ChrisD46

Good replies - I think the term of an "expanded mid - fall" is pretty accurate .

East of the Mississippi we are experiencing record warmth to begin winter - for those of you who live here , how are you adapting your winter strategies / techniques to match warmer than usual water conditions : Are you staying shallow ? Are you staying with faster more aggressive baits to match the warmer water ? ...Let's hear how you are adapting your techniques / strategies to match up with a warm beginning of winter here in the East .

DCales84 : Good suggestions - I forgot about the swinging football head technique with a beaver bait which I believe the River Bug would be well suited for . While the River Bug could make for a beefy jig trailer , I tend to use a supply of Zoom Super Chunks I have on hand however I may say what the heck and try the River Bug on a football jig to mix it up some .

K_Mac : If the River Bug is fairly soft , has good action and colors are consistant - then I figure they would be worth trying .

^^This^^ ... I have heard from more than one source - the Arachnid is the way to go (as far as Cabela's) BC reels . A 6:x:1 will be most flexible for a spinnerbait .

I have noticed several Pros of late (Timmy Horton for one) give the above creature bait very high marks ... Have you used before and if so , what are your thoughts ? My application would be mainly pitching to cover and dragging / hopping on a T-Rig or Jika Rig in open water.

Don't forget about impact of various trailers on a swim jig - you can make a 3/8th oz. swim jig run like a 1/4th oz. swim jig merely by changing out the trailer style (i.e. single tail grub or paddle tail to a Rage Craw , Paca Chunk , Super Speed Craw) .

I also see where a tighter , perhaps more subtle swim jig trailer paddle tail action is more desireable in colder water vs. a wider more pronounced exagerated body wobble . The Strike King Swim - N - Shiner is an example of a swim jig trailer for cold water with more subtle tail action ... Seems to follow suit with hardbaits where by lipless crankbaits with a tighter shimy action are favored in colder water for the same reasons.

pappajoe222 : Good info ! ...Do you believe in general that bass relate more to craws in the winter time vs. shad ? If it is a slower rate of fall and slower horizontal retrieve you are after for colder water then I presume you could use a pearl color twin tail rage craw to imitate shad if bass in your area are not relating to craws ?

Trying to learn more about swim jig tactics as the water cools down - interesting to note that a trend I see with Bass Master / FLW Tour Pros is to move from a paddle tail swim bait / single tail grub swim jig trailer to a twin tail or craw type swim jig trailer as the water cools down in late Fall / early Winter ... What swim jig trailer changes (if any) do you make in late Fall / early Winter ?

^^This^^

While I currently have both the TRD and ZinkerZ (cut in half) - when my current supply of TRD are gone I will probably just simplify and use the ZinkerZ's .

Raul still getting it done old school down South - hey , if it's not broken - no need to fix it !

I recently noticed the above FC line in 110 yrd. spools at TW for $9.99 ... Curious if anybody has tried yet ? I do like the idea of a smaller spool size to use if you already have backing on your reel .

Although a little pricey and soft - try the Strike King KVD Fat Finesse Worm in Dirt color ...It WILL produce !

Even a partially opened bag of Robo Worms develop a STRONG industrial / plastic smell after a while ! They are the only soft plastics that do this - I still favor them but I'm not much for stocking up on Robo Worms any more . Conversely - Strike King , Havoc , Zoom , etc. present no problems - just those blasted Robo Worms !

The above is true - you should look at either the 30X or 35X ...30X for braid plus leader (#10lb.~ #15lb. braid with backing) or 35X for straight FC line ( #8lb. FC with backing )

X3 - Thanks FB - very detailed review ... The IKE technique specific rod approach is very helpful to dial in what your looking for .

Thanks for the replies - the only thing I could look to add would be a soft plastic like a Black & Blue Flake Rage Tail Structure Bug (or similar) that moved a lot of water .

Have had unending rain here in the S.E. for weeks causing the water to be heavily stained from runoff ...What would be your top 3 lures and tactics for fishing Fall dirty water in a highland reservoir ?

So , you are saying you bought a IKE model ML casting rod that felt a little heavy to you ? ...That might be a hard category to compare to as "ML" is not a territory typical of a baitcasting combo (i.e. most would spinning to a ML setup ) ... I believe if you were to focus on IKE model baitcasting rods in the M, MH and H actions it might be a more fair comparison .

Good to hear so far Ike rods are matching their descriptions with respect to butt / tip percentage .

There are some FINE combos listed above !! ... I use a 7' ML Fast Cabela's rod , President 6925 , #8lb. Power Pro Yellow , #6lb. InvizX leader , Gopher 1/16th oz. mushroom jig #4 hook size or ZMan finesse mushroom type jig head , ZMan TRD , ZMan ZinkerZ cut in half , ZMan BatwingZ (smaller version) Gulp Alive Marinade or Pro Cure Scent . * You can probably tell I have pictures on my wall of all the Midwest Finesse / Ozark Forum studs who are taking the Ned Rig to the next level ...On this site -T9 & Bluebasser 86 absolutely rule !! If they don't know the answer to a Ned rig question - it's probably not worth knowing !!

^^This !!^^ ... Exactly what I did for travel - EXTREMELY tough !!

For those of you who bought Ike series rods - do the actions , percentage of tip vs. backbone (i.e. 70% - 30%, 80% - 20% , etc.) appear to match the descriptions Ike states in his videos ?