Fishin Dad

I feel very fortunate. I have not had anyone blow up on me ever. I have actually had a lot of great conversations with people when fishing by their docks. I have had bad casts and hit docks and felt bad. I have just been lucky. Minnesota nice I guess

It's not that strange, it's just a hula grub with a shad tail instead of twin grub tails. I may stop at my Dunhams and see what they have.......Yamamoto for $1.99. Thanks

I have been extremely disappointed with Cabelas in the last year. I used to spend thousands on hunting and fishing equipment yearly, especially in the online bargain cave. They HAD ridiculous deals. I have had to find other shopping avenues to replace Cabelas. I was afraid this would happen with the buy out by Bass Pro. ?

I have a hard time dealing with weeds unless I texpose of bury the hook. I really struggle to find a good jighead that allows me to do this. I agree with Chop that those darter heads with the 3/0 or bigger hooks work, but I really like to use a separate hook to open up more options for the bait I am fishing.

Thanks Catt! When using these hooks with my flippin set up, they often come flying at me. I am going to keep trying them and see if I like the screw lock and hook style. I have some other flippin hooks I like also.

This is excellent, I was going to store these and move onto something else. I am going to just bury the hookpoint in my plastics and give these another try. I was get frustrated with point ripping the heck out of my plastics trying to texpose these. ?

Thanks north!! That looks more traditional in angle. I would assume the flipping hook angled like that aids in hook ups? I have hooked everything I set on so far, but couldn't get my bait weedless texposing. I may try what Croak mentioned and may order some of the other ones and see what happens. Thanks All!!

Thanks Catt!! Do you know what the other is called? Is there any advantage to using either. Not sure why the flippin hook I have is shaped like that. Anyone?

Hey DW, have you had any problems weakening the hooks when bending them in like that. I have done it with a few hooks that I have opened a little getting them from a snag and haven't broken one, but they seem to open a lot easier afterwards. Thanks

Hey Fellas, thanks!! I am glad to hear I'm not losing it (at least with this hook issue). I was considering both solutions, but wanted to confirm I didn't get a bad batch or just miss something else. Do you both still like the hooks? I have always liked Owners quality and they seem to get plenty of love on the interweb. Hey Croak, I also use a 7'6" heavy rod with these owner flippin hooks and have had great hook ups. When burying the hook, does it still remain pretty weedless and does it tear up the plastic more or less than texposing it?

I am not sure if I am doing something wrong, but I bought some of these hooks and for the life of me can't figure out how to rig these. I usually texpose my plastics by skin hooking them. It seems like angle of these hooks don't allow this to happen. I have been doing this with others hooks for many years. Tell me I am not nuts here. Help a guy out.

Pac Man Meets Gamakatsu!!

That's interesting. I never thought that would happen. It does seem to happen both later in the day, and especially trying to bomb casts deep. Does anyone know why that binds the braid. It seems like the reel and line shouldn't know how the force is being applied. If I would try to cast "smooth" it would hardly ever happen. Of course I didn't get the cast as far in either. Again, thanks for the insight. This is really interesting me now.

Thanks everyone. I am using 50 lb. braid. Can't remember the brand. I have been casting braid for over 10 years the same way. I think my settings on the reel were a little off. I just found it weird that it didn't happen either of the 3 times until I had been using it for a while. This was weird. Thanks everyone for the insights. Has anyone used a thick leather glove to pull braid out of snags? I might try that.

It is completely possible we were throwing too hard. We were trying to reach back pockets through the slop. I will also try taking it off and feeling it tighter. Thanks Bull! This was the first time it had happened to me as well. That's why I am wondering what is going on. It was really weird it happened to both of us on the same day. We are going to keep looking into this.

You could also try waterproof boxes. They have gaskets that seal out water and are not very expensive. Buy a couple for your cranks, terminal, etc.

Thanks looking 45. The weird part is, we had checked that as well, pulling line out. This was just weird. We both have experience with numerous baitcasters. I was just wondering if this had happened to others and if it was was settings that need adjusting after line gets wet for extended periods or something I hadn't heard of. I have been considering a dowel or a thick glove for snag recovery. Thanks for the reminder!!

My Buddy and I were fishing a tournament today. We were fishing Hollow body frogs and trying to cast them long distance. We started out fine, hadn't changed anything, then after a while, we both started having our braided lines bind on the cast. Almost like a backlash. This had happened to me a couple times before. I am not sure what line I have on mine (I have too many to remember, I have to start recording this better) but my buddy has Suffix 832. I messed around with some cast controls, and this seemed to help a little, but came back whenever I tried to really launch it. Question is: When braid gets wet for a while, does it have a tendency to bind like this? Or is something else causing this? I may try Power Pro on this set up to see if it works better. Any other suggestions? Thanks!!

I agree with Dropshothotshot that braid is more sensitive and Braid also handles better on a spinning reel.

I have been skipping the Seiberts dock rocker with dredge hook for the past couple of weeks (about 6 trips). I am not gentle on where I skip these either. This jig skips really well and the trailer is locked on hard. I was not sure how this bait keeper would work, but it has been great. I have also used the Strike King Skipping jig and like it as well. It has a screw lock bait keeper that is unique and works well. I order my jigs from Mike at Seiberts wire tied and really like that. I also like supporting a company like Seiberts for my jigs and some other items he has.

I have fished transition areas for walleye and panfish both with the boat and ice fishing and it is amazing. I don't know why I always think bass are different. I usually try to fish the weed edges as well, for some reason (obviously something weather related) we have not had good defined weed edges like in the past. Thanks again. I have more to go on in my deep water bass search!!

I have often wondered if a smaller frog would be better to try? Anyone find this smaller frogs better? I typically fish the Booyah frog if I am fishing only mats or slop. I personally have been using and really like a frog/toad with kicking legs ( i.e. Stanley top toad) most of the time. I find it way more versatile. Can still use it in the slop but it makes enough commotion on open water, pencil weeds, etc. to get bit there as well.

I find a frog more versatile. I can fish it in the slop or in open water. I especially like the Stanley Top Toad. It goes through the slop well, but also makes enough commotion on top that I can still get bit reeling in over open water. I have had a great hook up ratio with this also. It is a durable frog (toad)as well. I have a few Whopper Ploppers, and even though I have not thrown them a lot, I have not had great deal of success. One reason I think is that you can't throw them with any floating vegetation and with the trebles, it's hard to throw around cover as well. I agree the hook up ratio with dual trebles is solid, but I hate dealing with trebles if I don't have to.

I do a lot of trolling and drifting while walleye fishing. I guess I just never thought about doing it for bass as you never see it (not allowed in tournaments etc.). When we have caught bass offshore, we have found enough fish (and bigger fish usually) to catch a nice bag. It hasn't been just one here and there. It's just hard to figure out sometimes while they are there. We check it out with our electronics and try to put the pieces together. Sometimes we can see why, sometimes we can't, and sometimes we just plain can't find a place at all. I may try trolling and/or strolling to just learn where bass are out deep and see if it helps determine some patterns around here. Thanks again for the ideas!!

WRB, That makes sense. If there is not much for baitfish to relate to, no reason bass will be there. We do catch the large majority of our fish throwing to shore. I just keep seeing drop shotting, deep jigs, Carolina rigs, deep cranks etc. and we see/ hear of guys around here fishing deep sometimes. Just didn't want to miss the boat if there are opportunities out there, especially if the bite is poor shallow. Thanks for your insight!