Fishes in trees

A long time ago, Charlie Brewer in his book. "On Slider Fishing" wrote about the correct way to fish his baits (slider jig heads). He referred to it as polishing the rocks and basically it means fish as close to the bottom as you can, as slow as you can, without touching the bottom very often, if at all. This requires practice, and while practicing, you 'll lose a few. The correct tool helps. In this case, Brewer Slider heads or small football heads are the way to go. Charlie Brewer did this with 6 lb mono, pretty much regardless of the cover, maybe occasionally going to 8 or 10. These days we've got fluorocarbon or a braid/leader combination. Rather than just sticking with reaction baits, upping your "feel bait" game using the right tools is an option.

Totally agree with previous posts. Good boat shoes and good fishing clothes make a significant difference in comfort.

I think that those Curado D's are great spinnerbait/chatterbait/ square bill/ lipless crank reels. I have 2 and mine cast 17 & 20 lb mono very well and they hold a lot of line. I think that for "feel" baits like jigs & worms they are a little heavy, I like a Curado 50 or a Chronarch 50 for fishing "feel" baits.

Aren't all guys paranoid about running out of battery power? I know I am. The toy that prompted this thread is most likely out of my price range, plus I don't have power poles or talons on my boat, plus I don't even have a smart phone to manage the ap - I'm still a flip phone guy. But - if I had all those things, I'd be interested in a method of keeping track of where my battery power was going - these days electronics eat up a little more power (so I"ve heard) I've always wondered about a charging system that charged/topped of your boat batteries while driving down the road using your tow vehicle's alternator. Many years ago In-fisherman ran an article about that, but I don't remember much other than it was possible.

If you go with the pistol grip rods, I hope you have wrists of steel - or carbon fiber - or whatever is high tech & strong. Back in the day when I had a couple of pistol grip rods, my wrists would be worn out by the end of the day - often enough that I kept Alieve in my tackle box. I'd take the previous suggestion of getting a 6'6" rod and adjusting it with a hack saw, mostly because of the straight handle.

I always get a little grin on my face when I see a guy who's truck and boat are all matchy-matchy. Then I slap myself up side of the head because I know, it looks cool and when I get my next boat & tow vehicle, I'm pretty certain I'm going all matchy-matchy. Just about everyone I know who went through their mid life crisis and partially resolved it by getting a new toy went match -match with the truck & boat. Currently I've got a blue boat and a teal green truck - which doesn't look terrible and the truck runs good and the boat floats.

We're close enough, age wise, that I remember those "lively tips", that were kinda common on 80's & 90's graphite rods. What I remember most is that I broke several of them, all in the same place, at the lower bend of the "lively tip". My attitude towards that particular style of rod is goodbye - seaya later - NOT. I got tired of breaking tips. I'm pretty sure that the companies involved got tired of replacing rods. I don't know that - just a guess. My only advice, especially concerning spinnerbait rods, is keep looking til you find the action you like and if you find one buy several. I remember in the 80's -early 90's, 6'6" was, to my mind, a long rod. These days, I carry 20 to 23 rigs in my fishing truck and out of those only 3 or 4 are less than 6'6". I know I can cast both for more distance and better accuracy with my current spinner bait favorite (6'8" Fenwick AETOS), casting 2 handed most of the time than I ever could with my old pistol grip 5'6" Berkley Lightning Rod. Echoing the previous post, Falcon rods are good rods, even if they don't make the Eakins Jig Special anymore.

I can be flexible on different brands of spinning gear - Shimano, Diawa, Pflueger, and a couple of US Reels are in my collection of spinning reels. When it comes to bait casting reels - I can't help it, I'm a Shimano guy. I go to the tackle store and the store helpers show me all kinds of new reels from Lews, Diawa, Quantum and other brands. I have to politely shake my head and say no thank you, all my other reels would get jealous. Once at a store show where both Guido and Dion Hibdon were present, they were promoting the line of US Reels bait casting reels. They were an attractive price, so I bought one - fished it twice - It now has an honored place in my cat fishing gear which might get wet every few seasons. For Bass fishing, it just isn't a good reel. Lesson learned - I just buy Shimano now. This isn't gear basing - it is more likely deep seated paranoia, but I'm ok with it.

I only have a few of the old clear latch boxes remaining in my fishing gear - pretty much converted to pro latch style. With my occasionally arthritic fingers, the clear latches are a pain to open or close sometimes. The old boxes all got transferred to the shop as fastener containers and so forth.

Totally agree with the previous post. - once you go tungsten you won't go back. I use the bobber stops rather than the rubber pegs or tooth picks. Often I will set the bobber stop a foot or so above the weight. Some days this little bit of separation between the bait and the weight is the ticket other days it doesn't seem to matter.

Right now, I don't know. What I do know is that post spawn and going into summer patterns, every one of those stumps has a root wad on the bottom and to me that screams pitch a 10" Power worm, parallel the standing timber on the drop, down into the root wad. Real muddy water, to me, says lead off with Red Shad or for me Blue Fleck is an all purpose color. If the lake ever gets 3 to 4 feet of visibility, same pattern but use a wacky rigged senko.

To find out about local clubs, your quickest option, imo, is to go to the best tackle shop in your region and inquire. They ought to know. A cautionary tale, some local clubs are kinda inbred, in that they might want your tournament donations, but they don't particularly want you. I've had that experience, fishing lakes that were extremely familiar to everyone but me, and guys, not necessarily steering you wrong, but definitely not steering you right in terms of what to bring and how to approach a given lake. As a rookie fishing out of a bass boat and fishing in the back of the boat, it left a sour taste in my mouth on the subject of local bass clubs. I had an unpleasant couple of years, I would venture that there are clubs out there that don't treat rookies that way. An option is doing BFL as a co-angler. I learned more in one season fishing BFL than I did fishing a local club for 3 years. There is a lot more information out there now than there was in 1990. A lot of my learning was trial & error, until I met an up and coming regional pro who readily shared information about conditions, gear to bring, everything about the tournament scene. The best information that I can offer about co-angler tournament fishing is buy a good rain suit and get a life jacket that fits. Pretty much everything else is very regional and I don't know much about fishing in Virginia.

Bass Pro is famous for featuring their own branded terminal tackle in their catalog and then just showing a few other brands. If you want to get a better understanding of the scope and variety of jig heads available, to to Tackle Warehouse or another site - they carry a lot more variety prices more or less the same, maybe a little less. Next, addressing the issue of the Arkie style being more "versatile", my question is "Why be versatile?" Why not make your best guess at the jig that will best handle the conditions you'll be facing. There is no question that fishing in rocks, a football head will outperform an arkie head. In thick vegetation a pointed nose, cone head type jig will come through better than an arkie jig. Dragging a jig through various bottom conditions, that becomes a judgement call. If versatility is the goal, IMO the most versatile presentation of the hula grub would be tx rigged with a 3/0 hook and a 1/4 or 5/16 tungsten sinker - pegged.

I used to not weight anything - didn't see the point in it -either a bait cast ok or it didn't. Then for some reason which escapes me right now I got a scale which weighs in grams and now it is important to me to KNOW how much any given bait weighs. True fact, many companies stated weights on hard baits, spinner baits, jigs, etc., have just a casual relationship to actual weights. I'm not sure what purpose knowing this serves, but it is a pleasant pastime - sorting & weighing baits with the stereo blasting and a cold, frosty IPA close at hand. Brewer Slider heads in particular, can be off a couple of grams either way from the weight stated on the package.

To echo the previous post, loading your boat is a skill that requires practice. You've described one issue - there are more that can jump up and bite you if you haven't considered them. For instance - loading in a cross wind or a tail wind. In my case it seems like most ramps are either tucked away in some cove, where you're dealing with swirling winds or in a place where they are open and exposed to strong cross winds. When I got my first boat & trailer, my hardest issue was just backing up. I knew how it was supposed to work, but at the ramp, I got laughed at a lot. 16 years later, backing the boat down the ramp isn't my strongest skill. My only advice is to go slow and don't wait til you are half way down the ramp to wonder if you put the plug in.

You can call Zoom and find out if they are discontinued or not. Step A. Berkley Power Bait lizards in watermelon are a pretty unique color of green and the Berkley baits take dye pretty well.

There isn't a lot of reason or sense to hook size numbers. For instance, a size 12 hook is a pretty small hook, as the numbers get smaller 10, 8, 6, etc. hook sizes get bigger - til you get to 1. There isn't any 0 size hook as far as I know, so hooks bigger than a 1 get a slash (1/0, 2.0, etc) Now to help you more, hook sizes aren't necessarily the same size between different companies and even within the same company they aren't necessarily the same size for different wire gauges. To help even more, a decade or so ago Eagle Claw came out with a series of half sizes. That didn't last long - too bad, I was waiting for other fractional sizes, just for fun. So there really isn't any defined characteristics - not like bolts of screws anyway. So what you do is buy a size that looks like it will work for what you want to do and try it and if that don't work, you have some info on what size to try next. You live in KC - go to Roger in Liberty, MO - they have a generous selection of hooks, but not so large that it is overwhelming, look at the differences and go from there. The help there is helpful, take advantage of that and ask questions.

With a Lindy worm blower, you can make nearly any soft plastic float.

I don't Carolina rig very much. The last time I had a dedicated Carolina Rig, using a bait caster , I used an older All Star SJ2 - a collapsible 6'10" model with a Calcutta reel and 17 lb mono. A co-angler buddy turned me on to using spinning gear for Carolina Rigging - Any 6'6" to 7' or so Inshore MH Salt Water Rod will work - I used a Diawa 7' Inshore rig with larger size Diawa Regal Reel and 20 lb Fireline. I found mine on a close out rack for $30 or so. I found it just as sensitive as any bait caster Carolina rig and a little easier to cast, and I think my distance was just as good, maybe a little better. Retrieve is the same, i.e. rod tip down, drag the weight 3 or 4 feet, tighten up, repeat. Pay attention and keep rod tip low and wind knots aren't an issue. Hook sets are the same, when the bite is felt, go strong to the side, opposite to the direction you think the fish is swimming. I was BFL fishing as a co-angler at the time, but I don't think a Carolina rig is one that you have to dedicate a bunch of money to. I caught some fish and never felt like I was underpowered or geared up wrong fishing the spinning gear.

I can honestly say that I've never had a great day with winds from the east. No reason not to go, but keep expectations reasonable.

I'd never wear my Guidewear in warm weather. It does rain in May, June, July, August, early September from time to time and that is what my Frog Toggs are for.

I always have a wacky senko tied on and within reach. No matter what the season, I will throw a wacky senko here and there throughout the day. I've gotten bit too many times not to.

If you like the set up you got, buy another one. Going to stick with spinning or go to bait casting? I don't know my revo numbers very well. I've had a number of different bait casting set ups over the years and they all had the same issue, i.e. when I was trying to pitch an unweighted senko into or mostly into the wind, at around 40 feet I had accuracy and control issues. Four years ago, I went to spinning gear for throwing wacky senkos. Current rig is a 7' Fenwick MH/extra fast tip and a smaller Pflueger President reel. I throw 20 lb braid and a 2' or so fluorocarbon leader (10 lb to 20 lb, whatever is handy when I grab the leader bag.). I also like the relatively straighter drops that I seem to get from spinning gear.

I like the other style of hood bend rather than the round bend, I forget what it is called. Sproat? O'Shaughnessy? My hooks sometimes get disorganized. I will use a given size offset round bend hook when I can't find the size I want in the sproat or whatever it is called style. I have EWG hooks in the boat, but I don't use them very often.

It took me years and years to remember tisane receipts - comes in handy when you bust one.