fishwizzard

Exactly. When I started out I struggled hard to catch anything and a few very nice guys online more or less drew me a map to show me a spot where I was sure to find some white perch. I try to return the kindness and face to face I will point out like a specific tree to help some one out. Online I am a little more vague, but do believe in being helpful. And besides, my few actually "good spots" are at least a 3 mile hike from the nearest parking, so I am not too worried about the masses arriving.

I exactly agree on the second part, but the first part makes me think I need to get my eyes checked, as I can't see most any line under water. Or maybe I need nicer sunglasses.......

I got into fishing later in life and was out at a reservoir trying to catch panfish when this guy hit my lure; I was like "oh man, this is lot more fun than catching panfish". That isn't my first bass, but it was my first "decent" bass.

When I was looking into casting bullets one of the tips I read was to get an old toaster oven and heat the ingots for an hour or so before adding them to a hot pot to insure that they are dry before they go in.

I do use a leader with braid, so I must care a little about line visibility, but all I really think matters is "less visible than my bright green braid". I don't really believe (or care) that floro is "less visible" than mono. I use floro because it sinks and mono because it floats. Does Fluorokote float or sink? I am also interested in how Fluorokote holds up to being spooled up and unused for a long time. I have YZH on some of my brackish/salt reels and after a month or three it takes a good soaking in Line&Lure to get it manageable again and it is miserable trying to cast tiny perch lures on it if I forget. I would love to find a cheap sinking line that I can leave on my reels and not have to remember to treat before I go out.

Lots of good feedback, thanks guys. I managed to get out to day and catch a pair of dinks out of a muddy little river. I also went through my plastics and pulled out everything I have never fished or caught on. Not as much stuff as I thought, but this is was a quick pass and I was merciful to some stuff that I just know will produce if given the chance. The cleaning was needed, I found stuff I didn't remember buying, like the 10+ bags of new old stock Z-man ribbon tail worms. Going to donate the big box and see about selling the old Zman stuff, there must be another weirdo like me out there somewhere.

That is sort of what I am trying to do. Learn the fundamentals better and unclutter my life a bit. I think I am going to start by going through all my plastics and NIB hardbaits and culling everything I have yet to even fish and see what I am left with.

It's an issue of self control, once I start picking, I will keep it all. But as I said, I will top off all my little kits and keep them, so I will still have a ton of lures to work through, but when it comes time to refill, I will be far far more selective. For example, this is my "6-8 inch t-rigged worms" kit; There are like 10 different brands/styles of worms in there. Is a Rage Recon that different from a Culprit? Is a Producto Tournament really that different from a Mann's Jelly? Sure, there are difference, but right now I don't have the experience or knowledge to know when to use one or the other. I have maybe 11-14 other kits like this, for different plastics. The plan (as I am currently thinking) is to fish each kit and actually keep track of what is catching and what isnt. Then, when I go to restock (and condense it down to like 6-7 kits), I will only buy what has worked for me. Donating it isn't a bad idea, I travel for work a ton and if I control my eating and drinking, my left over per diem money goes right into the tackle fund. I have already donated some rods and tackle to a local fishing charity, it might even be more of a sure thing to just throw it in the mail rather then try to sort and photo it all, that gives me less time to change my mind. Even if I want to target numbers, the diminishing returns on dozens of presentations has to kick in rather quickly. The Ned rig, a Robo on a Slider, and a Bubbling Shaker on a worm hook has accounted for most of my great numbers days, why am I keeping all this other stuff around? A lot of this comes from fishing out of a kayak or on foot. In both cases I can only carry a very limited amount of tackle, so it's not like I will ever have even a fraction of my collection on hand to react to new or changing conditions.

As I am trying to get myself motivated to give my tackle corner a greatly needed cleaning, I find myself thinking "I wanna start over". I am about to begin my third year of bass fishing and only last summer/fall did I really begin to get a handle on things and feel confident. When I would catch a fish I started to understand why I caught it, rather than just chucking a lure in and hoping for the best. I now find myself with piles of lures, mostly plastics, that I am, if I am honest with myself, am never going to use. I have so so many lures that will never see water. And now that I am getting a hang of things and figuring out what styles and techniques I really enjoy and work in my waters, I want to buy more tackle, but it feels silly to do so when I have so much already. I also am so distracted by wanting to try everything that I never get really good at any one thing. So more and more I am thinking about selling everything and starting over. I would keep my rods and reels and the dozen or so "kits" I build in 3600 boxes for grab-n-go trips, but get rid of everything else and, once my kits become depleted, start over just a limited selection of lures to focus on. So like, get rid of the piles of worms I have just buy a few of the "classics" and really learn them, so like buy a two colors of Trick Worms, Culprits, Robos, and Senkos. Just those four worms could keep me busy for an entire season. Same thing with other plastics, just pick a proven brand/color and only fish that until I learn it and develop conference. Hardbaits will be done the same way, a few proven lures/colors. It will be hard to get rid of it all, but if I just pick and choose I will never get rid of anything. I know I will loose a ton of money selling everything off, but I think a more or less fresh start with the bit of knowledge I now have will make me a more focused and productive fisherman. My most productive and enjoyable days are when I bring the least amount of tackle with me, so I think I would really benefit from a refresh. Has anyone ever done something like this? Am I crazy with cabin fever from the currently rainy weather?

Oh no, I have the patience of a child, they are great with a ton of different speeds. My main techniques are two, first, to run them slowly, but consistently across flats or just over weed beds, just fast enough to keep them just above the cover. If I need to go a little deeper or am dealing with sparse pads, I add a 1/8oz steel weight, pegged. It adds just a little weight to keep it down and acts as a "nosecone" to protect the lure and keep it from snagging as I pull it through cover. The second retrieve is more fluke-like, a run it for a few feet, then let it die and fall to the bottom. Then a second or so of pause, then run it for a few more feet. I do this more along weedlines or other sparse cover. Rig them on a 3/0 Owner light/medium wire straight shank hook. The hookup ratio is great and the lures last for a decent number of fish before they are retired to trailer duty.

Once the water clears up a bit, try a Zoom Super Flukes. They can be fished with a lot of different cadences and speeds and tend to shed muck due to the pointy nose if you bury the hook eye in the plastic.

This is why I like jdm gear, I get to experience Fierce Passion and Famous Exciting Action every time I fish!

I just got into Trick worms this season and already am having great luck with them. For colors I am trying to limit myself to only a few from each "category", so for now I just fish following; Original (floating) Bubble Gum and Motor Oil/Chart tip Fished on a shakyhead, light t-rig Nico/Chicken rigged on a 2/0 straight shank worm hook with a 1/16oz weight Super Salt (slow sinking) Baby Bass and Green Pumpkin Magic Weightless on a 2/0 or 3/0 straight shank or offset Owner/Troker worm hook, fished like a fluke Wacky on a 2/0 straight shank or lightly weighted wacky hook It is hard to resist all the colors they have, but so far I have been strong.

That is cool as heck. A weightless Menace is already of of my most productive numbers lures, I would think that a smaller one could replace most of the small river/stream plastics I currently use. I also use the Menace for a half dozen other presentations, a smaller version would be perfect as a scaled down trailer or on a micro shakeyhead or Draggin Head jig. I do wish they would round off the nose though, it would come through cover a lot better when rigged weightless and it would be a simple matter to trim it back flush for use as a trailer.

Wait, what? A smaller Menace Grub is coming out? I tried to google for it but just found some guys tricked out Mini Cooper.

Great, thanks for the info! I am also almost totally, other than a few specialty hooks, an Owner guy.

I gave this a try, sans swivel, and it does work very well, nice slow fall and a very very good hook up ratio. It does burn through worms though, it's good that Trick Worms come in packs of 20.

I am just getting into drop shoting, I was struggling one day and made up a bastardized version from some stuff I found in my tackle bag and caught a few. I picked up some of the Decoy drop shot hooks; I hate the palomar knot in general and want to be able to swap out the drop line without retying as I move around a body of water. These were cheaper the the Gammy ones so I figured I would give them a try, has anyone else used them?

I got really excited about finesse cranks last year and bought a pile of them off ebay. Sady the only ones that have ever produced for me are J5 jointed Rapals or 1/8oz Sebile lipless cranks. I should really clean out the rest of them as I don't think I am gonna fish them much anymore.

I have some of the 8lb chartreuse on my finesse spinning reel and so far I like it. I have 15lb Suffix 832 on my other spinning reel so I can compare them a bit. The J-braid is far smoother to the touch and is incredibly quieter on both the cast but especially the retrieve. Knot strength seems good, tied to a 8lb floro leader I was able to drag in a very large branch into retrieve a lure and I was amazed how hard I was able to pull. I have fished it on some super windy days and only got a single wind knot, but it pulled out very easily. Casting distance is great and feels like I can get as far (a fence section in my yard) with a lot less effort than it took to get there with straight 8lb floro. The only downside is the bleed. I mainly care because I switched back to braid because I fish a ton of weightless plastics on my spinning combos and I was having trouble seeing the floro lines I had switched too. It also stains really fast, I fish a very tannic pond and the first 20' feet of my line are taking on a brownish cast to it. I am going to try using a bright green sharpie to touch it up, as I really like it otherwise.

If you can excuse a filthy Marylander snooping around this this thread, I wanna say thanks for the info on the Cut-Rs and the hook issues you were having. Bought a pack or two over the winter and just tried them the other day. I t-rigged them with a punch skirt to use as a weedless swimjig type thing. I was using twistlock flipping hooks and despite a few solid hits, I could never make a hook set. I will give it an other go with a wide gap hook. Is there a specific size you have found works best? I have a pile of 3/0 Moanar weighted swimbait hooks, but I really like the look of it as a fake-swimjig and want to give that an other go.

Cool, thanks for all the intel. I really should drag my yak up there but I am a big baby about leaving it on my car unattended for hours.

Now a box like that, but as stand alone unit that could be bolted to a truck bed, that would be something.

Yea, I am guilty of looking at the scenery as well, but once you get used to the tip dancing in your vision, it is easy to keep it there and still be able to zone out.

If you mean BFS, it stands for Bait Finesse System. Using casting rods and reels to throw very light weight lures that are traditionally thrown on spinning gear.