Fishes in trees

Too many to name. That's why I'm a "junk" fisherman and carry 20 or so different rigs in the boat. And those 20 or so rigs change some from season to season. To address the posters question - these days I'm favoring higher tech Ned rigs and/or throwing various plastics on 10 lb line with my finesse bait caster rig. Most of the time I'm using a Brewer Slider head to rig the plastics on. At some point this spring I'll spend most of an afternoon throwing an old school Berkley "Frenzy" lipless crank over gently sloping shallow vegetation beds. I'll be planning too catch 1 or 2 fish in the 20" - 22" range. That's the current plan anyway.

Any compartment in any Plano box can be made stationary with a hot glue gun and a few moments of time. Prior to me realizing this, I had similar issues from time to time. It seemed to me that the root of the problem was overloading the boxes. I solved my issues by (a) gluing the dividers as necessary and (b) using plenty of boxes, keeping the gear spread out and less likely to tangle & wander. So, crank baits for instance - I don't just have a square bill box. I got a box for Lucky Craft square bills , a separate one for Bandit square bills, another for Strike King square bills, a fourth for Wiggle Warts and another couple of boxes for various brands - one ofs, not enough for a dedicated box. Back in the day, Bass Pro marketed double sided crank bait boxes with v slots on both sides. Best crank bait boxes I've ever found, with the exception that they didn't store really fat cranks well.

As addictions go, boat ownership is relatively painless, IMO, plus it gives me something to ride around on when I go fishing. Used to be a bank walker - but these days I think riding around in a boat is funner. I think the appropriate comment here is "pay to play".

I use an old Curado D to throw chatter baits. It has a 5/1 gear ratio. I find it easier to speed up if I have to than to have to slow down. I wold imagine that in Canada an occasional pike or muskie would take an interest in a chatter bait. Makes me think you'd want something sturdy. Personally, I think a decent size pike could tear up a Diawa Fuego. The reel I'm using, which I think is a step up tank-wise from the Daiwa - I think it would get interesting, hooked up with a decent pike. Reels last a long time if you take care of them, so there isn't anything wrong with going a little over budget - so I'd recommend a Calcutta or the newer TranX. Fish with either of those reels alot and take care of them and 25 years or so from now you might have to get another one. Once upon a time-long long ago I had a chance to go Muskie fishing - so I called Shimano to see if the Calcutta would be up to the task. They thought it was funny - and basically over the phone they dared me - the service rep took down my name and told me he'd fix it for free if I tore up a Calcutta on a Muskie. End of the story - didn't catch one - didn't have a follow - but I filled it up with 65 lb braid and it stood up to throwing 2 to 5 ounce baits for a couple of days with NO issues. So, that's what I'd do and having said that I got no clue about different reel availability in Canada, so my opinion probably isn't real practical and that's ok - I got lots of opinions that ain't real practical.

Well, if you don't - you don't - c'est la vie.

The Shimano/Daiwa/ all other reels minutia discussion can go on forever. For purposes of that line of reasoning, I'm a Shimano guy. What I'm saying is don't stack all your spinning gear in the corner and go bait caster all the way. There is a time & place for spinning gear.

It doesn't matter all that much to me because I like to adjust the grip of the rod with rod wrap tape or tennis racket tape. At first, I only did this with spinning rods, jot make it smoother to hold, but then I got to like it so I use rod wrap tape on most of my bait casters as well.

I get by with 17 or 20 lb mono. If you can feel the bait when it is close to you, but somewhat lose feel when it is farther away from you, I think you just got to trust that the bait is doing what it is supposed to, just you can't feel it quite as well because of distance. I'm not certain that feel makes a difference in this situation. My notion is that if you are close to the bottom and reeling it pretty slow - then you're slo-rollin. The way you tell if you're close to the bottom is if you pause on the retrieve and after a few seconds your line goes a little slack, then you're on the bottom. Back in the day, Charlie Brewer used a term for retrieves called "polishing the rocks." Slow rolling is polishing the rocks with a spinner bait - IMO. As far as strike detection goes, I don't know what to tell you. Me - I use a sensitive graphite rod that will throw the weight I want to throw and hope I feel the strikes. I don't feel all of them, but I think this approach helps me feel most of them. Not a fan of the graphite/glass or straight fiberglass rods - just a little too whippy for me. I'm still looking for that "Excaliber" of spinner bait rods - a rod that will let me throw as far as I want, every time, without back lashes, a rod that will let me feel every strike ASAP and one that will never break. There has to be one out there, I just haven't came across it yet - or maybe my wallet won't let me look in the right places, I don't know.

I think that 1 to 2 feet of visibility is nearly perfect spinner bait water and pretty much all colors & forms are in play. Where you got a foot of visibility and that's it I'll generally use white or white/chartreuse and I've had some success with chartreuse/purple. I don't use trailer hooks all that often, I nearly always use a soft plastic trailer. Current favorite is the BPS Cajun trailer, white with chartreuse tips.

I like the VMC Drop Dead weighted hooks. They come in various sizes & weights. For me the 4/0 1/8 oz size works best. If I had to go heavier, I'd use a tungsten worm weight pegged to the nose.

The thin wire used in War Eagle spinnerbaits has always been a blessing and a curse.

Original poster - I'm guessing that you fish from the bank much more often than you fish from a boat. Back when I was 100% bank bound, and a more or less self taught, meat fishing bush hippie, I realized that throwing in to the wind wasn't a good idea. Keep walking til you find a spot that isn't throwing into the wind, at least maybe quartering into the wind, something like that. If such a spot isn't available, throw heavier than normal, keep the cast as low as possible and lower your expectations concerning your success rate that day. If you stay serious about fishing, sooner or later you'll figure out a way to get off the bank. In my case I was fairly young, living in a university town and there were several professors who were older and were willing to share their boat. (and buy more than their share of beer & food & gas ) in exchange for interesting company and someone who was willing to lift & tote & do whatever when required. I recall getting a call from one of these guys - out of the blue - 200 PM on a Friday. "Charlie - get semi-cleaned up and show up at my house ASAP". OK - I hadn't heard from this guy for a year because he was on sabbatical. Anyway, turned up at his house and he had a dozen of the cheap 100 quart styrofoam coolers - filled with fresh shrimp. His sabbatical was at Tulane in Louisiana and his last act prior to leaving for Missouri was to buy as many cheap coolers as he could fit into his Suburban and fill them up with fresh shrimp & ice before driving straight through to Missouri. He needed help cleaning the shrimp. He had beer. Got me and a couple of other grad students sitting at the picnic table, drinking beer & cleaning fish and he went in to take a shower. Turned out a couple of dozen of his fellow professors had shrimp dinner - courtesy of a few grad students who cleaned all the shrimp. He paid us in beer - and maybe a little consideration in our final grade the next semester. A good/decent time was had by all. So - original poster - maybe a similar situation will arise for you in Denver, where you can get access/use/ go along and get off the bank. That particular professor had several boats, and I got to where I could pull up to his house and tow out any of his 3 cheaper boats that he had on trailers. He wouldn't lend me his 18' Lowe or his 17 ' Boston Whaler - just as well because my car couldn't tow them anyway. The whole point of this post is that off the bank chances are there if you look for them and pursue them.

I use spinning gear for jerk baits as well. I use an older ( purchased 2002-03?) Shimano 6'3" Medium/Ex fast tip. Over the years I've tried other rods for a trip or two, but I've always came back to this one. I think that my jerk bait rod would get steamed if I tried to repurpose or multipurpose it - so I don't. Right now, that rod is a starter, doesn't see a whole lot of action, but it is a starter. I think it would feel demeaned if I tried to work it into the line up as a multi-purpose rod. Your rod might feel differently.

I've found that you can make any rod shorter with a hack saw. I've had some success doing this - with 7' rods where I just didn't like where they caught me on my fore arm. Mind you, I try this with close out rods - haven't tried it with rods that list for $100+.

It occurs, but it doesn't seem to matter. On my home made jika rigs, I like as light a hook as I can get away with. I want the weight of the hook to interfere with the fish sucking in the bait as little as possible. I'll use the Gamakatsu O'Shaughnessy offset shank hook in 3/0 or 4/0. These are fairly light. I came across some Trokar hooks on close out - the Pro-V worm hook in 3/0, 4/0 and 5/0 and these are just a little heavier and I can't decide which I like best. I use lizards & brush hogs on my jigs rigs most of the time and I think I get more consistent hook ups using the more standard size hook gaps rather than a wide gap hook. I don't think that the hook lodging in the gap of the split ring is a bad thing. Once I got my rig stuck in something, tried the lure retriever & long pole to try to retrieve it - no success - backed it off with the trolling motor and got the rig back but not the hook - the hook pulled out of the split ring. That's happened once. I've probably gotten 20 or 30 of these baits stuck & lost, so I don't see it as an issue.

The casino's in Missouri aren't allowed to hand out free drinks - something about a fair market value law the Missouri Restaurant Association had a hand in prior to the casinos coming into Missouri. In my opinion, casinos would have fewer troubles with over serving if they were allowed to hand out "free" drinks, i.e. after 2 or 3 beers - "Here you go, sir, enjoy this cold frosty mug of O'Doul's".

I make my own jika rigs and in my experiences the hook lodging in the gap isn't a problem, at least it hasn't been for me.

I like the Falcon K wacky hooks with the wire mouse trap style weed guard.

My opinions on crank bait reels. Get a $100 + or - reel and it will last for a while. Take reasonable care of it and it will last for a longer while. Get some iteration of a Shimano Calcutta or a Tranx and take reasonable care with it and it is more or less a lifetime purchase. Looking at cost over time, the Calcutta/Tranx purchase becomes a better deal. Given your budget - the first nasty, non-fishable day you have off, I'd take the afternoon and drive around, take a tour of the pawn shops within your drivable area, and maybe, if you're lucky, you'll find a treasure - a Calcutta, maybe a Morrum at a considerable discount. Any of the previous reels mentioned are fine - and they will last, for a while, some more than others. The only reason that I'm suggesting a Calcutta, or a Tranx , maybe a Morrum is that you're in Minnesota. Sooner or later a pike or muskie is going to bite that crank, and those fish can tear up a mid-range priced bait caster. At that point, you'll either have a great story about how a big fish trashed your bait caster, OR with a Calcutta or Tranx, you can land the fish, unhook it and go on about your business.

I haven't measured my drag in pounds since I was in Cub Scouts. My drag settings go from none to some to quite a bit to all the way.

Both those lines seem a little light for me. In the lakes that I fish in Missouri, I don't throw any kind of jig on less than 15 lb fluorocarbon. I don't throw the Carolina rig all that much, but when I do I have a 7' MH spinning rig that I'll throw 20 or 30 lb braid with. With the Carolina rig, I get longer casts, better feel and better hook sets with the MH spinning gear.

I generally carry 2 or 3 spare reels, sometimes in the boat, more often in the fishing truck. These are for when I backlash a reel so bad that I don't want to fool with it right then, it is much easier to just pull out another reel and go. Seems to me that swapping out reels between different rods during a fishing trip would be a waste of fishing time, so I don't do that - but I can see how some folks might. If a reel betrays me by backlashing during a fishing trip - I don't want to fish with it, for the rest of the day, anyway. That reel needs to sit on the bench for a while, near the action, but without any chance of being in the action, to reflect on the errors of its ways & and not backlash on me again.

to RDB - fair enough - perhaps I was harsh. Whenever fishing issues get stuck between my ears, I turn to my trusted friend - IPA - and maybe his acquaintance - Bud.

That is certainly an excellent choice for a calories rig. My very favorite calories rig (and a great reason to go to Truman Lake ) is the tenderloin sandwich at Bucksaw Point Marina. Lead off with a 1/3 lb pork loin, butterflied, pounded & breaded, when deep fried, it covers an entire dinner plate. Put it on a plate with a small bun, the sandwich extending a couple inches or so out from the bun in every direction, with plenty of fresh tomatoes & lettuce. Cold domestic beer in a frosty mug and I'm good - for a while. I wouldn't be surprised if others on this forum had a favorite calorie rig as well.

Original poster - sounds a little bit like whining. Oh poor me - the places I have to fish are pressured. Power fishing doesn't work. Finesse fishing is soooo slow. Help me help me. In my opinion, your primary issue is between your ears. Fishing pressures water - you might have to change your expectations. In real pressured waters, a fish or two per day is an accomplishment. The easy answer is to try different stuff. Consider finesse fishing as more of an attitude toward bait presentation rather than specific baits & gear & stuff like that. If you're looking for specific structures in a pond, perhaps one of those depth finders made for bank fishermen, with a castable transducer. This will literally cover the water and allow you to make more educated guesses about where the highest priority spots to throw might me. Back in the day, when I was a meat fishing bush hippie, I wish I would have had one of those toys. What I did back in the day was throw a Brewer Slider worm as far as I could, work it back while polishing the rocks, and just try to pay attention to strike detection. Back in the day, I found the more I paid attention to that, the better I got at it. To address the question "How do I cover the water using finesse techniques?" The answer is - you just do it. Don't feel like you've got to cover X amount of water to be successful. You cover the water that you can cover in the amount of time you got, to the extent that you feel you've "covered" that water. I'd say , "slow down & smell the roses " but every time I slow down to smell the roses, my allergies kick in, so that isn't really a good analogy. Other than that - don't have an answer.