Fishes in trees

If your goal is to fish deep grass lines, right where the transition happens from vegetation to sand, gravel, whatever, and you fish a jika rig of around a half ounce or so, a jig will become your second choice. In a deep weed line situation, for the past 2 years, a jika rig has worked MUCH better than a jig for me. JMO

Go to Walmart. Go to an aisle that you probably never enter, i.e. the fingernail polish aisle. Don't think of it as fingernail polish. Think of it as lots of different colors of small bottles of lure or jig paint. Find a chartreuse color that you like ( there will be more than one, trust me ). The bottle of nail polish will have enough paint to cover a couple of baits, easy, and it is a tough, durable finish. Now, take a couple of lipless cranks that you already own and paint them up.

Will the old wiring harness handle the increased load? What gauge wire is the old wiring harness? Just a thought.

In a different neighborhood, but in the same vein, Rogers Lures in Liberty , Mo is closing out all their Lucky Craft stock at half off. Not the $5 each as in the previous post but a decent price. If you're within driving distance of the KC metro area, and you need some cranks ( all the pointers are long gone) it is worth the drive.

On a fishing day, I generally have a slice or two of Casey's Breakfast Pizza and coffee. One the way, I will stop and buy a whole Subway Sandwich ( or its equivalent) Current favorite is a Subway club on wheat with plenty of veggies and mayo. Package it in 2 parts in zip lock bags in the cooler. Be real certain to seal the sip locks prior to putting them in the cooler. Cooler also contains a 6 pack of decent beer, currently Founders All Day IPA or Shiner Ruby Redbird are favorites. Water is stocked in the cooler at a ratio of 2 waters for every beer and I try to stay with that as I start consuming liquids. If I'm on the water by 8 or so I try to eat lunch around noon. If it is summertime and I won't be taking out until dark thirty, I'll eat the other half of the sandwich. I lay off on the barley pop about an hour and a half prior to taking out. On the way home from the lake I frequently stop to eat. There are a couple of decent BBQ restaurants on the way home. 1 very good Mexican restaurant ( yes, there is such a thing as good mexican food, as compared to average mexican restaurant food) Sometimes the snack bar in a bowling alley gets the call, primarily because they have a big parking lot and sometimes parking is an issue when pulling your boat home. That particular bowling alley snack bar makes a mean breaded tenderloin sandwich and deep fried mushrooms.

Shallow to semi-shallow water with woody/brushy cover - a square bill is always an option. IMO

I question the premise, i.e., if it takes 10,000 hours to master something, then lots of stuff, some of it important, doesn't get mastered. What up with that? I'll just put this old homily in a category with other homilies, i.e., sometimes kinda true, more often than not untrue, and leave it at that. To continue on this vein, time spend fishing doesn't (and shouldn't) necessarily count forward time spend toward "mastery". whatever that is . . . . In addition the 10,000 hours number doesn't necessarily account for "slow learners". I could go on, but I'll stop now. Old homilies, folk wisdom, call it what you will, are often particularly irksome to me.

What kind of drop shot fishing? I have a few I use for "bubba" drop shot. A Kistler Argon 7'5" heavy pitching stick is my current favorite. More finesse? My current fave for spinning applications is a 7'Mojo Medium with an extra fast tip. I do the braid/long fluorocarbon leader on this rig. Personal preference, I don't like to go lighter than quarter ounce on the drop shot, mostly because drop shot is a bottom fishing thing and I don't want to wait for a lighter weight to get to the bottom. Even with the spinning gear I fish 3/8 oz more often than the quarter oz. I have Loomis 6'10" drop shot bait casting rod that has been on the shelf for a couple of years. When the Curado 7- I've ordered comes in, I'm going to fill it with 8 lb Abrazx and use it extensively this year - lighten up on the bubba shot kinda - we'll see - step A is that the Curado has to show up.

I'd just use Elmers Glue or go to the hardware and buy whatever waterproof version of Elmers that they have. Maybe that all purpose spray adhesive - just use a lot of it - maybe liquid nails or some other construction adhesive. When you are gluing foam I think that the basic kitchen formula is applicable, i.e. if a little will do a little good, a lot will do a lot of good. . . . .

In an overcrowded/stunted, there are ALWAYS a few big fish. You just have to wade through the dinks. Fish what you think are the best areas of the pond, at what you think are the best times, maybe you'll get lucky. Big fish in stunted ponds are wary.

People think different things about crank rods and the best/maybe only way to find the right one or you is trial and error. I've bought 4 different rods marketed as "crank bait " rods over the years and 3 I didn't care for much and one is ok. The rod I currently like for cranks is an older BPS Extreme 7'4". Originally it was marketed as a Woo Davis pitching rod. I bought one to try as a pitching rod - it sucked for a pitching rod, tried throwing cranks on it and now i have 4 - 3 in service and one back up. I've never fished in Ohio so I don't know how deep you regularly need to go or not. Addressing the notion of a jig for deeper fish, my answer would be that sometimes that works, other times I think that the fish ignore something tip toeing through them, like a jig does, but will but something that comes crashing through, like a crank, they will bust on. I don't know, I do know that deep or shallow, sometimes jigs work and sometimes cranks work. I wouldn't fish them on the same rod because it wastes too much time to stop - retie - start again. I find my fishing time more productive when I can just set one rig down and pick up a different one already rigged.

For throwing square bills and lipless cranks I like Berkley Iron Silk in 17 or 20 lb test. I get all the distance I want out of it and the abrasion resistant properties of this line are off the chart. You do have to warm up with it, i.e. don't try to make long distance power casts right off. 3 or 4 shorter casts, get it wet and a little stretched for the day and it works good all day.

I have a 7' Fenwick HMG MH/ XF spinning rod that I like. I think retail on that rod is $100 more of less. Lifetime Warranty. One day last year, I made myself fish with it. It works great for jigs 3/8 oz and less, jika rigs, quarter ounce slider heads, any soft plastic approach. I put a decent, not a totally expensive spinning reel on it and I don't have any issues loaning it out. When I go to do the Fishing for Freedom project at Truman Lake every fall, I tell my co-angler that this is the rod they will be using most of the time. What makes it "idiot proof" is bringing along several spare spools for the reel. Every so often, even I will screw up a spinning reel spool of line beyond repair and the easiest fix it to just swap out another spool. I think that would be kind of what you're looking for - and it is a good rod - you don't feel like you're handing your buds some junk to fish with. This actually brings up a totally different topic, i.e. what quality of "borrow rods" should you have available and is it a good idea to have more than 1 level of borrow rods? For me, than answer is yes, but that is a discussion for a different thread.

The quick & easy answer to the original question is yes.

I'm glad I don't have to pick. I haven't been out yet this year, looks like it might be in the cards Weds or Thurs. next week. I've got 22 rods rigged & ready to go in the fishing truck. If my Curado 70 that I ordered comes in, I'll have 23. I understand that some guys want to go "minimalist". Been there - done that - back when I was a meat fishing bush hippie, several years ago. Don't have to do that anymore, so I don't.

There is a learning curve to jerk bait fishing and frankly, everyone finds their own way, you seldom find 2 guys who have the exactly same notion as to how to fish jerk baits, tempo, pauses, and so forth. I've got many different brands of jerk baits, although I have a pointer tied on the majority of the time. I experiment with weighting them quite a bit and admittedly, I don't have the suspending/weighting thing figured out real well, but I do get bit from time to time. Having said that, the 2 breakthroughs for me were to A - use spinning gear. More often than not it is windy when I want to throw jerk baits and I find that spinning gear is easier to deal with in the wind. (Although there is a learning curve to that also) B - Use some kind of braid. I currently use 14 lb Fireline Crystal - which is as skinny as 6 lb mono. More importantly I like the way it shows up on the water. When I'm on "pause" the line works kind of like a strike indicator, like you'd use if you were fly fishing something sub surface. Many times, I've seen the strike way before I felt it and if I'd been using fluro or mono or a darker braid that didn't show up against the water well, I probably would have missed that fish. I use a short foot to foot and a half fluorocarbon leader between the line and the lure. 15 lb Fluorocarbon leader material, that you find in the fly fishing aisle, works best for me for this purpose, I've read about how guys want their bait to suspend perfectly level on the pause, my experience is that slightly nose down is just as good and the fluorocarbon leader helps achieve this.

The last few years I haven't bought very many rods. The few I have purchased have been Fenwick AETOS. Prior to that I purchased a couple of Wild Black Carrot Stix. One I use for jig style baits and the other slightly shorter one I use for throwing spinner baits. I haven't broke them yet. Everyone I know who bought a carrot stick - no matter what color or model - they're all broke now.

Over the life of the boat, the price difference between the 10 footer and the 8 footer is insignificant. I used to have a pond boat, a 10' Water Buster. The handling differences between 1 and 2 people on the boat were significant. Go with the biggest trolling motor you can afford. Sooner or later you will break the motor, or shear a prop pin or wrap so much line around the prop that it won't spin anymore, something. Be certain to have an alternate mode of propulsion - i.e. a paddle or a push pole, preferably both. The primary reason that I got rid of my pond boat was that I'm getting older and not as agile as I one was - therefore I needed a more stable platform to fish out of. I got an 18' Lowe WF 180. It handles significantly different depending on if there is one or two people on board.

You can get goggles that fit over your prescription glasses. I've got 2. One is a fairly expensive Bolle brand. I've had them for a long time. 2001 or so. The clear lenses were hard to find. I found them at a Bushnell Factory Outlet store. They work with my clear glasses for when take off is at dawn and later in the day when I'm wearing my prescription shades. I guess Bolle and Bushness are connected business wise somehow. I got a somewhat cheaper set of goggles at BPS several years ago. I found them in the ATV department. They work OK and fit over my glasses. There aren't any fogging issues with either set. I prefer the Bolle brand because it has a buckle in the back and is more adjustable than the elastic strap on the less expensive BPS brand. I have a Save Phace mask also. It works ok and fits over whatever glasses I'm wearing. Again, finding the clear lens was the hard part. I got mine at a boat dealer and had to go through many masks to find one with the clear lenses. Smoked or yellow lenses were easy to find. Something to remember, no matter what brand of goggles or face mask you get is to be careful where you're looking once you are underway. Once you are up and on plane at speed, if you turn your head sideways to look at something the wind can catch them different and re arrange them on your face, if not blow them off. This has happened to me a couple of times. I never lost the face mask or the goggles, but it did get moved around some on my face. Make sure you wear your glasses straps. I wasn't so much worried about losing a set of goggles, but a good set of prescription sun glasses, that is a different issue. Easy fix - just when you turn your head, hold on to your goggles. There you got it, my experiences with goggles - face masks and prescription glasses.

A single Colorado blade spinnerbait is my go to search bait in shallowish dingy water. The bait I generally start with is a half ounce Chartruese/purple head with a chartreuse & purple skirt and a white BPS Cajun trailer with chartreuse tips, and a fairly large colorado blade. (the blade is probably a little bigger than a quarter, don't know the size #) In dingy, murky water, I 've had the best luck year in and year out with a copper colored blade. I've tried different brass/gold/silver colored blades, but I generally end up going back to copper. I throw this on 17 or 20 lb mono, almost always around stumps, brush, & stick ups. Muddy water with less cover I'm likely to throw something different. Changing the subject slightly, years ago, I saw a Bill Dance video on late night TV, where he was throwing a black single colorado spinnerbait, Black with black skirt/black zoom swimming' chunk trailer and a silver blade, in very clear water. He was throwing it a long ways, parallel to the bank and running it sub-surface, but always within sight. He caught enough fish on camera that I tried a very similar bait and it has worked for me from time to time when the fish are shallow in a very clear lake (secchi disc reading 6' more or less) that I fish often. So, that's my current thinking on colorado blade spinnerbaits.

I have that rod. I've used it for frogs and it works ok. I have a 7'3" Fenwick HMG MH/Fast rod that I use for frogs sometimes and it works ok. I have an early 90's era Team Diawa 7' heavy action Muskie Rod and it works ok for frogs too. Lots of different 7' to 7 1/2" rods that I own work for frogs. My current thinking on that rod (7'9" Aetos Heavy) is that it is harder to store in my fishing truck and so I don't choose it as often as I choose one of the other rods. That longer rod does throw frogs farther than the shorter rods. Also, I think it is a great A-Rig rod. I'd go ahead and get the rod. Can't have too many rods. If funding is an issue, then hold off for now.

Success in strip pits happens when you understand strip pits. There are several different kinds, most importantly they have things in common. Think of strip pits as miniature canyon reservoirs. There is a lot of "dead" water in canyon reservoirs. Shallow water is at a premium and transition areas from shallow to deep are high priority areas. These often aren't that easy to find, but there is always at least one transition area. There has to be. When the pit was dug, they had to have a way to get the machines out of the pit when they were finished. Sometimes the path is obvious. Other times, with erosion and vegetation growth along the banks the path isn't. In that case you need to spend time with a depth finder, finding that transition from shallow to deep. In the process of looking for that transition area, I've had success throwing deeper diving finesse cranks ( like the larger sized shad raps) parallel to the bluff walls. Just like early spring jerk bait fishing, fish will often move up 10, 20 feet or more to hit a finesse crank in these conditions. Another thing to consider is that strip pits, even spring fed strip pits almost always have a thermocline. Fishing deeper than the thermocline is generally non productive for bass. Fish that you mark considerably deeper than the thermocline are most likely carp or gar. Find the spot where the thermocline intersects the transition from deep to shallow water and you've probably found the sweet spot for that pit. A lot of the stuff that you learn while pond fishing doesn't translate very well to strip pit fishing. You've got to spend time on strip pits to figure them out. Be mindful that most of this rant is predicated on the notion that the limestone pits in your neighborhood are similar to the coal mining strip pits that I'm familiar with. If they aren't disregard this post.

I know some semi-pros in my region who have a similar system. Their system is divided into various totes for storage, with a different tote for each lake commonly fished. A Grand Lake tote, a LOZ tote, a Truman tote, Table Rock and so forth. Totes have soft plastics, hard baits, wire baits, whatever. There is commonly quite a bit of overlap - however it makes more certain that having everything you want for THAT lake is available. Makes swapping out gear for different lakes simple also. I haven't carried it that far yet, but I have started a "dingy water" bag for soft plastics. Once I get to a lake and determine water color for the day, I have a choice of which soft plastic assortment to take and that saves a little bit of time.

Reading this thread has been interesting I am one of those guys who carries many different rigs in my fishing truck and most of those make it into the boat when I go fishing. I generally carry 18 to 22 different rigs in my boat. Part of this is a tendency toward junk fishing, i.e here's a point, what happens when I drag a jika rig across the point, what happens when I pull a deep diving crank over the point, what happens when I . . . . . you get the idea. My approach is to try to carry enough appropriate gear that I can decently fish any scenario without wasting a lot of time retying baits. I don't mind retying because I got a bait stuck and lost it, but it is absolutely irksome to have to retie simply because I didn't start out the day with a correct bait tied on. Being a tackle collector plays into this as well. For instance, I don't go bank fishing for catfish all that much, however, when I do go, I got 6 rigs that I can put a spread of baits out with. I don't trout fish all that much - but when I do go ( generally at Taneycomo ) I've got rigs appropriate for drift fishing as well as casting various sized baits, and if we're going to go trolling skinny shad rap style baits around close to the dam, I got separate rigs to suit that style of fishing. You hear about guys who are the "jack of all trades, but master of none" One of the things that I aspire to be is not necessarily be master of all fishing styles, but master of many, and you need the tools to learn how to do that. So I spend money and collect gear. It could be worse. If I had a nose candy habit, all I'd have to show for it at the end of the day would be a runny nose.

I live on the fringe of the KC Metro area and I think that we are blessed in that we have a very good independent tackle store, i.e. Rogers in Liberty. I have to drive by there 5 days a week on my way to work. I've been to Mondo tackle in Lenexa once, and I dropped a couple of c-notes when I was there, but I generally don't get over into Kansas that often. There is some stuff that I have to get through the internet because nobody chooses to carry them. Brewer Slider heads would be one thing. Chompers offers a good selection of terminal tackle, jigs & stuff that aren't readily available, so I have to order from them from time to time. While I prefer to shop local, I am, in addition to being a fisherman, a tackle junkie and lure collector. I surf the internet often, just looking at stuff and when I see something unique, something that I think might work for me, I will call them up and buy some. I think I've got a few years before I need to expand my tackle storage barn.