Ozark_Basser

That...is one fat frog.....and he looks ticked.

I got the 120 when they first came out. It pretty much was a nightmare of a reel. Looked sweet though.

Moving baits. Here's how I would go about it if I were in your situation. Clear water high skies open water with little cover - jerkbait or spook Clear water high skies lots of cover - swimjig Slightly stained water or clear water on overcast or windy days - square bill, lipless crank, or spinnerbait Any water with lots of rock - square bill Really stained water - square bill, lipless crank, or chatterbait

Does fluoro return to its original shape after it has been stretched though? Mono seems to be a lot more elastic.

I don't get bit a whole lot fishing spinnerbaits in open water on a steady retrieve unless it's pretty windy. My best bet is to bang them off of cover. One thing I like to do is give the rod complete slack during the retrieve. This causes the spinnerbait to drop straight down instead of gliding down at an angle like when you just stop reeling. I don't hold the rod tip straight in front of me but more to the side. I usually keep the spinnerbait pretty close to the surface also. While burning it I I'll abruptly stop reeling and quickly move the rod tip towards the bait giving it complete slack then pull it back tight after it fell straight down 6 inches or so. I'll do it a few times during a retrieve. It gets them to react a lot better than a stop and go just with your reel.

I plan on doing it in late June or early July, so depending on water levels, it could be anywhere from 3-4 days. Should be fun.

I've fished them here and there along with a Texas rig, but I've never really had a reason to fish any other bottom contact bait other than a jig or shakey head. We have very little grass around here. It can only be found in ponds. Same goes for lily pads. I've recently gained access to a good size pond that is probably 40 % lily pads. I have yet to find a better approach to probing those pads than a t rig senko or other slender baits like brush hogs and worms. The frog bite is okay so far. I expect it to get better as it warms up. I fished that senko (really it's made by yum) on a 4/0 owner ewg with a 3/8 oz slip sinker on 65# braid with a 16# sniper fc leader and a stout rod. I'm glad I had that beefy tackle or he would have owned me in those pads, probably could have gotten away with a little less stout of tackle though.

It's been a good while for me as well. Hopefully break it again this summer when I float Rush to Buffalo City.

Sure. I'm open to suggestions.

Nevermind. I found them. Must have missed them.

Lol I feel your pain. I tried to skip a frog up under a nasty mess of branches today and it skipped up into the branch. While I was trying to pull it out a 1 lber came up and tried to grab it and missed. I also watched one come up and slowly grab my frog, while it was sitting still, by the legs and slowly swim away with it. That cold front that came through last night must have jacked those fish up.

I've been eyeing those deps frogs for a while. They look sweet.

I didn't see any mhx swimbait rods on mudhole, at least not in their high modulous. Where do you order them from? I have found that big bait rods can be pretty far off on the upper end of the lure rating. Also NFC has a lot of rods out whack on their ratings. If you check out their spec sheet, you'll see what I mean, lots of inconsistencies.

It's a custom build I did myself. North Fork Composites HM 709 is the blank. The components are pretty much all from Alps except for the guides are Fuji.

Green Trout, you just said you typically catch fish in those spots. You use a texas rig a lot, right? What makes you think a jig couldn't work? The truth is just about every bait could work in that situation. You just have to find out which one will work for you at any given time. There are no set rules. Just use a little common sense and go with your gut. You'll find out what works for you, and you'll develop your own style in the process.

Did he make any swimbait rods before he sold out to Shimano in 97? Either way, I just wanted something I could possibly research and compare it to. I'd hate to spend that kind of money and do all that work for a rod that can't handle all the baits I want it to.

I saw that episode. That river did look pretty sweet. They also did an episode on my home water on Crooked Creek. They didn't do so hot though.

Nice looking fish. I had a buddy who lived in Spokane for a while. He was more into snowboarding than fishing though. He did show me some nice trout he caught out of one of the rivers near it. He said you couldn't keep them due to the high mercury content.

Nice!

I've thought about doing this on my own 6 cylinder. I'm interested as well.

I'd start with any shoreline or shallow cover. They've been known to hold up in deeper grass as well.

War Eagle makes a very thin wire on theirs. You have to tweak it a lot, but it has been the best producer for me.

I disagree with this. There are certain times when a search bait will tell you a whole lot about what's going on underneath the water. With a moving bait, you can cover a lot more water and not only search for fish but structure changes and cover as well. All in about a tenth of the time it would take you to probe the whole thing with a shakey head etc. Even if they don't commit to what you are throwing, a lot of times you can get boils or get them to swipe at it. This is especially true when the water is a bit colder and a lot of fish will bunch up in certain parts of the lake. You can go where you think they will be, and you might be right, but you're going to save a lot of time if you were wrong and probably learn more about the body of water with a search bait. With every new body of water I go to, I always start with a search bait.

I think you're missing the point. There is no perfect condition for a crankbait. Where there is fish, a crankbait is going to be close to the top of anybody's list of an effective bait. Gin clear water is about the only time I think it's not quite as effective, but it can still work well. Just make sure it's deflecting off of the bottom or cover.

Just wondering how true it is to its lure rating. I'll pretty much just be throwing 8" hudds and spro rats on it. Will probably end up throwing some more stuff, but the hudd is about as heavy as I can think of right now.