Fishes in trees

Hey, if it ain't an old lure, if it is a newer lure, I'll let you buy the second one.

You win. I don't suck at identifying old lures and you've posted 2 that I've never seen before. If you're ever in my neighborhood, I'll buy/or give you a beer. Show up next fall for the Fishing for Freedom event and I'll buy/ and or give you a beer.

If you can find any Timber Tigers, those are the ones that I choose first, and most days those are the only ones that I bother to tie on. If I can't get bit on a Timber Tiger, it is unlikely that any other square bill is going to work that day.. Anyway, that is how I generally feel about it. Get the DC8 and then if you have more money get some DC5's and DC4's. EVery fishing tackle store I stop at, I look and see if they have any Timber Tigers and if they have some I buy them. They are available from Wordens, but they are kinda of pricey there.

I'd get a different rig to throw lipless cranks with.

I view the catalogs that BPS and Cabelas put out as reference material, stuff to be read and digested at my leisure, not necessarily when I'm at my computer desk. I wish that they had better stats in them.. . . .. . Next complaint, As I'm getting older I wish that they had larger type. It is a challenge to keep one magnifying glass by my Lazy Boy, another by my porcelain throne, a third and fourth in my garage and shed and a fifth by my computer desk. As I've just typed this I realize what a disconcerting first world problem this is. Anyway, that catalog is what it is and I'm glad Johnny Morris sent me one, so that I could look at pictures and wonder about what lures I might get next. I am very concerned that Timber Tigers haven't been pictures for a few years now and in the 2016 Master Catalog, they don't show the Jewel Eakins jig anymore. They were a Missouri company and I thought that Johnny was doing them a favor by showing their wares in his catalog. Guess he isn't doing them a favor any more. That is too bad, comes off as kind of greedy. Anyway, JMO . . . . .moments later, just visited the Jewel Baits web site, regional pros Jim Eakins and his son Troy Eakins aren't listed as being on the pro staff any more. Eakins jigs aren't listed in their catalog. Finesse jigs are but they don't call them Eakins jigs anymore. Go bigger. They were kind of buds with Johnny Morris, maybe that is why Jewel Baits aren't listed in the catalog anymore. I'd go the the website and look further, but that is more trouble than I want to mess with currently at 3:10 AM.

Finesse cranking is pretty simple. Step A - 7' to 8' medium to medium light spinning rod Step B - Medium or larger size spinning reel. Fill it with lighter braid or Fireline or Nanofil. I currently have one with Fireline and 1 with Nanofil. Use the skinny stuff, something that has the diameter of 4 lb mono. I use a short - foot or so Fluorocarbon leader -it probably isn't necessary but it makes me feel better. I generally use 10 or 12 or 15 lb leader material. With a rig similar to this, you can throw quarter ounce cranks a long way. I get great distance using medium sized shad raps - forget the number right now. It is pretty simple - throw and retrieve. If wind is an issue, make sure you go with the wind rather than against it. With Shad Raps, once I get it down to as deep as I think I'm going to get, I lay off the straight retrieve and just start popping it, very much like a jerk bait cadence. Strikes are pretty obvious, i.e. all of a sudden a fish is on. There really isn't any hook setting to do, just keep it tight once the fish is on and let the hooks dig in and stick. I have a big boy version of this rig, a 7' MH spinning rod and an old, large, Diawa 2600 filled with 30 lb braid and I throw half ounce or heavier divers into some serious wood cover with few issues. That is the one I use most of the time. I will break out the lighter rigs for very clear water.

A crankbait tuning tool - found on page #316 on the 2016 BPS Master Catalog, makes the whole process of tuning cranks much easier. You can have the finest set of needle nose pliers made, and the tuning tool still works better. First world problem solved by spending %5.49.

Back when I was doing the co-angler thing, I fished a BFL tournament on Grand Lake in Oklahoma. I drew a boat salesman from Flippin, Arkansas, who was fishing out of a spank brand new 20' Ranger demo boat. It had a 250 Verado on it. The experience of going down the lake at somewhere around 70 mph and the wind noise was louder than the motor noise was something I never forgot. I was a couple of years away from buying a boat at the time, but I resolved then and there that when I got a boat, it would have a 4 stroke motor on it. It seems like a no-brainer to me - get the 4 stroke.

I put ultimate bunk boards on my trailer several years ago. I think that they work good. The first year they were real slick. I guess by now I'm used to how they work. I don't detach the strap until the trailer is in the water. I don't take out unless the boat is properly on the trailer and the front strap is tight. Given that they are so low maintenance, i.e. they will last until you do something really stupid and break them, they aren't that expensive. Compared to wooden bunk board and carpet - they are pretty expensive. If anyone has bunk board issues, they are worth checking out, decide for yourself if they are worth the money to you.

I'd call it a decent year, not a great year but a decent year. Health issues took July & August off the schedule, for the most part. Took a week off to go do the Fishing for Freedom event that the Leavenworth Bass Club puts on at Truman Lake every year, and the soldier I drew caught a few fish this year - fish that we could weigh - that was a first for me. 3 of the 5 days that I was down there were beautiful. 1 was windy and I broke some gear dealing with the wind, but nothing that I couldn't fix by throwing money at it. Planning now to do that event again next fall - hope it happens.

The crazy legs chigger craw is where I start when the subject is bubba drop shot baits. I wish they still made the 8" Powerbait Lizard.

I think you've purchased a good catfish reel. A quality bait casting reel will shorten the learning curve in learning how to use it. I'd recommend a current or recent model Curado or Chronarch to start. Others will recommend different brands depending on their religion.

Every year, mid January to early February, Walmart has close outs in the fishing department. Last years line is frequently closed out. I just buy a few spools of whatever 17 or 20 lb line is being closed out and use that. Last year I think it was Suffix Siege, other years it has been Stren Dura-Tuff. Spinner bait line/square bill line doesn't matter that much to me. I know I'm going to abuse it and re-spool every few weeks or so during the season. If I can find it Berkley Iron Silk in 17 or 20 is my first choice for Rattle Baits and square bills.

Taking a different tack, I'm not a big fan of selling a boat to someone I know, and no doubt will be interacting with regularly after the sale. I did that once, for the next year and a half, until that guy took a different job out of state, everything that went wrong with that boat was my fault, something that I didn't tell him about. Telling him to do his research, that he bought the boat below market cost didn't work. Telling him that if the boat was in better shape it would have cost more money didn't work. Finally I just had to communicate that "look, we're done here - you wanted the boat , I sold you the boat, you gave me money, I gave you the boat - end of story. Not my problem anymore." It became my job to coach him through every tick little repair. So, anyway, based on my experiences, I wouldn't sell a boat to a neighbor. I'd do a trade with the dealer and eat the difference OR if I had storage room, keep boat A for a back up. If you ever get your own fishing show, you will need a camera boat.

Back in olden times, Rogues were the jerk bait of choice. In the era of pre-suspend dots, you wrapped wire around the hook shank. Bending out the hooks helped, both in making the wire wrapping easier and sticking the fish that just swiped at the bait. Use a pretty light drag. In that same time frame, both Smithwick and Rebel made a spoonbill, deep diving jerk bait, that you would experiment with weights the same way. Both those baits are not very much more expensive now than they were then. If you can find any of the old original G finish baits, they had a very neat "strobe" or flash when they caught the light 3 feet down or so.

Lots of Mom & Pop shops have home made spinnerbaits, because there is a pretty good margin on them. If there are any mom & pop bait stores near where you fish, throw them a bone and try their brand first. Hope that they are well made with decent components. Your spinnerbait judging criteria might be if they have a ball bearing swivel or not, quality sharp hook or not. thin strong wire relative to weight of the bait or not, etc. After you've done that for a while and you are starting to understand spinnerbaits, what they are good for and what they ain't, then branch out into regional or national brands. What kind of spinnerbait are you looking for and how do you fish it? Are you a throw & wind kind of guy? Do you throw and drop it next to objects? Do you run it into stuff and then drop it? How heavy a cover are you throwing into and how comfortable are you about losing a bait or two or three or however many? After you've thought out all these variables, make your own decisions. Me - I like Terminators & War Eagles. The baits that I throw most often are regionally available baits. Chompers currently sells the old J&J spinnerbait, with the chartreuse & white blades & skirts. I often throw an old Rogers Glass Eye half ounce single spin. Chartuese/ purple body & skirt - red glass eye and copper colorado blade #5 or #6. I own dozens of brands but these are the ones I throw more often than not.

For me, I use soft plastic frogs that sink when you stop the, like slow motion buzz baits, i.e. I keep them moving enough to keep them on the surface. Hollow body floating frogs I use in places where a pop r would get stuck too much, i.e. around a whole bunch of floating vegetation. I've got to admit that neither of these techniques are in my top 10 seasonal patterns. In early summer, at least in Missouri, when the surface vegetation is getting fully formed and bud are telling me that the frog bite is on, I do better fishing the deep weed line edges in 10 to 16 feet of water with a jika rig.

I'd choose one that was shiny or had a strong chartreuse element to it and had lots of rattles. Less than 3 feet of visibility, I probably wouldn't bother. I'd be throwing jigs or jika rigs to objects, trying to hit them on the nose with it and make a bite happen.

I've got both the extendable pole type and the slide down the line "hound dawg" type. There is a place for both. The slide down your line type of lure retrievers do a poor job of extracting baits from overhanding vegetation. Also it is possible to get a bait stuck deeper than your extendable pole will reach. A prior post, "How many cranks to you need to lose before getting a lure retriever seems like a good idea?" is succinct and to the point. I've currently got less than $50 invested in lure retrievers, not counting previous ones that I've lost or damaged beyond repair. I am secure in the knowledge that I've spend more money on dumber stuff.

I use both depending on the environment, but most of the time I use bait casting gear with 15 lb Abrazx for throwing the wacky senko. In the boat all the time I have a spinning rig (20 lb braid/15 or 20 lb fluorocarbon leader) for throwing tx rigged senko's / flukes / and similar styles or baits.

Which one do you like to fish the best? Buy the rig that lets you do that the best and "make do" at other times. For me, I'm not into compromise. I have an 18' boat and I fish by myself most of the time, so if I trip and break a rod it is on me. Those 4 different baits require at least 3 different rigs. Spinnerbaits/buzzbaits are different from top waters which are both different from jerk baits. Don't feel like you've got to hurry the process. Over time you will see the need for a different rig and you will acquire it and assuming you take normal care of your gear over a couple of decades you will accumulate a whole bunch of fishing gear - at which point you will have to decide how big a shed you'll need to build to accommodate future expansion. I was fortunate in my bush hippie/meat fisherman days (late 70's thru mid 80's) I had a couple of professor pals who fronted me a substantial amount of gear and never asked for it back. That jump started the learning curve on using different rigs for different techniques. If I had to I could go back to using a limited amount of gear for a variety of techniques, but I don't have to so I probably won't. This attitude will probably get reexamined when I get too old to drive, or live on my own.

The choice of jig versus tx rig is different for everyone and certainly subject to conditions faced on a daily basis. Catt relayed some interesting stats. Even though I know enough about stats to be leery about using past history to predict present and future results, I , like many other fisherman find myself using baits and techniques that I've had success with in the past. Not saying you shouldn't, just saying that using stats to prove what happened in the past is NOT the same as using them to predict current or future success. To throw gas on the jig versus tx rig debate, over the past 2 years or so I've had much better results using a jika rig than either a jig or as tx rig. JMO

I'll be darned. It had never occurred to me to rig a tube that way. Sometimes, I AM NOT SMART. That rigging is something that I am for sure going to try next year. If I had a kinda heavy jig -quarter ounce or better I'd probably throw it on one of my pitching rods. Going under a quarter ounce, I have several different extra fast tip spinning rods that I think would work for that. I wonder if I have any 3/8 ox or heavier jig heads that I could thread onto a tube like the picture on Turtle 135's post showed.

I think it is just a design thing - some rods have them and some don't. The last couple of Fenwick AETOS rods I bought had the split grip and I like it. I have a Falcon 6'10" Eakins Jig Special, which has the full cork grip and I like it. My Falcon Bucoo rods have split grips and I like them. I haven't bought or not bought a rod with split grips or not being a deciding factor. Generally I buy one based on how it feels and if I think it will fill a niche in my tackle arsenal. My spinning rods are split as well - some have cork grips and some have more minimal handles. Spinning rods, it doesn't matter anyway. I use rod wrap or tennis racquet tape to build up the handle to fit my hand anyway. Now that I think of it, I've used rod wrap or some other kind of handle tape to modify most of my rods. Not the AETOS rods though, I like those the way they are.

When you're fishing in these conditions in the future, don't leave home without a can of reel magic. Every so often hit your reel spool and line guides on your rod with a squirt of the stuff.