Avalonjohn44

I went thru the same thing this year after losing an irreplaceable pair of sunglasses in the spring - I used these glasses for 15 years for driving, fishing, and general wearing. I wanted a pair that would serve as all purpose, but was good enough to fish with. Everyone suggested Costas or Solar Bats or Oakleys, which yeah I wanted, but could never justify the cost since I didn't have more than $50 to spend. I went to BPS and tried on just about every pair of glasses I could find. The first problem is making sure your sunglasses do what they are supposed to do, and looking into a mirror at a counter is not the best place to figure that out. You have to convince the clerk to let you take the glasses outside in the sunlight to see how they perform. In my case I gave the lady my wallet to convince her I wasn't going to run off with whatever glasses I was trying out. After about two dozen pairs, the one that worked best for me in terms of shading my eyes, sharpening my vision and being polarized turned out to be the Strike King SK11s, blue tint. $30. They were better than the on sale Solar Bats for $70 (which looked funny anyway)... Sorry for being long winded, sunglasses are important.

Holy Moses, why the @#$%^ not?

I am pretty quick to abandon a bait and not pick it up again until next season. Work, kids and wife, I have limited time to fish and I become impatient if something is not producing and I think something else will.

Refund Check = Bait Balls for me. Can't wait, they look beautiful. If they catch nothing, I will display them on a piece of driftwood.

...

I am surprised there are no mentions of the vintage Helicopter Lure, son... My serious list that I still use: Mepps Fury #3 Red or Yellow (still made, but I have mine from the 80s) Bagley Bang-O-B minnnows Johnson Spoon Lunker City Sluggo Lunker City Hellgies Phillips Crippled Killers Cooper Loor Frog

I dunno what it is about those doggone Rattlin' Rapala's. I have about eight or ten that I've collected over the years, none of them have ever caught me a fish. I love almost all Rapala baits except for those. (well scatter raps also, but that's a complaint for another thread...)

The Spot is a good bait, and you just cannot beat that price. They will definitely catch you fish... I primarily use the Red Eye shad, but also like the Yo Zuri Vibe. I used to swear by the SK Diamond Shad, but they changed it over the years and the current version doesn't get hit like the version from the 90s did...

Chatterbait at lake Toho in FL... 2006...

I don't care much for the scatter raps that I bought last year... Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

The one I hit the hardest was the Winchester pleasant valley store. I got some stuff from the Rt 50 store too. I was going to drive to the Front Royal store, but didn't have time.

Nice, mine didn't have the Tungsten on sale yet.

Just went back and cleaned up on Daiichi hooks. Was going to buy all of the mustad trebles, but somebody got to them before me. Dang.

Crud. Meant to post this in the Tackle forum... Sorry mods.

Both of my local Walmarts have a ton of their premium hooks on sale for $2 a pack, you might want to check yours out.. Mustad EWGs and Trebles, various Daiichi worm hooks, tons of Gammys all sorts of styles, a few Owner Twistlock senko hooks (mine only had 2/0s and 3/0s) and tons of StanleyRibbit Doubletakes (don't look for these, I bought them all...). Also on sale was a bunch of other stuff, some Powerbait, Fireline, Kinami flashes ($5...eh), Excalibur Squarebills (there were only 2 left - got em), and a ton of left over pradco stuff from last year's promotion for 50 cents.

It is easier said than done, but wait till you feel the fish. I do better with soft bodied frogs at night where I can't quite see the bait. Seeing the strike makes me react, at night I am more apt to not do so. Hook up ratios for soft body frog baits are not super, but this type of fishing is FUN.

Even with 4 days of +50 I'm still iced out. It may thaw just in time for it to freeze again on sunday when winter returns to my neck of the woods...

Whatever Basspro, Gander or Walmart have red-tagged - then I buy them all. I might not have this year's 'hot hook', but don't think my fishing suffers for it. I will throw everything from Eagle claw junkers to Trokars depending on the fishing situation.

Sometimes the bass don't want anything other than a topwater frog. Other than that, I get a ton of enjoyment out of the blowup, waiting for the weight of the fish, and sticking him. Are my hookups great? Not particularly, but really I've never kept track. Often though, a bass will hit the same frog twice when they will not take a poke at the same crank or worm more than once. Another aspect that you might be overlooking with the low hookup rater is that a missed frog bite tells you exactly where a fish is, and allows for you to follow up with a senko or trickworm (or another toss of that frog...).

Interesting article: http://www.another site.org/bassfish/articles/T205.htm

I've read a few articles about it over the last few years, but no theories have ended up being widely supported yet. A popular theory is that the bass had some sort of trauma to the pigmented area, most likely blunt force, as any other injury would leave an easily identifiable scar. There was one big bass with black patches living for several years in the BPS Orlando aquarium, so whatever it is, doesn't seem to be immediately detrimental to the bass.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Matzuo-Crankbait-Lure-Looks-Unfished-Nice-Color-/221370802658?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item338aba61e2 http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-Matzuo-America-shallow-deep-diving-holographic-crankbait-lure-/321308890061?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4acf8093cd

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MATZUO-AMERICA-3-HOLO-RATTLING-CRANKBAIT-FISHING-LURE-TACKLE-BOX-FIND-L-K-/291075555696?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item43c5748170

The brand new ones have gotten bad reviews - quality issues. I have seen multiple reports of the baits splitting/cracking... I bought some, but haven't gotten to try them out yet... As for the ones you got, they are very good baits. Are they the quality of 70s Bagleys? No, nothing is.... But they are at least $30 cheaper and fun as heck to fish.

Yeah, me too!