softwateronly

Don't overlook the little 2.5-2.75" goby-esque tubes if you're on the great lakes, they are smallie candy. scott

LM caught on a river2sea 100mm d-walker in ice on a 3/0 3/16oz flashy swimmer. SM caught on a 3/8oz 1/0 ball head jammed into a great lakes finesse juvy craw in motor oil. scott

I have a more than a few brands. Ryugi r-snap size 0 is on my bfs rigs currently and I like them. Super strong but a little difficult to manipulate, mostly because of the size. But for the combo of price, strength, and ease of use I think I will go back to nishine size 0 and 2. scott

Same here man. Matter of fact, I think I got one of my recommendations from you this time last year. Here's pics and no words. scott

Generally, I'd say yes. @WRB is the guru of big bass and socal and is a vocal proponent of the split shot rig. Probably worth looking into and adding to your arsenal... There are times where a jigworm or a large profile fished super slowly and weightless is the presentation they want, but I fish NLB and in grass. It might be something to keep in the back of your mind if you know they are there but can't coax a bite; think weightless 7" stick bait, fluke, or 5" bullflat. scott

I think the only interesting thing I do is what I learned here. Unpleasant weather for humans means little to nothing to the fish. At certain times, rain, snow, cold, and wind can all be keys to more and better fish. scott

How's the abrasion resistance on the J Flouro compared to sniper? Looking at 10lb, have to contend with zebra mussels and rock on deep current ridden marina harbors. I retie often. scott

Incredibly difficult for the thumbless, so many small screws scott

Sniper has served me well as a leader; thin, strong, and works well with fg/sdj knots. I can see the manageability issues though as it coils pretty good on my 20-30' leaders. scott

It's hard to beat when they live in the seasoning! Congrats on a successful trip, looks like a lot of fun. scott

@DaubsNU1 I think something else is going on with your brother's system. A big swimbait with 18" of leader shouldn't all be in the face. I've definitely had gill plates slice my braid on the rolls. I've tied knots that cut themselves under shock load. It's true that sometimes we and the fish just get unlucky, but this seems outside of normal. Yesterday I landed 2 decent/pregnant northerns on the rocks without a net on an inhaled tailspinner w/ 10lb sniper. Maybe I stole all the luck. scott

Just started throwing them this year too, got a few smallies with them as a jig and hair jig trailer. Kinda in-between a kicker and dead action when dragged/hopped. I need to do what you're gonna do. scott

I don't flip/punch much. One end of my lake will cheese up, but it rarely extends over any depth, so my success is limited. If you're really going thru heavy slop, the 7'6XH is a beast of a rod. It has a nice tip like the 7'3XH, maybe even a little more due to the length, a powerful midsection that just shuts down into backbone about a 1/3rd of the way in. If I were ever to set the hook and make a fish fly over the boat, I'd bet it would happen with this rod. I often take a 3/4oz swim jig w/ a d-walker and bomb cast into the deeper heaviest hydrilla, reeling and ripping horizontally thru the weeds and this is the perfect rod for this. It also doubles as a beast hook 6-8" swimbait rod, and open water heavier jighook swimbait rod like a burrito. Most of the time when I pitch, I'm looking at visible holes in submergent hydrilla. This is when I'll choose the 7'7H, 5/8oz bullet to a beaver, pitched into holes, lift/drop, rinse/repeat. The relative softness of the 7'7H feels right to me for this. I don't really crack them, more of a reel into weight and lift while reeling. The 7'7 seems like a 20% medium tip, 20% MH mid, then a true H backbone. The 7'7H can surely handle the weight of 1-1.25oz, it's just loads the rod more than I like for this type of fishing. I deep crank, 18-22' divers, large 6-7" 3/4-1.25oz scroungers, 1-1.5oz flutter spoons, drag carolina rigs, open hook open water 6" swimbaits, and drag heavy football jigs. Hope it's useful. scott

There's some RH and LH zillions for @$200 on aliexpress. https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256808377319378.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.3.42cfA4o0A4o0wy&algo_pvid=7cc198ce-f2dd-4405-a20f-52bbb58bdc3d&algo_exp_id=7cc198ce-f2dd-4405-a20f-52bbb58bdc3d-1&pdp_ext_f={"order"%3A"6"%2C"eval"%3A"1"}&pdp_npi=4%40dis!USD!396.36!198.18!!!2868.00!1434.00!%402103245417430997986452503e4f27!12000045734285597!sea!US!6324557880!X&curPageLogUid=2v8IeNCmr3Zl&utparam-url=scene%3Asearch|query_from%3A scott

What a huge change! And it totally revolutionized the way I fish. Cold water has been super productive for me and coincided with me catching more quality bass year round and the way I go about finding them. scott

It's a legit pairing that has become one of my favorite ways to fish. There's a d-walker in there, I swear. I throw the 120mm on a 3/4oz most of the time and 1/2oz sometimes. A 100mm would be my choice for the lighter heads. scott The 3/4oz dj cali jig w/ a 120mm d-walker is a great night bait as well. Moves enough water to get hammered on my lake.

I have a few but have never found a bite with them yet. I would try some twin assist hooks hanging from the bottom. They don't catch snags as nearly as bad as a treble and if you go for tinsel the flash would probably be an asset. Maybe something like these but with a welded or split ring... scott

Not for less than 295. scott

I lost about 20mins after my post. Good luck my friend.... scott

Dangerously opened aliexpress and there's a few zillion tw sv g options right at the $200 mark again. Help! scott

My take for cold water is I want a jerk that gets down 1/2-2/3rds of the bottom depth, 10-12' flat a 5-7' diver, 15-20 fow I like a 10-12' diver. I also have to anchor to properly fish a jerk, whether that's a spot lock or old school anchor and line, I don't want to impart action at all until I hit the slack line. The extremes do best for me, no movement to highly erratic darts and dives. The wind is always a challenge, and for me I'm willing to always place my boat to throw with the wind. Cross wind just kills the action as my braid on the surface and floro underwater gets blown or pushed by the current, interrupting my dead still to dart and dive. And into the wind on most days just eats too much into the distance. I carry various small swivels and add them to my front hook hanger to weight a vision 110 jr. For larger jerkbaits, the nishine outer weight system is nice, but somewhat more expensive as lead wire is way more cost effective. Casting distance is super important to me as well. I get almost all of my fish on the furthest 1/3rd of the cast, probably has to do with very clear water. Throwing with the wind helps me a lot, as does having multiple combos for different sized baits to get the distance I need. Vision 110 jr+1's do best for me on a MC Days360 610M/RF and larger, heavier jerks, like the nishine erie darter 115MD, do best for me on a PA 6'11M+/F. These 2 jerkbaits account for 3/4 of all the jerkbait fish I'll catch in a year. I guess it's a long winded version of saying, try anchoring up wind of where they are before you buy anything new. scott

I prefer the alien abduction method at night, bright led headlamp right in the eyeball. In the morning, none of the other fish will believe it was real and neither will that one scott

@txchaser I'm with you. Mid strolling is a slow mo scrounger presentation imo. I like having both rigged up, search for active fish with the scrounger and follow up with the jighead minnow. The scottsboro softbill finesse scrounger is fantastic for the smaller presentations. scott

Thanks! Just an absolute pig who's body is brutalized. That's the most beautiful ugly fish to me. scott

@Bluebasser86 Congrats!! That's a showing! Air temps in the mid 30's, got out there for a couple hours in the clean water of a wind protected marina in NW indiana and was sticking them one after the other till the sun popped out. Terrible pics incoming and still no scale, but landed what certainly is over 5lb and my pb. All in all, about 18-20 in 3hrs. scott couple chunks to start... A real nice one... bonus brown?... my pb....