mnbassman23

Welcome aboard! Bought a f-150 back in 09 and my wife has a 2014 focus. Mom has a 2014 Escape and my dad just got his 2015 f-150 2 days ago. Ford family through and through.

It still hurts when those little snot rockets take a 40$ swimbait lol. The video is from a fellow MN swimbait chucker, Eric Aske. I cant remember if he says it in the video but if you are going to use 40-60lb fluoro you need a size A2 7 strand crimping sleeve.

I'm in the same situation and it really depends on the bait. It may inhibit the action some, but I've thrown a steel leader with hard swimbaits like a spro and triple trout and their isn't much difference with the leader. For glide baits and top water swimbaits I don't use a steel leader and also with my soft swimbaits like a Hudd I won't. It sucks loosing lures but 95% of the time I take the risk. You also have the option to use a heavy fluoro leader. A lot of guys do this with 7 strand crimping sleeves and 60lb fluoro. This way you don't have to tie a knot which can be difficult with that heavy of fluoro. The fluoro is less visible and you don't have a big bulky snap on the bait. If you are interested in the fluoro with crimping sleeves let me know and I can post a video from youtube explaining how it is done.

Wire ties are better at preventing it but there is an easy fix. Take a piece of mono or braid and tie a knot above the rubber band. This will keep the skirt from falling down and if the rubber skirt holder happens to melt in the sun you still have the knot holding the skirting to your jig. Hope that makes sense.

I heard that they were going to start shipping out next week as well. Now I only wish there wasn't 3 feet of ice on the lakes so I could throw mine right away. At least they will be here for the spring bite.

This is always the right answer. A-Jay gave you great advise earlier in this thread. I use a lot of single tail grubs and paddle tails and have good luck with both. My fishing partner is big on craw trailers and he does very well on those. It comes back to the statement quoted and confidence.

Flippers are going to have a hay day. Love the idea of a weedless bluegill.

I tried anchoring for the first time late last fall on a windy day. Caught the biggest 5 fish limit my boat has ever seen. I'll be doing a lot more anchoring this year.

1st fish was in April, 2nd in July, 3rd fish in October.

I have one lake in particular were I probably catch 6-8 fish a year with black spots. From ice out to freeze up. Here are a few I had saved from this year. Last one had that much black on both sides of his face, pretty unique.

Great way to end the season.

Thanks guys! Sadly the boat is in storage for the year, let the winter grind begin.

Sounds like a solid day A-Jay!

Went out fishing for 7 hours on Saturday and it made up for my lack of fishing the past 2 weeks. Started at noon and averaged about 2 fish per hour until 6pm. It was a bit slow but the bites were big, we had our top 5 fish by 5pm. The bite started to pick up at 6pm, we found a school of 3-4lb fish on a 6ft rock flat and ended up with 30 of them in the last hour of fishing. It was unreal and probably the best fishing I've personally had in MN for pure size. My father-in-law broke off a 5.5lber at the boat right at the end that would have put us over the 28lb mark, but at that point it didn't even matter. All the fish were caught on 3/8oz NSCB jigs, either the New Gill Flip and Swim or Flippin Blue Knockout Jig .Here are the pics of our top 5 fish. Weights were, 5.97, 5.7, 5.5, 5.48, and 4.67

Nice bronzebacks!

Heres a recent one from BR that has good info on football jigs. http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/144922-football-jig-retrieve/?hl=%2Bfootball+%2Bjigs

Nice fish dude!

I'd say slow sink as well. But if you really are set on a floater and want the option to have a slow sink grab some nail weights and insert into the bait as needed.

I seen her coming at the last second and my reaction was to pull the bait. Usually it's a pike commiting suicide at the boat and it ends up in a lost lure. I use to be a hardcore muskie junkie and always did a figure 8, would have worked wonders this time. I've watched Oliver's vid a few times. That is a heck of a fish and a heart stopping strike.

Got a full breach on camera. I think she wanted it.

The shallow bite is starting to heat up here in MN. I don't know about you but our highs have been in the low 50s and it's getting down into the 30s at night the past 3 days. Next few days don't look much warmer. The jig bite will be exceptional the next month or 2. Those fish are looking to feed and target bigger presentations. Lot of guys throw buzzbaits, spinner baits, and lipless cranks around the remaining green weeds and other forms of shallow cover. Cover water, find active fish, and then clean up on them.

This^

Chunk dude!

Nice fish man!

I've been a Red Label fan for the past 2 years in 15-20lb. No line conditioner or breakage issues for me.