Fishes in trees

If you can only subscribe to one magazine, I'd recommend In-fisherman magazine. I think that the quality of the mag has decreased significantly since the Lindners sold it, but it is still the pick of the litter as far as I'm concerned. Please note that I don't know a thing about any of the bass magazines published on the west coast. On the In-fisherman web site, there is an ongoing thread about mid-west finesse fishing that might or might not change your mind about finesse fishing, but it is an interesting read none the less. Bassmaster magazine is a good magazine if you are looking for lots of ads about the newest stuff out there. Any discussion of techniques is primarily tournament oriented. BASSIN magazine has been resurrected lately. It is more oriented toward the recreational fisherman, IMO. Decent articles, a lot more simplistic in focus compared to the In-fisherman ones. Please note that these are my opinions and not necessarily any one else's.

Not counting the few big spring time fish I caught ( who were all in the shallower grass, less than 4', but fairly close to deep water, 20' +) I've caught 8 fish in the 20" range since the spawn was over. I didn't get to go fishing very much this year immediately after spawn time. All of the fish were caught on main lake structure, kind of a feeding shelf, very close to deeper water, 10 to 14 ' down, immediately at or slightly above the thermocline. Bait was either a creature bait on a home made 1/2 oz jika rig or a 5" paddle tail worm on a Brewer slider head.

Regarding what the BPS employee said about the capabilities of bait casting reels, I've never found and BPS employee to offer any correct substantive information on any remotely fishing related subject. Maybe entertaining chit chat, but offering genuine, correct fishing information isn't in their creed, or something like that. A conversation at the electronics booth last season went something like this: Q - How long have you worked in electronics? A - couple of years. Q - That Lowrance unit over there, its been out for a couple of seasons, hasn't it. A - probably Q - Do you know if it has the older blue connectors or the newer ones. A - what's the difference? You can see where this conversation is heading. Like I said, don't count on a BPS employee to know anything about anything relating to fishing. *** It has been my experience, at least at the Independence, MO BPS that most of the women who work in the shoe department do know their shoes - even more than you might think about mens shoes.

If you seriously expect any reply to this post, it would really help to know what neighborhood you live in. just saying. . . Next question - co-anglers? There is more than one of you? Are you speaking for someone else besides yourself? What's the deal? Not being snarky - these are totally fair questions.

I have spend some time accumulating an arsenal of "borrower gear" so that I don't have to lend out any rods & reels from my starting line up. The notion of lending out one of my "starters" gives me the willies and I wouldn't do it.

Given your mental approach to this problem so far, here is what I'd recommend. Heavy versus Medium Heavy isn't a monster difference. Either one will get it done. What I would recommend is to buy yourself the finest new jig rod that you can afford. Get something that you really like for throwing jigs. Get a new reel to go with it if you want. Get a reel that suits the kind of jig fishing that you like best. Now, your current jig rod becomes a back up jig rod and your primary frog rod. You really like to jig fish more anyway, and this way you have an upgraded jig rod and an adequate frog rod. When I faced this dilemma, I went a slightly different route. I got a 7'9" Fenwick AETOS heavy action rod which doubles as my A-rig rod. Reelis the same, I use 65 lb braid for throwing A-rigs and frogs. This is one of those decisions where it is very hard to make a really stupid choice. There are dozens of excellent choices out there.

Doing a soft plastic inventory a few weeks ago, I found numerous bags of Junebug colored soft plastics. Worms, lizards, power bait craws, etc. All the bags were full, at most missing one or two. This tells me what I already knew, i.e. I don't have a lot of confidence in the Junebug color and I am uncertain what water colors it works best in. What I need is opinions. What water color does the Junebug color work best in. How many feet of visibility is ideal?

I don't see that a swivel would hurt anything, I'd most likely go with a ball bearing swivel. The idea of dragging all the line out behind your boat to remove twist is a good one and that's what I do every so often. Also, as has been mentioned by others on this topic, braid seems to reduce line twist somewhat and I"ve found that to be true, for the most part. Any line twist I've incurred with braid can be attributed to operator error and not a gear issue.

For me it depends on the application. Wacky rigs work best for me with original senkos. Dingers work a little better tx rigged. Now, if you are keeping score, the BPW Stick-o's work better than the singers, IMO. Chompers also makes a stick work that I think is better, although it is nearly as fragile as the original senkos. For a nose hooked drop shot application the GULP sinking minnow works good, as long as you keep it wet. It is very sturdy. Just a few other options.

That particular is a drop shot hook. Why they call it a wicked wacky hook - I don't know - a marketing naming mystery, I guess. It is relatively weedless when rigged as intended, i.e. tie knot with a long tag end, thread tag end through the small tube wrapped to the hook shank. Then decide on a dropper length and attach drop shot weight. When the hook is oriented like that, it is relatively weed free, otherwise it isn't. What you need is one of those wire weed guard, mouse trap type hooks. They work better. For instance, on page 311 of the 2014 BPS master catalog, Gamakatsu makes a weedless split/drop shot hood which would work. Their weedless finesse wide gap hook would work better. I know that Gamakatsu make a wire mouse trap style weed guard hook because I have some, but they aren't show on that page. Moving on to page 314 in the Eagle Claw hook section the weedless worm hook/ long shank/stainless wed guard works very well and is the design I'd choose first. My favorite senko hook isn't carried in the BPS Catalog. I like the Falcon Weedless K wacky hook with a 1/16 weight molded on to the hook shank. The slight weight helps you get a more vertical drop, which I think is important with a wacky senko when you are trying to drop in into the shade pocket of whatever object you are throwing at.

I say try for the biggest fish in the pond. Try this: First catch a bluegill. Then, on the heaviest gear you've got, rig a quick strike bait rig (this can be googled) and suspend the bluegill 3 or 4 feet down. If you can float the bait above a break line, where there is a distinctive change in depth, so much the better. Right before casting, take your fillet knife and stick the bluegill 5 or 6 times, causing it to bleed & ooze. Cast it out and lit it set at least half an hour before checking it. After half an hour, catch another bluegill & repeat. If this doesn't work, try a different body of water. After a while, there is limited knowledge to be gained by smacking your head against the same wall over and over.

If you are "thinking" about a new spinning reel, you might as well go ahead and buy it. You can catch & control big fish on the smaller sizes of spinning reel - I've done it - not all the time, but I've done it. (I don't catch big fish all the time, no matter what reel I'm using) This reel purchase has already happened in your head, might as well make it a reality so that you can get on to your next gear purchase.

For me, when the fish go shallower in the fall, it is a little easier for me to control depth with a trap style bait as opposed to a floater/diver. There isn't any reason you couldn't use a shallow diver, assuming that you can keep it up and out of the grass for the most part. In my neighborhood, in lots of places we're talking grass a foot and a half tall in four feet of water. That is a fairly narrow range to try to run a floater/diver. A minus 1 style bait might work, but then you might have issues getting it deep enough. Really, I don't know, try different baits and see what works for you. For me, in the fall, a trap style bait on shallower grass flats is a pattern I always try - doesn't always work, but I always try it because sometimes it does work.

I don't think that those two series compare directly to each other. They are at different price points. BPS 2014 Master Catalog lists Avids between $139 to $249… Same catalog doesn't list Fenwick AETOS rods at all. Rogers Lures in Liberty, MO carries quite a few of the Fenwick AETOS rods currently, where they sell for roughly $180 minus whatever discount is happening that week. I only own 1 Avid rod. It is several years old, 6'10" Heavy action and I don't use it very much, mostly because I don't do a lot of punching and I've got other rods I like better for the bubba drop shot. I've got a couple of AETOS rods , one a 7'9" Heavy action rod that I got for A-rigs and I don't throw A rigs all that much. The other, a 7'2" MH pitching stick I like a lot.

Wordens Lures - Timber Tigers - IMO nothing better at coming through brush and trees. For standard square bill tactics, I use a DC 8, but there are other sizes available

Yeah, I do use a flipping rod to fish drop shot style. Sometimes, I fish a more traditional "finesse" approach to drop shot fishing. Other times, (stained water, gnarly cover, fish holding tight to cover, shallower water) I will use a more "bubba" approach to drop shot fishing. I'll generally use half ounce weights and 20 or 25 lb Abrazx fluorocarbon, spooled on the lightest bait caster I've got, currently a Curado 50E. You can place a bait, in gnarly cover, right next to a stump, 10 inches or so off the bottom and suspend it there. I don't know another way to do that except using the bubba drop shot approach. I always carry a bubba drop shot rig in my boat, rigged and ready to go. On occasion, it is the difference between a poor day and a great day. If that scenario is similar to something that you fish, you might want to try it. That All Star Flipping stick is a great starter rod for this technique. (After you try it for a year or so, and it works for you, you will want a lighter flipping stick and probably a lighter bait caster as well.)

I'd buy them all for that. The two bigger round reels would make great catfish reels. Those All Star rods are all great rods. They compare very well to current mid-range priced rods currently available. I still use my TWS all the time. My WR1's are currently retired - but if I got back into fishing as a co-angler I'd bust them out because they are 6'6" and the slightly shorter rods worked better for me fishing as a co=angler. I'm thinking, that Flipping rod, is that the telescopic one? If so, I've got that rod also. That was my bubba drop shot rod for a number of years, currently it is in the category of dependable back up. I found a 7' 5" Kistler with a very simlar action that is at least an ounce and a half lighter.

I've got a bunch of them - different brands. The one that gets thrown the most is an older Berkley Frenzy in a thread fin shad color. I like how it is shiny. I like its profile while it is running - more horizontal. Spots and Rattle Traps tend to run more nose down for me. I've got a few of the Red Eye Shads, but I don't think that they are any better than the Frenzy. I've only got a few Frenzy baits left. Once I lose those, (hopefully never) I'll probably throw the Red eye shad more.

If you decide to go 36 volts and 100+ pounds of thrust ( which is a good idea ) just be sure you've got room for the batteries you will need. 4 is a minimum - 3 for the trolling motor and one for starting/electronics. If you are going crazy on your electronics separating the starting battery from the electronics isn't a bad idea, not necessary, but not a bad idea either. Just depends on if you've got room for all those batteries where they are out of the way. I knew a guy who was sloppy about battery placement and security. He mounted them underneath a bench seat (cut away a little bit of flotation to make them fit and secured them with bungee straps. Time goes by - bungee straps get a little weak -boat takes a wake sideways - battery tips over - and this leads to a battery acid hole in his year old Guide wear set. He was steamed. I didn't have a lot of sympathy. Bad choice of battery location + poor choice of fasteners = unnecessarily torn up gear. If it would have gotten on my gore tex, I'd have been steamed. Just a cautionary tale - moral of the story is be conscious of where you locate your batteries and how you tie them down.

What a dilemma. How do you decide? What you need is a round, decision making device. Fortunately, the government makes them. What you do is assign one value to the face of the important government dude on the front of the device. In this case - Diawa. Assign another value to the icon on the other side of the device, either an eagle or a buffalo or a building, whatever. In this case, the value would be - Shimano. Now, you toss the device upwards into the air, imparting a flip as you do so so as to make the device spin on its axis. Do this on a relatively hard surface, let the device hit the ground - it may bounce - that's ok. When the device has come to rest, the image facing upwards, skywards, towards GOD as it were, is indicative of what GOD who'd do if he (or she) were the one choosing. In this case, I took the liberty of flipping the decision making device for you and the icon representing Shimano came up. So you can take it from me, that GOD told me to tell you to buy a Shimano. What this means is that you should forget about the Tatula and purchase a new Calcutta or a new Curado, Go to your local fishing tackle store and see what's available. Option B would be to go to your local tackle retailer and purchase a Tatula and a new Curado I. Then fish them both and make your own decisions. Don't be hasty. Take 3 or 4 years before you make any decision. Glad I could help.

My first choice most of the time is a shad colored crank.

One of the first rules of fishing & boat owning is to know yourself and how you fish. My problem with inflatables is yeah, I am worried about punching a hole in them. I got mad skills. Sometimes I believe that I could tear up a crowbar in a sandbox. In the conservation lakes that I fish in mostly, they didn't do a lot of brush removal, just enough that was necessary to build the dam and maybe create a boat lane or 2. Thus there be lots of thorn bushes left with 1 to 2 inch thorns on them, right at the waterline or slightly above the water line. Given my boat control skills, that isn't a good combination. I prefer being in my Lowe aluminum, which is basically bullet proof, where I just bounce off or drive over that stuff. Secondly, there isn some maintenance involved in owning an inflatable, inflating and deflating correctly, don't put it away wet, fold it right, etc. I don't want to deal with that. Don't get me wrong, I feel that those are cool little boats, and if I lived in an area where they were more practical, or if I lived in an area where space was a consideration, I would probably have one. Right now, for me, they represent a compromise that I don't feel like making.

Good fishing information can be found from a variety of sources. If you can find a stash of old In-fisherman magazines, from back when the Lindners owned it, they have a lot of in depth fishing theory in them. Early 80's, the Charlie Brewer book, On Slider Fishing - changed my attitudes on fishing with light line. I think it was written in the 70's, but I didn't know about it until the early 80's. All of the In-fisherman strategies handbooks are good. Also, mid 80's, Roland Martin had a book, 101 Bass Catching Secrets. It wasn't a handbook per se, just 101 short stories about some facet of fishing that he thought was important, in no particular order. There is still some info in that book that isn't outdated. There is lots of information out there, in print & other wise. It is your job to wade through all the stuff and find stuff that works for you.

What's your budget? Given a choice between bank bound and kayak, I'd choose kayak. If the choice were either putting it on Mastercard, (i.e. short term debt) or being bank bound, I'd choose short term debt. Really, I'd choose anything over being bank bound, except for inflatables, not a big fan of inflatables, they are ok for some guys, not so much for me, paranoia I guess. If you are afraid of snakes, you will have the opportunity to get up close & personal with snakes from time to time, fishing out of a kayak. Not that big a deal, really, the first the you come up on one suddenly or one comes up on you suddenly, you might have to take your kayak to the car wash. Given a choice, snakes prefer not to mess with humans.

Sebile Magic Swimmers run straight for me and they look cool going through the water. I've yet to catch fish on one. I don't fish them that often.