River Rat316

3 taps= fish picking up jig, fish turning head and feeling resistance, and fish spitting jig. Thats the taps you are feeling. I also agree with Rolo on the trimming of weedguards, trimming them makes them stiffer, keeping them long keeps them flexible and proivides the nescassary leverage to drive the hook home on a fish. If you do anyhting to the weedguard fan it out or take some of the fibers away but do not trim it

20lb floro is good, if you are using lighter jigs you can even go down lower to 14lb or so. Floro has more abrasion resistance than braided lines, braids cut easy on anything sharp, unless your fishing slop I would not be using braid, but that is just me

Where are they for sale at? I would guess they were U.S. market since they are printed in English but I might be wrong

Thats funny stuff right there

Wow, so many opinions on this one. I use a mh rod with a Moderate fast tip and 10-17lb mono depending on the bait size I am using, I feel a slower tip and the extra stretch of mono lets them get the bait in there mouth, on the hook set I make sure they are there by continuing to reel (for maybe 1 second usually just enough to feel their weight) Then I sweep the rod, by just rotating my hips and upper body away from the fish. There is alot of power in that movement and never any slack in the line before, during, or after the hook set, You also end up sweeping the tip of the rod about 5' give or take, so there is more than enough movement to drive the hook home, even with mono. I have a very good hookup ratio and never use a trailer hook, I do however use long shank hooks on all my spinnerbaits and the hook comes to within a 1/2" of the end of the skirt. One thing not mentioned is checking the hook on your bait, if its not sharp get your file out and resharpen it, if that is not the problem change up colors, retrieves and blades until they hammer the snot out of it.

Footloose, Manns, and Bomber Square a when you need to go a little deeper are all good cranks

No not to say if you made them yourself they wouldn't be cheaper, they would, but as soon as you start selling there is alot of things you need to take into effect. Your not just putting a couple together for yourself, you have to have a good color selection, which means an investment in paints and skirts, you also need hooks in bulk, and then think about multiple molds, different kinds of skirting material (rubber, silicone, fine cut silicone, etc) you need to carry all this stuff in bulk in multiple colors, along with the hooks most of the time 3 different sizes for each mold. Then there is taxes, 10% excise tax right off the top of every sale, keeping track of sales tax etc, obviously there is some deductions for owning a small business but if there wasn't I don't think anyone would go through the hassle. Then we wont even go into the whole Prostaff thing, everyone and their brother are constantly hitting you up for free stuff, either because they fish tourneys, or the know you. So is tackle expensive? YES, most small guys who are doing stuff by hand are expensive to buy from, is it worth it? That is up to you to decide but I say yes, from what I have seen of the small custom builders the quality both in materials and workmanship is the best you are going to get. And I don't want people to take this post in the wrong way as me b-tching and complaining, I love this business and couldn't think of a thing that I would rather do day in or day out. But when it is inferred that we are getting rich for little work in return it doesn't make me very happy

No offense but start paying taxes on what you make, start holding every color of skirting material made, every style of hook made, spending every waking moment putting them together, start paying the shipping costs from 5 or 6 different vendors to aquire all your materials... then tell me what you would charge for them

i go around to were the rum enters to the miss. and fish the miss and st. croix noow... Do you even know where you are at? The Croix joins up with the Mississippi about 40 miles south of there, and I am betting that you don't have a license to drive down there. You are digging a hole right now that you are not going to get out of. There are NO white bass in your area, don't tell a CO that is what you are fishing for in your area or you are sure to get a citation. Do yourself a favor and just wait along with the rest of us, you may think the law is BS but it doesn't mean you don't have to follow it,. I personally think the law is BS but I still follow it.

Yeah good luck, there is no white bass in the Rum or anywhere else unless you are on the Croix or lower pools of the Miss. Don't be a d-bag, just wait like everyone else

Those are 45 degree Mustad Hooks 38109

The studies of NORTHERN waters do show a negative effect. I still believe it should be open to C&R but no bed targeting. I personally never fish beds, Not all the fish in the system are spawners on every given year, only about 30-50% of the population actually spawn. That leaves a whole lot of fish you can target that aren't on beds or doing their thing. On a side note I have a very good friend that is a fisheries manager for one of the areas in MN and he is putting a lot of work into getting some "experimental" regs in place on waters that have reduced limits or are already C&R for the rest of the season. These waters will be open to C&R year round if he gets his way. Beaver Islander Muskies are closed until the first weekend in June.... so I would choose a different fish to say you are targeting after Walleye opener and between bass opener.

Thought they discontinued the beast?

Yes, it has more action than a small chunk, but still far less than a curly tail grub. Agreed

No a 7" worm wont require a heavier jig head, unless you are fishing deeper, or wind or current conditions change. If water temp was 63 , they are about to do the deed and the females will be around, if they are not heir right now.

First you have to be fishing where their are big fish, nothing wrong with any of those lures. I am guessing that you werent fishing in an area where they were. Everything this time of year has to do with the spawn, either they have, are in the middle, or are done. If you are catching a ton of 2lb fish I am guessing you are fishing shallow and the smaller male bass are either setting up shop, or guarding fry, either way the bigger females are not in the area. Move out deeper from where you were catching the smaller fish and keep fishing the shakey head. Concentrate on points and humps in the area and you will eventually find the bigger fish

Trick worm is going to have about ten times the action of a small chunk trailer

That thing is huge.... how long did it take for it to die in a cooler? I heard they live a long time out of water

That is a nice looking jig Kou ;D It depends if its cold or warm water, in cold water I use a small chunk trailer (like 2" or so) with the chunk part trimmed to a v so it doesn't flair the hair all weird. In warm water I use a hand poured swimming chunk or a similar trailer with lots of action

Yes that is what it is for. Most people use a single tail grub for the trailer preferably a 5". You can also try paca craws and the like, double tail grubs, Small swimbaits like the Reaction Innovations skinny dipper or Keitech model (forget the name but they are both at TW). Or if the fish are hot you don't need a trailer. One of the great things about swim jigs is they come through cover better than a spinnerbait, and you can cover water very quickly when the fish are shallow. The Booyah is not my favorite as far as swim jigs go, but it will work for you to figure out how they work and if you like fishing them

Its called swimming a jig, and there are purpose made jigs for this. Can be downright deadly in the spring, summer and fall. Try experimenting with your trailers also, I personally like a bootail on mine!

Its a craw bait with a ika type skirt on it, that has thicker longer flat strands, there are many that have already made such a bait, just not with that skirt on it.Not saying its not a good looking bait, but it has been done before in that style.

Very good, cheap effective, durable bait!

There is much more at play besides just water temps at the time you are fishing, is it cooling or warming? If its cooling to 40-50 degrees (say it was 55 last week) then I would be fishing as slow as possible next to any structure/weeds on the deep edge I could find, hair jigs, smaller plastics, and jerkbaits all fished painfully slow. If it is warming to 50 degrees (say ice out was last week or the water was in the low 40s last week) Then you could speed things up a bit, Jigs, hair jigs, jerkbaits, and even spinnerbaits and lipless cranks if the fish are starting to cruise shallow looking for a meal.

Heat up a nail or something similar and stick it in the end, it will creat a hole that you can then thread a hitchhiker through