fishwizzard

Hah, I am glad I am not the only one that does this! Any found lure or plastic that is still fishable is immediately tied on and fished unless it is unreasonably heavy/light for the rig I am carrying.

They do seem to draw down most of the other watered sections in the winter, hopefully it is going to be refilled soon.

I am actually pretty excited that there are snakeheads in that part of the canal, I fish there as often as I can and would love to catch one. My fear is that someone at NPS gets the idea to fully drain the canal to kill them all off. They already let it get so low it is a wonder any of the bass survive.

The Marmot Precip can usually be found for under $100 (far under if you don't care about color) and generally gets a lot of "Best Value" reviews from the bigger camping review sites. I have one of them and it is very nice for the money. But, if you, like me, are a sweaty guy, look for something with pit-zips and the most breathable fabric you can afford, it's no use keeping the rain out if you are soaked with sweat.

They seem to live somewhere between floating and neutrally buoyant, if I'm remembering correctly.

I use the 3/0 unweighted ones for senkos and flukes as well. I do kinda wish they sold a 3.5/0 ones for the flunked though.

I have gotten some baits from Doc Irv; http://docirvcustombaits.com/baitbox/Finnese_Small_Fishing-Baits and were very happy with them. He offers a ton of options and I ordered some really off the wall stuff, so much so that he called me to confirm that I really wanted some of it. Lets just say that there is a reason no one normally sells a solid, super soft tube loaded with as much floatant as possiable. But he made exactly what I asked or and delivered pretty quickly. Now, the smaller, softer, solid tubes loaded with as much salt as possiable that I bought from him, they might be worth a second look.

Thus far I have resisted the Fly-Ape (a cousin of the Bait-Monkey) but my wife wants to give it a try so we are going to take a guided trip/lesson sometime next fall. Sadly a lot of the smallest creeks have so much overhead cover that I don't know if I could cast with a long rod.

That looks different enough to try, I sometimes fish a J-7 Rapala like that with a jerky retrieve so the lure is constantly breaking the surface and diving.

They discontinued them in the last few years. I bought a bunch for cheap at a fleamarket and while googling around for info found a lot of awful pictures of guys with that small front hook just buried in their hands from when the fish jumped right at the moment the angler was unhooking them. I think I still have a pack or three somewhere, but I threw the bulk of them out.

Yea, I have had a few half zlikners that have ripped where the hook comes out, but that is after dozens of fish. I have had their finesse worm rip at the head, but they are still by far the most durable plastics I have ever seen. While I agree, for me the part of the fun of smallies is wading/walking the water, so I like to keep both my rod/reel and my tackle as light and compact as I can. I actually have a little kit made up with an assortment of tubes, but I have never really spent a lot of time fishing them.

No problem, typing stuff out helps me keep organized. And yes, the zman lures are almost more always good until you snag and loose them. Often I will break the hook on a jighead and just rerig the plastic and keep fishing it.

I am on a roll tonight, so here are my Zman kits. I have two kits for the Zman plastics, a small one and a larger one. The small box contains a selection of TRD Tubez and some TT for them. I like the little tubes so far, but have yet to see if they are as reliable or more so then the "normal" half-zlinker or TRD. I have heads, in 1/16 and 1/20oz, from Gopher and Zman. They both rig well but the Gophers are a pain, but I do prefer the smaller hook they offer. The ball jig is an Owner Ultra Head. It is one of the best options for a weedess Ned that I have found. The TRF Tubez are a great fit for it as the hollow back section lets the plastic collapse around the hook very easily. I use these lures when I want a very small presentation or in slow or still water pockets. They fall very very slowly and adding small, sharp pops while swimming it back works very well. The larger box contains an assortment of other plastics, lures and tackle. I am giving the Zman micro jigs a go this season. They are very light and will not stay on the bottom in any kind of current, but they have a great action on a swimming retrieve but will still drag and deadstick when I hit a slow run or still pocket. The tubes are the Zman EZtubes and they are imho a very underrated bait. Lubed with Megastrike, the tendrils move like crazy and will still swim well. I rig them on a 1/8oz Stupid Jighead which gives me enough weight to drag them on the bottom if needed. They also skip like a dream and have enough weight to really get up under low hanging brush or log jams, and the stout enough hook to get a fish out. The actual Ned Rigs are mostly cut down Hula Sticks, which is something I tried last season to great effect. They seem to have less salt than the TRDs but are more rugged than the zlinkers. They are all rigged on 1/16oz head, again from Gopher, Zman, and the Owner Ultras. Added to this kit are some of the new DoIt heads, I don't like the hook size on them but want to try them on a full Hula Stick to see how they do on that. Also here is a Decoy Nailbomb jighead, in 1/16oz - #1. They are a bit longer then the Owners but the increased hook neck and longer gap more then make up for any loss in action. I also really like the vertical line tie, it is far better then the angled Owner one in keeping the lure upright and swimming at low speed. And lastly, a micro chatterbait with a small chunk trailer. I like to keep one "loud" lure around when the bass are sleepy and i need to wake them up a little.

So this is my "non-zman" set up. One box for plastics, one for terminal tackle. Both fit in a small fly fishing chest pack with room for a few random hardbaits, micro-jigs, or anything else I want to try on a given trip. The lures are mostly 3" Senkos or Stick-Os, so far I cannot tell much difference at this size. The larger fork tailed worm is also a BPS brand, I got it right at the end of last fall so I don't have much time with it yet, but I am liking what I see so far. The tubes are from Doc Irv and are solid and "salted like a senko". They skip like a dream and look amazing on the fall. They also provide a bit of protection from tiny panfish as they are too big for them to get a bite on. And finaly there are a few small beavers and tiny paddle tails, grubs, and the odd swim-senko, mostly just the ends of packs. The paddle tails are the smallest Keitech FIs, and while they work great, they get destroyed in a single fish and even the lightest snag will pop the tail right off. My terminal tackle box is a mix of hooks and jigheads. The hooks are 1/0 VMC EWG, which I like for the sealed eye and strength. The twistlocks are Owners, both the light wire and finesse models in 1/0. The light wire is a bit longer, the finesse is shorter with a wider gap. The jigheads are a few random odds and ends in the 1/16oz range and the odd looking ones are Confidence Baits Draggin Heads in 1/8oz. Really great heads for rocky rivers. I will post my Zman stuff in a bit, for obvious reasons I keep them in a separate box and just by habit rarely bring them when I bring my standard plastics. Finesse plastics are my favorite type of lure and I have dozens of bags of other stuff not in this kit. My goal this season is to fish everything and by next winter sell/donate everything that doesn't catch.

I fish smaller rivers a ton and the Ned is by far the most productive lure for them I have found. A weightless 3" senko rigged on a 1/0 Owner Finesse Twistlock hook also works well if you need somehing that will give a slower fall. For hard baits, I like a J-5 Rapala with the trebles replaced with single hooks. They come throgh rock and wood well this way and the dink sunfish foul hook themselves as often too. Actualy just last night I went through my "Creek and Stream" box and repacked it. I will try and grab some pictures tonight.

I do something similar, but more of a double set. I retrieve my my rod tip pretty low, like maybe 20d from parallel to the ground. When I feel a bite I sweep it up to almost 90 then reel back down, as soon as I get the tip back to like 45 I give it another slow, hard set. On smaller bass or sunfish, the hook is usually through the bottom or top lip, on the larger ones it is well stuck on the inside of the mouth. If I don't do the second set I find that the fish I land are often just barely hooked and I am often amazed that i was able to land a lot of them. However, I most often fish the Ned while wading, so my rod tip is only a few feet from the surface of the water. I assume that has a lot to do with the hooksets work.

I have a short attention span and neglect the Ned for dozens of trips, then I tie it on again, catch a pile of fish, then wonder why I ever buy other tackle.

Not really the thread for it, but I know someone in here will know. I am looking for a longer (100-120mm ballpark) handle for a Alphas 150H. I wanna see if I like it with a longer one and as the reel is already a pig, I don't super care about weight. What's my cheapest option? Same question, but for fat-flat cork knobs, like on the (26/2) Fishing reels? Quality doesn't really matter as I just want to see if I like the longer handle and if I do, I know there are a few places happy to take my $150 and sell me one. I was moving some reels around the other night and Rippin's "Twins" gave me an idea, but I wanna test some stuff before I whip the credit card out.

Wow, it's a great store, if only it wasn't three hours away.

I was using Suffix 832 in 50lb. I genesis of my problems with it when I was trying to see if I could skip a jig with centrifugal brakes. The answer is a firm "nope", but the resulting backlash is what prompted this thread. I have never had any luck with braid on casting reels, from the heavy stuff to trying to use 10lb on a BFS reel. While I do like that braid doesn't kink and weaken, I have had zero luck picking out even a small backlash, without using a dull needle as a marlin spike. I think I will respool with the rest of my braid and just get a second spool for the other lures. Fortunately spools for this reel are very inexpensive. I got this combo for bank fishing where I only carry a single rod, so I need to make it versatile enough to cover a few different presentations so if I end up miles from my car I am not locked into a single lure style. Even just running braid I should be fine with just frogging and punching, I will just have to be conservative with my casting when trying to get close to cover with the latter.

I am not following how moving to thinner braid will help with digging in or backlash-picking. I would be easier to break off I suppose. I am not really going to be fishing super heavy weeds, but I do worry a little bit about pad stalks. I do have a reel or two already spooled with 12lb YZH, which is about the diameter of 20lb mono, I might give them a try and see how it goes.

Hi, Picked up a new combo (*** *** A on a Fred's Magic Stick) to use for frogging this season. I also want to use it for 5-6" paddle tails and swimbaits, large topwaters, and some light pitching/punching. My plan was to fill the stock spool with 50lb braid on it for Frogs and pitching, and buy a second spool to fill with floro/mono for the topwaters and swimbaits. However, after a day or three of fishing with it, I am growing to hate the heavy braid. I don't like how it holds knots, don't like not being able to break off a snag, and really don't like how annoying it is to pull out loose coils or even think of picking out a backlash. Can I get away with using something else for frogging? I never fish really heavy slop, mostly pads and duckweed. Thanks

Hah, well, looks like I am going to be safe behind a wall of snow for a while. But don't worry, I am doing like 16h days all next week, so the weather should be fine! I am going to hit the local ponds today while the sun is out. I saw a bunch of larger than expected bass in one of them a week or so ago so I am gonna drag a jig across the entire pond until I catch one of them.

For real it is driving me crazy. Every one of the last few warm weeks I have either been gone or slammed with work, then when I have a few days off, the temp drops and the wind picks up. I have all next week off and oh lets see what it looks like; I guess I am driving north to chase some trout. The only place I have really fished for them is Daniel's Dam, I would love any suggestion for other nice spots. I have waders so I am primarily looking for places I can wade in bring the fight to the fish. I have the stocking schedule, but it is rather vague about exactly where the fish are dropped so it is hard to zero in on wadeable spots.

Agree on the first part, but my second choice would be a 1/16oz Keitech shaky head jig with a 3.8" Sexy Impact. It seems to catch as well as the Ned, but works far better when you want a weedless presentation. However, it completely disregards the "frugality" aspect of the MWF system.