tyrius.

Most people make a distinction between frogs and toads. The OP listed differing types of toads (solid soft plastic baits that do not float). Frogs are hollow plastic and do float. The toads have more action in open water as the feet churn through the water, however a frog can also be fished in open water with a walk the dog retrieve (although you may have to trim the legs to get the desired action).

I would attribute it more to the the type of jig head on the Evo. It isn't going to come through sticks, lily pads, grass, weeds, etc nearly as well as something like a poison head or arkie style jig head. In the type of cover you listed I'd fish a GMAN's wide gap jig. http://www.custombassfishinglures.com/index.php/jigs-widgap

Sure it would. A stiffer weedguard makes hooksets more difficult so you miss more fish.

One thing to remember with braid is that it has issues with "shock" strength. With only a few feet of line out the fish's shakes are felt much more strongly. It is possible that the fish was able to shake back and forth with enough force to exceed the shock strength of the braided line. Mono with its stretch provides a little more room for error, but when the fish is right there even it probably won't have enough stretch to act as a shock absorber versus the fish's head shake. The net issue brings up a scenario from a Lake MI fishing trip that I went on Sunday morning. We caught a HUGE brown trout and right when we got it to the boat and as the guide was getting ready to net it the fish threw the hook. The guide was still able to net the fish and it turned out to be a 16 lb brownie! Scary how close we came to losing it though. The story makes me jealous though as my PB is probably only around 4lbs. :-[

Sounds like the baitmonkey is telling you that you need a slop rod. 7'6" H or XH rod with reel of your choice spooled with 50-65 lb braid. You won't have a problem horsing them then!!!

You're talking more about action and less about power. A MH power with moderate action will not pull the bait from the fish.

Now switch out the zoom chunks for *** chunks and you'll REALLY be the BR master!!!

I'd say that you had no business telling the other fisherman what to do with his catch. The actual scientists have set legal limits with the intention of managing the fishery in the best possible manner. If you feel that your particular lake is having a significant population decline talk to the DNR they are the ones that set the rules. Don't be a jerk and get in someone's face for doing something legal.

No tape measuer either?

You don't need to break the bank to get something with enough sensitivity to detect strikes. Growing up I fished with Ugly Sticks. Never caught a single fish on a jig. Just last year I bought a BPS Extreme 6'6" MH rod and I pretty much only fish jigs now!! You can get the Extremes for $70 now (they're on sale). I'm sure if I upgraded even more I'd gain more sensitivity and maybe detect a few more bites per outing, but what I got is what I can afford and it serves its purpose.

I fish the 6'6" M crankin stick. I don't use any cranks that dive deeper than 10'. I think it works great for that application. However, those deep divers are typically much heavier and much more work. I'd go with a much more powerful rod for deep crankin.

I palm my jig/worm combo but don't palm my cranking setup. I should probably vote Yay then because I use the jig combo MUCH more than my cranking one.

I got some sweet jigs from GMAN also.

Was on the shoreline making my first casts prior to 4:15 in the am last Sunday. Is that early enough? In that past few weeks that I've done this I've found that the bite slows down significantly at around 6:30-7:00am. Prior to that it has been GREAT!!

Catch and release is WAY too emphasized. Selective harvesting is actually a GOOD thing for most bodies of water.

First off, Randall didn't say that you CAN'T feel bites on slack line. He said that SOME bites can not be felt. Everyone can feel bites on slack line when the bite is strong enough so I don't think anyone is disputing your claims. However, as Catt also posted many bites are not felt at all. The fish will suck up the bait and spit it back out in less than a second and the fish will not move. The angler has no way of knowing that he just got this bite. Oh, and I'd take Randall's advice. He seems to be a moderately successful angler.

The line didn't break. From the original post: If the knot was intact then it HAS to have slipped through the gap, there is no other possible explanation. It happens particularly with smaller diameter lines and maybe a knot that wasn't cinched down 100%.

That's 30% that they wouldn't have had prior to the cameras. Also, the percentage depends upon the deal with the camera providers. Some cities do not purchase them. Instead they allow the camera providers to install their product in the city's intersections so that the city gets a cut of the tickets while the camera provider takes the biggest part. Yeah like there isn't any incentive to screw people over with that deal!!!! :-X

So I stand corrected. For full size jigs I typically use something like a chigger craw as the trailer. It is much longer and the claws still extend past the skirt so I don't notice any negative effects. So, maybe one should put the trailer on and then trim the skirt to ensure that it does not hang too far down on the trailer.

You'll find a mixture of trimmers and non-trimmers. I personally don't trim the skirts. If I wanted a smaller presentation, I'd tie on a finesse jig. I'm trying to fish for the bigger class fish so I want to throw a beefier bait. The skirt will not negate the action of any trailer. The caveat here is that I am most certainly not a jig expert.

Harshman had a good bluegill colored jig posted here http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1213273001

You should have gotten more than just expedited shipping. I've never orders from BPS on line or catalogue nor will I ever. It seems that this is where many of the bad experiences come into play.

Especially since running a red light is not dangerous in any way Or that certain municipalities have shortened the time of the yellow light in order to get more people to "run a red light" so that the municipality can increase their funds from the red light cameras.

The Pop R is one brand of popper. Hula Popper is another.

RW must have been looking at my setups!!! I have both of those and really like them, they are my soft plastic/jig rods. These setups will go on sale at BPS regularly, in fact, you can get the Extremes for $70 now. For crankbaits I'd get the BPS Crankin Stick when it goes on sale. I like that one too and it is REAL cheap. Citica/Extreme combo http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_-1_10001_74456_100003001_100000000_100003000_100-3-1 This will go on sale for like $135 sometime throughout the year. I got it at that price PLUS the $30 Shimano Citica rebate. Now THAT is a good deal!!!