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Well, decided to visit the Zoom factory today and it was a treat! They are very close to my Grandmother's house and we decided to stop by and check it out. We called ahead and when we walked in it was amazing to see the process of how the lures were made. It was very cool seeing the effort that goes into producing a bag of soft plastics and the people who were responsible for my success with their lures. They gave my brother and I each a hat, shirt, and a pack of unreleased frogs! The lady who showed us around was very kind and knowledgeable about the company. Just a sort of shout out to a great company. Also, the new frogs are a great addition to the zoom lineup, louder than a horny toad. Can't wait to fish them!

This young lady made my morning...

I've been very lucky over the past 10 years to have a trip to the US and Canada every other year by the kind invitation of friends. The last two trips I managed to fit in a stop in Syracuse to fish with Jim Husnay Jr and Snr and John Franchot for a couple of days before meeting Tim Johnson for a trip up to the Rideau lakes in Ontario. This year I couldn't work in the Syracuse stop, so I didn't get to see the guys there, or fish my favorite Oneida lake, but flew straight to Ottawa where it was easy for Tim to meet me for the start of the much anticipated "Bassfest '17" Tim has had a cottage on Newboro lake for the last 4 or 5 years, and before that we stayed at Sterling Lodge on Newboro. It really is a slice of heaven and an absolutely other worldly experience when you're used to fishing the River Thames in London, UK! Like a lot of southern canadian lakes it's a weedy aquarium with beautifully clear water and willing, tourist friendly, bass. Days start well on Newboro. We certainly had a week of mixed weather this year and had a few days where I didn't seem to have packed enough clothes (space is always at a premium in the suitcase as there's much more important tackle to bring over!) and was double fleeced and under my rainsuit all day, but we had enough good days to give a nice contrast in conditions. It upset the bass a bit some days, but overall we did very well. The last couple of times we've been counting all the bass we caught and the weight of the best five, which involved them spending a lot of the day in the boat's jacuzzi, but this year we went MLF style and weighed them as we caught them and Tim kept track of our best five. This system seemed much better and allowed the fish to be returned quickly and saved me from a severe case of bass thumb chasing them round in the livewell every day. Last year our best bag was 15.04 and our days varied between low twenties to seventy odd bass total. This year we beat our previous best bag on a number of occasions and as we only counted legal bass this time, the numbers were pretty good too. Between mid twenties and mid fifties. We had two bags over 16lb, which we were pleased with, mostly from punching baits through the weed mats that had blown up in a few areas. A few of them going over 4lb and a good number of 3lb+ fish. I love that mat fishing. Punching 1oz weights with creature baits through the floating canopy on heavy rods and strong braid is just flat out fun. Makes a mess of the boat, but the scene of devastation on the decks just shows you've had a good day! Probably our best day was a 51 fish day weighing 16.08. Around half of those fish came out of one huge grass mat. Bruised ribs and big grins everywhere! The first afternoon was interesting as it was a bright day and we started fishing shallow in the shady pockets. Tim was throwing a senko and I was skipping a jig behind him. The jig seemed to be preferred by the fish and I caught the bigger fish With a 4.02 and 3.10 being the big fish of the afternoon (15 fish for 15lb exactly). That pattern didn't last though of course and the following day was cooler and windy and we only managed 31 fish for 11.03. The third day was even more awkward. The wind howled and so we slept in until 6am to give the first storm of the morning a chance to blow through. We found fish on jerkbaits, ned and brush hogs mainly and unusually very few fish seemed to be using the deep weed, where we would expect to find them, but more open areas, which gave ned a chance to shine, and pads, which gave the platform to the brush hogs. 25 fish for 13.12. Dr Johnson with a nice punched fish. Senko under a very smart dock Nice one up shallow, hiding from the wind. On the 18th we had a day on the St Lawrence with guide Dean Meckes. What a nice guy he is. It was the first day of practise for the elites and we saw Adrian Avena's boat and Justin Lucas' fishing the area we were in near Clayton. Really fascinating way to fish and we learnt a lot from dean. I couldn't buy a bite with the drop shot until the very end, I think my 3/8 weight wasn't working as well as when I swapped to a 1/2 later for some reason, but it's a learning curve in that current and depths. Would love to go back there now having had the day with Dean and watched the bassmaster live coverage. I definitely feel like I could fish it far better a second time. Tim had some nice ones to about 3.08 My most fun fish was one that followed a jerkbait over shallow water . I saw the fish as the jerkbait was a good way out from the boat and I dropped the jerkbait rod and picked up a senko and fired it out there while the fish was still looking at the jerkbait. Very satisfying when it sucked it in and gave a great ariel battle as it was so annoyed with itself for being so dumb! Dean caught a fish that looked like it had been messing with Mike Tyson. After that we had a day and a half to fish back at the cottage. We had a few punching sessions that were only moderately successful, after our huge success earlier in the week, as far as numbers go, but it still produced a couple of better quality fish and we found fish in various places on various methods. For the last half day we went through to the original big mat place to see how that was doing and the wind had shifted it around. It wasn't very productive, but produced a four pounder. Tim put on a clinic with a brush hog in deeper water for a while too. We bumped into some young guys while we were waiting for the lock who told us they had been catching smallmouth in a place we've never really had any luck, so the last hour of the trip was spent there. Tim had 3 small smallies and I had a proper one follow to the boat, which was a very tantalizing way to finish the trip. Unfinished business there! "Weather" provides stunning sunsets in Canada Coming to the end of another 5am to 9pm shift in paradise. Give me a week to recover and I'm up for it again!

First time using a hollow body frog and was rewarded with my first bass! Sorry for the camera noises. I was using a Yi Action Camera and noticed the sound wasn't too great. Caught my 2nd off the Live Target frog. Was advised to use the smallest Live Target hollow body frog from a very wise local. Caught two off the Yamamoto D Shad but just got a pic of one em. Switched to a Sexy Dawg Jr and used it to find an active feeding school of bass My friend and I started throwing these "spook" type lures and got the active school to bite. I think we caught around 7 or 8 off between us off this school. Fun times!

Flip the reel into the lake and get a baitcaster. Just kidding. For optimum reel life and the least amount of frustration due to line twist, closing the bail by hand is the answer.

You're both wrong.

Day two on South Holston was TUFF! I caught 5 bass from 5:30-2:30. It was extremely frustrating, we found tons of schooling smallmouth but they were really spread out and would only be on the surface for 3-5 seconds before they vanished, and it would be individual fish. We could see them suspended on the graph at about 20-30 feet, and they would look at a drop shot, but not bite it. It was like that all over the lake!

The lower you are the less line you are picking up with the rod sweep, and you can't get any lower than a yak. Make sure you reel up a lot more slack than your used to on the bank. A longer rod and less stretch in the line would help as well.

Closing the bail manually is the correct way to do it. Closing it turning the reel handle will cause reel and line issues eventually.

You're both wrong to some degree, unless you are really jerking the bail closed when turning the reel handle. The biggest negative of closing it automatically IMHO is that it twists the line. I close the bail manually, using my hand to slowly feather the line while closing it on the spool and closing the bail at the end of the cast.

Great start to a Summer top water day

It's all about practice. This is not me but someone I know. I'd say he's pretty good at it!

Engage the bail by hand. You will eventually break the bail spring if you don't. Also it puts undue hardship on the internal gears. Trust me, I know.

I think of Zoom as the standard for how to balance good design, good composition, sheer variety, and number of bodies for the price. Lots of other companies do better on 1 or more of these by sacrificing the others, but I don't think anybody else gets closer to the sweet spot in the middle.

Had a fun morning drop shotting some brush piles. 11 bass, two pickerel, and one pretty nice one! Fish was 19" and scales said 1.53... Time to get a new set of scales.

Now I know my winning weight guess is going to be way off. Edit - Just checked the website. They re-opened the rosters. You can still edit your picks for the next 18 hours.

That is from line twist. Despite all the hype that braid doesn't twist, it does. What you're seeing is often referred to as a "wind knot." The solution is to clip off the terminal rig or lure, and let out a cast or so worth of line. Troll for a couple hundred yards or so, and reel back in under tension.

You reel down to take up slack to put your rod in the best position to get a strong set. Don't forget you're lowering your rod, reel down then set. If you feel the bite with a tight line wait a 1/2 second to feel the fish. Just because you feel a bite doesn't mean he bit it. Plastic fishing is not like fishing a 3 trebled jerkbait where more times than not he hooked himself. You're gonna swing and miss more times than you would expect. Personally I think you have a combination of short strikes and poor leverage. Mike

I've taken so many pictures of this bait that look like this, it's hard not to throw it some day.s

That's the part that a lot of guys get hung up on, feeling the bait. It's a no feel presentation, so heavy winds aren't an issue because I rarely feel my bait anyways. It takes time and concentration to detect a bite in those conditions, especially when the trolling motor is popping out of the water and the boat is bucking like it was. The fish I was catching, I was fishing the standard 10lb braid (bright pink KastKing for visibility), to an 8lb Seaguar leader. The deep water bites were all detected when my line stopped sinking well before it should have. Shallow bites I often detect when the bow in the line begins to tighten. It's a regional skill set, not really a matter of being better than another angler. I'm terrible at drop-shotting, and deep cranking, because I don't do it often enough to polish those skills. I have no doubt that if someone went with me enough times, they'd soon be able to detect those no feel bites with a tiny bait in heavy winds.

Sorry about the confusion, it isn't meant to be. Here it is, in essence. Soft plastics 4" and under, on a mushroom jighead weighing no more than 3/32 (usually 1/16 is the most used, followed by 1/32 and 3/32) ounce with either a #6, #4, or #2 hook. Some would add a #1 hook, but I don't like them that big. The most versatile and popular with the mwf crowd is the 1/16 ounce head with a #4 or #2 hook, with half of a zinkerz or a TRD. i happen too know team9nine spends a lot of time (especially in the summer) throwing a zoom finesse trick worm on a little mushroom head.

No, I haven't had any durability issues with the TRD, but I don't use them anymore either. But back when I did use the TRD, I never had a bait get to torn up to use. I would simply rotate the hook around in an entire circle on one end, then once the one side got to torn up to use I flip the bait around and do the same thing to the other end.

I had gone out in the kayak on Monday for about 6 hours and caught one 2 pound bass. Went out again Tuesday and had trouble fighting the winds, keeping in place, I was getting blown all over which made it hard to fish specific locations. After about 4 hours I decided to head back in and go do some chores around the house. As I was paddling in I noticed a steep drop off on my depth finder, going quickly to about 10 feet close to shore with a straight line of weeds on the shallow side. I decided, why not, one more cast with a wacky rig..........well, the proverbial "one more cast paid off with this one that came in at a little over 3 pounds, a nice way to end the day!

Lake Mittry =]

Ish Monroe's theory is to go by water visiblity if you can see 5' down space youre pitches 5' apart and so on

South Holston gave up some fine brown fish today

This LC RC 1.5 is my Legendary Bait. I have hundreds of bass on this bait. I've gone swimming after hanging this bait up. Once waded in up to my waist in the Shenendoah at Thanksgiving weekend to retrieve it.

My tie breaking weight is 66 lbs 6 ounces . I dont care if you copy it . LOL

LAME SAUCE ! They wouldn't be giving it away if they didnt want people seeing it.

My first decent spinning reel - a Garcia Mitchell 300 purchased in. 1976 - wouldn't let you close the bail manually. You had to turn the handle to flip the bail over. Every so often, you broke a bail spring. This was a popular reel and a well known problem. The 2 tackle shops in Columbia, MO always had extra bail springs on hand. These days, flipping the bail by hand, just seems more sensible and natural to me. You take a fraction of a second, look down and see that the line is "right" and then flip the bail. It is pretty much unconscious now, in that I don't think about it, I just do it.

Here's what I'm thinking about the cancellation - it's going to hurt the smallmouth guys and help the largemouth guys. Having a clear day tomorrow to run to Ticonderoga will be crucial. Also, the anglers weren't sure if there were enough largemouth up there for 4 days of catching. Now they only have to worry about three days and can hit the fish a little harder instead of saving them. I totally knew that -I gave out all my fake picks so that they would be copied and then I could reveal the real winning team once the tourney starts.

Yeah , its just a suggestion , Gary Yamamoto uses a 3.0 wide gap . Everyone is different . I switched to wide gaps for awhile but felt I was not sticking as many fish . I now only use them on tubes and fat baits .

@IndianaFinesse summed it up. Ned likes to bite off a short piece of many of his plastics, but 4" is usually considered the limit. The more unfortunate part that started all the confusion was the coining of the term "Ned rig," which Ned was opposed to, at least initially. The actual term first defined by Ned was "Midwest Finesse," which was a more generalized system of fishing involving a lightweight mushroom head jig, and a variety of small soft plastics, all designed to be fished shallow, and largely away from heavy cover, in our flatland reservoirs. It is an offshoot of jig-worming adapted to the waters of the Midwest and Heartland. Intetestingly, this bunching is much worse with a TRD than most any other plastic...another reason to use half a ZinkerZ instead -lol. On the TRD bunching, if you simply pinch the head above the keeper tight and then pull the tail section of the bait good, it will snap back into place easier than trying to unbunch the extra snagged material. Other plastics - whatever you want to try. A small finesse worm is a must in my book. Beyond that, the ShadZ is a big favorite in some areas. In the spring or in murkier water, a Zoom 4" lizard or a tiny brush hog are little used killers. Don't limit yourself too much - remember, it's a style of fishing more than a specific bait.

This vintage Rogers Big Jim is the most successful crankbait I ever used. Sadly I lost this one in a tree but was lucky enough to have an identical one . I picked the two up at an antique store . They dont have a lot action , no rattle but they "hunt" . One day the bass were taking it so deeply that I was spending more time unhooking fish than fishing . I switched to another brand and caught more bass because they were caught on the back hook and easily removed .

I don't think you're missing anything, and side with you in this argument. Closing the bail mechanically, rather than by hand, should have no effect on line twist. It is likely tougher on the gears, and also more likely to trap those tiny loops of loose line that are the beginnings of an eventual wind knot, but not line twisting. Things like lures spinning, either on the cast or in the water upon retrieve, reeling against your drag, etc. are the primary culprits behind line twist.

Just got some of the new Savage Gear 3D Goby Tubes, WOW!

Ned rigged a juvenile flathead. It was a welcomed change of pace from the drum I was hammering on.

Post pics of the new frog

I heard the smallies love the color bubble gum (pink for those of us not worried about our manhood) so....

Around here they spawn multiple times, there is usually 3-4 waves with each successive wave smaller in numbers and often size.

Zoom is a good company, they will sell direct and bulk qty's. I ordered some custom G Tail worms a few years ago June bug with blue tails, good folks to work with. Tom

We ran away because when you came out from behind your booth, you weren't wearing any pants.......again!

Thanks for the recommendation, I went with the 5ft 1pc UL since if you went over 5ft it would automatically choose light or medium power instead. Can't wait to try it out.

Had 30 minutes to catch a fish...only took 5 minutes on my 3rd dock...lol Not huge but was nice to see the newly purchased Hornet patterned Spro Bronzeye 65 bring it in.

Caught this AM on a 20 acre pond in Vermont. I was about to give up as it was slow and I kept catching pickerel. Just throwing a keitech 4" easy shiner on a 3/16 oz. jig head with light tackle. The drag let out a scream and it was on. 4.3 lbs. Biggest one of the year, so far.

Got my biggest of the year this morning. This fish was on the thin side, but it had a giant head and mouth and was 21.5" long. Got her on a LiveTarget popper. She just barely sipped it in with no blow up or boil.

I think I am going to let my kids pick this week. They can't do any worse than me.

All my fish on the 130 have been during a slow, steady retrieve. I think a lot of people fish them too fast. I always have to tell guys on guide trips to slow them down, always seems to get immediate results when they do. I reel them just fast enough to get them plopping.

I needed that. A-Jay

Got out the other day with the lady . We had a blast with senkos and jig/chunks. They were all about the same size. It'd be a better picture If I could upload more than 857kb. But it is what it is.