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I want to experiment with either mono or fluoro leader tied to braid. I have tried a few knots and nothing holds immediately upon tying! I carefully follow the instructions for knots claiming to be a good one! What is a knot that works? Do you favor mono or fluoro if you fish a leader? For soft plastic baits fished in cover.

Is a fluke a swimbait? If so, weightless is my favorite, casted to cover. What a deadly action! At initial drop of after a rod movement, it glides and softly sinks, but in various directions... just a deadly combo looking like a wounded baitfish I guess. The Zoom brand is a good price and they are soft, allowing good hookup ratio when setting the hook. It's just a deadly bait, I have caught numerous crappie and bream on it while bass fishing. My favorite color is watermelon red. I also like a shakey head jig with a Strike King Elaztech worm.

Rigged tentacles backward or forward?

That is a good looking bait and at a great price, will buy some.

When you run it 5 min, do you run water through it?

I just bought a used boat and it has a live well, so, I will use that some. But I have made many a fishing trip when I put the fish in the ice chest with ice immediately upon the catch. The colder the fish when cleaning, the less messy it is to fillet. I have filled up gallon jugs that sweet tea comes in (like a milk jug) and also 2 litre coke bottles. Fill them up but not all the way, as the ice will expand. These will keep the fish cool but I don't know about cold. It seems you need ice in there. Preferably crushed ice but that's too expensive if you fish a lot. I recently bought some plastic shoe boxes at the dollar store for $1 each. They work great! You get a top for it but you don't need the top. Fill it about 1" from top. Makes a shoe box chunk of solid ice. Solid ice lasts longer. You can chop it with an ice pick but it will melt faster and be carefuly, you can go to the plastic and punch a hole. Have you found any secrets to putting them on ice quickly?

I have lakes around here that are filled with Cypress trees. Typically, an old swamp with Cypress trees that gained a dam to create an impoundment decades ago. Caddo Lake is one, on the border of Texas and Louisiana. These lakes are pretty shallow, generally, max depth is around 8' except for the channel. Large parts of the lake are 4'-6' deep. There aren't many creeks, aren't points and ridges to fish like you have in modern impoundments. Those are created where they flood hilly terrain. These were swamps. These lakes do have "breaks," which look almost like islands, but they are shallower ridges that are 1'-2' deep. Along with very dense stands of Cypress trees. You can't get in there, the grove of trees is too thick. Most of the time, we throw soft plastics to the base of Cypress trees. You just make a bazillion casts; it looks like every tree should hold a bass. You never know when one will hit but typically, you have to throw pretty tight to the tree. Wondering if anyone has gained any insight into good patterns on these lakes filled with a bazillion live Cypress trees, which is generally, the structure.

I bought Stabil Marine last night. The tagline specifially says it's for ethanol treatment, so, this should work! This whole ethanol corn-growing thing is baffling. I guess it makes corn farmers happy but it sure has screwed up engines. Maybe it's a conspiracy by the automotive / marine industry to cause us all to spend money on repairs. BTW, I do know several friends who have had to have their boat motors repaired if the boat sat up. Like, a $300 repair job for the fuel system. What a waste just due to ethanol!

What is dogwood, what is filimenteous algae? I assume icing is fishing in cold weather.

Do you use line conditioner? What do you think it does for you? Do you use it for spinning rig or baitcast? I have both. I have a Pfleuger President 6940 spinning reel on a 7' Med Berkley Lightning Rod Shock rod, the latter claiming it was designed for Advanced Superline. So, I have Sufix 832 20 lb Advanced Superline on it. Whatever that is. After using it about a month on numerous fishing trips, I note that the line is kinda curling up into rings, it's not laying flat. I took the bait off and dragged it behind my boat at about 20mph for about half a mile. I don't know that it made any difference. So, now I bought some KVD line conditioner, lol. I have not used spinning reels much, I have always used baitcast. But, I do get my share of backlashes. Gotta figure this out better. Lately, I have been fishing weightless flukes and 1/8 oz shakey head worms and now, a 1/16 oz Ned rig a lot. I have setups from Med to MH. Do you like line conditioners?

12 oz of Stabil... it says 12 oz treat up to 120 gal. Is the bottle such that you can see to put a small amount in each tank full? You guys who have boats, are you able to find ethanol-free gasoline? Hmmm... finding a gas station selling ethanol-free is a problem for me, none in my town, plus, the price is appreciably higher, so, a treatment might even be cheaper even with its added cost.

I just bought a 1997 Bass Tracker with Mercury-made 40hp 2-stroke. What gas? It's very hard to find ethanol-free gas here. Just about everywhere is 10% ethanol. Just disregard it and let 'er rip or buy higher octane or what? And if high octane, mid-grade or premium? Tnx.

I'm curious, too, I don't know what to buy. Somebody said he has Ivory Halo.

Can anyone recommend a decent scale? Digital is nice, but, hmmm... if the batteries run down... What do you like?

Yep. And he's kind of a shyster, so, he probably did it on purpose, lol. He claimed it was a mistake, and it could have been, but he's suspect, lol.

You talking about ribs or the heads, lol.

Great idea. Might freeze the next batch, awaiting going catfishing with noodles (jugs). We use cut bait usually. Might have to spray some type of goop on there to give it some more smelly attractant. Hmmm... better yet, save the fish heads, lol.

I don't have small one yet but got the big one and I didn't like it; had to reel too fast to make it swim. But I will remain open-minded.

What model, size and color do you guys especially like? I keep reading people who favor these, I am going to have to try some. I prefer catching numbers of fish rather than seeking big mama, if that matters. (I am going to experiment some with using smaller baits... finesse fishing.)

I went to BPS to buy it and they were out of 7' Med; the guy talked me into a Lightning Rod (not Shock); it was $50. After I bought it, I decided I really wanted the Shock. I returned it and bought the 7' Med Shock at Walmart fo $40 and added 2 yrs of insurance for only $3. I like the rod and I am able to flick finesse baits and weightless flukes with ease. I have caught quite a few bass on it already on flukes, shakey head 1/8 oz worm and spinnerbait. Setting the hook on texas rigged plastics has been fine.

I don't recall if this was my first bass but it's the first I remember. My dad had taken me to a big lake and we rented a motor. We ended up meeting my uncle on the bank. We were out of the boat on the shore and they were talking. I was casting around the shore and caught a bass about 1.5 lbs. I was ecstatic and they acted like it was a monster. I am thinking that might have been the same trip that the motor died. We were out in the big lake and I recall being scared. It seemed an ocean. I vaguely recall someone might have towed us in. Thinking back, I am surprised my dad took us out there. Maybe it was because I enjoyed riding in the boat, I don't know. But he was not an active fisherman during my childhood, so, I am surprised we went way out there. (Maybe a mile out, the lake is a bit over 2 miles wide.)

I can't see anything in the OP post but I was wondering what you said here ^^^. I caught bass recently that had little critters attached to the roof of their mouths, some kind of parasite. I also caught a bass that had something I have never seen; it looked like mini crabs, maybe 1/8" long. And this is a totally freshwater lake. They were even on the skin of the fish. They were mobile, crawling on the fish. Too weird!

In my youth, on into fishing as a young man, my buddy and I played a portable radio in our boat, on the pop music station. We caught the heck out of them for years, never seemed to matter. I dunno how much sound matters. I always worry about smearing sunscreen on me that contains DEET, fearing it is not a good thing for handling my lures! I need another solution. I wonder if that stuff you spray in a fine mist needs to be smeared with your hand to get adequate coverage!

Like most people, I fillet and then cut around the ribcage and throw it away. Always seemed a waste. I recently read a casual comment by somebody that if you fry them right, the ribs don't matter. I dunno what he meant by that. As if they would disintegrate or something. I have a friend who gave me some crappie as a favor for something I did. I was supposed to get fillets. What I got was... he did fillet the fish but he saved the ribcage and the backbone part, minus the head. I got the ribcage and backbone. What do you think about cooking the ribcage? BTW, I like LM bass alot.

I bet that proud poodle would make one heckuva duck dog.