Jig Man

I actually caught 3 smallmouth on pbj jigs today but 19 on mud minnow TRD.

I’m sure glad you guys can catch fish on jigs with purple. If I had a dollar for every fish that I have caught on pb&j, I couldn’t buy a hamburger.

I’m not sure what you are going to get with your proposed setup. I have a 7’ St Croix ml Premier with a 2500 reel. I use it for 1/16 oz Ned with a TRD. I would be hard pressed to throw a 1/32 with it.

I quit buying Bass Pro branded reels a long time ago because there was no continuity quality or any idea of who actually made them.

Since I am a Shimano guy that would be my pick. I recently bought a Shimano 2500 and a 3000. The 3000 holds way more line than I would ever need.

There are lots of custom rod builders. I’ve had some done in Ozark MO and one is being done now in Tulsa OK. I believe Delaware Valley Tackle here does custom rods.

Around here they have 2 names: Arkansas short nosed and Arkansas black nosed. They are common in the James River arm of Table Rock lake.

I am not going larger than 2.8 now because it is all they will hit.

It is true that it used to be eat your catch but the boats weren’t equipped to keep fish alive and there weren’t many tournaments. Today there are many times more tournaments than there used to be and lots of them are 100 to 200 boat tournaments. I don’t see them becoming fewer. I live close to Table Rock Lake. The average size of the bass overall is getting smaller.

I like my dc reels. They work better than my other bc reels.

Is your drag too loose?

I decided to use high temp silicone to block the channel. It worked great.

It depends on what you want to do. You can use them for swim baits, tubes, Ned rigs, shaky, and on and on.

I wouldn’t worry too much about it. I have a Nitro Z20 that weighs about 4500# and my wife tows it with her Jeep Cherokee Trail hawk. Towing isn’t the big deal. Stopping is.

Sheepish

Spinnerbait

I always go for an Elaztech worm rigged weedless on a shaky head jig.

Yes you can put leaders on your braid. I do that on spinning reels. On bait casters I use straight fluoro except for top water which is straight braid. I only tie one knot for the bait, Pitzen. The best braid to leader that I have found is the fg knot. I like the leaders to be longer than my rod..

Here is where I keep what is not in the boat.

Tackle bag devoted to that stuff an line spooler.

I’ve been using gate cutters. I just don’t remember it happening before. I thought someone might have a solution.

With the harder lead you shouldn’t have wobbly heads. I quit using soft lead years ago because spinner baits wouldn’t hold up with it. I’ll never live long enough to run out. One guy gave me 74# of printers lead.

I didn’t know that those were available. I’ve had fair luck fixing torn Keitechs with Mendit.

My problem is lead running up the hook shank. The Victory hook seems to be a little bit slim to fill the cavity. My heads are not loose as I pour with lead containing antimony. It hard and the jigs come out solid. I generally pour at 750°F and thought it might be too hot so I dropped it to 700°F. It helped a little but didn’t fix it completely. I can’t lower the temperature any more or it won’t pour. I was just wondering if anyone else had experienced this and if so what they did. I haven’t used this mold for several months and don’t remember this happening before.

If anyone has it please let me know. I recently encountered a problem and would like to ask for some advice.