papajoe222

As others have said, one turn is one turn and the IPT doesn’t change because the handle length has. That and the fact that the IPT does change throughout the retrieve tells you that the actual number is a reference for determining the actual speed of the reel rather than using the gear ratio. I only used 6.3:1 geared reels for years and just reeled faster or slower adjust the lure’s speed.

I had to tie one to see where mine ends up. It’s on the bottom,not intentionally. If tied correctly, without the lines crossing, as I pull the knot tight, the loop is drawn under the knot. I don’t lube until it’s drawn down to the eye and then I pull on the tag end to eliminate the possibility of weakening the mainline.

I'm a firm believer in keeping things simple and that is most important to me when I'm searching for active fish. Because many of the lakes I fish are shallow, under 20ft., I don't graph a lot of fish. Between the outboard and the ping off my electronics, the fish tend to move away from that small area that the 'cone' covers. The system I use is to key on bassy looking structure or cover to probe for those active fish. To keep things simple, I use a 1-2-3 approach on those spots. In no particular order that involves a deep, mid-depth and shallow presentation and unless I'm zeroed in on a particular part of the water column, I'll repeat that process on the next spot until I find a possible pattern. This approach really shines when fishing standing timber or submerged weed beds. Depending on the type of cover, I'll use a topwater, spinnerbait, or soft plastic swimbait for the upper water column. A crankbait or spinnerbait for the mid-depth and a jig or T-rig for the bottom. To keep things real simple the first bait I throw is a tube with as light a weight as conditions will allow.If I'm lucky, it will get hit on the fall and the depth of the active fish will no longer be unknown. I can then go back over the spot with something that will cover that depth quicker. I'll also throw the tube before leaving that spot. Do you have a system for finding fish other than marking them on your electronics and going back over the area and targeting that depth?

Catching two bass on the same lure happens once in a great while. With the exception of an A-Rig, you're lucky if it happens two or three times in your life. It's an experience few forget, but the actual fight is forgetful. I love topwater (who doesn't?) and for more years than I care to admit, I've been using a little known, or should I say talked about, way of not only catching two bass on the same cast, but enjoying the fight from each of them. That little gem is called a FrontRunner. It's a little, single treble hook, floating lure not much bigger than a quarter that is exactly what its name implies. Attached to your main offering using a short piece of mono, it will dance in front of it. The dog days are the best time that I've found when this combo really shines. Sometimes you'll catch them on that little piece of floating balsa, but most times that main offering gets 'em.. For some reason, during the dog days you'll get one on each and because the two lures are separated, the fish fight independent of each other. The fish will, more often than not, be the same size, but on a 'rare' occasion that main bait will get a big girl with a dink on the FrontRunner. So why settle for two or three doubles in your lifetime when you could get two or three every summer?

I love the hook up ratio of an inline buzzer and the way they come through light vegetation without bringing some of it back to you. MegaChomp offers a single blade, but the heaviest they offer is 3/8oz. Their double bladed one comes in a 1/2oz. and both will give off a ton of noise if you rough up the rivet (it's already crimped). I still throw a Hart and a Cavitron because it gets some awesome blow ups.

Pick a soft plastic bait and mix up the sink rate. As you likely have found out, many bites will happen on the initial fall to whatever depth you're targeting or the bottom itself. ROF can be just as important to weightless plastics as it is to jig/trailer offerings. I keep a variety of trick worms and stick worms that have different ROF's for just that reason, but find a profile the fish like on any given day first, then play around with ROF.

That's great! To add to your new found success, get a topo map of that lake and locate where you had success. Look for other areas in that depth range that look similar, try to find 3 or 4. Mark those on that map. Now next time you go on that lake and mark baitfish at that depth, you have multiple areas to choose from and if you're lucky enough to catch a fish on a certain type of cover, or bottom composition, you can eliminate other spots in that area and move to another of your spots with that same combination at that same depth. You've eliminated a lot more water and saved time in the process and in a tourney, that's a win/win. BTW, when you get to one or another of 'your spots' don't leave if you don't contact fish right away. Change your presentation speed and possibly the actual bait before moving on. Believe it or not, off shore schools can and do prefer things differently than their cousins three hundred yards down that creek channel.

Sorry it took so long to get back to you, I was out of town for a while. I use good old bass casting weights. https://www.basspro.com/shop/en/bass-pro-shops-bass-casting-sinker Stick them in the tube, line tie first. Texas rig through the opening in the line tie of the sinker, then out the nose and finish as normal. This gives the tube that traditional spiral fall, in a weedless version, without using the stupid tube method. Been rigging 'em weedless like this for years.

I had a similar experience yesterday looking for 2/0 EWG hooks, I use them for internal weighted tubes and I've gone through all but two of mine along with a few bags of tubes. Simm's had free shipping for one day only, so I picked up two packs of hooks, 4 bags of tubes and two, deep diving jerkbaits. It's like any fishing gear store/site. You go looking for one thing and by the time you hit check out it ends up costing you $100.

I don't know if there is any proof of this, but I find that if I'm marking big fish a few feet off the bottom, I experience exactly this. However if by chance I'm able to see fish on or very close to the bottom, I've been able to catch them. Sometimes, they don't even show up on my electronics, but the spot 'tells' me that they should be there, just maybe not at the moment. This is my biggest obstacle to being successful, I forget 90% of everything I've learned and experienced as soon as I launch, but I'll remember most of it 30min. after I'm off the water.

Hunting for trophy bass sounds excitng, but it really isn't. Catching trophy bass is exciting and that's the reason those guys and others hunt them, that and the remote possibility of one being the world record.. I use that verb because those anglers are doing the same thing hunters do to bag their prey. Long hours spent scouring potential areas that a trophy may use. Then sitting on that spot for hours painstakingly waiting and when it does finally happen, doing your best to bag her. Your success rate depends on both your skill in finding spots, a little luck in a trophy being there when you are and a lot of skill enticing her to bite. All that still doesn't guarantee success as you still have to land her and she's had years of experience avoiding that. Gotta give them and Tom props for sticking it out.

I have a problem when it comes to fishing in the summer. I'm a 'power' fisherman. I like fishing fast moving, hard baits and that mentality really limits my choices of presentations. Burning a spinnerbait, or crankbait, or even topwaters are options that most anglers like me use. Years ago, I found another option; jerkbaits. Working one the traditional way like KVD does with quick, hard snaps of the rod tip doesn't work for me. I don't mean it doesn't catch fish, it does, but it wears me out in no time and I'm left with switching to the above mentioned options. Unless, I switch my retrieve instead. I'll fish it like a crankbait similar to how Bill Dance works one. If you've ever seen him do it, he casts it out, cranks it down and then works it with the rod tip going from 9:00 to 12:00, dropping the rod tip while reeling in the slack and repeating. I'll add a snap of the rod tip into every retrieve a few times and that's when the fish seem to react. I don't know if they follow it and that quick jerk triggers them to strike, but for whatever reason, they do. I use to do the same thing with deep diving, minnow imitation lures for walleye back in my college days. That is a killer on bass over structure like drop-offs. The only thing I don't do is bounce the bait on the bottom. This presentation works best fishing above the fish. If you're looking to show the fish something different, you just like trying out new stuff, or maybe you just enjoy catching bass, give it a try. Let me know when you out fish your buddies that are throwing other faster moving lure or soft plastics.

I'm with him on everything but leader material. I use mono, exclusively for my leaders. I want my offering up off the bottom. Fluoro, like heavy wire hooks, pulls it down. My favorite hook is an EagleClaw Lazer Sharp round bend worm hook. The only time I don't use that hook is when I choose to throw a tube. I like an Owner HayMaker EWG for them because of the bait keeper bend and the extra bite it offers compared to most others. I don't like using a Carolina Keeper, a lot of anglers like their speed and conveince as I end up with line twist. A swivel eliminates that and the extra knots are really a non-issue as I've never had a knot fail. f

Thanks for all the replies everyone. It really sounds to me like my problem is twofold. My hook-set needs adjustment from that old school cross their eyes one and I need to retie more often. I'm kind of in the same mindset as Get Fish or Die Tryin. I believe once fluoro is stretched, in doesn't recover and tensile strength suffers. The other thing I will try is adding a bobber stop between the knot and the sinker, like a shock absorber. Hey, it couldn't hurt and I just may have come up with something new that will catch on and someone else will make loads of money marketing.

Just an observation; over the years I've seen more posts from guys that have broken multiple rods, than the occasional one from someone that's broken one for the first time. Equipment failures are part of the overall equation. Multiple failures on the same piece of equipment makes one wonder if it is in fact the equipment.

You can apply this same reasoning to off shore, structure, fishing. I always attack an spot from different angles before moving on and it's paid off more often than not. A dock pattern is very productive on a lake I fish as there are so many that are close to deep water. I'll follow a boat or two down the shore, make my casts from close to shore out under the dock rather than sitting off the front of the dock casting in. I picked up my biggest smallie doing exactly that two weeks ago.

A friend (walleye angler) turned me on to fishing the 3in. version on a horsehead jig/spinner (think RoadRunner). I'm always looking to show the bass something different and although this combo isnn't much different than fishing a larger version with an underspin, they pair perfectly together. The light wire hook sticks them with little effort on my part and you can use most Med power casting or spinning outfits. What really got me hooked on these is their glow color option. At night, those things get hammered. They're affordable too as they come in 10 packs. Even if you don't use this particular brand of soft plastic swimbait, try presenting the 3-3.5in. ones on a small underspin jig Now I'm going to take a long 2-3 week trip until my buddy stops steaming after reading this. He told me it was a secret.

I fish cover on structure basically the same way I fish visible cover while keeping in mind that off shore structure often holds multiple fish. That's why I prefer a stealth approach with something I can cast well past the cover and still stay far enough from it as to not spook the fish. My #1 approach is a T-Rig with a pegged bullet weight. Tungsten is smaller and comes through brush and submerged weeds better than lead. I'll go with a tube if I think a slower fall is the ticket, but I don't use an internal jig, I just T-rig with an internal weight to give it that spiral fall. If a reaction strike is called for, a heavy, double willow bladed spinnerbait run fast through, or just above the cover hangs up less than a crank and can draw some hard strikes. Cracking a tube doesn't require changing rods/baits and will get them also. I'll go back over the spot with the slower approaches if I catch a couple and the action dies. Talk about a flash back. I haven't seen or heard about a Rinky Dink in years. AS far as I can recall, they aren't made anymore.I know some outfit is marketing a very similar bait a Wink Dink I think it's called.

I've never been a fan of fluorocarbon line. My issue(s) with it are due to the line breaking at the most inopportune time. When I first began using it, small kinks in the line that I'd reeled over would end up breaking 30-40ft. up the line. I figured that one out, but since day one, I've had knot issues with single hook presentations. I'm a 'cross their eyes' guy and thought my hookset was the culprit, so I eased up and went to more of a reel and set approach. I ended up loosing fish that came unbuttoned. I've tried many different knots, from Palomar to Double Pitzen an most everything inbetween. About the only one I haven't had issues with is a snell knot, but I have trouble tying one on the water. For those of you that use an aggressive hook-set with jigs and T-rigs, What knot are you using? I can tie a perfect Palomar, Trilene, and SanDiego Jam and, yes, I do wet before tightening down the knot and I do so slowly.

It depends on the cover, if any, water clarity, and what kind of jig I’m throwing. If you’re talking about a typical, skirted bass jig and trailer, I’m using straight braid, even when dragging along the bottom.

Another thank you going out to all the members here for singing the praises of the drop-shot. Anyone that's been around here for a while knows I'm not much of a finnesse guy. A split-shot rig or a Bitsy Bug with a small trailer were my reluctant choices and I always start my day with power presentations. That was the way things started on the 4th with only one dink on a soft plastic swimbait for two hours of effort on my part. The fish were holding just off the bottom which was covered with 'snot' moss and I had a difficult time presenting anything without bringing it back without a gob of the stuff attached. The drop-shot seemed like the perfect solution, but it was another hour before I reluctantly tied on on. Working a sharp drop from shallow to deep I boated three fish in ten minutes and five more in the hour I had left to fish. The sinker would come back covered in moss, but the hook was clean, or stuck in a fish's mouth. That totally convinced me that this technique isn't just for tough conditions. If you can locate fish on or close to the bottom, it's the perfect presentation. Thanks again. Whoever said: "you can't teach an old dog new tricks," wasn't talking about old anglers.....stubborn ones, maybe.

1?4oz. or under, MHX 843 paired with a Daiwa Viento. 5/16oz and over, St.Croix Mojo Bass MBC70HF paired to a Diawa TD Advantage. That MHX blank is a bit on the stiff side for the lighter weights, but with a big worm, I can still get 25yrds. from a cast.

In no particular order: Buzzbait, Ole Monster, or 10in. Culprit, 1/2oz. jig/RageTail, Super Spook. What I basically do is eliminate the middle of the water column and concentrate on the top or bottom. I'll often dead stick the worm or Spook a number of times during a retrieve.

I've followed boats down a row of docks and seen guys throw lures with three sets of trebles at a dock with a ladder on the side they're casting to get hung on the ladder and yank on their line rather than go get it unstuck. I've also seen guys 'pitch' jigs onto a docks canopy and get hung up. Many of the docks on this lake have large river rock at the base of the wood pillars and are excellent fish holders, but sadly a lot of those same docks have twine run across the top and underside of the dock to discourage anglers and the owners will say something to fishermen if they're home. Can't really blame them, just nod and move to the next one.

wishing him the best. The P/T is a pain both physically and mentally, but it's the best bet for recovery. I have no idea why it, surgery, affects your balance, but I wear an inflatable PFD all the time now. It paid dividends two weeks ago when I did a header off the stern. Hopefully he's back on the water in no time.