NorthwestBasser

Strike King makes their Rage Toad, similar to these except the legs are much thicker so when you break them apart they disturb quite a bit of surface water, deadly indead

I throw strike king sexy frogs normally but when I use a smaller frog I tie on a spro bronze eye jr. Casts like a dream, better hook up ratio than my sexies too, which I attribute to how the hooks rest against the body of the frog. Once I figured this out I took pliers to the bigger frogs and pulled the hooks away just a touch, snag a little more veg here and there but increases my confidence ten fold.

We fish boaters and co anglers all in one pot in my club. So, everyman for himself. Except that aside from a couple guys, every man is a really good guy. No boaters are purposely trying to back seat us co anglers. We're out here to have FUN! Our biggest pot of the year, 1st place will get a check for $1000- 1300, the other 9 tournaments 1st place will grab 350- 600 bucks. So if you win you get a little money, which is awesome, but it's far from the reason we do this. As a co Angler, I will pay my share of gas, oil, and wear n' tear... help launch in the morning and trailer it when we are done. We have a half water rule, I get to choose where we fish half the day, he chooses the other half. I don't and won't take the front of the boat, these are expensive machines that don't belong to me. I want to win a tournament sure, but only one co angler in our clubs history has ever won a tourney. Co anglers in my club fish to learn, to get off the bank or out of the kayak, and to fish new lakes and rivers. Don't enter a tournament as a co Angler and expect to win or be mad if you dont. It wasn't your boaters fault. Now, we do have one element that helps the boaters to be encouraged to give us "virgin" water, we have a side pot for team weight. Heaviest boat wins. So a boater can place first, catch big fish of the day, and win the team pot. Hasnt happened that way yet, but someone is bound to get lucky one of these weekends!

Probably an otter since a beaver wouldn't be eating fish. And if he was able to catch fish over a period of time, then I dont think it would be much of a negative impact, if he's still able to catch em then so should you since he didn't seem to scare them all off. But I'm no biologist...

Thanks you sir! I read about the floating part, the comfort against the ribs makes alot of sense too!

Navionics webapp, US boating like mentioned before... the free version is okay and will give you kind of an idea of what's going on down there, however it's only 10 bucks a year to upgrade to the PLUS and that makes a huge difference. Once you have that, select SONAR and you will have a very detailed view of the lake below you. But as far as finding fish, beating the banks and fishing cover is good. Another idea that works for me when I'm on my kayak without electronics is I find some grassy flats in about the 8 to 12ft depth range and throw a Carolina Rig, Texas rig or a drop shot. If they are there, they will find you, haha... I just drop a jig straight down to gauge depth of I'm unfamiliar with my fishing grounds and if you jig it around down there a little bit you will be able to feel what the bottom composition is, rocky, sandy, grassy, it all feels different and a jig is a great "feeler"

So did I miss some new (old)trend? I'm noticing a lot of guys have giant "tennis balls" on the butt end of their rods... is this a comfort thing, does it have a technical/tactical purpose, or do they just think that look cool? Someone out there knows... Nevermind, I found them... just floats.

Got a tear in my eye! Nothing better than fishing with the old man! Except for fishing with both Dad and Grandpa. And the only thing that tops that is taking my kiddo fishing!! Great post sir, best one I've read in a while!

I don't want to break any rules so if this post needs to be deleted I'll understand. I'm thinking of ordering some custome jigs from Fishing Frugal Lures. Basically, you go to their website and design a jig. You pick the type of jig you want, the weight and color of the head, a main skirt color, a second skirt color and an accent skirt color. Lots of options as far as colors and you can make an arkie, football, swimjig, or a spinnerbait... the pricing isn't too horrible or too amazing really. Just wondering if anyone has ordered from them and what was the experience like, quality product? Thanks guys!

Ya but still on my bucket list of legendary waters I wanna fish. Didn't realize the rules were that strict, sorry... also I'm not the only one to reference Mexican water, sooo....

It got me good, took my Brother in Law to my favorite local tackle shop, he always shops cabelas so I wanted to show him something cool and personal. I went in as a wingman, just to spend some time with him while he shopped around... walked out with a new 7'6" veritas 2.0 frog series rod, a 6" megabass magdraft, lunkerhunt katana, all black KVD sexy frog, and some dropshot weights and hooks of various styles and sizes. Oops!

Oh oh... and El Salto!

Toledo Bend, Tablerock, Guntersville, KY, Okeechobee, and the Ca delta, clear lake and lake berryessa... I guess that's my bucket list more than legendary, but some qualify in my opinion

As far as longevity and quality, of course spending more money is going to get you better equipment. What I'm about to say is purely my preference and opinion however. .. I buy the cheap stuff, not like gas station cheap, but Wal-Mart cheap. I get the pants and the jacket a size or two big to accommodate layers. I won't spend more the $50 for the whole shebang, if I can find it for 30, even better... only lasts a couple seasons at best. And yes I know if I spent $400 on some Simms gear is probably have it the rest of my life, I just can bring myself to do it.

WIll have to try those out Finesse Wayfarer. The dreamshots do get torn up fast, hence the reason I ran out of them. Good for one maybe two fish... or a few panfish nips like you mentioned, haha

And I'm certainly not saying I dropshot big plastics all the time. I prefer to dropshot smaller baits. The KVD dreamshot in watermelon seed is my go to. I first threw a 5" "senko" on a dropshot out of necessity. All they were biting was green and all I had left in green plastic was green pumpkin salty sinkin worms. Notice the sinking part, still hauled in two 4lbers with it. I do agree with what has been stated above, all of it in fact. I'm just saying finesse fishing doesn't have to mean small baits

I always get caught up calling soft plastic stock worms "senkos". I actually only have a couple bags of GYB Senkos. Many of my "knockoffs" do float enough to stand out on a dropshot. But you sir are correct, the GYB will not float... Well best for one situation isn't always best in others. There are obvious benefits to wacky rigging a 5" worm. Completely different on the fall and double the action. But that's not always what the fish are telling me that want. The nose hooked 5" has worked well for me.

I dropshot big plastics, including 5" senkos nose hooked, actually caught my personal best doing this exact thing. Definitely use the Palomar knot and be sure to drop your tag end back down through the hook eyelet. No, it's probably not going to stand out when not submerged. I always drop mine in the water just at the boat edge and make sure I'm getting the presentation I want before making my cast.

March 24th thru the 26th I believe. They are on Okeechobee fishing the A.R.E Truck Caps elite right now. And I've noticed the tournaments, at least most of them are not televised until about a month after the actual event

Basically lure manufacturers can't make everyone happy. So they try to build lures you can fish right out of the box, and LC builds some quality stuff! However, everyone has their own prefrences and tunes up lures to meet their own needs. Some guys take paint pens to the gill area, some tweak the line tie, and ALOT of guys swap hooks. Just takes a second and they sort of recycle themselves. You may spend some money on the trebles you prefer but you end up with a set of hooks you took off that can be used on something you might not be so picky about. LC hooks aren't bad, but I completely understand they might not be the hooks that you have confidence in, and we all know confidence is a huge part of this sport! Tight lines!! If you want to swap out hooks for lightwire stuff on your jerkbaits, try wrapping the shank with wire up near where the eyelet for the split ring is. Add a few wraps and test it in a tank or bathtub, tune accordingly until you get the results you're looking for.

Check out the Navionics webapp, it's free to look at and see if your ponds are on there. If they are, it's only 10 bucks a year to get more detailed maps. If that doesn't work, you could buy a castable depthfinder. The iBobber is pretty affordable, but not as much details. For a little more money, Deeper is a great product! Sends the info and scans in real time to your smartphone via bluetooth

Same here, when I'm reading pro tips and advice, I always substitute the word "shad" with "baitfish". As we don't have any shad here in Eastern Washington. I always try to pick out the important parts and remain aware that most of what I read is geared to southern waters. However, one thing I read really made sense to me. It was in regards to using rainbow trout colored swimbaits. A man stated that he wouldn't use the trout swimbaits because his lake didn't have rainbows in it. The reply was that if that troutless lake was one day stocked with 1500 rainbow fingerlings, you'd bet your @** all the bass in the lake would gorge themselves on the little guys. Basically, anything is fair game to a predator like a bass! I do like to stick to perch, bluegill, and trout colors with most of my baits but nothing out fishes a chrome and blue original rat L trap, and nothing in my lakes is chrome and blue!!

At weigh in, Swindle said he would rather throw a jig and not get bit than use that video game damiki rig. I found that hilarious, but at the same time, id use whatever I needed to stay above the cut. Swindle is the man by the way! Rooting for the Inland Northwest local Brandon Palaniuk to win it! !

Yep, used until lost between a couple rocks or barb deep in the side of a submerged log. Can't actually think of a time I've had to choose how to dispose of a hook... having said that, fill up some old glass jars, spaghetti sauce and pickle jars come to mind, and then recycle to whole thing. Safe from unsuspecting fingers and won't end up in a landfill.

Also a fan of the keitech swing impact, only issue I have with them is durability, one or two decent fish and they go into my bag of plastic to re-pour. Aside from that they are awesome. I love using a swimjig in shallow flats, 2-5ft of clear water with patches of grass. Imagine a fairly bare bottom with 2 to 3sqft clumps of grass sporadically popping up. I roll the jig in and out and around those grasses darting in and out of the open water and through the grass, it's a killer presentation and a ton of fun to watch! Sometimes you can't see a fish at all until it hauls tail out of a pile of grass to slam the jig. Almost as fun as the topwater frog strike, not quite though...