnerbait and C. rig

I carry around 30 spinnerbaits and 6 buzzbaits at all times. I don't have to bend any wires or worry about skirts getting eaten by zippers. Take three or four baits and just lay them flat in an old medium size soft plastics package bag (like the size Zoom Flukes come in). Drop them in head first/blades last and they should fit nicely together. Then, you can put a rubber band around them or just slide them into one of the pockets on a tackle bag. Labeling the bags doesn't hurt either. All of the spinnerbaits and buzzbaits I carry (packed this way) could easily fit into the pocket on the front of my sweatshirt.

12 and PC after a freak warm-up yesterday which brought low to middle 50's to a lake 30 minutes south of here. Yeah.... I went for a couple hours. Rumor has change in the pattern in the next 10 - 14 days. I hope they are right .

Bud, Been down that road... even contacted Shimano. It boils down to me being foolish for buying 3 Calyx reels when they came out. Live and learn.... even Shimano drops the ball once in a while. P.S. This does not mean I am anti-Shimano. They do make some fine products. I just try to remain objective when it comes to brand loyalty. It can be blinding for some people.

You mean like my 3 Shimanos that are sitting idle because of broken return springs? Yeah.... no problems! ;D