Preytorien

I have one of those, the clamp works really well, I've never felt that the fish was too heavy or flopped around enough to slip out.

i use an offset straight shank worm hook. A guy on here turned me onto it last year. I was having trouble with hookups really bad. The fish would take it, but I couldn't get a good hookset, and I was using good hooks too (Gamakatsu). He said try the straigh-shank. It exits the back of the fluke at an angle so if the fish doesn't get a good enough clamp-down, your hookset will still punch it through. Hookups have dramatically increased. I almost never use EWG's anymore for flukes.

Well, I think I know my next purchase. The water's hard here, and will be for a while. Topwater bite probably won't heat up for some time.....but when it does, and I throw this, I'll let you know the results. I'm not sure about the wings, hopefully they're similar to an Arbogast Crazy Crawler and they're at least metal, or something durable. I'd hate to drop ~$15 on something that won't last.

Holy Cow! Thanks a million!

i can't find anywhere that sells this guy stateside. Does anyone know where I can pick one up? It looks like an awesome lure. I just hope I don't have to wait for to come from overseas, in my experience it can take a while

Thanks for the input guys. It must be like soft plastics, where I've caught 5-inch bass on a 5-inch senko.....I just didn't know if it were any different for jerkbaits. Thanks for the help!

Here's their link....it's at the Convention Center on the north side of Kokomo http://www.ivytech.edu/kokomo/wildindiana.html

I'm new to trying jerkbaits, I only really gave it a good try this past winter, and boy I had good success. My question is this....I have a few jerkbaits that are about 3 inches long, some Rapala X-Raps....but then for Christmas I requested the Duo Realis Jerkbait 110SP. But I got it, and apparently didn't pay attention to the details of the product, because after the lip and all, the darn thing is nearly 5 inches long, comparatively it's HUGE. So will smaller bass still hit that thing? I'm in Indiana, so the numbers of 4+ pound fish I encounter is relatively rare compared to my lucky fellow fishermen down south. I get a lot of 1-3 pounders, and even more that are smaller than that. Will this be an unproductive lure for me because of its size?

I'd be going probably in late June early July so the wife can actually get in the water. If there's not much in the way of fishing I'll probably just leave the gear at home. No worries.

When a buddy of mine told me to use a weightless fluke. I thought it would be a waste because I've rarely seen minnows or forage swimming just beneath the surface. Man was I wrong. That's pretty much one of my top producing lures in post spawn and summer. On warm summer nights I've grown accustomed to rigging it weedless and using it in place of a frog in moderately heavy cover/grass.

My wife has been buzzing with excitement the last few days as she's planning out a little getaway for us this coming summer. Looks like we're staying in Holland, MI. I've heard of fishing for steelhead and lake trout in Lake Michigan, but I'm not really crazy about hiring a charter to fish for those kinds of fish, I'd much rather go for largemouth or smallmouth. Where do you find that kind of fishing on the lake? Are there charters that take you out for just bass? I've never been, so any direction would be great. Thanks guys.

I like your outfit.....and the handle's even on the proper side

I've done this more than once. Also, a gas gift card works too, it doesn't imply that the money's only for the boat, it could be for his 10mpg truck or his wife's car.....either way, he's been offered and given a small token of thanks for a day's good fishing.

I've been fortunate enough that the boaters I go with are very very stand up guys, and know that the boat is ultimately their responsibility and never complain at my obvious lack of what others call non-essential ethics. I just know I was always taught the rule to "do unto others...." so I try to maintain the concept of doing enough of my fair share to merit another invite on their boats. Whether that means gas money, a box of donuts, or just being respectful and courteous all day, my goal is to maintain my friendship with my fellow angler who also permits me to enjoy his boat.

I oil my ceramics, but only VERY lightly. I put some bicycle bearing oil on a q-tip, then just lightly brush it on the bearings. I only do it to make them a tad quieter. It might slightly degrade their performance, but I'm not long-bombing casts, so the tradeoff for a little more silence is worth it to me. My race bikes are silent, I can't stand for my reels to sound like an old reel-to-reel movie projector!

My cousins and I have a sort of method for fishing together. We'll determine who covers what portion of the water column until we figure out the day's winner One of us will cover topwater, one covers mid-depth (proportional to the depth of the body of water), the other covers the bottom/near the bottom. Sometimes we'll all switch and go to the other zones, but no two cover the same water column level, unless it's overly obvious (fishing very shallow, top, mid, and bottom depths are only inches apart sometimes) Seems to work okay, one of us will figure out what the bass want, then the other two will switch up and use the same/similar lure, just with a different color or technique. It's fun and no one's competing (usually) for the same type of attack method.

I was planning on going to the one a bit north of me in Kokomo this coming weekend. Jonathon Van Dam is their premier speaker, but it's on a Sunday, and I'll be at church. I saw the list of their main booth rentals - looks like you all say, quad and truck dealers. I don't know why these places don't list all of their booth reservations. I don't want to spend the door charge just to be disappointed.

I got one of these from my bride. She wasn't supposed to get me anything since she went overboard in Sept and got me a Stradic for my birthday. But she suprised me. http://store12459.americommerce.com/store/p/26-SP100-T-POD.aspx I fish mostly from the bank or a small inflatable Sea Eagle, so this will be very nice to have. I've tried it out and it works very well.

Pretty much in Indiana I've concluded a couple of things..... 1. The White River, north of Noblesville is pretty darn good for smallmouth, not Great Lakes good, but I can catch them all day wading the river. It's clean, accessible in quite a few places, and it's not even close to crowded. However, once you get below Noblesville, and especially into Indianapolis, the fishing might be good, but usually isn't. The water's not as clean, deeper (not as much wading), and runs quite a bit faster. 2. With the exception of a few banner days here and there, I've never really smoked em' on the main Indiana reservoirs. I tend to do better in ponds and small lakes. They hold good fish. 3. I conclude with a lot of the other Indiana guys, the DNR focuses heavily on hunting, but the fishing quality in our state seems to escape them. I lived on Morse Reservoir for 9 years, and in that time they drained it once and significantly lowered it twice. That's not DNR behavior concurrent with fisheries management. But then again, apparently that's not their goal.....unfortunately. It's not KVD who I've talked to, but I've also heard it said by several guys I know who fish all over the country that if you can catch em' in Indiana, you'll do pretty good anywhere else. High pressure, bad fisheries, weird weather, etc all come into play.

Here's a question.... I fish a lot of ponds too, but almost never see crawfish, or signs of crawfish......do you think they're still in there?

I think I would mostly say it has to do with which of the bass's senses you're appealing to. If you are going to appeal to the aggressive feeding nature of a bass, or your conditions see bass feeding aggressively, almost with no caution, they'll more than likely be attracted to the lure out of habit and nature. If you're on a tough day or conditions where the bass may study your lure or have a good look at it (gin clear water), then realism probably plays a good part. I've used too many odd looking lures that don't really resemble anything a bass would eat, and still caught them to believe that realism is at the top of the importance list. I still can't figure out what a jig (with no trailer), spinnerbait, buzzbait, tube jig, or chatterbait are supposed to resemble.....but rememeber, those are lures that are appealing to the ambush nature of the fish, not the fish's actual eyesight. ....and when all else fails, the ole' senko stumps me the most. Even if it were painted like a real worm and didn't have squared off ends.....how many bass actually see, know, and eat worms? But yet they produce like crazy.

Welcome to the forums! From my experience I've seen a lot of discussion that centered around these two concepts..... Guys who use a med-fast taper are using braid or flouro, which has less stretch. The softer tip allows the fish to have that extra split second to keep the lure in its mouth before he gets hooked. Conversely, the other end of the spectrum would be using a extra fast tip with mono line, which has more stretch allowing the hook to stay in the fish's mouth. The concept is similar, whether using the line or the rod to accommodate the lure in the fish's mouth a bit longer. Both rods are fine for the application, it's just what kind of line you'll have on it that would be what determines your tip speed. I know from personal experience, I have an extra fast rod with 65lb braid, and I have to purposely train myself to wait before hookset because the zero-stretch line + xtra fast tip have lost me a lot of fish.

It's winter, for most of us that means we sit inside, organize tackle, buy new tackle, organize again, rinse and repeat until the water thaws.....we also do our yearly rod/reel maintenance. Send it off if need be, but sometimes they just need a basic cleaning. Let's put together a list of 'lifehacks" for cleaning rods, reels, tackle, accessories, etc. I know I would benefit from it, as well as all of us would probably like to know new things on maintaining our awesome equipment. I'll start off with a couple I've gathered over the years..... 1. A Mr. Clean Magic Eraser does wonders at cleaning cork rod handles 2. The beauty counter at most stores contain free little mascara brushes, with bristles a little firmer than pipe cleaners.....these are great for cleaning rod guides, line guides on a baitcaster, and generally any small nook or cranny 3. Got leftover silica gel packs from shoeboxes, etc? Put them in your tackle bag to help absorb errant moisture. It won't do anything if the tackle is soaking wet, but will help for times when they're stored away 4. If you're cleaning gears or other non-bearing parts of a reel, Dawn detergent usually does just as good of a job (since it's designed to cut grease) without being a harsh chemical...I reiterate USUALLY, sometimes it needs the heavy stuff 5. Stuff a tiny bit of pipe-thread tape down inside your reel seats, this allows you to really tighten them down but also cut down your chances of material-on-material contact that might result in a crack or break (happened to me). It also results in a nice snug fit that doesn't loosen up over time nearly as badly Any more ideas folks?

Same eyes as my Tate Pencil

Usually I end up finishing projects on my honey-do list. The wife and I have a good system worked out, we do our large projects (flooring, painting, carpeting this year) in the winter, that way she can do pool days and I can do fishing in the warm weather and not worry about projects. Seems to be an effective arrangement so far. That said, I'll probably re-watch all of Glenn's videos on YouTube, consequently getting irritated because "he's fishing" while I'm not. I'll practice my pitching. Re-organize tackle about 74 times. Clean the reels 3 times, rods twice. I'll scout out new waters to fish, then probably watch some more fishing videos. I tried to get permission from a Duke Energy plant about 5 minutes away to fish their ponds, but they don't allow non-employees to access their grounds. Guess I'm outta luck, enjoy those ponds Clayton!