MassYak85

I'm sure it's nice but jeesh, you could easily spend 7 or 8 grand by the time it's all said and done rigging that thing up.

I catch fish on them but for me it's a crankbait. Most of my local waters get choked with weeds and rule them out completely in the summer for the most part. Usually a spinnerbait or chatterbait or just a swimjig are my go-to "search baits" because they can come through heavy cover better. I should start using cranks on some of the deeper lakes around me though.

Dude that's huge! Congrats! Must have been an insane fight on a normal spinning rod.

Don't get sucked up into "buying your way to success". Collecting tackle is fun and there's always gonna be perceived "holes" in your arsenal that you could fill. But success is gonna come 90 percent from just understanding the fish and knowing where to fish from time on the water and research. Sure some days a specific strategy might produce better and you might not be fully equipped but it's only gonna matter if you already are keyed in on fish, and at that point you're already doing pretty good probably.

Spent 6 hours in Whitehall. We tried the deeper section targeting steep banks and deeper structure. Spent a lot of time with the jerkbaits, got some nice perch and some dink pickerel but no bass. No luck on the blade baits but I didn't spend a ton of time with them, also tried jigs and a Ned rig. Water temps were 40.x Consistently across the whole lake. It was a nice day but a little windy early afternoon.

Helped my dad get his boat ready today, we're gonna hit Whitehall tomorrow afternoon. I think I've got a plan, just gotta stick to it and trust the process this early in the year. Whitehall isn't always kind to us, but it occasionally gives up some good days and good fish. I'm hoping for a good start to the year but it will be good to just be out there again, everything is still ice, snow, and mud up in VT and will be a few weeks at least until I can get the season started up there. Glad to be able to get an early jump on spring down here.

Anyone get theirs yet? I ordered a couple a few weeks back and haven't gotten any update.

Did anyone brave the hurricane and sub-freezing wind chills today? I was wondering, with such a strong wind out of the north do you think it actually sets up the south side of some lakes to be warmer than the north for a little bit since the wind is pushing the warmer surface water?

No, I know I buy too much stuff already, I don't need to feel extra guilty lol. Something I have always wanted to do is total up my TW orders just for kicks, I'm sure it's not pretty haha.

I didn't have problems with them landing that way, but if they went by a pad that was out of the water a bit and caught the stem it was sometimes an issue.

d**n that's a good idea, like Tom said surprised I haven't seen it offered by someone else yet.

My problem with the scum frogs and it looks the same way in the picture you posted is that the hooks are pointed up too much, which makes fro great hookups but if the frog turns upside down in any kind of lily pads forget about it that cast is ruined. But for sparser cover and open water great frogs IMO.

I don't use them much, probably should. But I've seen them do damage on river smallmouth.

LOTS of pictures. Like others said small springs and clips are gonna give you the biggest headache out of anything, open up the reel inside a plastic bag if you have to to avoid them flying. Once I'm comfortable with a reel I can pretty much strip it to the frame, leave the parts scattered in a bowl and put it back together from memory but if I'm not I get a Plano box and use the dividers to group parts as I take them out and clean them.

Good video! Sometimes I think I know this stuff then forget or abandon it when I'm actually fishing, good to have a refresher!

Probably going for the low hanging fruit here but Uncle Josh's pork trailers.

Those look like Paul Krew's? I've always wanted to order some but I've got enough plastics to justify getting a 30pk of something at the moment lol.

Usually until I drop one on the pavement. If they get dirty I just clean them.

I feel like I can never find "THE" spinnerbait where I'm happy with every aspect of it's design. One thing most brands don't have is a good trailer keeper. But I like your idea of doubling up the skirt. Most "bulkier" trailers like you said throw the bait way off balance unless it's heavier (over half ounce) and the skinnier trailers don't have enough bulk to get the skirt to flare out as much as I'd like. I like trailers though cause it seems like the fish don't swipe at it as much, other than pickerel which will just bite the tail right off. I'm gonna experiment a bit with tying a few of my own skirts with some hair like @king fisher said I think, and add my own wire keepers for the trailers.

Yea I figured. I've got a Muse Black 8' Heavy Fast, that thing is basically an oversized frog rod. I've got 65lb braid to 25lb leader. Should be up to the task but I've only hooked up with 68s on it no 8" fish yet. I set it up with 12/0 beast Hooks in mind. I got to "The Nip" around 10am. The lake was open.... Except about 50ft around the ramp. Figures. I went further south to Snipatuit and it looked promising. There was still about 30ft of ice only around the ramp, nowhere else. It's a shallow ramp but I only got out about halfway before I was up to the top of my boots. It was thick too about half an inch. The wind was picking up too and I didn't want to shred the sides of my kayak trying to force it out there so I just decided to fish from the causeway for a bit. The wind made it much colder than it was so I only stayed an hour. No bites on the Hudd. A couple other guys were there too. I'm gonna try from shore tommorow as well at other ponds, the wind is supposed to be better and a bit warmer. Gonna try jerkbaits and finesse footballs jigs I think.

I don't like the Uni to Uni for leaders but for this application I think it'[s your best bet. Ideally you're never getting down to that knot anyways.

I'm heading out tomorrow, I might stay local if I can find open water, if not I'll be heading southeast. Sunday I'm gonna try some new spots from shore. I've got a weedless 8" Hudd I've been waiting to get wet.

Most of what I've learned has been through this forum and YouTubers like Bassresource, Tactical Bassin, etc. But I do kind of wish I had a real world "Mentor" to fish with sometimes. It's one thing to learn how to fish a new technique, another to see someone put it in action and troubleshoot different combinations of conditions.

I fish righty reels and I'm right handed. It's how I grew up doing it. We're fishing for bass people, "stronger arm" doesn't matter unless you have twigs for arms. The fine motor skills you develop are what define your "dominant" hand. To me, something like turning a reel handle in a smooth circle fall in that category, to others, maybe twitching a bait falls more into that. It doesn't matter, do whatever is more comfortable.

Thank God that's a lefty or I might have needed to start building a new cranking setup. Sweet deal though.