NorthwestBasser

Nailed it! Flouro on my baitcasters except my frog rod, which has 30lb braid. I actually do use braid on my spinning reels though, 20lb with a flouro leader of 8 to 14lb test depending on what, where, and how I'm fishing... braid has basically zero memory from what i can tell, which is why I put it on my spinning reels. Flouro on a spinning set up has been disasterous for me! By the way, my preferred flouro is sunline sniper. Casts like a dream, backlashes only when I deserve it, haha...

Whopper Plopper or a good ole popper. Three pops and a pause, love the topwater strikes, exhilarating!!

Not for me... all my favorite lakes have pike and tiger muskie. I'm not feeding those sharks $25 baits!! They can have my clunns and strike kings. My brother in law bought some 110's, they sit in his 3700 because he is too afraid to lose one, why even buy it? Not like they're collectors items, yet... haha

Good question... just read through my club's by-laws and rules. It only says all fish must be caught by accepted and conventional fishing methods. Although trolling, live bait, a-rigs, wading, and flyfishing are not allowed. (Flyfishing has an exception if both boater and non boater agree in advance) so according to our rules I think it would be fine. In fact, keeping her hooked up all the way to the boat would be pretty impressive!

Yep all our local lakes and rivers get covered by northwest fishing reports. Come out to The Fishing Hole (tackle shop on Argonne) on April 15 for bbq, fishing seminars, and to meet some pretty good guys who live to bass fish! Aside from that, any questions you could possibly have can be answered right here on the forums, or elsewhere on the bassresource site. There are plenty of local fisherman here

Well, that answers that...

Well... this was just a funny thought that popped in my head. But thanks for the replies, I've learned a few things and it's been an interesting conversation!

Been watching alot of seminars and random fishing videos lately. There seems to be a theme amongst the pros that keeps popping up, fish are stupid animals with teenie tiny brains. Followed by good advice of keeping things simple, i.e. color selection, lure variety... But, if they are so dumb... HOW DO THEY KEEP OUT-SMARTING ME!? stupid human...

I use Rat I Traps and red eyes, depending on where I am fishing I'll throw chrome/blue back or a craw pattern. I also have some lucky craft lipless. In my opinion, there are some things in life where you shouldn't go with the "cheapest" option, like mattresses and lipless cranks. Doesn't mean you have to buy the most expensive, but you get what you pay for...

It won't actually air in its edited for television format for about another month, you can watch live following the links posted above.

Yes, the Salt Armor buy one get four is a real deal. Good company, large selection of designs, fast shipping. The buff itself is comfortable and does what it's made to do. Only complaint I have is that the sticker they said was included didn't come in either of my two order, haha

Every lipless I own sinks, not to say there isn't a floating version out there somewhere. I'd be interested to see this lure, do you recall model and manufacturer? Also, the only lures I know of off the top I my head with multiple tying points are blade baits. Again, that doesn't mean it's not out there, I just haven't come across one.

Lots! Any of the keitech style swimbaits and be rigged on a swimbait jig head in various weights that a med heavy or even a medium power rod with some good backbone could handle. There are also 4" swimbaits that aren't too heavy and come prerigged. The Berkley swimmin shad comes to mind, and they are cheap at about $3 for a three pack. Once you get a more sufficient rod I like the MegabassMagdraft swimbaits. The bigger the swimbait however, the less strikes you're gonna get, but when you do its gonna be a quality fish more times than not.

Original Rat-L-Trap... I have some lucky craft lipless cranks too. So afraid to lose them I rarely tie one on. Might as well be Christmas tree ornaments, sad thing is I didn't even buy them and I still think they are too expensive to break one off between a couple rocks or hook deep in a submerged log or stump! Such a wuss...

Football head jig seems to get caught in the rocks less, but the occasional hang up is still bound to happen... Rocky bottom fishing, it's a love/hate relationship!!

Well, like most techniques, you should let the fish tell you what they want. Although, I rarely burn a swimjig. Slow to medium slow works best for me on my lakes, just nicking the tops of grass or about a foot off the bottom. I did watch a video of a guy who said to swim them more toward a the top of the water column. He didn't catch any fish on the video, haha And don't be afraid to give it some cadence, vary the speed, give a few jerks here and there to let that skirt flare out and do its magic!

I'm a co Angler myself, I use a medium sizes tacklebag, it's the Abu garcia brand bag, it holds 4 3700 size boxes. One has stick worms, one has creature baits and jigs, on has cranks and jerkbaits, and one has swim baits. I stuff some extra bags of soft plastics in side pockets along with pliers, scissors, extra spools of braid and flouro, my facemasks, scale, finweights and culling tags. This size bag doesn't seem to scare my boaters, haha. I also have a backpack with raingear, some snacks and drinks, extra hoodie (depending on the weather) and a smaller Plano box with my terminal gear, hooks, weights, snaps and some extra jig heads of various types and sizes. I bring 3 baitcasters prerigged with what I plan to start with and a plan on what each rod can double technique as if I need to switch things up. And my spinning gear for dropshots. As far as getting a collection of tackle, set an allowance and stick to it, I've been in the dog house too many times with the woman over tackle purchases and have found if I just stick to an agreed upon budget life is just easier. Plus when you only have so much to spend, it gets spent much more efficiently and precisely. What that tackle is only you can ultimately decide. But some swimjigs, football heads, ned rigs and shakeyheads... deep cranks and squarebills, jerkbaits, topwater poppers/frogs, "senkos" and finesse worms, trailers for your jigs... that's where I'd start. After that start adding some swimbaits. If you start with keitech style swimbaits you will eventually gtaduate to harness rigs and glidebaits. At least i did...

Eastern WA here, many smaller lakes still have hard water although they are starting to break up gradually as we've had warmer temps in the 50's with rain and good strong winds. Bigger lakes in the areahave open water including the location for my first tournament of the year which will be March 18th. Yesterday, the water temps there were in the low 40's, but with nearly 60 degree highs and lows around 38, I'm hoping that will come up a few ticks into that 45-48 degree range by Saturday. Bass fishing I open all year round here, some entire lakes do have seasons but they are usually trout emphasis lakes and don't hold many, if any, warm water species. And there's obviously salmon and steelhead seasons as well, which also changes from one fishery to the next.

Once you find em... swimbaits!!

Those owner screwlocks look great! Gonna grab some for my rage toads... If you're having trouble with bait slide try a little dab of super glue or push the frog just past the hook eyelet, stab a toothpick through and snip it off, should hold just fine. I'd just use the screw locks though

Boy, this is one sport where every man truly has a shot to win it. Some relatively "unknown" could walk away with it, or someone like KVD could grab another W. My money is on Bobby Lane, but I'm rooting for Brandon Palaniuk.

Gammy dropshot hooks, nose hooked plastics, 20# braid w/ flouro leader. I've only ever lost ONE fish off my dropshot. And it happened during the strike/hookset. I'm fairly certain it was a tiger musky biting me off. The hit was more powerful than any bass I've ever felt and my line was cut clean... (??who knows??) So basically, I trust and love my gamakatsu dropshot hooks and have zero idea why you would be losing fish at that depth...

I won a pack of the dropshot hooks in a drawingat my monthly club meeting. I haven't tied one in yet but just playing around with them, I don't like 'em. Now maybe I'll fish with them and do great, but even still I doubt I'll be replacing my usual lip stickers with these. They do seem to hold a nose hooked roboworm/dreamshot and half shell in place really well. The company claims they will hold a fish just as well, I have my doubts. I don't feel like there is enough room in the gap. Also, I was curious how difficult or odd it would be say, baiting a plastic on the larger hooks Texas rigged. My good friend posted a review on YouTube doing just this and it was no trouble at all. But will they hook and hold a fish? Ice out is upon us, so I'll know soon!!

Shakey head over swinghead for me, only because, well... I don't own any swingheads. Any way, 1/4 ounce 10 FOE or less, I'll bump up to 3/8oz when I go deeper. I like a classic 5" stick worm. Sometimes it's a GYB senko, sometimes a Yum dinger... but mostly I use a locally poured Dirty Burd Lures THUMPER. They are super soft yet durable, and float well compared to a senko, which makes for some awesome action and they stand up well on the bottom. I'll even cut one in half and throw it on a ned rig in place of a TRD. I know, I know... should be elaztech, but these work great and it's a good way to get more use out of them when they get some significant tears.

I've often wondered this about Buzz baits. Since you can take off a skirt and say, just use a paddle tail in place, or the combination of both. Was the skirt or trailer that important, or just the blades churning up the water? Anyone ever tried running a buzz bait with out a skirt or a trailer, just a blade and a bare hook? Hmmm...