txchaser

I wonder a bit about 6" and 7" senkos and whether they'll fit out the out-door.

To answer your specifc question - Pond Magic spinnerbaits Paddletail worm like a Yum Swimmin Dinger (or the bps version of the same), weightless t-rigged or with a light belly weighted hook. read this if you haven't seen it https://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/13845-guaranteed-to-catch-bass

I have two of the epixor 30's and a shimano CI4+ (5x price). I haven't felt the need to replace the epixors, they seem to be really well built. The difference in quality is real, but it doesn't change how they fish. If there was one thing I'd like different about the epixors is smoother drag startup, which is probably fixable with a regrease or a 7.00 carbontex drag upgrade. I'd buy them again if I was buying a budget spinning combo. If you have extra money put it in the rod. You may be a week out from some nice sales.

I fish local to you. Here's what has been working for me in our nutty fall temp drops: Owner flashy swimmer, comes in willow and colorado. With a Keitech fat impact 2.8 3.8 4.8, depending on what they want. I bought the 2.8 by accident, but they come in handy on tiny underspins and spinnerbaits. It's small, it's weedless, it's seasonally appropriate, and you can fish it lots of different ways.

It glows. I can't tell if it is from a bunch of organics or an additive. But if you buy the "bass retain the ability to see into the UV spectrum after early life" story, then it's got that too. It lit up enough that I'm careful to keep it off the line, just in case.

I can't speak to a bunch of different situations, but I can say that there's a lot less pressure out there, so it's worth checking out. Could be your own secret honey hole with little to no pressure.

My latest tube of original doesn't smell like nothing. It is pretty stinky - something like the keitechs but not exactly. I'm wondering if the tubes got switched around at TW. Anyway, the stuff works. No more bites, but they don't want to let go when they do bite it. I figure even if it is all in my head it is masking bad scents like sunscreen and making it slippery. By the way, megastrike + a UV light = a surprise.

I cut the plastic they come in as small as I can, then just keep that in the tackle box. Even the larger ones will fit if you roll them a little.

Still figuring out which 7" SI to buy, and the lowrance fishreveal (downscan+sonar combo view) looks really interesting... but I can't tell if it is actually useful in finding fish you otherwise wouldn't notice, or just a feature that sells finders but isn't that useful on the water.

I was way upside surprised with how well this worked putting rods in the truck. Not dodging rod tips every five minutes.

Thanks for the inspiration, I've booked a trip.

Ok so this sounds like silly angler tales, but it's legit. Published in Nature (reputable in science-land) and verified by an independent group too. It's not really memory, but it does say "it seems possible they can transmit life experience through their DNA in the form of methylation." https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/08/190808091403.htm Date: August 8, 2019 Source: University of Otago We are all familiar with the common myth that fish have poor memory, but it turns that their DNA has the capacity to hold much more memory than that of humans. Researchers report that memory in the form of 'DNA methylation' is preserved between generations of fish, in contrast to humans where this is almost entirely erased. In a study published recently in the journal Nature, University of Otago researchers report that memory in the form of 'DNA methylation' is preserved between generations of fish, in contrast to humans where this is almost entirely erased. DNA is often compared to a large book, with the words representing an instruction manual for life. DNA methylation encodes additional information that we are only starting to understand -- a little like discovering handwritten notes in the margins of the book saying which pages are the most important, or recording newly acquired information. In humans, these notes are removed at each generation but this apparently does not occur in fish. First author of the study, University of Otago Anatomy PhD student Oscar Ortega elaborates; "Methylation sits on top of DNA and is used to control which genes are turned on and off. It also helps to define cellular identity and function. In humans and other mammals, DNA methylation is erased at each generation; however, we found that global erasure of DNA methylation memory does not occur at all in the fish we studied." In recent years much attention has been paid to the idea that significant events such as war or famine can have a lasting effect on subsequent generations through the inheritance of altered DNA methylation patterns. While these 'transgenerational' DNA memory effects appear to be potentially important, because of DNA methylation erasure events during development, it is thought to be extremely rare in humans. However, because fish apparently do not have these erasure events, it seems possible they can transmit life experience through their DNA in the form of methylation. Dr Tim Hore, research team leader and Senior Lecturer, at Otago's Department of Anatomy, says the study's findings provide new avenues for scientists to study how the memory of events in one generation, can be passed on to the next. "Mammalian biologists have searched long and hard to find reliable examples of where altered DNA methylation patterns are passed on to subsequent generations; yet only a handful have been verified in repeated studies. However, unlike humans, DNA methylation is not erased at each generation in at least some fish. So, we think intergenerational memory transfer through DNA methylation could be much more common in fish," Dr Hore says. Also published in Nature Communications is a complementary study from the Garvin Institute (Australia), confirming the Otago observations. "It is really great to have immediate validation that our results are robust -- they used different techniques and developmental samples, but came to the same conclusions as we did," Dr Hore adds. The researchers hope this new knowledge into DNA methylation inheritance will drive new understanding into what molecular secrets are passed from parents to their offspring, ultimately, rewriting the book of life as we know it.

This is what I liked least about them. Not enough utility otherwise for the damage.

Thank you. Anyone have thoughts on the depth finder itself?

1) any advice on the best way to have a portable or semi-portable mounting system for electronics on a jon boat? I could put the transducer on the TM, but sometimes I fish boats that already have a TM on them. Kind of thinking something like what the kayakers have. Brocraft makes a shaft that I could mount on the other side of the boat, but I worry a little about it being fiddly or getting broken off if I'm grinding through weeds (thanks Grass Ninja). I might just have to get over it and not have the imaging when I'm on a boat that already has a TM. https://www.amazon.com/Brocraft-Universal-Portable-Transducer-Fishfinder/dp/B01FX7WMXW/ 2) I'm in buy once, cry once mode for the depth finder. It's likely to be pretty close to my face given the setup, so I'm a bit indifferent on 5" or 7", but I do need created maps as most places are unmapped, side scan, and I'd prefer HD/clearvue imaging. Are they pretty much all the same? I see a lot of "fiddle with it at the store and see which one you like" posted. But perhaps there's one better for this application. What am I missing? Any ideas or experience doing something like this?

Costa's Green Mirror most of the time, or Sunrise Silver in low light. Tried the Smiths Chromapop in grey and they were fine, but I could see a lot more with the GM.

Dangit this became its own tackle warehouse order; FLMB have been my nemesis recently. Tom are you in cahoots with the bait monkey? I was sure I had everything I needed, and then I read this post.

New lake, new weather, new question, but figured I'd just keep this thread instead of jamming the forums up with a new one. Over the last three or so weeks the water has started to cool off a little, which down here means 70-74 at the surface. Last 10ish acre lake I fished had 18" of visibility, no weeds. Some fish feeding near the shore sporadically through the day, seemed like smaller fish. All on the upper (nearest the dam) 2/3 of the lake. Minnows and small bluegills observed in the shallow near the shore. Shoreline configured with 2-3 horizontal feet (at most) of very shallow then a steep dropoff. Deepest 1/3 of the lake had either suspended organic matter or some sort of thermocline - about 6' off the bottom there was a lot of noise on the sonar, and the top of it was almost like a straight line. Nothing happening at all in the inlet/creek mouth 1/3 of the lake. No bites, no action, no nothing. Multiple giant (or at least seemed that way for the size of the lake) shad balls at 8-10 feet deep, usually in 15-18 FOW. Middle 1/3 of the lake. Marked a few arches around and under the balls, but nothing of size. Caught a few of them. Baits of the day were squarebills (not silent) and underspins with keitech. Probably another 5 fish on misc stuff like a fluke or a senko. Pitching to cover was returning no bites at all. Nowhere to really fish a frog, spook (bone) and small popper (white) got no hits. Thinking back over the last few weeks, I've noticed the size of the fish are much smaller, and the bites much softer. Not the same lakes, but it's been a pretty consistent theme, including catching the smallest fish of the year this weekend. I cannot for the life of me find the medium or big fish with electronics or my lures. As an example, this weekend I expected they'd be -up the creek mouth (maybe too early, nope) -in the creek channel (nope), -tight on cover because we had some weather, water vis dropped (nope) -points because they weren't anywhere else -shallow with the little guys that were rushing minnows (nope, or at least they refused to bite anything I threw at them) None of these three lakes were that big, and I certainly could have been more aggressive about staying on the electronics... but of probably 75 fish there were maybe 5 over 3lbs. I feel like I fished the whole lake, although the deepest 1/3 end didn't get much attention. Where should I be looking for bigger fish given the state of the transition?

Trip went pretty well, far better than expected. Boated around 30. Couldn't get anything of size, but mostly deprioritized throwing big stuff because I had two wierd breakoffs (need to check the rod guides) on 19lb armillo so I knew I needed to stop before I lost something that didn't float. I did keep fishing spots until the smaller guys had been fished out, hoping that the lazy fat ones could get to it. Not so much... biggest was a little over two. --This worked Ended up with 2.5 inches of cold rain. Water was 10 ft vis, and bluebird skies to boot. And 50% of the time no wind. There was a bluegill feeder, and when it went off the bluegill took a full minute to lazily wander over and start eating. Omen for a really slow day. They were not "on" in the sense that they wanted really specific things, and wouldn't touch anything else including a lipless, and a ned rig. I actually expected ned to carry the day, but I think the weedy bottom made it too hard for them to find it. 1) swim senko in GP/watermelon or watermelon/red flake no dyed tail, no bite. 5 and 5.5 both worked fine. Used an owner light CPS hook to get the fall to be horizontal for a bit, vs head down with a heavier hook. They didn't want it swimming, lift and drop was the winner. Why I tried this: they are magic? Seems to always work. 2) black/red frog fished very shallow. I had to try it, and it was impressive. Tied with #3 for numbers. Black/blue sprinker frog (white got no hits) worked about the same, but I could cover the open water faster. My hunch here is that there's enough cue of down dragonfly to trigger a bite, as they were feeding on them a little. Why I tried this: worked last weekend, and even though the weather was different it wouldn't take too long to see if they were interested or not. The one thing I'd do differently is to also try a gill color to see if it got the same results. 3) Willow underspin with keitech. Keitech color didn't seem to matter much but the dyed tail mattered a lot. Ticked just above the weeds on the bottom, usually in around 6-8 FOW. Worked better than lift and drop. Have hauled around underspins and never actually fished them. Why I tried this: The logic here was small willow blade and the smaller keitechs since they should be keyed in on fall feeding, and it was weedless. Trying to get a baitfish presentation that wasn't overwhelming given the clear water. 4) few on a bluegill jackhammer chatterbait at dark Why I tried this: I could throw it while trolling back in, and I've seen the bass turn on bluegills like mad at dusk so why not. Dark/dusk meant it might not be "too much" since visibility was reduced 5) Few here and there on other stuff like a Yellow Magic popper, but it appeared that they were reaction strikes on landing or sneaking up on them around a tree/bush/whatever, so I stopped throwing the misc stuff. Gp/chart (gill-ish) worked better than white or white/chart. I wonder if the clear water heats up deeper, faster. Surface water temps were in the low to mid 70's by afternoon. This ran a little long, but maybe useful to someone else.

So I didn't quite do this, but man it makes a mess in the reel when your old senko breaks off on the cast. This post was on my mind while I was carefully picking it out. Single SDJ working well so far. Seems like there's a lot more margin for error because of the shock absorbing of the whole line, vs braid to leader. With the benefit of hindsight I probably should have started with heavier stuff than a senko. I had a ned rig on my spinning gear so it seemed the next most logical place to put it. I get why everyone likes tatsu. And (but for the sinking line part) Sufix Advance (mono) is probably underrated. One thing I did notice is that I seemed to need less "swing" for a hookset than mono. Tatsu is really different than invisx on the memory front.

Just skip the lunkerhunt one. It's a train wreck.

Trying to move away from braid to leader on many of my setups, so I bought some 12lb tatsu to try it out. I've had really good outcomes with the double SDJ on flouro leaders, to the point where I can't recall the last time I broke off accidentally. Is the double overkill or single is just as strong?

Thanks yall. To add insult to injury, it's going to be about 1.5 inches (instead of 3/4) of 55 degree rain. It's going to be interesting for sure.

A bit of a thread necro, but it is an ongoing question, and it was this thread that helped me find a good answer. I have tried the boxes posted below for 8 months now, since the Flambeau mentioned above was polycarbonate. My objective was to have a compact ned kit with heads and a decent selection of colors. I don't need all of them out of the bag since they last so long. No warping of the box, no distortion of the baits, no discoloration. And really compact vs a bunch of bags with TRD's, TRD hogs, or the mini craws. Frankly the ones stored in the box are in better shape than the ones in the bag that are getting squared off from pressure. https://www.amazon.com/Aventik-Transparent-Polycarbonate-Multi-Compartment-7-52X5-24X1-08inch/dp/B078VHXFSY https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41h6HSJ9BjL.jpg