Airman4754

Kicker Fish Hightail. It cures all Shakey Head problems.

Ideal is white, black, and chart. 99% of the conditions can be handled by black and white. If it's one color I'd go black. They can pick it up pretty easily in every condition including at night.

Do you guys know of any bow mount TM's with a foot pedal that will fit on one of these? I thought the MotorGuide Bulldog would, but it appears to be a transom mount with a foot pedal. I want to get the 8' Sun Dolphin, but if I can't do a bow mount I don't want one.

The easiest and probably most fun way to fish for Spots in the winter is a 2oz jig spoon, a line counter, braided line, and a good finder. You can do this in every region. Just idle around out to the middle or to about 120' feet of water. When you find a ball of bait fish there will be Spots blowing them up. Kill the engine, get back over them with your TM, get them on your bow finder and stay on them no matter what. Drop the jig straight down to the depth they are at and just floss jig it, tip of your rod to the water, all the way up over your head. Bring your rod back down to the side a little so your braid doesn't get caught around your top eye. Just watch your braid laying on top of the water as it sinks down. When it stops before it pulls tight from the slack catching up Bill Dance that thing and the fight is on. Just make sure you stay right over them even when you're fighting a fish. If you lose the school you're toast at those depths. This is how we always Lake Trout fished and I just applied it to winter bass.

I use a 6'6" Medium/Fast Berkley from Wal-Mart and 8lb Flouro with some cheap baitcaster. I think it's a Silvermax. I think the whole setup cost around $80. There are only three lakes that I fish with smallies so it doesn't get much use.

It's not and I went with a bunch of different rod companies. My favorite overall has to be Phenix UMBX. I have four of them ranging from heavy swimbait to dropshot and they are fantastic.

I have Bub's punch rod and I really like it. It has the tip to go down to 1/2oz and still be able to flip. It's the only rod I've found that can cover the spectrum from punching to flipping docks and not be over or underpowered. Then I compare that to my Dobyn's 805 "Punching/Flipping" and it's way too much rod for anything under an ounce. Don't get me wrong, it's a fantastic punching rod, but if you're trying to flip 1/2oz craws into docks good luck on your distance and feel.

I was at the San Jose one for the opening day of the sale. I bought a Browning baitcast that wasn't on sale and I didn't get a military discount on it either. Apparently military guys don't use reels. I bought whatever the highest end Johnny Morris rod is and the discount was less than the military discount. I got some Speed Shads at a really good price though, and they didn't offer a military discount to the sale price. If I didn't just happen to be in the area for work I would have never went. I haven't bought anything from them in years. TW is cheaper 99% of the time and they give me a 10% military discount on absolutely everything even if it's on sale. I shant stray again.

In a word, yes. They stand up just the same. They use a salted plastic that will sink but it has pockets in them that catches air/water and makes them stand up. Because of this they are way more active just sitting idle than any other finess worm I have given the "bathtub test." You really don't have to do much, they do kind of do the work for you.

I've basically replaced the T-rig with jigs, C-rigs, and the shakey head. My production on those three baits has always been much better than the T-rig. I just don't fish it anymore.

I Shakey Head a lot and for worms I only use High Tails. The 7" has a bigger profile than the 4" but probably not enough to matter if you cut them down. I would recommend getting a bag of their 6" lizards to Shakey Head too.

http://www.sandmancustomlures.com Dan makes very good hand tied tungsten jigs at a really fair price.

How were you able to chip all the ice off of your window to drive anywhere?

I eat a protein bar before we launch. I take two cliff bars, a 32oz Gatorade, and 32oz water. I eat and drink when the big motor is running.

I'd get some 3/8 spinnerbaits and some Keitech, Kicker Fish, etc. swimbaits and some weighted swimbait hooks. You will catch fish and won't get board.

Sometimes we do, sometimes we don't. It has zero effect on the fishing.

I believe you. We have some mass number smallie lakes but they won't have that size for another decade. Did you have the hook set jerks in your sleep that night? My wife always tells me I do at night after we fish one of those.

A 4" Kicker Fish Hightale in Junebug on a Shakey Head in the winter produces video game type numbers around where I am. Good fish and keep crushing them!

Dirty Jigs!

I use the Z-Man ones, they are Elaztech. The 4" models will float a 1/8 bullet weight and the 6" popper model will float a 1/4 bullet, but you lose the popping ability for the most part.

We weighed her on two scales. The cheap one said 8-6, the more expensive one said 8-1. Caught her with that spinnerbait on the deck by my feet.

I'll echo what Tom said, they are great rods. I only have one Lami Pro-X 735 that I use as a frog/topwater rod for bass, but I have around twenty Lami's for salmon and steelhead from the cheap Cascade Pro models to the Certified Pro and G-1000 models. They are all fantastic rods. If it can land a 40lb salmon then it can handle anything bass fishing will present.

I run that rod and line with an Orra Winch reel.

Phenix UMBX 7'6" MH.

I think we have 22 tourneys this year. I'd like to break even in my entry fees with my winnings.