Munkin

This is it, while I have caught fish on other lures in these conditions I stick with two lures. A 2.5 or 2.75" tube works a lot of days. The #1 bait period is a hair jig with bear hair working the best. I have caught several SM in the river at 34 degrees with chunks of ice hitting my boat on a bear hair jig. Bucktail, Fox, and others work as well still I will mix them with bear. Trailers, if you can find any a Uncle Josh Pork 101 is the best cold water trailer ever made and would bet money on that. Like others have said you need to find the wintering holes or where the fish can move from shallow to deep with the least amount of effort. If you are fishing a long shallow flat that is the wrong place unless there is no deeper water available to them. Try to find some deeper holes where they can just rise straight up from say 12" to 2' when it gets warmer to feed. Remember this is a cold blooded creature that has to swim constantly to survive. Allen

My favorite spinnerbait rod is a 6-8 Falcon Lowrider overall and in cases where I need a shorter rod their 6-4 Spinnerbait special. Tried using a Rainshadow MHMF bland and it was too moderate for me but works great for crankbaits. Allen

Just found Anglers Resource as well. Allen

Properly wouldn't be the word I would use but it does work great in my fire pit to burn up brush. Allen

Thinner hooks will do that and I just cut off the flashing with a dull exacto knife. Allen

Let me guess, loose head that wobble after pouring? Allen

Going to have to come down for some lessons! I love everything about those except I like uplocking instead of downlocking reel seats. Allen

Besides MudHole, JannsNetcraft where can I find components for the handles? Blanks I plan on using some RodGeeks and NFC so I am good there for now. Allen

Want to try one of these where can I buy one? Allen

My childhood memories of bass fishing were from the late 80's into the early 90's before I joined the Army. Beetle spins, Roostertails, and "Salty Grubs" that I use to buy by the bait out of tubs at Keystone Sporting Goods were what worked best at first. After the first year I started branching out into Rapala minnows and fat raps which seemed to work as well. While all these worked my first magic lure was the Slug-Go. I had seen the Slug-Go on TV advertised on TNN and a sports shop opened in downtown Hagerstown that was selling lures you saw when watching BasssMaster, Jimmy Houston Outdoors, etc. Well I bought some 6" Alewife Slug-Go's and tried then at the Antietam Creek which I always fished as I could ride my bike there. While I only caught one bass as most of the ones in this creek were 10-14" SM I had so many hits it was crazy. I went back to the shop to talk to the owner about what happened and he said he would order me the smaller 4.5" ones. Once I got my hands on the smaller version it was lights out! The next couple of years I would say 50% of all the bass I caught were on a 4.5" Slug-Go. Went into the Army and moved away from Maryland for 5 years, when I came back for some reason I bought a ton of Slug-Go's but never really fished then again? Guess I need to break them out again this year along with the Poe's RC1 baits that I bought 50 of but never actually caught a fish on. Allen

Facebook Try this one.

Facebook See if this link works for everyone? It shows how to make the lionscut hole-in-one flare skirts with a $5 tool. Allen

That series just didn't work well for me except the small squarebill bluegill ones. For small lakes and ponds that I know bluegill is the main forage that little square bill really catches them. Allen

Yeah, I bought 1k Gamakatsu 744 EWG hooks from Shorty's and they were like $320 shipped. Allen

Don't have FFS yet but it would make sense for a Tungsten head to provide a better return being a harder material. Additionally, a ballhead should present a profile that is easier to produce a sonar signal than a thinner minnow shape. Just look at our stealth aircraft for example. They put all those weird angles on them to deflect or lessen the radar signature. A cargo aircraft is a lot easier to detect that a stealth bomber. Allen

Is this from Confucius? Allen

What is that meant to imitate? Looks like a Blue Crab to me? Allen

Simons Sporting Goods? I won the 2/0 EWG auction if so for like $70. When it comes to hooks I will give anything a try if it fits my needs. That said the BPS XPS hooks are the worst hooks I have ever used. Half of them broke on hooksets so I threw them away. Here is a list of other hooks others like but I do not use anymore: Trokar= Every single hook in the 3 packs I bought rolled making them unusable. They are really sharp in the bag but the first time that point hits anything they are done. Owner= The matte black jig hooks rust worse than any hook on the market. Their cutting point is the sharpest hook I have ever used. After 2 full Plano boxes of jigs that never were used completely rusted I quit using them. Gamakatsu= One specific hook which is the 614 a 60 degree flateye jighook like the Mustad 32798. My issue with this hook is two fold; hook dulls really quickly and the barb is so small its almost a barbless hook. Lost a bunch of fish on these and couldn't figure out why they were able to throw the bait so often? Compared the barb to the Mustad hook and noticed the difference. Switched back to the Mustad and land ratio went back up. Since I make a lot of baits I am always experimenting with new hooks trying to build a better mouse trap. Jighooks I mostly use Gamakatsu and VMC, Trebles heavy Owners and Daiichi Death Traps, tubeheads Mustad or EC, EWG hooks Gamakatsu. Allen

If you start pouring your own heads costs go down and quality goes up. Problem with pre-made heads is they stick to a pattern of 3/8oz has a 4/0 hook, 1/2oz has a 5/0 hook with generally R3 .035 or .040 steel frames. Break out of the box and start switching up frames and hooks! A basic bullethead spinnerbait head can be poured for $0.75 with good components. You can start with a basic Hotpot lead melter a Do-It bullethead spinnerbait mold for about $75-100. Allen

Not even sure what this is supposed to be?I bought a large lot of JDM plastics a couple months ago and received a couple packs of these. All the odd JDM stuff like this I just put on the table at the last show for $5 a bag and sold it all. Guys that knew about JDM stuff bought all of it in like an hour. Allen

Tackle HD Ned Mite Bought some of these from TW to try out. Allen

Bear hair? I have been looking for some brown bear. Allen

Try upgrading the front two hooks to size 4. If you still need more weight wrap solder around the front two hooks. Allen

The bitsy tube is about as finesse as you are going to find. A lot of the other 2.5 to 3.5" tubes are fat compared to the length. Depending on the water depth a 1/8 to 1/4oz inserted weedless tubehead will work best this time of year. Allen

I pour a tiny chunk using super soft plastic. Really cold water I don't use a trailer.