Fishes in trees

Son - Finesse jig versus Flipping jig = two different tools, for use in different situations. Different weights - different size & strength of hooks, different lb. test and types of line used, and so forth. I guess if you looked enough you could find some overlap between the two types of jigs, and the conditions you might use them under, but for the most part, not so much.

The heavy weight combined with the jump is what is causing the lost fish. Very seldom do we get a perfect hook set - it is something to strive for, but doesn't happen as often as we might like. I think the key to landing fish on heavier jigs is to not let them jump. I guess, after the hook set, fight the fish with the rod tip down as much as possible. Nobody bats 1000. You are going to have days, and even years, when you miss more fish than you think you should.

I'd stick with the braid/leader set up. You have issues with the braided line bowing in the wind when you keep your rod tip up. Not as much with the rod tip down and the line in/on the water as much as possible. That's my approach anyway.

As a person who in olden times car topped a pond boat on top of a Nissan 200 SX = you can do it but you will skiff the paint from time to time, probably every time. Getting it up on top of the roof by yourself is a challenge. I couldn't do it now. Later on, I got a Chevy van and folding down the back seat and sliding the boat in was pretty simple. I had a smaller pond boat (8' long by 4' something wide) and it fit in with the doors locked.

In olden times, when I was a bank fisherman, I used a bag of such quality that I didn't care if I tore it up or not. I just threw it on the bank when I wasn't using it and picked it up when I moved. Pretty simple plan. I acquired bags of this quality from the Goodwill store. I got them in the used women's purse department. Just get the biggest one there, pay your dollar and move on. The last one I had would hold 6 or 7 medium size boxes and enough bags of soft plastics and quite a bit of other stuff. It was a neon green and black zebra stripe pattern. You could leave this bag on the bank for a week and no one would steal it because it was so ugly. Several times, it got so dirty I emptied it and took it to the car wash to hose it off. Eventually it disintegrated. The point here is that bank fishing bags don't have to be expensive.

I don't know about where you live, but in Missouri, where I live, you get stopped for anything while you are towing your boat, and you don't have boat insurance, they go all "cop" on you real quick. Nothing good ever happens at this point. There isn't any future in towing your boat anywhere if you aren't insured. Pay to play.

without going into details of your presentations issues, consider throwing a wobble head with a Zoom trick worm.. This will give you the swimming action you're looking for, wobble head will help with the casting distance issues. The wobble head is relatively easy to keep shallow, as long as you keep it moving.

I've taken a different approach to terminal tackle storage/maintenance. Hooks - I've stopped trying to carry every brand of hook I own. I try to carry a representative assortment of the types of hooks I might need in the course of a day. So, at Walmart I found a bunch of clear plastic pencil holders. They are roughly 6' by 8" - clear fairly heavy plastic, grommets on the corners ( designed to fit into a 3 ring notebook ) and a 5" or so zipper to close it. OK then, one for tx rig hooks - mostly 2/o to 5/0 with some exceptions. Another for drop shot hooks, another for tx rig senkos, one for weedless wacky rigs, I don't know - I carry 8 or 9 of the pencil holders filled with various specialty hooks. A shower curtain snap keeps all the different bags together in the large tackle bin in my boat. Weights - a similar deal - I don't carry all I own, just a representative sample of what I might need. I mostly use the smallish double sided plano boxes. One for drop shot weights, ( bubba drop shot& traditional lighter weights) another for tx rig weights, another for tungsten tx rig weights, another for internal tube weights, florida rig weights, etc. A slightly larger double sided box for " specialty weights" In the specialty weights category would be an assortment of nails for Neko rigs, different shapes of lead tape to fine tune weighting for stick baits. Lead & regular finishing nails to insert in the tails/bodies of various plastics and I'm sure I am forgetting some. The point here is that, for me, many small boxes and bags of terminal tackle work better than one larger box that is more or less easily spilled. My boat has a medium sized storage bin built into the step to the front deck, that holds all this stuff and more. I color code the various boxes and clear pencil holders to try to make it more accessible.. I offer this system as an option to the "one box for all" approach. So basically, if I need a tx rig senko hooks, I don't have to wade through all the different hooks to find the style I want. Same deal for weights. There is some overlap. There might be similar ( or the same) hooks in the tx rig hook bag and the bubba drop shot hook bag. I cary enough Gamakatsu Wicked Wacky hooks that they get their own bag. and so forth.. . . it works for me. Kinda sorry for the long rant - just got home from work & working on Deschutes Fresh Squeezed IPA #2 while I wrote this post.

I think that the Zoom horny toad hooks are the way to go with this bait style. They come weighted and unweighted. There are other similar hook styles out there that would probably work just as well. I happened to find a BUNCH of them on close out at the Independence BPS several years ago, so I have a lifetime supply of tx rig solid body frog hooks, in many different sizes and colors. Personal favorite in this style hook is a weighted 3/8 oz model with a 7/0 hook. This hook fits the larger Stanley Frog well and the weight gets you a lot more distance. You'd think that weight would drop the frog too fast, when you pause it in an opening, but the larger frog slows down the drop speed quite a bit.

Rather than wait for the weedless Shroomz head, go to the Charlie Brewer web site and get yourself some slider heads. They make a wide variety of weights & shapes, several of which are very applicable to Ned rigs. As far as breaking hooks go, every so often you're going to break a hook. Some years I won't break any, other years I'll break a few. Every time you have to bust out the needle nose pliers, you might break a hook - especially when you've bent it kinda back into shape several times.

I don't know about you, but I can't buy a fishing rod without touching it. If I am buying a rod over the internet, which I've done a few times, either I'm getting one just like a buddy has or I'm buying a replacement or a twin to one I've already got. For instance - spinnner bait rods, years ago, I finally found a spinner bait rod I liked (All Star 6'8" Zell Rowland spinner bait rod) Finally ended up buying 5 of them - found a strong sale on-line. Point being - if I hadn't already found one, I never would have bought the extras on line. Back to your issue, you line in the north east. I'm pretty sure that there are some tackle stores in the north east, independent retailer and big box, low end & high end. My advice would be for you to start making the rounds until you find one you like. By the way, Fenwick makes a number of 7' and longer rods in medium and medium heavy. (I've got a few of them) A Fenwick HMG 7' MH - extra fast tip is the one I'd recommend, just because that is the one I've got. $100 more or less. They make the same action in their Aetos line - $180 more or less. I'm not a big fan of the skeleton style handle on the Aetos, or I'd have one of those - it is a little lighter. The Fenwick HMG has exactly the same action as their bait casting rod that's rated the same - same blank - just rigged with spinning components. Good luck in your search. I've got a few 70's & early 80's spinning rods myself, for the most part they loaf in the "retired" section of my rod arsenal.

Go ahead and get a new scale as soon as you acquire funding. Just be mindful that scales have a mind of their own and they will lie to you. My hand held scale, (a fairly small Quarrow model) weighs 3 lb lead dumb bells perfectly, every time. Every time I put a 6 or 7 lb bass on that same scale it weighs 4 or 4 1/2. Stupid lying scale. I'd throw it away, but I know that all scales lie, so why get another one.

I like 3 to 4 feet of visibility, minimum, to work jerk baits. I generally fish these baits on points, getting them 3 to 6 feet down in 8 to 20 feet of water. If the water is more stained than that, I think that there are better options. Early spring time, shallower water, muddy or clear, I think that a lipless crank, moved pretty fast is a better option. I've heard that on some lakes, in the summer time, when you have a steeply sloping bank that fish would herd bait fish up against, that a jerk bait works good in that situation. I haven't run into that situation, so I don't know.

I find that the Sammy walks best for me. I got better at walking stick baits once I got gear that works for me. Current favorite is an old MItchell Fulcrum, 5'9" MH straight handle bait casting rod. I use a 200 size Curado or a Calcutta 200 TEGT reel, 14 or 17 mono. I use this same rig for poppers. I find that with longer rods, doing the sharp downward pop, I smack the rod tip into the side of the boat too often. Anyway, that's what works for me.

In olden times (early 80's) guys I knew in local bass clubs would take off brand Johnson Silver Minnow imitations, cut off half the weed guard and bend the remainder of the weed guard with needle nose pliers to make a worm holder, similar to the part on the gliding jig except it was fixed rather than removable. Various plastics could then be fish in a tx rig style. I tried it with mixed results, I think that if I'd been better with a bait caster then, I might have done better. The bait overpowered the spinning rigs I commonly used at that time. Good to know that every so often an idea gets recycled. That looks like a better executed design than the early 80's edition.

I don't have much experience fishing for fish with teeth. However, I know some guys who have and I've chatted with them about toothy fish issues from time to time. In my opinion, if you've got to fish a crank on a wire leader, you'd be better off purchasing wire leader materials and making your own wire leader rather than purchasing one that comes with swivel & snap. If you need to get the bait deeper, a worm weight on the line ahead of the leader works ok. Some guys I know will go with 50 or 80 fluorocarbon leader and forego wire. Have to experiment to find out what works for you.

If you want a bag that you can carry, but other guys have difficulty with, just buy one of those large Magnum Cabelas bags, and fill it with your fishing gear and top off any remaining room with bricks.

The past few years I've found a jika rig to be more productive than a T-rig where I fish. The most productive area is the deep edge of the weed line, where ever that is. Deep weed lines on points that intersect a foot or so above the thermocline seem to be best for me. Netbait creature lures, Brush hogs and Berkley Powerbait Lizards seem to work best for me. I had a couple of days last year where the YUM Zellemander was the ticket. Your home made jika rigs look a little light to me. I make my own as well and I seldom go lighter than a half an ounce. 5/8 or 3/4 oz are the weights I generally throw. The logic behind this is that the jika rig is one that you fish on the bottom and when I cast out the bait I want it on the bottom asap. The way the rig presents the bait, weight is not an issue, I think that the heavier weight actually helps in strike detection. 3/0 or at the max 4/0 size hooks have worked best for me. I've done better with the regular size offset sprout or round bend hooks, compared to extra wide gap hooks. I think that the more you fish a jika rig, the more places you find that it will work, better than a T-rig in most cases.

BPS sells a line pick that is handy for situations like this. Buy several and have them scattered around in your boat so that one is relatively close when you need it.

In for a penny - in for a pound. I'd buy a small lawn tractor battery to power the depth finder with and not put anything else on the trolling motor battery.

Mid to late 80's - Roland Martin, in cahoots with Blue Fox, marketed a very similar jig. Not as sophisticated color scheme, of course, but a very similar idea. Strike King also offered a similar jig around the same time. Blue Fox one had a willow leaf blade, as I recall the Strike King model had a Colorado blade. Late 70's, Fishing Facts magazine had an article about how to put blades on the back of Johnson Silver Minnows, that bait was fished slightly sub-surface, an old school take on a swimming jig. History aside - glad you found a bit modification what works for you.

I bought one. You've all heard of big game hunting. This is micro game hunting. You can do it indoors or out. Great fun. Wind shooting wasps is not easy. This activity pairs well with beer. It is difficult to hurt yourself. If you want to bag a large horse fly, you've got to hit it dead on. They seem to shrug off incomplete hits.

To echo prior writings, there is a learning curve to fishing from a boat. The change in perspective takes a while to learn and get familiar with. There isn't any substitute for the on the water. Not much information on what kind of boat, I'm assuming some jon boat -electric trolling motor combo - correct me if I'm wrong. Rule #1 = have an alternative power source. When the wind blows you to the other side of the lake and your trolling motor battery gets weak, you will be glad you remembered the paddle (oars are better on a jon boat). If you have forgotten them once, you're unlikely to forget them again for a long time. Learn to deal with the wind. Learn to cast/fish while you are drifting. Learning how to run the boat, put it where you want it and fish at the same time is an acquired skill. It doesn't take too long to learn this stuff - just be mindful when you're on the water.

Not to be a nit-picker, but I kinda think that an 11" fish is ALOT under 2 pounds.

On your ported spools, I've always thought that putting line through the holes in the spool is a bad idea. Don't know why, exactly, just struck me as a bad idea. I'd tie a better knot to the spool, maybe a dot of super glue to keep the line positioned. Other than that, it just seems like a matter of practice to me. Often, braid is pretty easy to dig into itself and cause over runs/back lashes, etc. The cure to that is to be sure that a constant tension is put on the line as you retrieve. Often, that is easier said than done.