junyer357

I keep mine in the origional bag and then sorted by type into gallon ziplocks. I do keep one ziplock on top of my favorite/hot/confidence plastics. 90% of the time im reaching into just this bag, not digging through all of them. Works more or less like a daybox.

I am taking a groomsmen/bachelor party trip this weekend to the elk river in south tn (kelso,tn). I have never fished for smallies or trout in my life, just largmouth, spots, and crappie. I am looking for any kind of tips or advice on what to use, as far as gear and lures. I am already sure i will look like i am a newbie to fishing trying to fish sitting in a canoe, based on my experience fishing out of my flatbottom jon boat. I can cast very well and accurately standing up in my bass boat or on land, but it goes to crap sitting down, since i never do it. I only own 1 spinning rod and it currently has 12# mono on it with a wacky senko. I do have a few zebcos i use crappie fishing as well as when taking my lady since she makes a mess with my baitcasters. I do have a good selection of standard bass lures, and some crappie jigs but thats all. No flies or anything even close other than some finesse jigs.

I have a bag from bps that holds 7 3700 boxes. I usually keep 4 3700's, a 3600, and a bunch of gallon. ziplock bags with my plastics in them. Its simple and works. Fits in the rear box of most boats plus it has a shoulder strap for bank fishing.

Ive had good results with a small lawnmower size 12v battery running a hbird depth finder and small electric had control trolling motor for a half day or more depending on how much i use TM. Mine is in a small flatbottom that is about 3'×8'. The depth finder i use is a hbird 525 i think. Its the one that was on our bass boat til we upgraded to newer lowrance units front n rear.

I normally use 15-17 for worms/jigs mostly. In the winter i drop back to 10-12 at times. Alot of folks go heavier and some lighter. It comes to personal preference and/or confidence.

X2 Thats the rod i use exclusivley for worms and jigs. I normally throw a 3/16 or 1/8 weight texas or shakey on this rod and casts great as well as super sensitive when using a good floro (love tatsu but rarely can afford it). For any jig over 3/8 i go back to an older shimano mh/f i have, but its on the upgrade list to become an avid mh/f.

I cant say how tatsu did on cranks but i found some 15# on sale last year and used it on my worms and jigs and fell in loce with it. It held up very well even around concrete structures. Also did not seem to get memory as fast as the invisx i normally use (i use it for cranks and spinners personally and am very pleased). I do use kvd conditioner religiously though. A good coating as soon as im done spooling it and again each nite before i go.

I have a 6'8" mxf avid and its been a wonderful worm rod for me. Throws my usual 3/16 worms like a champ and is super sensitive.

Ive done quite well on an origional zman white chatterbait with a chart-pepper zoom fat albert grub trailer.

I like 12-14 floro or mono in warmer months and when it gets cold i drop to 8-10 floro

#1 for me is whatever i have that they will hit on topwater!!!!! Topwater is my favorite way to fish if they are biting i usually try: Buzzbait pop-r frog spook

X3 i store mine in origional bag in a labled gallon ziplock. Organized by type - craws, jig chunks, worms etc. I do keep one bag in top of my favorites, hot now, or confidence plastics. If i go with someone else i usually take only that ziplock to save space. 90% of my plastics fishing comes out of that bag.

Light rapalas and other balsa cranks have always been harder to cast on a baitcaster to me, and instant birdnests in wind. I switched to throwing them on a med-mod spinning rod and its much better. Also a shorter rod seems to work better as well when i do uae them on a baitcaster. I have one 5'6" i use alot with rapalas when my spinning rod is set up for wacky/weightless rigs

Best thing for ours we found is to wipe it down with a wet rag as soon as we pull it out of the water and strap it down for travel. If its summer there is usually plenty of clean water from the cooler when we pull the plug out. even if we have to use water from the livewells its still better and easier then than if we let it dry on the boat and then try to clean it.

Both for me. Normally i will retrive it like a spinnerbait, steady retreive or stop n go or change speeds on a constant retreive. Othertimes i will work it like a swim jig and bounce it, retrive, and/or let it fall, especially shooting piers and such. Its a pretty versatile lure to me. Often i will even do both on consecutive casts over the same spot and see if i get a better reaction one way or the other.

Gravity. My go to all around brush is an eclipse cs. with the small amound of color and often color changes in painting lures its much easier with a smaller gravity feed. The only time i ever use my siphon feed eclipse is if im basecoating or priming a lot of lures at once. With my gravity i often just drop a few drops of paint directly into the cup and paint away.

Ok will do. Thanx for the tip!!

I cant speak on garmin but i can say first hand that the humminbird units do better than lowrance in shallower water. I wish i had known this beforehand myself. I purchased a gen2 hds7 with lss1 module a few years ago. I have fished several times with a coworker running a humminbird 898 With side imaging and it seems to be much better shallow right now. I may play with the settings on my lowrance though and see if i can impove it. Im pretty sure its se for autorange and may only be looking out a disance equal to depth.

Ive had good luck with both the rapala touchscreen tourny scale as well as a cheaper berkley one i picked up at walmart. The rapala stays on the boat and the berkely with me for fiahing ponds and such. I took both to work with me and tested them against our freon scales on a few jugs. Both were within 2/100 on each jug comapred to each other as well as the freon scale. One thing to remember as well is a good scale can be ruined by improper storage or abuse. We dont leavee them hanging up by their hook and try to minimize plases in storing them to where hook/chain can catch on something and be pulled or stretched.

I was taught when i began using cranks "if you aint hittin rocks you aint hittin fish" majority of my bites on cranks come after defecting off a rock n a bass hitting it. Yea you will hang up on them, often alot. Most times if you can just get past whwre its hung up it will pop up. Easier said than done at times fishing off the bank though so i wouldnt start with lucky crafts. H2O makes pretty good cranks for themoney though.

Microeyes will also freeze up quickly and constantly if you do any cold weather fishing. Im not a fan of them myself. Too much of a hassle for what lil if any results you get.

we used the canned insight maps that came on our hds7 for a year or two before we upgraded to navionics. The insight maps are okay for navigation and have some detail of the botttom but have no where near the level of detail the navionics maps to show contours of the bottom. the insight maps (on lakes ive used them on anuway) show channels, and have depth lines every 5ft i think it was. Navionics has 1ft depth changes. I would try the canned lowrance maps first before going to navionics. Depending on how you fish it may be fine. I use the navionics maps far more than my dad does To look for subtle humps. He mainly jiat uses the gps for naigation, to which stock maps wok great.

What is your definition of a "long distance"?

I use a moderate for all my cranks. Medium as well for all but deep divers i up to mh. I do prefer a mod-fast or fast for wirebaits like spin, buzz, and chatterbaits though.

Senko. Cast right on top of it. Leave a lil slack and let it fall straight down n slow.