mikey5string

Carolina rigging wont kill the weightless action because the fluke is still weightless. It will still dart around just closer to the bottom. The length of the leader will determine the range that the fluke will dart. I usually use at least an 18" leader. The super fluke is a great carolina rig bait. Drop shotting will kill the action but youre really not looking for a lot of action with a DS. The bait is mostly stationary. I use the smaller fluke with no belly slot for drop shot.

I stopped using Gulp because of situations like this. It just smells too bad to warrant using it for me.

Dont fish deep flat bottoms. You wont find many fish there. Look for areas of change like ridges, humps, weedlines, drop offs etc. You can drop shot in submerged weeds by rigging the bait weedless. The pencil weights dont hang up very much. In a boat, I wouldnt cast a DS. Just let it drop down vertically. You can drift to cover water. When casting a drop shot, make the leader longer than you would if you were fishing vertical as the angle will make the bait lower. Just drag it a foot or two and shake it, then deadstick the bait. Wait for as long as you can and pull it a few more feet and repeat.

There are also political groups that use money and non-scientific "evidence" to suggest that there is no human caused environmental change. As you stated, "you can't just change one element of the environment without impacting everything else"

it doesnt get tangled with the 2 swivels. It might get spun over itself but it untangles by itself when you cast it. One thing I found it that you cant have the shorter leader on the main line. I tied it wrong one day and didnt feel like fixing it so I just threw it like that. It is way harder to cast and doesnt work as well.

I would buy them at $3 a bag if they were in a ziplock bag. As long as there were the right amount in each bag and they said "rage tail" on the claw I would take my chances.

Trigger X Hammer Worm. Best big, tailed worm I have used. I recently tried the rage tail anaconda and I think the trigger X has better tail action. They are super soft but they catch fish when other worms dont. Also like the Missle Baits "Tomahawk". It has a unique double tail that I havent seen on larger worms, anise scented and soft. I will usually throw this in place of the trigger X when I feel a slightly smaller worm might work better,

I am going to try to make a silicone mold. Do any of you guys use a silicone mold? I got the idea from a thread on tackleunderground. Looks pretty easy, cheap and allows for more rounded baits with an open pour.

It was the pure poison and it wasnt bent straight. I went back with pliers and made the bend straight and about 45 deg and it worked much better. Thanks

+1 anything over 6lbs in the North is a pig for sure. 4lbs is a quality fish and 5lbs will leave your hand shakin, but no trophy. The biggest I have actually seen in CT is 6.8lbs. I have heard stories of 10's but they always seem to have happened in the 70's, on a black spinnerbait, at night, and in a spot that is unknown or off limits now. And of course there are no pictures. I fished a golf course pond in GA a few years ago and got 4 bass over 5lbs in about 2 hours, the largest was 5.12, the guys I was with (from GA) were patronizing me like I was a 4 year old with my first bluegill.

Trophy Hunter.

double fluke rig has been very good to me this month. I had never used it until now and I dont fish a single fluke anymore. I fish them over flats, submerged weeds and parallel to banks. I always throw it when I see fish breaking the surface but have caught plenty not seeing anything. I always texas rig them weightless. If you want to get them down a little faster stick a 1" nail in the body through the nose. If I want to fish them deeper, I just deadstick em until the sink to the desired depth and then jerk them a few times and let them fall again. The best thing about the fluke is its erratic "no action" movement in the water when you jerk it and pause. The way it darts in random directions and slowly sinke horizontally mimics baitfish better than anything. The fish will take it in between jerks. You will go to jerk it and it will be heavy. Set the hook. good luck!

Do they need to be in that shell? After you buy it could you just take them out and put them in the bag? I put used rage craws in another empty bag without the shell, havent noticed a difference but I havent really examined them.

I fish more baitfish imitating baits than anything this time of year. The bass are feeding on pelagic baitfish and move around and suspend more than tucking up into cover and waiting like in the summer. Flukes, chatterbaits, spinnerbaits, lipless and square bill cranks have been good. Swim jigs would be a good bet. You can "swim" any jig. Just keep it off the bottom and "pump" the rod to make the bait pulse in the water. Weed flats are the best spot for me, especially when they are near deep water and/or flowing water like the mouths of creeks. In the early afternoon I will sometimes switch to jigs to pick up fish off the bottom but I only do this when the action has stopped with moving baits. As it gets cooler and the bass get a little more lethargic I think the slow moving jig bite will pick up.

. I dont know that bass affect the salmon population but I dont think an open season is going to really hurt the bass. Honestly, I dont think any serious bass fisherman keeps their fish and the recreational fishermen arent waiting at the gate for an "open season" on bass so they can go and decimate the population. The number of people who would kill a fish because they didnt like it is small. I am sure fishing tourism really generates a lot of revenue for locasl businesses and taxes for the state. These are the trout and salmon guys who pay big bucks for specialty tackle, guides, resorts, charters etc.

I just noticed that one of the guides broke off on my veritas rod. It is a "micro guide" rod. It is the second one from the reel. I am going fishing tomorrow morning and I like the rod but I dont want to have issues on the water. I have a cheap spare rod here just debating changing it out. Do you think it will be a major issue? Thanks

I want to do something like that with scraps of wood. Even the end of an old broomstick would make a decent plug. I like the prop! how did you put the hooks on? I was thinking of buying some small eye bolts and screwing them in. Id imagine youd have to pre drill the wood and glue them too. Getting them straight would be tough for me. I only have a cordless drill. Topwaters are great lures to get started with. As long as it floats and splashes youll eventually catch something, maybe even catch a lot. I might paint it all white, maybe some glitter and throw some finish on it to make it glossy. There is a popular saltwater surface plug that looks like a wooden dowel painted white, dusted with blue glitter and packaged for about $10!

really? I think straight tail worms are more popular now especially with the whole finesse fishing thing. Big ribbon tail worms and sickle tails used to dominate the plastic isle. Now it is all beavers, stick worms and straight tail shakey head worms. I have heard a lot about using worms like the trick worm on a c-rig but I have never tried it. That slow moving tail action on a big ribbon tail when it falls or swims is deadly. I have tons of soft plastics, maybe I will try out some straight tails tomorrow. Missle baits makes a cool twin tail worm called the "tomahawk" that has been good to me this season.

you could use a corkscrew keeper on any hook. Just attach it to the eye. It is a much better keeper than any of the "keeper on hook" styles I have tried.

I like 10" worms. I havent tried anything larger but I would. I do think that a bass that would hit a 12" worm would not hit a 10" worm in the same situation. How much of a 12" worm is tail? Is it a longer body or a longer tail or both? Carolina rigged 10" trigger X hammer worm in black in mid summer dragged parallel to weed lines. Big worms, frogs and hollow body swimbaits have gotten me my biggest fish this year and actually any year.

Just because they school, doesnt mean they are always travelling in groups. Juvenille fish seem to school more, maybe the strength in numbers helps them find food. I think it depends on the forage as well. If they are on shad, alewife or other pelagic baitfish, they will school up to "heard" the baitfish into a ball where they can be picked off. They can also be pushed into shallows or other structure and trapped. If they seem to be feeding more on craws or sunfish, schooling doesnt seem to help them much as a cooperative effort would not help but rather just add competition. The fact that you can usually find several fish in an area might be that it is just a good spot for them. There might be a ledge, hump or some other structure that is holding them there, not a schooling behavior. A hooked fish can spook other fish as its being reeled in but I have also seen several (largemouth) following a fish back to the boat after it was hooked. The last thing is that the fish are probably chasing bait so they move with that. The baitfish are always moving, dispersing and schooling up again all over the water column. After they move on, so do the bass.

thanks. I tried bending the blade up a little more but still had issues with it vibrating consistently. It is a pure poison model and I really like the look of it, just doesn't vibrate very well.

Blue craw is my favorite color. I would use it with confidence in any condition without hesitation. I would paint my house blue craw if I could.

the difference is in the mouths. The popper is a concave bowl shape and the chugger is more of a V shape. The popper "pops" by creating an air bubble in that concave bowl mouth when you jerk it forward. The chugger throws water out the sides of the mouth as it "chugs" along. The names are used interchangeably now, both describing a topwater plug that "pops" and throws water as it is retrieved.

second the owner twist-locks