Fishes in trees

Lunker City used to make weights that fit on their sluggo hooks. They worked, but I thought that they were cumbersome and time consuming to deal with. I think that if you want some keel weighted hook - just buy one. Owner used to make some that were more "tail weighted" than "keel weighted" and they would back up your bait a little bit, kind of like the Langer Flying Lure. They must not have been that popular, because I haven't seen them for a while on any retail shelf.

I think that you need both - a plug knocker type and an extendable pole. They don't take up that much room in the boat.

On any given fishing situation, there are generally a few presentations that might work. What works for me is to have several options available and then pick and choose. I'm very likely to throw several different baits at a place that I think has fish on it. I generally have 14 to 18 options readily available and another half dozen or so stashed on the rear deck of the boat.

The short answer to your question is yeah, for the most part. Lake of the Ozarks, will all the big cruisers and what not on it, can get weird, with big wakes coming unpredictably from any direction. Any of these lakes, when they are white capping, can be a boat driving challenge - not impossible, but a challenge and you are going to get wet.

You can tx rig larger drop shot baits if you want to. I've found that the Lunker City Texposer hooks work better than wide gap hooks, or the Owner down shot hooks that are made for tx rigged drop shot. In my opinion the best drop shot hook for larger plastics is the Gamakatsu Wicked Wacky hook. It comes in sizes from 1/0 to 5/0. It allows you to nose hook anything and it comes through gnarly cover fine. My go to bait for this presentation is a Berkley 4" chigger craw or a crazy legs chigger craw - but beavers and large paddle tail grubs have work for me as well. Ribbon tailed baits - not so much. A gulp sinking minnow is another great bubba drop shot bait.

As a bank bound college kid - you've got options. Option #1 might be to ingratiate yourself with some professor who has a boat. That would probably be option # 2 & 3 as well. Until those options manifest, a few tools will make bank fishing better. One - get a set of hip waders. This will get you off the bank a little bit and allow you to parallel the weed lines better. Two - understand that there are lots of lures that aren't a lot of use to you from the bank. Deep diving cranks - drop shot rigs are a couple that come to mind, I'm pretty sure there are others. Really, bank fishing - you only need a few lures. A reaction bait that gets through brush & vegetation, like a spinnerbait or a chatter bait sometimes maybe a square bill, and you can throw these all on the same rod. Your other rig should be for slower moving baits like jigs & worms. If I were in your shoes as far as slow moving baits go I'd have quarter ounce Brewer Slider heads and 5"paddle tail worms, maybe something like a trick worm as a back up. If I had to have another rig - I'd go with a Ned rig. Be mindful that there is a steeper learning curve to using a ned rig than you might think. Hope these current thoughts help. I'll leave all the rod length & action, reel & line options up to you. As far as the ned rig goes, use something similar to what Ned uses.

To get back to Buck Perry terms, you can fish it around "structure" Fishing it around "cover" isn't as good of an idea. Roadwarrior is correct I think in that it is relatively easy to get an A-rig unstuck, either by getting on the other side of it and pulling or getting on top of it and using a lure retriever. Wind can sometimes make this problematic.

Years ago, there was a learning curve for me concerning spinnerbaits. I had to see other guys do well and out fish me several times before I ever started to figure them out. Some things were holding me back. First - proper gear - I was 95% spinning gear guy back then and on the few occasions that I did get bit on spinnerbaits, the gear I was using interfered with the hook set. This got better once I got some early 80's medium of the line spinner bait gear, i.e. a 5'6" MH pistol grip Berkley Lightning rod and a Shimano Custom X 2000 bait caster. That rig had enough tip to throw spinnerbaits accurately and enough spine in the lower 2/3rds of the rod to get a good hook set. It the time, I was very much focused on light baits, light action gear. That isn't the best gear for spinnerbaits. It is much easier to cast half once spinnerbaits than it is to cast quarter ounce ones and it took me a while to "get " that. These days, my spinner bait gear is much different. I use 6/8 to 7' MH rods now and Calcutta 200 TEGT reels. I'm picky about spinner bait rods - many MH rods don't have enough tip to cast easily and get the distance/accuracy that I want. Many M action rods are too "whippy for my tastes - so I've picked and chosen lots of different brands over the years. Currently I have a couple of older All Star 6'8" Zell Rowland spinnerbait rods that I like. I have a 7'Kistler rod labeled as a "small swim bait special" that I like. I have a 6'9" Black Wild Carrot stick rod, which might be the very last one still in working condition - everyone I know who ever had a Black Wild Carrot Stick broke theirs within the first 6 months of ownership. Mine is going on 3 years old now and I caught a 10 pound wiper on it last fall. When I was fishing tournaments and stuff, years ago, I made a point of looking at what different guys used for spinner bait gear and I was struck by the variety of what worked for different guys. I have one buddy who is way more into spinner baits than I am and he is happy with BPS cranking sticks. I find those way too whippy. As far as spinnerbaits versus chatter baits, I tend to use them interchangeably, I generally have one of each tied on and switch back and forth. On any given day fish will demonstrate a preference for one over the other, but I can't really quantify why. That's something you have to experiment on and figure out for yourself. Hope this helps.

If you put split rings on the hooks/jig heads of your A-rig and then attach the snaps to the split rings, then when you get the A-rig stuck in a tree top (which you inevitably will) and you can't get it back by getting opposite the snag and pulling, then a consistent steady pull on the rig will break at the split ring and you get most of your A-rig back - at least that is the plan and that is how I use split rings and snaps on A-rigs.

No jerkbait suspends the same at all water temperatures. I'm not sure that the husky jerk is a suspending jerk bait anyway. Either way, that is why suspend dots and suspend dots were made, so that you can adjust suspension pretty easily.

If you really want to be diligent on this topic, you need to get a secchi disc and use it consistently. I think that gold for stained, silverfish for clearer waters and copper fro murky to muddy water is a good place to start. I say this because in different parts of the country, clear/stained/muddy means different things to different people. Even in Missouri - clear water on Lake of the Ozarks is different than clear water on Table Rock, both of which is different from clear water in various strip pits and all of which is different from clear water on Bull Shoals. Using a secchi disc allows you to assign a number to water clarity.

chelboed - you're from Lee's Summit There are several bass clubs in and around Lee's Summit. Some of them aren't all that expensive. My advice would be to contact them and see if anyone in those clubs needs a co-angler. There might be some geezer who needs help lifting and toting. I don't know - just a thought. If you are bank bound - the best new equipment investment you can make is a pair of hip waders. Get you off the bank a little bit and allow you to parallel the weed lines - somewhat. Other than that, my advice is learn how to fish texas rigged soft plastics. Tx rigging with a slip sinker is just the beginning. Figure it out. If it was easy - everyone would do it. Another option might be to go multi-species. Bass aren't the only species that can be targeted from the bank. Catfish - crappie bluegill are accessible as well. If you want to catch big fish - research European style carp fishing.

The only thing that I can add to advice already given here is to remind you that every situation is different. Any research you can do about who owns the land and what they are about is time well spent - generally. Be creative and you can find lots of decent water to go fishing on. Don't let other people tell you what water you can and can't fish on. Find out for yourself and be discreet with who you share the information with.

I don't think that you can go wrong with either the HMG or AETOS brand. They both have lifetime warranties and I've found Fenwick customer service to be relatively reasonable. I"ve broken one AETOS - definitely operator error and they replaced it - I paid for shipping - $10 I think.

If you want to not bring everything you own to the boat when you fish, the simple answer is to buy more stuff than will fit in your boat. Just own more stuff. Personally, I think that this minimalist stuff is over rated. Bring what you need - don't force yourself to "make do" when the correct tool is available. You are always going to have to make choices about what tackle stays home and what tackle makes the traveling team.

Have you done your research? Go to the different companies websites and see all the different colors they offer. There are lots of jerk bait companies. Lucky Craft - Rogues - Redfins - Rapala - Spro - Excaliber and I know I'm forgetting a bunch of them. Do your research and if you still can't find it - then get a custom painted one.

Were these guys in the tackle store or did they work for the tackle store? If the latter, I'd find a different tackle store. The primary job of a tackle store employee is to gently nurture your addiction and make you feel good about the money you're spending at their store. I feel like I'm fortunate in the KC Metro area in that there is an independent tackle store that totally gets this. At work, I get the you're nuts comment about fishing tackle quite a bit. My retort is "yeah, I'm nuts - so what?" Everyone is nuts about something - some things are more self destructive than others - a fishing tackle addiction is fairly benign as addictions go.

The short answer is no. I've got a few decent rigs. Once I own a rod & reel combo, it isn't a dream anymore - so I got to dream up a new one. Just another first world problem . . . .

Back in olden times (several years ago) I wouldn't buy the carrot stix because they were orange - just didn't like it. Wouldn't buy a yellow rod. Not big on white rods. I kind of like the Fenwick AETOS rods, with the blue sheen they have to them. So, basically, some colors yes, some no way.

I keep most of my apart lines sealed up in boxes in my fishing shed. However, when I go on several day fishing trips, I make sure I throw the line kit in the car. Line kit is a medium sized plastic box with several spare spools of line for the different rigs I'll be using that trip. I don't want to get spooled one day and have that rig be out of action for the rest of the trip. Currently line kit consists of: 1 bulk spool of 17 Abrazx, 1 bulk spool of 10 lb Abrazx, several filler spools of 15 lb Abrazx, compact line winder that works on bait casting & spinning reels, 2 smaller electric line strippers, 1 for 14 lb and up the other for 10 lb and lower. There are several spools of spinner bait line and crank bait line and Fireline and Nanofil - enough to fill up whatever I need to fill up.

I'm a fan of Fenwick rods. The HMG and AETOS lines have lifetime warranties and Fenwick customer service is pretty good. You can do something dumb with your rod and it costs you $10 to get a new one. Fenwick has been pretty nice to me over the past few years.

Terminator makes a black spinnerbait (half ounce) with a single Colorado blade. The blade is gold. They market it as a night time spinnerbait. I find that it works good for me as a day time spinnerbait in fairly clear water, using a black Zoom swimming chunk trailer.

To return to this topic, "better organization" is probably never going to happen, at least it hasn't ever happened for me. I try hard to get "good enough for now" organization. It seems like every few weeks I try a different organization scheme. All of them work kinda ok - none of them work great - classic case of a work in progress. More and more I'm of the opinion that anything other than temporary tackle organization doesn't exist. It is more or less a nebulous personal goal that seldom exists - real world wise.

MY local fishing tackle store just got in some HUK shirts/jerseys/whateer you call them. All I know is that I don't wear shirts with logo's largely pasted across the front unless: A - I genuinely believe in the product/cause; or B - I get paid. I don't see either of those things happening with the HUK jerseys. They appear to be ok jerseys, but I ain't anyone's unpaid billboard.

When I get my fishing show, my theme song will be "LIFE IS FINE" by Jimmy Lunceford, recorded sometime in the 30's.