Black Hawk Basser

Keep in mind that these are for the Elaztech baits. Regular baits will get tore all to heck by the weight on the shank.

Before my local lake was killed off and restocked, I used to snap-jig flukes in the fall near a neck-down inlet area with a bridge. Those catfish would about rip the rod out of your hand. I'm glad for the lake renovation, but I really miss that fall artificial bite. That was a hoot. Nowadays, the only place that I accidentally catch any cats are in the river, usually with crankbaits.

As A-Jay mentioned, softer baits will have a different kind of 'kick' than more firm baits. For instance, I really like the Havoc Grass Pig Jr and the B Fishn Pulse-R. I use each in different applications, because: The Grass Pig Jr is more firm and needs a little more speed to thump, and the main movement is just in the tail. For those reasons, I use them for jig/chatter/spinner trailers. I also use the regular sized 5" Grass Pig on a keel weighted screw lock, because they can be rigged with a large hook and not hamper action, as most of the movement is in the tail and not the body. I use the Pulse-R on jig heads, because they are much softer, can be crawled slowly and still have tail kicking action, and they have a much more pronounced roll/wobble to the body, lending the rig a very nice wiggle to entice fish in situations where you need to slow down and finesse them a little. I haven't ever had any Keitech swimmers, but I bet that they have a similar feel to the Pulse-R's that I use.

Sunk steel into 7 walleye lips over the course of a half hour on my lunch break. They were stacked near a bridge in a tributary to a river. A Ned head & 2.5" swimbait with a lift/drop technique was working. Going back to the office really sucked!!

Big bluegills are really prone to over-harvest, since greedy idiots like to keep every 9"+ fish they catch during the spawn. Good genetics is really important for bluegills. If people continually keep buckets of large fish, the gene pool can get decimated. Perhaps this is the problem where you fish.

I usually use tungsten bead head flies or small lead head hair jigs that I tie myself. Don't overlook small spoons designed for ice fishing. One of my favorites is the Custom Jigs & Spins Slender Spoon.

I've bought a lot of stuff from this guy. He always refunds excess shipping and is always a pleasure to deal with.

Try the Octohedron album. There's quite a variety of sounds on that album. For me, this one is pretty close to 'all killer, no filler' status.

King Crimson is definitely strange. Modern day, check out Between the Buried and Me. They'll go from blast beat death metal to polka, back to more death metal, and then into something I'd describe as akin to elevator music. And that may be just a 2 minute slice of a 13 minute song. Anyone remember Green Jello? They were weird. Edit: I'm adding The Mars Volta. I love them, but they're a little too off the wall for some people.

Yeah, this grinds my gears for sure. The other day, I was on a large dock that I regularly fish, and I do really well flipping around all of the boats with a jig/craw. As I was making my way up and down fishing the boats, one of the boat owners, presumably, came up to me and told me "Cast 20 feet straight out from the end of the dock with a rubber worm, you'll hammer the bass." I wanted to say, "I know I what the bleep I'm doing, and if you did, you'd know that there are probably a dozen bass all around us just under our feet." But instead, I just said "Thanks". After a little bit, I thought to myself that he was probably full of it, and just wanted me to not fish around his and others boats for fear of damage.

That's what happens when you catch your PB on a Jitterbug!

I just caught my best fish of 2020 on a BPS Popping Kermy. I've since upgraded to a Poppin Pad Crasher and I've caught some nice fish on it already. I accidentally ripped the legs out of the Poppin PC while removing grass, and now it seems to not pop as well. I think I'm going to take some skirt material from an old cheap jig, frog or spinnerbait and glue some back in the holes.

It seems to work to throw a slow sinking soft plastic after a topwater miss. But I've noticed, when flipping a jig, and I miss a strike, it has paid off to keep on flipping the jig in the same spot 2 or 3 more times. In many instances I've gotten bit again on the same jig after some persistence. Sometimes it may be a different fish on the same spot, but there's know way to tell that.

Try some small squarebill crankbaits. The Bomber Square A is my favorite - economical and effective. Instinct might tell you to not throw them from fear of losing them, but I really don't lose very many in my river. Now, jigs and other bottom presentations, I lose constantly. If crankbaits aren't producing, I switch to 3"-4" plastics on a 2/0 EWG hook. Zoom Flukes, Finesse Worms, and 4" stickbaits are good choices. Depending on the current and bait, I use anywhere from 1/16 oz to 3/8 oz weight to keep it down near bottom.

I fish a similar pond but it's an average of about 6 ft. My major baits when the grass is heavy are buzz toads/worms, frogs, and a variety of weightless plastics with a general purpose 3/0 or 4/0 EWG hook. Zoom Finesse Worms and Super Flukes are my two of favorite plastics during the summer.

My Walmart doesn't have any of these. If you count the plastics, these are cheaper than the jigs I make myself.

All this from eBay for $19.51. Definitely calls for some hook upgrades though.

Good point.

Berkley Havoc plastics in 'Bama Bug' have been great for me. That is kind of a green pumpkin/blue mixture. I don't do very well around here on solid green pumpkin. Take it for what you will..

All metal! Actually, I really get into progressive stuff. Between The Buried and Me are my favorite. I do get into a few classics from time to time, especially Maiden, and Pantera are one of my all-time favs. I don't really like the sub-genre labeling. It seems too snobby for metal and if it's good, it's good, I don't care what you call it. That said, I like a huge variety: Black Dahlia Murder, Revocation, Mastodon, Tool, Scale the Summit, Baroness, Killswitch Engage, Lamb of God, Intronaut, The Sword...I could go on and on. Holy Wars is such a good song.

I was thinking a 4" tube on a EWG hook, weighted enough so he has a decent amount of feel and less slack line to deal with. There's really no wrong way to fish a tube.

Reminds me of 60 Minutes last night - a story that featured researchers that found that probiotics may actually deter the promotion of good gut bacteria.

I set as soon as I 'think' I feel something, which may be between 1 and 6 seconds. ?

You'd see it in the Latest Catch Pics thread - A couple weeks ago my boy absolutely put on a clinic with a hair jig that I tied. It's especially meaningful for the both of us, because he's extremely interested in my jig/fly tying and he got a kick out of catching all of those fish on dad's creation. Also, it was the first time that he outfished me - almost 2 to 1 that day.

Slurped up my popping frog in open water and I barely noticed the take. I had no idea she would go 21". Best of the year thus far!