Jmurphy87

I got a couple things. A new rod 6’10 medium heavy expride b, a sixth sense lipless, couple chatter baits and a pack of mini zako trailers, a spinner bait and a pack of hooks.

First bass of the year for me, not huge but not a dink either. Good way to break the new rod in. Bait was a z man mini max 3/8 in bluegill with a mini zako 956 trailer. New rod is a 6’10 medium heavy expride b, used my old curado 200k in 6.2 ratio. Cast it effortlessly with no issues, didn’t bring the scale but probably 2.5lbs is my guess lol. The weather was to nice to stay inside.

Yeah they are a little bit different than the regular jr for sure. Seems to work great for me in the river so far, caught my first fish of the year on it. Although it was a pike and I am convinced that they will try to eat anything and everything they see lol. Hopefully I can get some bass on it soon.

Some more stuff for my bfs setup, 1/30th heads, micro baits and some skirts.

First fish of the year for me, hybrid hunter jr shallow, color is bully. Tried my normal pond still a little ice on the bank that I wanted to target. No takers there on a 110 jr or the hunter, figured that I might as well fish the deep bank of the river on the way back to the car, successful caught a fish. Although it was a pike and not a bass, I will take it to keep the skunk away. It’s been cold here the past few days, I saw that it was going to be 40 degrees and had to go.

When they get models of jigs that I don’t have in a brand that I like, I am a broke obsessed man. I need one of every color in a minimum of 2 weight’s, don’t know if all of the colors will work but I have to have them lol. I am pretty sure that it’s preference over weather they work or not but I have got to have them all. Just a modest amount today only 6 I think, is it sad that I don’t remember ?

There definitely good, that’s for sure. My local shop only has a limited selection, although it is increasing as time goes. I usually buy the skirts when I see them in case I can’t find a color that I want. Buying skirts can get pricey after a while though, you wouldn’t think it would add up but it sure does.

I grabbed a few more things today, ideas in my head are always a bad thing for my pocketbook lol.

I finally bought some fishing stuff again, it’s be a couple months. Kind of a little odd for me lol, I was on a knife buying kick recently. I was waiting for a local store to get a different variety of beast coast jigs in. I went in today and lo and behold they had a new variety yay, poor wallet. Missed 3 days off work two weeks ago due to the wife being in the hospital and me having to watch the children, but family comes first. 3 beast coast working man’s swim jigs 1/4 oz, dirty money, special shad, dope gill 2 beast coast ow sniper jigs 3/8 oz stealth pb&j, mb melon 1 beast coast 5/8 oz baby dozer in elite craw 1 megabass 110 jr in pm twilight chart back feels good to be back, almost forgot the one in the trunk of the car 4” mister twister grub in yellow.

Well no fish for me today I caught a skunk lol. I have been planning on getting the kayak out for one of my last few times this year today. It’s been warmer than it has been the past few days, high of 50 today so I figured that I might stand a chance. I was wrong, have not been by spring valley in a minute so I had no clue if there was any soft water at all. I took my lipless, blade bait, mid depth crank, square bill and jig trays with me and some trailers. I fought the kayak down my apartment stairs from my deck loaded it on top of my mini suv and headed off to fish. I got there and saw ice as far as I could see. I didn’t give up though I was determined. I was hoping that it was thin ice still, nope it was 1.5 inches thick. Still determined I unloaded my kayak and all my gear and set off. I had to use my anchor to knock holes in the ice to push off of and keep moving forward three to six feet at a time. I was heading for the deeper channel to reach thinner ice, nope wrong again. See the pattern lol. I was heading to the deepest part of the lake to fish the drop from 4-18 feet, there’s a very big cove that I normally do great in throughout the year. I can normally paddle there in 20 minutes or so from the far side of the lake with soft water, nope not today I was a tortoise. I think it took me a hour and forty five minutes to get there. I got about halfway there and knew that I was probably not going to catch anything because I was going to have to break ice to be able to get anything in the water. I was still determined and wet from the water splashing when I was knocking holes in the ice to push off with my paddle. I finally get there and there’s no soft water in sight, well now it’s time to make a hole and probably scare all the fish away. I proceeded to do exactly that, I am not giving up. I tried my lipless by casting it a short distance in the spot I cleared and let line out till it hit bottom and would yo yo it in tiny short burst and let it set, nothing. Time for the jig same thing cast out let line out let it reach the bottom and very gentle short raises and let it set nothing. I didn’t catch anything but I was soaking wet and had thrown my 5lb anchor to knock holes in the ice to clear my spot and to get myself back to shore, the shallows froze over on my original path. I didn’t give up though and I persevered through it and enjoyed every single minute of it and I can’t think of a better way to spend 5 hours of my time on thanksgiving. Happy thanksgiving to you all and good luck, keep catching them for us poor souls up north with our frozen water. It makes me smile and feel like a kid at Christmas when I see all of you still catching them,

Some more random colors of roboworms and some hooks and a sleeper gill.

Yeah I haven’t fully nailed it down yet still in my testing phase. My abu xenon is only rated down to a 1/8 oz it works but the weight of the jig head is the helping factor. With a 1/32 oz gamakastsu jig head and a 2” impact is difficult but doable, I only tested it out on a super windy day. I was probably getting 20 yards or so, but I use braid and we all know how well thin diameter braid and wind get along. I want to get a alderbarren bfs to use and the proper rod rated down to a 1/16oz. My problem is that I can’t find any of the Dobyns finesse rods locally to feel and flex them. I am really good at being able to tell how a rod does by the way it bends and correlate that to my idea of the rods lure range. I really have to break out my scale and weigh one and then I will know what I have to shoot for. I have also loosened my spool tension up even more yet but haven’t been able to get out fishing lately. I worked 65 plus hours last week and am working 12 hour shifts through Friday so hopefully this weekend I will know. They definitely get bit though and I don’t think that many people around me are throwing them.

Well I am trying to nail down how low my abu garcia xenon ml bfs rod will go with a 2’ keitech impact and jig heads. I grabbed 6 packs of various size weight and hooks. I really want a rod rated for 1/16 oz and up but finding one is very hard locally. I have not seen a finesse Dobyns locally since they released lol.

I have the 6’11 medium plus poison adrena. It’s a very good rod, very sensitive balance’s well. I would say for the money the expride is probably the best bet. I own 2 exprides 1st gen 7’3 xh and the 6’10 medium and they are great value for the money. I don’t have any experience with the st croix ltb, I have 4 st croix rods from the mojo bass to the legend glass and last but not least a legend xtreme. I value my rods by what they offer by the price. The adrenas are very nice but for the money they cost I think that you can do better.

I have the tatula in the cork handle and it’s definitely sensitive. Well worth the price. I couldn’t find a xt in the action I wanted locally. I was looking for a medium heavy extra fast action. I have heard great things about the xt line though. You can’t go wrong either way.

Well I finally found a action in a rod that I have been looking for over a month. I have been looking to experiment with a medium heavy extra fast action rod, finding one locally has been the hard part. I was looking at the tatula xt because from what I have heard they are really good for there price point. I couldn’t find one locally. Looked at the slx rod wasn’t super impressed with how it felt, looked at the intenza rod not too bad but for the money you could do better. I was also looking at loomis, but at this time I didn’t want to spend that much money, in my humble opinion loomis starts at glx and up from there. I really love the action of the extra fast loomis rods though. The weight range on there extra fast rods throws me off a bit on lures. I found a 7 foot 1 inch daiwa tatula medium heavy extra fast at sportsman’s warehouse yesterday and decided to buy it. I think that it will be good. I didn’t really have the extra money for it but, I learned a very hard lesson 2 years ago I think. Dobyns just came out with there bfs casting rods seen a few in a store around the same time I got my curado bfs reel. I did not have the money at that time either, didn’t buy it. I have not seen one of them sense. I collect quite a bit of stuff, I am very finicky on colors and rod actions. I like to be hands on and colors have to be just right. The joys of being a collector, I am putting my tatula elite reel in 8.1 ratio on my new rod.

Well a small bit of stuff from me again. 1 spro rock crawler 55 in cell mate 1 spro little John 50md in cellmate 1 spro little John 50 md in bluegrass craw I have been wanting to try some spro cranks, I guess I just finally got around to buying some. I need to work on cranking, drop shot, spinner baits this coming year is my goal. this tax season I plan on putting some electronics on my kayak, I will definitely drop some money there. I am not really into fish finders, have always done good without them. I mainly want to just know the cover that’s in the lakes I fish and the depth and contours. This should be the next step to improving my efficiency and knowledge. I will probably do livescope more than likely.

Well that surprised me on 2 levels today. I caught 5-6 fish in 35 minutes or so, using one of my oddball color choices. The bait of the night was a keitech easy shinner 4” in table rock shad on a dirty jigs finesse 1/8 oz jig head. The fish were not big, although they were definitely beautiful. I caught my first fish by my 4th cast with some on back to back cast. I missed 2-3 fish but it was a very good session.

Well this time I actually got what I was planning on buying when I went to the tackle shop. What was that you might ask ? Dobyns jig heads of course, I was also thinking about that lucky craft jerk bait in that color. It’s been calling to me from the shelf multiple times. I also got extras of course, that’s what they count on. I saw some odd colors and that had the bait monkey pointing them out with a spotlight. I am a sucker for odd colors, it works for me though. 1 pack dobyns jig heads 1/8oz 1 pack easy shiner in table rock shad 1 pack team dirty jigs finesse jig heads 1 spro steelhead jig 1/8oz 1 lucky craft pointer 100 aurora green perch

Well just another small fish Friday from me lol, the weather has been weird around me lately. I dropped my son off in allegan like normal at Jaycee park after work around 7pm. I knew what I was going to throw, a 5” hula grub green pumpkin root beer on a 3/32oz outkast tackle money jig. well I made my first cast and look down at my line and there’s a knot slightly in my line. Tried to get it out but failed miserably, wasn’t really trying to hard I don’t have enough on my reel anyhow. I only have maybe 30 yards on my bfs reel. I am going to put more on it next year. I don’t remember if I caught it on my first or third cast, somewhere around there. I caught this small guy on the fall. I was very happy to finally catch something on a hula grubs, I have over 10 packs of various colors. I knew that I could catch fish with them that’s why I kept buying a pack here and there over the past 2 years, I was just slow to use them. I had a good day.

2 packs hula grubs 1 pack speed senkos 1 pack 3.5 salty core tubes 2 packs money jigs 1 pack owner ultra head jigs I am trying to find the right jig heads for the hula grubs, it’s a struggle but I will get there. I also wanted to try those speed senkos in that color and they had them in hula grubs also, why not the bait monkey said and I agreed lol, don’t fight the urge to resist.

A few tiny fish out of me, a 1/16 oz jig head with a zoom fat Albert in lavender shad. Definitely better than a skunk.

Some more stuff, drop shot stuff, some tube things, mini max chatter bait with 3” zako trailers, some 1/32 oz jig heads and 2” fat impacts for my bfs bug lol.

I went in to look at certain color of worm and I come out with all of this lol. 2 packs of tubes some tube hooks that I wanted to try. 1 pack of grubs some jig heads for them and the pack of easy shiners lol. I go in with a idea and go from there,like I say you don’t know unless you throw lol.

A few odds and ends lol, went in for a popper and maybe a weed less Willy. Ended up with more trick worms in colors I haven’t seen before, I have this strange compulsion to buy colors of trick worms that I don’t possess lol. A 3/4 oz spinner bait due to a recent thread on here and a 3/4oz thunder cricket due to another recent thread on here also. Doesn’t help that I started fishing the river more lately, need to combat current and keep it down deeper, also got not one but 2 weed less Willy’s, no clue how they will due but for $10 each I figured it is worth a try.