Fishes in trees

Faith in a bait is a function of where I'm fishing. If I'm fishing grass in 6 feet of water or less and I'm ticking the tops of the grass with some bait, then I have faith in an old Berkley Frenzy lipless crank. Every year, late March to mid April, I will catch a few 5 to 7 lb fish doing this. Early spring, afternoon from 1:30 to 3 is the best time to do this. ( at least that has been my experience in Missouri, in the clear to semi-clear waters that I fish in most of the time) If I'm fishing a deep weed line 10 foot to around 20, I have faith in my home made jika rig - with some creature bait to be determined by water color. Throwing soft plastics at objects in 5 to 14 or so feet of water, my bait of choice currently is a quarter ounce Brewer slider head with a 5" paddle tail worm - again, color to be determined daily. If I think fish are suspended in a tree line, my first choice is a Timber Tiger DC 16, probably in their Texas Shad color, but I really don't think that color matters much with this bait. Whenever I'm confronted with this situation, i.e. fish suspended in trees, there are always a couple of baits that I will always try. Choice #A would be a whacky rigged senko and choice #B would be a 1/4 or 5/16 oz tx rigged 10" Berkley power worm. I generally start with Red Shad color for this presentation but I think that there are other colors that would equally well. I've got lots of favorite baits for specific instances, but this is enough for now.

When I fished BFL tournaments (admittedly in Missouri), I didn't have a guaranteed boater most of the time. I always got in. Granted, this was several years ago. The only time I saw guys not get in ( boaters and/or co-anglers) was when they showed up late, after registration was closed, and they hadn't pre-registered.

I carry a Leatherman Wave in my pack, along with ID's, money & checks, hygiene items, meds and so forth. It is a back up tool you use when you have to. My tool box in my truck & boat is pretty well stocked. Given a choice between using the Leatherman or a real set of needle nose pliers, I'll choose the real pliers. For most fishing stuff, long nose fishing pliers are much more easier to use than the Leatherman is. When there are screws and/or bolts that need to be tightened, use a proper tool if possible. I think that multi tools are handy as back ups, but given a choice I'll use a real tool first if possible. JMO

I'm not very smart. Is this a joke or is this a serious dilemma?

You can have an office. You can have a man cave. Trying to combine the two doesn't do either any justice. If you want neat stuff to hang on the wall of your office, I think shelves for trinkets is the way to go - unless you don't want to dust them - then a display case is in order. My insurance agent has in his office a glass enclosed coffee table with a 20 something pound peacock bass mounted inside, a replica of one he caught in Brazil. He has a net hanging on the wall with all sorts of old lures hanging from the net. There is a plethora of old 60's & 70's era rods & reels, mostly spin cast stacked in a few large ceramic jars in the different corners of his office. Lots of cool stuff. Last time I was in the office there was so much stuff piled on the coffee table you couldn't see the fish - one of the perils of a working office. In my man cave - (a 40 by 30 shed that I keep my boat, truck and assorted stuff in ) there are half a dozen folding chairs. Last time I looked, they were all piled with stuff that I wanted to keep off the floor for some reason. When I want to sit down I will either: A - up end a 5 gallon bucket and sit on that or B- Drive my mobile lawn chair ( a Kawasaki Mule) to the front door and sit in that.

Hijacking the post for a moment - concerning the electric fillet knife that doesn't work - and no receipt - try this. Send it back to them. Enclose a polite, but curt note about their product and your issues with it. See what happens. I think it would be worth the shipping to find out. Back to the subject now. . . .

As a co-angler you'll probably be fishing the shaky head a lot. I own many different brands, acquired in the pursuit of a perfect shaky head. That quest is no where near finished, but I understand what I am looking for now. Here is some stuff to think about. Many people think shaky head fishing as a finesse technique and it is - kinda. Be mindful that if you're fishing a lighter weight head from the back of the boat, the boater will often move the boat before your bait sinks to where you want it. Just a fact of tournament life as a co-angler, more often than not the boater keeps the boat moving. Very occasionally, the fish will want a swimming shaky head and in that case you're golden. Most of the time they don't. The answer here is to go with a heavier shaky head. You can go 3/8 oz on 8 or 10 lb line. That is one option. That allows you a better chance to get your bait to the bottom and work it for a moment before the boater moves the boat. If you have to choose between a head that is better at dragging or at hopping - go for the dragging, as you will probably be dragging your bait behind the boat quite a bit. Chompers makes a 3/8 oz head that I like quite a bit, but there are plenty of other styles out there. Recently I got some 3/8 oz finesse heads from Megastrike but I haven't fished them that much yet. What I eventually evolved into was a 7/16 or half ounce head fished on 14 lb fluorocarbon. Bait casting gear handles this weight line better than spinning gear. Another option to consider might be a jika rig. I make my own and the ones I use weigh out to around 5/8 oz. Depending on what hook you puts on them, they fish shaky worms, magnum shaky worms, creature baits, lizards, whatever. Advantages to these are that they always drop straight down, which is handy to know when you are targeting objects rather than areas and they are pretty heavy so they get to the bottom relatively quickly. The advantage to this becomes apparent once you've fished as a co-angler a lot. Tx. rigged football heads and Biffle bug type baits are other options, I'm pretty sure that other guys know more about the ins and outs of these baits more than I do. Last couple of years when I've fished out of some one else's boat I've focused on the heavier jika rig. Fishing out of my own boat, where I've got control of boat movement, I've had a decent amount of success throwing quarter ounce Brewer Slider heads and5" paddle tail worms on 10 lb line. Generally I'm throwing this boat into water than is more than 3 feet and less than 10 or 12 feet. Any deeper and I feel like I've got to wait too long for the bait to get to the bottom. So there you've got it - current thoughts on shaky head/soft plastic/co angler fishing. I've never fished on any Texas lakes so I don't know much about how this will apply to your situation. Option #next would be to check out the gear that the most successful co-angler in your club fishes and fish like he does.

I have a cordless Rapala filet knife. Wouldn't know about using it for fish - never have. I have 3 or 4 summer cook outs every year where I cook a whole pork loin in my electric smoker. I much prefer using the electric knife to a regular knife for slicing up the pork loin. It just goes faster and pals who haven't seen that toy before think that it is cool.

What about the best rod with shiny rod wrappings versus the best rods where the wrappings have a matte finish? What about the best rod that isn't black? What about the rod color that spooks fish the least? If we really put our collective minds on it we can come up with LOTS more "best rod" threads.

I like spinning gear for jerk baits.

Back in olden times, when everyone sat down to fish, a 6'3" rod was considered a little long. Try it on different stuff and see what you like. MH means different things to different manufacturers. I'd probably try it first on reaction baits like spinnerbaits and square bills, depending on how "tippy" it is.

There aren't any rules for what line to use for what approach. You've already got general guide lines for what might or might not be appropriate. Pick one and try it. If you don't like it, try a different one.

Where do you fish? 20 footers handle chop MUCH better than 18 footers do. Oh - I looked again - Manhattan KS. It gets windy there often. Might want to look at some multi-species boats than handle chop and waves better than bass boats do.

So what if they over lap? What does over lap mean anyway? The rule for purchasing rods is that you should buy as many as you can afford - and then maybe a couple more. If you are supporting young children and the rod purchase interferes with supporting the children adequately - go ahead and buy the rods. When those kids are between the ages of 14 to 25 those kids are going to hate you anyway, you will be possibly the meanest and least understanding person on the planet, so you might as well give them a reason. I'm glad I could help with this decision.

If you are going to replace, you might as well upgrade. Curado I's are reasonable, and a significant upgrade. For close to the same money, you can find a Chronarch 50, which might fit her hand better. It take that BPX reel and place it on the shelf with all the other honorably retired reels and move forward.

Pop for a set of micro tools. Straight pick - curved pick - tiny flat blade screwdriver - tiny wide blade screw driver - tiny phillips - small needle nose pliers - small needle nose vice grips - small blunt nose vice grips - side cutters and so forth. I'm sure I am forgetting some. Anyway, sooner or later you will need all of those tools and you might as well buy them now while you are thinking about it. While you are at it, get a sturdy water resistant box to keep all the tools in and label it so that it doesn't get spaced out when you store it with all your other tools. While you are still at it, you might as well buy 3 separate sets. One for your basement work space, another for your garage, a third for the fishing shed. When you are messing with something in your fishing shed, you don't want to stop and walk a couple of hundred yards back and forth to get some tool out of your basement. You might lose your train of thought. Don't ask how I know this. You are fortunate in that you have identified a problem that can be solved by throwing money at it. If only all problems were that simple.

Back when I fished golf course ponds I traveled light, so that I could move faster when someone was coming. I generally used a 3/16 oz Brewer Slider head & worm on 6 lb line. One a side note, eating golf course fish isn't a good idea, mostly because of the herbicides that drain into most golf course ponds.

Fishing reels are toys. You should play nice with your toys and not tear them up unnecessarily. Every so often you are going to break or wear out a toy. Fix it yourself or send it in or put it on the shelf and get a new toy. Your choice.

There are plenty of different wrapping tapes out there to choose from. BPS sells an aftermarket rod wrap that is pretty good. Walmart sometimes carries a rod wrap and also in the tennis section handle wrap is available. Any decent bicycle store will have a variety of handle bar wraps. They all work ok. Stretch them out real tight and pay attention to how you wrap them and you can customize your rod handle to fit your hand. Be aware on spinning gear when you remove the reel from the rod you'll have to unwind or cut off the wrap - not a big deal. Most of my rods have handle wrap on them for a couple of different reasons. One, I like the feel of the rod wrap compared to the plain cork or foam. Secondly, I can build it up so that it fits my hand the way I like it. Thirdly, I can color code different types of rods, i.e. plastics & jig rods have grey handles. Spinnerbait rods have teal handles. Crank rods have red handles and so forth. I've never tried the lizard skin, but there isn't any reason it wouldn't work.

For pond duty like you're describing, spinning gear worked better for me than bait casting gear did.

Timber Tiger DC 8 & Timber Tiger DC5. I own others but seldom throw them. Timber Tigers come through brush and cover better than anything else for me.

You've done this to how many reels? If you can untangle the birds nest, the line can be saved by dragging it behind your boat for a couple of minutes, Remove all hardware and just drag it behind the boat. Then it will behave when you re-spool it. Are you filling it from a bulk spool or a filler spool? That has made a difference for me from time to time. What brand of reel is it? Back in the 80's I had a Mitchell, one of the first ones that had the skirted spool. That reel was a line eater and I never could get it to not eat line. I had a Shimano that ate line once and it turned out that the replacement spool wasn't exactly the same as the original spool - my mistake, I shouldn't have listened to the highly trained workers in the reel section at BPS. The next time I went to buy a spare spool I researched the numbers myself and compared the part numbers myself. I hope your line eating reel is an installation issue and not a hardware issue. Line eating reels can be frustrating.

All good questions. The easy answer is that sometimes dead sticking works and sometimes it don't. Don't really know why. Dead sticking works best on "inactive fish" Why is that? Could it be that if you try it around active/hungry fish it doesn't stay put long enough to call it dead sticking? I don't know. For me, about the only time I " deadstick" is when I've cast out a bait and then have to do something, take a leak, answer the phone, get an adult beverage, something. Secure the rod in the rod holder and sometimes when you come back to it there is a fish on.

2015 BPS Master Catalog lists the sizes of all the different sizes of Plano boxes that they sell. Bust out your ruler and take it from there.

Rangers have a lot of storage. When you've got a Ranger you can carry most of the tackle store - isn't that one of the arguments for having a Ranger, i.e. plenty of storage. If you're moving stuff in and out, just have a few big totes so that you don't have to make so many trips. Be a pal and leave the back bin behind the passenger seat open so that your co-angler has some below deck storage.