txchaser

Summer: 1/2 gallon of water that almost always ends up with Nuun electrolytes 6 cans of flavored water, Waterloo, no sugar or sweetners. Some carbonated some not. 2-3 Energy drinks (Runa, Celsius) Quart bag of bacon. Super calorie dense, can jam some in my mouth somewhere in between something. Probably a 1/4 to 1/3 lb. It's a lot. 1/2 quart bag of pecans Winter: Water gets cut in half 24oz of coffee in a thermos + whatever is in my cup... Usually a total of 48oz. Plus the food. I've tried everything from a big production of thai chicken skewers to just forgetting to eat altogether, and this seems to be the happy mix for me. Sugar/carbs leaves me feeling kind sleepy and slow.

MH 3/8 oz 17lb tatsu, bellows gill (3.8") H 3/8 oz 17lb tatsu, bull flat (4") I liked the way it felt on the H much better, but both these baits are heavy, especially the bellows when it is wet. And I've only fished it on heavy weed edges.

seconded

I have a jika but haven't tried it. Deps Gill Flat in the right color came in yesterday. We'll see how they do tomorrow.

I was using a cylindrical dropshot weight. Heavy grass, no problems. In fact it did so well I'm starting to understand why some people punch with something resembling a tokyo rig or a super short drop shot (using braid for the dropper too) and a heavy cylinder. I have a 1/2 one for bubba shot, but they make them up to 1oz.

I have a few big 13" worms that were gifted to me and I had no idea how to replace... I was going to have to post a pic here. Turns out they are uptons!

I guess we all want different stuff. I like the unrelenting coach style, where I'm going to be better informed or better skilled by the end of the day. It's fun, but I'm buying a skill-up. Thanks to BR I knew to be crystal clear with a guide about what I wanted. My last guided trip was flyfishing on a float boat. We told the guide "we are here to get better and to learn, and if you aren't cussing us you probably aren't pushing hard enough" - seems like especially with fly fishing they get a lot of customers that are just there to mess around and only fish a few times a year. He didn't really need to cuss us but I think he got the point. By the end of the day he was starting to show me how to throw a mend during the cast, which I had never even seen before (not much of a fly fisherman). A+ day. I'd like to think if you told your next guide "Look man I get really flustered or nervous when I fish with guides, and I don't know why. I need you to help me stay chilled out." a good guide would know just how to help.

Boomerang long jaws. Back of the jaws for braid, front of the jaws for mono/flouro. Keeps them from getting dull on the part I cut braid. Or whatever pliers are nearby.

The thing I love about this place is how I can go in thinking I might be able to carry fewer sizes/brands/colors and come away with a dozen new ones.

Owner CPS hooks with an upsized CPS helps a lot on the super soft jpm plastics I'm thinking these floating senkos could be interesting on a free rig.

Assume I'm fishing in 18'-25' FOW, basically near the thermocline, and the water visibility is 4'. And if I'm fishing a big worm slow I'd rather have fewer, larger fish. I don't really have any good sense for how to choose a worm other than trial and error, and given that this is fewer, larger bites, can be tough. Worms from 8" (but fat) to 16" Ribbon tail or straight? Or even XL lizards? Color really even matter much at that depth given the visibility? If it does, just start with the standard four? Or something in the summer-ish plum/red/redbug/etc?

Free Rig with a Geecrack Bellows gill picked up some extra fish for me last weekend. Thanks for the thread! It's an interesting bite when you're in heavier weeds and they inhale it on the fall. I started erring on the side of "swing away"

Yep. With the wing nuts. Make a wrench out of a piece of PVC with a slot cut in it, you'll save a bunch of on/off time.

Sitting on top of the weeds, casting deep and retrieving to shallow has been a winner for me. My best guess is they are holed up in the weeds and are not used to seeing something coming straight at them from deep water. Or maybe they are out in the lighter grass after the line. Casting over a weed point can do the same thing. It's a real pain in the butt to fish - 100% of the time you are going to catch a fish or snag a giant pile of grass, but it's been a winning big fish presentation across multiple lakes and depths. I'm not sure on this one (ok pretty sure) that matching the crank depth to within 1' of the depth where the heavy weed line matters... I'm not making contact till the very end of the cast.

https://millennium-outdoors.com/product/b-100-gray/?v=7516fd43adaa https://www.amazon.com/attwood-Padded-Flip-Boat-Camoflauge/dp/B01CZ2ZEQU/ I had the attwood, and thought the millenium was going to be an upgrade. For me, it wasn't... I just needed a little bit of back in it. Millenium gets in the way on a small boat.

Reel like crazy till you feel the fish, then set the hook. No need to count. I had a day where I hadn't fished a frog in like six months and was missing 100% of the hooksets. It was a slack line problem.

Tried the site and noticed a much better reaction time with my eyes relaxed/defocused. On fishing, I think I need to be less surprised when I get a bite after a long stretch of nothing. Especially fishing a low-confidence bait.

This plus you can set the hook with your wrist vs your whole upper body if you are maintaining contact. I used to fish almost nothing but braid to leader. If you are moving the rod tip five feet and there's not much bow in your braid, there's really no where to go; that fish isn't moving five feet. Rod bends one or two, braid bow gets one or two, fish still isn't moving the last foot or two if it has any size. IMO longer leader is just patching a hookset that's too much for the setup. It took me a good bit of time to get used to hooksets after moving to straight flouro or mono.

How high are yall popping it up?

You definitely shouldn't look at all of the different styles and colors on the JDM sites then. 餌猿が買ってって言う！

Ah. I hope it works out for you.

Owner makes a specific hook for 'light hook on a stick bait'. I like the 3/0 for a 5" senko. https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Owner_Twistlock_Light_Hook/descpage-OTLL.html "Designed by bass fishing professional and world-famous lure designer, Gary Yamamoto, the Owner TwistLock Light Hook was created for rigging Senko-style baits and other thinner profile soft plastics. A lighter version of Owner's TwistLock Bass Hook, " blah blah

1 (just powerhousing the fish mid-jump) works for me sometimes but has felt less and less reliable over time. It's probably my default as I'm using heavier line/hooks. It might be that I'm not in a good starting place when I try the drag-sweep to just move the fish horizontal. It feels like it used to work a lot but now it doesn't... must be me. 2 (easing pressure) this has been really good for me this year, regardless of line size. As soon as I start feeling the fish come up I just let up pressure. Not slack line, just easing up some. Pretty reliable, probably over 70% of them stop making a surface run. 4 (a new one) for boatside, I fished with a guide who would have me basically stop reeling the fish in about the normal last turn and flash where the fish can see the boat, and let the fish do it's antics out there and get it a little tired, then finish bringing it in. Seems like it is helping.

See if they will lease fishing rights to you for a year, in exchange for reporting biology stuff (fish weights, presence of forage and predators, water condition and temp, vegetation type and health), ensuring the lake shoreline is cleaned of trash, culling as needed. Gives you a running head start with the new owners. And they can position it like "yeah theres a guy that takes care of the lake and all we have to do is let him fish it" .... It's a long shot, but high payoff.