Fishes in trees

I don't know why you'd ever use a fiber glass rod to throw reaction baits, when you can search around and find similar actions in a graphite that will weigh several ounces less. As I understand it - guys use the fiberglass rods, so as to get kind of a delayed reaction time when they get bit, thus they are less likely to pull the bait out of the fishes mouth with their rapid and instantaneous hook set. I don't have that issue. My senses and reflexes aren't so finely tuned that a too quick hook set becomes an issue, so I don't really see the need for a fiberglass rod for me. I've found that the Falcon Bucoo Trap Caster to be an excellent overall reaction bait rod. I think any decent spinner bait rod makes a decent chatter bait rod. For me that is a MH, kinda like a worm rod but with a little more tip, so I can load it up and get decent distance with a spinnerbait/chatterbait.

I don't have alot of experience with them - however I have done well throwing them when I was on water where I thought they might work. ( primarily points & creek rock banks/ rocks & stumps banks with little vegetation ). October of 2019 I caught my personal best Truman Lake fish, on a heavier Chompers Biffle Bug (5/8 oz or 7/16 oz, not sure which ). Zoom crawdad trailer in the South African Special color. Rig was a 7' All Star Carolina Rig Special. ( Rated MH, fishes on the heavy side of MH with a fast tip ) Curado 200 E filled with 20 lb Abrazx line. I was throwing it far, about half the spool out and bringing it back at a decent pace - NOT crawling it, but not as fast as I could reel either. I caught 15 or so fish in 3 days on this rig. The lakes that I fish week to week have a little too much vegetation, the times I've tried the Biffle Bug in those waters I'm picking off too much vegetation to have much fun. I have some lighter weights but haven't experimented much with them. I'm thinking that they would work ok, thrown and worked in the same places you might throw a shakey head, but don't actually know that yet.

I'd get a waterproof box and fill it with the stuff I needed. Pouches leak - zip lock bags sometimes leak, waterproof boxes are much less likely too, a long as you close it properly.

To me , it is a different tool and has a place in your tool kit, just like the tx rig & drop shot, jig worm & weightless soft plastics & Carolina rigs have a place in your tool kit. My home made ones are in the half to three quarter oz range. This lets me get to the bottom quickly. ( this is part of this being a unique tool. If I'm getting bit on the drop, a tx rig might be a better option. If I'm gettin bit on the bottom, I think the jika rig is better ) Should I happen to get bit, my bait is separate from the weight, which isn't always the case with a tx rig and is never the case with a jig worm. One key to my design is to use as light a hook as possible - the thinking there is that when the bite happens, the fish approaches the bait & basically inhales it, the hook easily goes along with the plastic into the fishes mouth and the weight stays out. My home made rigs differ from Tokyo rigs in other ways.. The Tokyo rig has a wire dropper, where you can attach your own weights, then bend the wire so that they stay put. I tried that for a while and I found that if you used a wire that was bendable enough to easily change out the weights when you want to, after 3 or 4 bites the wire would get crimped, bent and wouldn't necessarily drop straight down anymore. Similar things happened when I used steel leader material, i.e. after several bites, the wire would get all wonky. These days I use 80 lb fluorocarbon leader material. I use a couple of jewelers crimps at the end of the leaders then thread on the 2 worm weights with a bead between them for a little sound and then a smallish look at the top of the dropper, again secured with jewelers crimps or sometimes I've found stainless steel sleeves in the smallest size that work ok. The fluorocarbon leader material is a little more flexible - compared to the wire, but that is ok and it doesn't go all bent & wonky after a few bites. Now back to the original question. The jika rig is more of a power presentation compared to the finesse of a drop shot. My primary use for it is in depth greater than 10 feet when I want to put my bait down right next to some object. I've had some success just pitching it to stuff that I see on my graph. My best results have been throwing it at deep weed lines, 15 to 20 feet down where the vegetation stops and the sandy harder bottom is, before the bottom turns to mucky. This is generally just a foot or two off the weedline, so I like the fast, straight down drop the the jika rig offers.

Makes a difference what kind of jigs you're throwing - at least to me it does. I think basically you want something between 6'10" and 7'6" MH to H with a fast to extra fast tip. There is a lot of leeway there. For instance: for throwing quarter ounce Brewer Slider heads with a 5" paddle tail worm I like my Falcon Low Rider 6'10 " Finesse Jig Rod. It is on the medium side of medium/heavy and it has a pretty fast tip on it. When I'm throwing my home made jika rigs to the edges of deep weediness on main lake points my current rod of choice is a several years old Fenwick AETOS, 7'2" MH/ exhaust tip. This is a much stiffer rod than the Falcon, but my jika rigs weigh in at around half an ounce before you put any plastic on it. This rod handles that heavier weight better than the Falcon does. If I'm throwing Biffle Bugs, I have an even stiffer rod - an All Star 7' Carolina Rig rod. I. generally throw the Biffle bugs at half ounce or 3/4 oz and this rod will throw a half ounce Biffle Bug as far as you need to and you don't lose feel of the bait should it come over a ledge or something and drop unimpeded for a few feet before it hits the bottom again. My rods for throwing 10" worms and smaller soft plastics at objects again fit within the primary perameters, but they are significantly different from the trio of rods mentioned. You also asked about reels - I'm a Shimano guy. I currently use a Curado 70 on my worm rod. My jika rig I use a Chronarch 50, I have a Curado 50 E for my Falcon Low Rider and for the Biffle Bug rig I like a full size Curado 200. (Should I have any disposable income in the next six months or so these reel choices may change). I don't see the rod choices changing this year unless I break something. It should be noted that the Biffle Bug rig doesn't see a whole lot of action, because the lakes I fish most of the time have a little too much vegetation and other techniques work better.

This year, big bass of the year came very early - first trip - nothing bit the first two hours of the trip, decided to mess around with new gear, so I went down the lake dam throwing a half ounce spinnerbait. ( The only reason I was going down the dam was that I wanted to stay out of the wind for a while ). Anyway, 10 minutes into throwing the spinnerbait a 22"+ fish bit. Didn't really fight, I drug it in and released it an it slowly swam away. Other notable catches - I got several 20" fish on 10" worms, dropping them down next to tree trunks. I got a 20" Channel Cat on a Brewer Slider jig head and 5" paddle tail worm. Didn't get to fish any big reservoirs this year.

My thought is that the bobber stop would slip when you didn't need/want it to. Not certain if sn overhand knot would stop it. I use an overhand knot at the tag end of the line when I'm using drop shot weights with the built in line clip and the overhand knot works some of the time, not all the time. For me and drop shot fishing it isn't a matter of if I'm going to lose a weight but when.

With my short stubby fingers, I find it easier to tie a good knot than it is to mess with the snap. I think snaps are bad - put on this earth just to remind me how much I'm losing dexterity in my fingers.

Once they're broke, there isn't any putting back together a spinner bait skirt. Buy some replacement skirts for the ones that are already broke. Use something heavier duty than a rubber band to reinforce the ones that ain't broke yet. I used some plastic covered florist wire that I got at a crafts store.

Maybe you're taller and a 6'10" rod might work for you. Me - I'm 5'7" and for working Pop-r's dn Spooks, Sammy's , etc. and think that a 6'10" rod is too long. I end up slapping the water when I do that downward twitch with the rod. I have a couple of top water rods that I haven't made my mind up on yet. One - a 6'6" All Star Zell Rowland Topwater Special and the other an older Mitchell Fulcrum 6' medium Action rod. I like the tip of the All Star and the length of the old Mitchell. It is a dilemma. If you can deal with the longer rod, go for it.

I've been making my own for a few years now. Every construction choice is a compromise. Let me explain: Yeah - dipsey/bass casting sinkers will work. One of the earliest home made versions of this that I saw in print was one made by a Stacy King with a bass casting sinker. My experiences is that they get stuck/pick up more vegetation than other options. Stacy wrote (Ned Kedhe wrote for Stacy in the In-Fisherman Midwest Finesse section of that website) that the pear shape of the bass casting sinker worked good in the deeper rocks found in Table Rock Lake & didn't get stuck as often as narrower sinkers did - in his opinion. My experiences differ, but I generally fish waters that have much more vegetation than Table Rock Lake does. The VM Tokyo rig is a solid wire - where you thread weight of choice on to the wire, then bend it so that it don't slip off. In my mind there are a few things wrong with this rig. The place where you bend the wire will catch on any available vegetation when you lift the rig. I experimented with stiff wires & flexible wires quite a bit. Biggest issue was after a few bites, the stiff wire just bent and flexible wire got kind of squiggly. Neither one dropped straight after that ( which was my primary reason for going jika rig rather than tx rig. Currently I make my droppers out of 80 lb fluorocarbon leader, I put little loops at either end to stop the weights from falling off and to connect to the split ring. I started out using tungsten worm weights on my droppers, rigged back to back, then I put a glass bead between them for kind of a noise maker. They worked great, but it got kind of expensive in the experimenting process. losing 5 or 6 bucks worth of sinkers every time an experiment didn't work. I tried making lighter weight jika rigs - 3/8 & lighter didn't have the feel I was looking for and I wanted to rig to work on the bottom, so might was well get to the bottom ASAP. Most of my home made ones are around a half ounce to 3/4 oz. This winter, I plan to drop a c-note or so on more tungsten sinkers, so as to get just as heavy, but smaller package. I still like the idea of a small noise maker between the back to back worm sinkers, jury is still out what size bead to use, but I've gotten bit on several different sizes of glass beads and never got bit when I tried to use rigs with a plastic bead between the back to back sinkers. Don't know about bead color. I tried a few shiny beads, the idea being that they might work as some sort of attractor, but I had better luck with camo colored olive/tan/black beads than anything else. A "tiger eye" bead looked cooler, IMO and got nearly as many bites. One of these days I need to learn how to post pictures and then I'll be able to shop pictures of the various iterations of jika rigs that I've come up with. I fish them quite a bit and I believe that they are just as good or better than tx rigs for many situations. When it comes to fishing deep weed lines at the end of main lake points, this is my initial go to presentation.

Are you bank fishing or boat fishing? Bank fishing - stickers, thorns, brambles, poison ivy & suck are issues and therefore you need a sturdier pant. When I was a bank bound meat fishing bush hippie, I found heavy denim bib overalls worked best for me. Boat fishing - different story. A number of years ago I got blood clots in my leg - since then I've worm the anti-blood clot socks as a preventative measure (aka therapeutic gradient compression hosiery ). These are knee high and do a good job of preventing sun burn on my legs and they are relatively cool as long as you don't think about it too much. Then I wear lightweight shorts & I'm done. I do put quite a bit of sun screen on my knees and a few inches above my knees. Edit: Just looked and according to Google, Greenburg is in the Pittsburg metro area. I wonder how the fishing shops in Pittsburg would answer your question? My issue with lots of fishing clothes is I'm not a fan of looking "skuffy". I'm too old for the jeans & t-shirt look. If the shirt & shorts don't match, I at least want to look like I put some thought in to not looking skuffy. My go to look the last couple of years (summertime ) has been a light colored spf 50 fishing hoodie, shorts in a complementary color ( because it is almost impossible to find matching shirts & shorts) and then the obligatory white anti blood clot socks. I like light colors in the summer time because they reflect the heat and dark colors seem to absorb heat. Lastly, a thing I've found that vastly improves my attitude in the summer time is to bring a change of clothes to drive home in. Not a fan of driving home, in the tow vehicle AC, wearing damp sweaty clothes. I'll change clothes right in the put stuff away area right next to the ramp and I don't care who is watching.

Football heads come through rocks better than cylindrical weights. Jewel Baits makes a football head Carolina rig weight - something to think about should you want to stick with the ball & chain. How cool for you - you're going to get to go get immersed in a new style of fishing that, from what I read, is pretty different from East Texas. Good. Luck & have fun.

I use spinning gear to throw jerk baits on, for a variety of reasons. For me, the jury is still out on what to throw poppers on. Next season I'll probably start out with my old All Star Zell Rowland Top Water Special. As I recall it is a medium action with a medium/fast tip, but I'm not certain about that.

I store used soft plastics scattered around the front deck of my boat, at least until I can remember to put them all in a zip lock bag. A buddy of mine once asked me to keep used plastics for him so that he could re-melt them. ( He was getting into molding soft plastics and used these for "practice" ) It's been a while since he's wandered by my fishing shed, so there are 5 or 6 gallon zip locks, each around a quarter full, waiting for him. I'm not in any hurry and the used plastics aren't hurting anything sitting on the shelf.

I make a point to try to get lures back. To this end I carry a plug knocker, extendable pole, heavy duty snips and a folding branch saw. Sometimes it is an easy fix, sometimes it ain't. I have a 4 or 5 minute rule, i.e. if I'm not making any progress retrieving the bait in that length of time, I generally cut my losses and retie. Another method that hasn't been mentioned here yet, I've found that if I get something stuck pretty deep and I'm using heavy mono or braid and none of the aforementioned tools are appropriate, wrapping the line around a boat cleat and backing off with the trolling motor often works and I'll get the whole bait back. ( often with a straightened or broken hook ).

Once upon a time I had an old Diawa Magforce reel, it had the dial on the outside of the casing to dial in the magnets. I was such a rookie that I was afraid to open up the reel and at the time the reel repair guy only came to town once or twice a year. I got pretty good at using this reel by changing the magnetic setting as I used different weight baits and depending on if I was mostly throwing with the wind, or crosswind or into the wind. I never did open that reel up. That reel got stolen. Every time I think about it I hope for some pox to fall on the low rent crud who broke into my car and stole my fishing gear.

I use them for "day boxes", whereI just want to carry an assortment of stuff, but not a whole bunch of any one thing. I carry one for quarter ounce shakey heads ( different. brands ) . One for 3/8 oz shakey heads ( also different brands ). I like to try out different brands of jig heads, especially when I get on a shakey head bite. I'll max out the spaces and just carry 2 or 3 of each type. When it is time to dry out the used jigs, that is what the carpeted space behind the drivers seat is for. I use them when I want my bait assortment spread out, in individual compartments, like the smaller crank baits that I throw on spinning gear, but mainly for jig heads that I want to keep spread out so that I can easily identify each jig and pick what I want to try. There are probably 9 or 10 in the boat, probably lots more in the tackle storage shelves in my fishing shed.

No - I have a few duplicates. Some are for back ups for that time when I will break the rod, others are for when I want to make basically the same presentation with a slightly different baits or maybe different colors of the same bait.

I'm a Shimano guy. I've no experience with the SLX reels. I do own a Curado 70 ( the 8-1) model. Got it the first year they came out. I experienced a learning curve to this reel. I was used to the Curado E model, which for me was pretty much a set it & forget it system. 2 brakes on and 4 brakes off and I never had an issue throwing whatever I wanted to that wasn't operator error. The Curado 70 was a different thing. With the interior brakes and the exterior dial I had trouble when I switched baits that were a significantly different weight ( like from a stick worm to a 7" power worm and I definitely had issues when I switched weights, even something as minor as going from. 3/16 to 1/4. I got to the point where, after 4 beers I wouldn't pick it up, especially when I was practicing in the yard, trying to learn its idiosyncrasies. Finally got comfortable with it and fished it more last year. Finally found the right use for it. These days I put 17 Abrazx on it and stuck it on the 10" worm rig. Then I used alot of rod wrap to fit the handle to my hand and also if I decide to change reels on the worm rod now I'll have 2 sacrifice a c couple of rod wraps. I can throw whatever I want and I'm seeing now why guys like the extra fast speed, to bring in the bait when the cast is over.

Might as well get them & get started. Once you start down the road of trying/collecting different jerk baits, there isn't any end to it. I own over a hundred different jerk baits and dozens of times I've restrained myself from buying more. On any given year 6 or 7, maybe a dozen of them actually see time in the water. I understand now that I collect them just because I think they are cool looking. In the spring the, when for me it time to fish jerk baits, most of the time I throw Lucky Craft pointers and most of the time I'm throwing the Table Rock Shad pattern. I have had days when the smaller 78 size was the ticket - imagine that, Table Rock Shad was the color that worked best in that size as well.

For me finesse drop shot rig, ( that I admittedly don't fish all that often ). The jury is still out on which hook is best. I've got a dozen different brands and I seem to try a different one each time I rig up. I generally nose hook the baits. I really don't have a good answer as to which hook works best for me. I bubba shot much more often than I do finesse drop shot and I'm pretty set on the hooks I like for that. Over the past 5 or 6 years, what has worked best for me is the Gammy Wicked wacky hook. I still nose hook the baits ( generally a Berkley Crazy Legs Chigger Craw ) I generally go 2/0 or 3/0, but I carry all the sizes and try to match the hook to the bait. 2/0 seems to be tied on the most, when I'm throwing the Chigger Craw. Anyway, it is a pretty stout hook and once you've tied your Palomar knot with the extra long tag end, you thread the line through the small tube glued on the shank of the hook and it keeps the hook straight, with fewer twists, as you work it through cover.

I've got one of the Shimano Nasci reels. It is an ok reel - casts good, gears feel fine, etc. I wish I wold have noticed that it didn't have an anti-reverse switch. Any spinning reels that I buy in the future have got to have an anti- reverse switch. I like that feature, even though I very seldom catch a fish that requires back reeling, I still want to have that feature. I have several Pflueger reels that were all at the $60 price point, more or less, they all have the anti-reverse switch and I'm pretty happy with the overall performance of those reels. I have a couple of the Shimano Spirex reels - they're 7 or 8 years old now and I like everything about these reels. I like the double paddle handle. I like the Quick fire feature, where you can open the bail with one hand. I have both the front drag & rear drag models. The rear drag model is a little heavier, but I like the variety of adjustments you can make quickly without getting your fingers anywhere near the line. I like the lever where you can push it all the way over and the drag is instantly locked as tight as possible and then when you move the lever back toward center the drag is whatever you set it at. I liked everything about these reels, but they aren't readily available anymore in the shop where I generally buy my fishing reels at. These reels were at the $60 more or less price point. I'm pretty much at the point where I don't see the value of spinning reels in the $100 & up categories. Granted, I've never fished in waters where monster small mouth were possible and that would up the possibility that I'd be steamed if I lost a big fish due to reel malfunction, but for me, where I fish and what I use spinning gear for, $100 price point spinning reels don't really attract me right now. It isn't that I'm a tightwad - A couple of Curado DCs ,several Chronarchs & Calcutta reels, a pair of the old Calais reels are testament to that. I just can't see what the extra $40 or 50 bucks gets me over the reels I'm currently using. thanks for reading - rant over

I haven't used pork baits for a long time. Back when I was a bank bound meat fishing bush hippie, I used pork baits quite a bit, at least until I found out about Charlie Brewer Sliders. I liked them because you couldn't wear them out - every so often you lost one but you couldn't wear out the trailer. Favorite shape was a brown pork twin tail - next favorite was the split tail eel ( which was a little skinnier version of the twin tail. A close next was the #11 pork frog. At the time, the pork frog came in the most colors so if it was a day when I was experimenting with colors, I'd be throwing the #11 frog. I never did much good on the " big daddy" version of the pork frog. I remember a "flipping frog" which had the frog style body with a curled tail. I did ok with the regular size and not as well with the larger size. I remember watching TV once and Bill Dance was killing the18 to 22 inch bass on some private lake throwing the spring lizard. I had a couple of jars of the spring lizards, but I guess I never got on the same private lake because those lizards never got bit like the #11 frog did for me. I hope the company that is re-introducing these baits is successful. Hope they are successful enough to drop the price down some. I can recall buying pork at Walmart for $2 a jar, more or less. Hope they are successful enough to market different shapes. I would like some split tail eels for my tournament/ big lake baits box.

If I'm going to throw a wacky rig, I'm going to throw 5" senko. Most of the time that senko will be the green pumpkin with black & purple flakes.