Kev-mo

were you or one of you throwing jigs in that first show? if so i think i saw that one!

x2 what Scott said i don't know that i would use the word lazy....they are still active in the winter just for much shorter periods of time and not very many of them are active at the same time, especially if the water is pretty cold (mid 30's). they'll bit tho!! if you want to educate yourself a bit on winter river fishing check out some of Jeff Little's stuff

LC 65 pointer is all i've caught fish on, picked up some duo realis 63 to try along with yozuri 3ds but haven't really thrown the last two yet.

silicone spray!! also wd40 is really not a lubricant vegetable oil will oxidize and become sticky and crumbly we tried the spray lithium grease on the hinges at work and it was okay but i prefer the silicone spray

also challenging in the spring when the cottonwoods let loose. otherwise no problems

Al Linder did several shows over the years on ice out smallies. believe a couple were on the same lake. he liked his xraps, especially pink (er uhh i mean bubblegum). the two same lake shows i remember best were all about flats that were a transition from deeper water to shallow spawning areas. believe they had boulders and there was also talk of sun, maybe a chop so.... if you buy into any of that (aside from the pink xraps) i would look for areas like that or a reasonable facsimile in your water

A Charlie Brown Christmas Also really like Trans Siberian Orchestra's stuff

they are slow sinkers like the rapala shadow raps. pretty sure the 'regular' pointers come in both suspending and floating models so really not a direct comparison. just another tool

used to use chicken livers, another option could be smelt, sardines etc. depending on price and availability

back reeling is how i learned to fish and there's days i think i should go back to that. since i mostly wade i'm usually carrying one rod and trying multiple presentations. i'll adjust the drag for say float and fly versus a bitsy bug. if i forget to re-adjust drag i lose fish like this past weekend when i lost what felt like my best fish on fnf cause my drag was a skosh too tight and i couldn't get my hand up to the reel quick enough.

which Tsurinoya Dragon do you have? there's quite a few to choose from....

i looked but didn't see it. is this a metal framed reel?

refrigiwear is what a few of used for ice fishing back in the day. it was good back then and i would imagine it's better now due to advancements in fabrics and technology. it was lite, decently windproof and offered some protection from rain with it's hard nylon? shell. with the right layers underneath we could sit outside on a bucket all day. also exceptionally easy to get into as the legs zipped all the way to the thigh and the torso zipper went from neck to waist. the suit also helped on some late march early april trips to lake norfork zipping around at 60 in a friends champion. at the time it was the right tool for the task. i'm pretty sure i bought it at gander mt so it was being marketed as a solution for cold weather sports, ice fishing, snowmobiling etc.

the 6.99 silent LC work just fine. so do the more expensive silent or rattling ones.

keeping my hands dry is key for me. i use nitrile gloves in 4 mil thickness and that works down to the low forties air temp. might try 7 mil this year. to fish in the mid to high thirties or with a lot of wind i need to throw some polypro glove liners under the nitrile gloves.

you could also hang/rig a strap between the grab bars in the back seat and put the butt ends in the storage area above the mirror. Two rods fit great, if you go with third you'll want to weave a towel or something in between them so they don't bang together nevermind - was thinking element not crv. what you you did was the best i've seen for crv

i get bass thumb now and again depending on the water (ph etc.) and how many fish i catch. however this past weekend i commented to my friend about 50 grit teeth on the one fish i lipped. i've also felt that the fish get thicker lips come fall/winter so maybe a yearly acclimation to conditions to heavily feed or maybe just an overall bulking up due to feeding heavily to survive winter???

X2 on the 'alive' part! i struggled mightily to verbally explain what a bite feels like to my boys. in the end they just had figure it out for themselves.

I use braid for everything also, just adjust the drag for trebles vs. single hook etc. The times I do think a leader can be beneficial is for a drop shot/finesse or when fishing toothy critters. For the drop shot I think it's more about fall rate and bait positioning when using fluoro as opposed to fish not seeing the line. Seems like heavy fluoro has been shown to be a good leader as we all know teeth can slice braid.

there was a study done (i could find it if i really had to....) it may have even been discussed on here at some point.... they found that only about 25% of fish would eat lures. they took it further with population and second generation fish etc. but the theory and i believe the conclusions were that once you removed most of the fish that ate lures the remaining fish were not inclined to be caught therefore the population was somewhat "protected". take it for what's it worth with controlled conditions etc.

it's been a minute since i listened but i'd say the dead milkmen would qualify

I was late to the RC STX party and picked some up when they were closing out the version with the yellow circle on the packaging. Those were the ones that performed the best for me in terms of catching fish and durability. They also had the more translucent paint jobs (closer to MB) and larger more one knocker like rattles. The version after that had bill issues. I fish rivers so hitting bottom now and again... anybody have ideas on what to do with a bunch of baits with broken off bills besides the garbage??

French pearl

Not sure what the gram weight is but the #4 mepps gold or copper blade similar to the pics you posted does well for me! You could throw that on your your current setup, altho 20 lb braid might make it easier.