jomatty

i havent used wire but i often will tie my skirts with braided line when i want them to be extra poofy

give me some green pumpkin variety and something like black/blue or junebug and im all set for pretty much any situation

although i sometimes use a doubled through uni i generally just use a palomar. i think the most important thing is to make sure your line is really wet and slobbery before you cinch the knot. the lighter the line the more important it becomes to have really wet line and to cinch it down really slowly and gradually. if the moisture isnt there the line heats up and weakens the floro line and it will break at the knot very easily. matt

saw the owner hooks with the screw on the top today at dicks. they appear to be a really good idea and im curious if anyone has used them yet. picked up a few packs. im especially excited to try senkos on the straight shanked ones. i prefer straight shanked hooks but hate the hassle, these could be the ticket. also the ones with the screw that is set up like a keeper look like they might be great frog hooks. those were the two techniques that jumped out at me anyways. matt

i know i certainly work a spot more thoroughly from the bank. if im in a boat it is too easy to keep moving and hitting good looking spots but in my experience they are not as easy to come by on the bank.

some friends i made float the james river in float tubes. ive always kinda wanted one and this seems to be my excuse to do so. the problem is that i dont know what option is best. these guys just use round tubes and havent really looked into any other options. i would like to get a pontoon or u boat but am not sure it would work well in the river (although i think it would be better if i went to a lake or pond). the issue is that they say they spend a lot of time standing in the shallow water.in a round tube obviously the tube will just be around them. im not too familiar with u or pontoon stlye boats but it seems to me that it will be difficult to get out of them repeatedly and that once i did so it would be difficult to keep the boat with me. is this true? is all this adding up to a round tube being best for river fishing, or is there something that i am overlooking. does anyone here use a float tube in a river? if so any advice would be very appreciated. matt

the way i get max depth is to crank it fast until it gets down to the depth you want and then you can go slow or fast depending on what the fish are telling you. i almost always crank it down at a fast speed and then slow down dramatically

i think you are selling yourself short by using only indianna blades, or only any one kind for that matter. my favorite combination is double willow, but i also like small colorado big willow, and single colorodo. for me it is all about the water clarity. if the water is clear i like a double willow. if it gets a tad of color i go for a col/willow combination. as it takes on more color i move to indiana and finally to colorado if it is muddy or for night time fishing. i havent given the oklahoma blade enough of a chance but they certainly do thump well and they may be taking over some of the indiana and colorados terrritory. obviously there is no right and wrong in fishing and so much has to do with confidence. for whatever reason i have the most confidence in double willow and you obviously with indiana. imho i think we would both be making a mistake to use them exclusively. whatever works for you though is...well is what works for you matt

although ive caught many more fish on the zoom worms than anything else they are not currently my fav. roboworm makes some great worms, and the action of the 3x is incredible. the skinny senko is also good. matt

ive used the booyah swim jigs but unless im swimming them in very heavy vegetation i kinda like just a ball head skirted jig with a single tailed grub. if im fishing it right on the surface then ill go to something like th booyah triangle head, but usually im swimming them subsurface and pumping my rod some to give it action. matt

ive always wondered about pork trailors. why exactly is that not considered live bait? i know it would be crazy for some tour to try to ban the beloved pig in the pig n jig but dont really understand the theoretical difference.

when i use pork i always rig it flat side up as well and when i use a plastic chunk i do the same, although i rig the craw or paca style the opposite way. im curious if anyone thinks it makes any difference really with plastic chunks, although my guess is that it does not really

here are the things i would get first off. 5 inch senkos (green pumpkin, and black blue) 1/0 circle hooks 4/0 ewg owner hooks (or gammy, x point, anything decent) 1/8 oz ballhead jigs (make sure they have a quality hook) straight tailed worm (zoom finesse or trick or something similar in same colors as senkos)] yamamoto single tailed grubs (you can save some money and get zoom fat alberts and be fine) this is all you need to catch fish in almost all situations. you might add some spinnerbaits (small colorado and large willowleaf in chart/white) as well. a topwater like a popper of some sort might be good as well, although you certainly dont need it. you can fish the senkos weightless or on the jigheads, fish the straight tailed worm on jigheads or weithless, and fish the grubs on jigheads both like a jig on the bottom or with a straight swimming retreive. these lures will have you all set for largemouth as well as smallies.

get a 3/8 oz black n blue jig and keep it wet. that was the biggest thing for me learning to fish jigs. when i started learning i never got bit and didnt give them enough of a chance. you wont get the constant action you will with senkos or something similar but you will catch more quality fish. get some single tailed grubs and some chunk style trailers. work it much like you would a plastic worm will small hops and drags. pay special attention to how heavy the jig feels and what the bottom feels like. most importantly, stay with it. fish only a jig for a few outings. once you catch a few your confidence will go up and like always thats a big part of it. matt

if you are just getting in to these kind of lures get a sammy they are so easy to walk it will make it easy to learn

when fishing a chunk on a jig which side do you put up. one side is flat and one side has an ridge.. i actually do it two different ways depending on if im using a paca style or traditional style. i do this basically because that is the way i rigged pork chunks when i started but the paca style chunks have eyes that i face up for no real reason. ive accidentally rigged them the oposite way and caught fish just fine but am curious if it matters or if you guys always do it one way or the other this may make no sense to anyone but im havign a hard time explaining what i mean. matt

that is the one reason that i like lucky craft. the baits look great and all but that dosent justify the expense to me. not having to spend a lot of time on the water with needle nosed pliers adjusting and readjusting is where they earn their keep in my book.

gatorade (fruit punch flavor) and a few cliff bars are good for me. sometimes my wife packs a real lunch and that is always nice, although sometimes i struggle to find a good time to eat it (it always gets disposed of somehow before i get home, or that would be the last lunch i get packed for me)

radiob, i think you will find that while it is true that many people on the forum do not use live bait, very few have any problem with those that do. have fun and dont feel apologetic for going out and having fun catching fish, regardless of how you do so. i found that my biggest problem was not giving lures enough of a chance to work for me. i became obsessed with fishing and wanted to learn all i could about everything. everytime i saw someone win a tournament on some lure i had to go get some. the end result was i spent a lot of time rotating through rods and tying on new baits, unless i was lucky enough to get bit while during the rare times my bait was in the water. i started to feel like i was never gonna catch fish. id tie something on and after a few casts get this feeling like "there is no way this is gonna work". needless to say that is not gonna work. i am happy that i still have a junky style if needed but i now have certain techniques that i exhaust before i start trying something new. the baits i have confidence in continue to produce, and although others have done well for me at times, those times are honestly the times i could catch em on my confidence lures as well. this is more about me because i know you are a lot further along in your fishing than i was when i had these problems but thought id share. matt

i live in a townhouse and there is a pool in the community that i live in. even better than the knowledge ive gained is the fact that the neighbors think im totally nuts. between that and practicing my pitching in the yard they think im friggin nuts. the best is when they invariably say "have you caught anything (chuckling)" and i respond with the straightest face youve ever seen "not yet but with the low pressure system coming in the fishing should pick up later on". some of them get it and others think maybe i really am touched.

carolina rigged ive fallen in love with the 3x lizards. the way they slowly float up off the bottom and then swim down when you move the bait is incredible. that is about the only way i use lizards is on the c rig. matt

i think line watching is crucial when fishing soft plastics. i had a very difficult time with senkos and fat ikas until i realized how imperative it was to watch the line. i also watch the line closely when fishing jigs, although the feel factor is much more important there and it is not as important for me. with other baits i find it less important.

youll have a hard time getting the jig n pig out of my hand in this scenario. it is one of the rare times when i will often go to real pork as well. sometimes when things are really nasty ill go to a hair jig with real pork. that is my "oh man its tough set up". im not an especially talented winter fishermen however so take this with a grain of salt.

i asked the proffessor that same question and he answered that he usually goes big in the winter. he said usually so obviously there is room for both presentations. check the ask the professor forum for his full answer. matt

i hope the story involves you catching it.