basscat73

Good luck AL. Let's see those pics when you get 'em. Weather should be real good for you. It's going to finally hit the 70's air temp here in WI. I'll be hittin' the Wisconsin river 3 out of the next 5 days. Can't wait!

Thanks for the info ball_coach! Smart thinking. That kinda thinking prevents the good juju from turning bad.

Just curious if anyone knows much about this motor? I'm looking at a used boat with this motor and I'm guessing the motor's age is around 1997. I know nothing about the Intruder line.

Dock fishing is a blast! You're right though, you'll find a lot of smaller fish under there. But! Sometimes, there's a real nice fish underneath the dock and he's not going to attack a smaller bait. He's waiting for the bigger meal!

I fished last weekend and the water temps were 44º. I pitched a bitsy bug jig 3/16 oz and that worked okay for a bit. Then I switched to a small 4" slider worm and just slowly dragged it, if I did anything at all. My partner and I ended catching 12 bass that day. Pretty good for this early in the year up here in da north. We've got a nasty cold front coming in tonight too. It's going to get down to 20º overnight and then slowly rise back into the 50s by afternoon tomorrow. I plan on throwing that black worm again, but I'm also going to try a craw on a stand-up jig and see what a slow twitching fluke will do for me too. Let us know how you do down in Missouri!

Super cool site! That's exactly what I needed. Nice pic hawg. Thanks!

I've got a friend who builds custom fishing rods. He's starting to make them for other people now and he wants to figure how to add his custom logo on the rod blank. He has a logo in digital form on his computer. He's attempted it using avery clear sticker labels, but they are too thick and they peeled up on him. Does anyone have any experience with this and how to do it and what to use? Thanks in advance!

That thing is wacky, but I'll give you a break since it was 4:30am. If you're actually going to fish it, I'd suggest using a plastic that looks more similar to front part of the lure. Some of the best ideas seem like they won't work at first or they happen on accident. I'm not sure about this one though. Have fun, no harm in being crazy.

Oh, HECK - they gotta have HOOKS??? That's tongue in cheek. I'm more curious about your answers to the rest of my post. You didn't really talk about your techniques or where and when you're thowing them.

My first thought is, where do you throw them??? 10,000 casts and not one fish?? First rule, make sure all of your spinnerbaits have hooks. Do you catch fish with other lures in the same places you are throwing the spinnerbait? Throw them along fallen trees and make sure the spinnerbait hits the wood a bunch of times, and slow it down at those points. Throw them over grassy patches or up against a rocky bank. Don't forget docks! Run along the side of docks and bang the dock posts. Then, post back to let us know how much you like using your spinnerbait now. I personally love them! Some lakes are not great spinnerbait lakes, but you should still be able to catch a few on any lake. Good luck!!!

I read an online article on molding tubes somewhere, maybe I can find it when I'm at home. Basically, you want to find a rod that is closed at one end. You'll want to coat the rod with oil so it's easy to get the tube off. Then, dip the rod into the heated liquid plastic as deep as you want the length of the tube to be. Then, pull it out and cool it in water. The key is creating the right hardness/softness of plastic. It'll take some experimenting. You may need to re-dip the tube again, but the cool part about that is you can dip into a different color and that will create a "bleeding bait" effect like Strike King's tubes. The last thing you need to do after the tube is finished is cut the open end into a skirt. I believe there's an inexpensive tool you buy that does this easily at one of lure supply places like Jann's or stamina. OR, I bet there are probably tube molds you can buy somewhere. I'll see if I can find the article later, but I think what I said is basically all there is to it. I haven't tried making any yet, but I will later this year.

I'm pretty sure the physical time change won't have an effect on them. They don't know a thing about daylight savings. But, I do think when the sun rises and sets, which gradually changes throughout the year, certainly affects their patterns.

Yeah, it works pretty well. It's a backup method if I'm not getting strikes with other methods. There's a good article on this site about it. http://bassresource.com/fishing/dropshot_beds.html

... after they find out it was caught on a really crappy hand-poured lure!

Ernel, I was wondering if it might be something to that effect. I know the batteries are good. T Mike, I'll give Dual Pro a call just to make sure. Thanks for the quick help and hints.

I have a two bank dual pro charger and each bank has a set of lights that are red at first and then changes to a single green light to show the charging has finished. I'm not sure if there is a problem with my charger or not. But, I noticed when I unplugged the charger and then plugged it back in just a short while later, the charger did not show the batteries as fully charged and it took awhile to get it back to showing a green light. I would assume if everything was okay, it would show green lights immediately. Any thoughts? Matt

6lb largemouth in Wisconsin. I know where she's at and it will be my PB. Also, looking for a 6lb smallmouth, but a 5lber will suffice this year. Good luck everyone! This will be a fun thread to keep tabs on. I want to see pictures of all these fish!!! whoohoo!

Is your friend catching bass? If so, pay attention to what he is doing. If he knows what he is doing, then ask him for a little guidance. I'd like to think that your friend who is taking you out would be more than happy to help you. That said, I caught my first bass 1 1/2 yrs ago on a texas-rigged 7" plastic worm. I did tons of research on the internet to learn about different ways to fish for bass. This site alone has enough articles to keep you busy for awhile. Don't get overwhelmed when you are reading about all the stuff and when you go to the tackle store. Just keep it simple. When you go to the tackle store, I bet the guy working there would be willing to give you some advice to get started. You might have a different problem altogether if your friend doesn't know what he's doing either. Then you might have a problem with the part of the lake you are fishing on. Do a little reading on where bass like to hang out and then make sure you guys fish those areas of the lake. Good luck and show us a picture of the first bass you catch!

Yep, that would be perfect if everyone did it.

Glad to hear other people like the idea too. Are there any mods that could chime in on this to let us know if it's possible to do this someday? If not, it's okay... because this site is amazing as it stands right now. I used to be on iboats.com, which is a nice site also, but I needed something that was more focussed on the sport of fishing, mainly bass. Well, this is my heaven on the internet now. Thanks for being here Bass Resource and all contributers!

I thought I'd post an idea to see what other people think about it. When I'm reading people's posts about fishing, I always want to know what state they're from to get an idea of what part of the country they are fishing in usually. It would be cool to have the state where people are from listed underneath the avatar area somehwere. I'm not sure if it's possible for bassresource to add this to the website or if anyone else would even care about see people's locations, but I figured I'd put it on the table anyhow to see what people think! P.S. I know I can go to a person's profile and look it up, but it would still be cool to see it next to each post too.

Thanks for the safety tip WCCT! I'll have to see what the ingredients are in the stuff I have at home. If water-based, I'll probably just buy the stuff from lurecraft. Thanks! Here's to a stinky garage this weekend.

Should be fine whether it's 34 or 36.

I'd like to infuse scent into the liquid plastic before I mold the lure, but I haven't been able to find anything that explains the best way to do it. Can I just add Chompers sauce to the melted plastic? Does anyone have recipes for a stinky scent, garlic, maybe??

Ditto! Don't do it just for money-saving reasons. Also, it's a time investment as well. I just started pouring plastics myself. I'm keeping it simple and making my own molds, which saves a lot on initial cost. I'm also able to melt down old worms and other plastics to make new lures. In the end I think I'll save a little bit of money by making stuff myself, but I wouldn't waste my time if I didn't find the hobby enjoyable.