Bankc

I don't see why they couldn't work on a drop shot rig, if the hook is what was hung up (and not the weight below it). I've freed jigs and spinnerbaits with mine before. Though, they're not successful 100% of the time, and I usually drop shot with pretty thin line, so I wouldn't expect a high chance of success.

Most of the year, I try to get up early to fish. However, sometime from the late fall to early spring, I'll transition to catch the evening bite. Partly, it's because I believe the fishing is better. But mostly, it's because it's just easier on me to fish when the weather is nicer. In the middle of winter, I'll fish in the middle of the day. We're still a good ways away from that here. For me, the transition will probably take place around Thanksgiving. Usually, the middle of October is when the fall fishing pattern begins for us. Right now, even though it's cooled off a good bit, the lakes are still in the mid to high 70's and low 80's.

Spinnerbaits are one of my most used lures. If the bass are keying in on baitfish, a spinnerbait is usually a good idea. Especially around wood. Pretty much the same a squarebill to me. 75% of the time, I reel them in fast and kill it for a second or so. The rest of the time, I'm slow rolling to keep them down deep. A white spinnerbait is really all you need. It's both natural and high contrast, so it works in lots of conditions. But different sizes and different blades can make a huge difference, as the blades and weight will help determine how fast you can retrieve it and at which depth. Spinnerbaits are one of my most used lures. If the bass are keying in on baitfish, a spinnerbait is usually a good idea. Especially around wood. Pretty much the same a squarebill to me. 75% of the time, I reel them in fast and kill it for a second or so. The rest of the time, I'm slow rolling to keep them down deep. A white spinnerbait is really all you need. It's both natural and high contrast, so it works in lots of conditions. But different sizes and different blades can make a huge difference, as the blades and weight will help determine how fast you can retrieve it and at which depth.

I'm braid on everything but one. And I'll probably switch that over to braid next. However, I only fish stained water and abrasion isn't really a problem.

It doesn't matter for me. The rod is what's important. I use a 7.1:1 reel, but I'd have no problem going with a much lower or higher ratio. I also use that rod for swimbaits and frog fishing, plus occasionally pitching jigs. But, if you wanted a reel just for A-rigs, then I'd probably look for a lower speed reel. You want to keep the A-rig down in the water column, so you want to reel it in slowish. But unlike a deep diving crankbait or punch rig, you don't actually need to the torque... Unless you catch two large bass at once, something I've yet to do.

I don't think this is a rod issue. Up your weight instead. A lot of techniques that I'll use a very light weight with in a boat or on a dock, I'll use a heavier weight for when fishing from the bank. You'll lose some control over rate of fall and action, but you'll at least be able to cast the rig to where the fish are. And with the added line you'll have out, the heavier weight will give you a bit more bottom sensitivity and help keep the line tighter for bite detection and hooksets.

I deal with the same questions. Then I just go with 30# braid for almost everything since it seems to work for almost everything and choosing one line for everything makes buying in bulk easy. Every once in a while, I'll branch out and try something different. Sometimes I like the new line and sometimes I don't. But I've never thought "now I can do things I couldn't do before with my 30# braid!".

Get yourself an oven probe digital thermometer. One that can read up to 400° F or more. You can find a cheap one on Amazon or at Walmart or whatever. I think I spent $10 on mine. The more expensive IR thermometers only read surface temperatures, so they're not very accurate for this type of work (even though you'll see lots of guys on YT using them). That way you can know your exact temperature and not overheat or underheat anything. Don't worry about the plastic sticking to the probe. After it cools, it'll wipe off easily. I actually prefer to use a hotplate, as I find it much easier to control and maintain a specific temperature. But microwaves will still work just as well, so long as you constantly check your temps. And always melt a good bit more than you need. You can reuse the leftovers so long as you don't burn them. And having more than you need is essential to eliminating air bubbles, which is what that slurping sound is. With more than you need, your injector tip is always submerged in the melted plastic while drawing in new plastic. I also like the hot plate because I can warm the injector while melting the plastic (on the edge of the hot plate), which keeps the plastic from hardening in the injector and causing it to clog and introduce air. You can't microwave your injector, but it would probably be wise to find some method of keeping it warm.

Never heard of Bitters, but to me, the Keitech Fat Impact is pretty much interchangeable with both the Strike King Rage Swimmer and BPS Speed Shad. The Keitechs are a tiny bit softer, but it doesn't seem to effect my catch rate either way. The Bitters Naked Swimmer looks more like a Cabela's Swim Minnow or a Berkley Powerbait Grass Pig (or any other number of similar swimbaits). My experience with them is positive, but I haven't done as well as I have the Keitech Fat Impact style swimbaits.

I typically rely on grubs for spinnerbaits, but will occasionally go up to about 4" for a paddletail. And I almost always use a trailer of some kind. I'd be okay with going larger, but most of our baitfish that I'm trying to mimic with a spinnerbait are pretty small, as well as our bass (rarely above 4 lbs), so I'm typically not throwing anything longer than 4" that isn't a worm.

Does anyone ever pay attention to the behavior of baitfish and adjust their fishing according to that? In the past few months, I've started to notice a correlation between baitfish being active and plentiful along the banks, and bass behavior targeting a slower, more finesse style presentation. Whereas if the baitfish aren't as plentiful and seem more skittish to my presence along the banks, the bass seem to prefer a faster, power fishing type presentation. Almost like the mood of the big bass is the opposite of the baitfish along the bank. And that would make some sense. If the bass are actively chasing down baitfish, then the baitfish might be safer getting away from the banks and spreading out. Congregating in large groups with no exit makes them very vulnerable. However, if the bass aren't very active and willing to give chase, then foraging for bugs along the banks makes sense, as it's a safe way to get lots of food. It could just be a coincidence. I haven't really focused on this and done any experiments. But it's just some things I've noticed that I've started to put together recently.

I don't know from personal experience, because I always release the bass after I catch them. But I've heard that it can shut off a bite. However, having caught multiple bass in the same spot many, many times in my life, I can say that if it does shut down the bite on occasion, it doesn't always.

I use everything from 3.8:1 to 8.3:1. Most are around 6:1 - 7:1. To be honest, I don't think gear ratio matters much. Not to me anyway. I have no issues speeding up or slowing down, and I'm not catching 1,000 lb. fish that take four hours to real in. Plus sometimes it makes sense to fish a technique I usually fish slow, ultra-fast, or one I usually fish really fast, at a snail's pace. And I'd rather match my technique to my rod than my reel, or worry about switching reels to match the change in pace. I do prefer higher ratios for buzzbaits, but that's about the only thing I fish where I have a strong preference. Anything else, I'll gladly get by with what I have. I can understand the various arguments other people put out for matching gear ratios to various techniques, but in my own personal experience, none of it makes enough of a difference to me to really matter.

I use two empty reels, plus the original one I'm inverting the line on. I use a saltwater reel for the second reel because it has a nice drag on it, and I'll set the drag up for a few pounds of resistance, so I get it respooled, nice and tight.

That's what I was thinking. Typically, fluoro stretches, but doesn't rebound fully back to its original size after it does. Obviously there are different formulations with different properties, but generally, if you want a line for its ability to stretch and rebound, then mono is the way to go. Yo-Zuri is a hybrid that kind of shares properties from both. And it does a better job of rebounding after stretching than most true fluorocarbon lines I've tried. It's not as invisible as true fluoro nor is it as abrasion resistant, but it's better in both aspects than true mono. Plus it doesn't have as much line memory as fluoro.

I don't fish floating docks around here. They're just about impossible to fish under, and they're usually loaded with people fishing off them. So they're just not productive and generally a waste of time. We don't have timber docs around here, so I don't fish them either. I see people on the internet and in fishing tournaments fishing docks all of the time and they look like great places to target bass. But they're fishing different kinds of docks and doing so on lakes with hundreds of docks all lined up in a row. Our lakes only have a few at most, and since bank access is pretty much impossible due to our unmanaged forests surrounding these lakes, they're the most overfished areas of any lake. Plus, they're usually posted with signs telling you not to fish them, or even not to get within 300 feet of them (in the case of our floating fishing piers).

I use a plastic "needle" that came with some hollow braid polypropylene rope I bought from a big box hardware store. It was intended to allow you to thread the rope through itself to make loops, but it works just fine for applying o-rings to worms. I throw more Ocho's than anything else, but it's also worked just as well for smooth Senkos and whatever else you have. Nothing magical about a rigid hollow cylinder with a pointy end.

Love it! Functional. Rust proof. Can't beat free! It's strong enough you could probably accidentally step on it without crashing through.

Death isn't really the concern. It's possible, but highly unlikely. Heavy metals are usually the issue. And heavy metal poisoning leads to symptoms like memory and emotional problems, headaches, tremors and twitching, muscle weakness, numbness, difficulty sleeping, and lots of other weird symptoms. The effects are slow and cumulative, since the heavy metals build up over time and don't easily leave your system once they get in. So these symptoms don't show up all at once, so they can be hard to recognize. And their onset is so gradual, you'll often think it's just part of getting older or the way you've always been. In any case, it's a concern, but it's not like the occasional fish fry is going to ruin your health. There are heavy metals in most drinking water supplies and foods we eat. You're not going to be able to completely avoid heavy metal exposure. It's a fact of life. And our bodies can tolerate some amount. It's just smart, like most things, to keep it in moderation.

Sure, it bothers me. But lots of things bother me. You can't fight all of the good fights. The best we can do is to focus on ourselves and be the person we wish we saw in others. Show people the right way to do it and hope other's follow our example. Pointing out the wrongdoings of others won't make them better people, and it won't endear you to them either.

You can probably find the same sized storage box at walmart or whatever that comes with a lid. It would probably be cheaper than making a lid for this one. Then you could drill holes into it, if you liked. Or better yet, you might find a lid that fits it perfectly, meant for another box. It being a cheap, plastic crate, I wouldn't spend too much on it. I don't know how long hinges would hold before wearing out the plastic walls.

We've got warnings for just about all of our lakes around here. The problem is, the warnings aren't physically posted at the lakes. You have to go online and actively seek it out. There's not even a link to it on the official web page (department of wildlife) for these lakes nor the secondary city run web pages. You have to dig into the Department of Environmental Quality's website to find the PDF. Which means even a Google search won't show the information directly.

Not me. I'm working on a kayak of Theseus type of thing.

1.5 hours. That equates to 3 hours of driving. And driving time takes away from fishing time. I can't spend all day fishing, as I have other responsibilities (work, family, chores, extended family, etc.). 6-10 hours, all considered, is about the most I can afford to spend on my weekends. On the rare occasion, I might make a full day trip or overnight(s) trip. I'll drive up to 10 hours in a day, but like to keep it below 8 if possible. But that's a once every 2-3 year type of thing. 80% of my fishing trips are 10-15 minutes of drive.

Oh! Rural King is a store! I thought maybe your part of the country had broken away into some kind of secret fiefdom the rest of us didn't know about. And you all had appointed a king to rule over your rural lands who was trying to curry favor over his subjects by discounting lures. This makes much more sense.