papajoe222

Wide range of possibilities here, so I'll give you a general answer. First off, remember that changing out hooks can effect the bait's performance. Second, use the best hooks you can afford. Third, change the split rings if they show any signs of rust, or failure to close completely and be sure the shanks of the hooks aren't so long that they tangle with the other treble. I prefer trebles with a little inward bend at the point. Not the point itself, but the gap smaller than the bend. IMO it makes it harder for the bait to come unbuttoned from the fish.

A couple of things I'd do and they're both quick and easy. Dip the tails of the rear plastic is dye like Spike It for a quick color change. If you still notice followers, pop your rod tip for a quick change of speed and/or sweep your rod to one side or the other. A quick change in direction/speed will often trigger followers. If it were a non-tournament situation, I'd make other suggestions, but these are the least time consuming and in my opinion, the most effective.

I can only speak for us northeners that deal with frozen water during the winter months. That said, the acutal temp of the water early in the season isn't as important as the direction the water temp. is trending. By that, I mean a steady increase over a couple of days will get fish moving and feeding. That could only be a few degrees say from 34-38 over three days. A steady decrease will have an adverse effect and will do so in a shorter time period, often within 24hrs. I assume this difference in time vs. fish reactions has to do with water cooling faster than it warms. Because of that, I will often take advantage of a light wind on the second or third day of a warming trend, especiallly if it's blowing into a shallow bay or accross a shallow point.

If I'm looking for a kicker and it's post spawn through fall, I break out the buzzers, hard or soft depending on the cover I'm targeting, If I'm still looking to get my limit, as much as I don't like to, I break out the spinning gear and smaller tube baits and head for some docks. Of course, if it's pre-spawn or spawn time, a whole different approach could be necessitated to fill out my limit, but I'd still give the buzzer top billing for the kicker as you can cover so much water with it in that short time frame. Yea, I'm old school.

I did this one time when I lost my LittleGeorge and didn't have a replacement. The blade I used was an Indiana and now where near as big as that monster. Guess you don't have any trouble feeling the blade thump and the fish don't have any trouble knowing it's coming their way. The question is; Do you catch anything on it and OMG, where did you find that blade?

Something I've done on a regular basis since switching to baitcasting gear decades ago, is to use slip bobbers as a means to control the depth of my presentation. I'd done it prior to then when walleye fishing and ended up with some nice catches of bass. Those big, baseball bat floats that you see a lot of cat fishermen using work fantastic with wacky rigged worms or small curly tailed grubs on jig heads and you can cast the set-up a country mile. You don't need to concern yourself with sensitivity as all hits ar visible and you can maintain exact depth coverage throughout your retrieve. This is how I've taught many beginners to present something to suspended fish and also as a way to learn depth control during a retrieve. Their ability to make a long cast has kept the interest of some young anglers long enough for them to actually catch some fish.

I still have some time on my hands before the season gets into swing and was wondering what the most wierd (or is it wierdest) modification you've done to a hard or soft bait that worked so good, you've done it to more than one lure? I'm not talking changing out hooks or dipping plastics in SpikeIt. I'm talking drilling holes in crankbaits to add weight or glueing two curly tailed worms together at the heads and hooking the result wacky style and buzzing it accross the surface. I've tried cutting the diving lip on a crank to reduce it's running depth, adding a buzzbait blade and arm to the front of a Spook to give me a buzzer I could use a stop and go retrieve with, drilling holes in a buzzbait blade to add bubbles to the trail, and many others. Some caught fish, and some were just a waste of a perfectly good lure, but other than shortening the spinner arm of a spinnerbait, I haven't attempted to reproduce any of those modified baits. So it's time to share your secrets. Don't be shy, you'll only be sharing with a few thousand die hard fisherman and if nothing else, you gotta give a penny to take a penny once in a while.

There is a small strip pit among the ones that are part of my rod and gun club's property. It is accessable on foot, but the best shorline is bordered by a bluff. It's easily 200 yards from the nearest vehicle access point so very few members even bother fishing it except in the spring when the accessable shorline becomes the prefered site for spawning bass. I love to fish this pit at night during the dog days of summer as these fish will hammer a black Jitterbug. My solution is to carry my 'belly boat' the entire distance to the water before dark and fish for three to four hours. Accessability is a little difficult as I'm getting up in years, but getting back to my vehicle in the dark and tired from both kick paddeling and fishing becomes an exercise in persistance and being able to avoid getting torn up by the wild brush that grows wild along the narrow trail back. Most nights, it's well worth the exhaustion and multiple cuts. On other nights, I've left that float tube near the waterfront and returned after a good morning's sleep to retrieve it.

The only time I use a plastic trailer is in the spring pre and post-spawn periods. It's usually a Kalin's grub or the tail section of a G-Tail worm. The reason I do this is to slow the bait down more than to add attration/action to it. I shorten the arms on most of my spinnerbaits and don't find a need for a trailer hook. The few times that I've felt a bump and added a trailer hook, I ended up catching crappie.

My favorites are small,natural colored baits. Zara Spooks for top-water, RocketShads for small profile spinnerbaits, suspending FatFree Shad and Fingerlings for cranks and french fry worms suspended under a slip bobber with the weight below similar to a drop shot. The difficulty with fishing quarries and deep clear strip pits is the lack of cover. The fish tend to use the available structure in their movements and if they're moving, they're very catchable. The problem lies in the fact that they don't move around frequently, but will suspend just off any structural breaks such as ledges or rock piles rather than close to or on the breaks. They could be thirty feet off a ledge, but suspended at the same depth as the break, if the water is clear and light penetration is good. Oh yea, If you can, avoid noisy baits. If you swim a jig, go rattleless. This is one situation where making long casts and keeping a low profile will up your chances a little.

I fish both the Bandit and Bomber square bills. There are differences in sound, body shape, bouyancy etc. as with most companies, there are big similarities and small differences. If you are confident in a particular brand, the only reason to try something else is if it give the fish something different. I'm not big on subtle color differences, so I stick with those two brands.

Any one of the 3,000 or so that I currently have. I really don't care. There was a good sized puddle in the neighbors front yard last week and I was seriously considering working a jig and craw through the grass in it. Anyone have a crying towel?

My favorite lure presentation after ice out is a blade bait. I'll keep it in the upper water column pumping gently on a steady retrieve. The other way I've had success is letting it fall to the bottom and using a similar retrieve, but letting it fall before continuing to reel. This are the two ways I'll use it while there is still ice on the water out from shore. I've even cast on to the edge of the ice and hopped it into the open water and caught fish as it fell toward bottom. Rarely is the water depth over 8-10ft. so when I say upper water column, I'm talking just far enough under the surface where I can't see the flash when I pump it. Once the water is ice free and I'm willing to launch my boat, I'll target the first drop at least a casting distance from shore. I'll sit on the shallow side of this structure and cast to the deep side of it. Once I contact fish, I'll move out to that depth and parallel the structure trying to keep in the strike zone. If I can't maintain fish contact I'll move back to the shallow side and repeat. Sometimes the fish will be active and aggressive and other times contact may only occur once an hour. In the latter case, I'll switch back and forth between the blade bait and a squirrel tailed Mepps pumped ever so gently during the retrieve.

If line visibility becomes a concern as when using a finess bait on pressured fish, stick with the floro. Try adding floation to your leader a few inches above the hook similar to the way walleye fishermen do. Something else I've tried is adding air bubbles inside plastic baits using a heated insulin size needle. It's a bit of work, trial and error, to get it down patt, but once you do, you can inflate a pkg of baits in no time.

Send it to me. I'll try it for different applications and send you a five page report when I return it at the end of the season. If you get it back (you never know about USPS), you'll have more research done on that reel than reading a hundred post from other anglers.

No, but I tie mono to braid when C-rigging so I don't see why that combo wouldn't work, especially if you want the added abbrasion resistance. I like the extra sensitivity when using braid, but I fish a lot of soft and sandy bottom water, so I don't worry much about nicks.

Try moving this topic to the Tackle Making Forum. Some of the guys that frequent there have years of experience in building and may be able to help.

The SuperSpook is the only bait I haven't changed out the stock hooks on. All of the ones I have came with Excalibre Rotating Trebles and I absolutely love them. If you do anything with the belly hook, just replace it. Removing it will change the balance point. As for them being too big for bass, I caught my biggest bass last year on a musky size Spook style bait. I've also caught some nice fish on other 8in. baits, so no, they're not too big. At least not for BIG bass.

I tend to favor red cranks in cold, pre spawn situations and will migrate to orange bellies as the fish start spending more time in the shallows. Once the females are off the beds, I'll start leaning toward more normal colors, both crawfish and baitfish. Although I don't use completely red lures the rest of the year, all my shallow running and daytime top-water baits have a splash of red on the forward underside and a red treble hook on the belly.

I'd describe myself as a power fisherman first with deep water as my forte, however when conditions dictate (spawn, cold front, etc.) I do like to work visible cover in shallower water. I do fish a lot of shallow water structure and cover, but mostly when I have a partner (wife) in the boat.

That's what I used to use at the END of the day. I found that because I didn't spend a lot of time on my feet at work or home, I'd be hurtin' by the end of a day of fishing. I would say try standing for 20 min. or so at a time. It could be that your muscles just aren't used to prolonged standing. I'm 63 and unless I'm out on rough water, I don't even put my pedestal on the deck, I stand and I don't have a recessed well for my t/m controll. BTW the best way to force yourself to stand more is to get out on the water more

I abandon a C-rig if I feel the fish have been pressured too much. Same goes for any presentation they've seen a lot. I'd go with a split-shot rig and french fry or a 1/4oz. football jig with the skirt shortened to just past the hook bend and add a small/short trailer to it. If I feel the need to stick with the C-rig, I'll opt for a bright or contrasting color (to the bottom) and slow down my retrieve to at least half speed.

I think lure makers are taking a page out of the airlines book 'How to cut costs and improve your profits" Between labor and the cost of that ring multiplied by 100K baits in each style they've got to be saving big bucks. Besides, it's not like you or I are not going to buy the product. Heck, we pay more for the name, not the workmanship or the finished product. I smell a conspirisy involving the split-ring and lure makers.

First time braid user? If you've used the reel before and had no problems, it may be the line's fault. Are you using at least 30lb. braid? If not, that is likely the problem. Braid is thinner than mono and will catch on itself on the spool because of the way it lays. Hopefully backing was used prior to spooling the braid. If everything seems to be the way it should, try setting the tension knob so that you need to shake the rod tip a little to get your bait to drop.

Hey Brian. Welcome to the board. We're always happy to see inquisitive newcomers. As mentioned before, a deep diving crank will give you a ton of information if you don't loose it to a snag. Even then, you've learned something. You can start with a shallow diving one, then a medium, and finally the deep diving one to determine the depth. Once you start bumping bottom, check the lip of the bait. Muck or nicks on the lip can help in determining bottom comtent. The other thing you can do is count down a jig or T-rigged worm. After casting, count slowly until you see your line go slack. Most baits will fall about one foot per second. As you retrieve it, pause occasionally, or cast to a nearby area. Any change in depth will result in a longer or shorter count. I have a ton of used equipment, including graphite and composite rods. PM me and we'll see about hooking you up with one.