Shockwave

Already done!! Replaced the arky head I lost and bought a brush jig pack!

I got out for a good evening fish last night and can finally say that I made progress catching bass on a jig. I decided to fish a jig and ONLY a jig and I can truly say that if you don't have confidence in a lure, that's the way to gain confidence. I will admit that I had a t-rigged rage craw tied on as well for the times when confidence got really low and I needed a break. It was already a hard day of fishing because of a cold front that moved in and dropped temps a good 10-15 degrees while the wind picked up to 15-20 mph gusts but I managed to catch two bass on the jig. The first was on a 3/8 oz. black and blue Siebert Outdoors dredge arky head/Rage Chunk combo that I skipped under a dock. A lil dink decided that he had high hopes so he slammed it as hard as a lil dink could. That was after a good hour and a half of no action whatsoever! The second one is a rather depressing story. I threw the same jig combo right up next to a thick lay down and right away a toad of a bass slammed it. At the time, I didn't really know how big he was because he was swimming towards me. I got him to the boat and instead of reaching down to grab him by the lip, I tried to flip him into the boat. I finally got to see how big he was when I got him about 3 inches outta the water and he was a TOAD!! It was at that exact moment that he fought one last time and the line snapped. Not only did he get away but he got away with my jig in his mouth. I definitely wasn't happy about losing the jig but I felt really bad about the fish having to live with a big ol jig hanging out of his mouth. Hopefully someone else catches him soon and is rewarded with a free jig and relieves the fish of having to live with my mistake.

I'm in need of a decent fishing report or two for southeastern WI. Lake link has way more folks b*tchin and moaning than providing fishing reports so I no longer peruse that waste of time. What other more reliable resouces are out there for fishing reports in this area?

I agree with this. I fished a suspending jerkbait on braid with a 40# test flouro leader and the pike in Sturgeon Bay annihilated it! The heavier leader gave the jerkbait a slow fall that the pike apparently fell in love with that day! I ended up swapping out the leader every 3rd fish but it was well worth it.

Really?? I've never tried eating one or heard of anyone else frying em up.

Agreed, it does sound like carp. Carp are fun to watch when surface feeding but they're quite annoying (at least for me) because when they're feeding like that, there's usually such a large number of them that other species tend to move out of the area. When I see carp doing this, I move on to another area.

Congrats!! Sounds like the wife is a keeper!! Does she fish as well? If not, it's a perfect opportunity to get her out on the water and make her one of your favorite co-anglers!

Yep, I've seen that quite a bit fishing in northern Wisconsin. I'll be panfishing and see perch or bluegill following my bait only to have a musky take advantage of their diverted attention and grab a quick meal! It's definitely cool to see!

Welcome from another 'sconnsinite!! Slonezp, I LOVE that plate!!!

That is definitely a hard one to learn and you'll have to relearn it every year (at least I do up here in Wisconsin where we can't frog fish year round). I just had a learning session last Thursday where I missed two on a bronzeye frog and ended up getting skunked for the day. I second going with a rod with more backbone. I use a 7'3" Heavy Duckett Ghost with 65# Suffix braid and don't have a problem bringing the meat in with the salad.....AFTER I relearn to wait a second after I see the strike.

Cool. Now, I'm on the fence between either a Lund or a Yar Craft 209 tfx. I looked at one this past weekend and it was a gorgeous boat. I was sold on a Lund until I looked at that boat!

Good to know. I'm considering trading in my 97 Skeeter Fish and Ski for a Lund Explorer Sport. I'm just concerned about how much accessibility I'll have to spawning flats with a boat that size.

LMAO!!! I ain't gonna lie, I was thinking the SAME thing!!!

How do you like the Lund for bassin purposes? I have a 97 Skeeter and am seriously considering upgrading to a newer Lund. I'm wondering what the pros/cons would be to switching.

My first baitcasting rig was a Daiwa Exceler on a 7' MF Quantum Tour Tactical rod. I still use that rod with 15# copolymer. The reel was about $70, the rod was about $80. Definitely a decent combo that was good to learn on. Hope this helps.

I've done well with a simple crappie minnow on a hook under a slip bobber.

I've tried playing around with a couple. Fishidy is on my phone right now but I never actually use it when I'm on the water. I usually find myself playing around with it when i'm killing some time in a waiting room or something like that. I haven't found anything that I would even remotely consider a worthwhile tool.

Yeah, I think the ML combo I bought is going to see Ned rig duties and the M combo will see some dropshot work.

Good read and nice job!

Water Temp: 62ish Water Clarity: 3-6ft Weeds: Various pondweeds Fishing Depth: mostly <10ft Most of my Bass have been caught on T-rigs and squarebills. Tried getting to deeper bass using deep diving jerkbaits but the Northern Pike jump all over them (good problem to have). I'm going to see what kinda damage I can do with lipless crankbaits this evening but I'll always have a T-rigged Rage Craw on standby.

I also have a couple Thermacells and swear by them! I refuse to climb into a treestand in September without one! If they could figure out a way to repel ticks as well, they would be the best thing since bacon!!

Wow! Yeah, the sale on the link I posted must be over. The link that is posted above is only 10 bucks more than the sale price that I had posted and still looks to be a decent combo.

Am I the only one thinking shakey head and trick worm here?

Btw, I don't use a fluoro leader either. I use a Carolina keeper on copolymer.

Kinda depends on what's on the lake floor. If it's pretty weedy, you'll want a longer leader (I use 2 1/2 to 3 feet of leader) so the bait will sit on top of the weeds. If it's a sandy bottom, you can use a shorter one (16 inches or so). Hope this helps.