Fishes in trees

Mann's used to market a Hank Parker spinnerbait. Just went to their website. It is now longer the "Hand Parker Classic Spinnerbait". Now it is referred to as the "Classic" spinnerbait. I have a couple of the old ones and the pictures look the same to me. IDK, Manns and Hand Parker might have had a labeling issue. . . . imagine that , , , How many different companies have retailed the "Guido Bug" with Guido Hibdon's picture on the package? A couple that I know of - Gambler & Luck-E-Strike.

You can throw any bait on any rod & reel combo if yu feel like it. That being said, some combo's work better for certain baits than others. I think you've gotten good advice here. Me, I don't use a moderate tip for anything. If I fished a hundred days or more per year and had finely honed reflexes, perhaps I might find a use for moderate tips. Me, I like feeling what is on the end of the line asap, and the extra fast tip helps me do that . I would point out that different companies have different ideas about what is and what ain't extra-fast - comported to fast - compared to moderate, what have you. For instance, the BPS Extreme rods I have labeled "fast" are considerably different from the Fenwick AETOS rods that are labeled "extra fast". It gets back to pick what you like, fish it for a while and if you don't like it try something different.

It is messed up send it back and get a new one. I've had pretty decent luck with Minn Kota warranty issues. I had an issue with a relatively new Minn Kota (2 years old or so) that stopped working. All I was out was time & gas (I had to drive it to Springfield, MO, to the warranty shop. I had the day off and it was easier to drive to Springfield & back than it was to mess with shipping it. Also the warranty shop was right next door to the original BPS, so I had to get some stuff and look around while I was down there. Anyway - 3 weeks later when I again had to pass through Springfield en route to a BFL tournament in Kimberling City, they had the trolling motor ready for me. They even let me pick it up on my way home and now while I was going to the tournament. That motor still works.

I have a couple of rods very similar to the one you have. I like them. They are great for the aforementioned slinging wacky senkos under docks. They are a good jig rod. If you carolina rig very much, you might want to try it as your primary carolina rig rod. I find it much easier to cast a long ways than with a bait casting rig, and it is just as sensitive. You can drop down in weight and mojo rig with a quarter ounce or so. To echo a couple of other posters, if you don't like it, I'll take it off your hands. I have a 7' St Croix Heavy Action bait casting rod that I'd swap even up, right now - a couple of different ones actually. But if I were you, I wouldn't swap it, learn how to use that rod and you'll be a more versatile fisherman.

There might be a bass club nearby that is ok with minors fishing - just got to ask. I'd research that school liability issue a little more. Sometimes school principals play the liability card when what they really mean is "I don't want to mess with that." It wouldn't be the first time that a school official was "flexible" with the truth when dealing with a 15 year old. My next guess is that is isn't a principal's call, more likely it is a decision that would be made at the superintendent or school board level . At that level, "NO" is seldom a final answer - it just means that they don't have enough information to say "Yes" yet. If could be your job to give them enough information. I don't know enough about high school bass fishing in Missouri to give you a better answer. I know that some high schools have a team and some don't.

I'm with Bluebasser86. A jon boat is the way to go if you're going to leave it outside. I don't think that a 350 acre lake is too big for an electric powered boat - as long as you have alternate power - which is the case of a jon boat would be a good set of oars. 7 1/2 foot oars are better than 7' oars and 8' oars are better yet. I suggest this because a jon boat is way easier to row than the plastic pond boats are. I used to have one - pond boats are great until you run low on power and you are a long way from the ramp. There are various ways to handle the low on power issue besides oars. The way I handled it was to buy 3 of the largest 12 volt deep cycle batteries I could find and wire them parallel, so I still had 12 volts, just 3 times as much of it. Get the biggest 12 volt trolling motor you can find. I had a Maxxum 55 lb thrust with the variable speed. Get a 3 bank charger and set it up in your shop so that you can charge all the batteries at once and leave it plugged in. That way they're ready to go when you're ready to go. Invest in a decent cart so that you can transport all the gear from your house to the boat in one trip. You can get detachable seats, electronics, and so forth so that the only thing you're leaving outside is a piece of metal. Plan ahead and your stuff will last longer and your fishing will be funner.

I prefer spinning gear for hard jerk baits like Rogues, Pointers and such. I use a different spinning rig for soft jerk baits. The hard jerk bait rod is a little more tippy, helps some with casting into the wind. Tx Rig soft jerk bait rod, I like a more exra-fast tip for strike recognition and hook setting.

In the mid-80's I went to a couple of Bass Fishing Institute seminars and listened to Dr. Loren Hill talk about the PH meter and Color-C-Lector. I thought his studies were very interesting and few regional tournament pros I knew at the time were pretty keyed in to using the ph meter as a search tool a day or two prior to a tournament. Of course, tournament results were mixed. Success meant that the ph meter worked. Less success meant that there were other factors in play. About his Color-C-Lector, he claimed its use was mis-understood and poorly marketed. He said at one of the seminars I went to that the meter accurately showed which color was most visible in any given water condition - and that most visible wasn't always the same thing as most attractive. The other thing that I remember from my experiments with the Color-C-Lector ( yes I have one) is that it was very sensitive to conditions. By this I mean that you could drop it down 10 ' to a sandy/muddy bottom and it would read one color. Move 10' - same depth more or less but now you are 2' into the deep weed line and it would show a different color. Full sun - another color, cloudy - a different color. I thought that it sometimes helped in that it suggested colors that wouldn't have occurred to me. After a couple of months of use, you could pretty much predict what color it would tell you to use. This was fishing the same lake more or less during that time. If I had been fishing a bunch of different lakes at that time I wonder what the results would have been. I wish that someone with enough funding muscle would explore the PH issue more thoroughly - just because I think that there is a lot more to water composition that we don't understand and if we understood it more we might catch more fish more often. JMO

I bought one. I like it. The braking system is a little different from the Curado 50 and the Chronarch 50 that I'm used to. There is a learning curve, as far as knowing how to adjust the brakes go, which I haven't totally figured out yet.

The primary reason I don't use live bait in my boat is that I don't want to deal with the mess that would inevitably happen if you put me and live bait together. I'd space out and leave the minnows in the bait well that then the water would evaporate and minnow stink would happen, and so forth. More problem than it is worth to me. I have friends who fish northern waters in the summertime (Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, southern Canada). They tell me that a jig & minnow is a pretty common presentation - basically you're fishing for walleye and bass at the same time. If you think about it - a Lindy live bait rig is very similar to a Carolina rig. I think fish how you want to fish.

I have a 2002 version of this boat and it is a god sturdy aluminum boat. As I recall the FICHT Evinrudes of that era had issues. I would not buy that motor or any boat that it is mounted on. If purchasing the hull and repowering it with a different motor is an option, then maybe. I have a 2002 Yamaha 4-stroke and other than one issue it has never failed, going on 14 years now.

My favorite drop shot are the Gamakatsu Wicked Wacky hooks. Tie a palomar knot with a long end, like normal and the wicked wacky has a small tube glued to the shank of the hook. Run your line through the tube and then attach the drop shot weight. Works perfect for me, a 3/0 thru 5/0 for my Bubba drop shot gear and the 1/0 for finesse applications. How is always straight on the one, which reduces twist somewhat and the plastics always hang right. Try that hook and see if that makes it better.

A classic case of "go figger". For me, the reel is part of the "feel" process and, IMO, medium priced and higher end reels "feel" better than lower end reels. Rods are part of the sensitivity issue as well. We can probably agree that some rods feel different than others. There you have it, pick your poison. Me, I know that I've been burned enough on low end reels that I ain't doing that again.

That's too bad. Feel free to share any other issues that you have. Hate is a strong word - specifically when typed in caps. I'd recommend that you save that word for when you really need it, and not for some dislike of some inanimate object. JMO

So many people have different ideas about what is and what ain't a decent square bill rod. Opinions are all over the spectrum. You got to make up your own mind. My current square bill rod is an older 7'4" BPS Extreem Woo Davis Special. I was at a seminar where Woo Davis touted this as his pitching/jig rod. I bought one and it sucked for that - too much tip for me. A couple of years later I occurred to me to try it as a square bill rod and I liked it. I paired it with a Curado D and 17 lb line and it works great. The tip that I didn't like for feeling jigs because it was too "tippy", is great for throwing square bills, most of the ones I throw are a half ounce more or less. When I do get bit the rod has enough backbone to seriously lean on a fish in cover. It works for me. One of my fishing buddies doesn't like the rod at all, mostly because he likes a rod with a more uniform flex through the length of the rod for reaction baits. Which gets me back to the point of decide for yourself what you like in a square bill rod.

Back in the day, when I was a meat fishing bush hippie, I gained access to a smallish lake ( 30 crew more or less) that was totally stunted. It wasn't unusual to catch 20 or more 9" to 12" fish before you would catch something 13" or larger. I had permission to keep all the little fish I wanted, BUT everything 13" & up had to be thrown back. In the 7 years that I had access to that lake, I had dozens of hundred fish days, keeping them all. Let me tell you that little bass from 9" to 12" from a lake with minimal agricultural run-off are good. Over time, 15" and larger fish started showing up somewhat. This was the lake that I got ultra confident in throwing 4" worms on slider rigs, using 6 lb test. (80's version of 6 lb test) I'd advise you to find some similar water situation so you & for dad can fish and keep all you want.

In the Ozark lakes in Missouri, Eakins jigs are popular. Go into nearly any tackle shop in the region and they generally have locally made ones available at the counter. In my experience, if I'm jig fishing for spots I think it is hard to go wrong with a 5/16 or 3/8 or 7/16 ball head jig with a brush guard and then thread a Chompers on it.

Believe it or don't, but some baits work better and cast better on spinning gear. For the record, there is such a thing as MH and Heavy spinning gear. I have a couple of spinning rigs that, on occasion, I don't have any issues throwing baits into gnarly cover with, so it isn't just an action/power issue. There is all kinds of gear out there and you get to pick & choose what kind you want to use.

Guess what, son? There is a learning curve to learning how to fish from a boat. Navigation - boat control - boat driving for starters. Secondarily, actually feeling a strike from a moving platform is different from feeling a strike when you have two feet on the ground. There isn't any substitute for putting your time in and learning. If you're smart you'll figure it over time and if you ain't you won't. Bass fishing any major reservoir in a pontoon boat is not a simple thing. Boat control in any vessel can get problematic, more so if you're trying to bass fish out of a pontoon. For starters, what kind & how much trolling motor power do you have? Now, if you ever decide to go multi-species and get into drifting for catfish, a pontoon can be just the ticket. Good luck.

It is almost 3 am. I just thought I'd let everyone know that Zipline Brewing out of Lincoln, Nebraska makes a decent IPA.

Fifteen years ago, I went the other way. Once it became obvious that the next boat I was planning on getting wouldn't fit in my garage, I built a bigger garage/barn/shed - call it what you will, to keep all my fishing stuff in. At 30 by 40 my boat and fishing truck fit in it with roughly 6 to 8 inches to spare. Sliding door is on the east end. Fishing rods are all racked up on the west end, spare soft plastics are sorted into plastic shoe boxes cover roughly 25 feet of the north side of the shed. Shelves line most of the south side of the shed and are stacked with totes full of different fishing stuff. I am charmed by the notion that it is somewhat organized and for the most part I can find what I'm looking for in 15 minutes or so. There is still room for quite a bit more stuff, especially if I find another place for my 10' utility trailer and my 4 wheeler. Whatever, it won't be me, it will be my heirs or the public administrator who will have the job of ultimately going through and inventorying all the stuff. If I live a long time and have somewhat advance notice, I'll probably give most of it away, but right now I just try to keep it half-assed organized. I am aware of the fact that should I decide to purchase an incrementally larger boat, that will mean a larger tow vehicle, which will mean an incrementally larger fishing shed. That isn't beyond the realm of possibility. I've spent money on dumber stuff. To echo Bluebasser 86's comment, a few times per year, I like just sitting out in the shed, consume a few barley pops and go through stuff. That is one of the reasons that we make sure that we have "enough " stuff.

I have several Curado E's and I didn't spend $195 for any of them. My local shop is out of Curado E's - probably forever. I don't despair though. My local shot still has several Chronarch 50 reels - nib - and those cost less than $195. I recently got one of those Curado 70 size reel and I like it, although I've only fished with it once. It didn't cost $195.

What kind of cranking? Lipless cranks I use 17 or 20 Iron Silk or some other 17 or 20 lb test. Square bills, I like the most abrasion resistant line I can get along with reasonable casting distance. Deep cranking I want a thinner line, both to get more distance and more depth. That means 10 or 12 pound. A few weeks ago when the Berkley Trailer was in town I got some 14 lb Armor Coated Trilene on sale. It looks and feels a lot like the old Iron Silk. I have a dedicated rig now with that line and a Med Action rod and the plan is to use it to throw DC 16 Timber Tigers into deeper trees. My hope is that I can get 10 to 12 feet down - a reasonable distance from the boat, with this set up. Time will tell.

I fish 1/2 oz and 5/8 oz jika rigs quite a bit. Very similar to jig fishing IMO, I tend to "drag" these baits much more than I "hop" them. My starting line up currently consists of a pair of Fenwick AETOS 7'2" MH - Ex fast tip rods. One rod as a Curado 50 E and the other has a Chronarch 50. 15 lb Abrazx line I don't think I'd have any problem dropping down in weight to a quarter ounce if I had to. I could go up to an ounce weight if I felt like it with these rigs. Don't need to. I have a couple of other rods better suited for dragging 3/4 oz football jigs and Biffle Bugs. I thought the cost on my AETOS rods was totally reasonable at $180 -20%, which is the standard price for AETOS rods at Rogers in Liberty. If you're looking for an all purpose, very light, jig rod you could do worse than the Fenwick AETOS. They have a pretty good warranty program also, very similar to St Croix. An additional note, if the Berkley Trailer is ever present in your neighborhood, check it out. I got a couple of AETOS rods for $99 each when the Berkley trailer was at Rogers several weeks ago. They also had great prices on Powerbaits & Gulp stuff. They gave me a pretty neat Fenwick hoodie, just for buying the AETOS rods on sale that day. I'm not big on logo clothes, so I don't know how much I'll wear it in public but at the very least it is a great cool weather lawn mowing garmet.

I like trick worms. I like the fatter "magnum" shaky worms compared to the regular ones. Various brands, bow & others. Early this spring I came across a BUNCH of Netbait baits at fifty cents per bag. Included in that stash are a bunch of colors in the Netbait version of the trick worm. That is what I'll probably be fishing most this year.