Avalonjohn44

I haven't had a chance to see one in person, but they look almost identical to the discontinued Lucky Craft RC1.5. Has anyone had a chance to toss one of the RTOs yet? Any feedback/comparison on how they stack up against the LCRC1.5? I missed the boat and didn't know the RCs were going to be discoed, and now need to replace a couple...

Largemouth will annihiliate a hellgramite just as much as a smallie will. Great bait, and one hellgramite will last several fish. I use a cheap eagle claw weedless hook and just toss them near any cover. Whatever is there, big bass or small, will take it. I have had limp, dead, soggy helgies catch up to a dozen bass.

I did both, will believe it when I have the hooks in my grubby little hands...

I love their "Charm Assassins", very supple and great action, my favorite tapered straight worm. I just looked at their site and it looks like they have overhauled most of their baits from a year or so ago and I don't see that bait on there anymore... I have been generally happy with their products, with the exception of their hand pours... The ones that I have ordered from them are very stiff, almost unusable, though I might have gotten a bad batch.

Stock hooks on mine seem very solid. Dunno who makes them, but mine held up the entire year, still feel strong and sharp as heck.

I was there again, saw that they added Trokar hooks for $7 a package. Pretty good deal, I might even pick some up now...

AMEN!

I have a few bags because Gander had them marked down, and tried them toward the end of last year. I caught a few, but maybe wasn't using them effectively, I kept switching back to my comfort bait in the same category the baby brush hog and doing better. Will try and give them a fair shot this year, maybe I will find the niche these fit in.

Ah, cool, I usually don't hit that section of the boards.

Was in both my local walmarts this weekend, they've dramatically upgraded their fishing departments. A large variety of new lures - Lucky Strike RCs, KVD frogs, KVD Square bills, doubled the rapala selection, Zman plastics, a ton of soft plastic swimbaits (SK, Power Bait, and others), Excalibur baits, War Eagle spinnerbaits, a better selection of SK Premium spinnerbaits, a ton of soft plastics that I am forgetting, Abu Garcia Vengeance rods, KVD Quantum rods, new Pfluegar and Okuma reels, and loads of unmarked pegs that the manager said would be filled soon with hooks, more reels and baits too... Was happily impressed with Walmart for once.

Any stores carrying these yet? Still don't trust buying things online, I like to pick stuff up, hold it, get a good look before I purchase.

Interesting reading... In VA the snakehead threat is/was quite overblown. They seem to have found their niche, and amazingly there are somehow still bass here after all the hysteria. In fact, not a single snakehead has crawled out of the water and feasted on infants in their cribs either... I find it remarkable that after the hysteria and misinformation in MD and VA that any still think the snakehead will absolutely decimate an entire region. In the snakehead's native countries, there are thousands of other species of fish (not to mention crustacean, amphibian etc) that have managed to survive despite this 'apex predator' gobbling them all up. Why would it be otherwise in FL?

The little john is a great looking bait, casts a mile as was mentioned, and is highly durable. Oddly enough, I have yet to catch a single fish on it though. I have a bandit 100 in the same color, same size that crushes in the same spot. Don't know what I'm doing wrong.

Good haul, those strike king frogs will get plenty of hits. The crappy hook on the thing will insure you miss just about every fish that hits it though...

Had to look it up: http://thealabamarig.com/ Normark had a similar concept with their front runner lure, and as has been said, this is similar to what they used to call a flounder rig in South Jersey. It seems, from looking at the pics, that there is a greater potential for injured fish with this rig. When food fishing (like for flounder...) this is not a big deal, but for bass fishing, I don't like the idea. One pic on that site shows a fish hooked in multiple places with several of the trailer baits. I hope they ban it like the kicktail ( ).

There was a famous study out there by Dr Keith Jones of Pure Fishing(which owns Berkley, Abu Garcia, Penn, Mitchell and other well known brands) that concludes that a bass can recognize and continue to reject a certain lure type (hard crank bait) for 3 months or longer, but for some reason they could not remember a plastic worm... As it was funded by one of the largest soft plastic worm manufacturers in existence, I was never satisfied with the conclusion that were drawn. The study has been held as 'canon' by many bass fisherman over the last few years, some of them here, and I'm glad to see that opinions are changing.

Out at a local pond/lake this fall I have seen hundreds of fingerling bass in the past 3 weeks, all about 2 inches long. From what I am reading from various breeders online, it takes 100 days or so for a bass to reach 4 inches, so these had to have been from a late spawn, end of August/start of September. I'm not finding much solid info on fingerling mortality through the cold season. I'm in North Western VA and the past two nasty winters the lake has frozen over for a significant amount of time, ice thickness about 8-12 inches.The lake goes about 9 feet deep in spots, so I am hoping these little guys have a good chance of surviving the winter. Anyone have any idea if these late bloomers will make it through the winter?

Lure retrievers don't work well from shore, for me. If swimming for it isn't an option, a trick I use a lot is to wind your line around a heavy branch or piece driftwood, and hurl it out past where your bait is stuck. Many times the weight of the branch pulling the line in the opposite direction will dislodge the snag.

LOL

Whenever the water isn't frozen. I fish them all year. You can fish them fast, slow, weighted, un-weighted, two at a time, on a C-Rig, on drop shot, and yes, even on a shaky head.

I think that's a great idea. If you can't find any, I would suggest paining your own.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with using live bait so long as you follow your local laws. The only reason I do not use live minnows more often is because I am a shore/kayak fisherman and lugging around a bucket of minnows is just not going to work for me...

Broad Run in Northern VA does have smallmouth, but mostly Largemouth... I have fished this stream/river since I was a kid and would estimate that I catch about 10 or 15 LMs for every 1 SM. They aren't that prevalent, at least in the Ashburn section that I fish. Goose Creek, which is very close, has a much better smallmouth population IMO. From the Golf Course down past the old dam, you can catch some nice smallmouth. If you really want smallies though, go to the Potomac, anywhere from Point of Rocks to American Legion Bridge and you will catch the bronzebacks in greater number than either Broad Run or Goose Creek...

A wake crank can be great fun at night. I use the bagley Bulgin' B or the Bandit Footloose, prefer them over a buzzbait or a jitterbug at night.

The equation 'live target>spro' actually means he likes the Koppers better... LINK And I would take it back as a defect. I have a few live targets and haven't had the weight come loose at all. Sounds like a manufacturing defect. Sure, a little glue would fix it, but you paid $10 for a lure, you should not have to fix it.