Jig Man

I am using 30# Power Pro braid with a 15# Seaguar fluro leader. I have used the uni-uni, Stren, and Albright knots (with and without glue). I fish a lot of rock piles and never go after a hung bait, so I lose quite a few jigs/tubes in a day of fishing. I'd say that 9 out of 10 times when I break off, the line breaks at the braid/fluro knot instead of the knot at the bait. I always wet my fluro with saliva before cinching the knot. Any suggestions??

For anything in the 1/4-3/8 range I prefer the IMX843c. Over 3/8 I want the IMX844c or one of my old Fenwick HMGs.

Most any gps will do what you want as long as it has a card slot for mapping and storing otherwise it will just become a dust collector.

I fish tubes, brush hogs, and craws Trigged. I use a Gloomis IMX 843c with braid and a fluro leader most of the time for that application.

I have worn frogg toggs once and didn't like them at all. My wife has some and swears by them for wind blocking. A friend of mine has worn a pair out in less than a year. Personally, I'll take gortex any day. I have one gortex suit that is over 10 years old been worn on four wheelers working cows, fishing and even quail hunting and still going strong.

"Vertical Fishing" "On most bodies of water in winter we're looking at a vertical situation as far as cover types go. To explain: Bass usually move deeper during the winter months. On some lakes that may mean they pull into creek channel for the winter." Here in MO it is common to find fish as deep as 75' in the winter, especially on Bull Shoals and Table Rock. Dragging or fishing vertically are about the only ways one can get to these fish. For vertical fishing I have had good success with a jig head and grub or a good bucktail jig fished barefoot. Craw jigs with 5" grubs work well but take a long time to get down to where I like to fish. Standing timber, rock piles, bluff ledges and brush piles hold deep fish. I like to move slowly with the bait as directly below me as possible. Sometimes it can be kept in the cone but not always. I drop the bait to the bottom and lift it up no more than a foot, give it a little shake, then let it hit the bottom again. If there are walleye present, I hold the bait off the bottom for about 10 seconds before I let it drop. (That is when I have caught most of them.) I have found that my catch has been significantly improved with braided line. Since the fish are a little slower, I use a light braid (Power Pro 8/1) with no leader. With mono I have trouble feeling the bite much below 30'. I generally start out on ledges or points in 25 fow and work my way to fish. Once I find a few fish in a certain depth, I concentrate on that depth for quite a while. In rocky and brushy lakes be sure to take plenty of jigs.

There is a lot of difference in the fall rate of a 1/4 and a 3/8 oz jig. If you are going to compare you should buy the same size in both jigs. Personally, I'd get 1/2 dozen of each in at least 3 different sizes and water test them. I am doing that right now with a different hook style. I am using 3 colors with 3 different head sizes. So far I have eliminated 1 head size for this application.

It depends on the time of the year and the lake.

Bar Bait. It kept mice, squirrels, and racoons out of my range cubes in the barn.

Do It has the 3/4-1-1 1/2 for that hook maybe they would make you what you want.

My net is too cumbersome for one handed operation. I will lip fish with single hooks but if they are on trebles I use my Boga Grip scales.

Not me. A friend of mine bought one and didn't take it out for a while. By the time he used it a couple of times it broke. The warranty was up and it cost another $75 to get it fixed.

Our Wal-Mart carries rod tips. They cost about 3 bucks. You can heat the old one with a candle and take it off. A little flecthing cement and the new one installs in about 15 seconds.

I have a couple of them. I have been using them for the last 5 or 6 years with no trouble at all. Shimano has changed the style and come up with the 2500 and now changed it again since I bought these reels. I fully expect them to last me a lifetime.

I keep mine mostly in boxes like my hard baits. I keep them by type (chunks, grubs, craws, etc). Small grubs for vertical jigging and drop shot are in tackle bags.

I don't really have a dog in this hunt but my suggestion is buy the 2 piece and fish with it a few times. At lots of places you can take it back and get the 1 piece within 30 days if you don't like the 2 piece rod.

I use them mostly as jig trailers but like them trigged in brush piles.

I lower the motor when I trailer it, raise it back up and lower it a second time. This gets all the water out. Then I go home put it into the garage. I have never winterized a motor. I use it as often as I can so I don't use stabilizer in the gasoline either. I have never had any problems.

If you should have an electric soldering gun, you can use it to cut and seal the straps in one process. I have done that a lot of times.

I bought some sickle hooks for jigs and worms. Yesterday I tried them out and had a bad day holding fish. I only got 5 of maybe 40 hits stuck and to the boat. Any of you have this kind of experience with them. If so is there a cure besides deep six. :

The fall fish I like to target mostly are the ones which come into windy banks or points. For these fish I use a swim jig or spinnerbait. When there is no wind I back off and use a craw jig or tube.

A time or 2 I have had a brain fart and left my unit on in the garage 'till it ran the battery down. It never hurt the transducer 1 bit. I'd say your friend has "stinky breath".

You might as well pick your repair center because if you buy a boat that old you will get to know everyone in the shop.

I buy Pline in bulk through Ztackle.com for a few friends and myself. We usually buy around 30,000 yards at a time.

I buy from Ztackle, Jans, Barlows, Stamina, Shorty's Hooks, Bass Pro Shops, and Do It.