Fishes in trees

The regular size fishes good on a 1/4 oz Brewer Spider Slider head. I like a 3/8 oz head for the larger size that you've got. In the 3/8 oz size I like the Chompers Shakey head the best currently.

I don't know anything about it. I don't throw buzz baits all that much, much less soft plastic swim baits fished as a buzz bait. My thought would be that if you've heard about one bait that is good for that tactic, try that first.

This is one of the few rods that I own that I paid full price for. It was on the rack at my local Walmart and I decided I wanted it. I think that it is labeled correctly, in that I find it to be great at doing what it is labeled as, i.e. throwing lipless cranks. I haven't tried it for any other purpose and don't expect to. I like it for doing what it does. If you are looking for versatility I think that you could get away with throwing any reaction bait on this rod. I wouldn't throw soft plastics on this rod - ever- basically because I have several rods that I think are better for working soft plastics/jigs/jika rigs.

If I had the money I'd buy them all from you right now. But I don't have spare money to spend on that right now. They all look to be Shad Raps and Shallow Shad Raps. If I were you and I wasn't broke I wouldn't sell them - just on general principles. Keep them - they are a good start toward a lure collection.

Be mindful that when you buy a cheap bait caster, you get what you pay for. My advice would be to save your coin until you can get decent gear.

I'd check it out further because I don't think that all tournaments have the 8' rod length limit. Years ago, when I was fishing BFL tournaments I took it with me for a couple of tournaments. The lakes that the Ozarks BFL fishes are similar in places to lakes where the Float & Fly was conceived. I tried it some on practice day but never did bring it along on tournament day. It didn't work for me, primarily because as a co-angler I had no control over boat positioning. I think I got bit a couple of times on practice day - but they were short fish. At the time I felt my time was better spent throwing a wiggle wart or dragging a heavy football jig. If you're the boater though, and got some fish marked on a point, I think that is an extremely viable alternative to a jerk bait early in the year. As a condition, I'd want clear water - at least 6 to 7 feet and I think that clearer would be better.

The zip lock "freezer weight " bags work better for me than the standard zip lock bags do.

I don't know what that means either. I could make up an answer, but that could get weird. First question, Internal or external rigging of what?

If you can find them, Gambler makes a shad shaped bait - the Flappin Shad - which has a paddle tail, compared to the boot tail of previously mentioned baits. They work good for me and seem to last well.

At that price point, you probably shouldn't be buying of the internet or off of some one else's recommendation. You need to go to tackle stores and touch and feel to figure out which rod feels best to you. I wouldn't ever buy a rod through the internet unless it was to be a duplicate of one I already had. I just have to touch and feel a rod prior to purchase.

That Timber Tiger is a great bait. As long as vegetation doesn't interfere, throw it everywhere you'd throw a spinnerbait. I throw mine ( mostly DC8's) on the most abrasion resistant 17 or 20 lb mono that I got. Currently that is Berkley Iron Silk. I know that the Iron Silk is a rude green color but I don't that makes any difference when you're smacking it into stuff. If you're throwing into open water, I think that there are better baits - but woody cover - nothing comes close to going in and coming out every time. It is the little wings on the side.

what a difference a decimal point makes . ..

You could get by with a mono, but I am in the braid is better camp.

That model of Fenwick is my favorite jig/soft plastic rod. You spoil it by putting a Diawa reel on it though. I'd recommend a Chronarch 50 or something else that said SHIMANO on the side of it.

Work in stages and be satisfied with small victories. If you can get your fishing tackle from an "unholy mess" to a "holy mess", that counts for something. I'm at the point that I realize I can't carry all the stuff I want to in my boat but I still try. I try to remember to keep everything that I might need in the boat and or fishing truck. I try to label boxes and start the season with stuff in the right box, for the most part, but it seldom stays that way for long. What I do know is that trying to be somewhat organized is a goal and if it does get achieved, it is only momentary.

I let my subscription to In-fisherman expire, because I thought they were getting repetitive and I remember how it used to be and I was angry at myself for continuing to contribute to sub-standard product. I still take Bassmaster - my primary reason for subscribing to it is probably inertia. Yesterday, I picked up a the newest copy of Bassin at Walmart. Lots of pretty pictures of boats - however much of the text was black print against a bright red background and I found that extremely hard to read - so I didn't. Maybe some day when I improve the lighting next to my Lazy Boy . . . Overall I am not real pleased with the state of over the counter or subscription fishing literature right now.

I have a few old pistol grips rods that are "retired." I think that the pistol grip rods are great for top water walking baits, HOWEVER, over time they turn into "wrist killers" for me. 20 minutes of throwing top waters with the pistol grip rod and I don't feel like throwing topwaters for a while. I have a 5'9" straight handle rod that I like better for that duty.

I use the rod wraps on most of my rods. Rod Wrap - tennis raquet tape, bicycle handlebar tape, I haven't tried the Winn Grips yet. Once I put them on the rods I seldom remove then. I wouldn't know if there has been any damage to the cork or not and I wouldn't be very concerned either way.

A pay lake in central MO? Which one are you talking about. Go ahead and name it, most of use don't feel like driving that far.

I use a BPS 7'4" Extreme. It is allegedly a medium action. I think of it as a MH backbone and it is more "tippy" than any other 7'4" rod I've seen. The semi-flexible tip seems to give me all the distance I need and when I get bit the rod has enough backbone to get the fish up and out of the cover pretty quickly. I generally throw square bills on an abrasion resistant mono 17 lb test the vast majority of the time.

To quote Buck Perry - "The fish are shallow - or deep - or somewhere in-between."

I like 14 lb Fireline Crystal with a short, foot to foot and a half fluorocarbon leader. ( I throw jerk baits 99% of the time on spinning gear) I like the no stretch. I'd like to think that the short fluorocarbon leader gives the bait a slightly nose down attitude in the water, which I think is good. I like how when you've got the bait down and paused, the Fireline Crystal is easy to see and it works kind of like a strike indicator does when you are trout fishing, i.e. you will see the line move way before you feel anything. It is a system that works for me.

Shakey heads and drop shot presentations are not limited to spinning gear. I frequently throw a 3/8 or half ounce shaky head on 15 lb Abrazx in 10 to 20 feet or so of water. Generally I'll throw a trick worm, but there are other brands of worms that work as well or better - as well as different shapes of baits. The same can be said for a drop shot presentation. My boat doesn't leave the dock without both a fines drop shot and a bubba drop shot rigged and ready to go. I make decisions on which one I want to use based on cover and depth and the bubba gets chosen much more often than not. (To me a bubba drop shot approach would be 20 lb Abrazx and a half ounce drop shot weight. I use a 7'5" Kistler pitching rod and a Chronarch 50 seems to handle enough 20 lb line just fine. Don't get me wrong, I carry spinning shaky head rigs as well. Make presentation decisions based on water color - perceived level of fish activity and cover.

I'm certain that there are a few fishing tackle stores in Maryland. Make the rounds until you find one you like. A couple of posts up, the one about modifying rods you currently own is a good idea. The handle of any rod that you currently own can be made shorter by using a hack saw - or a Dremel or a Sawzall.

First I have to be convinced that the fish are feeding upward and that isn't easy. Back in my co-angler tournament career I had two different guides on different lakes (Bull Shoals & Grand) tell me that if a top water bite was happening, there was probably a better sub-surface bit happening. They told me that - as a co-angler, that if I should see any surface commotion that looked like fish feeding a pop-R would get bit some, but a Mann's Minus1 pulled through the same area a foot beneath the surface would get bit every time and I found that true for the most part. I never won a tournament doing that, but I never won a tournament doing anything. I did weigh some fish throwing the Minus 1 in situations where my boater was throwing a buzz bait or a pop-R. In my recreational fishing I almost always have a buzz bait and a pop-R tied on and occasionally I get bit on them. I think that when you first come up on a point, a few casts across the point with a pop-R isn't a bad idea.