beardown34

While you are far from the first husband to try to figure out their wives on an internet forum, you would be the first to succeed in doing so I am in my 3rd year of bass fishing, limited to residential ponds for very short periods of time (90 minutes at most). Because I don't have anyone around me to share lures and tips with me, the only path to learning has been by buying for myself. The combination of plastics coming in 8-10+ packs, as well as the need to get to $50+ on most sites to get to free shipping, has led to an accumulation of tackle well beyond my ability to consume them in the foreseeable future. I am coming to accept that I don't need to catch every fish, every day. I am not and never will be a tournament angler -- ie there is zero financial impetus for me to be able to cover every single fishing scenario on any given day. That is allowing me to highly de-prioritize trying to collect every single lure for every single presentation. However, I don't think I could have reasonably come around to this conclusion without having purchased a fair amount of tackle to begin with (again, unless I happened to have someone near me who could share lures with me and teach me, without spending my own dime). Let's be honest -- most days a hook + stick bait will get you bit. At the same time, I acknowledge that I get much more satisfaction out of a texas rig or jig bite, as compared to a ned rig bite, and I definitely don't get any gratification at all out of a live bait bite (except for catching bluegills with worms I dug up with my kids). As such I do find it gratifying to have some variation in my tackle box. I have no idea what winter is like in Vermont, but here in the Midwest mother nature allows for a built in 3-4 months of tackle reflection. I find that a good time to re-assess what if anything I need, or what new things I want to try in the upcoming season. Also as the years go by, I have a better understanding of when BPS and TW will have their sales, and what they will have on sale -- and this allows me to not be so trigger happy because now I know if I don't need it this year, it will be probably just be on sale again next year. I also made a (in my mind, wise) decision to invest in a couple hundred bucks worth of TW gift cards over winter (December I believe), when they were 10% off. As for being motivated in any way by what your wife buys in terms of making your own purchases ...

I bought a bunch of Stanley ribbit double take hooks on clearance at DSG and it fixed the flopping over issue. The hooks are technically weightless, but compared to a standard EWG they are pretty heavy. It's more difficult to skin hook than when using an EWG.

Bahahahhaa guy was doing laundry!!! Jk

When I get the where are you call, my response is voicemail

The only thing I stick around with that skunks me for 4 weeks in a row is the person who can take half from me. Time to find new water!

Lol

I'll need to up my dad game if his 4-5 year olds are fishing baitcasters and thumbing the spool

Given that OP has stated his reason for using a snap, to allow him a more sensible fishing experience with his 4-5 year olds, the just tie direct and drop the snap recommendations may not be feasible for him. Another option that allows you to keep using R bend spinnerbaits (and buzzbaits) is to pre-tie a short leader directly to the R bend, and on the other end of the leader tie a swivel or a split ring. I'm talking like 3 inch leader, and considering it's a moving bait, it doesn't really matter if it's mono or fluoro or braid. This will allow you the ability to keep using snaps while your hands are full wrangling your little ones. One tip with this is whatever knots you tie on both ends, keep the tag end pointed towards the lure (away from the mainline) so as you're retrieving the lure, the tag ends don't grab debris along the way.

I'll kindly ask you to take back one of your bewildered question marks. I'm a fan of the Youtubers. I am learning on my own and enjoy watching them for both entertainment and education. My comment was directed towards the eventual flood of comments that always follow about how those guys don't know what they're doing and are just hawking products.

Gasp, a thread about YouTubers.

What power rod? I have 20lb on a BPS PQ1 on a medium light BC rod, 30lb on BPS PQ1 on a medium BC rod, and 40lb on a silver max on a MH rod. I had occasional snap offs on my MH rod when it had 30lb braid on it, but none since increasing to 40lb. I get no snap offs on my ML or M setups.

I'm just learning wacky rigging, and I've seen multiple times WayneP post his weedless rig, so I thought I'd give it a try. I got 5 bites in a short span this morning, but I didn't hook a single one of them. I must be doing something wrong. Please help! I start with 1/4" heat shrink tubing and cut about a 3/4" strip. I slide it up over the tail of a Zoom trick worm and position the front edge of my tubing at the back edge of the egg sac. I take a size 1 wacky hook (no weedguard) and insert the hook just past the barb into the front edge of the tubing (the part closest to the egg sac), where my finger is pointing in the first picture. I only take a small bite down into the worm, just enough to get the barb into the tubing, and immediately bring the hook back up through the back edge of the tubing. This distance ends up being about 1/4". I pull and turn the hook point, and pull the eye of the hook through the front hole I made, but NOT through the second hole. The eye of the hook ends up 'trapped' under the heat shrink tubing. I pull the eye of the hook up to but not through the second hole, and then measure up what distance/angle I need to re-insert the hook so it lays straight in the trick worm. I threw this on a Medium Light baitcaster on a BPS PQ1 with 20# braid and 10# yo-zuri leader. Like I said, I got 5 bites in short order, and was unable to hook any of them. I could believe maybe 1 or two of them were sunfish, but the last fish held on long enough for me to see it was a bass, but it was not hooked. My hook ends up looking like the last picture. I can see teeth marks all up and down the trick worm, including on the heat shrink tubing. ** So what am I doing wrong? Is my rod/reel/line incorrect? I find it difficult to cast a trick worm with my PQ1 and medium light rod, so I'll probably try it with my Medium spinning rod next time. Am I hooking the worm incorrectly? Is the eye of the hook not supposed to be left under the heat shrink tubing? Is it supposed to come out of the second/back hole? - I can see that if I pull on the main line, as if setting a hook, the eye of the hook pulls back towards the front hole, but is unable to come back up through the front hole -- is this preventing the hook from traveling far enough to hook the fish? Am I not traveling far enough when I go in and then come back out of the heat shrink tubing? I feel like if I use any significantly longer stretch of tubing, it's going to create an unnaturally long/straight portion in the middle of the trick worm. Am I using too small of a hook? I just fish small ponds -- fish are on average 2.5#. Am I setting the hook wrong? I usually just reel-set with an exposed wacky, but with this weedless rig I was setting the hook over my left shoulder (LH reel). Not a huge hookset like a jig or texas rig, but certainly more than a reel-set. Am I supposed to just set the hook straight up? Any input would be appreciated. My waters don't necessarily mandate a weedless presentation, but I'd like to learn how to use it effectively.

Talk about getting some females following to your boat ..

The wealth of knowledge on here is insane. Thanks guys. RoLo -- the issue of "tail wagging the dog" exactly describes what I'm seeing. Thanks for explaining that. I haven't seen any rolling. However, I am using the 4.5" version with a 3/0 hook (1/8oz). I will try upgrading to a 5/0 hook and see if it reduces the lateral waddle. Is this phenomenon seen with the Swing Impacts? And if not, do you presume it's because the paddletail is smaller and less aggressive? From that I recall, the Swing Impact produces a pretty fine left/right vibration of the tail, but the head doesn't move a whole lot. WRB -- fished on a jig -- you mean like a swimjig? or just a plain old jig head? I've tried it on a 1/4oz war eagle jig head, and the whole thing (head included) wobbled pretty vigrously.

Hey all, I'm trying to get more experience with soft plastic swimbaits and wanted to ask if this is normal. Today I tried out a Big Hammer Ring Hammer texas rigged on a 1/4oz swimbait hook with a screwlock. The tail definitely paddles pretty vigorously, but I noticed as I swam the bait closer to me that the head/front of the bait was also rolling back and forth, pretty aggressively. I think the correct term is the whole bait was "hunting" -- kinda like how the whole bait (head and tail) will rock back and forth on a chatterbait. Is that supposed to happen? I guess I thought just the tail would paddle back and forth, but the head would travel essentially in a straight line. I don't recall noticing the head rolling when throwing a Keitech Swing Impact. Does it matter if the keel weight is lighter or heavier, in terms of causing the head to roll and not just the paddletail? Maybe I only rigged the Swing Impacts on 1/8oz hooks. Or does the "big hammer" tail just cause such a violent roll, compared to the more subtle tail of the swing impact?

Thanks hunterPRO1. I personally have no idea -- Mike @ DVT checked it out so I'm sure he put things in the correct orientation. Thanks for helping me work it out Mike. Yes the spool is turning as the line is being pulled off. Thankfully I bought an "extra" BPS PQ1 when they blew them out for $50 earlier this year so I'll just use that for now.

So I sent the reel in for clean, lube, and drag washer upgrade to Carbontex (not from the original company). Spooled it up today and the drag still slips like crazy. With the drag locked down I can still pull line off the reel with my hand. Does this give anyone any useful clues, if the problem still happens even with a clean, lube, and drag washer upgrade? I peeled the line off the spool and the arbor knot was still tightly tied through the holes in the spool, and secured with tape. I think my only choices are send it to the original company and pay for repairs, or give up on the reel. I was gifted the reel and doubt I will be able to produce a receipt to prove it was purchased less than 1 year ago.

OP specifically asked about power pro Vermilion, which I believe was produced as a replacement for Red. I believe Red bleeds like crazy, from what I've heard. I spooled the Vermilion this year and haven't had any gear staining. I'm sure eventually it will lighten up and turn pink, but I have no staining concerns so far.

Do you guys have any great ideas for repairing the top part of a texposed stick bait? The part that gets damaged when you bury the hook point? I've come across strategies to save the head of the stick bait from getting torn up (barrel swivel, parasite clip, Damiki D-hold hook, screwlock hook). But even if you are able to preserve the worm head, that top part of the worm where you bury the hook to texpose it gets torn up pretty much after 1-2 fish. You can skin hook the worm a little to the left or right, or keep burying the hook deeper and deeper, but that doesn't last much longer either. I tried melting that area with a lighter, or brushing over that area with Mend-It, but neither of those really work. You guys have any ideas? I fused a fragment of an old/discarded worm bait onto the area with Mend It, with the intention of shaving it back down closer to being level with the top surface of the worm, but now that I look at it, I'm thinking of just leaving it as is, and burying the hook point into the new worm fragment, as opposed to back into the original worm. (May make more sense if you check out the picture) Thoughts? I know stick baits are cheap. I get some people won't go through the hassle of trying to save one. I'm just curious if anyone has any ideas. Thanks!

Please do!

You get that responsible talking out of here right now!

1) get married 2) have kids Repeat #2 (sometimes #1 too) The well will go dry in no time

No way! What area of Illinois? It's warming up in western suburbs but I wouldn't have imagined it was topwater time yet.

Dare we start thinking about topwater yet?

Thank you for your input Tim. I have no problem with the company, nor do I have any desire to make this thread about X is better than Y. Just trying to diagnose my problem and maybe learn a little bit while doing so. I'll send you a PM DVT.