scaleface

12 to 15 lb mono .

Are you referring to the sand points on the downstream side of an island ?

i "always" tried hard to find my own fish. People view tournaments differently and a lot of people take the easy path and let others find the fish for them , while others find their own . You ought to be able to figure out why these are good spots and search else where for something similar .

I live in Northern missouri and think it would be almost impossible to catch a bass out of the river and tributaries right now . Even in spring flooded rivers are difficult to fish . A lot of current and mud comes with high water .The best places I found are creeks out of the current with clearer water .

Pork baits are reusable . I guess most people let them dry out and then quit using them . I have about three lures that excels on large bass and the jig n pig heads the list .

I dont use spinning gear for soft plastics either . It would be a huge downgrade where I fish .

I prefer shorter handles than what is on most rods . Longer handles get in the way . I still use a couple of the old original pistol grip Lightning rods for top water fishing .

I just use the spike-it markers .I mainly use them to just add some kind of pattern to the worm and a chartreuse tail if the original color will allow a brighter tail .Some really neat patterns can be created with lighter shaded jelly worms such as blueberry , chartreuse watermelon , scumpernong ...

I've had some success with them on a small Texas jig , similar to the Charlie Brewer Do Nothing jig while wading small rivers .

Some float , some suspend , some sink. Some are floaters that are weighted to suspend . I have wrapped lead solder around the hooks of the Smithwick Rogues to accomplish that , learned that from bassmaster magazine . I generally use three short , sharp twitches and pause.

I prefer the original lunker lure in white , black , yellow or chartreuse .

Wow , excellent writing skills .

I grew up fishing crappie jigs on the banks of the Mississippi river . If I lost a couple of marabou jigs then I was forced to improvise . there were a couple of times where I clamped split shot on a hook to make a jighead .

Liks smokinal , I have had a lot more success on the Trap but that could be because I just havent given the Red Eye a fair shot . One of the lakes I frequent I fish out of a flat bottom aluminum boat .The hull acts like an amplifier and I can hear the lures quite loudly . I like to rip them off the bottom then let them fall back. A bass will hit the lure as its falling and I can hear that strike . When a Red Eye is falling I can hear it ticking just like it is designed to do .The Trap falls over on its side and makes no noise "that I can hear " but for some reason I get more fish on it . I need to give the Red Eye more playing time , it does shimmy on the drop .

I found a chart that demonstrates how light works "under" water . On the left it shows how the warmer colors are absorbed first . On the right it shows what happens when there are a lot of particles suspended in the water and the short wave lengths of blue cant penetrate very deep ..

That is in clear water , in badly stained water the short blue and purple wave lengths disappear first . There are two factors that come into play on how far different colors penetrate the water . One is temperature of a light wave and the other is the wave lengths . Blue light only penetrates the deepest in extremely clear water and red penetrates the shallowest because it is warmer and absorbed faster .. When there are particles suspended in the water shorter wave lengths like in blue cannot get through as easily as longer wave lengths . You know , I'm an old fart too but not to old to learn something new .

I could get scientific and say it takes heat away from the infraray wave lengths but someone would just come along and crap all over it .

I use to have a light /temperature probe . . All it measured was white light but was very useful . The waters I fish are almost always stained and the light /temp always plummeted around the thermocline . It was so predictable that I quit using it .

I've caught two big bass at my local pond in those conditions with a chartreuse marabou crappie jig . I was targeting anything that would bite .I dont recall if I was hopping it or just retrieving slowly . Jig n pig is always worth a shot .

Im not in the area but a hundred miles to the north in hannibal .

Me too . I found some lead ones , I a not paying for tungsten .

do you add a skirt somehow ?

Theres a lot of techniques and lures i dont use . Just dont have the time to fish everything . Jigs are not one of them though .

Yeah , the original post confirms what bass anglers already know about color choice .