mbtharp1

2015 - Learned how to fish a lot of new baits, and have confidence in them. Goal for 2016- Sign up as a co angler in my local BFL tournaments.. tournament fishing ought to be interesting.

Depends on the situation. I feel that when you're fishing a body of water that has tons and tons of a certain kind of baitfish, or a certain size, matching the hatch could be counter productive. You need something that sticks out from the crowd a little bit in my opinion.

Braid to flouro is good, but I use braid to copolymer. Copolymer is much more affordable and doesn't stretch too much. On my spinning rod, I use 10lb power pro super slick with a 10lb leader of copolymer, about 5 feet long. I can still feel the fish thump my senko with slack in my line.

Most challenging thing - Putting together a pattern on a tough day Most rewarding- When your idea works on a tough day

I've had good luck with the crazy jig and crazy blitz. They have a good hunting action that I think triggers strikes.

When the water temps start to drop like that the bass come up shallow to feed on baitfish in preparation for winter. Ratl Traps mimic shad or other baitfish, and cover a lot of water at the same time, making them an awesome fall lure.

I bet you were shocked lol. When something like that happens it's hard to believe even though you're seeing it right in front of you.

Was fishing with my grandpa late in the summer, throwing squarebills. Found a bunch of bass that had pushed a ton of bluegill into the back of a cove. Started catching a bass every cast. Hooked into a nice one, and he wrapped me around a dock post, and broke my line. Tied on a new crank and kept fishing. About 5 minutes later, I heard a splash right next to the side of the boat. I see the crank I lost floating right next to me, and the bass swimming away. The bass had come to the surface and spit the crankbait out right next to me. My grandpa and I laughed for a solid 10 minutes, we couldn't believe it. Definitely my most memorable fishing moment.

Not yet, but we plan to go there early in the spring. Heard there's some hogs in Newton.

It's Clinton Lake in central Illinois

I've had good luck with them in cold water too. Didn't mean to let the cat out of the bag lol.

Did a little fishing on a local power plant lake last weekend, and threw together a quick gopro video. Caught nothing but white bass and dink largemouth, but it's still fun to catch them shallow in the winter! I'll be posting more videos on my channel, so keep an eye out if you want to see more power plant lake fishing.

New to the forum, but I've been lurking for a while lol. Did a little crankbait fishing at clinton last weekend, and made a quick video. If you like crappie fishing, check out my other two videos on my channel. If you've got a youtube account, I'd appreciate some subscribers I'll be putting videos out pretty regularly since I live close to 2 power plant lakes.

As far as paddle tails go I'd have to go with the gambler little EZ. Its the perfect size, and it's made of some tough plastic. It still has good action due to the thinned out part in the middle of the body. If you put a little bead of super glue on the jighead before you rig it, it'll last you for a long time.