Boomstick

12/5 at 7pm.

Sounds like a trip to Home Depot is in order then. Thanks

You're going to want at least a stronger medium heavy rod for throwing frogs, but probably ideally a heavy. I wouldn't even think about throwing a frog on a medium rod, you need to have the power to pull them out of the slop and set those large hooks.

I got a Daiwa Steez Bottom Contact rod and Steez SV reel and a small bait resupply, mostly soft plastics for next year.

Should I super glue the velcro to the inside of the hull?

You might have to buy some hooks from the same manufacturer to compare them too, but I wouldn't worry too much about it if the hook size seems to be about right for the plastic you're using.

We have a lot of milfoil at the bottom like this that's prime jig territory.

Cover is a fun way to fish a jig for sure. Often dragging a jig alongside cover too thick for the jig to fall through has produced me some nice fish as well. But let's not forget about casting a jig around structure as well. I've had a lot of success in some lakes with the deepest part of the lake not too far from the shore and obviously a fairly steep slope on the shore. In one case the fish would not hit a drop shot in the deeper areas, but what was working was positioning my kayak over the deep spot, close enough to the shore to where I could cast the jig right up to the shore line and then I would lift the jig and let it sink back down and do that until the jig came back to the boat.

I've literally caught my two largest fish in August and my second largest in September. 7 or 8 of my top 10 largest fish were caught in August in fact. I'm not saying August is the best month for catching large bass, but it's been my best month. I would say if you target spawning fish, the spawn is your best bet because you can see them in beds up shallow. If you don't target spawning fish then I would say mid August to October would be the best simply because the bass bite tends to be the best there but the most important thing is to be where they are regardless of the time of season.

Hey guys, So I bought the kids fish finders for Christmas this year. One of them has a Kaku Voodoo, so his setup will be in a self contained YakAttack CellBlock, easy enough. The other has a kayak and come spring, we'll be installing the fish finder. What trick does everyone use to secure a battery in the hull so it doesn't slide around? That's the only thing I don't know how to do

I would say it varies as you move up the ladder on the gear chain. For example if you have the bottom of the line reel that birds nests all the time on you and a pretty solid rod, you're going to spend your time picking out birds nests and not catching fish. I can catch fish on a Berkley Cherrywood rod and a Daiwa Fuego CT or Shimano SLX reel for example, so at the lower price points the reel is more important for sure. Once you step up to a usable reel, the rod is more important. If I upgrade that Berkley Cherrywood to a better rod, I will be able to feel what's going on better and detect some finicky bites I may not have otherwise been able to feel. Finally, there is a third factor which is line. This doesn't mean you have to have Tatsu or Shooter necessarily, but something that at least usable. Berkley Big Game is usable and it's cheap. But if I put P-Line fluroclear on my Daiwa Steez rod and reel, I might as well have saved the money and bought generic made in China rod and reel of which the brand none of us have ever heard of. The other thing to consider is purpose. I have a good number of Tatula SVs, but I didn't need a Tatula SV to throw a frog on (not like I'm skipping it) so I saved some money and went with a Tatula CT and it works just as well for that purpose. My #1 spinning reel is still the Daiwa BG I paid $40 for - it's a bit heavier than more expensive reels but the drag is solid so I'm not running out the door to upgrade it. I can't wait to get my Steez SV. And if it lasts me 20 years then it was a good investment.

Absolutely true! To me the only thing that really isn't is throwing it in grass where it's unavoidable. Often a T-Rig is better in these cases.

True, let's try for 7pm.

I'm looking at 8pm EST. I believe a few others said later would work for them too. And let's discuss winter fishing the timing is about right, specifically pre-ice because otherwise you'll get something very different than you will up here, which largely involves cutting a hole in the ice and throwing live bait or a spoon down.

Hey guys, I haven't sent out the invite yet but I am still planning for 12/5. I hope to setup the call later.

If I don't like the J-Fluoro, I'm going to give Shooter a try. In fact, I was all set to until I found spools for around $20 which is a bit cheaper. I've heard it's supposed to be top notch so let's see. I'm kind of thinking I should go with the 16 to see if I can get away with it, or the 20 and see what I can throw it into for the real test. I think what I'm going to do is use the 20# for the new jig rod primarily because it's the thinnest 20# out there, and then buy some 16# and put it on another reel that I'd use for T-Rigs usually as a test. I planned to buy a couple of spools anyway so that seems to make sense.

If I went braid to leader that would actually solve the problem but I was hoping for straight fluorocarbon, and being that I have one high end reel my goal is to switch as little as possible if that makes sense.

I made an effort to improve my jig fishing two years ago, but it really didn't take off until this year when I bought a kayak and could get offshore a whole lot more than I could in years prior which let me get into different scenarios where I'd fish a jig differently. Also my youngest son learned the jig along with me as well and he got a few too. Let's make this simple. You only need a handful of jigs. For colors, I keep it stupid simple. I largely buy primarily green pumpkin and brown jigs and keep a couple black or black and blues for dirtier water, which I don't have much of. If you have more dirtier water, adjust accordingly. For jig styles, go with the following: 1/2oz football jig (I do use 3/8 to 3/4, but 1/2oz will work well with most MH/F rods nicely and stay on the bottom). Basically fish these on hard bottoms where there's not a lot of weeds or too much wood and to fish it, drag it horizontally so you're dragging it on the bottom. 3/8oz and 1/2oz arky head jig. You can cast these on a MH/F rod. You can gently lift these and let them sink back down to the bottom, which is an all around effective presentation and way to cover some water, which is how I would start. You can pitch them into or right alongside cover, skip them under docks, cast them and even dead stick them. There's so many options. 1/4oz and 3/8oz finesse jig. I like a M+/F rod (typially 8-17oz line rating) for these. Smaller sized jigs overall work very well and they go through grass well too, thus picking up less of it. For trailers, get some NetBait Paca Chunks and Strike King Rage bugs or beavers to match your jig colors. Experiment with eac. Craw trailers is what I use most of the time and the arms will flap and give a lot of action, which can drive the bass crazy. A Rage Bug or Beaver will add some profile and tone down the action a bit. Sometimes they work better. For a smaller sized finesse jigs, the Net Bait Paca Chunks will still work, but my favorite is the SK Rage Ned bug, usually trim the end off just a little but and it fits.

The 15lb's breaking strength, soaked for a day is probably 27lbs, that stuff is insanely strong.

15# InvisX/AbrasX/Tatsu I believe would be the same exact diameter as well as J-Fluoro 16lb. I think 12# Yo Zuri also is the same diameter but don't quote me.

It very well may hurt resale. See if you can use that to negotiate a better price, if you can get the price right, it may still be worth it. Funny, I have personally heard of more problems with older ones, even when they were new than the newer ones, but that doesn't mean it's the majority by any means.

So this is less of an I don't know what I'm doing but more of a I can't decide for the life of me what to do type of question. It's been bugging me for days. So I have a new dedicated jig & carolina rig setup and I got a good price on some Daiwa J-Fluoro Samurai and I've heard good things so I'm going to give it a shot. What I can't decide for the life of me is what pound test should I go with. Most heavy weed areas where I would need braid are fairly isolated and only in some lakes and I have a flipping rod and frog rod with reels with braid for that, but there are areas I could see myself fishing with a fair amount of wood. I've been using mostly Berkley Trilene Flurocarbon 17lb and occasionally 15lb which is great for knot strength and pretty thick and quite strong and especially with the 17lb, in most lakes I fish I know I'm getting my lure back and a fish out with it if need me. The Daiwa J-Fluoro is a bit thinner though. The 16lb is .013 inches. The 20lb is .0145 (which is still thinner than the Trilene FC 15lb) and 18lb is somewhere in between. I kind of feel like if I'm going to step up to the 18lb, I might as well go one more for the 20lb, but in many scenarios I know I'd be okay with the 16lb line. So, please help me pick.

Sorry to hear about the PTSD, that's rough. As far as bank fishing, I usually limit myself to three rods, and often I'm not too far from the truck if I need to go back and switch lures. If I am further away what I will do is load up a small tackle box with lures that I think I might use. A 3640 or 3650 with the larger compartment in the right side should do the truck. If you have some idea where you're fishing and what the conditions are then bring what works and maybe a couple new things you haven't tried yet and if you have no idea just wing it and see what you can learn and don't even worry about catching fish that day just focus on what you can learn about the lake and spot and time of year, etc. The three rods that will cover most ground shore fishing are a ML/XF or M/F spinning rod for finesse, a M+/F casting rod, ideally with a slightly more moderate fast tip which can handle squarebills in a pinch, and a MH/F rod. Should there be some lily pads or heavy weeds, I might leave the spinning rod at home and take a H/F rod to throw a frog. I usually opt for T-Rigs or wacky rigs over jigs from the shore as well - it's just easier. One thing that you can do is look at lures you are throwing on one rod that can be thrown on a different rod. One thing that I can think of is instead of throwing a wacky rig on a spinning rod (which works), you could throw it on a rod like a M/F casting rod, or a MH/F casting rod. The way I like to fish wacky rigs the best is a tactic I learned from @Glenn in this video posted here which involves putting it on a jig head, which puts the hook off the bottom slightly and lets the worm wobble around, sort of like a dropshot but closer to the bottom. I usually use the Strike King Squadron jig heads, but you can experiment with different jig heads. This means can throw a 1/16 or 1/8oz on a medium rod, of a 1/4 or 3/8oz on a medium heavy. When it comes to paddle tail swimbaits with or without an underspin, you kind of have to experiment. You can try throwing a spinnerbait and see if that works. If you are getting short strikes, try a paddletail swimbait, and if that doesn't produce, try adding an underspin etc.

@Mike L no problem! I think you're going to like that rod.

Yup, exactly. If it's a hard bottom and not a lot of weeds, a football head is the way to go. It will pick up any grass you fish it through with the wide head. If it's a soft bottom but not "mucky" a football head can leave a trail of dirt which can work well but if it's a few inches of muck on the bottom then I would go with an arky head and lift and drop the jig (vertical drag) instead of horizontally dragging it like a football head jig. The other consideration is wood. If there is a lot of wood, I'll also go with an aky head as it doesn't hang up as much on wood. With minor wood, you're usually able to pop the rod with a football jig to set it free.