Fishes in trees

Sounds to me like it is just a practice issue. With more time in your boat you will get better at hook setting. If you are used to setting the hook from the bank, just be aware that setting the hook from the boat is a different deal, both from a feel and physics standpoint. That takes time on the water.

Some crank baits are better late winter/very early spring baits than others. You've just got to experiment to find out what works for you. My experience has been that I can occasionally git bit on wiggle warts and shad raps. I have to throw the shad raps on very light line - currently I'm using 10 lb nanofil. Wiggle warts for me are pretty much the same thing, I'll use 10 or 12 lb test, more often 10. Any decent mono will work. The good thing about wiggle warts is that I can throw them on bait casting gear with decent results. Having said that, I think that jerk baits (specifically Lucky Craft Pointers) and jigs or shaky head worms are a better late winter/early spring option day in and day out. Another early spring crank related to consider is that every spring, I will catch 1 or 2 big fish (5 to 8 lbs is big for me) throwing a rattle bait in 1 to 3 feet of water, late March or early April. It seems to me, in the conservation lakes that I mostly fish that the big fish come up very shallow, very early and then go back down and then the regular pre-spawn - spawn - post spawn progression happens. Throwing the rattle bait early in the year has never been a numbers game for me, but it has resulted in a big fish or two for me nearly every year for the past several years.

Where you gonna fish em? For normal crank fishing, points & bumping bottom and stuff like that, the previous suggestions are all ok. If you are going to be fishing wood, crowns of sunken trees, sunken bushes, stuff like that, there isn't any substitute for Timber Tigers. hey come through wood & bushes better than any other crank I've found.

Perhaps a cheap camping lantern and duct tape. Or do you mean a black light? I don't know, but I could imagine a white 360 degree light on your boat turning into a flying bug magnet.

get an injector with a fairly large needle, like you'd use to inject a turkey before smoking it, and you can create little air pockets inside of nearly any bait. After a strike you might need to re-inject. My injector is a fairly cheap one that came with a bottle of marinade.

Unless I am being compensated, I have no desire to wear clothing with logos that pimp various products while I am fishing. On the subject of fishing clothes, I would like to get a good SPF 50 or so fishing outfit with a shirt & shorts that match. I like the look of shirts & shorts that match as opposed to separate colors for the shirt and the shorts. Also, while we're on the subject of fishing clothes, back in the 70's, cheap polyester, baggy, one piece jump suits were readily available. These made great bank fishing clothes and when you were done at the end of the day, you got back to your car and it only took a moment to get out of the dirty jump suit and into a clean one. I miss these suits and they are hard to find these days. These were practically a summertime hippie uniform for me.

Yeah to the dremel approach. Trying to do that by hand would get old quick. A dremel would be a finesse power tool approach. If you don't have one, go buy one. That is one tool that every guy ought to have.

They look home made to me. Every 4 or 5 years, one of the fishing magazines, Bassin, or Bassmaster or Outdoor LIfe or Field & Stream or who knows, one of the other ones I forget, in their "tips" section will tell you to string skirt strands or rubber bands through your soft plastic baits to give them "more action" or a "different look" I first remember being told to do that in the mid 80's by a regional Berkley rep and later I read in in Bassmaster. I never tried it so I don't know if it is a good idea or not. All I know is that editors have to fill so many column inches each month and if you can't find something new, then recycle something old. Enough of the rant, back to your question. Yeah, those look home made to me. How heavy are they?

If I'm going to wacky rig a bait, it will be a senko 99% of the time. I thread them on O rings and use a weighted weedless hook. My current favorite is a Falcon K wacky 3/0 1/16 oz. I throw them on a MH rod using 15 lb fluorocarbon. Specific rod & reel varies. Anyway, it seemed to me like your question was more like where to throw them. The answer is next to something. In from of a deep weed wall. On the shady side of vertical structure, like trees. On the edges of sunken bushes in 5 to 9 feet of water. Holes in grass mats. Next to a stick up. For me, the other key to senko use is water clarity. I like a secchi disc reading of 3 or more. Any less , and for me at least, senkos become ineffective, because the water is too murky.

to echo QUAKENSHAKE, for me it totally depends on what kind of noise. There is such a thing as bad sounds and good sounds and I am aware that it totally subjective. For instance, I had a Calcutta GTB (8 bearing model) that I benched for a couple of years because it had an annoying little "click" when I retrieved a bait. Didn't effect the function of the reel I don't think, just didn't like it. DVT fixed that for me and now it is back in the starting line up. Any new reel that has any whirr or gear noise to it I won't buy. I find all clickers and noise makers on reels annoying. Line related sounds, not so much. Many Zebco spin cast reels have an annoying sound to them. I've tried listening to music while I was fishing, seems to me like it detracted from the fishing experience. Music is for driving to & from the lake, at least for me. I do like listening to ball games on those rare times when I'm on the water when a Royals game is on the radio.

A short answer to the question is that, in my opinion, fiberglass crank bait rods are more trouble than they are worth. The Lamiglass rod other guys are touting this thread, aren't sold here in the KC Metro area. So I can't speak to how good a rod that is. However, every glass rod I'v ever touched and/or fished with were pretty heavy compared to a similar length graphite rod. I know I've got a couple of them and they are gathering dust in my shop, in the pile of retired rods.

You are in the St. Louis metro area. Go to Pauls ( on Chippeawa I think) and see what they recommend. Go to BPS and see what is on close out. In St Louis, you are blessed with several good independent shops. Here in the KC Metro area, we've really only got one - Rogers in Liberty. Other than that we do have a Cabelas in KCK and a couple of BPS stores. I like the independent stores because they are more likely to deal on items like rods & reels, especially if you buy a couple. That Revo Premier wouldn't be out of place on a Loomis or upper end St. Croix. For a more modest amount of money, look at the Fenwick AETOS or HMG jig rods. For reels, I'm a Shimano guy. For rods, I'm all over the map with different brands. I have some Kistlers, older (pre-Shakespeare) All Stars, Fenwick Aetos & HMG, Shimano, Falcons Bucco. My favorite bubba drop shot rod is an older Quantum Tour Edition 7'4" MH. I think I have the last Black Carrot stick left. I've had buddies that had several of those and they all broke. Rogers in Liberty doesn't carry them anymore, mostly because of breakage issues. It is hard to go wrong on jig rods, there are lots of good ones out there. Buy the lightest one you can afford and your elbow will thank you later. Anyway, that's my advice, go to Pauls and see what they've got on special right now.

I got one at the Cabelas KCK in the Bargain Cave that was better than the one that came with my boat for about $70. It is a trailerable cover, all I had to do was to cut the straps so that they fit my boat without too much flapping.

I've never seen them in any store I've been in (KC Metro area, BPS Springfield) I've been looking because in the back of my mind, I would like to re-light my trailer some day. I guess you've just got to order them from their website.

Did you call them up and ask them? Are they really discontinued or are they just out. I can feel your pain though, about discontinued baits. My supply of Berkley Powerbait Pulse worms is dwindling. They were discontinued several years ago, so when I'm out, there ain't no more. Same deal with the Powerbait 8" lizard. I thought it was a lot better bait than the 6" one, but it is discontinued. I called Berkley to ask about that one and they said that there were no plans to manufacture that bait any more because it didn't meet sales expectations. They do the same thing as far as colors go also. I like the Powerbait creature bait, buy now it is only available in 8 "most popular" colors. The green pumpkin with large copper flakes isn't available any more. My advice is that if you find a soft plastic that you like and get good results from, buy as many bags as you can asap. There is no telling when or why some baits get discontinued and some don't. I think there is a rule that if I like a bait, it is going to get discontinued within a couple of seasons. Sometimes they don't get discontinued, and I think the companies are doing that just to mess with me. But I'm not paranoid.

I've come to understand that I could be doing worse things with my money than buying fishing tackle. Say, for instance, that I collected cocaine. At the end of the day all I'd have to show for it would be a runny nose. Everybody has a jones for something.

Many, not all, but many of my tackle purchases have been a response to a "poor me" moment. Something, real or imagined happened and I felt bad. Poor me. I'm not the first guy to exercise "retail therapy" and I doubt if I"ll be the last. I've found through experience that the other "pour me" moments aren't particularly healthy. I like a beer now and then, but not as therapy. A good day of fishing will make me buy tackle only if I run out of something that was working. Stuff that is "on sale" often grabs my attention. I walked into Rogers the other day and they had a BUNCH of discontinued soft plastics on sale for a buck a bag. I had an hour to kill before time to go to work. Twenty five bags later, it was time to go to work. So, I don't know, I guess my answer is that I buy tackle when the mood strikes me, and there really isn't a reliable indicator of when that is going to be. Any marketing whiz who peeks into my shed will understand that the urge to buy tackle happens frequently.

Over the past few years I've been more likely to throw a square bill or a swim jig or a chatter bait in places where previously I would throw a spinner bait. I've got a bunch of them, but I didn't get them wet very often last year. I probably need to remind myself to use them more.

I don't use a jigging spoon very much, but when I do I use my MH jig rod, 15 lb fluorocarbon and mostly a spoon called a Dixie Jet. Reef Runner Cicadas (3/4 oz) are also good jigging tools. Whatever jigging spoon you choose, swap out the trebles for a light wire one, that way when you get stuck, and you will get stuck, it is a fairly simple matter to get on the opposite side of the snag and bend out the hook. Use too sturdy of a treble and you will sooner or later lose the bait. Occasionally, one of those "hound dog" type lure retrievers will work, doesn't hurt just to try it, once you are stuck Anyway, that's my thinking on deeper water jigging tools.

I thought mine was reasonably accurate. Mine isn't broke yet, but I've taken reasonable care of it. I lay it back down on the deck instead of throwing it somewhere in the boat. The battery cover does come off often. Duct tape fixes that. I think that it does kind of eat batteries. I think that low batteries affect readings. I replace the batteries every month or so. It is what it is, an adequate scale in a small package. I got mine when I was co-angling BFL. The primary problem I had with that scale is that I didn't get to use it very often during the tournaments. That is obviously the scales fault, it could be just an unlucky scale.

I like worms on shaky heads. Smaller worms on heads up to 1/4, a little larger on the bubba 3/8 & 1/2 oz shaky heads. I like creature baits/ lizards on jika rigs. I am sad that Berkley doesn't make the 8" lizard any more. I liked that bait. It was a good bait starting out and you could tear up the head and shorten it several times and it was still an adequate bait. There are very few situations where I tx rig any more.

I like Timber Tigers. I have lots of them in the DC4, DC5 & DC8 sizes. I use the DC8 size most of the time.

I have cycled through many different brands of hooks for drop shot fishing. My current favorites are Gamakatsu Wicked Wacky hooks. Bps stocks them in sizes from 1/0 thru 5/0 and I use them all. If I am going to tx rig a bait, my first choice is the Lunker City Texposer or the gamakatsu skip gap hook. Note that this is for bubba drop shot fishing, when I go finesse, my mind isn't made up at all and I try a different one nearly every time.

When I am doing the finesse drop shot option, there are a bunch of different baits I might use, for the most part it will be come 4" to 5" straight tail worm. For the Bubba drop shot, which I do most of the time I like a couple of Berkley baits. The 5" power bait jerk shad - start with Arkansas Shiner color and then tint it will spike it markers. The 4" Crazy legs chigger craw is also a good choice.

If it isn't necessarily about money, check out Riverpro boats. They are made in Hillsboro, Mo outside of St. Louis. They haven't been in the news recently, but several years ago, In-fisherman magazine raved about these boats, about how they were absolutely the best shallow river fishing option available. They aren't cheap, but they aren't totally out of line for what you get either. I don't have one because in the waters I fish, they aren't necessary. If my closest best fishing was a shallow river, this is what I'd have.