Fishes in trees

I'd lead off with dropping a wacky rigged senko down the outer edge. Maybe run a buzz bait or a pop-r parallel to the outside edge, fairly close. If the water color was fairly clear (secchi disc reading of 4.5' or better), I might parallel a shad rap. There are 3 things to start, other than that I'd have to see it and compare that weed line/cover to what is available in other areas on the same lake.

Thank goodness I don't have to choose. One of the advantages of owning a boat is that you get to transport more than one rod & reel pretty easily. I generally carry 20, rigged & ready to go. Saves time tying knots.

I'd like it if the old light weight summer jump suits became more readily available again. Back in the day, they were the most comfortable thing to wear for summer time fishing - especially for bank fishing. At the end of the day you'd just get back to your car, towel off a little bit, put on a new clean jump suit and you were presentable. Not the patches though, you can keep the patches, I've no desire to be an uncompensated human bill board.

The fishing tackle close outs at Walmart are going on now. Each store is hit and miss. I got a number of Tungsten weights at a significant discount and Trokar hooks at $5 per pack.

I've never had much success swimming grubs, although I agree that they look good going through the water. A singular exception would be dropping them around bridge pilings, swimming them through the shade and out into the sun light or visa versa. There is a line on bridge pilings, and it varies depending on time of day, where the shade starts and the sun light stops. Most of my success has been a foot or so on either side of that line.

Rick Clunn won a Classic one year on the Potomac using a POE's flat side, coffin bill crank. The 5/16 Eakins Jig has accounted for many tournament wind & high finishes on the White River chain of Lakes (Beaver - Table Rock - Bull Shoals) The Reaction Innovations Beaver got named the Beaver because of back to back wins on Beaver Lake in consecutive years. For a number of years 99 thru 2004 or so, the Lucky Craft Pointer dominated on early spring tournaments in the Ozark region. BFL - Central States Pro-am - Heartland My best tournament finish was achieved in a June BFL tournament at Truman Lake using a bubba shaky head and a zoom trick worm

I have a bunch of them from different manufacturers. The Rattle Traps have been banned from my boat. I think that there are better baits and that brand just takes up space. I had an experience with rattle traps several years ago, where they actually killed the bite, and a half an hour later after I had switched to a different bait, the bite started up again. I generally carry 50 rattle type baits - more or less, Red Eye Shads, Spots, Diamond Shads and assorted others. 90% of the time, I am throwing a discontinued Berkley Frenzy rattle bait in a shiny thread fin shad color. Even when the paint is mostly worn off, they still work. I have 4 left. That should last a few more years unless I get stupid. This is an interesting bait category . There are many options out there.

MY issue with BPS branded cranks is that I think the finishes are weak, and they chip off easily - compared to , say a Timber Tiger or a Lucky Craft - which have decent finishes that are pretty durable.

I bubba shot more than finesse drop shot. I think that the clip on weights are a handy option. Tying on overhand knot in the tail end of line is a good idea. Currently I'm using 20 lb Abrazx Now, to answer the question, occasionally, I've had the line break when I tried to slip it into the sinker. Every time, this was a result of me hurrying and not carefully inserting the line and then snugging it up. If you get in a hurry or get clumsy, you will often break the line using this style of drop shot weight.

You can't have too many 7:1 reels. You can't have too many 6 something to one reels. You can't have too many 5:1 reels. You can't have too many reels. You can only have as many reels as you want/can afford. Be aware that once you satisfy your bass fishing jones, you've got carp fishing, catfish fishing, crappie fishing, bluegill fishing, spoonbill snagging, fly rodding, (for panfish, trout, bass, salmon, etc) drift fishing, trolling, walleye fishing, muskie fishing, and we're not done yet. You've got brackish water, inshore & off shore salt water and all the species associated with those waters. . . . . You will need reels for all those kinds of fishing as well. Some cross over is allowed.

I'm old school in that I can remember when 5 to 1 was considered a high speed reel. I've stayed within that ratio for the last 20 years, for the most part. For bait casters, I am mostly a Shimano guy. I regularly use Calcuttas, Calcutta TEGT, Calais, Curado's. Recently when I got into Curado 50E reels (for weight reasons) they come in a 6.4 to one ratio and that is OK too. I think we are all capable of over thinking the whole gear ratio thing. If I was in the position where I was going to replace all my reels, I most likely would go with something in the 6.something to one ratio, but that isn't going to happen any time soon.

The short answer is "yes". Shimano reels are good reels. Should you purchase a reel that says "SHIMANO" on the side of it, your self esteem will improve and you will be a better person. .. .. for a while.

I can't speak to that particular brand, but I used the Vicious Pro Fluorocarbon in 15 and 17 lb tests last year on a couple of rigs and I didn't have any issues with those two tests in that brand. I used the line on a Curado 50E, mostly pitching in the 30' to 60' range. I can't really compare it to INVISX, I've only used INVISX in 20 lb test.

I have a 7'9" Fenwick Aetos Heavy Action rod/Calcutta 250 TEGT/ 65 lb braid set up. It is as close to a multi purpose rod as I got. It works great for frogging and it works great for A-rigs. If I needed a punching rod, it would work ok for that until I got something better.

Most of the swim baits that I throw are around an ounce and I have a spinning rig that I throw them on most of the time. I use a Fenwick HMG 7' MH spinning rod. I got it for around $100, several years ago, I don't remember if it was a close out or not, I think not. I use a US Reels 240 Supercaster spinning reel and 20 lb Fireline. I have another spool of heavier line that I don't use very often. Maybe I'll use a fluorocarbon leader and maybe not, most of the time I do.

I tend to classify rods according to what I'm going to use them for, and not so much by length & action. That being said, I'd have a dedicated drop shot rod.

Loc-r-bars give you the illusion of security, but if your boat is sitting on its trailer, the lot-r-bar can be defeated in less than a minute. Check your boat insurance policy to see if they will help on claims. On a positive note, once I was at a tournament where numerous boats were vandalized overnight, as they were tied up in a slip. There were 3 guys who had loc-r-bars installed on their boats and those boats weren't messed with very much. (They were untied and left to drift down the lake) Apparently the thieves thought the bars were too much trouble to mess with. On another note, installing loc-r-bars do involve drilling holes in the boat. Are you sure you want to drill holes in your bud's boat? Just stuff to think about. I don't need to go into it here, but if you think about it for a second, you will see how it is extremely simple to defeat a loc-r-bar if the boat is sitting on the trailer. Basically the trailer carries the tool to defeat the bar. I guess they would probably deter an unmotivated thief, but not a motivated one. I guess that if you were in some place like a Walmart parking lot and you saw some guys crawling around in a boat, you wouldn't think anything of it unless you KNEW it wasn't their boat. The bar might prevent some of that action. If I saw guys crawling around in the boat and a broken loc-r-bar, I'd be on my phone quickly. So the bottom line is I don't know - do your research - what does your buddy think about drilling holes in his new boat? Sorry if I rambled.

I write down lb test, brand & date spooled on a little sticker and put it on the side of the reel. Yeah, sure, it will fall off from time to time, then you just put another one on. Works for me.

Guys, lets get this straight - everything matters, therefore line size & color matter. To deny this truth would be to deprive every marketer who works for any fishing tackle company a powerful marketing tool. Don't do that. Don't deprive fishing tackle marketers of their tools. Especially now, in these times of a very slowly recovering economy. Our job is to spend money on fishing tackle, up to the limits of our disposable income.

I wonder about micro-guides in the early spring when they might ice up. Do you just hose them down with reel magic or what? I have a couple of rods with the micro guides, but I haven't fished with them in cold weather yet.

If you buy a reel that says SHIMANO on the side of it you wile a better person - for a while.

How old is that boat? How has it been stored? I'd be concerned about a weak/cracked transom. For sure, I would get an extra memory foam pad for the drivers seat. A 15 ' boat will ride pretty rough in any kind of a chop, driving it will get interesting.

I'm not a big fan of tx rigs. If I'm going to throw a pegged tx rig, I might as well throw a jig - which is what I do. I have some of those Florida "goop" weights, which I will throw from time to time, mostly when I want to drop a 10" worm down through timber. For the most part jika rigs have taken the place of tx rigs for me.

That bait works best for me on a Jika rig.

My guess is that by mid March, every lake in Missouri will be thawed out and ready to go. Fishing will be ON at that point. How far north of KC are you considering? I'm just hoping that my boat is ready to be released from boat jail by then and I've got the coin to pay the ransom.