Rob G.

Agreed, these are inexpensive. Funny thing is though, when dressing my jigs, even Bitsy Bugs, I pull out a whole bunch of skirt strands before the lure even gets wet. LOL. Not saying my way is the only way by any means. That is why this is a good board, lots of variance to opinions.

Things have changed a lot. Heck, I do not even carry a tacklebox for say. If fishingout of someone else's boat, I take a tacklebag. In my own boat, I have tens, maybe even a hundred pounds of plastics in their respective packages, sorted by style in gallon ziplocks. I also have several plano style 3700 size organizers also sorted by style of bait. Now for a lot of differences between now and then. Grandpa and Dad always had a couple boxes of little wooden matches, reel wrenches, and reel grease and oil. Our new reels do require maintenance, but not daily oiling. A lot of these old oils had odors that stunk up the entire box. In these boxes are original floating rapalas, pre-rapala floating Heddon baits, brass frog harnesses, Johnson Silverminnows, floating mouse lures, Daredevil spoons, and lots of plugs that I have never tried to identify yet. I also have many old reels and a couple rods. Neat stuff Maynard.

Greenhorn, You have found the right place. You are welcome here. Do not EVER feel stupid here. Lots of advise here, almost always good and valid in one situation or other. Glad to hear that you and your son are fishing together. I cannot render any advise on the subjects of Drop Shotting or Split Shotting. I am assuming you guys are fishing deep Cali lakes. If not, PM me I might be able to help. Just remember this....If they can do it, so can I! This fishing business is not really that difficult, we defeat ourselves more than the fish do. Just keep condidence that you can do what other's can and you will do well.

Do what I do. Either turn them all off, or remove them as soon as you get the reel. That way you do not have to mess with them. Learning to control reels on free spool takes practice, but you will be suprised how far you can cast (especially) pitching without much effort once you get on to this.

TLBassin, I know what you are talking about. It is simply a weight that does attach to the hook. It puts the weight at the bottom of the bait, instead of at the top as is the case with normal texas rigging. I do not know how to post links. These have been around for a couple years now and they work well. Out of thin air they might be called the Okechobee rig??? The way they work is when you punch through the mat with them, the bait does not turn 180 degrees. This way your line stays inline to the rod tip. I am probably not describing this well, but I am trying. Thanks for bearing with me.

Will heads roll before or after the kick to the groin? Just curious. ;D Just to clarify, is fishing or shopping becoming a full contact sport?

I prefer either the Gambler or Lucky Strike.

Yes! Just depends on their diet and the water condition. Do not worry, it is not contagious. LOL. Relax..............and keep fishing.

Congratulations!!! Nice to see everyone is doing well too.

I take my dog with me, she is fine in there. As a younger dog she used to bark at the fish when I caught them. Now she is pretty layed back and just lounges. She sometimes rides under the console when under power, other times she stands on the front deck by the bow. She only weighs 11 pounds, keep this in mind. Just last year though, she started jumping out so she cound get to shore and run around. Her days in the boat may be numbered now, some areas I fish have a lot of current. I also do not want to have to beach the boat on a muddy island to find her. That would cut into my fishing time. I would probably not take a larger dog out in an inflatable. My German Shorthair (R.I.P.) got a hook past the barb in the top of his mouth once, not a good situation to say the least. That is not what killed him though. Taking a large, high strung dog out might not be as much fun as it sounds.

I received my order from KaRu today. I will not speculate as to how these perform, as we still have hard water here and I will be forced to wait a while before I can fish them. I will say however that these baits are put together the right way and are made with quality componants. I am pleased. Will post my results in a couple months. First tourney is April 13, then April 20. If the big River is high and muddy as I expect, I believe the recipe for these lures will be in order. Cannot wait for the big prespawn smallies awaiting me in pools 7-9!

+ 2!

Yes, they do. Any polarized are better than no polarized. Regular sunglasses do not work at all. Just like everything else, you get what you pay for.

Muddy is a smart man. I share his opinion, I still have several that I use on a regular basis. I did break one once, Fenwick replaced it. To boot, about 5 years ago our local Gander Montain had them on special for $30. If they did that again I would leave the store with heavy arms.

Imagine that, after saying what he did, he sold out........................... Dock talk.

Anything less than 14 inches.

Anybody who thinks a bass will pass up a bluegill, needs to fish a bluegill imitator when the fish are on the beds. Bluegill love to eat the eggs deposited in nests by fish, even other bluegills. This can be a real winner in the spring.

This performs really well on spinning reels. As a rule of thumb though, instead of filling the spool to within 1/8 inch of the edge of the spool, make it about 1/4 inch. It is also wise to use a mono backing, just to save some money. Reel Magic really works well, especially in cooler temps, it will make the line more supple.

Where I fish the forage baitfish vary quite a bit, with Gizzard Shad being #1. I do however use some Bluegill colored lures. Bandit Baby Bream (actually a better shad imitator than bluegill) and Bandit Bluegill. Both have caught a slug of fish for me. I am not saying that matching the hatch is always important, but it never hurts. There are also some backwaters of the Mississippi River in pool 13 that have gin clear water, there are an abundance of ring perch (yellow perch) in those areas. I do throw perch colored lures there at times and have had good results. Lots of shad in there too, but some days the perch does better. Not saying I throw cranks in there often, too choked with weeds most of the time. Both emergent and submergent. The good news with crankbaits is that you can paint them. I often add color via marker to both my hard and soft baits. The Spike-It markers work well for soft baits but not for the hard ones.

If rigged with a small weight at the nose (many rigging possibilites here), they will rest on the bottom, nose down. I believe they appear like a feeding baitfish to the bass, but have not had a good opportunity to as a bass yet. They don't always answer anyways. You know the drill; name, rank, and serial number only. Using the lightest weight possible also seems to increase the strike to hook ratio.

I have been getting those for several years. It would be nice if both Cabelas and BassPro would not send quite so many catalogs, a lot of mine end up in the trash almost immediately. No wonder things cost what they do.

A guy I know from tourneys has a pod cast. www.blackwaterbassin.com

Generally speaking, I would think that no one rod would be optimal for both. Usually a Carolina Rig will weigh much more than a Texas Rig. Opinions vary, take that into account.

A tip here, if you are fishing current. Use the Lucky Strike round heads that Walmart carries. In current they will not stand anyways.

Anybody got a pic. Drawing a blank here. Is this the jig head that Aaron Martens uses?