Jig Man

It looks more like a pike than a pickerel to me but I haven't seen one in years.

We use lure dye and magic markers.

The 2d sonar from one to the other can be a problem. I'd set sens at mid 80s and see how it does. Use the 200 kHz sonar frequency and the highest number 800 I think for SS. I run contrast in lower 60s and normally 100 or less on side scan range. On 2d I use upper and lower limits to take away surface clutter. Ping speed on my console unit is set to 19.

I can see them better on down scan than side scan. For me on sidescan they are usually small white dots around cover. I think this is a big cat swimming under the boat. Here is a spoonbill swimming under the boat. Here are some white bass close to a school of shad.

Never. I know of no reason to run the gasoline out of any motor. I used to do that with a chainsaw until the tech at the shop said it was bad for the carb. He said if I were concerned then use a stabilizer.

X2

Measure the inside diameter of the hole.

I don't know if it would digest or not. I saw a similar instance once. I had a smallmouth on a jig with a beaver trailer. It jumped and spit the jig. The beaver was gone. A few minutes later my fishing pardner caught a smallmouth. While he was unhooking it, it spit up my beaver which it evidently had swallowed.

X2 on the xducer protector. I have one from transducer shields and savers.

I've never had a problem with the wire and some of it has been tied long enough that the rubber is about to dry rot. If you want to get into this easy, contact GMAN or CADMAN and have them make you up some heads either painted or unpainted. CADMAN also sells powder paint very reasonably. If you jump into this hole hog it will cost you a few hundred dollars for everything you need. You can get started with some skirts and or skirting material and pre made heads. That may tell you whether or not you want to proceed.

To me hand tied means hand made. I do mine 3 different ways: tie with thread using a bobbin and whip on the bucktails, tie with copper using 2 pairs of pliers on the living rubber jigs, and band the silicone ones.

Pom is still 5' up but the COE is pulling it .5' daily. The rain they are getting today may bring it back up. The bass were still in and/or close to the bushes yesterday. My neighbor and I fished in the am and caught 26 bass. probably 12-15 keepers. One strecth had spots and some of them were about 14". We never got anything over 2.5# and they looked like spawned out females but who can tell for sure. We caught most of the smack dab in the middle of the bushes on plastics. They would not take a jig for me or cranks. About 5 were on spinnerbaits and I saw all of them hit outside the bushes. They attacked from directly under the spinnerbait.

John may have them at Ztackle.

It could be a wire in the plugin came loose. I've had that happen on stuff.

You state that your buddy is going to make soft baits but you neglected to mention what you plan to make. My suggestion to you is go to www.tackleunderground.com and do some reading. Most everyone on that site is a bait maker. You can get info from the simplest to the most complicated bait making (soft plastics, jigs, swimbaits, spinnerbaits, etc.) Do some searches and you will be able to find instructions and pics of how to do most any thing you choose.

All you need is a long hose clamp.

I don't want to make the fish any more tired than necessary so I use at least 10 # mono and 30 # braid.

Nova I use down scan more than side when fishing under 25 fow as I can see something and drop a bait right down the tmotor shaft to them. I use side to find stuff along banks and mark wpts so I can go back and fish over them if the water is deep enough.

TEN I fish mostly with structure scan and look at limbs, logs and brush to see if there are any fish in or around them. That way I am not fishing blind. I use a Low hds8 with structure on the back and on the trolling motor. Here is a down scan pic of some sandbass hanging near some shad. I caught 6 of them after I saw them. I doubt I'd have gotten more than maybe one if not for the unit.

There are several resorts scattered around the lake depending on where you are fishing. Just south of Rouark Bluff is one with a grocery and the Son Sac Marine next door. Over by State Park in the middle of the lake is a motel. State park has cabins for rent in their campground. BTW: Don't pass up Bongo's Bistro and try the eggplant parmesian. If you haven't been there before, pay attention to the weather. It can get rough in a heart beat. I'm going there today for a 3 week vacation.

New batteries don't lose much fluid or do batteries that are not charged a lot. Older batteries or frequently used and charged batteries tend to need distilled water a lot more often. Most of the time you can pick an easy day like the First of the month and check them and do just fine. I have finally gotten tired of it and the mess that goes along with battery acid and made the plung to AGM batteries. Time will tell if that has been a good decision.

I had Aurora Canvass build mine 9 years ago. It still looks good and works good.

Yes it is. I went ahead and bought the double injectors with the adapter for doing lams. It works great. Now I can have any color tube that I want. My bubble gum sticks are working well but I am missing fish on the so I made up a bunch of bubble gum tubes. They worked very well Friday. I have never seen that color in a store.

I make my own baits except for topwater, jerk, and crankbaits. I have a bunch of molds most of which are homemade out of Bondo fiberglass resin. These molds are 1 sided and cost about $5 each. I also have sticks, grubs, and tubes in 2 part molds. I used to dip rods to make tubes but had to cut the skirt so I bought injection molds and injectors. That runs about $300 for the stuff to do 2 tubes with double injectors but with tubes being $50/100 now and I use about 200 per year then it won't be long before I catch up.

From 1/8 oz to 1 oz depending on how deep I am fishing and the cover.