Michigander

New PW! (Personal Worst) Looks like one of the many Dogfish in the lake got to him before I did. He had serious cuts! Or maybe a bird took a swipe at him. Had a big cut on his top in between the two bottom ones.

Fishing was good in central Michigan yesterday! I enjoyed the fact that the shallow water warning signs at the lake I fished were under water. LoL

Was out at Upper Brace Lake/Stuart Lake yesterday. Water was very clear and 64-67 degrees. Definitely had males on beds and the big girls were hanging out in 3 ft of water but would jump down the drop-off into 10ft once they saw the boat. Saw several 4-5lb fish and one that would have been in the 6lb class. Picked up one nice one (18.5") on a drop shot in 13ft deep weeds, was vomiting crayfish during the fight. I think the spawn itself is mostly done there and they are in bed guarding mode. Also saw them chasing bait balls on the sonar. Even got some taps on my big swimbait, lol. Side note, the Diawa Legalis that I polished the drag washers on worked very smoothly as the fish was surging on 8lb test FC. Was also testing Hitena Bass Raptor line which was a joy to fish with.

So "light" jigs are sort of confusing, the weight you stated doesn't quite fall into that category for me. Did you mean light wire jigs? I fish my 1/8-1/4 jigs on a M power rod, but they have thinner hooks on them so the less powerful rod is appropriate for that application. Also, I like HMGs but they tend to be a little lighter in the backbone department. Lost some good bass that ran into Lily pads and I didn't have a the power to get them back out before they spit the hook.

I haven't used an o-ring for a while switched over to the silicone tubing and speculum life. Also works great for repairing a ripped swim jig or regular jig trailer. Looks like they have precut kits on eBay now. When I bought mine a few years ago, you just got the full length of tubing and cut it yourself. https://www.ebay.com/itm/76-Pc-Kit-Co-Angler-Special-3-Size-Wacky-Worm-Neko-Rig-Silicone-Tubes-Tool/264699724174?hash=item3da155418e:g:P2cAAOSwRRheLalb:sc:USPSFirstClass!49505!US!-1

Yes, thankfully I tested that!!

Our two day end of season tournament was supposed to be on Wixom this year. Assuming we even get to have tournaments, that's not really going to work unless they've rebuilt the dam by October. Crystal Lake always runs cold, even in late July. I'm heading to Lake Lansing tomorrow morning, which is a warmer lake, so I hope the fish are active.

I built a few prototypes but ended up buying the Owner ones because the welded ring was superior to what I was making. Stopped using this rig as a combination of the Tokyo Rig and Free Rig were better for me.

I can certainly try that, there's about half Keitech, half Biospawn in there and the packaging differs, plus there's two bait sizes of each brand. Maybe that will help though, LoL.

As several others mentioned, swim jig.

So I must have misunderstood your post regarding how many fit in these. By trimming the tops off, I got 19 blisters in one. Rereading it, I see you meant 4-5 per well! Makes more sense now. I'll need a second tub but this will surely work for this year.

That's about where I am. It seems like every year I try something new and every spring I am still looking for a good way to do it.

Never heard of that, I will take a look!

No, I appreciate that. I was agreeing with you. ? Though that seems not to have translated to text, lol.

Right? Walking around stores with a blister of Keitechs would be my normal approach to this problem. I was hoping someone had a part number for a container that works.

I'm frankly shocked that someone doesn't make a tackle storage solution for this. Maybe I need to get a sheet of ABS onto the table saw....

Oh... only 4 or 5? Hmmm.... I carry 30 around packs in the boat so that doesn't seem cost efficient. Oh... only 4 or 5? Hmmm.... I carry 30 around packs in the boat so that doesn't seem cost efficient for me. At that price, I would be more likely to buy an FDM 3D printer and just make a custom box.

Open water with flukes go with the lightest weight, in cover go with the heavier weighted hook. Pair both with appropriate rod power. We were messing around one day throwing 2/0 Owner hooks on Magnum flukes (had a poor tackle selection on the boat that day) and we're still knocking down 6"-18" Largemouth. They will headshot a fluke so I don't think it matters much as long as the hook gap has enough clearance to grab some flesh.

Yes, that's what I was looking for. I'm also Keitech and Exoswim. I'll just ignore the price because I'm desperate. How many packs do you get in there?

I don't if it's actually 20 gallons but it is a big bag.

I wish I could download your brain.

The size of hook is less important than how big the Gap is, distance from shank to point. I use Owner Beast hooks nowadays because of the good sized gap. Those VMCs have small gaps from what I can remember.

I wanted to avoid that if possible. Just want to throw the packs in a reasonable container and keep it in the bait compartment with everything else. The 20ish gallon ziplock bag I'm using doesn't work and I hate it.

I know this is a common problem because I have been researching it. Has anyone found a good way to store blister packs of Kietechs and their clones? Ideally, a plastic tote but the ones I have found never seem to be the right dimensions to accommodate the packaging.

West Marine is running a sale on Garmin units, might want to check those out. I love mine.