JackstrawIII

Ugh, that shouldn’t terrible. I drank one of those, one time, and swore them off forever. I can’t imagine 5.

To those who say the ned is a dink magnet, I’ve caught my 3 biggest bass of the season this year all on the ned. Different plastics each time, but all on a Ned head. It’s wild to skip a Ned under a dock and not know if you’re going to hook up with a 6 inch rock bass or a 6 pound largemouth. To answer your original question, my favorite way to use the Ned is to skip it up under docks. It will often get bit during the original fall, but sometimes hopping it out from under the dock will trigger the bite.

That looks great man! Very cool design. Also… the man really likes squarebills haha.

That was going to be my answer. Slow rolled spinner bait or swim bait along the edges of the weeds.

I guess I’m similar… I have a handful of confidence lures that I always bring with me on every outing. But yet, I do like trying new things on days when the bite is good. After I’ve caught 10 fish on my favorite swim bait or frog, I do get the hankering to try something new just to see if can catch a fish on a __________. So, I guess what I’m saying is that I always reach for one of my top 5 confidence baits on a tough day to “make something happen”, but I get a lot of joy out of catching fish on a diversity of lures on days when the bite is good.

Ironically, this is one of the features that I loved about the Fords that I test drove haha. I felt like I could actually see what was happening in front of the truck, vs the Chevys with the huge hoods. Haha different strokes for different folks I suppose. Yeah, for the first few trips I took in the Tundra, I had the instant fuel mileage readout pulled up on the dash. Bad idea. I switched that off, and now I love my truck haha.

Fun fact: foreign manufacturers aren't allowed to import light trucks into America, so all foreign light trucks (Toyota, Honda, Nissan, etc.) are made in the States. And I think Toyota's lack of "innovation" (constant change) is part of what contributes to their reliability. It seems like many of the other auto companies are in a constant arms race towards more features, but are plagued by recalls and issues.

Hey, wanted to share a pic of my new rig. Thanks for all the input and advice.

It's a step in the right direction. Good work.

Another vote for Suffix 832. It is smooth, strong, holds its color, and tends to knot less than others I've tried.

As have I... but you're right to fear the current. I waded across the river in a shallow area when the water was low so I could fish the far side of the dam. Did great, caught lots of salmon... BUT, as I was walking back across the river, they opened the dam and I was swept off my feet and headed out towards the lake with my waders full of water. Not fun. Fortunately, I was able to work my way towards shore and someone pulled me out. Needless to say, I haven't fished up there since. To answer the OP's question, most of my bass fishing experience is in the various bays off of Lake Ontario. It's an absolutely beautiful place to live. Usually people start targeting salmon in the various rivers in the fall. Sept/Oct. But, if you have a big enough boat and know where to go, you can catch them in the lake (meaning Lake Ontario) all year long.

Man, out fishing in March is impressive. I usually don't get on the water until mid April at the earliest. Used to live out in that neck of the woods, but never fished Silver Lake. Looks like that lake gets deep rather quickly. I'd be fishing those north and south sides where the slope is more gradual early in the year and into the prespawn. How have you been doing this time of year?

That is 100% true. Nasty nasty. I’ve learned to mitigate symptoms somewhat through careful diet and lifestyle changes. Still waiting to be fully restored tho. That is a very kind offer, thank you so much. Wow. With that said, I prefer to work with new steel over recycled though. With recycled you never know if there are micro fractures or other issues with the steel that don’t show up while making the knife, but can cause a failure later on during use.

Want to share something with you all that I’m personally really excited about. After about a 5 year hiatus from knife making, I’ve been getting back into making knives lately and been having so much fun. I was very blessed in the past to have a pretty thriving business making custom knives and sending them all over the world. Most of my customers were military, but also many hunters and weekend warriors. I shut the business down indefinitely due to some health struggles related to Lyme disease, but I’ve been improving lately. My wife and I agreed that I was in a place where venturing back into making knives as a hobby made sense. It took a while to order new tools and equipment and reconfigure my wood shop back into a knife shop, but I’ve been back on the grind for a few weeks now and having a blast. The goal of this post is not to promote my work, but since I know some of you will ask, the best place to see what I’ve made is my instagram account, which is @danfreda Ps. No, I’ve never made a fillet knife, despite all my fishing pals clamoring for one haha. Maybe someday.

This is what I was going to say. The weight of the bait is less important to me than how much force I need to impart in order to set the hook. A normal ML rod works for Ned rigs not because they’re light, but because they (usually) have a light wire open hook that takes very little power to set. A fluke rigged on an EWG or swimbait hook takes more force and is better suited to a stout M or MH power rod.

Smaller, more comfortable in the hand, slightly lighter. Not a huge deal, but they’re nice in certain cases, such as balancing a shorter rod better.

When using braid, you have to remember that whatever you do with your rod is INSTANTLY transferred to the fish. There’s no lag in the system anywhere. This leads to 2 potential problems: 1. you can tend to set the hook prematurely 2. you can tend to set the hook too hard, which can create an overly large hole if the hook lands in softer parts of the fish’s mouth I use braid almost exclusively. I solve problem 1 by consciously reeling down on the fish until I feel its weight before setting the hook. I solve problem number 2 by using a slightly lighter rod than I would if I was using mono or fluoro. I’m happy with the results.

I am currently using a BB1 Pro ironically. Have also used Tatulas in the past with good results, but I like the Lews drag system. It gives me good feedback regarding what’s happening when I’m really tugging on a fish that’s trying to bury itself in weeds.

If I was going to be chucking spinnerbaits long distances from a kayak, I’d be using braid 100% of the time.

Not being where they’re supposed to be. I research the crap out of things to discover where the fish are supposedly hanging out during whatever particular time of year and weather conditions… and then they’re not there. Very aggravating at times.

My kids make me cards, and I love it.

Are you asking what percentage of bites turn into hooked fish? Or what percentage of hooked bass end up in the boat? Two different answers for me. The answer to the first question widely depends on what bait I'm fishing. The worst would be topwater, in which probably only 65% of bites turn into hooked fish. Best would be something like a Ned or Neko rig, in which probably 90% of bites turn into hooked fish. The answer to the second question is pretty consistent regardless of setup for me. Probably 85% of the fish I hook end up in the boat, I'd say, unless I'm not trying. Smaller fish I'll sometimes give them some slack and let them pop off, but I can usually land them once the hook is in. My landing percentage went up once I started waiting a second or two longer before setting the hook on most of my presentations. Really helps.

I agree with everyone else's comments. Braid to leader with an FG knot has never failed me. Have had some wind issues with very light braid, but 10+ has been totally fine. Start with 20 or 30 if you're nervous about it. The advice to close the bail by hand and to avoid tons of slack in the line will be a game changer.

I’ve always used the FG. When tied right, it’s 100% strong and very thin. Easy to tie on the water too. Lots of love for the Alberto on this thread tho, might have to try it just for fun.

Well guys, after much deliberation I bought a truck today! Ended up getting a 2020 Toyota Tundra. It's a Platinum trim with 70,000 and looks like it just came off the lot yesterday. Really pumped about it! Will post a pic or two once it's actually in my driveway early next week. Thanks for all the advice and feedback.