MIbassyaker

huh, interesting. I've never been on Lincoln and I think my mental map must place it farther away than it is. I'm west of 131 and I work in Ottawa Co -- been driving past wide expanses of flooded woodland every day for the past couple weeks.

There's open water in most of the private neighborhood ponds around GR that I have seen, with a little ice here and there. The Grand is too high to get at any of the bayous or gravel pits, which are unfortunately the only public spots i would otherwise have any time to get to mid week. Today would be the day to get out there before the big temp drop and rain (and possible snow) tomorrow. But I think I'll do a scouting trip over the weekend to a few of the smaller lakes with shore access, and see what I can find. I see more rain on the way mon and Tue with another temp drop and possible snow again. Of course, my schedule happens to open up next week right when the second round of weather hits, wouldn't you know it.

I use P-Line CXX, Trilene XT, or Trilene Big Game.

That's the best part about inexpensive jerkbaits -- they still catch bass, but it's much less painful when you get "piked".

Good stuff, Glenn. In my opinion, fishing a plastic worm is the essence --the fundamental, elementary matter-- of bass fishing. Before I learned how to fish a plastic worm, i would catch bass sometimes on all sorts of baits, but it always felt like it was mostly luck. Once I had spent some time learning a texas-rigged worm, my success rate went way up. Fishing a worm teaches patience, concentration, and precision. You learn how to focus on location, how to count depth, how to feel the bottom, how and when to impart action, how to detect strikes, and how to distinguish strikes from cover. And I really believe that becoming proficient at texas rigged-worms (and other plastics) improved my ability to fish every other bait in my tackle box.

I'm having a hard time making sense of the question -- the main reason for lots of rods is that you have lots of different kinds of tackle that require different rods. No? I mean, I have a bunch of crankbaits of different colors, depths, weights, and shapes. I have one dedicated crankbait rod, plus a few other rods that can be used for crankbaits. I could get another cranking rod and make more effective use of some varieties of crankbait (for instance, I could maybe use a longer and heavier cranking rod than what I currently have for deeper runing crankbaits). But I only need that sort of rod if I have the tackle.

I think I might have an unused pack of Power Nightcrawlers, and will probably not use them -- I'll check when I get home and PM if I can find them.

So: 10 hours per day, 3 days a month, assuming 12 months, is 10 x 3 x 12 = 360 hours per year... which is more than twice what I can manage. I do between 30 and 40 short kayak trips from May through September, lasting 3-4 hours each, and an occasional hour or two shore fishing here and there. October through April, work and the seasons conspire to keep me away from the water most of the time.

its not very sexy, but i use 15lb trilene big game for all 3 -- does everything i need it to and the price is right.

I don't have or use casting rods rated that light, but I would consider it simply to avoid accumulating line twist on any light, non-stationary bait that will be cast and retrieved long distances over and over again; Shad Raps are actually a good example along with other small crankbaits and spinnerbaits.

3/8oz black skirt, black blade. This was me 2 years ago. I started bringing one with me tied on everywhere I went, and committed to making it the first thing I threw, and to throwing it longer before giving up for something else. Like magic, I started catching bass. And then I caught some more. And more. And more...

The heddon tiny torpedo in "black Shiner":

I think it would be great for jigs and t-rigs, good for spinnerbaits/buzzbaits/chatterbaits, and adequate for crankbaits.

Seems like anything ought to be better than a walmart bag. What about just throwing them in a duffel or backpack? YOu could sort by type into a few big gallon ziplocs, and just stow the ziplocs in the pack. carry it around wherever it needs to go.

Lipless crankbaits. I have never gotten the hang of the whole "rip them out of the grass" thing...all I get is the hang.

Handful of goodies: (Hey, I got a President's Day sale code in my email...what the heck was I supposed to do?) Bonus: Some new additions to my home library made over the last couple of months:

Not a huge jerkbait user but I've always liked the smithwick rogue and Rapala husky jerk. The KVDs and Berkley cutter I have used the last couple years and are good too, as well as the Ima Flit, which seems quite underrated.

In the last few years, what I've been doing is from May through September I make around 30-40 short kayak trips, usually 3-4 hours on the water in the morning to any of 20 or so regular haunts, small public waters I like to fish within an hour of home. Then, from October through April, I rarely get to fish at all...maybe 5 hours total, an hour here and there from shore, or maybe one last short kayak trip before hanging things up for the season.

If you get parts from Barlows they have a good head for bladed jigs, the "shakee head" -- it's an arky style head with flat eye that has a wide opening for split ring to fit easily, and a longer than usual hook length.

New handle? I have that book -- the first 2/3 reads like an alternate version of the in-fisherman largemouth guide, if you're familiar with that, with standard stuff on bass behavior, seasons, location, lure types. The last 1/3 is the most interesting, as it goes into Babe's own advice on patterns -- the places he'd look for fish, and when, how he'd approach it, and with which techniques.

You can fish any color effectively in any kind of water, but reds are particularly good for visibility in muddy water, and golds and coppers in brownish water.

I wouldn't stress too much about specific colors, but generally if you're in the north and your water is pretty clear, any of the natural colors are a fine place to start. You want some northern baitfish (Perch or any of the "Breams"), and you want some craw colors. Really, anything will do, however.

I want that on a cap...

Helicopter lure.

Only $75 so far this year on gear, just a small order to megastrike and a small handful of lures from a brief stopover at BPS on the way back from Chicago. I'll probably do another purchase for line and terminal tackle as I get closer to May, (I don't get to fish much at all before then), but I haven't really felt the itch recently to do any big purchases for lures or rods/reels. However, i have made some additions to my bass fishing home library for some winter reading. These, plus a few more on the way: I figure that has to count for "getting ready for the season", too.