moguy1973

Some of the best smallmouth streams here in Missouri are stocked with trout. That means most of them have special regulations on them on what you can use to catch any species. Those regulations include no plastics or live bait. So that means no tubes, plastic trailers, or flukes to fish for the smallmouth with. It's really funny that conservation departments don't want invasive species to invade their waters, but yet they'll stock a non-native fish for sport reasons. To me the trout in these streams are a detriment to the small mouth population as they both compete for similar foods (e.g. minnows, shad, hoppers, crayfish, etc). I'd rather they just stock them in the trout parks and Taneycomo. And if the trout get down into downstream parts of the rivers and streams so be it. If you catch them you can keep them without needing a stamp. They don't need to be stocked in every cool water stream though IMO.

Rick Clunn has an aqua green colored one that is made by Wright & McGill. Lamiglas has a bright metallic copper colored rod. Okuma has a lime Green one. I would like to think my Veritas blends in with the clouds so the fish can't see it Dobyns makes a camouflaged rod if you want to really blend in...

I'm wondering if it matters that the "eye" on my frog isn't vertical. It's twisted at about a 45* angle from vertical...I've tried to twist it so that it is vertical but it just seems to twist back after I let go of it with the pliers. I think the reason why I'm having so much trouble is that I can very easily walk Sammy's, Sexy Dawgs, and Spooks. The movement to do so with a frog isn't much different. I believe I'm doing everything correctly, as I'm not doing anything much differently than when I'm walking one of the hard baits I mentioned. It's just the frog never really turns to start walking. It just bobs up and down and heads straight for me. And then when it does turn, it seems like it keeps wanting to turn to that same side. That is what makes me wonder if the frog's crooked eye is what is causing that.

My mother passed away 6 1/2 years ago from sudden lung disease. I miss her a lot to this day. Especially when I look at my 1 year old daughter and know that she is missing out on having an outstanding grandma. I am really lucky to have a wonderful mother-in-law though that will drive 3 hours to help us take care of her so she is really lucky having at least one awesome grandma. My mom was an avid trout fisherwoman. She tied her own flies and everything. I kept all her fly rods and that is all I use now when I go fly fishing. I still have a ton of her hand tied flies that I catch a lot of fish on. I even think that she's up there helping me catch all those fish on her equipment. It helps a lot to remember all the good times I had fishing with her. I sure did learn a lot from things she taught me and I hope she's proud looking down on me. It's a good thing when it hurts when you think about a lost loved one. I means you cared a lot about them. Never forget.

Can anyone else get these things to "walk the frog"? As much as I try it just bobs along striaght ahead or even moves just to one side. I've tried a quick snap and tying directly to the frog. I'm using 10lb yozuri so I don't think that's the problem. I've also tried trimming the legs a bit. I've had a few fish on with the motion it does have I feel it should walk side to side as described on their ads.

Scroll to about the 2:18 mark of this video and you'll see the difference in the action between the jika rig and the texas rig.

I got a package of these in one of my Mystery Tackle Boxes I thought I would give these a try the other day on a park pond that has a lot of moss and weed starting to grow on it. I texas rigged it on a 3/0 EWG offset hook. Casts like a bullet. I did have some problems with it though. Seems they don't float (which I thought a frog bait should do), and you have to retrieve them pretty fast to make them have any sort of action from the tails. It also seemed like it didn't want to lay flat on the water when I was retrieving it, rather it would lay sideways with only one tail kicking on the surface. I do have it rigged with the smooth side down, is that the correct side to have down? Any other tips on how to use this frog other than getting some of the Zoom horny toad or Gambler double trouble frog hooks?

I use the Lowrance scupper mount for my transducer on my Elite 4x-DSI. Works great on my Ocean Kayak. A buddy has the same setup on his Ascend kayak and even though his sticks out below the hull a little further than mine (the OK has a transducer compatible scupper that has a larger recess for the transducer to mount in), it works great for what he uses it for.

Works great texas rigged with a pegged weight. Shakey head works well too!

There's a similar situation at a local park near me. Tons of small 4-10" bass in the pond. Tons of small bluegill too. The biggest bass I've caught out of it is about 2 1/2lbs, but most are less than a pound. This pond was re-constructed about 4 years ago and since it's been available to fish in again it's been C&R only. I think that's the big problem it having so many small bass. On the other hand, if they open it to C&K, it will be wiped out by meat hunters that won't follow the length limits. It's a double edged sword there.

How about them Cardinals

Yeah, I've seen my friends Duckett Micro Magic rod and those are some small guides. When I got my Veritas I was like "Whoa, those aren't micro guides...They are smaller but nothing like the Duckett's"

Bomber Square A here. Caught a lot of quality fish on them.

I've been rigging mine with a 3/0 widegap worm hook texposed and then pegging (Mojo rig) a bullet weight right above the jig.

The Meramec is a great smallmouth river, but it has been started to be taken over by spotted bass in the last decade or so. Still lots of smallies in it though. The Gasconade also has a great smallmouth population and big ones too since there's a smallmouth management section on it that produces some large smallies. I've never fished any other ozark streams in the SW corner of MO though so I really don't have anything to compare to.

We are going tomorrow. Wanted to float the Meramec but the rains have swelled it beyond what we feel will produce fish. Going to have to settle for one of the smaller creeks that is showing more water than usual but still floatable... Craw colored tubes, grubs, white weightless flukes, rebel craws, topwater baits. That's what catches them in the ozark streams.

http://www.tackledirect.com/ http://www.*.com/

I have a Lowrance Elite 4x DSI on mine. Works good for finding the bottom and structure and for temperature. Have yet to see a fish show up on the thing though....

I thought this lake would produce a lot bigger bags of fish. Seems they are catching a lot of dinks that weigh...The last lake in NY had a lot more fish being caught (up to 20 fish in a bag) and the weights were even similar. I guess it's just that much harder to find the fish in this lake? I was expecting them to be pulling out 8-9-10lb Florida bass left and right...Guess not when you don't have time to scout the area and practice first...

Bomber Square A. Caught most of my biggest fish on it minus one, which I caught on a Sexy Chartreuse Shad KVD 1.5

I used to use this stuff when I wore glasses and was running. It's pretty awesome stuff...Definitely does the job. It's kind of expensive on Amazon. Better prices on Campmor.com

I like my Sammy but I find the Strike King KVD Sexy Dawg has the best and easiest WTD action of any of them.

The first episode was pretty good. It's amazing the places where they get their boats back into and try to fish. I think they need to find lakes that have a little more obscure names than the last two seasons. Chautauqua and Istokpogo are too common.

Pretty cool stuff. I watched the one with how the line affected the fall rate of a senko. It really shows how much even 10lb braid shows up in the water and how much light it picks up and reflects. Definitely not for clear water fishing.

How to properly tie the Palomar with fluorocarbon line: