NWfishing

Didn’t realize so many people were having the same problem as I was. I didn’t look too hard for frog hooks. A good rigging alternative is a 3/0 weighted EWG hook. The weight keeps the bait in plae, 1/8 oz makes them sink just slightly faster than a senko. You could obviously go heavier depending on how you like to fish. Hook up ratio is very good. Doesn’t pin the small fish that hit it, but it works very well. I’ll likely use that method as my primary rigging method but wanted to try this way also.

I’m sure a lot of you have seen the rigging method for urchin baits that utilizes a frog hook. I don’t live in a bass town necessarily and I just have a sportsman’s to work with. They had nothing I needed for this rig. No hooks, no drop shot weights in 1/8 oz. So I had to make my own. The hooks were made famous by some guy that won a tournament with this rig and you can’t find them. Hook is from a pad crasher jr that was at the end of its life. 1/8 oz lead egg sinker. I took wire from an inline spinner that I found and made my own drop shot weight. Seems solid. I want to see how it fishes before I drop $20 on a handful of hooks and weights

I’m looking forward to trying them out. The price tag on name brand urchins is ridiculous. It’s price gouging honestly. Figured for 1/10th the price they are worth a shot

Not sure how we feel about aliexpress on here… But my buddy fished some knockoff urchin the other day and it fishes really well. So I found some that look pretty solid on Ali. $2.50-$3.50 for a 3 pack. Free shipping. They end up being about $1 per bait depending on which color you choose, and I was surprised by the color options. Haven’t received them yet. https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256812402684345.html?spm=a2g0n.productlist.0.0.7cf43LBo3LBo0e&browser_id=5fe05fe5de494111948088a7d79d1ef9&aff_platform=msite&m_page_id=mzrisipzqcauleqq19f4c52925120c662ec1248915&gclid=&pdp_ext_f=%7B%22order%22%3A%221544%22%2C%22eval%22%3A%221%22%2C%22orig_sl_item_id%22%3A%221005012588999097%22%2C%22orig_item_id%22%3A%221005012432831696%22%2C%22fromPage%22%3A%22search%22%7D&pdp_npi=6%40dis%21USD%216.45%213.22%21%21%2143.54%2121.77%21%402103122117836919076446522ef455%2112000058800600450%21sea%21US%21705228183%21X%211%210%21n_tag%3A-29919%3Bd%3A22ffd2bd%3Bm03_new_user%3A-29895&algo_pvid=447b1447-cd39-446e-8b37-496c49d14723&utparam-url=scene%3Asearch%7Cquery_from%3A%7Cx_object_id%3A1005012588999097%7C_p_origin_prod%3A1005012432831696&_gl=1*19mrs7y*_gcl_au*MTI3NDM0MDE3MC4xNzgzMjkxNjMz*_ga*MTU0NzYzODgzMS4xNzgzNjAyMjAw*_ga_VED1YSGNC7*czE3ODM2OTE4OTAkbzMkZzEkdDE3ODM2OTE5MTQkajM2JGwwJGgw&_universallink=1&m_page_id=mzrisipzqcauleqq19f4c52925120c662ec1248915

6th sense has some great discounts going. I bought a bag from them about a year ago. Haven’t fished many of the plastics because I fish finesse jigs most of the time and a lot of them are larger craws. Starting to bite them down and use them as trailers. Anyone on here use any of their stuff? It all looks good, seems well made. I’m interested in their axle jigs. They seem pretty slick.

I check this thread and Amazon haul a few times a week. The Amazon sale is random and I just pulled it up one day and saw 50% discounts. They do a couple per year I think, hopefully you catch the next one.

I don’t fish crankbaits thankfully. Not that I don’t want to, I just haven’t taken that plunge yet. This sale seemed particularly dangerous to the crankbait enjoyer. I have reorganized my tackle 2-3 times in the last few weeks and I am out of room. No matter which way I cut it lol. Even my “sparse” boat bag has no more room. My back up bags have no more room. I was able to pass up this sale somehow but the week isn’t over…

Amazon haul has a lot of their bass tackle around 50% off. I didn’t have a chance to look through everything but I’m seeing all strike king 40-60% off. Thunder crickets $5-$6 and the tungsten ones are $7. Good colors too. I’m also seeing rat-l-traps from $2-$6

that is really cool

I started making my own jigs and noticed I have some with poorly made skirts, so I started making new skirts for them. I may start buying lower quality skirted baits intentionally and improving the quality to save some $. Here’s a z man micro bladed jig that was like $3-$4 I think. It had a pretty ugly black and blue skirt so I swapped it out.

That’s actually the one I have 6 of in my cart I think, looks pretty similar to the Berkley ones. I’m trying to fight buying them but it isn’t working.

I already have about 8 bags of the power worms lol. I just started fishing them, they are awesome. Have you fished the zoom version?

Dicks buy 3 get 3 free is Zoom and Yo zuri right now. Do I need 6 more packs of 10” worms? On a serious note, this thread got me addicted to buying baits lol. $300 ish or more in tackle over the winter. I haven’t fished 95% of it yet and have more in my cart. I think I need a bait hiatus.

I come from the world of fly fishing and recently switched over to bass for the most part, I still trout fish as well. Most of my fishing buddies have stuck to fly fishing. I’m in the central zone but want to make some trips around the state this summer. Just looking to make some new fishing buddies this season.

I wonder if working for a school district qualifies me

Siebert outdoors has some soft plastics on sale. 2-3$ off per pack. Missile baits and some strike king. Hard not to pick up a pack of the blemish/seconds jig packs when I place an order there as well.

Thanks folks! I’ll definitely just get something modern and relatively cheap.

I have never owned a fish finder. I kind of prefer not having one in some ways. But I have always thought knowing the water depth and water temp at least would be beneficial. A coworker of mine told me to make an offer on his Lowrance x-4. He doesn’t use it anymore. I haven’t found any for sale online, he mentioned he thought he paid $1000 new. It’s older and comes in a bag, it also has a transducer that suction cups to the exterior of a boat. Just seeing if anyone here has used or owns one of these, any info helps. Thanks.

I ran into this when I used to tie flies. I have boxes and boxes of unused patterns and colors. I’m guessing here, but roughly 1 in 5 patterns become a go to pattern for me. I’m in the middle of learning how to make skirts. I don’t pour my own heads. The color options made me go a little wild. I incorporated reds, oranges, green with my blues and blacks, etc. My plan is to fish new patterns when my local fishery opens up. If they don’t produce like the tried and true green pumpkin and black/blue, I’ll replace the skirts to colors I have confidence in. I’m hoping to end up with 2-3 new color patterns that I have confidence in, from there I’ll likely just make those color skirts and have an abundance of them. Hope this helps in some way.

I posted on here a little while ago and got some great advice from a few folks. Just wanted to say thanks for being friendly and helpful. I haven’t tried wire wrapping the collar yet, maybe next week. I’m able to create custom color combos now that aren’t available locally. I wanted to use a bit of orange after watching a YouTube video about how bass interpret color. Now I wait for the ice to melt so I can get this in front of some bass. Tight lines everyone.

Ahhh! I have a few of those for threading fly tying bobbins. I considered using it for fuzzy baits but never gave it a shot. Thanks for the tip!

I had fun making some fuzzy baits, but I have yet to fish them. I started with chunks of old senkos and an old jig skirt. I eventually made some fuzzy ned ochos and fuzzy senkos. They are actually a bit time consuming, but it beats buying them. My concern with the senkos is that they are already a brittle bait, and running strands through them creates weak points. It’s a fun afternoon project! I can attach some photos if you want to see how mine turned out.

I appreciate it Joe! Everyone on here has been extremely helpful. Glad I found this resource.

It’s funny you say that. I cut the first one into a finesse. On the second try I left all strands longer overall, and cut the inner strands shorter than the outer strands. It came out better, although the strands still want to open up a bit. Looking forward to making some more.