Team9nine

Just a guess, but channel catfish usually don't reproduce well on their own in smaller bodies of water, especially non-riverine types. So my guess would be that what you are seeing is simply a good age class from one of the earlier stockings in the lake that have all survived and grown up together. Very similar to the hybrid stripers - they're all within about 6" of each other between 25" and 31," all stocked one year at the same time and length. -T9

Sadly many have already forgotten the pioneering efforts of some of these men and their colleagues, especially Binkelman, the most underrated of the bunch. I'm a bit of a historian and collector of all things related to those guys and what Ron Lindner refers to as "the modern angling revolution." For those interested in learning and reading more about that great time period, and as my small effort to make sure their story is not forgotten, see my profile listing. -T9

Since nobody else has mentioned it yet, you'd have to throw out the name Buck Perry and his spoonplugs/spoonplugging. Buck is credited with coining the term "structure" along with several others still commonly in use. The spoonplug, which was developed and patented back in the mid 1940s, were a series of metal crankbait equivalents for lack of a better description, each designed to run in a very specific depth range regardless of speed. The smallest size ran as shallow as 2 feet, while the largest ran up to 25' on a pre-stretched monofilament line called "No-Bo." If you ran them on wire line, which Buck also made for his lures, you could easily reach 40'-60' of depth. By following a defined protocol of fishing from the shallows to deep, you could find all types of structure such as ledges and channels, points, humps, roadbeds, etc. This was also all before there was what we consider "pros," at least if you define pros as organized and recognized tournament angling which arguably began in 1968-1969 with the formation of B.A.S.S. and their national tourney circuit. By then, flashers were well popularized and available, and paper graphs were soon to follow. -T9

Honestly, if you're just tying fluoro to braid to use as a leader, for the most part, brand doesn't matter because the shortened leader takes the biggest complaint (stiffness and subsequent poor handling and casting) out of the equation. If you are spooling up a full spool of fluoro, then some of the more softer or easy to manage lines like InvisX, Tatsu or Toray (Finesse) would be great choices to start with depending upon budget. -T9

You don't have to stick with braid, just don't use fluoroclear It's crap - obviously just my opinion, but I'll never respool it on anything again. If you want to try fluoro, buy a true fluorocarbon like Invis-X, BPS, Trilene 100% or one of the other generally well regarded floros on the market. If you want to stick to a hybrid, buy Yozuri instead. -T9

Only got out for two hours Friday afternoon but picked up a channel, too Only abut 6-8 pounds (didn't weigh it), but chunky. They get pretty feisty this time of year and will bite lures pretty readily if you get one in front of their face long enough.

...And here I thought you just got fed up with all of us and quit posting Welcome back to our Indiana fishing reality -T9

Wife and I did an Alaskan cruise about 10 years ago and it truly was great. One of those rare times where I could just sit on deck and watch the world go by for hours as we cruised within sight of land - such amazing scenery everywhere you look, both on shore and in the ocean. I, too, would recommend a trip there to anyone. -T9

You can't mix Z-man plastics with any other plastic baits as you'll get a chemical reaction that will take them both out. Cgolf from this board got the following response from Z-Man about storing their baits which should be helpful:

Nope, but almost - Alberto for the majority of line to line connections, but while Trilene and Palomar are nearly equal in fluoro and nylon/copoly, the Palomar is significantly better in braid, so it's still the only knot I use for line to bait connections. I'll live with the line loss since you should be cutting off the working end of your line frequently, anyway. -T9

Only 2.5 inches over summer pool and in good shape - I'd say "go." -T9

This...attached to a lanyard.

Edit: My error - defaulting to the responses below... -T9

I do what OE suggests. I keep all my hair jigs in small plastic bags, 2"x3" for the majority of them. You can buy them in packs of 100 at most any craft store. I store 2 jigs per bag and it keeps them in great shape and easily accessible. Can put the smaller bags with jigs into any normal tackle system at that point. As far as drying them off, the best thing I've found is after you are done fishing with a jig, leave about 3'-4' of line hanging off your rod with the jig still attached and then just whip it around in a circle/windmill for about 10-12 swings. The centrifugal force not only straightens out all the hair perfectly, but whips most of the excess moisture from the hair -T9

That's been my experience throwing swimbaits on this lake - average 1 bass per hour. It's just enough to keep me entertained for a trip or two, but I could never live with that catch rate over an entire season -T9

We get these guys all the time hanging out and sunning on docks and riprap. Surprised he let me get this close to him to take a pic before slithering off. You just get used to them. Most times they are just as scared of you as you are of them. Had one eat a Pop-R once - that made for some fun times If you actually have a lot of poisonous snakes around, you could buy a pair of gaiters, otherwise I wouldn't worry too much about them. -T9

Depending on who replies, the answer will likely be: Uni-Uni, FG, Alberto/Modified Albright, Albright, Seaguar, Blood, or J knot The best one is likely going to be the one you tie best. If you can't tie a good knot, it doesn't matter how strong someone else says it is. Personally, I pretty much stick to just the Alberto, with the random FG, Seaguar or 'J' knot thrown in for variety and testing purposes. -T9

I throw traditional hair jigs in the spring a ton around here - my #1 bait while the water is still cold. I don't throw them near as much in the summer because other baits become as (or more) effective in many cases, but I will use the larger giant hair jigs that are designed to imitate shad for open water structure fishing. Both Bassmaster and FLW have recently posted videos on fishing the latter bait. Here is a great post by smalljaw67 on fishing the more traditional hair jig in cooler water (spring/fall/winter):

Yeah, this thread really has brought out the differences in pricing depending upon where you are, specifically with USPS. Last rod I shipped through them a month or two back was well under the 7'11" someone stated and only 3.5" in diameter, and originally priced out around $16, until the lady's computer tacked on a $20 surcharge for an oversized package. Now I just stick with FedEx because the price is always within a few bucks + or - of $25. Any more, I consider my time and $$ too valuable to be surprised at the register on a hit or miss basis. -T9

Cut it up into small pieces and ship in a large padded envelope Seriously though, I'm not certain there is a "cheap" way. I've shipped quite a few through both UPS, USPS and FedEx, and the cost seems to run between $23 on the low end to $36 on the high end (USPS). FedEx is where I usually go because they're the most convenient (and affordable) location for me. I usually ship in either cardboard rod tubes from previous rod purchases online (always save your old tubes), or you can use thin PVC piping and caps. -T9

Phenix Vibrator....

We use dogwood blooming as the start to bass spawning down this way... -T9

Zman baits are great because of their buoyancy and their durability, but about any soft plastic 3" or less will work on the jig head, or perhaps a bit longer if it doesn't have much bulk like a finesse worm or similar. I think Ned caps it off at <4." A lot depends upon whether you are fishing for 101 bass in 4 hrs like Ned promotes (where Zman baits excel), or just finesse fishing in general. A couple non-Zman baits I've used with great success include the Zoom finesse worm, tiny brush hog, and 4" lizard. An Erie Darter Jr. is also killer, but it doesn't hold up well on a Gopher head. I'm not a huge fan of seeing how many different baits I can get to work, instead preferring to stick with just half a dozen or less proven baits/shapes/colors. I'm a big fan of simplicity (K.I.S.S.) in this regard. -T9

Yeah, I was referring back to your earlier post about using a 1/4 oz weight to get a faster fall rate to trigger bites. Really, JMHO, but things started getting all screwed up once people started referring to the bait as the "Ned Rig." Previous to that, when Ned just wrote about 'Midwest finesse' as a system or way of fishing, and much of the details were still pretty much relegated to persons on his e-mail distribution list (FNN), everything was pretty straight forward. Z-Man jumping on the "Ned" bandwagon and marketing "the bait" has only compounded the confusion. Would love to know Ned's thoughts on this whole thing, but I haven't been able to get him to talk - LOL, though I know he really disliked the idea of calling the bait "Ned rig," at least initially. -T9

Absolutely nothing wrong with using Z-Man plastics on heavier heads to fish more like you're used to and take advantage of their buoyancy attributes. I believe the point smalljaw and I are trying to make is that at that point, you are no longer "Ned rigging," but instead back to traditional jig worming techniques. As for walleyes, check out this link of interest: http://www.in-fisherman.com/gear-accessories/drew-reeses-midwest-finesse-walleye-tactics/ -T9