HB

Yep, wheel weights are harder than pure lead and they are not as heavy. My 1/4 oz jigs weigh 6.5 grams instead of 7. BTW if you cast your own handgun bullets for target shooting, the lead from wheel weights works GREAT. 8-)

Tackle warehouse carries the fat IKA in 19 different colors. http://www.***.com/descpageSFSYAMA-YAFI.html The price is the same as GY direct, but shipping is MUCH cheaper. Only $6.75 for orders under $50, free for $50+. GY charges $8.50 for orders under $50, and it just keeps going up from there. Go figure. By charging full retail, GY gets a MASSIVE profit margin from online sales. You'd think they would give us a break on shipping, but noooo... Gary must need another private lake @ his estate. Can you say "bend over"???

I've bought lots of stuff from StamanaInc and their service is very good. They've got a new web site (http://lurepartsonline.com/cart.php), but I liked the old one better. :'( If you find a mold that you want and Stamina doesn't carry it, just send them an email and they'll custom order one & still beat the price listed on the do-it site by about 10 bucks. 8-) CaptionHooks usually (but not always) has the best deals on hooks. http://www.captainhookswarehouse.com/

What do you think of the "spice" scent? I bought a couple bags of the manns hardnose mullet in watermelon/red & new penny. One smells like rotten fish and the other smells like candy. What's up with that??? :-/

Thanks for the compliments! This rack was my second attempt. The first prototype wasn't very straight. Making sure the side panels have identical dimensions & angles is the key. After the first side panel is finished it can be used as a template for the other one. The rest is pretty easy. All of the materials are available at the dollar store, so building one only costs a few bucks. BTW the rack is "redneck" because it was built by a redneck! (Actually I'm a hillbilly from Missouri, but that still counts. )

Great for hanging jigs & flies while the paint and/or head cement dries. Ingredients: Popsicle sticks, bamboo skewers, super glue & nylon thread. (The thread keeps stuff from sliding off the ends if you have to pick it up.)

Ditto on the Ikas! I bought 3 bags of those things, and after a half-dozen attempts, I haven't caught squat. Not even one bite. The fish were there too. After 1+ hours (per trip) of unproductive fishing, switching back to a senko put fish in the boat. I know that other people on bassresource like the Ika, but I'm really starting to think that they suck. Oh yeah, I tried them backwards & forwards. No difference in the bite. Maybe I'll cut one in half (length wise) and see if a "leech Ika" works any better. :-? RIDICULOUS! Fish the Fat Ika EXACTLY where you would fish a Senko and EXACTLY the same way. This bait is simply a different profile with different action. Sometimes the fish prefer the Fat Ika to the Senko, sometimes it's the other way around. http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1141053342 8-) : : Sorry Kent.Not doubting your credibility at all.I just think the Ika is one of those baits that won't work in all kinds of water or areas of the country. I've pitched it in cover,used on a c-rig,rigged front, back, sideways, over humps,drops,up,down,across, parallel,fast,slow,twitch,deadstick,lift,drop with very limited success.Gave it a fair chance.I could join the crowd that says they can't catch a cold on that thing. That being said I don't think I made a "dumb" purchase (4 times). It looks fantastic in the water.It just doesn't jive with me. I agree; it could just be the part of the country that dictates whether or not the fat ika is effective. Here in WA senkos are deadly. Strangely enough I've caught more & bigger fish using the 4" senko than the 5". Maybe worms just don't grow that big here in WA??? I've also had MUCH better luck with small crankbaits than bigger ones. One of my favorites is the "sparkle fire tiger" wally diver. I've caught largemouth, smallmouth, crappie, perch, and even 1 kokanee on that thing.

Ditto on the Ikas! I bought 3 bags of those things, and after a half-dozen attempts, I haven't caught squat. Not even one bite. The fish were there too. After 1+ hours (per trip) of unproductive fishing, switching back to a senko put fish in the boat. I know that other people on bassresource like the Ika, but I'm really starting to think that they suck. Oh yeah, I tried them backwards & forwards. No difference in the bite. Maybe I'll cut one in half (length wise) and see if a "leech Ika" works any better. :-?

Just curious: Do you guys think floating plastics work better than sinking when fished on a shakeyhead, or does it even matter?

My wife says that too! Funny how the definition of "save" has changed over the generations. According to my parents who are in their mid-70s, "saving" means the money ends up in a "savings" account (hence the name). If you walk out of a store with less money than when you entered, that's called "spending". I can only speak for myself, but when I "save" lots of money on fishing equipment, it usually means that I'm "spending" moolah on crap that I don't really need and may never use. Heck, I've got lures in my tackle box that are 5+ years old and have never touched water... :-/

That sounds like a good plan! Last year, my favorite topwater lure for grass & pads was a 5" GY DT grub (green pumpkin, texas rigged, 1/0 gammy EWG). To keep it afloat just peg a corkie in front of the hook. It looks exactly like a little frog in the water. The tails dangle down while the head stays on top. I coat everything with crayfish lunker lotion which helps the bait slide through heavy cover -- and the extra scent probably helps. 20 lb Braid on medium spinning gear is the perfect setup. The thin diameter makes the little bait castable, but it's still hefty enough to yank the bigguns out of the slop. When bass are hanging out close to shore in the really thick stuff, this will get them every time!

Thanks for the tip! I hadn't thought about dropshotting. That's a technique I definitely have not mastered... yet

Has anyone used these? Cabelas has them on sale for $1.88. I bought a bag of watermelon/red & new penny. Looks like all they've got left now is chart/black & electric chicken. *** Tried to post a link, but I'm not allowed until I have 10 posts. How annoying. *** I was thinking about using 1/4 oz jig head (3/0) + a blade. It would be a "boogie swimbait". Hmm... maybe replacing a spinnerbait skirt with a swimbait body would work. :

How did you rig them? I was thinking that they would be pretty good on a carolina rig. A shakeyhead jig could be good too. Unfortunately, most of the lakes in this area suffer from "green goo" during the summer. People overfertilize their lakefront property & too much phosphorous ends up in the lakes. Lures that touch the bottom usually end up covered with crud very quickly.

I bought a bunch of 4" tubes @ the bass pro discount outlet, but I'm not sure how to fish them. I usually cast into pads & grass, so I was thinking that a weighted EWG Texas-rig might be the way to go. Since the weight is on the hook shank, the tube should fall horizontally -- kind of like a senko. Do you guys use rattle inserts with tubes?

I've seen lots of jigs with "fuzzy" necks. Do you think it catches more fish than the standard style?

Sometimes you can find scrap lead @ garage sales. Last summer I scored a 34 lb slab for 5 bucks.

Last year lots of bass were spawning around the corner from the north cove boat launch (northeast side of the lake). Another good spot was the south end where the water gets shallow (by the bridge). Shoot me an email and I'll send you a map with the hot spots marked. The northwest side may also be a good spawning ground, but I like to fish on the east side because there are more big bass and fewer perch. As far as lures go, smalll crankbaits are good for finding fish but finesse fishing works better once you've found them. They were knocking the crap out of weightless senkos that got close to the beds. Swimbaits also worked well. Immediately after the spawn, docks on the east side produced some chunksters. It's best to stay close to shore if you want to avoid the zillions of ski boats! They will rock your world -- and NOT in a good way...