Michigander

Some tips here:

Depends where I'm fishing, but the broadest brush I can use to paint this picture is: 7' from a boat or open shoreline. 6' from a kayak or tree filled shoreline.

Zoom Horny Toads and Rage Toads on all manner of hooks, tell me your secrets. For the frogs, it's the same hookset as jig but at 2x speed, when you see the strike, reel down quick and instead of weighing the fish because you know she's got it already, swing as soon as the line gets taunt. I think most people swing to early or too late. There's a split second sweet spot that once you find it, you can find it again.

When I started fishing tournaments, I didn't quite understand how to measure the fish and probably threw twenty or so keepers back before I was corrected. My fishing partner wasn't thrilled by this revelation, lol.

I think if we ever meet, a singularity will form because you are basically my opposite. Spro and Booyah frogs are my preferred now because I get nine out of ten fish but a toad is one out of ten. My toad retrieve is splash, plop, plop, plop, splash, plop, plop, splash, splash, plop, *profanity*, repeat.

For frogs, I don't miss many of them but for toads I don't catch many. I mostly use toads to get fish riled up and then toss a Rage Craw in there and haul 'em out since they reveal their location. Would love to just catch them on the toad though, would be so much more efficient.

Ok, so it's not just me with Toads. What are we doing wrong?

Displace some water? https://fishingcompleteinc.com/collections/zipper-worm-company/products/zip-zilla

I think those are the best bargain baits ever made. Baby Bass is a long time best producer for me. I give these as presents to kids that are just graduating from their Snoopy poles to help them build confidence in hardbaits. Replace the hooks though.

I didn't have enough money for shallow water anchors and a GPS anchor last year so I had to choose and picked the GPS anchor trolling motor. After about forty days of fishing, there were only two days that I wished I had the shallow water anchors instead. That being said, I would have used both almost every time. One of the days was when I was in crazy thick weeds with the wind blowing and the TM just wasn't up to it and the other was when I was in strong current with a powerful wind going the opposite direction, the TM would just totally freak out every time I jogged it.

I have had three Pfluegers of various price points and one low end Lews over the years and I regret buying each of them. For a sub $40 reel, the two best I have encountered are: Shimano Sienna for light line. Penn Pursuit III for heavier line. I think it is really hard to beat these reels until you get past the $75 mark.

Was going to suggest JB Weld or any other 2 part metal epoxy. Go to the exhaust section of your local auto parts store.

Any bait can have an awful hookup ratio when fished on the wrong rod/line setup.

I had it done around 2006 or 2007 and it was worth it. My vision has degraded a bit since then but I still don't need glasses whereas I did back then. The procedure is pretty painless, though it sounds like a bug zapper is going off and it smells like they are flicking bits of ham onto said bug zapper. Thankfully the Valium they give you beforehand makes you feel totally cool with the whole thing.

On some lakes it feels like there aren't any fish in it until the sun goes down.

Last tournament morning of 2019. A beautiful 34 degrees.

Yep, those are the lowest I've seen now too. I think I'll pay the extra 20-30cents per weight to not wait two weeks for shipping from China though. But if you have time and are bulk buying, that's not a bad option!

I went through a similar progression and ended in the same spot.

Like most things, it isn't a silver bullet but one more tool in the bag. Good luck!

If it works, it works!

Not a sale per se, but these are the lowest cost tungsten weights I have been able to find: https://www.beastcoastfishing.com/terminal--skirts.html You buy the weights individually which is kind of nice.

You talking professional level or local level? Because you can get in at the local level for well under $50K. With all of the hateful, ignorant, and mean-spirited things that are written online every minute of every day, this doesn't rank for me. Sure, he could have been classier but he probably just did it for publicity which he's getting on this forum if not anywhere else. I'm more offended he spelled "herd" wrong, lol.

So you are going to run side imaging off of your trolling motor?

I rig stick baits (senkos etc) t-rigged the majority of the time. I barely wacky rig but that's because I fish very weedy lakes. I favor the VMC light wire offsets for this. Too heavy of a hook and you lose the stick baits magical action on the fall. For example, I discovered these last year and they are pretty amazing: https://vmcpeche.com/products/fastgrip-wide-gap-worm-hook I'm the same way but with a Rage Craw. But it's always on the deck ready. Most of the time it's on a pegged 1/8 oz tungsten bullet weight and a 3/0 Owner CPS spring hook.