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Hooray!!!! Now we have a tatula with an sv spool. They need to stop beating this whole TWS horse to death. It's a sales gimmick. The sv zillion just came out and they're already releasing a tws variant. Go home Daiwa you're drunk

Spending Christmas Eve working on some swimbaits.

This is the warmest Chistmas eve we can all remember up here in Maine with no ice so I had to take advantage of it. Launched at 6:30 and threw some buoys on a point that runs from 10-12 fow to 40 fow. Caught a bunch of white perch and crappie on a blade and only a few bass so we went to the bank and beat em up on jerkbaits. My buddy and I ended up getting 22 bass, 2 pickerel, 1 nice brown and a good brookie on the jerk. Just a beautiful day on Dec 24th! I hope this leads to an early ice-out as well. Here's a few: Came home, washed the boat and will do some winter maintenance on it in the next few weeks.

Groovy!

Raiders gonna be so jealous when he reads the title of this thread.

Realized I posted this in the wrong thread. Been waiting for a while now to open my package. It was well worth the wait. Tons of awesome megastrike and rage plastics, sebert jigs, and some hard baits. Really hoping those shakey heads are the new finesse ones. Thanks and Merry Christmas @roadwarrior

I maybe a little bit basis since my personal best of 12.8# was caught on a Trap! Traps come in more weight sizes & color options than any other lipless crank. Each brand has distinct rattle sounds & vibrationd so I pretty much throw em all. While many anglers like ripping em through grass I like ricocheting em off wood!

Yes, that's them. They were working today too.

What did you get ?

Been there done that. Last summer (2014) on the 4th of July, no clouds, bright skies, no bites. Chatting with another angler and spotted a big fish just off the bank. I threw a 8" Line Thru floating swimbait past her, watched her swim up behind it, paused it and she sat underneath it. Gave it a quick pull and moved it about 3 feet, she quickly followed. Paused it again and she inhaled the bait....Next words had some explict language and the fact I hooked her.

Well played

Hard to beat Bluegill flash, rainbow shad, and sungill.

It is a gimmick. It clearly worked on some people. It's a good idea but it doesn't not perform any better when compared to a regular line guide. #coolstorybro

http://shimano-stella.com/

There are dozens of different lipless cranks on the market. I've probably mentioned this before in other threads. Neither of the two baits you've mentioned make my top two. Current have is an old Berkley Frenzy Rattle Bait - in the Threadfin Shad color. Actually it has been beat up so much it is hard to tell what color it is. 1st runner up would be a Cordell Spot.

After reading the title if this...a good laugh otherwise a trip New Orleans next week for New Years Eve. A hotel on Bourbon St. with a balcony.

Well new member... 2 weeks ago I had a 24lb stringer (8lb kicker)... been on solid fish.... last weekend had 17 but lost a 6+ which would have put me over 20 again... brushpiles 20ft +and radical dropoffs... from 22 to 35 seem like the best bite.... photo to add some truth... be there Saturday hiding from that SE wind again...

Your on the right track, keep trying different baits and keep the ones YOU have confidence in. I try to keep my selection simple and the Red Eye just works for me. With that being said, the Excalibur One Knocker is worth trying. Also One tip - If I am on a good rattlin lipless cb bite and it slows, the first thing i do is go to a silent model. Most of the time you will pick up a few extra fish. Casey Hay

RoLo, With respect, it's not very correct to say that light behaves the same in Earth's atmosphere as it does underwater. Transmission, absorption, and deflection of different wavelengths of light depend very much on the composition of the medium or reflecting surface. Consider a simple case - different colors of stained glass. The composition of the glass determines which colors of light are transmitted. Likewise, 'air' and water do not share the same composition or state, and do not have the same effects on light transmission. The daytime sky is not blue because red light is 'filtered' out; in fact, nearly the opposite is true. Earth's atmosphere is composed primarily of nitrogen and oxygen, both of which in gaseous form are effective at scattering short-wavelength blue and violet light, and less effective at scattering the longer waveforms of red, orange, and yellow light. During the day, 'rays' of sunlight containing the full visible spectrum (and more!) pass overhead through the thick atmosphere, having their blue-ish frequency waves preferentially scattered. When we look at the sky, some of these scattered waves find their way to our eyes, leading our brain to conclude that the sky is blue. This same effect explains why the sky often appears orange-red during a sunset. The light that reaches our eyes during a sunset has travelled on a longer trajectory through the atmosphere than the light that reaches us during the day, and as a result much of the blue-violet spectrum has been scattered away. Clean, clear, liquid water is a different story, and it is true as you said that the shorter wavelengths of visible light (blue, violet) are able to penetrate further through this medium than the longer wavelengths (red). However, Scaleface's suggestion that other factors like turbidity, stain, and suspended particles can variably affect penetration depth of different colors of light seems plausible at least. Again, think of the stained glass. If red light can travel 50 ft (made up number) through crystal clear water, then changing the composition of the water probably won't make the red light travel any further, but it seems possible that it could selectively reduce the penetration of certain wavelengths more than others. Perhaps under certain conditions these effects can outweigh the progressive 'light filtration' effect of the clean water, creating a scenario where the normal hierarchy of penetration depth is shuffled. Several have made the point that our observations tend to be grounded in our human perception of light and color, which may not match up with the 'perceptions' of a bass. And I would agree with that. But we know a few things about bass, namely that they have eyes, and that those eyes aren't entirely different from our own. If their eyes lend the bass some kind of light-based vision, and that ability to 'see' could be harnessed by the bass under certain conditions in the pursuit of food (or to locate targets for aggression), then I don't think the discussion of light penetration in water is off-base. Even if the spectrum of light a bass can detect is different from ours, and their tiny brains function in ways entirely foreign to us, a discussion of light penetration is probably still relevant. Predicting a bass' reaction to different colors of reflected light amid the seemingly infinite other factors is a tough nut to crack, but aren't those kinds of questions really what it's all about? I, for one, am keen to experiment! Cheers, Dave

I decided to post this because I was getting tackle ready for a trip next week and a friend stopped by and was talking and watching me get my stuff organized. I just finished my spring finesse box and began getting my spring power fishing box together and I had 2 Storm Swimming Sticks along with a Sebile Magic Swimmer and a Lucky Craft Smasher and as I was lining them up my friend made a comment that he never caught any fish on those types of swim baits and everyone he talked to never did any well with them either. This made me look and it does appear there are a number of anglers who haven't done well and so I thought I would make a post to help those who gave up on these. I'll admit I wasn't good with them and I quit using them but I got to fish with a guy that really believed in them and taught me when, where, and how to use them. The first thing is the best time is spring, but not in the early stages, right when the water hits like 55 to 58 degrees, right before fish begin to bed, that is when it is on!!! The biggest mistake is treating these as actual swim baits, instead look at them more as a jerkbait, they are slow sinkers but work best around 2' to 3' and the best retrieve I found so far is a slow cranking retrieve for a few feet and then give it a jerk-jerk and then pause, start slow reeling and repeat the jerk-jerk-pause again, this is a killer in the exact same spots as jerkbaits. During the warmer months this bite does fade but if you have the right spots it can be good all year, the right spots are clear water with submerged weeds, you can keep your rod tip high and work it just like a wake bait, this is an excellent presentation when topwaters can be used, and I know, why use anything else when a topwater is going to work and I agree with that except if you are looking for big fish because the one constant is I end up getting larger than average fish on these baits. I like the magic swimmer and the LC smasher when I'm fishing over tops of weeds as they don't have a lip and are better for the wake type retrieve and they also work much better when the fish aren't super aggressive. I like the Storm swimming stick if there is color to the water but still clear and when the fish want it a little faster, the lip causes the bait to dive a little but it also makes it roll and therefore displaces more water which I believe is why it works in stained water. I hope this helps, after I explained it to my friend he is now going to give it another shot but as I said, treat them as a jerkbait for all seasons, I just don't know if they would be good in real cold water but I know in the mid 50s it is a real fish catcher.

My fiancée is a board certified zoo veterinarian and she says that those are battle scars, not legions or septic issues within the fish. Otter fight likely she said they are usually in pairs so a gang of them could have teamed up on ol' lady.

I've caught far more bass on an original Bill Lewis Ratltrap that a Redeye. I usually only throw them in spring and fall in red craw. Basically in water 55 deg down to 41 or 42. After that I go to a blade bait on the bottom. The last Ratltrap I bought, I noticed they use the KVD triplegrip hooks from the factory now; I like those.

This thread is about to blow up in the next 24hrs.

Those PH Squarebills Are killer!

Nice post Kyle; I like how you said this is not the end-all of jig info, just what has been working for you. Great post for beginner jig fisherman. A jig is a great bass tool for sure.

A little Christmas Eve balsa action. Mutt and Huntin' P

Plenty of fish today; just wrong species and/or wrong size.

Try gargling with an iodized warm salt water solution. Disclaimer, don't know if it's still available. The body needs iodine, and that's why they started putting it into salt. I think it's the thyroid that needs it. You can also try gargling with a plain warm salt water solution. It's also good for rinsing your mouth after having a tooth extraction, but you have to wait a bit so you don't flush the blood clot sealing the wound, and you have to swish it gently. You might find this article about iodine and the human body interesting. http://www.healthyreply.com/iodine-deficiency-symptoms-and-tips-for-getting-more-iodine-through-your-diet/

That's what he calls them. http://www.mondotackle.com/item/P020000000001509.html I think these are his.

Looking forward to picking up another 51e... for $100 oe

Yep, my electronics are my eyes. Good report and I'll let you know if I figure anything out before February.

It's Christmas, nice gift for everyone to share. Chunks are a copy of one if the original pork rind lure called a frog. The reason it's called a frog is because the pork "chunk" was nose hooked with weedless hook and skittered across the tops of weed beds to imitate a frog. Bass anglers learned to use the frog with a weedless jig and the pig & jig was born. The key to using a frog/chunk is nose hooking it, this allows the twin tail shape to swim more freely. The evolution of the frog was adding curl tails to swim faster, now ridges to move even faster than before. Sometimes a pork frog out fishes the newer faster moving soft plastics, the subtitle Senko like movements that can trigger bass strikes. Tom PS, if you are not getting strikes on the fall, you are missing them......focus on strike detection!

Ok, so I'm on my HS's fishing team, and nearly all of the tournaments are at Rayburn, which unfortunately we're not very familiar with. So we decided to go try and see any spots we might try at the tournament in February. There was showers on and off all day, but it wasn't too bad, and the day had looked promising. We pulled out of San Augustine's boat launch and went to a point nearby. But just as we pulled into our spot, the switch to our electronics shorted, so all of our electronics were rendered useless. We continued to fish a group of trees that stood out in water, and I immediately got bit on a rattletrap, but after that, nothing. After a while we decided to go into the adjacent cove, but we had no idea what depth was under us. We spent some time over there but to no avail. The morning was looking bleak, so we decided that our best bet would be to fish visible structure/cover since we didn't have a good idea of what was going on below. We went to the bank of the cove and trolled into a small cut. There my dad caught 4 fish quickly off of a green w/ some flake wacky worm, and I caught one flipping a blue/black jig w/ an orange grub trailer under a small tree. Then the monsoon came and we decided to head home. Its crazy how blind I felt without our electronics when I hadn't ever used them before 3 days ago!

It never ceases to amaze me that when I think about doing something I find someone who ultimately is trying to do the same on this forum. I bought a Buckeye Mop Jog to replicate what they did because I like their jigs. FWIW here is what I am doing ... 1 - I use round rubber from Netcraft. Regular skirts from fishingskirts.com 2 - PM Cadman ... he can help you here. 3 - Buckeye appears to have somewhere between 20-30 strands of round rubber and about a skirt and a half of regular skirt material. 4 - The round rubber goes out about an inch to 2 inches past the hook. Here is one I made messing around yesterday.

The oldest reel I use is next years model. That is the curse of being the bait money. Great avatar- just watched The Outlaw Josey Wales last night.

Exactly the same deal I got on my Scorpion. If I was looking to buy that platform today...a USDM Curado I for $119 would be a no-brainer...

Keeping in mind that I bought mine when curados were still selling for $179.00, I paid $169.00 for my scorpion. $10.00 shipping. So I actually came out ahead by not having to pay tax. $179.00 total. Hootie

I found a chart that demonstrates how light works "under" water . On the left it shows how the warmer colors are absorbed first . On the right it shows what happens when there are a lot of particles suspended in the water and the short wave lengths of blue cant penetrate very deep ..

Did another round of practice at the indoor range last night, this time rented a Sig P226. It felt great, shot grouping was a lot better, still have a ways to go to get "good". But I am pretty much settled on the P226 once I get past my handgun qualification class on Jan 10th.

Why am I a deceiving liar? I just said take a look and judge it for yourself.

3.8's get thrown as bladed jig trailers 4.8s get thrown on either a owner weighted 4/0 beast hook or a 1/4 oz buckeye j-will jig head As for fishing the 4.8's I fish them as slow as I can. The beauty of the keitech is how you can fish it at such slow speeds and it will maintain that beautiful wide kick.

I have the best luck with the 4.8" rigged with a 4-0 Gamakatsu 1/16 or 1/8 oz weighted spring lock swimbait hook. I use 20 lb fluoro on a baitcaster with a MH or H rod, or 50 lb braid if thicker cover. Reel it fast or slow, steady or pausing, along the bottom, on the surface, or just below the surface. Any of these ways may work best on any given day.

x2. I never used the keithechs until this spring. I rigged the larger ez shiner, I believe they are the 4" version on a yum money minnow keel weighted swimsuit hook. The hook was almost too big reaching way back into the thing portion of the tail. Make sure you get the strong squid scent- it makes a difference. The action on these baits are great. And with that big yum money minnow hook, my hookup ratio was likely 95%+. It was fun. The only downside is the are about as durable as a senko. So one or two fish on average. I could care less, but know some people squad about the whole durability aspect.

They work well on chatterbaits and swim jigs. You can also rig them weed less on a weighted swimbait hook (4/0 - 5/0), or you can throw a worm weight and a screw lock ewg hook. Or for open water, rig them on a swimbait jig head with your desired weight. I'll throw them this way with everything from 1/8oz up to a 1/2oz.

I worked for an outfitter in Montana this summer/fall and a lot of people out there drank Pendelton. It is made in Oregon, Canadian whiskey. I normally like bourbon but this stuff is pretty good and not that expensive. If you can find it, it's worth a try.

As long as you like having to go to the first post of every thread instead of where you left off last and having to click 3 times to get back to the main forum to get to another sub forum it's ok.

You lost me at the hack saw.....

What i need to do is stop looking at trucks when I get the oil changed.

So on the 25th day they do an extra 25% off the already on sale items?