martintheduck

Ever tried deep diving crankbaits in like 6fow for reds?

It was a mid size spro frog and stanley ribbets (old school floating kind, not the hollow bodies). That spoon looks awesome.

Portable spotlight, Big tactical knife in an easy to access sheath, bear mace.

White frogs were thrown with no success. So funny story... night before tourny I decided to pull out a secret weapon. I grabbed one of my prized Xcalibur one knockers in Sexy Shad color.... i painted it chartreuse and it looked incredible. I have found hard baits with one rattle produce better in muddy water that we are fishing. So We fish the morning bite with all those shad and don't get bit. Aggravated, we move to another spot and I tie on my secret weapon one knocker. I cast it, let it sink, rip it through the grass. Maybe the third cast, BAM! I set the hook and the line goes slack. I reel fast thinking he's coming right at the boat, but as I continue reeling I realize my line snapped. About the time I realize this, I see a 20inch jack fish SHOOT 2 feet out the water, shaking violently, hearing my trap make the unmistakeable CHANG CHANG CHANG sound. I'm upset because this was the only one I painted and brought with me! Aggravated, I tie on a yozuri trap with a chrome belly and black back, but I just have zero confidence in it. Start flipping and about 10 minutes later, here comes the ole jack fish leaping out the water, making the unmistakable CHANG CHANG CHANG noise as he tried to shake the hook. Give it another 5 minutes and he leaps out the water again trying to shake it. He must have shot out the water 6 or 7 times trying to shake free of that rattle trap, and at some point, it became funny and really helped lighten the depressed mood on our boat.

Any difference in how you need to fish it? Imagine you need to really rip that hookset. I imagine you get less snags.

Repeat the part about the hooks? I' not understanding what you were saying and seems like a solid piece of info

I haven't noticed any major performance differences between brands. Has all come down to having high quality treble hooks really. Because of the nature of the bait I concentrate heavily on what the line it doing... they like to hit it on the fall. Plus, to keep snag down, I don't really let em' sink into the bottom. As soon as it touches the bottom i'm ripping it off. You will inevitably get snagged. Heavy line is helpful. 20lb+ fluro for me

Kistler Cardon Steel MH 6'9 mod fast tip is great. I don't do much of anything special to setup the reel. Just use 3/8oz arky style jig and a flat type trailer.

Quick scoop: I was fishing a tournament this weekend in tough conditions. High bluebird skys and flat calm, the morning bite was the only thing looking promising. Practice didn't produce any real indicators on the bite other than fishing channel swings where vegetation was matting up and underwater grass was thick. Pulled up to the first spot after a 20 minute run - a straight away right before a hard swing. We tossed frogs for about 10 minutes and then I just got the overwhelming sensation that we needed to move about 1000 yards down to the channel swing ASAP! I saw some birds down the way too and that helped with the decision. We ran down there, dropped the trolling motor... no exaggeration when I saw THOUSANDS of shad were popping in the pads and vegetation. Bass were busting all over the place and I was convinced we were about to pull our limit quick. We fished the area for the next hour until the activity settled and didn't catch a single fish. Had 4 come up and slap the heck out of a frog, but wouldn't commit. Tried a following up with wacky senkos and beavers. NOTHING. Swam a jig, jerked a fluke, frogs, spinner baits, swim bait, senkos, and the classic ole' trusty small white slug-go. NOTHING! The vegetation was too thick to throw a pop-r but i wish I could have. I think that would have been the ticket. I need some help - What else could we have done to elicit a bite? When I fish around such large concentrations of bait fish, my experience has been that they are so keyed in on the bait that it is harder to trick them. What else could we have done?

This is the year - All reel manufacturers will start making good ceramic bearings stock! Pffft..... I wish.

I wish I could find the article... It was on facebook a cpl weeks ago... Study was done where they presented different craw lures to bass. Two appendage, one appendage, no appendages. The bass at the one with NO appendages more readily than all of them! Jeez I want to find the article again for y'all! Sorry. Point is - I've heard all about this one appendage thing and no appendage thing and, still, I replace mine anytime they rip off. I like all my appendages.

Order a few different pairs from Zappos, try them on, ship back the ones you don't want (or ship back all of them). Do it as many times as you want. Order 5 pair, try them on, return them, rinse & repeat. That's what I did - free return shipping. I order shoes from them all the times, like 6 pairs, and try on and ship back what I don't like. And on the subject of costas ---I have perfect vision and am NOT colorblind at all.... Settled on copper lenses and HATE them now. They become almost useless sight fishing for me real quick. Sight fishing I'll pull out my $20 pair of wal-mart amber lens glasses. Just a heads up.

It's a great boutique bait for sure. They smell strong and they basically combine every good "appendage" from other flipping baits. Fished a black & blue at a tourny a couple weeks ago and blew through one pack in a couple hours... rigged on a 3/0-4/0 hook w/ 3/16oz weight. Worth the money for sure.

Alabama rig for sure. It's either on or totally off.

The trolling motor - it happens. You can take the top off and glue the arrow in the right position. The motor problems - Fuel filters, spark plugs, lines, carbs. A number of things. Those 90's motors idle at what sounds like a high RPM's anyway.

That hit me really hard just now. Profound. Thank you.

South Louisiana born and raised checking in: You want to be fishing live shrimp right now. Depending on water depth, under a cork or on a carolina rig. My goto plastic is a Matrix Shad on a 1/4oz - 3/8oz jighead.... cast it... let it sink to the bottom.... pop the rod tip up to pop the bait off the bottom. Give it another couple of weeks and you should start throwing a live cockahoe minnow under a popping cork. Cast out. let it sit. pop the cork a cpl times. let it sit. pop the cork. sit. etc.... Any questions just ask... it's late so that is just my quick response.

Just started fishing tournaments this year in a local circuit and it sure is tough. I'm from out of town and started fishing lakes and rivers in my area about 3 years ago.... i'm fishing against guys that have lived here their whole lives. Anyhow - What is important is that I have been consistent in my fishing... I am proud of that. I have fished my strengths and weaknesses and put fish in the boat. I'm curious though - how long into fishing tournaments until you started placing?

This is illegal in all the tourny's I fish. One line in the water at the time.

If the water is super high and you can make a small drive north-east, I'd check out Dawson

Where abouts have you been fishing? How far north?

WOW! Looks like Tracker has stepped it up. Thats pretty exciting they will be rated for a 150hp.

How does a 16 foot Jon boat capsize? There are some older jon boats with a narrow hull, possible it could be one of those narrower versions. 3 people in a boat like that can easily capsize. I imagine they were sitting parallel to the wake and rolled down the backside with their weight on the low end, when they hit the bottom of the roller they flipped. Also - -never seen a pontoon go fast!? On my local lake we have pontoons with 250's. They throw some wake son! Wondering about how accidents happen? Check this gut wrencher out man: http://www.wwltv.com/story/news/local/2015/03/30/16-year-old-boy-saves-children-after-fatal-boat-accident-in-pearl-river/70651050/

I choose finance a used boat for $12-$15k. For $15k tops you are getting only a little in terms of new boats. For $15k in the used market you're getting a TON of boat. Also, for $5k in used territory, I've found the pickings are slim for something in solid condition. A 90's Nitro with a 115 recently popped up for $4500 on Craigslist around me and it was in MINT condition. From the pics, it looked like it had seen the water maybe 10 times. Sold quick. Talking to a buddy a few days later, he was telling me how his church friend was sold his Nitro super cheap just to get rid of it.... Turns out it was the same boat that I saw for sale. This Nitro is the first boat I've seen pop up in that kind of shape in the past year. Point is - for $5k you can find a nice used boat, but #1 it will be an older model or a nice jon configuration and #2 they don't pop up often, you have to be on your A game to find one.... or just lucky.

Well I'll be dam! Did you get a water temp reading?