Phil B

I don’t know how well your local game wardens do their job but here in Missouri if you call mdc for a warden, you’ll get one within an hour. If they find ANY violations the? will hit the fan. If you have any complaints, just talk to a game warden and explain what’s going on. At the very least maybe he’ll check in on the violators and see for himself what’s going on. Because once he sees a violation he can’t not do something about it. Hope this helps.

I’d like to give my humble opinion. Yes it’s nice to catch fish every time we go out, but sadly that’s not the case. I love fishing but a lot of times I go just for R&R. I get in my boat and may not seriously fish but instead explore different parts of whatever lake I’m at. For me it’s always about getting outside and enjoying myself. Everybody has to do their own thing. Every time I get in a slump I go through the basics of catching fish and soon I’ll catch one. Just don’t get discouraged when you’re not catching, enjoy the day. I hope this helps in some small way. good luck!

For cheap T- rigs the berkley havoc is my go to. I really like most H2O products from academy. Zoom soft plastics are cheap too. I’m like a lot of other people, I can’t bring myself to spend $15 for one lure. When it comes to rods I use everything from cheap Quantum to St Croix triumph. And all my reels are either Abu’s or quantum. Hope this helps.

I personally like a Storm chug bug. I’ve only found the color that works for me at wal mart. It’s blue on the back with orange belly. It easy to work, casts a long way and won’t wear you out.

I think for me it has to be crank baits and jerk baits. I fish a lot of pads and super clear water and for me, my favorite has to be a T- rig and a frog.

I bought the yappa mouse several months ago. I tied it on and it wouldn’t wobble right. The soft cup was deformed a little. I ended up putting it in a warm place for a week in the package and it straightened out. I tied it on 10# mono and it worked fine. I’ve used it several times now and it doesn’t work any better than a jitterbug. I don’t particularly care for it.

Where I live, halfway between St. Louis and Memphis we don’t have much except for academy and wal mart. Academy always has a good selection and reasonable prices. They’ll keep my business.

I have no sympathy for poaching of any kind. Here in mo. our governor just signed a law increasing penalties for poaching. We have a new elk population started and three young bulls were shot and left laying. When you have people that knowingly take over the legal limits they’re hurting all of us. And with animal rights activists making a stink over hunting and fishing, it gives all of us a bad reputation. Sorry everybody but I had to rant a little bit.

I guess I’m an oddball. I’ll go fishing with a bait that I have the most confidence in and one that I’m learning how to use. I’ll save the confidence bait till all else fails.

Has anyone tried the Berkley choppo? I bought one last week and really like it. Compared to a whopper plopper they are almost identical, except in price. The Berkley is about $4 cheaper. Anybody have any opinions on either one?

I have had great success with Tru- Turn hooks. I fish a lot of super heavy vegetation and have never broken one. The shank is longer and has bait keeper barbs on it.

That sounds like a great idea. I'll have to try that. Especially with braid being so hard to cut cleanly.

I'm not trying to tick anybody off but I have a large pond at my house and it's full of bass, bluegill, Shad etc. I monitor the beds in the spring when the bass spawn, and I've seen bluegill team up and chase bass off beds to get at eggs and hatchlings. I've seen bass do the same to bluegills. I have fished the beds before and caught fish off them. If bass are released fairly quickly the swim right back to their bed with no ill effects. Predation is a fact of nature, whether it's man or another animal. Man is intelligent enough to make a decision on what he thinks is right or wrong.

I regularly fish in a lake with extremely clear water that is 75% covered in Lilly pads. I like to use a white spinnerbait with a split tail trailer with the tails dipped in chartreuse. The bass love it. They won't hardly bite if it's a plain white. Hope my opinion helps.

If you want to see if there is a difference in cheap and quality rods, go to someplace like Academy sports and pick up a cheap rod and a quality rod in each hand. Have someone click their fingernail on it at the end. Which one do you feel the click on better.