Fishes in trees

Sorry to hear that the hooks aren't performing as well as you might like for you. You might want to try skin hooking the round bend just like most guys do with the wide gap - compared to just leaving the point embedded in the plastic. My experiences last year, making my own jika rigs, was the the narrower profile of the round bend or the sprout style of off set hook produced better than any wide gap I tried. I always skin hook my tx rigs, so it isn't exactly an apples to apples comparison. The rig you're fishing might have something to do with it. I'm fishing these hooks on 15 or 17 lb fluorocarbon and a Fenwick AETOS MH-Extra Fast tip. The moment I detect a strike, I set the hook pretty firmly - by my standards anyway.

Having done the do-angler thing for a number of years I'd recommend 2 medium sized bags half full compared to 1 bag totally stuffed. Boxes and hard stuff go in one bag and soft stuff that can be kicked around go in the other. Soft bag going in the bottom of the boat where you don't care if it gets kicked around or not. Other bag gets strapped to the pole of the rear deck seat. Strap it so that you can slide it around out of your way, no matter which direction you're casting. Total weight of the gear you're carrying is about the same, I found the 2 bag system more accessible when I didn't have to dig through the bag as much. Another bag purchase you should consider is a rod bag. That makes transportation of rods from your vehicle to the boat MUCH simpler.

How solid is that material and how are you going to hang the hooks on it?

I know that most everyone has their own ideas about what is and what ain't a decent jerk bait set-up. I use a 6'3" Med/Light spinning rod and 14 lb Fireline and an short (foot and a half or so) fluorocarbon leader - 10 of 15 lbs. I like the spinning gear because it is easier to deal with in the wind and it is generally windy in the spring when I'm throwing jerk baits. I get decent distance, I would most likely get better distance if I went to a longer rod, but I got tired of smacking the tip into the side of the boat when I was jerking the bait down. The 6'3" rod is a compromise, and another one of the compromises is the hook set. I can't make powerful eye crossing hook sets with this rod, so I don't even try. When you use a light colored line, like Fireline Crystal, you most often see the strike before you feel it. You just tighten up asap and sweep set. If I have time to think about it, I try to sweep in the opposite direction from where the fish is going, but most of the time I don't. Most of the time I sweep sideways and up and to the left, cause I'm a lefty and that is the easiest, most logical maneuver for me. I don't feel like I miss a whole lot of fish, but the nature of the bait is such that you are going to get lightly hooked fish from time to time. That's where the ML rod comes into play, I just keep it tight until I have an idea of the size of the fish. If it is a slot fish, just get it to the surface and skate it in. A keeper (15" + in Missouri) and I'll take my time. Most days, if there is a jerk bait bite going, a pattern happens where the fish bite mostly the same way. The days where they all crush it and you don't miss any are few and far between, but they do happen.

If you are set on using a power tool, I don't see why you couldn't do it with a dremel. If it didn't look "pretty" when you were done, then just change your definition of what "pretty" is. Glad I could help.

With 22 or so rigs in the boat I needed a system to keep track of line - so I went to stickers on the reel. Mixed results in that some of the time the stickers don't stick, but most of the time they do. Taking this a step further - occasionally you need to re-spool - or whatever. I generally find out about rod & reel maintenance needs when I am fishing. At the time, it isn't such a big deal in that I can generally use another rig. What has helped me is to keep a set of wire on tags in my truck. When a reel needs to be re-spooled or there is a rod issue, I wire a tag on to it when I'm putting gear away for the day. Then, when I 'm in maintenance mode in the fishing shed it is easier to see what needs to be done. I've found that if I don't make a note about stuff I tend to forget it.

Suspended how deep? I'm not real good at suspended fish in more or less open water, so I'd probably look elsewhere. The first place I'd be looking is somewhere where the bottom/cover intersected with the depth them appeared to be hanging at. More often than not, that is a point.

Don't neglect the notion of carrying duplicates. For instance, I have a couple of jig rods that are identical. I fish these a lot. It is a way to quickly check out if and when different colors make a difference - or shapes. I frequently throw a jika rigged lizard on one and a jika rigged creature bait, brush hog or mad paca on the other - similar or different colors - just depends. You can acquire many more cranking rods for specific purposes. For me, the rod that I throw deep divers around trees and bushes is different than the one that I use for throwing cranks across points. (One has heavier line, the other lighter for more distance) I also carry a spinning rig for cranks, which I tend to use for throwing into cross winds, also a MUCH lighter spinning rig for throwing Shad Raps and similar style lighter cranks. If you put your mind to it, you can expand your arsenal from current capacity to 30 or so, easily

What weight shaky heads? I have half a dozen rigs that I might throw shaky heads on. For the most part, I use a bait caster set up for 5/16 & up. I use spinning gear for 3/16 and lighter. For quarter ounce heads ( which I use most of the time, I have a dedicated rig. I have an older Falcon Eakins Jig Special (6'10", on the medium side of MH) paired with a Chronarch 50 and 10 lb Abrazx.

I'm a big fan of the 1/16 oz Falcon K wacky hooks in the 3/0 size. I used to have a few bags of the larger size 5/0 or 6/0 but they are all gone now. I haven't seen their hooks in stores for several years now. I acquired my stash of wacky hooks when an internet business out of Lake Ozark had a close out on them.

snug the line tight and clip the tag end tight - flush to the body of the knot . .. .. Once upon a time, I don't remember where, but I saw small plastic cones which were designed to slip on the line prior to the knot being tied. This protected the knot somewhat. At the time it seemed like a 50 cent solution to a 5 cent problem. Can't remember where I saw this product - BPS or Cabelas or maybe the Tackle Warehouse catalog.

I was going to work yesterday and happened to stop by Rogers, no good reason except to waste some time prior to going to work. Imagine my surprise when I found out that all of their Net Bait plastics were marked down to 50 cents per bag. I spend $35. They still had a lot left when I exited the building. No clue how long that is going to last, but if you're in the neighborhood on Monday or Tuesday, it would probably be worth your time to find out.

That is very organized. I am envious of that level of organization. My 30 x 40 fishing shed isn't nearly hat organized. I've spent over $200 on shelving plus I've rigged 30' on the other side of the shed with scavenged shelving from various other places. I've got 20 or 30 plastic totes full or semi-full of stuff. I am reminded several times per year that it is pretty important to accurately label the totes. White duct tape works good for this. Be sure to label all sides and the lid, that helps some. Organization of toys is an on-going project that only occasionally gets temporarily solved. Tuesday I am taking my boat to the dealer for oil change - tune up, lower unit oil change, that sort of stuff. Coming home I get to swap out trolling motor batteries. When I finally get back to the shed, I have a bunch of stuff piled on my utility trailer that I have to find a new temporary homes for. I would like to be that organized, I really would but I'm just not wired that way. It seems like there in a monkey mentality in my genes somewhere, when I'm done or don't know what to do with a thing, I just set it down in the first available place and move on. Most of the time I remember where I put it - not always. I have six chairs of varying degrees of comfort in my fishing shed. In the middle of last summer, I found myself setting on an overturned 5 gallon bucket, I looked around and all 6 chairs had stuff piled on them. All I could do was laugh at myself - then I opened another IPA. I have a similar situation in my garage. I keep my go to work car outside all summer long, primarily because I generally have several projects in varying degrees of completion scattered around the garage. One more thing - I find that the plastic shoe boxes with the attached lids work better for me than the ones with the separate lids.

I'd be much more concerned about the transom on that boat compared to the gel coat.

I can't get too worked up about artificial bait prices. The phrase "pay to play" comes to mind . . .

Be sure you want to do it. Taking kids fishing - passing it on - that kind of stuff - all seemed perfectly OK in theory. Then I did it a couple of times. I found out that I am not mentally or emotionally suited for taking kids fishing. Neither one of us will have a good time. If I'm going to take a rookie adult fishing, that means I've lost a bet or something. I've done a Fishing for Freedom event every fall for the last 5 years that involves taking a veteran out on Truman Lake for a day. None of those guys have any fishing skills to speak of, but they are very interested in learning, which is why they signed up for the event. Those have been positive experience, taking a rookie out fishing.

Unless you're broke - or between jobs - or have kids to feed, something of that nature, trying to "get by" with sub-standard gear doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. You've got a bag that has seen enough use that the zipper don't work and some of the side storage is torn. Put that puppy into retirement. If you are really married to that bag, take it to a decent tailor and have it fixed, new heavy duty zipper, restitching the side pockets, etc. Actually that probably wouldn't cost very much more than a new bag and then you'd have a unique bag. JMO

My advice would be to try various styles and decide for yourself. My decisions vary on regular gap or wide gap hooks - often for no good reason - just picked one. However, last year I fished the regular gap more often than wide gap, with fairly thick plastics like brush hogs and lizards and I didn't feel like I missed any fish because I didn't have a wide gap hook on. When I am throwing tubes with an internal weight I will use a wide gap hook.

The issue with stuffing thing in a co-angler boat bin is accessing it when you need it. Say you got your cranks in the boat bin and you decide to change one out, different color or depth, doesn't matter. You are probably going to spend 5 minutes doing that and half that time will be getting down and into the bin. When I fished co-angler, after a while the only things that I put into the bin were things that I probably wasn't going to need but felt like I had to carry - or clothes to put them out of the way after the day warmed up. The way I dealt with gear when I was a co-angler, that gave me easier access was to have 2 medium to smallish bags. The medium bag which had hard baits, terminal tackle, spare reels and other assorted gear was secured to the post of the back deck seat using several velcro straps. I could spin it around so that it was out of my way, which ever direction I was casting and it was easily accessible. ( All boxes need to be labeled on all sides, don't assume that you will always put the box back in the bag correctly.) Soft plastics and other stuff were kept in a different tackle sack that stayed underneath my feet while we were running and up on the seat while we were fishing. I tend to change out soft plastics quite a bit. Anyway, that is the system that worked for me. While you are at it , go ahead and get a rod sack and rod sleeves. The sleeves make tangling much less of an issue while you are out on the water. The rod bag makes transferring your sticks from your vehicle to the boat much less of a hassle. The rod bag is one thing that does store in the boat bin once you are on board.

I carry all those weight varying items, i.e. suspend dots, strips, various diameters of solder and wire and I experiment with all of them from time to time - with varying degrees of success. I have yet to find the perfect combination of weights that will have the 5, 6 and 7 pounders that are available in the lake to line up and strike one after another. Early in the spring I fish the Pointer 78 DD quite a bit. I think that it works better with one suspend dot, exactly centered directly behind the bill. The reason that I do this is because years ago, at a BPS sales event in Columbia, MO, ( toward the end of the Lucky Craft craze) Stacy King told me that is the way that he rigged his Lucky Craft Pointers 78 DD. Good enough for me. With the regular size pointers I generally use either 2 dots, kinda stacked on each other or 1 strip. I think that it is important to have it centered to the keel of the bait.

Timber Tigers in various sizes and colors. I use the DC 8 the most and the DC 4 the next most. I own a number of DC5's, but I don't fish that size all that much. Their version of Texas Shad is my first choice, but I own many different colors of this bait. Their version of the Strike King Sexy Shad color is a decent choice for nearly all water colors.

I used to be a meat fishing bank fisherman - out of necessity. I learned a lot of stuff that transferred to fishing larger waters that I gained access to over the years. And yet, there is a body of knowledge that I don't use very often because I don't pond fish or bank fish at all any more. I think that it is a definite, separate skill set, i.e. getting good at fishing from the bank of ponds, watersheds and so forth. How much trouble can it be to try it and see where it goes? If it goes no where fast, then don't try it any more.

Just because worms come in a couple of sizes is no reason to buy just one size. Buy the size that you think might work. I very seldom cut down a worm to fit. I just grab a worm that I think is the right size. Zinker Z's for ned rigs are an exception to this rule. I buy Zinker Z's purposely so that I can cut them in half. I think that a half Zinker Z on a mushroom head is a better bait than a TRD on a mushroom head. JMO . . . . Having done this for a number of years, I have LOTS of options. I very seldom re- use plastics, I just grab a different one - or another of the same one if I think that is what is called for. All used baits get thrown into the back corner of the boat. I feel like I am lucky in that I have a buddy who is into experimenting with making different plastics and he takes all my used plastics and re- melts them for his own unique baits. He has come up with some decent imitations of popular baits, but he hasn't come up with that one new, unique, life changing money wise design - yet. If melting down my plastics helps him achieve that goal - I'm good with that. I'm as interested in saving money in my fishing experiences as anyone else is, BUT - I think that cutting down - resizing baits to save a little money wastes more time than it saves money. Most everyone has different circumstances though, and if cutting down/repurposing used plastic baits helps you achieve your fiscal fishing goals - knock yourself out.

I've heard spinnerbaits referred to as "blade " baits. I've heard chatter baits referred to as "blade" baits. I've heard baits such as the Sonar, or a Cicada or a Silver Buddy referred to as a "blade " bait. Which one do you mean?

I think that the Excalibur jerk baits are good jerk baits. When my local tackle store was closing them out, I bought 15 of them in various favorite colors. They work, I caught a few fish on them, but mostly I bought them just to add to my collection of jerk baits - which is way over a hundred now.