papajoe222

This season, it's been the Bagley Balsa Pro Sunny B Squarebill and the Rapala BX Brat (the deeper running one). I ran through a few of the Bagleys before I found a couple that ran the way I like. That's the way it is with mass produced lures. I can't afford the hand carved ones.

I carry markers in chartreuse, red, blue and orange. Dips in red, chartreuse and lime. I also carry Sharpies in those same colors for adding dots, or stripes.

I dont use anything lighter thab 8lb. test, but I may give this one a shot. I use it in 10lb. test for cranking and prefer it to fluorocarbon as kinks in the line dont appear yo weaken it as much.

My Team Diawa Advantages. They have some years on them, but the've also seen a lot of use over the years. They're a bit heavy by today's standards, but balance out nice on the rods they're paired to. I upgraded to carbon fiber drag washers and used one of them on my bucktail musky rod for years.

I'm a big fan of Mustad TrippleGrip and Megabass Katsuage Outbarb Treble Hooks, which are excellent for catching fish that are slapping at your offering.

Thanks everyone.

I just have too much bass tackle and I finally decided to sell off a bunch. I don't plan on pricing each bait individually, but in lots of three, or five baits. I was thinking 3for$10 for cranks and jerkbaits, 5for$12 on spinnerbaits and buzzers. If you were checking out a flea market, garage sale, or answering an add on social media, would you consider purchasing used baits? If so, would those prices be attractive to you?

Whatever rod you decide on, try your best to get ahold of one to mount the reel on. An awesome rod that doesn't balance well with the reel paired to it can be a wrist killer, especially if you'll be pitching a lot during the day.

In general, I like fast moving baits in the summer. Spinner/buzzbaits, cranks and topwaters like the WP and Torpedo. The other side of my coin is slow, bottom baits and a Jig/trailer is #1.

I keep a flat rate shipping box in one of my compartments. When it's filled, I sell it as a mystery box containing fishing related items with a value I estimate of around $100 with FREE SHIPPING! Buyer Beware

That's what I was thinking

I've had a couple and, in my experience they (the rods) are no more or less sensitive than rods with standard guides. They are lighter and if you're chucking a deep crank for hours, that could be a benefit. I do feel, however, that an identical rod with conventional guides will outcast one with micros. If you use braid to fluoro, you're best off keeping that knot out of the guides. I said had earlier because I no longer have those two rods. the proximity of the guide to the rod blank was too inviting for my braid and it would wrap the blank between guides on a regular basis.

“Do you think there is physical or mental change to how a bass acts toward lures during a weekend vs a weekday on any given pressured lake? Do their bodies some how recognize there is more "boat noise" and turn off on weekends?” NO and YES A fish has a brain the size of a pea, without the ability to reason. They do, however, instinctively react to their environment. Their activity levels are a direct result of external influences (cold water, barometric pressure, position of the sun and moon, to name a few. They can, however become conditioned to those same factors and others like constant noise, or a certain lure. Boat noise isn’t one of those. You can fish a large marina on a busy week-end and catch fish with the same consistency as you would during mid-week. I caught my PB at the time, on a July 4th weekend mid-day, with jet skiers and pleasure boats constantly running by me. Fishing pressure and certain lures that they see regularly fall into a conditioning response. They don’t recognize a certain lure and avoid it. They avoid it because of the threat it represents. I don’t normally attribute human reactions to animals, but as an infant, you don’t know not to touch fire until you’ve been burnt or warned of the danger.

I've caught my share of bass by swimming an Arkie jig and trailer. Not the ideal jig to be using in vegetation. The big advantage a swim jig has, is its ability to come through vegetation without catching it. This is accomplished by the shape of the lead and the positon of the eye. The best retrieve I've found it to run a swim jig just over the tops of weeds and occasionally letting it fall into the weeds and ripping it up and out. With most other style jigs, you'd end up pulling up some weeds when doing this.

I pretty much live and die with these two for bottom presentations during the summer as I like to maintain contact with the bottom. I like the C-Rig for fishing vegetation using a tungsten weight (it seems to come through it easier than bulky brass), but I prefer the larger size of a lead, over a tungsten, football jig. They just seem to walk over the rocky bottom better that the smaller tungsten ones do. Your thoughts.

"Less action, and faster fall rate." That pretty much sums up summer jig fishing in clear water for me.

For me, it's my TD Sols, I own three of them and they're always on my deck. I've upgraded the drags and bearings on them, but even right out of the box I fell in love with them. All my TD's, two Advantages and a Fuego are hands down preferred over my Shimanos.

Those conditions sound ideal for throwing a spinnerbait. This time of year, I go with a smaller than standard willow blade and a fast retrieve. About the only thing I can add is to keep chucking them. Long casts in clear water, even on overcast days with a chop on the water. That, and repeated casts to targets.

Glen posted tip about just this, using 80lb. mono and running a piece through the bait and hook eye. I haven't had a bait slip down the hook, or tear off since I started doing this. I caught 21 bass on one Dinger before I changed it, only because it was chewed up bad.

I made a rookie mistake today and of course, it costs me a nice fish. I've been using snaps to attach my cranks for a couple of seasons without incident. The habit I've been lulled into is not checking my knot. There was I time that I was OCD when it came to checking my line and knots and retying when switching lures insured my knots were fresh. This happened on the third day after tying on that snap. Lesson learned, the hard way of course.

Aggressive/reaction baits trigger reaction strikes from bass whether they are actively feeding or not. Although most anglers think of hard baits retrieved quickly as reaction baits, soft plastics retrieved aggressively and jigs/punch rigs that drop quickly into a bass’ lair will get reaction strikes. A creature bait can be fished aggressively. A better approach would be a smaller, more subtle presentation, but yes, an aggressive presentation can work. It depends on a few, choice factors. Think of post front conditions. A spinnerbait bounced off a deadfall may work, but a wacky rig………

The biggest bass I’ve caught under and around docks have all had one thing in common; There wasn’t another dock within casting distance on either side. It’s basically isolated cover, kind of like that deadfall all by itself.

I have a problem with that 1500 number because it's based on the assumption that every angler in every one of those 150 boats is catching 30 fish a day solely on a Ned. I've fished club tournaments with as few as 10 boats (20 anglers) and few, if any, were throwing the same presentation. So maybe one in 10 boats would be a much more realistic number and that would bring the number down to 150 and that's assuming that the only presentation they used for 5 days was a Ned rig. There is no doubt in my mind that gut hooked fish have a low mortality rate and that we should take measures to avoid it. I use circle hooks on many of my soft plastics and almost never fish a finesse plastic deeper than 12ft. because strike detection decreases the deeper you fish (more line out).

Both depend on how fast the storm/front is moving in. I've seen a front move across three states in less than a day and others that took three days to do so. The easiest answer is to start watching your barometer as soon as you hear about one. That first initial drop of .1Hg will normally increase feeding windows and the faster it drops, the more it will affect the activity level of the fish.

Do you know what depth the thermocline is in the north section of the lake? You can eliminate the majority of water deeper than it. I would start my search on the east side just south of the neck down. That quick drop to 19ft. with a slow drop out from there looks inviting, more so if the thermocline is at or below 20ft. Any presence of cover, or change in bottom composition is what I'd be looking for.