Jermination

This happens with the DS/SS hooks? Nose hooking your bait? I can see it happening with octopus hooks because the bend in them is different, but if you arent horsing the fish or crossing their eyes setting the hook you shouldnt be losing fish. What rod are you using? wherever you see fish buddy, honestly i don't fish it vertically hardly at all in the warmer months. I'll occasionally drop one down but most of the time vertical fishing is reserved for the cold months when smallies are schooled up. I really work my drop shot very similar to a weightless senko in that i almost always fish it on slack line. You want to wiggle your bait without moving the sinker. Sometimes a quick pull up above the fishes head will get them going too if they are just checking our bait out.

you shouldnt be losing fish on the gamakatsu ds/ss hooks. Are they just spitting it or bending your hooks? I have a very high landing percentage on those hooks and very rarely lose fish on them. Octopus hooks are no good unless you are catfishing

i like booyah one knocker sunset craw. also crankwraps has a few sunfish and chart shad patterns i like to slap on the strike king redeyes that ive done pretty decent with

I throw the drop shot and catch more big fish around here on it than anyone i know. I throw it deep, shallow, into current, into grass, around wood, under docks, clear and stained water. @TnRiver46 has seen a lot of drop shot fish this summer A few things to consider-- -throw it on a 7'4 rod so you can sling that thing -3/16 or 1/4 should be about the biggest weight you ever need -use light line, 6-8lb -throw zman trick shotz, they float perfectly horizontal -use a chrome sinker, this little extra flash can catch an eye -rotate through a lot of baits and colors, you can get them fired up and clean up a school with a drop shot simply by changing baits -do not set the hook. reel tight and lift -you really need at least 3-5 ft visibility for it to shine -10-12 inch leader -if you know the fish are there, spend some time & work different angles. the drop shot can convince non aggressive fish to still bite

Tighten baitcasters until i cant pull it(except for jerkbaits and small crankbaits) and spinning reels just tight enough to where you can reel hook fish

they make plenty of crawdad baits in shad color, go take a look at zman turbo craws or trd craws. Lipless certainly do act like crawdads, pause your retrieve then start it up really quick again. looks like a darting crawfish

it certainly helps visibility, thats the most important part of whatever color you're throwing. they're never going to eat something they can not see. and yes the preferred action is a big part. when they're on reaction baits and the wind is blowing i usually throw a chatterbait, if it's still i'll throw a little squarebill or swim a worm

hell i guess i should start making videos of my trips downtown. 5 lb fish ?

Color definitely matters. Ive taken people out who throw baits similar to me but i outcatch them 3-1 or vice versa. Generally speaking you can get away with green pumpkin, black & blue, chartreuse, chart/white, & red. Color in my opinion is more about water clarity & sunlight penetration than it is forage, especially when fishing moving baits. Time of year is also a big factor. I pretty much put my reds up until the water dips below 65 degrees. Green pumpkin is usually my starting point with soft plastics throughout the year then let the fish tell me what they want. Most of the lakes around here like a dab of chart on the pinchers or tail, there have been times where i've been flipping a straight green pumpkin jig in grass and not gotten a bite then tip the trailer with some chartreuse and load the boat. Don't overthink it, throw what you catch fish on

not sure buddy, i'll check with some of my contacts and see what i can find out. I have no idea how you could incorporate something like that into a physical mold that is sealed off, so i think they would have some type of syringe on the line pumping them full

not sure about molds but i'll take a syringe and pump a little bit of air into the claws of a turbo craw or something like that. Also tried vegetable oil in the pinchers to make them really stand up

p line cxx. never have any issues. also a really good line for night fishing

Jerkbait. Check out hank cherry's classic win on guntersville earlier this year

i emailed them this morning. will keep you guys posted on what i find out hell i probably already have it then from lipping them rinsing my hands then throwing a dip in LOL

Caught several fish on Douglas lake last week/end that were grossly skinny and had these sores on them. One fish I caught(didn’t take a pic) was around 2 lbs but had the head of a 4lber. The sores were like oozing pus? Everyone caught was very sickly looking. Any thoughts? I posted on Facebook and people have shared a lot more pics out of this lake as well

man i dont know about that, i always pull the tag end but if i dont wet it it will almost always get at least one little burn mark on it(especially 6 & 8 lb) I think the lube makes up for not double checking if line twist when you make the initial pass through the hook eye

When it rains it pours! A lot of time the crankbait will just need a small adjustment, take a pair of needle nose and move the circular piece on the bill to right or left to adjust. This can also be beneficial if you want to bend it around docks etc. Your Rod is going to play a big part in your castability, your line size and type will play a bigger role in your action on the retrieve. Also I've noticed the KVD squarebills BIGGER than 1.5 always run like crap, I may have one that runs right out of 5 that i buy. When it comes to gear you definitely get what you pay for in most scenarios. If you're just an average weekend angler who goes once or twice a month I would look in the price range of 60-80 bucks for a rod, should be able to get some decent all star or veritas rods in that range that will serve you just fine. If you're fishing clear water with braid just tie a leader on, double uni knot very easy to do and takes a couple minutes at most. I really don't recommend spooling an entire spinning reel with fluoro, it jumps off the reel and causes a headache. Continue to throw braid and just tie leader knots. If you must fill the reel up with Fluoro after you put the line on take the spool off and run it under the hottest water your sink will put out for about 60-90 seconds. That will knock the memory out and keep it from jumping off the spool. Once again you are going to go through more line doing this because braid doesnt have a shelf life as far as I know and can be used for many many seasons Keep at it buddy, Murphy's law is very prevalent in fishing and things will find a way to mess up and pile on during those rough days lol

oh come on Catt you have to get the line wet if it is flouro, Palomar is the only knot i've tied for 20 years and learned the hard way about not spitting on it before pulling it tight lol If you see any squigglies in your main line after pulling tight, cut it and retie. Also on your drop shot make the smallest loop possible going over the hook so you dont have to pull but a small amount of fluoro tight

Yeah I knew it was a thing but after pulling up on one of my spots that I havent seen another boat fish in probably 5 years and it happened to be a friend i send pictures to I knew something was up LOL

iphone users out there, be careful sending "live" photos of your catches to your friends. Not sure if you guys are aware but you can look at additional info of live pics and it shows gps coordinates and a map of where the pic was taken. Not a big deal for tourney pics, but all the catch, photo, release guys beware! Or use it to your advantage and go through your buddies pics and see if they sent you any "live" ones The ones below are mine, that one of my regular partners i fish with let me know to look out for before he takes my spots LOL fish on!

few pics from a couple trips out last week. The Brownies are HOT!! Thursday afternoon i got out with around 2 hours of daylight left, caught 7 keepers(18 inches) with 3 over 4lbs! @TnRiver46 pulled up and got in on a little bit of the action, even though i think his jumped off before landing them LOL also won a little 3 fish club tourney on chik saturday with 9.21, lake is fishing incredibly tough. Second only had 5.38! I love Fall!!!

I fish all of the local lakes pretty regularly and fish a lot of tourneys on them. They all have their times, and pretty much all fish somewhat differently. Norris, Cherokee, & Douglas are tributary lakes so they are deep and clear(these are great cold weather fisheries and full of smallmouth--Douglas has been hot as a fire cracker most of the year the FLorida strain have grown and the results are showing) Loudoun is the most difficult lake to fish around most of the time, there is not a stretch of lake that is not developed and the amount of pleasure boaters is overwhelming at times. Watts Bar and Chick are both good fisheries that get absolutely pounded. There is a big tourney on either one of them pretty much daily. Tellico is an interesting lake, i did really well on it this year finesse fishing. Melton Hill is a personal favorite of mine because i do so well on it, not a ton of folks fish it and it can fish rather small. You can literally do any style of fishing you want within an hour drive. Deep clear smallies 30 minutes north, squarebill/lipless burning on loudon & watts bar, top water frogging and punching on chik

7'4 no doubt

i have a couple tatulas but both are casting, one is the xt heavy and i love punching with it. My partner has a couple tatula spinning rods that he talks pretty highly about, if i ever see any good condition used here around town i plan on scooping one up

Congrats. i wouldnt even notice the 10 gram difference. was just trying to throw some other out some additional options of light outfits at a decent price