moguy1973

Well, they may still make them but they've been out of stock on their website and sold out everywhere else that sells them for quite a while now unfortunately.

Yep, this... I usually just say, stupid shad, go away and keep fishing what I was fishing. If bass are blowing up on them I would throw a weightless fluke though and make it act like a wounded one.

1986 Ford Escort in red, 2 door hatchback. Was my senior year car, wrecked it on the way home one day, and got a 1987 one just like it in grey. I never looked back but I've had a lot more cars than I though I have had. 1986 Ford Escort 1987 Ford Escort 1995 Mazda B2200 pickup 1997 Ford Mustang Cobra (RACECAR!) 1991 Toyota Tercel 1993 Nissan Altima 2007 Nissan Altima 2012 Toyota Highlander 2015 Ford F150 (Current) 2019 Honda Odyssey (Current) Didn't Johnny Cash have a song about that car? Did it happen to have three headlights? LOL

My wife always out fishes me, so I usually just shut up. Not that she's a better fisher than I am, but I'm usually resetting after getting her undone from a snag or out of a tree or after retying her line or taking a fish off, and that's when she's catching her fish. Her line is in the water probably 2x as long as mine because I'm usually fixing things she's gotten messed up.

I wish Black Dog Baits still made their Shellcracker G2. I still have one but I'd buy more if they were available. Great wake/shallow crank squarebill swimbait.

You'd be surprised how many people back their boats in with it un-strapped and their co-angler sitting at the wheel so they can back right off the trailer...

Composite? If so, be mindful on steep ramps without the winch strap on or your boat has a chance to slip off the back.

Bass Pro 4" Magnum Flipping Tubes are pretty much the only tubes I ever use. They just simply work, and keep working and last a long time Even if they get beat up, it seems they work better than new out of the package. I've caught 20-30 fish on the same tube before.

This is probably why. But then again, crayfish can come in a multitude of colors, and that's probably why other colors work at different lakes and is why they always talk about "Match the hatch", even though that is more or less a fly fishing term.

Something to be mindful of, and I don't know Indiana law, but fishing creeks that aren't on public land can be trespassing. So be sure you are legal to be there before wading down any streams or creeks or you may find yourself in hot water with the land owner or the police. Here in Missouri the waterway has to be navigable, which means flowing water all year long, and you have to stay within the high water (flood) level boundaries of the the stream to be legal. There's a lot of land owners who will still contend all of this and will shoo you off or paint their trees purple trying to keep you off their creek.

A full half gallon jug of cranberry juice with a crankbait. I was on an Ozark stream that gets quite a bit of recreational float traffic and I guess it fell off a canoe or raft in water that was deeper than they wished to dive down to get it. The water where I caught it was extremely clear and when I got it about 15' from my kayak I could tell what it was. I thought I had a big rock snagged but then I saw the red liquid in a clear jug with a white cap. The crank bait hooked right under the cap and into the tamper proof ring.

I pretty much exclusively use Bass Pro tubes.

And, I'm not sure if all manufacturers do but, my Garmin echomap even floats. Don't ask me how I know this ?

No need to worry about the finder getting wet. In fact, most are IP rated to be submerged without damage. The Striker you linked is IPX7 rated which means it's waterproof to 1 meter for 30 minutes. I had my echomap 73sv fall off my mount in rough water, found it, scooped it up in the net, popped it back on the mount, powered it on and it was like nothing ever happened to it. As for a battery I use a Cabelas 8Ah sealed battery https://www.basspro.com/shop/en/cabelas-rechargeable-12v-battery?hvarAID=shopping_googleproductextensions&affcode_c=&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIg4Cn4vLt6wIVfv7jBx2OwAauEAQYAiABEgJrafD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds Works great and my kayak has a little battery pouch in the front of it inside the hull I put it in.

I DO find it weird humans eat crawdads, but they sure are tasty little critters. So in that regard I can see why bass eat them also.

Some lakes I fish the bass are pretty calm an even when I catch a bunch I don’t get bass thumb. A farm pond I fish though has fish that thrash and really don’t want to be picked up by the lip. That’s when I get really bad thumb rash and even cuts, for just a few fish sometimes.

If you can keep fish out of this pond like other's said, rock bass are good eating, so are the crappie. They are definitely in competition for food with the bass. The smaller ones can be food for the bass also, but if they get too big they can't be eaten by the smaller bass.

^^^^THIS Having all those species of fish in one small pond means they are all fighting for the same food sources. Crappie are horrible fish to have in a small pond if you want bass to get any sort of size. They eat the same food the bass do and they multiply a lot faster than the bass. A good bass pond typically only has three species in it, bass, bluegill (or some sort of small sunfish), and catfish. The only other fish that would work well in a small pond, to keep the grass in check, would be some grass carp.

Before adding a battery you could get a ferrite ring to run your transducer and power wires through for your fishfinder. These are made to reduce EMI and RFI interference. You can get a handful of them in various sizes on amazon for under $10 https://www.amazon.com/Jabinco-20pcs-Ferrite-Suppressor-Diameter/dp/B07ZQZQ5BQ/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=ferrite+rings&qid=1599654601&sr=8-4

I've never had much confidence in jerkbaits anytime of the year. Yesterday I was out in my in-laws farm pond and I knew the fish weren't on the bank anymore due to the heat. Got the little boat they have out in the middle of the pond and tried a SK KVD jerkbait and caught 5 within an hour. Lost the bait on either a really large bass or when I snagged one of the big grass carp they have in there and it broke off. Like Bluebasser said, it's all in how you work it depending on the time of the year. Cold water calls for slow long pauses and warm water is a faster cadence. Or at least that's what was working for me yesterday.

HD Tackle Hellgrammite or or Mega-mite

Braid also lasts a lot longer than mono or fluorocarbon lines, even so once the butt end has reached its usable life, you can unspool it and re-spool it in reverse and use the spool end of the line for the butt end for another few years. It's wise to respool mono and fluorocarbon every year due to degradation from heat and sunlight. Using a leader, as said above, lets you maintain the low visibility of mono and fluoro while still getting the sensitivity and castiblity of braid. That said, I have converted to straight braid on most of my rigs as I don't like having to mess with tying on a leader and have to worry about another knot to fail. I haven't seen a loss of bites using straight braid. My belief is if bass will bite an Alabama Rig with those big thick wires, they won't care if the bait is tied on with braid.

Can't go wrong with White Pearl and White Pearl with a Chartreuse tail. I fish several farm ponds without shad in them and the bass don't care and still hit shad colored baits.

There are a lot of low end smaller 1648 river jons with 25-40hp tiller handle jets that pop up all the time for sale on the FB groups I'm on. Those would be great starter boats to learn the rivers. If you bang them up no big deal. Plus they are small and easy to get off gravel bars if you beach them.

Really, you could get by with one of those 17' tin boats on the bigger lakes if you stay in the coves and away from the big boat waves during the day. When I go to LOZ it's usually on a week day or if I'm on it during the weekend I'm off the water by 10-10:30am. Fishing usually slows down a lot by then anyways. Doing fishing trips after Labor Day and before Memorial day works well too before the pleasure crowd gets their big boats out. Until I get my jet boat, I'm happy using my SOT kayak on the rivers. Finding an outfitter to shuttle can be a pain sometimes unless you have someone you know to pick you up and take you back to your car, but really, a kayak/canoe is one of the best ways to fish our rivers and streams. Also, my fishing buddy has a real nice Legend SS jetboat so if I ever want to go out when the weather isn't conducive to using my kayak I can hit him up to go.