Jig Man

Since you have narrowed it down to rock bottoms I use 3/4 oz football heads because they are big enough to not hang much or light weight banana heads. Since buying the poison tail molds, I am going to give shallow rock piles a try with the pt 1/8 oz jigs a few times. My rod choices are Gloomis and Fenwick HMGs in 6'6"-7' MH-H. Like GMAN I roll my own.

I just bought a new set of gate cutters 410507 from Barlow's. They do a great job of cutting and there is very little filing left to do and some heads don't need any. http://www.barlowstackle.com/acb/showdetl.cfm?&DID=6&Product_ID=2227&CATID=115

I prefer by my self. If I have someone in the back it is twice as hard to keep the boat positioned. I can tolerate someone in the back if they don't talk all the time and mess with my concentration.

I picked up a pack of them. They work just fine. Thanks G3.

If he wants to stick to that budget, he might look at the BPS Bionic Blade. They were on sale a while back for about $50.

I have done that for melting various sizes of lead to cast ingots but not to pour baits except one time with babbit because it wouldn't work in my lead pot.

If you are a first time boat buyer you will probably be happy with the Tracker. If you are looking at other boats look at the Xpress, GIII, Lowe, etc. If you plan on good service then you had better get a good local dealer because you won't get much from corporate.

Try the Alberto's knot.

Better add a couple of Xraps to your arsenal. The last two trips out we have caught 151 bass and the Xraps have accounted for at least 130 of the them. I could only get bites on the size 10 Xrap today. My pointers were useless and weren't much better on Friday.

I fish the spook post spawn. I do a double sided walk the dog, left walk, right walk, or dip. It all depends on what area I am fishing. I only use mono to fish that bait. I find it very effective in choppy water on long points.

I only use jigging spoons. I jig them vertically over structure and cover and I fan cast them and let them sink with twitches. If they make it to the bottom without strikes, I hop them back to the boat and make another cast.

I like the FLW beaver as a jig trailer but can't find them any more.

I have a friend with an 18' Xpress. It has large livewells, large rod lockers, a large storage between the rod lockers and lifts and rides like a fiberglass boat. He has a 115 four stroke Yammy on it. That thing will run better than 50 mph and only uses a smidgen of gasoline each trip.

I have been tying my own jigs since shep was a pup. I used to sell them but got tired of the hassel. I see nothing wrong with that jig. I like bright and unusual colors. If you want a good deal on some silicone skirts, check out www.fishingskirts.com.

I just had the most incredible jerkbait day of my life. My partner and I had over 100 bass on jerkbaits. We used a lot of different brands and on that day the Xrap beat my pointers like a left handed, red headed, unwanted stepchild. I had only boated one fish until I borrowed some of his Xraps. You can bet your bottom dollar I won't hit the water again without several of my own.

What kind of head, hook kind and size and what colors are you interested in using?

I bought a similar rod this winter for grub fishing. I sent an old Green Curado to Reel Mechanic and had him do a bearing upgrade. It mounted with 8# mono and does a good job with a 3" grub on a 1/8 oz head. Next time out I am going to try it on medium sized jerkbaits.

I have it and really like it. I bought it because digital scales never gave me a consistent reading. The Boga is certifiable. It works just fine on any size fish I have weighed. It also makes a good landing tool for large fish hooked on multiple treble hook baits. I don't trust myself or fishing partners so I have a rope tied to mine and the rope tied to the boat. I have had it for about 3 years and would buy one again in a heartbeat.

Not having stated the types of baits and sizes it would be impossible to give you sound advice. Give out some more info and you can get some suggestions.

I was needing a spare prop a while back and googled it. I found a great buy here in my home state. I suggest you give that a try.

Carry more than one style, size, and brand. Yesterday the fish wouldn't give my big pointers a look. They didn't like my Mann's deep jerk. They would, however, hit my Stacey King size pointers fairly well. But they were really in the mood for a little more wabble and climbed all over the Xraps no matter what color we used. Yesterday the Xrap out did the LC at least 4-1, but who knows what mood they might be in today.

We are in the midst of a really good jerkbait bite. I have been using them hard for a few days. It is generally windy and putting on the first one at home is fairly easy. When I want to change them there seems to always be 2 or 3 of them hooked together. Fooling around with them gets me close to a meltdown and gets the boat way out of position. Do any of you have good ways to keep them from fouling each other when in 360 storage boxes?

Myself I use Bass Boat Saver. It goes on everything except the carpet.

You can change the ping at the bow to 50 and the console to 100 and see if that helps. You can also stop the chart on the console unit while you are up front. That will stop the ping and stop the interference but leave the gps alone. The only way I could get my units to stop interference without stopping the chart was to put in the ethernet cable. It allows both units to look at the same transducer so only one is actually working and you have 0 interference.

We did a braid mono experiment a few years ago in winter cold clear water. 6 people in 3 boats. 2 of us used braid with no leader while the other 4 used mono. 9 out of 10 days I can beat all but one of the people using mono but that day I got a butt waxing that still has my hiny shiny. Since then I have been using a leader on any slow moving bait. I have tried every knot that I have ever heard about and had failures at the knot with all of them except the Alberto's knot. It has worked flawlessly for me for over a year. I have it on 8 setups right now. It is small and need no glue. http://www.stripersonline.com/Pages/Articles/article_arby_albertos_knot.shtml