Chilidog

I do lose an accasional swim jig to pike but not with a spinnerbait. I feel I lose more fish with braid. I like having a little stretch to the line. I also fish clear water and I do not like dealing with tying on a leader and the knot as the line goes through the guide. Overall I am not a fan of braid for bass and I only have one of my many rods with braid. That would be for fishing a frog. I use a fair amount of mono line also.

I go with a size 150 reel spooled 15 lb flouro for those baits.

Whopper Plooper. It catches big fish also.

I use two rods for top water fishing. Both of them are a 7'3" medium heavy with mono line. The two lures I throw are a Booyah buzz bait and a size 90 or110 whopper plopper. This is for largemouth bass. When fishing smallmouth I am using a 7' medium fast rod with mono. The lures I use are the size 90 whopper plopper and a Rapala skitter walk.

I use a buzz bait the last 45 - 60 minutes of the day. It is a very productive lure for me during this time. The rest of the day it is not a productive lure for me except for the fall where is can good throughout the day.

I have mostly Dobyn's with a few St. Croix mixed in.

I'm in Minnesota. I store my boat in an unheated detached garage all winter. I just charge the batteries and then disconnect the negative connection on each battery. I have never had a problem. The batteries are all fully charged when I get my boat in the spring.

Bruiser Baits crazy craw.

Seldom. When fishing at night I will fish with a trailer.

The wacky worm is the bait I rarely fished this year. It used to be my number one bait. I especially used it for fishing around and under docks. I have since learned to skip a jig under docks and that has become my preferred bait. I do fish a fat ika a fair amount which to me is a similar bait to the wacky worm.

The last two years I have been working with skipping with a baitcaster. This includes a lot of practice on a concrete driveway. I use a 7' Dobyn's Champion 705c with a Tatula sc tw. I have slowly gotten better but it has taken time and I still get backlashes. I feel I am more acccurate with the baitcaster and I never pick up a spinning reel for skipping anymore. It has been worth the effort but it does take time and has included respooling several reels because of backlashes.

I have had some good days when fishing with the kids using a bobber and a wacky worm. Like others have said fishing in a little chop or twitch the bobber. I think it is more effective with a 4 inch senko. At least that has been the case for me.

I keep the occasional 12' - 14" bass. We beer batter fry them and they taste great. Around here we are encouraged to keep 10 pike under 22". They have become a problem. After you learn how to filet them its not that difficult and they are a great tasting fish.

It was on a border water. I have been fishing for weeks.

50 degrees is the lowest water temperature that I have caught bass on top water. That has always been in the late fall. I was struggling yesterday in Minnesota and decided to try a whopper plopper. The water temp was 51 degrees. It saved my day.