RNSkeeter

Spro frogs are worse than others in my opinion. All my spros take on water like you describe. Compared to a paycheck, or my spittin wa which never does. When I first fished it I thought something was wrong, and surely no one would put up with that kind of hassle. But yeah, they sell them like that.

You are right, it's not just 'doing' something. I was talking about pursuing it with dedication, passion, and excellence. We ALL cook and eat, but we don't all pursue it with excellence to be the best battali dish maker ever. And of course start ups fail, but that doesn't make the pursuit of one a failure right? My point was that pursuing something with the focus to be the best is something people will notice and it will open doors of further opportunity. That's the part that I've observed happening over and over again. I have friends who have failed at startups twice, then on the third try a company saw what they could do and bought the company just to have them work there. And all that was about a 5 year pursuit that resulted in an entirely new path for them. It was about making a path for yourself in life, and that it can be done with just about anything.

School or no school, plan or no plan. I'm only 36 but one thing I found out is you can turn pretty much anything into a living or a path if you have a passion for it, work really hard at it, and do it for about 5 years straight. Just think about it like that. 5 years and you're usually considered intermediate or an expert at something. Usually people will pay you for whatever expertise that is if it's valuable to them because they can't do it. For instance you could start making lures. 5 years of dedicated passion, work, and focus and you'll make a high enough quality product people will want it and pay you for it. Or take something random like power washing. In 5 years you can learn enough about it to start your own small business, work for yourself and make a living. Just focus on quality and have passion for being the best - people will always notice and it will open doors. You can apply that to just about anything you happen to fall across in life. After I figured that out, I don't really worry about my future.

An easier way to test this out is a bullet weight with a rubber grip. Just remember to wrap the line around the weight once to ensure it stays in place. You can easily add or remove it at will without the c-rig setup. This let's you fish it shallow or deep quickly if you're still searching for the bite.

When you are catching these fish, do you KNOW they are down there when you're fishing for them? IE do you find 'em on the sonar? Or do you KNOW the spot has big fish, and you just happen to hit a DD on that particular day? Just wondering to what level of specific intention are you fishing for a DD and do you think it requires specifically fishing for them to get 'em.

CAST... Huh, why didn't I get bit on that? CAST... Ok, now why didn't THAT get bit CAST.... I don't understand bass, why didn't that get a huge explosion? CAST... Perfect spot!! I'm awesome! What?!?! Why didn't that get crushed? CAST.... OK, if there was ever a time to get bit, it was on THAT! CAST... Great.... a dink. :/

I live in California, so i guess I'll still fishing in the winter, sorry guys. I watch enough videos during weeknights just waiting for the weekends. I can't imagine how crazy I'd go all winter! This winter I want to learn lip-less cranks, jerk baits, and swim jigs.

I think I definitely would go for a few of the higher priced, better quality rods in my arsenal if I could. Earlier this year I realized that the biggest impact to improve my fishing would be to have MORE rods, than fewer higher QUALITY rods. Right now I'm trying to get better at patterning the fish, and quickly switching tactics and colors with more rods would have the biggest impact for me. So far I've got about 10 rods I rig up and bring with me so I'm starting to get there - now I just need to learn how to use them effectively to figure the fish out! I have a feeling after a year or so of learning to pattern better, I can start looking to upgrade a few select poles with my money.

Have you ever tried / heard of rod butt weights? A guide I went with in Florida showed me a butt cap with some washers in it that he swore balanced out his rod and saved his wrists and tendinitis. I've heard the balance issue talked about a lot on forums, and I'm wondering if some of these folks thought of that when a good rod was out of balance. I've been meaning to try it myself lately since I have a rod or two thats a bit tip heavy.

I don't know if my experience applies, maybe someone else can chime in. But I recently bought an Okuma Concept 7' MH/F rod at a steal - about $70. Never tried an Okuma before and didn't know much about them. Noticed right off the bat it was light, but also significantly thinner than my Crucial with the same size and specs. Initially I intended to pitch medium sized jigs with it. Right away I noticed it was way too bendy. I think it's power or taper rating is overrated. So be careful, could be a trait of the brand, maybe purchase a higher power rating if you need it stiff with backbone for heavy fishing. Really light when paired with my Lews tournament though.

I'm an owner of mostly mid-priced rods. Which I consider about $150 or so. Has anyone owned and used both really expensive ($300-$600) rods as well as mid priced rods and can compare them on sensitivity? Are they 2-3x as sensitive? I'm not talking about build quality or lightness, just raw fish bite detection. I'm really looking for an unbiased judgement. I realize there's a ton of good reasons pay for the pricier gear beyond sensitivity, I'm just trying to gauge for myself if I should pay 2x+ the price for my worm/jig/flip rods where I want sensitivity to catch more fish. Owners of the pricier rods, would you deem them essential for yourself and your fishing performance, or a nice-to-be-able-to-afford-quality kind of thing?

What's that metal piece before the hook and after the skirt?

Like most things it depends on the fish's attitude. Adding a trailer does a few things - a: it adds bulk to the bait, so it's has a bigger profile, b: it adds more visible action and vibration to the bait. So for instance in muddy water with active fish, you might want a bigger vibration profile, and so adding a trailer will add that extra flutter. Or if you want to target larger fish with a bigger sized bait, or you need to slow the fall of the spinner bait down, then adding bulk with a trailer will do the trick. You might start with it naked first, and if you find your catching fish on a spinner bait as a pattern, then you might try the trailer depending on when and how they are hitting the bait.

I've been fishing the 55 in yellow head for most of the summer. Caught a lot of bass up to 5 on it. Takes on some water, and you have to squeeze it on occasion though.

I would second the rattle, and a better trailer. That chunk has almost no secondary action imo and creating a bigger sound profile in muddy waters is better. The D&M Flipping craw style carries adds the legs and antenna which add more noise and bulk to slow the fall and give the bass more time to target it. For more active days, something with curved antenna like GrandeBass claws give additional secondary flutter during the fall, or your pop-up.

So what's the deal with these hyper realistic craw baits? They've been around forever - though the newer baits are really good at it. I figure if realism was really the way to go they would have overtaken typical jig n craw/creature baits a long time ago but they still seem like a niche bait. Why is that? Why isn't the most realistic craw imitator possible also the best trailer for flippin' or draggin' on the rocks? The Swimbait market seems to favor hyper realism for success in catching fish, but not craws?