Fishes in trees

I wouldn't waste a lot of time trying to punch through the weeds. I'd concentrate on the deep weed line. I'd probably throw a kinda heavy jika rig, half or 5/8 oz, in that range. I'd probably throw a lizard or a creature bait first - probably some variation of green pumpkin in color, for starters. Hard to get through them? Hard to get your boat through them or hard to get your lure through them? You could always drive up to Rogers in Liberty and ask those guys. I find that they try hard to give good advice.

This time of the year, I'd start with fishing the deepest edge of the weed line on points. If that intersects a little bit above the thermocline, so much the better. Option B might be to find the brush off the docks. I'd start by assuming that every dock has brush, probably not directly underneath it, but an easy cast away from it.

Back when I was a meat fisherman, and living in town, I thought that the best place for fish remains was in the dumpster of a nearby vegetarian restaurant. It stunk anyway, fish guts weren't going to make that much of a difference.

At this point in my life, I find it hard to care if the youth of today are into fishing or not. In Missouri, for a long time, we've paid a 1/8 of a cent sales tax directly to the MO conservation department. So it is self funded - separate from the rest of the state government budget wise. For the most part, I think that they have done a decent job maintaining and even increasing fishing opportunities, as well a deer hunting, turkey hunting, campgrounds and so forth. The blue print is there if other states want to do something similar.

For me - two different baits - two different purposes - kinda. A lipless crank - rattle trap style bait (although I never use Rattle Traps) for me, its purpose it to run over the tops of whatever grass/vegetation is available - at a pretty rapid pace. Early spring - it might be 2 feet deep. Late fall - same thing. In-between, whatever depth the grass is, I want a bait that I can pull pretty fast over the top of the grass. If the grass is topping out 2 feet below the surface in 8 feet of water, I still use the trap to tick the tops of the grass. Once grass gets matted over or otherwise gets too thick - trap don't work for me. A chatterbait, I will use interchangeably with a spinnerbait. Some days the fish prefer one over the other. I've gotten more multi species action of the chatter bait. I've caught 3 channel cats in the 5 lb range on a chatter bait in 3 to 5 feet of water. Never had a catfish hit a spinner bait. For me, if the pattern involves bumping a lot of stumps, a spinner bait works better for me than a chatter bait. But that seems to be a day to day thing for me. JMO

If I were leaving a boat in a slip in a marina, I'd want it on a lift - up and out of the water.

I'd tie some kind of loop knot. Years ago, I was at a BASS seminar at the Springfield, MO BPS. I asked one of the presenters - Shaw Grigsby - what knot he used to tie for poppers. He said to use a King Sling. I think it is a decent knot and relatively easy to tie. If you want a fairly small loop, you've got to pay attention.

You gotta practice, son. I wish all my fishing situations would set up so that I'd just have to use one style of cast - doesn't seem to happen that way. Focus on training your thumb and side arm - overhead - back hand - whatever, doesn't matter all that much. My advice would be to learn how to pitch as well. Even with cranks and spinnerbaits, a 50 or 60 foot pitch will get you into spots that a side arm or overhead cast can't. I realize 60' is pushing it on a pitch, but it is doable.

There isn't anything stopping you from making a list of the different techniques you're rigged for - to give you various options. Writing stuff down and having it in front of you is generally better than trying to remember different things. Back to the notion of a "checklist", back in the day when I was bank bound, I generally kept a list of the different stuff that should be in the car prior to leaving on a fishing trip. These days, I'm not bank bound but I still keep a list - more of less - of different stuff that needs to be in either the truck of the boat. Back in the day, I remember being absolutely bummed because I left the "glaucoma preventative" at home - wasn't on the check list. That was one of the things that you had to remember independent of the check list.

Go back to the basics, i.e. "The fish are deep - or shallow - or somewhere in-between." That being said - if I am fishing in the summertime and I have a depth finder, I'm fishing points primarily where the points intersect with the thermocline or slightly above that, OR the deepest edge of any available weed line. That's where I start in the summer time. Maybe in the later afternoon, when the sun is creating some strong shadow lines in the shallower water, I might go look and see if there is any spinner bait bits around the shadow lines, but mostly I fish10 to 18 feet deep in the summer. (That is usually slightly above the thermocline, in the neighborhoods that I generally fish in.

I think that the worm binders are unnecessary. I keep all soft plastics in their original packaging. ( for the most part ) Should a package get unusable, I repackage in a quart zip lock freezer bag. Freezer bags are MUCH more durable than regular zip lock bags. Group similar plastics together in gallon zip lock bags. Get a small to medium sized duffle bag to store the filled gallon zip lock bags of various plastics. Label the various bags as much as necessary to that you don't spend too much time looking through various bags looking for that one bait. I generally carry 3 smallish duffle bags full of soft plastics in my boat - maybe 16 to 20 different classes of baits. (For instance - creatures - craws - senkos - fluke type baits - chompers - ribbon tail worms - paddle tail worms - nose hook drop shot baits - tx rig drop shot baits - swim baits - you get the idea) If I was bank bound I'd probably down size some. If I were you, I'd spend my money on LOTS of quart and gallon size zip lock bags and cheap duffle bags, rather than one of those "worm binders". I'm not impressed with the amount of storage you get for the price.

My experience with fishing senkos and o-rings is that the correct size is 3/8" O.D. - 1/4" I.D. I've had the o-ring kind of tear the senko in half - after 20 or 30 fish. I don't find that to be a bad problem to have.

I found a bolt on step at Cabelas a few years ago, and I cobbled together a post to lean on using 2" plastic pipe and fittings I found at Ace Hardware. Works for me.

The lights on my boat trailer are messed up. (original lights - 2002 era trailer) Turn signals work - brake lights work - normal running lights don't work. Took it to one of the few guys in my neighborhood who will work on trailers. Anyway - he told me that the bulbs were burnt out and it was a sealed unit and you had to buy a new part. He'd be doing the work now, except he left for vacation yesterday and won't be back until August 2. That's ok - I've got some surgery scheduled in early August and what with time off from work - recovery and whatnot, I won't be fishing and I won't be able to afford new trailer lights until the later part of August. My question - what is a reasonable amount of money to spend for new trailer lights? I'm looking for options/opinions here. My trailer has worked perfectly for such a long time that I've got no clue what is reasonable or unreasonable for trailer lighting expenses. I'm thinking about upgrading to LED's. Good idea or bad idea or unnecessary idea?

Weight is a decision thing. Basically, use the lightest weight that you can get away with and still feel what you want to feel. This a rule of thumb, but there are many exceptions to this rule. Weights are something that you have to experiment quite a bit with, to find out what you like and what you don't. First, consider what you want the weight to do. Drop shot weights are a good for instance. For instance, say I want to drop shot a weed line that is 12 to 15 feet down. Maybe it only takes an eight of an ounce weight to sink the bait that I choose to use….. Ok then, a 1/8 oz weight takes "x" amount of time to sink to where you want it to sink to and anchor your bait. OK then, a quarter ounce weight will take less than "x" amount of time to sink , and a half ounce will take much less time. Decision making with a tx rig type bait is similar but different because the weight is in front of your bait rather than underneath it. Jika rigs are another situation. My jika rigs are all home made. I very seldom fish less than a 5/8 oz jika rig and I fish closer to 3/4 oz than lighter. My reasoning is that the jika rig is a bottom rig and I want my bait to get to the bottom asap. This is just me, There aren't any right or wrong decisions - just decision that work better or less better for you. Experimentation and paying attention are the keys to learning how to weight baits. Hope this helps, points you in a direction to figure this out.

I would think that a Berkley Lightning rod from Walmat would suit your needs. Last time I was there they had several different actions. Late 90's and early 2000's, these were my rod of choice. I still have 4 or 5 spinning rods in different lengths that I use as loaner rods. Of course there are better rods out there - but they all cost more. If you ever get to the KC Metro area, Rogers Lures in Liberty has several models in the Fenwick HMG class that retail for right around a hundred dollars. The AETOS line is in the $160 neighborhood. The Fenwick HMX line costs somewhat less then the HMG. The value of the HMG or AETOS lines is the limited lifetime warranty - which for 10 bucks they send you a new rod when you break your old one. There area few hoops to jump through in this process. You're in Nebraska - Cabelas HQ is in Nebraska - somewhere close to Omaha I believe. Go there and see what they have in the bargain cave at your price point. That would be option #2.

Back in the early 90's we had a bunch of rain, here in Missouri and elsewhere around the midwest. Caused a massive flood. Water in the Missouri river channel was basically bluff to bluff. I got ragged at by State National Guard troops for playing in a bass boat, trolling up and down the streets of a town that was flooded - but I digress. I was working at a hardware store at the time. There were 70 or so preachers that I talked to on a pretty regular basis - they had charge accounts for their churches for maintenance supplies and stuff like that. Anyway, I told them all the same thing, i.e. "You are the guy with the hotline to God - do something or we're going to have a major flood that is going to cause many problems and spoil a lot of bar-b-ques this summer." Anyway, the result is well known - the flood happened. Turns out that none of those preachers knew how to talk to a rain god. . . . . . It is a pitiful commentary on religious tolerance in my neighborhood that not one of the preachers that I dealt with weekly thought that joke was funny.

Take your lures with you when you go to the tackle store and match up the sizes visually. All companies hook sizes are slightly different. That might make a difference - might not. Not a big fan of feathered hooks on spooks & jerk baits. The feathers act like a parachute to retard the walking - darting acton - IMO. There are probably some situations where that would be a good thing. I do use feathered trebles on some poppers.

I use 20 lb Seaguar Abrazx instead of braid - works for me.

Ned himself wouldn't upgrade. He's written a few times about the "humble" tackle he uses day in and day out. Check out his Midwest Finesse blog.

Back in the day, I bought a service spool of 14 lb Vanish and it took me a couple of years to use it all up. I found that I didn't have any more line issues with it than I did with any other line I was familiar with at that time. Times change - I started using Seaguar InvisX and Abrazx and I think those are better lines than Vanish was. Never tried the other version of Berkley Fluorocarbon.

Yeti coolers are cool toys. I'd like one. I don't see me dropping $400 on a cooler any time soon.

I don't fish frogs enough, also I don't catch a lot of fish when I do fish frogs to know what a perfect frog rod is. Currently I'm using a Fenwick HMG 7'3" MH rod with an extra fast tip. It is a pretty stout rod that I acquired on a close out. I match it up with a Calcutta and 65 lb braid. It casts ok and I feel like I get enough distance. I used to use a 7'9" Fenwick AETOS rod for frogging, but it doesn't store well in the truck and so it is currently on the bench. There aren't that many Dobyns dealers in the KC Metro area that I know of. Mondo Tackle in Olathe is a long drive for me.

Several years ago, I got some "walking shoes" from BPS. They were very lightweight brown suede with good arch support. They were great fishing shoes - about worn out currently - now they are working in the lawn shoes. This spring I got some New Balance walking shoes from BPS on sale, so that is what I wear for fishing now.

If you need to haul more gear while using your belly boat, get an inner tube large enough to float a cooler strapped inside it, and drag ti along behind you. Back in the day, the one I had would float a cooler, extra baits, rigs, etc. Pay attention and don't drop anything.