Ozark_Basser

Anything where you need to take up slack quickly. Bottom contact baits. I use high gears for everything except deep cranking.

Impossible to know for sure. Highly pressured fish in clear water are probably going to be line shy. Some fish are probably smarter than others just like any other species. In reality, if your hooks, weights, and weedguards aren't bothering them, your line won't either.

I like sunline fx2.

The seven footer will cast a little further. It will be a little harder to be accurate close range though. I like seven footers for most applications.

With the above cover you mentioned, it would be hard for me to put a jig or hollow bodied frog son. I'd throw both in the thickest stuff you can find. I wouldn't throw the frog until the warmer got a bit warmer. Like over 55 degrees or so.

I don't meven mess with it enough to notice. I set two brakes on and set the dial to two, then turn the mechanical brake almost completely off. Launches 3/8 oz baits and up on a heavy power rod and will cast the entire spool with 65 lb smackdown with a 3/4 oz trap. Not even kidding.

I believe you are right. From spring through fall, the bite really slows down in this hole and they seem to spread out into the shallower areas and in eddies etc. A good healthy population stay here though. There are a couple of largemouth 4-5 lbs that never leave, and it seems like they have been this size for about three years lol. I'll see them cruising the bluff wall in spring but I've never seen where they make beds. I have caught the four pounder but never the larger one. I've floated the entire river. Well, the parts that are floatable. The upper half goes dry in many places. As for the bottom half, there are only a couple of good deep holes that would seem like suitable wintering holes. The water never freezes over though. The lowest temperature it got this winter was 36 degrees Fahrenheit according to USGS. But I can't buy a bite in any eddies or other "warm water" spots in the winter. In this hole, if I can just get one to bite, I can usually catch quite a few, especially in the winter. I guess I just want to blame it on the floaters, but me hammering it all winter didn't help lol.

1. 3/8 oz Arky Jig in green pumpkin/black 2. RI sweetbeaver in gp for a trailer 3. Spro bronzeye frog in black 4. 3/8 oz War eagle spinnerbait in blue herring 5. 3/8 oz White chatterbait 6. White swimming senko for chatterbait trailer 7. 1/2 oz white swim jig with a a white #4 willow blade on the back 8. SK 1.5 square bill in a shad pattern 9. Brown crawdad wiggle wart 10. Green pumpkin reaper 11. Green pumpkin hula grub 12. Ehrlers edge roboworm

The saying around here goes, "Wind from the East, No good for man or beast" lol. Old timers love saying it.

I bet that 19 incher went four pounds, AJ. Nice fish.

I just used some 1/4" masking tape i had laying around and reeled it on the spool. So far so good. Haven't fished with it yet though.

I don't really see a point in going back. I've only done one build, but I scrutinize every rod I look at now, and instantly find something I'd rather have on it that I could do myself, and most of the time for cheaper. Plus it's fun.

First rule of fight club, you do not talk about fight club lol. I was bank fishing one of my favorite spots on the Little Buffalo River in January. It's on private land so only a few people can access it by car. I know almost all of them and none of them think it's worth their time in the winter. I generally keep it to myself that it's probably the most productive hole on the whole river in winter. They bunch up there and some big ones too. Well one day I was on the bank fishing and a group of floaters came by and one said, " What are you doing man?" He was looking at me like i was crazy with a big jig rod and a hoodie on lol. I cast out my jig and said, "Fishing for smallmouth, man." Wouldn't you know a got a bite right after I said it. I set the hook reeled in a nice 16 incher, and those drunk floaters went crazy lol. They threw their hands in the air and came over, watched me catch a few more decent sized ones and chatted a bit before leaving. Well ever since then, I haven't caught a decent sized smallie out of that hole, and I've seen tons of floaters too every time I go. Hillfolk around here don't practice catch and release.

Put a few strips of tape down and the problem is gone. I guess I'm just used to tying to wiffle spools like on the revos. Never had that problem before. Thanks, Mike from DVT and JGBassin.

Thanks. I'll have to give that a shot.

Nailed it right on the head, Mike. I have been using 65 lb braid with no backing. Lol what have I done?

Just don't get the eye too hot. I hold the hook with a pair of pliers and just rock it over the heat gun about two inches above it without exposing the hook eye to direct heat. In other words, the eye is pointing straigh up, and I pretty much just heat the bottom of the jig. Just barely rock the jig back and forth over the heat about two or so inches above it for three or four seconds. I have my heat gun set to 970 degrees Fahrenheit. Just do a quick dip into the fluid bed. If you didn't get the eye too hot it should have powder around it instead of paint. Sometimes it won't. Either way you're fine. If it still has powder around the eye, just give it a second to let it melt or reheat it a little.

The drag has virtually stopped working. If I tighten it all the way, it works a little, but it takes very little pressure to pull the line out with the spool engaged. Is there anything I can check or do?

That's probably the way I'm going to have to go on some heads styles. I'll give it a shot with arky style heads. It's probably the way to go.

Yours do look good. It's fun and rewarding to catch fish on a jig you made yourself. Post up some more pics if you have any.

Here's one I did not too long ago with biosilk instead of silicone for skirting material. Biosilk acts like living rubber except its way easier to deal with.

But if you do that, you'll have spots on the eye with no paint. That bugs the crap out of me lol. I've found if you don't get the eye too hot it won't fill with paint. I just rotate the head at an angle so the eye doesn't get direct heat. Instead of rotating 180 back and forth on the heat gun I'll just rock it with the eye facing straight up. It's very easy to do with football heads without getting any paint in the eye.

I throw a black frog most of the time, but I do feel like color matters for frogs to some degree. Unless the fish was looking directly up at the frog, it could still see the sides.

I've caught a lot of smallmouth out of streams with red eyes. It always seems like I catch them the most in spring or fall when the water is cooler?

I hear ya. I'm just saying you can get away with a smaller hook and was just giving you a general idea of what is needed for rigging baits the way you are wanting to. If you are just wanting to know hook sizes to fit all of those baits "perfectly", a 3/0 and 4/0 will work fine except for the longer paddletails. A 5" or 6" paddletail will require a 5/0 or 6/0 hook. You don't want to go small on paddletails. With too small of a hook, you might not be able to rig them right and it would mess up the action.