Fishes in trees

I got a Mustang H.I.T. A few years ago I feel out of the boat - in early April - into 46 degree water - 16 or so feet deep. I wasn't wearing a life jacket. I was fortunate I got back into the boat. Later, in the evening when I got home from fishing, I got on the phone and ordered an inflatable life jacket. A year or two later I found out about the H.I.T. technology and how it was better than the standard auto inflatable and so now that is the one I use. I was religious about carrying a life jacket in the boat and I generally wore it when the big motor was running, but I didn't wear it when I was fishing. Now I do. All the time. Even in the hottest days of the summer. Falling out of the boat was a wake up call for me.

Hey, Flyfisher, laugh all you want to. I thought it was funny at the time. All I know is that at the time I was looking for an "outside the box" topwater presentation. It didn't work all the time. But it did work. My idea at the time was a "live bait" other than fish or worms. Oh yeah, the bass got released. The catfish was dinner for 4. Gourmet hippie food.

The Shimano G series are good reels. I don't think that they are as good as the E's, but that is probably just me. If you can spare the extra money, the Curado 300 E is a GREAT crankbait reel. Larger capacity, deeper spool. Fill it with 10 lb test and you will get more distance than you will with a 200. Any you'll be able to break off several times before you need to respool. Fill it with 20 lb line or heavier braid and you've got a reel that will handler heavier swim baits if that is what you want.

Like several of the other guys, I try to keep all baits in their original bags and organized by type in gallon zip lock bags. Then you find something to store the zip lock bags in. (we're talking on the water storage, in the shop storage of "extras" is another subject) Different size tackle bags go on sale all the time, just pick one. I carry 3 medium sized tackle bags for my soft plastics. One has commonly used plastics, another for occasional plastics and a third for the once in a blue moon plastics. I went for 3 smaller tackle bags rather than one large tackle bag because it is easier for me to transfer. Between fishing trips, I keep the vast majority of my fishing gear locked in my fishing truck rather than stored in the boat for insurance reasons/

If you don't care how you catch it, live bait might be the ticket. Anyone can catch a bluegill and suspend it beneath a bobber. If you want to get creative, you've got options. Once upon a time in my youth, I was exploring options to try to catch the biggest fish in any body of water. I experienced limited success. One thing that did work was I went to the pet store and bought some live mice. The pet store sold them as python food. Braid didn't exist then, but dacron line did. I had a fairly heavy 7'spinning rod and a larger spinning reel. It didn't cast very well, but you could lob a half an ounce or so 30 to 40 feet. Anyway, I took several rubber bands and secured the mouse to a 5/0 worm hook (the biggest I had). I didn't get very many strikes, but I did catch a channel catfish that was around 24" long and I caught a largemouth that was slightly less than that. I just threw the mouse out and let it swim around. When it got too close to shore, I would retrieve it and lob it back out again. This was in the early summer, from 6 til about dark thirty or so. Anyway, you might try that.

For me it depends on where I am fishing. Most of the time I'm throwing a wacky rigged senko next to sunken bushes, or trying to drift it down through underwater trees. Lots of times, the water is fairly clear, so I think fluorocarbon line is necessary. The majority of the time I use bait casting gear with 14 lb fluorocarbon. Most of the time I use a 1/16 oz Falcon K-wacky hook. Senko's in themselves are pretty heavy as plastic baits go, so with the addition of the Falcon K-wacky hook I feel like I can pitch the senko as far as I need to. 40 to 50 foot casts are very doable. Remember that if you pitch a senko 40 feet, you've got to feed it additional line if you want it to drop anywhere close to straight down.

Rogers Lures in Liberty, MO. It is a fairly large independent fishing tackle store. I shop lots of different places, I can't drive past a fishing tackle store or a place that might sell fishing tackle and not stop and see what they have. This includes all pawn shops. Rogers in Liberty is my favorite.

God's garden is a good idea - in theory. In practice, I believe in selective harvest - I really do. I have no problem with you catching a few fish - of any species - to eat. If you catch a bunch of bass or whatever fish to eat all the time, or every time you run into a bunch of fish - well, the title of"meat hog" comes to mind, and that is being kind. I don't think that that is the most enlightened way to fish or that it is the best thing for the resource over the long term. I have a really big issue with catching a bunch of game fish and then giving them away. Game fish are controlled by limits, number & size limits, for a reason. To keep a limit of game fish (or more) every time out becomes at the very least greedy and self centered. As opposed to resource centered, which is the side of the fence that selective harvest is on. Basically,when you keep a bunch of fish to feed other people you aren't being selective any more. My question then becomes, "What are you really feeding here?" Are you feeding a bunch of people who may or may not be hungry, but didn't catch the fish, and thus didn't earn the right to consume the fish? OR Are you feeding your own ego, telling yourself that you're a great fisherman, that you can catch a bunch fish whenever and care so little about them that you just give them away? That son, is a genuinely fair question. Basically my point is the game fish population, nationwide, is a resource and I don't see any reason to decimate the resource, just to feed poor & needy people. There are other more efficient and less resource decimating ways to feed poor & needy people. This rant applies to game fish, those fish protected by statutes, conservation departments, and by the vast majority of fishermen's sense of right & wrong. It does not apply to Asian Carp or snake heads. Should you desire to feed poor & needy people fish, become an asian carp specialist. Feed as many carp to that section of society as you can. Feed so many that you make a dent in the carp population. Now that would make you a hero, not only in my book but in lots of peoples books. If your fishing ego needs feeding, now that would be an honest socially and politically correct way to feed it. OK - rant is done now - thanks for reading

The original Terminator Titanium spinnerbaits and the stainless steel terminators mentioned at the top of this post are two entirely different animals. It is made out of stainless steel wire that doesn't "bounce back" like the titanium wire does. Overall, they just aren't as sturdy as the titanium ones are.

Shimano Calcutta TEGT

The rule on trolling motor batteries is similar to the rule for trolling motors, i.e. get the biggest one you can afford that will fit in the space you've got for it. That applies to deep cycle trolling and cranking batteries.

Here in Missouri, a wiggle wart (or something with a similar action) is a decent early spring bait. If you got really clear water, I'd go with a shad rap. I think in early spring, the wind is telling you which direction to throw. I always try to set up so that I can throw shad raps with the wind. Throwing shad raps into the wind gets counter productive. JMO

Back in the day, when I was bank bound, I experimented with crank baits from time to time. Like you've been experiencing, weeds were a constant hassle. There would be brief periods of minor success, followed by many more experiences with the hassles of weeds. What I realize now, and what I should have realized then, was that crank baits are a tool that are best used from a boat. You can experiment with retrieves, crank & stop, try to let it float over weeds, etc., but bottom line, crank baits work better from a boat. You can't get around that fact. My advice would be save your crank bait fishing time until you've got access to a boat. While you are bank bound and dealing with weeds focus on baits that come through weeds best. For your slower approaches that would be tx rigged baits. For reaction strike approaches, that would be spinnerbaits. Throw in a top water here and there where appropriate. The bottom line is that yeah, you can catch a fish here and there throwing cranks from the bank, but there are other techniques that are much more productive for the bank bound angler. Unless you have an unlimited amount of time, I'd focus my learning curve on techniques that have a higher probability of success for your current situation. JMO

I've had that issue. I tried bulking up the reel foot with electrical tape, duct tape, etc. Works for a while, but it is a temporary fix. I've also tried zip ties and small hose clamps. Again, other temporary fixes that work for a while. The underlying issue is that your reel seat is wearing out. If you REALLY like that rod blank, you might find some rod builder who could put a new handle on the old blank. Otherwise, your choice is to put the rod into retirement and get a new one. That's what I did.

I had one back in the day. They are a fun way to fish in the summertime. Spring & Fall - not so much, water is too cold. They can be a workout if where you want to fish is a long ways from where you put in. I got dehydrated from that a couple of times. That was a weird feeling, knowing that you are getting dehydrated while you are floating in water. Get another inner tube and bungee a cooler inside of it to solve that problem. Be aware that beer makes you more dehydrated. Bring water or gatorade to solve the hydration issue.

Neat looking bait. Not a new concept. Back in the late 80's Norman came out with a jerk bait that you could add water to make it suspend. It even come with its own little water injector, which was fun to play with. While you could make it suspend at different levels pretty easy, the problem was that it wasn't that good of a bait and fish didn't bite it very often.

I've used the regular chigger craw on a jig with modest results. The only thing I've used the crazy legs chigger craw for was on a bubba drop shot rig. On 2 different trips (not consecutive) it saved the day, post spawn, early summer and mid summer. Fish were 5 to 8 feet down, on the shady side of stumps & bushes Who knows what all the different factors at play were. I threw beavers, chompers, Larew crawdads, flukes & fluke imitators,but the crazy legs chigger craw out fished the other baits by a bunch. By the way, the color of the day was green pumpkin party. That breen color hasn't ever worked for me.

When someone runs into me on the lake, I've got 15-20 rods laid out around the boat. What I'm using NOW probably isn't what I was using 10 minutes ago. That being said, whenever anyone asks (which isn't often) I generally reply honestly.

I generally use a mono or copolymer line for fishing spinnerbaits and trap style baits, 17 or 20. I think that the new Trilene XL Armor coated is a great spinnerbait/rattle trap/ square bill line. I understand that I could use braid for all these applications but I just haven't seen the need to switch yet.

You can only carry so many baits. This coming from a guy who carries a LOT of baits. Every time I decide to change baits, for whatever reason, they ALL scream at me, "PUT ME IN, COACH!!" I feel bad enough already, in that I am rejecting hundreds of baits, when I choose one to tie on to my line. Don't make me feel worse, reminding me that I am rejecting an additional several hundred baits that didn't even make in on to the traveling team. If you think about it another way, most of the really old, extremely collectable lures out there weren't fish catchers. If they were, they would have been used and lost. So, by saving those 30 or so Storm crank baits, (or whatever brand, it does not matter for the purposes of this rant), and keeping them in pristine condition, you are creating a treasure trove for some other fisherman a few generations in the future. Might as well save all the boxes as well, a couple of collectors that I've met were just as interested in the box the lure came in as the lure itself.

I looked at that bag, but when it was a full price, not on sale. It looked like a good bag. It was laid out pretty well, functional. It had the heavy duty zippers, which is important. My problem with it was that it was red and yellow. It just looked to "commercial" or something, I don't know. I just didn't like the look of it. If they made that bag in a plain blue or a plain green or plain brown, I probably would have bought it. However, if I had really needed the bag I would have overlooked the color. Guess I really didn't need it.

For me spinner baits fill a niche in the reaction bait spectrum. Some guys use them interchangeably with square bills. Me, not so much. I will throw a spinnerbait if it too weedy for a square bill. If you are fishing an outside weed edge, they could be interchangeable. I would tend to throw a square bill or a medium diver when I parallel an outside weed edge. Other guys I know would throw a spinner bait in that same situation. Just depends, I guess. Anyway, I will always have 2 or 3 spinnerbait/chatterbait rigs tied up and ready to go. In clearer water with 4'+ of visibility, I will kind of try to "match the hatch" and throw a spinner bait that kinda matches predominant baitfish forage. Water with 2' or less visibility, I will probably throw a white/chartruese model. The vast majority of the time, I throwing a half ounce model on 17 lb mono or co-polymer line. At some point when the visibility is decreasing, I will go to a colorado blade rather than a willow blade. I have some with 2 tone blades - brass on one side and chartreuse on the other and these have worked in the past in muddy water. An oddball color that I have had success with in clear water is black, specifically a 1/2 ounce Terminator with a gold colorado blade and a black zoom swimming chunk trailer. I have had several 50 to 60 fish days throwing this bait in fairly shallow (less than 7 feet), very clear ( visibility more than 6') water. It has happened often enough that I don't think it is a fluke, I think it is a very viable post spawn/early summer pattern. Never had it work especially well in mid/late summer, but have had some success, (not 50 fish days, but a fish here and there) in the fall. Clear water seemed to be important in the pattern. I will fish a chatterbait interchangeably with a spinner bait. Some days they want one and some the other I think fluke type trailers work better on chatter baits than they do on spinnerbaits. By the way, that model of Terminator spinner bait is marketed as a night time spinner bait, I wouldn't know, I night fish very seldom. I don't fish a lot of different brands of spinner baits, primarily War Eagles and Terminators. I would try some of the strike back spinner baits if any of the stores near me would carry them.

Drop shot really isn't a power bank beating style of fishing. It is more of a slow down, try to figure out where they are on structure type of approach. There are dozens or articles out there about drop shot fishing. Basically, I had to learn how to chill. Once I had made the decision on where to cast, I had to trust that decision for a few minutes at least, let the bait do its thing. I generally use a foot or less of drop shot leader. Once it gets down, I keep a semi-tight line to it and basically let the motion of the boat and the waves move the bait. For me it is a lot like fishing a wacky senko, in that once I make the cast to whatever object, I have to trust the bait and let it fall on a slack line, let it work itself with no additional action on my part. If you are a hurry, hurrry power fishing type, drop shot fishing will drive you nuts until you "get it"

I don't know, but I heard that you'd go to hell if you used anything other than a lizard on a carolina rig. I've never put that to the test. I seldom fish a carolina rig, but when I do I use a green lizard. My guess is that you could tempt fate and use whatever plastic bait you wanted.

On the A-rig, I've been using a split ring as a connector between the jig hook and the snap on the A-rig. When I get stuck, option A is to get on top of and a little behind the snag. Most of the time it will easily pull off. The hound dog type retriever is pretty much useless for the A-rig. If I can see it, sometimes I can get it with my pole retriever. Should none of these options work, I stay on the opposite side of the snag, (if possible, not always possible) staying as tight as possible I wrap the 65 lb braid around the closest available boat cleat, then I back away with the trolling motor. Every time so far, I've either gotten the whole rig back or one of the split rings opened and I only lost one bait. I haven't lost an entire A-rig yet. I was told to do this by a fishing buddy, who was told this when he bought a bunch of A-rig components at a shop near Table Rock Lake. So far it has worked.