MarkH024

6" purple body with pink ribbon tail. My grandpa threw that all the time. No idea what brand it was.

I have been using Red Label 15# this season. It has served me well and I have no complaints. I think 12 to 15# would be ideal. I rarely fish deep cranks much like you. Mostly squarebills.

I find screw lock weighted swimbait hooks to be best on hollowbody swimbaits. However a non-lead one would be new to me. I'm sure they have them as someone is always trying to accommodate the lead-free fishermen. Check on TWH, lots to look at there.

I have the 7'1 MH casting and the 6'10" ML/XF. I like them both a lot. Light and sensitive and I'm really liking the grip the more I use them. The MH I have has a lot of backbone. I use it for flipping and punching believe it or not.

Darren all of my bucket list locations are also on the ASAP list. Lol

This place sounds incredible. My bucket list continues to grow...

Like you said. 50 size in curados and citicas would be awesome.

Mike Sieberts stuff is top notch. I have the 3/8 swim jigs in Blue Gill and they are AMAZING. I just tried them last weekend and like you I fish in Wisconsin Eurasian milfoil plagued lakes and they come through weeds really well, so that is a definite plus. I have also used his punch skirts. They are every bit as good if not better than what you can find on the shelves at the tackle shop, plus he's cheaper than most. I have no experience with the rattle bands, as I rarely use rattles on my jigs but someone else can chime in. I think you will be extremely pleased with your purchases with Siebert, he makes an awesome product.

Shimano and St. Croix for me. St. Croix has a perfect rod for any exact match up you're looking for and their customer service is great. I don't see the need to go to another brand. When I go to a store to look at rods, I always look at other brands and check them out. I've come close to purchasing "Y" brand but I always second guess myself. I have a few Quantum reels in my mix. When they die the will get replaced by Shimano. They're not bad reels at all...they're just not as good as my Shimanos so that is where my money will go.

When I first joined BassResource.com i got really hung up on this subject too and the first thing I tried was just to soak and clean them like many suggest. Just doing that alone improves casting tremendously (at least for me). The way I see it, I cast far enough for my liking on every rod/reel combo I own now just by cleaning them. I can't see needing or making it worth while to gain an extra 5-10 yds.... I'd rather be more accurate and cast a normal distance with relative ease. The only time I plan to replace my bearings is when one goes bad. That has yet to happen for me. 95% of my reels are Shimano, so their stock bearings must be pretty decent. Maybe I don't fish enough........

Weed edges, pockets, and clearings in vegetation during the low light hours. Mid day/high skies I'll throw frogs in the thickest of the thick pads or matted weeds and still get bit. You can catch them all day on a frog, it just takes a little more work.

This line will make more lures vanish than anything. Change your line out. More than likely you have kinks that are snapping when you're casting out...........and yes possibly you are casting too hard. A little finesse and fine tuning of the reel will get you the distance you need.

What is your cell number, so I can call you to come change 2x soiled rag diapers everyday?

Nice to see you got some fish. I was up last weekend too. Terrible weekend of fishing for me. What SI unit? I would like to get the Humminbird 998si but the price tag is bigger than my wallet.

Congrats! Way to go!

I use the Green Yellow and Yellow Black quite a bit for visibility on my end. I'm not super concerned with top colors of frogs when throwing in heavy vegetation. If i'm throwing in sparse weeds, where they can eye it a bit more I'll stick to natural frog colors. Belly color is more important to me. Dark belly for low light/night fishing....white or yellow belly in the day light for me.

If I'm fishing solo, I take 6-7 with me out. If I have anyone else in the boat then i cut down to 4 or 5 tops. Only for the fact that my boat is on the smaller side and the rods don't fit in the lockers so they're always out.

Not on Green but not very far. I haven't got over to green lake this year. I'll try for smallies in the fall there I think. I went to puckaway 3 weeks ago. Caught fish there but nothing to brag on.

To be honest the weather was great despite a small cold front that was passing through. But it wasn't even much of a front, temps where high 70's still. It was just an "off" weekend. Usually I can manage a limit or so but this was brutal. Well, better luck to you and me both next time! That bowfin sounded like a nice surprise. I have never caught one before.

So I hit up my lake this past weekend with awful results. It was by far the biggest let down for a weekend get away of fishing in quite some time for me. The lake was down about 8-10 inches and the water temp was about 8 degree difference from the last time I was there. Weed growth and pads were still looking PRIME for swamp donkey catching. I threw the kitchen sink at the fish in the lake with nothing to show for. I only managed a single bass at around 15 inches and a few short pike. Nothing at all produced well for me. The few fish I did nab were from two lures. I threw a Yo-Zuri Sashimi Popper and a 3/8 oz Siebert Outdoors swim jig in blue gill color. The popper was entertaining because it was like Air Jaws on shark week, with the pike breaching out for it. One of them got about a good 2-3 feet out of the water. But, they couldn't seem to get a grip on the lure and I missed a lot of them. The fact that I didn't lose the lure was amazing from how many blow up's I had. And for my luck, my GoPro died as that action started so I didn't even get to humor my self watching the fish explode. A few more batteries are in order for my b-day this month I think. The bass I nabbed was on that same popper and it sounded like a paddle smashing the water when it hit. Scared me because I was in such a daze from lack of "action" all weekend. The few pike I landed where caught on a Siebert Outdoors 3/8 oz swim jig paired with a baby rage craw. This swim jig goes through milfoil amazingly well. Better than the flip n swim jigs I have from Northstar, which I also like a lot. Both are great products. Once again, Mike from Siebert gets a 5 star mark from me! So in short, no videos to post or pictures to share. I might have 1 of that bass I got but I haven't even taken the time to review whats on the camera yet. When I do i'll post it if its worth while. I'll chalk this one up as my 1 bad outing for the year. Still beats being at the desk all day....

I've been dealing with the same issue with the flipping hook. I know where you're coming from. I think I'm going to make a permanent switch too. It shreds the top side of the plastics and is making me go through a lot of my supply quicker than I like.

Impossible. He ties giant jigs with his beard hair.

One thing is for sure, you had the right color on. Way to go, and very cool picture.

Exactly. I know they produce but I have a hard time even putting one on because I just find it to be very slow and boring as well. Glad i'm not the only one....

Don't know..don't care. If spending your money on something you love that makes you happy, then the amount doesn't matter to me. All in all, it's a lot and I'd rather not know the number. Besides, my better half could hold leverage if she knew. I'm glad my money is spent on fishing and not in the bars or chasing tail anymore. I'd kill to get the money back from my 20's of doing that stuff. I could have 3 times the amount of gear if not more!!!!!!