T-Billy

Preach'n to the choir brother. I've had one tied on for about 3 weeks now. I prefer a single Olympic blade though. Those fall days when it's windy enough to make pitchin difficult, a short arm spinnerbait rolled along laydowns and rip rap can be killer. It's awesome prespawn too.

A TRD Bug will catch a fair percentage of those. I pitch it far enough in front of them not to spook 'em, then when they get within sight of it I drag it a foot or so. Alot of them swim over and pick it up. I rig it on a 1/8 football head #2 hook, 6# mono. Best bed bait I've ever used too.

He's just been too busy with me to bother with you lately. He's talked me into 2 Kadens, 2 Sierra's, 4 ARK Tharps, 1 ARK Lancer Pro,1 Curado BFS, 1 SLX XT, 1 SLX MGL, 1 Lew's Super Duty, 1Lew's Pro SP, 2 Penn Battle III's and at least 50# of terminal tackle this year. It's shameful. I have a birth defect that makes me especially vulnerable to him. I was born without a willpower. ?

If you ever figure this out be sure to let us know. I've never been able to catch them. Not one. When they're torpedoing bait at the surface they're catchable, but when they're just launching themselves out of the water, ajschn06 is 100% correct. Seriously.

I've gotten to be a really solid heavy cover fisherman for my neck of the woods. I forced myself to spend a BUNCH of time fishing grass this summer. What I found is punching grass mats just doesn't seem to be the way to go on my local lakes. For whatever reason, I could never find many fishing just grass beds. Wood that's choked out with grass.... Now we're talkin!!! For sure my best year for both numbers and average size. 100% because I've gone to doing all my flipping and pitching with braid, and I've put the jig down in favor of a T-Rigged creature on a flippin hook. I can put that thing into places I'd never even think about putting a jig, or even a T-Rig on an EWG for that matter, and if I stick one back in that nasty mess, it's coming out. Never had a bass wrap me up this year, and I hauled some catfish up to 13# out of big wood tangles. I did get my butt kicked by a couple big flatheads though. I'm fishing the nastiest cover on my lakes with confidence, and catching bass most guys won't even put a bait in front of. I'm not going to say I'm better than anyone, but I feel like I'm a really solid stick in in the jungle. My advice to anyone wanting to get better in this area, get some flippin hooks, learn to tie a snell, get some tungsten sinkers, some 40# or higher braid, a proper flippin stick, and go fish the stuff your scared to pitch into. My favorite way to fish. No place to monkey around. They go ballistic when you crack 'em with that big rig, and you gotta stick 'em, turn 'em, and get 'em coming your way in one motion. Then ya gotta just winch on 'em and not give an inch until they're in open water. It's a fight in a phone booth as they say, and it's SOOO.... addicting!!!

Lew's LFS and on up the price range are solid reels. I'm happy with all of mine. I picked up Shimano SLX's in the XT and MGL varieties this year and so far they are VERY smooth, especially the MGL. That thing's slicker than frog snot. As WRB stated, a 6 or 7 speed should serve you well.

Elk is AWESOME!!! I'll whack a couple does at my buddies, but I'll never be able to replace my aunt and uncles farm. Lots of great memories there and four nice bucks in the last five years with the crossbow. We're house hunting though, so I'm glad they sold it before I screwed up and bought a place in town. Back on topic: I saw in a video, John Godwin smeared a bunch of fillets up with sour cream, rolled 'em in flour and fried 'em. Said better than mustard fried. Anyone tried this?

Y'all are killin me!!! I'm out of backstraps. My cousins talked my elderly aunt into selling the farm. Lost my happy hunting ground last month. I've had 76 acres of prime whitetail woods to myself for years. Oh well, it was awesome while it lasted. End of an era. This thread got me hankerin for a fish dinner too. I think I'll keep a limit of bass later this week and try that mustard fried recipe the Robertson's are always talkin about.

There's a common theme through most of my pics with 5+ pounders. I'm either bundled up or it's dark. Chances for a big'n definitely go up as the water cools. The bite was weird here yesterday too. Really subtle bites, and they were buried up in the thick stuff, but there were lots of 'em shallow. Only a couple hit on the initial fall. Most grabbed it after I stroked it up to the bottom of the mat a few times. I was pitching a T-Rigged 3.5 beaver type bait. Couldn't buy a bite doing anything else.

This has been my fall experience as well. Water here just hit 60 surface temp. I put a beat'n on 'em yesterday pitching treetops choked with dead milfoil in 3' or less of water. Storms rolled through last night and shut that down. Picked up a few this morning on a redeye shad fishing windblown rip rap, but the bite was really tough. That's fall though. It's often feast or famine, for me anyhow. As the water cools it becomes more and more about those bite windows as well. Often in cold water I'll grind all day and catch the majority in a short period. The T-Rig is always a key player when they're on shallow wood as they often are in the fall. I'll put a T-Rig with a flippin hook into places I wouldn't even think about throwing a jig. My Tharp King Cobra has really been carrying the load lately and will continue to as the water falls clear through the 40's. Best all around flippin & pitchin stick I've ever had.

Complicated solution looking for a problem to solve IMO. I prefer to keep it simple.

LOL!!! You are not alone my friend. I ask myself that question every day!!!

LOL. Channel cats spawn in June in my neck of the woods. Flatheads move up right after them. They get tight to wood and rock and they love T-Rigs.

You have to push the boundries to find out where they're at. Once you know where they are you're good to go. Well..... You might end up sleeping in that new boat for a couple weeks, but after that you're good to go. ?

Cast iron is the ONLY way to fly. Just pickup a helmet while you're shopping for that cookware, you'll be fine. ?

I can't speak on the reinforcer or champ as they're above what I'm interested in spending, but in the sub $200 rods, that ARK 40T Torray blank beats the Kaden or Sierra IMO, and flat out smokes the Fury. I'm up to 4 Tharps, and have a Lancer Pro on the way. I have a couple Kadens, a Sierra, and a Fury. I like Dobyns, but feel like ARK offers more rod for the $$$. I've found the ARK ratings to be spot on, both in power and taper, though this is subjective. ARK's R rating is their term for mod/mod fast. I love the way my Tharps fish. The tapers seem just right to me. Since Tharp is involved with ARK's design and R&D, I would expect this to be the case with the Reinforcer as well, but I don't intend to shell out the $$$ to find out.

The day comes for all of us when we have to account for our actions. I wouldn't want to be in his shoes when his day comes. Glad things worked out well for you. Thanks for this great forum.

Another vote for Megastrike.

Pegged in heavy cover. Free in more open water. I use a bobber stop. It keeps the sinker pegged while fishing, but allows the sinker to separate from the hook during the fight.

I tried it when it first came out. I liked it, but it ain't the game changer the advertising claims it is. It's slightly lower stretch and less bouyant than XT, but has more memory. I think it's good line, but not worth the price tag to me. I'm still with good ol Trilene XT.

10 pitch should work well for you. We have several 10hp limit lakes around me. We all put 15 carbs on the old two stroke 9.9's to make 'em 15's, or get the 20hp computers for our 9.9 four strokes. Just about everyone with heavier boats like yours runs a 10P. Lighter boats do better with an 11P.

I was thinking along the same line. I use a Trilene knot with mono. 4 twists for 8# and below, and 3 for 10# and up.

I hear ya Catt. Late fall and after ice out I'll target milfoil and hydrilla stubble. The water is usually pretty clear and those dark patches are easy to spot. They can be lights out on sunny afternoons. This is the first year I've spent any significant amount of time fishing milfoil and hydrilla as it's dying. I've been catching decent numbers swimming a keitech through broken patches of it, and pitching a T-rig to isolated patches of broadleaf pondweed and isolated milfoil mats. The pondweed gets better and better as the fall progresses. It's the only weed that stays green until winter drawdown.

Ultra Molds Sweet Craw 3.5" T-Rigged on a 6th Sense 3/0 OX flippin hook. Shown here on a broken Ish's New Junk flippin hook.