Fishes in trees

For the past few years, I was a fan of wide gap hooks for nearly all situations. I didn't really think about it that much, it was just a question of which wide gap hook I would choose. However, in the past few weeks I've been experimenting with making my own jika rigs. For many of my jika rig designs, the jury is still out. One thing has stood out though, I'm getting much better hook sets with the standard Gamakatsu hooks compared to wide gap ones. So I am rethinking my approach to which hook I choose when. Right now, looking at results from my home made jika rigs the 3/0 Gammy, regular width, with the sproat style bend rather than the round bend is the club house leader - by a bunch. But, like I mentioned earlier, I am in an experimentation mode and the jury is still out.

IMO 10 lb mono is a little light for throwing a 3/8 oz jig in vegetation. You might be better served with 14 or 17 fluorocarbon or a medium weight braid/fluorocarbon leader. I think that your rod/reel combo is fine and will do the job. Of course the reel doesn't say Shimano on it, but according to your profile you are still young and you will gain a greater appreciation of quality as you age.

I haven't had much luck with cranks out of the dollar box at Walmart. It seems like they are factory seconds, they have some defect somewhere. I have found them, Rebels and Cordells especially, to be hard to tune and most of them won't stay tuned very long. I've found the Walmart dollar box to be more trouble than it is worth. On a positive note, I have found the Moss Boss to be a good bait.

I have a 7' med action spinning rig/14 lb Fireline that I like to throw lighter medium divers (6' to 12') with. Reptile 360 is correct, in that there is some line noise. Hitting the guides with Reel & Line Magic cuts down the noise quite a bit. I use this rig mostly for the distance I can get out of it with relatively little effort. I can get similar distances with some of my bait casters, but it requires more effort and my casting elbow will throb at the end of the day. Anyway, that is the reason I will crank with braid. I don't think I would bother putting braid on a bait caster for this application. It would work great until that inevitable birds nest occurred, then you'd be tangled for a while. Not worth it - time wise. For a cranking application I'd recommend a spinning reel. I will generally use a US Reel - 230 or 240 size - wide spool for this application.

Most of the time I've got a Timber Tiger tied on. They come in various sizes and I use most of them

Either one will work.

Get some kind of grip improving tape. Rod wraps are make for fishing. You can get grip tape made for tennis rackets at any Walmart. Most bicycle shops will have an assortment of handle bar tape. I use this stuff all the time. You can build up a rod handle so that it fits your hand better.

This particular problem can be solved by purchasing reels that say Shimano on them. Some of my Shimano reels are 10 + years old. They still work good. Buying quality is always a good idea.

I've got lots of different colors of spinner baits and I switch them out a lot. Recently I've been fishing clearer water (6.5' secchi disc reading) I've been fishing a gold/greenish head with a golden shiner skirt, double willow blades. Mixed results - the past month or so I really haven't found many decent fish shallow so there really hasn't been much of a spinnerbait bite to speak of.

Tx riggs are generally fished on the bottom. Craw, Lizard, worm, whatever, it don't matter that much, when you are fishing a tx rig, you are trying to imitate something that lurks on the bottom. So just pick one, it don't matter, and fish it for a while, should it not work, pick something else. Don't over think it.

I vote catfish gear. Everyone needs a good set of catfish gear. I seldom go cat fishing, but when I do I don't want to spend half an hour or more going through my shop putting suitable gear together. So, I keep everything separate and ready to go. Rods hanging on the wall ( wrapped in plastic) Everything else kept in the catfish gear tote, ready to go. Tackle bag with hooks & weights, stringer, rod holders, etc. Reels spooled & oiled, wrapped in paper towels inside a zip lock bag, etc. I might go a couple of years without going cat fishing, but when it is time to go, I am ready. Take the time now and put a dedicated catfish gear box together and then you don't have to worry about it anymore, just grab the tote and go.

I like Falcon K-wacky weedless hooks. Mostly I use the 3/0 size, with a 1/16 oz weight molded onto the hook shank.

Maybe I'm splitting hairs here, but to my mind there are multiple different types of shallow cranks, for different shallow situations. First you've got your ultra shallow baits - wake baits, Mann's Minus 1's, stuff like that. Then you've got your standard square bills, like the Strike King baits mentioned earlier, or my favorites the Timber Tigers in various sizes, DC4, DC5, DC8. Also there are various cranks with rounded bills that will only dive to 4' or so. Not to leave out your lighter crank baits, like the original Rapala minnow, or a short billed Shad Rap, or a Rattle Trap type bait, where you adjust your speed to tick the tops of the weeds. Depth of the weeds would determine which bait to use. Some of these baits come over weeds better than others. None of them come through weeds very well. For shallow weeds, there are other baits you might want to try. For starters, a tx rigged senko, or swimming a trick worm or a smaller hollow body swim bait fished with a belly weighted hook, or maybe a buzz bait. The point here being don't get married to the idea of fishing a crank bait through shallow weeds, IMO there are better options.

Ponchos work great for fishing in the rain - until it gets windy - then it becomes problematic. Back in my bush hippie days (late 70's - early 80's) I thought that a poncho was an acceptable solution to fishing in the rain. And they are - as long as it isn't windy. I outgrew the poncho solution pretty quick. Fishing while wearing a poncho in the rain & wind causes more problems than it solves.

I'd spend the money, and have it winterized, processed for long term storage, mothballed or whatever they call it in Florida. Just me, but I'd take all unnecessary gear out of the boat. Depending on the shape of the batteries, I would probably take them out as well, give them away and count on getting all new batteries when getting ready to float the boat again. Depending on where I was going to store it, I would consider putting the trailer up on blocks and storing the trailer tires in the boat underneath the boat cover, That isn't so important if you are storing it indoors. Oh yeah, you've got a boat cover, right? If not, I'd get one, just to keep dust & stuff out of it. Do everything you can to preserve this boat before you leave. Where you are going, you will have more important stuff to think about rather than what kind of shape you left your boat in. Option B - sell the boat now and treat yourself to a new boat when you get back.

You mean you can't hunt and shoot things from a vehicle. Why not? That always struck me as kind of like trolling, and trolling is legal, right?

I have a set of lightweight Frogg Toggs and I like them for late spring/summer/early fall fishing. I like the bibs & jacket rather than the pants. The only place I ever get wet is around the neck (when I turn and face into the rain) and sometimes around my wrists (when I raise my hand up for an overhead cast). I think that they also make a good spring/fall anti-wind suit that isn't too constricting. I am pretty certain that when I wear these Frogg Toggs out, I will upgrade to a set of very lightweight gore-tex, but I haven't worn them out yet in 5+ years. For earlier & later in the seasons, I've got a set of Cabelas Guide Wear. I think that is the gold standard in rain gear, but it is a little hot to wear late spring/summer/early fall, even the uninsulated set. Guidewear isn't cheap now and it wasn't cheap when I got my set, around 1999 or 2000, but being comfortable in uncomfortable weather is priceless, especially during a tournament. Bottom line, when you decide to get serious about rain gear, you will need two sets. One set for early/late seasonal conditions and another for more temperate conditions. JMO

Drop shot fishing in cover requires the "bubba shot" approach. I use a 7 1/2' pitching stick and 20 lb abrazax fluorocarbon. I drop shot in and around all kinds of cover from 2' to 20' or more depths. Like most kinds of fishing, it works some days better than other days, but for sure it is a weapon in my fishing arsenal that I always hae in the boat.

The old Buck Perry adage, "The fish are deep, or shallow, or somewhere in between." applies. For an exhaustive explanation of this adage, read any of Buck Perry's publications pertaining to spoon plugging. My personally, I think that you start with your regional seasonal patterns and adjust from there. I got to go yesterday, after getting to go fishing only one time in June. Fishing out of my boat, me and a buddy got 2 solid limits (10 fish 15" to 18") out of 10 to 18 feet of water, plus an additional 10 or 12 slot fish (12 to 15") Fishing shallow at various times throughout the day, we got half a dozen slot fish and another half dozen sinks (less than 12") Most of the shallow fish came on rattle traps, a couple on chatter baits. I had several fish flash on a spinner bait, but didn't hook any. From what I saw, they were slot fish or sinks. Anyway, yesterday, for me the better fish were deeper. Low & slow was the rule.

I've fished Table Rock occasionally over the years. I can honestly say that I've never caught a fish on a deep diving crank bait when water was "Table Rock clear" Way up the James or the White, when the water had some stain to it, then, yeah, a crank bait bite could happen. For me, Table Rock has always been a Brewer Slider/Shakey head lake. Fishing deeper (past 1 feet or so) my only success has been with 3/4 ounce football heads paired with a Chompers twin tail grub. Early spring, there is a jerk bait bite, allegedly, but I've never been there when it was happening. Same thing with A-rigs, in that allegedly suspended fish A-rig bite happen, but I've never been there when it was happening.

Everyone ought to carry a push pole if they have room for it. They are handy tools. That being said, here in Missouri, I haven't seen a mat I couldn't drive through, if I felt like it. Just trim up your big motor out of the water and go. Every so often, you will have to pull weeds off of it. Oh, well. The real issue happens when you go to shallow and run your trolling motor into the mud. That is when you are glad you brought your push pole. As an aside, as I get older, I don't feel like driving through mats all that often. My reasoning is that if the fish are in the mats, they will probably be on the outside edge of the same weed line.

On spinning gear with 8 lb fluorocarbon, I commonly use 1/4 oz and occasionally 5/16. I know this is considered a little heavy, but my priority is getting to the bottom ASAP. I own 3/16 and 1/8 ounce shakey heads, but I very seldom use them. Frequently I will fish shakey head type baits on baitcasting gear, primarily due to bottom cover. For this application I generally choose 14 lb fluorocarbon line and 3/8 ounce jig heads. If it is windy, go with a 5/8 ounce or half ounce head. Technique is the same. Shake it some, drag it some, try different stuff until you find what works. Then hope you remember what you did.

How much do you want to spend? Prior to getting my current boat (2002 Lowe WF 180), I had a Buster Boats, Trophy model. It was pretty deluxe, as pond boats go. At 10' long & 4" wide, it was made out of acrylic resin, very resistant to UV rays. It came pre-wired for trolling motor, lights & depth finder. It had a built in ice chest & live well with aerator. All this made it pretty heavy as pond boats go and it came on its own little trailer. Brand new, it sold for around $2800 in 1997. I don't know if that company is even around now. I know that you can get boats cheaper than that but what drew me to the Buster boat was the acrylic resin construction. Previously I owned a pond boat, a Water Scamp in the early 80's. It was made out of ABS Plastic. Used heavily and always stored outside (no choice at the time) it became fairly brittle as it aged and cracked easily. It would still float, and you could still fish out of it, but inside the pontoons, it would get damp and stay damp for a long time. Be aware that getting the boat is just one chapter in the boat story. How are you going to transport it? Store it? How much power are you going to need? Extra batteries? It is easy to get a couple of grand tied up in the boat pretty quick. That isn't a bad thing, just the way it is. Keep looking and you will find what you need.

I've had spools of Fireline last for years on spinning gear. Specifically 14 lb Fireline ( which has a diameter of 6 lb test according to Berkley) in either the regular smoke color or the crystal color.

A couple of days ago, I was in the KCK Cabelas. They had a fishing specific back pack on sale for $90. It was well thought out and had every feature you might want.