Fishes in trees

I thought I might need a float & fly rig, but upon further inspection I have a couple of float & fly rods . . . new reel might be nice . . . .I could stand to upgrade my half ounce & up football jig rod . .. . I get in that situation maybe once or twice a year so how much of a priority is that? I got a half dozen of the big honker Strike King square bills last month at Academy close outs - so I've got to decide on a rod to throw those on. There are several candidates already in the arsenal, but a new rod isn't out of the question. I'd like a lighter & stouter Bubba Drop Shot rod, but I like the telescopic factor of the 7'5" Kistler rod that I currently use for that situation. So the real answer is I don't know. If I go to Rogers for their spring sale and they have Fenwick AETOS rods on sale for $100 a hit like they did last year, I'd like to get a couple more jig rods just like the 2 I already have. I'm pretty certain that once or twice this spring some rod will scream out to me "BUY ME!!" and I will be unable to resist.

I haven't made a cast yet this season. While I've replaced/upgraded some rods & reels in the starting line up, the lipless crank rig is the same as last year. 7' Bucco Trap Caster , Calcutta 200 TEGT and 17 or 20 Iron Silk line.

If you like that rod and you think it might work go ahead and buy it. IF it doesn't work like you'd like, then get a different one. The line you use will make a difference. If you're throwing 17 or 20 lb mono (like I frequently do throwing square bills into brush & woody cover ), then it might not work so well. Put some 10 mono or copolymer line on it and it might throw & retrieve great. No way to tell without purchasing the rod. Save the receipt and they might let you take it back if you don't like it, OR just keep it and keep trying it on different reaction baits until a fit is discovered.

Seems like they should be letting you know pretty soon if you're in or not. I fished the Ozark division of the BFL several years ago (98 thru 2006) and only sporadically did I have a guaranteed boater and I never had an issue getting in. Only once was I wait listed - and that was for the end of the year wild card tournament and then only for a couple of days a month or so prior to the tournament. So - I wouldn't worry about it, but I would call them up and bug them about it.

For the past few years my go to senko hook has been a Falcon K-wacky weighted weedless hook. I generally use the 1/16 oz 3/0 size. I'm telling myself that I need to try some different wacky jigs this year but I haven't bought any yet. The Revenge Flipping Whackers I see on the Tackle Warehouse site look good and so do the Gambler Svebec wacky jigs. While I was cleaning out/ "organizing" my fishing shed I came across some 1/16 oz Road Runner Heads that have a larger than normal hook on them - looks to be a 1/0. I'm going to try those for sure.

I don't worry about it that much. I can remember when 5-1 was touted as a "high speed" reel. The old original Lews Speed Spool ( made by Ryobi I think ) was 4-1. The original red Ambassadors weren't much more that. Once upon a time Shimano made a Curado in a 3.8 - 1 gear ration and I got a good deal on 4 of them. Then I fished with them and I found out why they were on sale, i.e. they were TOO slow. I found a guy who could switch them over to 5-1 gear ratio reels and now they are great back up reels. For a long time, most of my reels were 5-1. Curados, Calcuttas, Calais. When I decided that my Calcutta reels were getting too heavy to fish with all the time I decided to go to Curado and Chronarch 50's. Anyway, they were like 6.4 to 1, something like that and that worked for me too. I got a Curado 70 last year and it is 7-1 or 8-1, I forget. Anyway, the point is that when I'm fishing I don't notice the different gear ratio's all that much - to the point that I don't think about it when I'm fishing. When I'm fishing lipless cranks I use a Calcutta 200 TEGT which is 5-1 and I can reel comfortably and make the bait go fast enough, I think.

I have a similar system, a couple of thoughts. My soft plastics are stored in shoe boxes, like yours. I've found that the flip top boxes work better for me than the ones with separate lids. The boxes with separate lids don't stack as well for me and sliding a box out of the middle of the stack works better with the flip top boxes. I've tried lots of different labels over the years and found that any paper system will dry out and fall off after a year or two of service. What I'm currently using is colored duct tape and I write on it with a sharpie. Generally I'll use the white tape, but I'll use florescent orange, green & pink as well. I try to have like baits together and if I have enough from the same manufacturer, that gets its own box. If I had to re-think the labeling process again, I would assign different brands different colors, i.e. Powerbaits all one color label, Zoom plastics a different color, Chompers a third and so on. That would make it easier when I'm looking for a particular brand of a certain bait style. This is an extra bait storage system. My boat/fishing truck storage system of soft plastics most likely to be used are stored in 12" or 15" canvas bags that I get from Harbor Freight at around $6 a piece - a different bag for each style of baits. 10" worms - Chompers - Paddle tail worms - Senkos - smaller ribbon tail worms - nose hook drop shot baits - Ned rig stuff - Brewer Slider rig stuff - tx rig drop shot stuff and so forth. Tackle organization is ongoing and never perfect.

A mojo rig is more or less a finesse version of a Carolina rig, except the weight is fixed on the line. Throw it like a Carolina rig, i.e. cast & drag. Me, I haven't had decent results on any presentation where the weight is pegged way ahead of the bait in the past - so I don't fish it very much and it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. I prefer knowing where my bait is. . . so fishing a Mojo rig or a Carolina rig and knowing that the bait isn't where I'm feeling the weight messes with my head, so I don't do it.

Yep, that is a Burke. Had one a long time ago, lost it, never found another one to replace it. IMO it was just as good as a Jitterbug. "Put a Burke where they lurk". I believe that was their old advertising slogan.

I think that there is a chance that I will go to hell if I buy a reel that doesn't say SHIMANO on it somewhere. So I don't. The last time I bought a reel that didn't say SHIMANO on it I was duped, it wasn't a very good reel. It would cast a half ounce practice plug a long ways in the store parking lot. It didn't fish very well. If you come across Dion Hibdon in a fishing tackle store near you, talk to him, he has a wealth of information and stories and he is willing to share, but refrain from buying the US Reels the Hibdons are currently endorsing. So I don't know much about any reels other than SHIMANO. I've heard the Diawa reels aren't bad, but you wouldn't know it from me. My advice would be to just pick one. Don't let my extreme reel paranoia prejudice your purchase decisions unnecessarily.

These days it seems like my fishing is 80/20. 80% of the time I've got a bait caster in my hand, but that is as much of a function of where & how I'm fishing more than personal preference. My first "high dollar" fishing rod was a spinning rod. In 1981 I spent $150 on a Fenwick HMG spinning rod - 5'9" - custom handle - Medium tending toward MH with an extra fast tip. Over the years since then, "high dollar" has become average and I get 1 or 2 or 3 new rods most years. I am sensitive to "bargains". If I find one I will generally buy it. I got 4 at the recent Academy close outs and I've got a total of $90 in those rods. 3 of them are upgrades and made the traveling team - one is being held back as trade bait. I have a buddy who makes jigs and we have to finalize how many jigs he will make me before he gets the rod. Back to the subject when I get a new rod, I am looking to fill a specific niche and so I get the rod that will best fill that niche. I passed dual and triple rods a long time ago. The only time I have to think about that now is those rare times when I'm fishing out of some one else's boat.

For me, fluorocarbon lines only get changed when necessary, generally that means when I've broken off enough times that the spool is a little low. I've switched over to 50 size reels for all my jig/soft plastic stuff. It isn't unusual to go a couple of years before a reel needs changing. The line longevity is one of the things that make fluorocarbon a little more affordable. Same with braid - change it when I need to- which isn't often. Currently I use Seaguar Abrazx - because a couple of years ago I got a great deal on a large spool of 10 and 15 and 20 lb test and I'm no where close to using that up yet. I still use mono for spinnerbaits/chatterbaits/square bills. I use whatever 17 or 20 lb line is on sale at Walmart during their early spring close outs. I think that 17 or 20 lb Ironsilk is good reaction bait line. Stren Dura-Tuf (or whatever they are calling it now) is good reaction bait line. I haven't tried every line out there, but I have tried many of them. The only ones I won't use any more are Big Game and P-line. I had random unexplainable breakage issues with Big Game and I found P-line to have more manageability issues than I wanted to deal with.

I bought my Guide Wear in 1999 or 2000, according to my best recollection. 98% of the time it stays in the fishing truck, rolled up in the little duffle they gave me when I bought the set. I have bibs and the shorter bomber style jacket rather than the longer parka style jacket. When the weather is a little chilly and it looks like it is going to rain, or it IS raining, there isn't any substitute. It works great and it has held up perfectly over time. Late spring, summer, early fall, it can get a little toasty wearing that suit, so I have a couple of other different rain gear suits that I wear according to the ambient temp. I am a big fan of frogs tongs. My suit is well worth the money I paid and it wasn't cheap. $400 more or less at the time.

You aren't doing your self any favors by chewing on a noxious/toxic/ carcinogenic plant rather than burning it up and sucking down the smoke. Where do you spit at? I've been I tournaments with chewers and at the end of a windy day there are little brown spots all over the front of the boat, where they "missed a little" getting it all over the side. I can imagine Ms Bass, looking up when a loogie hits the water and thinking, "Really? Hey, I don't spit poison in your living room." Either way, you're supporting big tobacco. What good have they done lately? What percentage of your weekly income are you spending now to chew up toxic plants? At the end of the day we all probably have bad habits that we'd probably be better off if we lost them. Yes, I am a former smoker - haven't smoked for 8 years or so. Didn't choose to quit - HAD to quit - (long story). I have to deal with smokers and chewers at work and I've got to say I don't know which is nastier - ash trays or spit cups. It is a close decision, but spit cups get the nod as being nastier. I could and maybe should go on a LOT longer on this topic, but I'm gonna stop the rant now.

To start off with, I have had multiple dealings with Fenwick about warranty issues - they have always been more than fair to me - no complaints. I've broken rods by crunching them in car windows, getting sideways to a stuck crank and have wind be an issue, I've even broken a couple on hook sets. These were HMG & Aetos models which had a "lifetime" warranty. Now, I sees the picture of the little nick on the cork of your rod and I'm thinking "HUH?" Does it affect the performance of the rod? Does it affect how tight it keeps the reel to the rod? If it doesn't, just man up and use it. If I sent a rod back every time I mysteriously nicked the cork somewhere, I'd have spent much more on shipping charges, lifetime, than I have, and Fenwick and All-Star and Falcon and Diawa wouldn't love me. I can't see getting weirded out by a nick in the cork. If it really bugs you, slap some colored electricians tape on it and call it color coding. If you have a whole bunch of rods, I recommend that you do that anyway so that time is saved when reaching down to grab the one you want. At the end of the day though, I have never had a bad experience with Fenwick customer service and I have done both the send it in route and send in pictures route. Me - I'd just feel weird sending in a rod just because there was a nick in the cork.

I've used a variety of different trailers on Eakins Jigs. Most of the time I use the trailer marketed by Jewel Baits, a little 3" craw.. So far as I know they are still available. I'll use Netbait Paca chunks also. If I know I'm going to be sticking with that jig exclusively for a while, I still have some pork frogs that I will use. If I'm going to be junk fishing and just rotating through numerous baits, I don't use the pork because it tends to dry out just sitting on the deck.

Walmart & Academy clearance sales are happening NOW. Go look there first. Over the years I've found that many of the rods that they put on sale are junky but on occasion, decent rods become available. Got to put the time in looking. Understand that for $50 you might have to compromise some. Me - I've been doing this for a few years now - I could compromise, but I don't feel like it. I think that lipless cranks - jerk baits - square bills & medium divers are different baits and different rods are necessary for peak performance with each bait. For instance, IMO, lipless cranks call for distance casting AND ability to set the hook at a distance - covering the water is important. Jerk baits - IMO I'm frequently fishing in semi windy to windy conditions, so I need to be able to throw into the wind or quarter into the wind as well as with the wind. To me this means spinning gear. I like a Medium rod with an extra fast tip for this (other guys I know like a more moderate tip, who is to know which is better?). Square Bills - I am generally bouncing them off hard cover (rocks & stumps). I like a rod & reel that will handle fairly stout line and will allow more accurate casting than I can get with the lipless crank rod. Medium diver cranks require lighter line to get down to maximum depth - I might be able to get away with the same rod that I use for square bills, but I'd have to change out line. Easier for me just to get a different rig for that application. Figure out which bait you'll throw most and get a rod best suited for that bait and compromise on the others. Next year or a few months from now or whenever, get another rod that is best suited for whatever technique you want to focus on next. Over time you will build up an arsenal of rods properly suited for different presentations.

I got a small pair of sewing scissors at the sewing section in Walmart and I think that they work great for cutting braid. Ten to fifteen bucks - something like that. Other fishing tools that I like are a 30" fish gripper - it makes landing crank bait fish much saver and I don't have to have the net taking up space on the deck. I have an extra long pair of Rapala needle nose pliers that I like. The extra length come in handy more often than you might think. I keep a jaw spreader in the boat and have never used it - but you never know when you might catch some "toothy" fish. I carry a small bolt cutter that has come in handy several times. I need to remember to keep a decent machete in the boat. Sometimes when removing bait from branches it is easier to just whack off the whole limb. I use to have issues losing fishing pliers in the boat. Now I keep 5 or 6 pairs strewn around in different spots in the boat and there is generally a pair close to where I want it to be. Sometimes needle nose vice grips are a better option than regular needle nose pliers. Like my old high school shop teacher said, "Use the right tool for the job."

The best crank bait storage boxes ever were marketed by Bass Pro Shop, but they were discontinued several years ago. (2007 or 2008?) They were double sided boxes with V shaped troughs in them and they would hold a lot of baits and the baits were easily accessible. I have a dozen of those boxes and they are all 8 or more years old. 4 of those boxes make the traveling team and serve as on board crank bait storage. The rest hold a lot of back up cranks and are stored inside totes in my fishing shed. I have no clue as to why BPS discontinued that style of box. Currently your best option is to bite the bullet and buy as many 3700 size med or large crank storage boxes as you may need. That's what I had to do when the BPS option was discontinued. As long as you're buying boxes, buy enough that you can separate them by brand, action, however. Me, I have 1 for the large size pointers, 2 for reg size pointers, 1 for small pointers, 1 for stases, 2 for Rogues, 1 for Bomber Long A's and another 3 or 4 for one of baits that I've accumulated over the years. Oh yeah, 3 or 4 for various brands/sizes of Rapala stick baits. It is pretty easy to get several hundred dollars tied up in crank bait on board and long term storage. Not that I bought all those boxes at once. Just here and there you get one or two and it adds up over time. Regular 3700 size boxes will work but be mindful that the more the different baits rub up against each other, over time the quality of the finishes will be diminishes. Sometimes that is good, i.e. a scuffed up crank will turn into a unique fish catcher. Most of the times it isn't and all it does is scuff up the paint on all your cranks.

I've found out that I need to eat from time to time while Im fishing. Driving to fishing, I'll generally have coffee and a slice of Casey Breakfast Pizza. Casey's is where I generally gas up. While I'm there I will generally buy lunch, chicken salad on a croissant is my current favorite. If they are out of those I'll stop at one of the Subway shops on the way and get a sub sandwich. In my cooler I generally have a 6 pack, either a session IPA or Shiner Ruby Redbird and a dozen or so waters. In a water proof box in the cooler I will have some Lance Crackers and some Belvita wafers. I never know what I will be hungry for. When I fill the cooler, I made sure that there will be enough room for the food to fit. Be sure and carry zip lock bags so that your sandwiches stay cool buy not get wet. The earlier comment about facilities is a pertinent one. If the lake doesn't have a decent privy relatively close to the dock, I ain't going fishing there.

Think soft sides for hooks. Hooks stay in original packages, sorted by type into quart size zip lock freezer bags. You might want to color code the bags - red for wide gap - blue for regular, something like that. I carry lots of different styles of hooks, so I go to the school supplies department of Walmart and buy different colors of pencil bags and it works for me. Tx rig hooks go in one bag, hooks are suited for fluke style baits go in another, drop shot hooks in a 3rd, wacky hooks in a 4th and so on. It doesn't take up that much room and they stuff into corners pretty well. A score sheet taped to the inside of the boat lid reminds me of what hooks are in the different colored bags. Weights - go to Walmart and get 1 or 2 of those smallish sized double sided Plano boxes. Plano models 3449, 3450 and 350o are all good choices. I nave numerous boxes of this style that I store terminal tackle in and they close tight and tackle doesn't migrate (unless you put stuff in wrong to start with, then you can blame the box.). I think the box with half a dozen compartments on each side work best for me. Anyway, you have one box for drop shot weights, another for tx rig tungsten, a third for regular lead bullet weights, a 4th for Florida rig weights another for "specialty weights". Stuff like suspend dots, nails, nekko rig weights . . . you get the idea. If you're bank fishing, consider that one of the easiest tackle boxes available is a 5 gallon bucket with a lid. One of the first rules of bank fishing is don't take more than you can easily carry, because walking back to the truck you'll have all that stuff, plus you'll be tired, plus you'll have a stringer of fish. Take that all into account - but don't overthink it. Another option is every spring at Walmart they sell "fishing vests". They look ignorant, you might get mistaken for a trout fisherman, but you can put a lot of stuff into the various pockets and then you have a tackle box you can wear.

Maybe it is just me, but I'd put Rattle Traps down the list, toward the mediocre side as lipless cranks go. Rapala, Red Eye Shad, Spots, Yozuri Drums, and my personal favorite Berkley Frenzy are all lipless cranks that work better for me. My main issue is the attitude in the water, I just don't like the way it comes through the water. I think the aforementioned baits all come through the water better, and thus they work better for me. Secondly, I am a big fan of cheapish hooks on lipless cranks. Keep plenty on hand, hooks that are sharp enough when they are new but if you get them snagged bend out relatively easily. I think of it as kind of like a tear away jersey. I generally throw these baits on 20 or 17 lb line and I've saved over a dozen baits by not swapping out hooks and using the cheapish hooks that they come with and when they get too bent, swapping out the hook with one of similar quality. I don't think that this costs me very many fish over the course of a year, compared to the loss of baits.

Keep that rod and buy another one. I repeat - keep that rod and buy another one. If nothing else, you've started your collection of "back up rods". The notion that you have to bring every rod you own with you every time you go fishing is false. The notion that each rod you own must have a "purpose" is false. The idea that you should only own a "reasonable" number of rods is false. When you walk up to your rod rack to decide which rod to take on each particular fishing trip, considering what kind and where you'll be fishing that trip, you want each rod screaming "take me, take me!!!" If all the rods are guaranteed a spot on the traveling team, they won't do that. I'm glad I could help and put it into true perspective for you.

Buy a reel that balances well with the rod you're going to use. My issue with spinning gear for drop shot has been that often, when the bait is resting on the bottom, a loop or two of line will come off the reel and when I go to set the hook the loose line gets tangled up in the handle. This issue is solved by paying attention to your line, but often I don't as I'm attending to other issues. More and more, I've going to using bait casters for drop shot fishing because of this. I still keep the finesse rig in the boat, but I'll use the bubba drop shot set up or a lighter rig with 10 lb Abrazx much more often.

I own a bunch of jigs in a variety of weights & head styles. They didn't get wet very often the past couple of years. I fish deep weed lines a lot, pre-spawn (Where the deep weed line will be once it will form) - not so much during the spawn - and then post spawn until it is too cold to go fishing any more. Every trip, I'll check deep weed lines several times during the outing. My experiences the past couple of years have been that a jika rig will seriously out fish a jig both for numbers and size. I make my own, most of the ones I make are within a gram or so either way of a half ounce. Being able to present a large soft plastic, most of the time a lizard or brush hog, some times a 10" worm, locked on to the bottom with the weight away from the bait has been the ticket for me. If I had to throw a jig in that situation, it would most likely be 3/8 or half oz. Probably a bubba shakey head with a trick worm or magnum trick worm - UNLESS I was more or less consistently getting bit on the initial drop. Then a lighter jig would be in order. I've seen mid- summer situations in 8 to 10 foot deep weed line edges where the only bait that would work was a wacky senko. Cast it out and wait - for a while. Pretty boring but sometimes effective. You're from Minnesota - back in the say, when the Lindners owned In-fisherman, they consistently wrote about how a jig worm was day in and day out the most reliable weed line bait. They were using a golpher mushroom head - 3/16 or 1/4 and a 7" power worm on 8 lb test - open hook - kind of like a bubba ned rig. If the rig got stuck on vegetation on the way down, in their opinion, that was good. A sharp snap, pulling the bait free of the weed often was the trigger for a strike. Weed lines have lots of options.