moguy1973

This is the jig and trailer that Keith Combs used to win at the AOY championship at Mille Lacs. Does anyone know what color that is? Is it the bottom side of the Bama Craw? It looks very close to a tube color I love using and is effective for me but I don't see any colors on Strike King's website that matches that color unless it's the underside color of something.

Baldwin is in Illinois. It's a power plant lake down near Red Bud and, well, Baldwin, IL. It's a decent lake in the winter when it's cold and the water is warm. Kirkwood here. Wish there were some better lakes that were within an hour of St Louis. LOZ, TR, BS, and Stockton are all great but a bit far for a day fishing trip.

I don't think there is a wrong way to fish a senko.

The only downside of the Ned that I have is it catches too many fish to put down. I spend all this money on all these other lures and baits and they all stay on the deck or in the boxes because they just don't produce like the Ned can.

I really like the Academy Magellan brand of SPF pants and shirts. The pants are nice and lightweight and they are convertible so you can unzip the bottoms and make them into shorts, and they also come with a belt which is nice. Their lightweight tech shirts are nice too. The price is the best part, as you can find the long sleeve shirts for under $15 and the pants for around $25.

You'll need to find an outfitter to shuttle you if you are going to be by yourself. If you are wanting to go in the fall a lot of outfitters aren't in operation during that time so finding one to shuttle you to a put in or drive your car to the take out can be difficult.

I did break a shroomz head hook off on a small catfish when trying to remove the hook from the tough part of it's mouth last weekend. I didn't even realize I broke the hook off at the bend until I went to make my next cast and noticed there wasn't a hook sticking out of the top of my zinker. I superglue my zinker to the head so I just pulled the worm off the head and put it on another shroomz and continued to use it. I think that worm is on about 50-60 fish and it's still catching them.

I've always used straight shanks on my Texas rigged stick worms. But then again, I've never really had them just tap it unless it was a sunfish nibbling on the end. Bass usually take it and run off with it in my experience.

The one in my avatar was a 21" river smallie that weighed 4lb 8oz and wasn't nearly as fat as that one. Like others have said, yours is over 5lbs easy.

I don't think it really matters except for the loon since it's black. All the other colors are clear or white so they should all look similar from below. I usually get the color they have in stock of which I'm currently using Monkey Butt.

How are you storing your TRD's? I've never had any issues with the half zinkerz I use melting by keeping them in the package they came in, and it takes me a long long time to go through a bag usually.

My oldest casting rod is a 2 piece 6'10" Shimano Clarus that I have paired with a BPS PQ reel. It's been a great rod for me and I even got a great deal on it for $40 when I bought it. Looks like they are right around $100 now unless you can find a similar deal.

That's about when they really start biting again getting ready to hunker down for the winter.

When things get cold I'd get some lightweight breathable sockfoot waders and some nice wading boots.

If you change anything change the split rings on the hooks. They may have fixed the issue but at one time they were weak. I had one on a 90 break off with a 10" fish.

Strike King Sexy Dawg or a Zoom Horny Toad, whopper plopper if the conditions are right.

SK makes a 1.5 HC shallow that dives 0-3ft. They also make a 1XS that runs 0-2. Rapala makes a DT Fat 3 that also goes 0-3 and the DT Fat 1 that only goes down 1'. Spro makes the John Crews Baby Fat John that runs 0-2. Bomber square A is 0-3 also.

Yum Ribbon tail

For $10/3 frogs I hope they better be a little more durable than the horny toads are. As for colors, from my experience with other buzz frogs black and white are the only ones you need.

BPS 4" Magnum Flipping Tubes. I usually fish them with a wire weed guard that hooks under the tip of the hook or recently I've started using a ball headed shakey head with the keeper cut off that has a wide gap hook rigged stupid style like in the video above.

Guess I should answer the OPs question too. My go to are BPS Stick-O's just because they are cheap and I have caught plenty of fish on them to not warrant having to use Senkos. I also use Dingers and that's what I've been using recently since they were on sale and they had the colors I needed to fish the dirty water I was fishing. I have had some of the not so well known brands that I have not liked mainly because they were too light. I had some Gambler stick worms that wouldn't sink fast enough to use with a small wacky worm. They did work well on a shakey head though.

I tried the clear 3/8" shrink wrap on my stick worms and had zero success. The worm just tore through the hook and into the fish's mouth and all I had left on my line was the hook and shrink wrap. I heated the shrink wrap up so much to compress it on the worm that the worm was melting from my heat gun. Didn't matter, the worm would slip right out of the shrink tubing. I'll stick with the doubled up Goody hair bands. They seem to work for 4-5 fish usually before they tear through the worm, and actually since I've started using weedless wacky hooks they've been lasting longer since the weedguard helps prevent the worm from sliding up the line when a fish is on.

Rent a small storage locker at your local U-Haul until you end up in a bigger place with where you can keep it.

Had just over a minute and a half of totality in my area. It was amazing and I'm thinking I'll have to make the 2 hour drive south to see the next one in 2024. Totally surreal to see and something everyone should have the chance to see in their lifetime.

I like to use my Academy cranks on the river since if I lose them on a snag they aren't a big deal to replace. And they catch fish and have decent hooks on them.