Jig Man

Alberto's knot.

bassmajor, another technique you might employ is swimming the jigs over the tops of the brush piles. If there are any actively feeding fish they will be around the edges and on top of the piles. It is down in the middle that the old lazy mossy backs will be wanting something right in their dinner buckets. If you stay with one size jig and trailer and learn its fall rate, you can do a count down and slow roll the jig over the brush till you find the proper depth.

That is something that I would be interested in getting more info about, especially when I am throw those $20 jerks in shallow water next spring.

I use the Alberto's knot.

You might repair it with liquid rubber or it can be spliced and sealed with shrink tubing.

I have had lots of trouble with braid on cranks, tops, and jerks. I have completely quit trying to use it on those baits.

Since Mercury by far has the lions share of the market, I'll stick with them because you can find a decent wrench turner in every little town around most any lake.

A couple of things I do for brush pile fishing is: Down size the hook to a 2/0. It will come through brush a lot easier than bigger hooks and still give you good hooksets. Use braid with a (measured leader). When you are pulling it up a limb it will feel like a hack saw on a dowel rod. When you feel is go smooth then you are on the leader. You can expect that after (X) feet the jig will be against the limb and you can usually jiggle it over that limb and repeat the process until you get a fish or clear the pile. Those two techniques have saved me a bunch of hangups over the years produced some really good bass and walleye as I too fish a lot of big brush piles and don't ever move the boat over them to get a bait back.

There are times when a leader is a must. I use PP Hi Vis yellow and fish clear water. I didn't use to use a leader until 6 of us fished the same area one day when the water was pretty cold. Two of us were using PP w/o the leader and the other 4 were using mono. Well two of us got a good butt waxin' that day. Since then I normall use a fluro leader that I start out being about 4-5' long and attach it with an Alberto's knot.

My trailer on a spinnerbait is a hook. If I want more lift I use bigger blades.

Around here in MO bucktails aren't very good for crappie. They tend to like maribou or craft hair jigs.

I have no problem with them their warranty or price. I just wish I had 10 more of them to replace other brands I bought before I got my hands on a Loomis.

The big money around here for crappie dudes has gone to the guys using the Wally Marshall rigs trolling cranks on 2# line. That and the big guru using 1# line over brush piles.

Your size of brakes and whether or not you have a tranny cooler would be very important to me. Smaller bass boats and alums. don't tend to have trailer brakes. Stopping is very important. Summer time pulls even short distances can really heat up a tranny. I hear my cooler kick in every once in a while in July and August on trips of under 50 miles.

If you will put on 100 yds or so of mono instead of 10 then put on about 30' more braid than your cast length you won't have any digging in problems or fraying problems. I have some 30# power pro that has been on a long time and have had no problems like you describe.

6# mono and a 1000 reel is just fine. I use that in the fall and winter almost exclusively. I keep 10 on the 2500s.

I suggest that you find out the reserve amps of your batteries and next time you buy some get more reserve capacity. You need 180 or more reserve amps, especially with a 12 v trolling motor.

You will get a lot of different responses on this topic. Since I buy and make in bulk I can only take a few of each with me. I don't like to dig around through plastic bags so I use the plastic boxes and seperate them by types like beavers, jig trailers, craws, brush hogs, etc.

On the poison tail jigs he uses the same hooks that I use, Mustad 91768 BLN. They are quite good hooks.

This whole year has been crazy. The smallmouth and keeper lmb have gone away for me. I can't seem to get a pattern that will last more than a day or so. Normally this time of year rock piles and ledges get loaded up with smallies but not this year. I have resorted to making up a bunch of 1 oz jigs and plan to get "down and dirty" next trip.

I sent an old green Curado to a guy in Alabama. He did some magic to it and it will throw a light weight bait a really long ways now.

I'd mount the xducer on a board and screw the board into the boat above the water line. Lunds always came with one included so you never had to deal with leaks. https://www.firstchoicemarine.com/p-16508-rig-rite-transducer-mounting-plate-910.aspx

Since I make my own, I trim the skirts to match what I want be it finess with fluffy collars or full bodied. I do not trim weedguard. I may flare it but not trim it.

Since you already carry 2 batteries then you don't have an issue. Get the 24V and be a happier camper. The important thing about batteries is reserve amps. Be sure to use deepcycle batteries with lots of reserve amps (180-200). I am pulling a 21' boat with an 82# thrust 24V trolling motor. I can run into the wind all day long and not notice a drop in power at the end of the day.

I never have believed the hook rusting thingy. I have caught a few bass that had parts of hooks hanging out their butts that made it all the way through them and didn't completely rust out.