Luke Barnes

I use SK Squadron swimbait jigheads and also have some ball head jigs I need to try. What is the advantage to a ball head jig over a swimbait style?

There is a right I learned about called the Spine Rig. Take a split tail minnow style bait like a fluke or even a gulp minnow and get hooks that go in jig heads that you pour your own. Insert said hook into the top of the bait basically where it's spine would be. Lie tie should be poking up right behind the head. It spirals and flutters down when you let it sink on slack line. I have yet to try it myself but the videos I have seen of it look like it would work really well.

If you are on a budget, I bought a Shakespeare Crappie Hunter 9' jigging rod and it works for what it is supposed to. I bought the combo for about $20 and haven't had an issue with it.

I don't know that I have ever seen a sign saying but around here everybody knows not to eat fish from the Arkansas River. Other parts of it may be nice and relatively clean but around the Tulsa area you are really taking a gamble eating anything out of it.

Found the pic of my only walleye. Not A-Jay level but it was a nice one!

If you really want to fish topwater, a Gambler Flappn Shad rigged weedless on an EWG acts sort of like a little buzz bait. Start reeling as soon as it hits and its weedless and has a nice little action to it.

I've caught one walleye that weighed about 5lbs and if at the time I would have known they were good eating I would have kept it. Never caught another one since though. But if there is a fish, A-Jay has a pic of him holding a big one!!!

I don't even have a boat so take this with a shaker of salt. To weed out the crappie and perch you could try upsizing the actual lure you have on the hook. Wacky rig a 6" stick bait on a drop shot and give that a whirl. That would be my solution for the knowledge that I have. Which isn't much. Also if this does get moved to Fishing Tackle fear not, that gets a ton of traffic as well and you will still get plenty of educated and experienced replies.

I've always been curious about this topic as far as ponds go. Very, very few ponds that I fish have any sort of shad in them so I usually always go the bluegill route. Ok that part is simple. I like taking my UL and seeing what the bluegill are like in the pond I'm fishing, but there are times I catch a 2" teeny little guy then a big ol football next cast. So how do I tell what the bass are actually feeding on? I would say they aren't trying to get those big fat bluegills down their throats so I tend to go smaller, but how small? I always just guess. Whatever feels right, which is usually wrong haha.

I have so many packs of plastics that I've used one out of and haven't touched since. Hardbaits that have never seen water and likely never will. I could get by with a small bag with one box in it but I carry a BPS tackle backpack that weighs about 40 lbs! Once I realized you really don't make anything selling plastics and handbags, unless they are megabss!! So I stopped buying tackle until I run out of something that is working.

I just looked up the European perch and they look very similar to the yellow perch. I want to look up what lures and techniques are used for them now!

The wife and I both want to move to the PNW and didn't rule out southwest Washington as well as the entire west of Oregon. Just as long as it's within 2 hours of the coast basically. But family in Oklahoma is keeping us here for now.

Same here. My wife is from Portland and we have talked about moving to Oregon before, but she randomly will show me houses up there and be like, we can afford this and it's big enough.

Good lord AJ I think you like them a bit haha. I actually looked at these online last year because they sound fantastic and would stay above weeds and muck in shallow ponds it sounds like. If I ever get serious about fishing again and buy some lures, this will be one.

If it was strictly for fishing it would be Florida for all the reasons already mentioned. Big bass but the access to the unlimited number of species minus the cold water species. But also I would say my old hometown in upstate New York on a bunch of land with my own small lake. The town is at the wedding of the east and west branches of the Delaware River and has great trout fishing I hear, plus smallmouth and all those other colder water species. A few hour drive and I'm at the ocean. So pretty diverse too. Anywhere is more diverse than northeast oklahoma!!!

Let us know how you do in the tournament! They like flukes this time of year? That's alot of nice swimbaits I would love to use but if flukes catch the fish then that's what matters!

Never made it out. Won't get to tomorrow either so hopefully this thread helped somebody, because I won't get to test out the advice.

Never thought about that. Only have one wake bait but might be worth a try. I wonder how a SK Pad Perch or popping perch would look with the tail? Skirt? Whatever they call it, trimmed off.

That makes sense. I've got a few Choppo 90s that I like I'm ponds but never really thought about throwing a Spook Jr. I have one in sexy shad so hopefully that's the color they want! I was going to throw a popping frog thinking it's a reasonably small profile, minus the legs, but I have them trimmed pretty short. Plus I can stop it, start it, throw it into reeds etc ...

I'm thinking about beating the sun up tomorrow and going early to a pond that is close to my house. It is pressured like crazy but I want to get there early to throw top water. In a very pressured pond or any water really, what are some more subtle top water baits to throw that can get pressured fish to commit? I was going to start with a frog and a Choppo but other than that I really don't know what to throw at a group of fish that have seen it all. Once the sun comes up fully ill switch to a wacky rig but I haven't had ANY luck with top water this year and want to change that.

So if I really want to learn to catch carp, ask a European it sounds! I would love to travel the world and catch all species of fish. One day.

That's too bad because that's a really cool color!! No idea what trailers are orange and blue to match the skirt, and I cruise tackle warehouse just to look at the colors of soft baits because I find it satisfying like people that enjoy looking at art. Anyways, I don't think I've ever run across a blue, white, and orange swim bait type lure but I think it would look really cool. Fish probably couldn't care. It's appealing to me and that's why we buy crazy colors, right??? Haha.

My thinking is nibbles are less messy than gels and I get frustrated reapplying spray or gel every other cast so i stop adding scent. If mashing a nibble or two on the hook is quick and easy I'm going to try it! Next time I go I'll try it out and report back.

I was just thinking yesterday about how to incorporate crappie nibbles into a new rig. Thought about covering the hook point with one or mashing a few onto the hook. Have tried spray on scents and they don't last, so a longer lasting scent would be nice.

I use the 1/64oz trout magnet heads, I got them in a Panfish Magnet kit. I have caught everything on those little jig heads. My biggest fish was a 2.8lb bass and it was a great fight on the UL with 2lb line. So the trout magnet darter style works, is sharp, and pretty cheap.