Fishes in trees

It is common knowledge that, at best, you only have temporary custody of any piece of fishing tackle. Accidents & other stuff can happen, at any given moment any piece of fishing tackle you've got can go over the side, sacrificed to the lords of fishing. Occasionally Lucky Craft lures go on sale. MY local tackle shop had an inventory reduction sale this spring where all the Lucky Craft lures were half price. They don't have any Table Rock Shad Pointers any more and I have 5 new ones. You never know when you will run across bargains. Be ready to bust out your VISA so you can take advantage of sales when they happen. Really, too bad about for Pointer but don't despair, they will make more of them.

Shaky head weights depend on where & what gear I'm fishing. Spinning gear, I mostly use 3/16 & 1/4 oz on 8 lb fluorocarbon. A couple of years ago, I got into fishing these worms on bait casting gear. Using 15 lb Abrazx, I'm starting at 3/8 and going heavier if I can. When I'm on Table Rock, later this summer, when you are setting in 50 feet of water and fishing the 15 to 30 foot drop offs, I'll start with 1/2 oz weight.

I fish with my spools filled like that all the time. Just pay attention. If casting distance is what you're after, filling your spool all the way full will get you a little more distance. If you don't pay attention or if you are fishing some technique that occasionally involves slack line (like worm fishing or jig fishing or suspended jerk bait fishing) the line might come off the spool in one big blob, a huge wind knot that is a pain to untangle. Close your bail by hand prior to starting the retrieve and check occasionally to make sure you aren't winding on any loops or knots.

Where are you mostly fishing?

Not to be a buzz kill, but neither a punch rig or a jika rig is going to work very well from the bank. Sorry. This the of year, spend the money and get a belly boat - find some way to get off the bank.

Several lessons to be learned here. First, you can't fish what you didn't bring. Second, it is one thing to see schools of bait fish, it is another thing to see the schools of bait fish being busted up by bass or some other predator. I know here in Missouri, when you see feeding activity on the surface, it is much more likely white bass are doing the feeding. Large mouth are more ambush predators, being much more likely to hang someplace and wait for dinner to come by than to actively chase it. (I know that there are exceptions to this rule) If you worked a bunch of different baits through the minnow schools with no results, it is quite possible that there weren't any fish there. Some baits you hadn't mentioned, I'm wondering if you tried: A rattle trap type bait, pulled through the school. A minnow type bait, like a pointer, or a rogue or a Rapala? A heavy drop bait, like a Silver Buddy or a Cicada can also be cast far and pulled through the upper levels of the water column, just keep reeling fast. This can generate a reaction bite from time to time. If your electronics can give you an idea of how deep the schools of bait fish are, some times you can pull a medium or deep diving crank underneath the schools. Basically, it seems to me that you just had a bad day. Hit the reset button and try again next time. So, you left prior to weigh in, and you don't know what won? I'd be interested to find out what the winning bait was. I know you can't live in the past and fish yesterdays patterns, you have to fish present patterns, but still that would be an interesting tidbit on info to have on hand. Just my thoughts . . .

The last time I broke a Technica AV rod, I got an AETOS in exchange. They are both good rods, I like the color of the AETOS better.

What made my frogs easier to walk was not tying direct to the frog, but rather putting a heavy duty oval split ring on the frog hook and tying to the split ring. Also, I went to a shorter rod. A 7' heavy action rod where I had been using a 7'9" Fenwick AETOS heavy action rod.

Question : Why do divorces cost so much? Answer : Because they are worth it.

There are lots of different conditions where jigs are the best choice for catching fish. There are lots of other conditions where jigs will probably work somewhat, but they might be the 2nd or 3rd or 4th best choice, depending on conditions. Specifically, what kind of conditions are you trying to jig fish and secondly, what kind of jig are you using? For instance, say you are fishing a deep weed line, that transitions to creek rock/sand/clay. A jig is an option here. My current thinking is that a jika rig is a better option here. And a jika rig is kind of a jig - a jig /soft plastic hybrid if you will. Anyway, the point of this one example is that specific conditions will get you better answers.

I'm going to make one of these events, I swear I will. However, this coming fall, most of my fall fishing budget has been committed to the 2014 Fishing for Freedom event that the Leavenworth Bass Club and Long Shoal Marina co-sponsor every fall. This year's edition will be on Saturday & Sunday, October 11 & 12. I plan to get down there early Wednesday morning and pre-fish for 3 days. Last year, a bunch of guys from another board that I occasionally frequent got together for a BBQ on Friday evening, just to compare notes, meet people we only knew by screen names, etc. 2 out of the last 3 years we've had outstanding fall weather. Two years ago, it got a little chilly. Anyway, if you are looking for a fall fishing trip at at decent lake, that is an option for any boater. All the motels in the area have discounts for volunteer boaters. On Sunday, the 12th , you get to take some veteran fishing for a day. There is a ton of information at the Leavenworth Bass Club website. I'm not a member of the Leavenworth Bass club, I'm just a guy who's had a good time every time I've participated in their fall event. If you are looking for a fall fishing trip, this is something to consider.

If you couldn't buy a bite, it is possible that you haven't spend enough money. It is also possible that they just weren't biting. It is also possible that there was some flaw in your presentation. In the entire gamut of fishing situations, many things are possible. Buck Perry wrote, "The fish are deep . . .or shallow . . .or somewhere in-between." This is always correct. The In-fisherman formula Fish + Location + Presentation = Success, always applies, no matter what species you are fishing for. Put your mind on it, fine tune your presentations (or don't) and try again next time. Option B - Throw away all your gear and take up golf. You think fishermen are nuts sometimes, after having a bad day or the one that got away, try talking to a golfer with the "yips".

Last year, didn't someone throwing a big swim bait win that tournament? Refresh my memory.

Old trolling motors lose power over time. Fact of life. If you are replacing and going with the same wiring, go for the biggest 12 volt motor you can find - probably a 55 lb thrust. If you have room in the battery compartment, check out how much it would cost to to to a 24 volt system. You won't believe how much easier your boat positioning chores will become if you upgrade. The variable speed feature alone will save you hours of fishing time.

Two different techniques require two different rods, reels and lines. It is in the rod & reel & line technique specific handbook, somewhere, I forget the page # right now.

x 2 on the zip ties. I've went the wire route. Zip ties are easier. I found some tiny chartruese zip ties at Home Depot as well as black & white.

$30 worth of line is some line, not a LOT. You're going to have to backlash much more often to use up a lot of line. Keep at it.

I put a step on my trailer to make it easier to get into & out of my boat. I also clamped a 5' piece of 2" pcv pipe next to the step to give me something to grab on to and push off of when I'm getting into and out of my boat.

That is a good question. I'm not sure if I like myself if I answer this question brutally honestly. So, I avoid this question for the most part. I fish during the week, when most other people are working. I tend to fish my myself. I tend to fish away from the docks. I tend to avoid, for the most part, other fishermen when I'm on the water. I'm polite, but I don't initiate conversations when I am loading/unloading the boat. I'm not real comfortable around children, I'll let the education of the future generation of fishermen fall to those who are, & I'm good with that.

Frogg Toggs in summer, Guidewear in spring & fall.

I've got a 7'9" Fenwick Aetos Heavy Action that works great for A-rigs & frogs

If you have bad technique and snap your wrist too quick while you are pitching, a bad case of tennis elbow can happen. You can get a strap that tightens down on your fore arm that stops the pain for the most part. Alieve helps somewhat also. The only thing that cures it is rest. When I pay attention to good technique and don't try to horse it or pitch too far, I don't get tennis elbow.

Given my druthers, I like to pitch jigs. So far this year, most of my keepers (15" or better) have happened on jika rigs, and a few on tx rigged weightless soft plastics. Like I do every spring, I caught a couple offish in the 22" range throwing trap style baits over grass flats in 3' of water, a definite pre-spawn pattern. Every year, late March to mid April, I get a couple of big fish doing that.

First, I think that they are baits for similar situations. Rocky, sandy, sparse cover, fished as deeps you want to go. As Al Linder explained it in one of the theory articles when he owned In-fisherman, a jig is a rig and a rig is a jig. Think of a jig as a carolina rig with a really, really short leader. Conversely, think of a carolina rig as a jig with a really, really long, flexible hook. It is about control and precision. How much do you want to know where your bait is in relation to your weight? How much will the fish let you get away with? Which are you most comfortable with? All of these are considerations that each guy will have to answer for himself. Me, I'm not a big fan of carolina rigs, and it is seldom an option unless I'm seeing other people consistently catching more fish on a rig. When I was co-angling in tournaments, dragging a carolina rig behind the boat was often your only option. When two guys are throwing jigs out of a boat, you've got to be on relatively the same page, pace wise, or frustration will set in. The last couple of times I was down at Table Rock, where both rigs are popular, the guy in the bait shop told me, rigs for numbers, bigger bites generally happen on football jigs. I think you're fine with the retrieve, for the most part, it is a drag & pause, drag & pause kind of deal. An exception might be those Biffle Bugs, which Tommy Biffle fishes like a very slow crank bait, a constant drag on the bottom.

Once you see one, it is pretty easy to make your own. There isn't really any special way to fish it. If you can fish a texas rig, you can fish a jika rig. For a summer presentation option, I focus on the deep weed lines of main lake and larger secondary points. My home made ones are pretty heavy - between 14 and 20 grams (thats roughly between a half and three quarter ounce) Because it is for the most part a bottom presentation, I don't see any reason to wait for a 3/8 or 1/4 oz bait to reach the bottom. I don't know if there are any cons to jika rigs. They are a tool like many other presentations, try them and if they don't work for you, try something different.