Cgolf

One other thing I have found is that I catch a ton of fish on my ugly sticks. I have a few 100$ sticks, but the ugly stick stays in the truck all season so I can stop and hit some shore spots on the way to and from work. Not saying the expensive sticks aren't great, but some cheap solid products are out there. Saying that I bought some cheap graphite rods once and had the tips break on the cast, so I have tried to stick with uglies for budget fishing.

With a kid in college now, I am really watching and waiting for sales. I also got lucky with Coke rewards, I have been saving points there for a while now and they are offering Walmart gift cards as rewards so I am getting them to replace the ancient line on some of my reels and will get some tackle with the left over proceeds. The biggest thing I did was look at the gear I have and decided what I really needed for next year and am trying to keep my expenditures to just those items. Impulse buying has got me in the past, and a lot of times I have found those baits that I had to have are sitting in a box and were never used.

I will admit that TW got me hook line and sinker, but I do frequent a couple of smaller soft plastic sites, one before I was on this site and another that has ties to my favorite swim jigs that I got my first order for Christmas. Other then that, Slider gets an order whenever I lose enough jigs and need to restock. For small stuff and one off buys I still try to use the two local baitshops we have to do my part in keeping them around. Have not found another site that gives me one stop shopping. If my jig fishing takes off this year, fishing skirts website could get a chunk from me over the winter.

The part that I struggled with was the take on slack line. By the time I felt it, and changed the next sweep into a hook set they spit it. I don't want to always aggressively pop it in case there is a fish there, because the more subtle retrieve got me the bite, so how do you hook up with those fish? or do you just expect to lose more fish with this presentation?

But they do, the 10% gift card and 25 days sale. They got some of my money for both sales.

The two exceptions I can think of are perch and pumpkinseeds, they got lots of colors going on and tossing in a different trailer color would be helpful there. Generally I have matched the trailer to the main color in the skirt. Like others I am going to try some oddballs combos this year including an electric blue jig.

Maybe it is my fishing style that steers me to other brands, my T rig staples are Kalins grubs, BPS tender tubes or any cheap tube generally works, and netbait and zoom finesse worms and slim shakes and swamp crawlers. On jigs I went with a Paca craw selection. I do have some chigger craws, one pack of the crazy legs version that I will have to give a toss this season and see how they work. I do have a bunch of old power bait shaky worms that I have done decent with, but I don't think you can get them anymore. Probably end up kicking myself for not stocking up on the pit boss with the sale, but live and learn. Also with the above baits Berkley is the more expensive choice, vs the brands listed. The grubs may be the exception, but kalins just work too good for me. I had some success with the twitchtail minnow on a jig head river fishing for smallies, but before I go crazy with them I want a little more time on the water to confirm it wasn't a fluke.

I have never made it to the Memorial Day sale, I have been very weak in the past lol. The only sale I have ever made is the 25 days and gift card which then burn a hole in my pocket. This year I had my wife hide the gift cards on me to protect me from the call of the bait monkey! Just hoping nobody releases anything cool before the opener that I must have, last year the Lewis echo called to me and just made me put an order in:)

I have been on the fence with this bait for a while now and just can't pull the trigger on it, not sure why. Some of it is I have a lot of jig trailers and want to put money elsewhere, but I should pick up at least a pack for next year.

And all the guys knockin the 25 days sale this year get added to the naughty list too;)

Back in the day I used Berkley soft plastics, but now I have found that I really don't have any interest in any of their products. For the 25 day sale I had 1 pack of twitchtail minnows in my cart, but I ended up removing them. generally I have found other brands that I like better, either because they are cheaper or at least in my eyes have a better product. What am I missing? Has Berkley stopped being innovative, or are there just too many options out there now?

First one that I know of is Memorial Day. I am in the same situation, I split a 25 days order with my father in law and now I am waiting for the Memorial Day sale.

I have had really good luck with the Strike King bleeding bait series. I did have to replace a ball bearing swivel on one, but this was after 30 or 40 fish. The fish to money spent on these is pretty good.

Rapala shadow rap, it worked pretty good for me. The only problem I had was I lost two of them because the Musky appear to like them too.

I got a bunch of Smash Tech swimbaits and smash bugs and have 10 1 ounce plus Santone rattle hogs coming from the evil 25 days sale to punch through millfoil next summer!

For my bank box 90% of the baits are pre rigged with maybe 1-3 spares depending on the durability of the plastic. This lets me carry a bit more of a variety in less space with me than if I carried them bagged by color and style.

For a bag I used something similar to this - http://www.planomolding.com/fishing/plano-tackle-systems/448500 For boxes I would use either the 3500s that come with it or get one of these and put plastics on one side and cranks and extra jigs on the other. http://www.planomolding.com/fishing/stowawayr-utility-boxes/350022 For extra stuff like snaps, split rings, or swivels I get a small pill box from Walgreens or Wal-mart. I also carry a lip gripper, needle nose, tape measure, stream thermometer, scissors, scent, and a good luck charm from my daughter in the bag. I go very minimalist on tackle when on the bank, stuff I know works and something new to try. If the something new works well it gets rotated in, and something may drop. The only hiccup I have had is Zman stuff, I hand carry a separate small box for these to keep them separate from other plastics.

XT is awesome stuff and always has been. I have some 8 year old 10lb XT line on an old quantum lite reel that rarely gets used and it still casts great. Picked up a new spool of 10 lb to possibly try on deep divers to see how different it is from braid. I wish they still made the solar XT, I loved that line and it even worked great on gin clear water.

Thanks, I added the KVD stuff to my list for my next order. Glad I didn't use the reel magic all these years. It was still in the airosal can, lol. It will meet the garbage can.

Day 16 for me. Picked up 18 Santone rattle hogs to split between my father in law and myself. With the millfoil taking over my favorite lake, these should be the ticket to bomb through. Overall though it was just ok, picked up some gambler baits and trying some cobra flipping hooks that were dirt cheap as well.

Now that I am trying big game and gamma flouro, should I give the reel magic I have had for years a shot with these lines? If so, spray it on the line on the reel? Also should I do it now or wait till May when the season opens back up? Last question with this stuff, does it do anything for braid or fireline?

I will be interested to see as well. I am hoping that the Abu 5500 c3 has a large enough diameter spool to limit the memory issues. I have line conditioner, but have never used it, maybe I should.

Not that I am actively looking to fully move away from braid, I have just decided to try this and the Gamma fluoro that I had in my line drawer to see what if anything I am missing. You did pique my curiousity though, what would be some better options if I find I like this stuff, but want to up the quality some. I am surprised by the quality issues though, Berk XT used to be my go to line before fireline and power pro. Would have thought they had their mono game down to a science.

Anything other than swimbaits?

I have fished them quite a bit and found that most of the time I didn't need the trailer hook. I have been fishing the SK bleeding bait series that has the tip of the trailing blade about even with the back of the hook. I found my hook up ratio to be a tad better than with cranks. If I had a spinnerbait where the trailing blade extended a good bit past the hook, I would add a trailer hook Two things I have found, on clear water blade color can be huge, I have not caught a fish with anything but silver/chrome blades, regardless of sunny or overcast. Another thing I found is adding a huge trailing blade can be dynamite during post frontal conditions. Also with the braid go with a rod with a softer tip or loosen the drag a decent amount. With how hard they hit these, it is not uncommon for the bait to fall right out because they have a hole/tear where the hook penetrated. Steady pressure is a must. Also like cranks, bumping them off of cover can be a very effective trigger.