WRB-2.0

Bo, I haven't fished a flat eye hook jig enough to debate this. What I do know is strike detection and getting a good hook set separates the men from the boys regardless of hook eye or jig style. If you can't detect the strike it doesn't matter and the average jig fisherman misses far more strikes than they detect. Getting off topic. Tom

Not always fishing vertical! Agree, the knot issue hasn't affected my jig fishing.Tom

The jig mold must be designed specifically to accommodate a flat eye hook, the traditional vertical hook eye lays in a spot face on the mold parting line...easy to mold jigs, flat eye not so easy. If the jig head design has the hook eye at the nose, the flat eye hook may go through weeds a little better. Football heads and Arkie heads can't see why it would help other than to sell jigs.Tom

The hook manufacturers call the hook flat eye for horizontal jig hooks, make no distinction for the traditional vertical hook eye. Flat eye hooks the knot can only slide left, right or stay centered. Tradition hook the knot can slide up and down. I Bo's jig has a flat eye hook. Tom

There is so much misinformation about how animals see colors, bass included. Exactly how fish like bass see underwater is still not completely known, however the science and research is getting better. Ultra violet and infra red spectrums are beginning to be accepted colors that bass can see at very low light conditions. The thought bass can't see blue or red is ridiculous. Blue is very good soft plastic color, especially translucent blue neon. When bass go very deep in the winter, 50-75 feet, blue neon, cinnamon blue neon are very effective 3" reaper and 5" finesse worm colors. The human eye would need a spot light at 50' depth to see any color! Black with blue flakes is a very popular night worm color combination followed by black with red flake. Again we need light at night to see any color, bass often have a preference for a specific color at night. Tom

Good tip Traveler. Today's heat treated needle and knife point hooks are very difficult to resharpen. Like everyone else worm hooks and crankbait trebles get replaced, I do sharpen jig hooks, spinnerbaits and large swimbait treble hooks. Tom

Very few top water lures sit on top of the water completely like a boat. The top water lure sits with the head out of the water, the body slightly or completely submerged. When retrieved the lure rolls to one side and may go under water at times giving the lutes overall color scheme a chance for the bass to see. If you are hollow body frog fishing over heavy weed matts the color has little affect, unless it hits open water pockets. Tom

The Arkie style jig head was designed to incorporate a fiber weed guard and slide over brush, this jig is known as a bass jig today. When you say pig & jig the Arkie is what the majority of bass anglers have in mind. The problem that a compact jig like the Arkie is getting a hook set when casting over 60 feet. Several reasons for this; the jig head is long covering most of the hook shank with lead. Adding a skirt and trailer the hook gap is reduced when compared to a football head for example. Bass engulfs your jig after casting horizontally, you set the hook and miss. What happens; the jig is in the back of the basses mouth, not held by the lips, crunch down, the jig head with center fiber weed guard rolls over 90 degrees and the hook set pulls the jig straight out of the mouth. Same jig fished more verticle, the line pulls upward, the jig tends roll upright and hook the bass Behring the ridge in back of the lips, if the hook has enough gap clearance between the jig head and hook point. The flat eye vs straight eye has little to do with hook sets, more to do with preventing weeds getting wrapped around the line tie. I make my own horizontal casting jigs since '71, don't use a traditional weed guard and caught lots of giant bass because of getting good hook sets! The Arkie design is a good jig, the *** jig maybe a better choice for all around use and very god in brush and rocks. Tom

Are you primarily flipping or pitching and what type of heavy cover?? Tom

Until OP tells us what this rod is used for we are all guessing. Tom

Sunline Super Sniper FC line is good, the 8 lb is .009 diameter, same as the 6 lb Stren you are now using. Tom

Welcome Fish4life14, your post belongs in the tackle forum and will be moved there. Take a few minutes a try using the search tool, there is a tool at the far right that will focus the search on key words like "jig trailer". Tom

The jig head design has a lot to do with how well the jig will perform and there are dozens to choose from The original jigs were ball heads and on slack line the jig would roll over allowing the hook to snag. The football head was a elongated ball head to help resolve rolling over on slack line and it works. Both the ball and football heads snagged in brush and weeds, the Arkie head resolved snagging by shaping the head so it would slide over limbs without getting the nose snagged and added a fiber center weed guard. The Arkie became the bass jig as we know it for fishing cover, The *** jig has a new designed head that allows it to slide thru rocks and wood very well and eliminated the weed guard problems, get it a try where heavy wood cover is an issue. Tom

You stated the carp are grass carp are you sure? The common carp are bugle mouth, amber color carp with a sucker type mouth. The grass carp are silver color with a normal looking fish mouth. Bugle mouth can be caught using whole cooked corn or white bread dough balls. Broad cast a hand ful of corn kernels where you plan to fish, come back about 20 minutes and keep low. Thread on about 3 corns kernels on a #6 bait holder hook or a dough ball about the size of a grape, small split shot about 12" up line. Cast to where you think the carp are and let the bait sit. Carp are hard fighters and fun to catch. IF the carp are grass carp, call your DNR and they will remove them. Tom

The aeration system helps to prevent a severe thermocline from developing and killing off all the bass due to lack of vegetation no longer can provide dissolved oxygen via photosynthesis. Decaying matter on the lake bottom uses up the DO. Carp can breath both DO & oxygen, bass can't they breath DO and suffocate if it gets too low levels. The lake management needs to remove the grass carp by electro shocking them and netting the stunned carp. The aeration system will reduce the algae blooms, then the vegetation can reestablish itself to balance this ecosystem. No magic bullets in lake management. Tom

Lot of kayakers on this site that can help you get started and some good buys available. Good luck with your fishing.Tom

The Bob Sands knot is a difficult knot to tie on the water quickly, lots of ways to go wrong. What brand FC are you using? The Palomar knot using FC isn't a strong knot, if it was there wouldn't be so many FC knots being offered. If the Palomar knot isn't your weak link, then the braid to FC knot is failing badly. You could go up to 8 lb FC with 0.008 D increasing the knot strengths by 25%, that may over come knot issues. Difinately practice your braid to FC knots and find a easier knot to tie that is more reliable for you. You don't want to consider using a weaker knot at the hook end. If you are using lures, use a snap directly on the braid without the FC leader. Tom

Removing weed guards from some style jig heads may not work due to the hook eye location like flat eye hooks for example. Weed guard can be fish guards and prevent you getting a hook set and you should only use a jig with a guard when fishing cover to prevent snagging. When fishing in rocky areas or sparse cover areas a weed guard isn't required. I have been fishing jigs without a traditional weed guard for a long time and wrote 2 articles for In-Fisherman (1986 Rare a Chance for a World Record, 1995 Horizontal Jigging) discussion how to fish jigs using soft plastic worm for a weed guard by attaching the worm section to the jig hook eye and protecting to hook point. Where and how I fish jigs, using soft plastic has worked good for me. Today you have the Hitchhiker and Owner CPS springs that make attaching a soft plastic for a weed guard easy. Tom

For some reason I didn't pick up on the fact this was a sand& gravel quarry lake. That doesn't change what my first reply would be, Having spent a lot of time fishing quarry lakes in my teen years and the bass trend to be similar to pond bass and become shoreline oriented bass, most of their food falls into the lake near shore. Quarry bass become super sensitive to shadows are movement, you need to blend into the environment. The deeper water near shore is where these bass will locate, you need to target that zone without spooking the bass. Tom PS, invest in a kayak!

Pick up WON weekly fishing new paper, all the public lakes have weekly fishing reports. Several city park lakes and some pay to fish lakes. Google maps search should be able to locate some smaller lakes to try out. Tom

Bluegill, crappie or any crawdads? Young of the year fish like catfish and carp also are baitfish during the summer period. Select lures that look somewhat like the shiners as a starting point, you should do OK.Tom

You are right.Tom

What do you plan to use this rod for?

Putting rods into a locker with lures tied on is asking for trouble, get yourself some lure wraps to protect the line, the hooks will nick line and rods when traveling, plus you can use towels to separate and cushion the reels. Tubes are OK, I don't use tubes, too much of a hassle loading and reloading the rod tips into, just lay them flat in a carpeted locker using the rod socks. I also keep about 15 rod/ reel combos in 1 locker. 3 layers of 5. Tom

If you just what to catch bass in pressured clear water small lakes and ponds than my first post is valid. If you don't like finesse presentations, the would go with a jerk bait, both hard and soft types, the S Waver and T-rigged worms or creature. Keep your shadow off the water and fan cast the area you fish. Low light hours and night will be more productive. Tom