corn-on-the-rob

Yes sir, just my opinion though and to call it better than other trailers may not be verifiable but I do like it as an option.

I thought I answered it, I must have misunderstood the question. Its effectiveness comes from its action, which is great because of physical properties of the bait that is different than other chatter-bait trailers that I mentioned in my previous post. Basically, due to the design of the bait, though unintentional, the hard vibration can impart a ton of movement on it. If I am missing the mark again, fill me in Edit: I missed your last post. Laminar flow is ideal for a designs intended action I would agree, but turbulent flow does not necessarily mean it would have less action. I also have no reason to believe the blade would cause enough turbulence if at all to effect the bait, I think it more of an issue of blocked/reduced flow over the body of the bait that does not allow it to work effectively. This is where I believe the action a trailer receives is virtually minimal from flow but mostly from the mechanical vibration transmitted through he body of the chatter-bait to the trailer and the ability to utilize these vibrations makes certain baits better than others as trailers for chatter-baits.

Yea I get what you are saying but the way the bait is designed with the cut out sections for freedom of movement allow a very erratic action yet durable when used as a trailer albeit not the same action it was designed for because the chatterbait inhibits the correct flow over the swimbait and imparts its own action into it. Edit: I am talking about the LIVE magic shad design not the boot tail or plain magic shad.

My favorite technique is drop shot and I have been amazed when I catch bass on a subtle action 3'' minnow drop shotting in pretty dirty water. I figured they wouldn't be able to key in on it but they certainly do. But I agree, low-action, low noise finesse is tough to have confidence in dirty water with but it certainly can be effective if you try it.

Basically you are limited by your imagination, find something you think looks cool or think would work and give it a try, it can be a lot of fun especially if you use something unique that works. Now you have a secret chatter/trailer combination and confidence in it.

One of the biggest things I have seen other anglers do is they are fishing shallow and not having much luck but they notice they are marking some fish (maybe not a ton but some) and wonder why they aren't biting. Fish marked below the boat is just that, and doesn't mean they are also shallow. So if you mark fish under you, back off and make longer casts to fish both depths or just back off and fish where you marked them. It can change a slow day to a great one.

I always use a trailer but I like to take the skirt off and just use a trailer most in open water scenarios or rocky areas because I feel like with weeds/wood the skirt helps it come through better. But as a side note I will always use a skirt in muddy or heavily stained water no matter what for maximum water displacement and vibration.

Yea not a lot of people seem to use it. I like to use skirts when I want a larger profile and not when I want it smaller.

LFT magic shad any paddle tail any beaver my secret one... make a tube solid by filling the body with a cut stick bait then thread it on, looks AMAZING try it out

A shad colored crank bait or anything for that matter is close enough in resemblance to a minnow/chub/shiner that I am sure it doesn't matter to a bass. When a bass is reacting: OOO FOOD! CHASE! EAT!, WAIT NOPE! THERE ARE NO SILVER COLORED FISH HERE, NOT GONNA EAT, is just not gonna happen. You definitely are being hypercritical of color/realistic representation. We throw worms and lizards which in most cases represent a near negligible percentage of a bass's diet but have been successful for years. A tube is a bait that vaguely imitates a craw but can be easily construed as a minnow. A spinner bait is also pretty ambiguous. The list goes on... At times a very realistic presentation (matching size/color/action) to the lakes natural forage can be the way to go but people consistently catch fish on not only off colored representations, but absurdly colored ones. Matching colors/action/size can convince a bite just as much as not matching those factors can cause one. Some times bass like a 3 inch shad colored bait darting naturally, sometimes they want a 10 inch curl tail worm that is half-pink, half-zebra with a chartreuse dipped tail being ripped so fast off the bottom your arms hurt, and most of the times.... they will eat both.

University of Akron in Ohio

I was confused lol, I thought you were talking about the championship (not until April for last years series), this was just a division qualifier for the southern conference. This was the first event of this years college fishing season. I LOVE that they started not capping the field at 50 this year. My qualifiers don't start until may, july, and august for the northern division but I am excited. the way flw college series works is: 3 - single day Division Qualifiers (you can attend 1 or all 3, you just need to make top 15 at ONE of them to move on to the Conference Championship ) 1 - two day Conference Championship (need to make top 10 to move on to championship) 1 - three day National championship (winners get entry into forest wood cup) Last year was my first year fishing this series and it is awesome. They really do put on a great tournament.

One thing I find really helps is finding the stats on previous tournaments DURING that time of year. I basically look at the weights for the top 10 and make sure I am on or targeting fish of that size. You could be on a ton of fish during practice and know spots but if they aren't in the size range of a good finish you are essentially setting yourself up for failure. But, if you aren't looking for a high finish which may be possible if your goal is ensuring enough points in standings or in your case a first tournament goal might be to weigh in 5 fish even if they aren't winning caliber.

I use a small diameter mono to back my braid and use just enough to put a thin layer so I know it wont slip. This way I can load as much braid as possible while still having a thin yet sufficient backing. Unlike some of the others, I do this because if I start a season and have backing + 100yds braid, and during the season from breaks and reties I lose 25yds of length, I can most certainly use the same backing and braid next season with 75yds left. But if I start with 75yds, and go through 25yds, I am left with 50yds for next season in which I would have to re-spool. So instead of spooling 4 rods for one season I can do 3 rods for two seasons.

It is nice to hear someone else say this. It is one of the things where people hear/say something for so long that they believe it to be fact, or heard it from someone and and trusted the info was true because the logic is actually convincing (and it does sound like it). You also left out one of the most important factors, user error. If someone missed 30% of their bites/landings on mono, and after switching then misses 30% on braid without knowing the actual numbers, they might attribute those missed fish to the braid because when trying new things failures stand out more than successes and will then assume braid was the problem. I will say that switching to mono from braid IS different and may take a little practice to adjust to those differences. I am not saying braid is definitively better than mono on moving baits, but I will say it is not worse when it comes to hook-up/landing. Although, the sensitivity with braid on moving baits is (IMHO) virtually unbeatable. I run braid on all my set ups after using mono my entire life and wish I had done it way sooner though it may not be for everyone. I also use FC leaders on all set ups I need/want to. Win, win.

sufix 832 The only thing with 832 is that when it is new it is slightly stiff due to the coating but that goes away after a couple hours of use. The stiffness for the first little bit doesn't cause me issues but have heard of people dismissing 832 because they didn't break it in. I have a ton of trouble seeing any of the green/camo/low-vis lines while on the water at times and line watching is crucial for me so I use the hi-vis yellow on everything.

I use Berkley Trilene 100% professional grade. I liked it better than the sufix FC.

Some of the numbers you guys are saying are insane (200, 300)... I can't imagine actually fishing that much even though I would if I could. It is awesome that you do but the sheer amount is hard for me to fathom. I fish from late march to early November and go once a week most of the time but maybe twice a week a third of the time. So likely between 30-40 trips. These are all trips I consider to be a minimum of 5 hours of fishing upwards of 12 depending on the outing so an hour of pond fishing up the street probably add another 10.

Obviously there is a lot of technique and knowledge (location, depth, speed, color, time of day etc.) that goes into trolling but to me, especially in a tournament scenario, It is about each angler having direct contact and personally imparting action to their presentations in order to catch more/bigger bass than other competitors. You can also argue that there is a lot of gray area because there is, but I like the way it is.

some people are confusing each technique so for clarity: Flipping = having a set amount of line out then using your hand to grab the line to raise and lower the bait in and out of the water (not engaging the reel) Pitching = an abbreviated version of a cast (you actually disengage/engage your spool to make shorter accurate casts) I cast about 60% of the time because I want to stay way off and work more water I pitch 35% of the time when I am in range to do so because I am more accurate than casting this way The rest is flipping, I do it, just not nearly as much as the others.

When I started tournament fishing last year in small club tournaments I got so excited/anxious that I would change the way I fish. I would be working baits way too fast or throwing a bait for too long before switching. The worse was losing fish when the lakes we were fishing, 2 to 3 small fish would be a high finish (top 3). I normally play my fish and am careful and methodical when landing with great success but in the tournament the instant I hooked up I would go into panic mode and try to get the fish in too fast which resulted in lost fish which was devastating when you got between 0 to 3 bites in the tournament. I got much better after getting a few tournaments under my belt but it taught me, be patient, do what you know, and trust your instincts. In one of the tournaments it was late in the day and I had one fish in the live-well. I hooked once but the fish jumped and threw it (not my fault this time). Then with about 20 minutes to go to my surprise I got another bite, I set the hook and start horsing it in, it is only about 1.75lb but good for the tournament. It happened so fast that my co-angler had no chance to be ready to net so I start swinging the fish in the boat... then in my head I tell myself, "NO THIS IS A TOURNAMENT DON'T SWING FISH", so I didn't... but it was too late... WHAM. I already started swinging the fish and in trying to tell myself not to swing I did a half-swing, which resulted in the fish smacking the side of the boat not even close to being in and away she goes. With that small fish I would have been in the top 3 easy. There is obviously a lesson in there but I have a good laugh about all the things I have been not so intelligent about and there was a ton of those this year.

I may have to try that. My issues with gloves are warm/waterproof ones are too thick and impede contact and gloves that don't impede are not warm or waterproof lol. The golf gloves sound like it might be cool to try.

I hate to be this guy sam... Although a head cover is important to keeping warm and feeling comfortable, that statement is one that has been said for a very long time but merits no scientific backing, an old wives tale if you must. Your head does not lose heat in larger amounts or faster than any other part of your body of equal surface area. I think the origin was from a very poorly done "study" by (maybe the army? a long time ago, don't quote me on that) and they started spreading that information as fact. Our faces are also very sensitive compared to most other places on our bodies which makes it feel as if we are losing more heat at times. hat/pants hat/coat coat/pants If you had the choice of only two of the three items in very cold weather (assuming they kept that body part sufficiently warm), your chances of survival would be best picking the coat/pants every time.

Well obviously you lose heat through exposed skin but it is mostly about surface area, the less exposed, the less heat lost, although cold finger tips will make the near by tissue under even if covered colder. Which I agree many times your hands are cold but not quite as much as no gloves at all. So I will take slightly warmer palms/base of fingers/back of hand than no gloves at all especially because I refuse to wear thick gloves that severely impede my ability to keep sensitive contact with my rod/reel.

30 to 45 degrees: Legs -Gander mountain winter base layers pants -Silk pajama pants under or over the base layer (thin but very warm when used as an inner layer) -Then sweat pants or jeans -And finally, rain-gear pants (shell) Feet -Thick wool socks paired with water proof boots (cheap rubbers is all it takes, socks keep them warm, rubber keeps wind off and feet dry) Upper Body -2 Gander mountain winter base layers -Thin long sleeve short -Fleece hoodie -Columbia fleecejacket -Rain-gear shell Head -beanie Hands -fingerless or high grip gloves if not raining -no gloves if raining for significant period of time -I picked up a hand warmer that straps around my waist from NFL shop (browns logo/colors) that I can tuck my hands in when I want, I used it this winter and it is awesome All in all many layers but easily removed if too warm.