fin

So I found a Chick Magnet, and it sinks. Is that normal? It had a little hairline fracture along the tail. I’m wondering if it leaked and got dirt trapped inside it. It still rattles. I tried removing the split ring and used a small Norman Speed Clip, but it still sank. Without the Speed Clip or split ring, it won’t swim because the lip doesn’t get in the right position. Maybe the previous owner replaced the hooks and messed up the balance. I think all my other flat sides suspend or slow rise.

I've never seen that. Pretty cool, but I always thought of a jitterbug as being an insect skittering across the water. I guess maybe in some parts of the country lizards might do that, I've never seen it here. But that thing looks like it's designed to look like a snake, and I've never seen a bass hit a snake. I'm sure it happens, but I fish one area has lots of water snakes and schools of bass come into that spot and feed on shad (the snakes feed on the shad that jump up on the rip-rap). Anyway, the snakes swim around all the time and I've never seen one get chomped. Anyway, I'd like to hear if you have luck with it if you rig it like that.

Nothing has been working for me lately, but I don’t hesitate to change what I’m throwing. Variety is what keeps it interesting. . A couple weeks ago I pulled out a walking bait for the first time in maybe over a year and caught a nice fish on it, so I have been throwing walking baits almost every day since. . It must be the year of the fluke. I’ve always loved them, but they’ve produced more than ever this year. . My trick worms are gathering dust, and they have been my go-to in years past.

Back when that pic was taken, everybody wore shorts like that. Anybody wearing shorts like are common now would be considered a dork. Only old men would wear long shorts, and even those weren't as long as today's shorts. Don't get me started on women's clothing back then. This is a family site. ?

I've made bladed baits from the end of a biscuit can, flashing sheet metal, and clear plastic packaging. Never tried a pop top.

That's as good a theory as any I guess. I think most of the ones I've found have just been floating, or sitting on the bank after rising water has subsided. I've found a few in trees, of course. I guess they are built pretty well. I've found some that look like they have been in the water for years, they are stained and paint is worn off, but they still work and the hardware is all good (besides the hooks, of course).

That's what I thought, but I didn't see that color/pattern on tackle warehouse. Maybe they just don't carry that one, or it's an older pattern. Edit: duh. I guess I overlooked it.

I was thinking Crocodile Dundee, but Rambo works. I don't know why anyone would want a knife like that. I mean, you might as well get a machete or a sword. I was trying to clear some fishing line from a tree, and a flat-sided crank not even connected to that line fell out of the tree. I hadn’t even noticed it hidden in the leaves of the tree. It quickly sank to the bottom of the creek, so I went looking for a branch to retrieve it with, and I found the little H2O square bill just sitting on top of a log. . I never found a branch long enough, so I took the line I had pulled out of the tree and wound it into a coil and placed the coil inside the hook on my fluke and used that to hook the flat-sided crank. Pretty sweet. It was like the fishing gods were smiling on me. . Anyone know what the flat-sided crank is? It’s got a circuit board lip. No logo on it.

Yeah, I can't believe all the junk I used to drink - always soft drinks or tea, something sugary (or alcoholic). Now I love plain water and black coffee, all I ever drink. I think that story of the engineer with his wife, child and dog that died within a few hours last year in the Sierra National Forest was a good example of how quickly things can go wrong. They died of hypothermia, but dehydration played a large part. https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Overheating-with-baby-Final-unsent-text-16928598.php

Everything but the hat looks pretty accurate to what I see at my lake. That lure setup looks dead-on. ?

Just watch out for otters.

You're right. I had forgotten about that. I don't remember if it was all plastics or just certain ones, but mine has some damage from that. I've got hard lures that I never use stored in it now.

I've got a Plano Magnum one-sided with adjustable dividers from the late 70's or early 80's that was pretty high-tech at the time. It's got some cracks and chips here and there, but it took a lot of abuse. I still use it for storage. It's heavier than modern stuff.

You mean how do people manage to lose so many Ploppers? I've wondered the same thing before, because I've found a lot of them and rarely lost one. The only one I remember losing was when I hooked a fish and it dove with the lure and went under a log and got hung up. Just this morning I lost a topwater lure when I hooked a nice one and she broke me off. I don't know if the line was frayed or what, but the fish nor the lure resurfaced. I'm hoping I don't see a nice fish floating in the next day or two. I do hope I see my lure floating.

Yeah, I go nuts when I don't get exercise. I walk every day. Sometimes the weather is too bad, but it's got to be really, really bad to keep me inside all day.

I got my health wake-up call several years ago and started hiking. While hiking, I ran into a guy that was fishing. I was surprised to see he was actually catching fish there. That got me back into fishing after having put it aside for a few decades. Most bank fishermen will fish as close to the parking lot as possible, so when you walk long distances, you’re more likely to fish areas that aren’t as pressured.

I've never heard the double hitch thing. I'll have to try that. I went through phases of trimming the tag short, but it seems like every time I have one come untied, it's when I've trimmed the tag really short. I quit doing it because it's not really necessary with 10# on a spinning rod, which is what I'm using almost always. If you don't pull that loop all the way closed and you don't notice there's a tiny gap, it can slip a little, and that short tag will kill you.

You tighten the Alberto twice, once for the tag and once for the main line. If you don't tighten them both, in the right order, or don't tighten them enough, and trim the tag too close, yes, you can be inviting failure, but the danger is more from coming untied than breaking. The point I was trying to make was that it should tighten easily when first pulling the tag end. If it binds up when tightening, you've already got a problem.

The fact that you can never know what other people are facing in their life is the thing that always makes me feel guilty after losing my temper with a stranger. I know better, but sometimes my temper is quicker than my sense.

Look at the knot real closely after you tie it, like with a magnifying glass. Sometimes you can see the mono is stressed/curled right below the knot. I think it comes from the way you weave. Like @LCG said, wetting your knot will make that less likely to happen, but if the weave is binding, it can still damage your mono even if wet. It should be real easy to tighten. If it's hard to tighten, you're probably not weaving it just right. The Alberto can be a little finicky - there are several little details in the way you tie it that can have an effect on it. Look at it real close after tying. Problems are always visible, if you look close enough. I sometimes use 200+ reader glasses to check it. If it looks imperfect, just cut and re-tie. You might be wrapping it too tight, or you might be wrapping it too long in length. I don’t think it can be overtightened, but you can stress the mono when you reach its limits. There’s no need to tighten it past the point the loops are closed.

Yeah, there are a lot of options. I'll wrap it around two fingers and then cut it with my braid scissors so that leaves pieces about 2" long. Sometimes I'll cram it into a plastic bottle. Sometimes wrap it around a stick and then tie a knot at the end. Sometimes I'll twist up like a piece of rope, and then tie that into a knot. When fishing is slow, I'll pick up trash thinking it will help my karma ?

I was picking up trash and fishing line, and fishing line tied to plastic bottles as makeshift rod/reels, this morning. The holiday weekends generate a huge amount of trash. Yesterday I saw a tire someone left in the parking lot. People bring their trash from home to dump at the park, it's unreal.

I remember a really nice tether someone posted in the Latest Tackle Purchase Thread (Bait Monkey Victim Support Group) but I wouldn't know how to go about finding that comment.