Fishes in trees

If you put the trailers on the hooks before fishing them and if the trailers have salt in them and if they sit in the tackle bin in your boat for a while, now even if they don't get wet the hooks will rust out over time. Even if it doesn't appear rusted, the hook shank going through the salted plastic is compromised I used to to that ruined a few jigs just sitting in the ready rig box. I don't mind losing equipment, but I think it is stupid to just waste it, so I learned my lesson and I don't pre-rig jigs any more. That has been my experience anyway. p.s., it did take over a year for the hooks to rust, but some boxes never get out of the bottom of the boat bin and that ready rig box was one of those boxes.

I throw square bills on a rig similar to what I throw rattle traps on. I will generally use whatever 17 or 20 lb line is on sale at Walmart. I throw into gnarly stuff a lot.

I have a couple of the older 7'4" BPS extreme rods. They are a medium action with a fast tip. I think that it sucks as a pitching rod but it is great as a square bill rod.

I don't flip much. I've tried many different lines for pitching. My current favorite is Seaguar Abrazx. I've got rigs with 20 and 15 and 10 that I use depending on lots of different things. Yeah, there are some line memory issues, but line treatment solves those, either Reel Magic of KVD line treatment.

I'm pretty certain that somewhere in my boat tool box there is some version of the Leatherman, I've owned several versions. Never wore one out, but I have lost several. For just fishing purposes, the Leatherman Micra gets the nod most of the time. The scissors can cut braid. The other tool that I use the most while fishing is the church key.

I used to have a pond boat and I ran 3 batteries, just so that I never ran out of power while I was fishing. I bought a 3 bank charger so it was easier to charge all the batteries at once. I found it easier to mount the charger on a stand in my garage and hook it up when I got home rather than mount it in the boat. When charging, I always disconnected the batteries from everything and hooked up the charger using wing nuts. Easy, relatively quick, direct connection that wouldn't come loose, like clips might.

I think that we are pretty lucky in the KC metro area in that we have Rogers Lures, which is a good independent fishing tackle/archery/hunting stuff (everything except guns) store. That being said, if I am out and about and drive past BPS ( Independence) or Cabelas (KCK) I will stop and look around. Dicks, not so much. Allegedly there is an Academy Sports that opened up over in KS, but I haven't made a trip there yet. I buy most of my stuff retail, rather than on-line. I use the on-line shops to look and get ideas on what I want next. I only order on-line if I can't find what I want over a counter.

I think that Ned has a rig that works well on his side of the KS/MO line. When I try to fish a ned rig, the way it is described in the In-fisherman Midwest finesse blog - with the open hook, it gets snagged all the time. The MDC lakes that I fish have much more snags & brush & debris than the lakes that Ned is fishing. The open hook doesn't work for me. I have to go with something tx rigged, just so I don't get hung up every cast. So, I use a lightweight rig, currently a 5'4" Fenwick HMG Med/ ex-fast tip, smaller Shimano spinning reel and 8 or 10 lb nano-fil with a short (foot or so) fluorocarbon leader. For baits, Brewer Slider Heads mostly 1/16, but I can go to 1/4 with this set up, to deal better with wind. I switch up baits a lot, but mostly I will use a 4" Brewer worm or a power bait finesse worm cut down little bit. I think that this is a good technique, but if it doesn't suit your waters you can waste a lot of time getting hung up. Also, if you aren't patient, you can get antsy waiting for a 1/16 jig head to get down to 8 feet. If you go to 1/32 it takes longer. Trying to fish that rig in depths greater than 8 feet or so requires the patience of Job, and I have issues fishing that slow, when the fish are on the bottom and not taking it on the drop. Another thing to be aware of, is that in Ned's book, short fish count. To get to the fish per hour count that he achieves, he is catching many 6 to 10 inch fish. Granted, he occasionally gets a larger one, but IMO most of the time those better fish are deeper and other techniques reach them quicker than the ned rig does. So, IMO the ned rig is a fun, light tackle techniques, but where I fish it is only applicable in certain circumstances. If you are fishing certain KC metro area subdivision lakes, where there is limited brush on points and limited fishing pressure, the ned rig can rule.

Hey, it is, after all, a carrot stick. Could be the last unbroken carrot stick in your neighborhood. When, you break that carrot stick - and you will - carrot sticks were notorious for being light and sensitive and broke from time to time. They have the reputation of not being the easiest company to deal with - warranty wise, if they are even still around - I don't know. I do know that the tackle store where I spend quite a bit of money absolutely, positively, won't deal with them any more and they closed out their inventory at below their cost a couple of years ago. That being said, take the advice of Jimmy the cricket and "let your conscience be your guide."

All I got to say is research the group/club you are going to be fishing with. In the past, fishing BFL as a co angler, I've drawn boaters who were under-equipped and not really prepared to compete, compared to the rest of the field. I drew a guy at a Pickwick wild card event who towed a light aluminum rig from West Virginia to Florence, Alabama, primarily for cost reasons. Once he got there, he realized that he had the boat, but didn't have the skills to successfully fish the tail race area. (An aluminum boat, which can bounce off rocks, is the perfect boat to fish this area) The boat (17' with a 50 hp engine & 6 gal portable tank) literally didn't have the range to go very far on Pickwick. I drew him for the second day. I'd caught a few fish the first day, and was in outside contention for the top 6 (which is all that matters in the Wild Card format) This guy did very little research on PIckwick prior to showing up. He inadvertently shows up in a boat that is perfectly suited to fish the tail race AND the tail race is the only decent fishing area within his range. Then he busts out with (fishing that tail race is scary and I'm not going to do it) I was a little steamed. It is one thing to enter a tournament under-equipped - under powered - under informed, whatever, should you be fishing solo or as part of a team. Fishing in a blind draw format, you are putting a co-angler into a non-competitive situation. In my opinion, that ain't cool. The rest of the story for the tournament, we ran a mile or so to a diversion canal and then ran another quarter mile to the back of the canal, where we stayed all day, rotating between pitching at barges and pilings. There weren't any fish in the canal that day. Never saw a shad flip or any evidence of food in the area, BUT there wasn't any current and it was safe boating and it was within his range. For the record, 4 of the 6 boater spots came out of the tail race. All of the co-angler spots came out of the tail race. If this would have happened during a regular BFL event, I would have registered a protest, but as it happened during the wild card (last tournament of the year) tournament director mentioned, after the fact, that it was unfortunate. The conclusion to this rant, if you are going to enter tournament competition under-equipped and under powered, do it in a solo or team format, with a team mate who is aware of what he/she is getting into. Just my opinion, which is formed (or tainted if you will) by my own experiences.

If, every so often, you drag the braid behind your boat for a couple of hundred yards, with no hardware or knots or anything on it, it will untwist, just like mono or fluorocarbon will. Every few trips is often enough. If you are dragging line with your trolling motor, take care not to get it tangled in the outboard prop. If you are putting and dragging with your outboard, continue to take care and not get it caught in the prop. Line in the prop is a mess.

I find the large, multi-thousand acre lakes harder than the smaller several hundred acre conservation lakes in my neighborhood. All for different reasons. Truman Lake is a 40,000 acre (+ or -) flooded forest. Every place looks good, but every place isn't. Navigation can be tricky. Channel swings happen a lot and should you get out of the channel, there are lots of things to smack your boat into. Lake of the Ozarks is bigger than Truman. I'm not familiar with the upper end of the lake at all. However, I have spend some time at the lower end ( closer to the dam).. Docks are the primary cover/structure and there are thousands of them. If you can't pitch docks and boat slips, you won't catch fish consistently. I generally think that I'm good at pitching, until I spend a day or two at LOZ, it is very humbling. For every dock cable that you see, there is one that you don't. I don't get to lakes farther south than Truman very often. Stockton, maybe once a year or every other year. Table Rock - same deal. They are pretty lakes, but I don't get there often enough to figure them out. Don't get me started on the lake just outside Kansas City - Smithville Lake. One, I don't like paying the exorbitant boat sticker fees and launch permit fees. Two - it is generally crowded. There is a free ramp on the extreme northern end, but navigation in that area of the lake is challenging. Water is generally muddy, secchi disc readings of foot and a half or two feet at most.. There are stone fences, large stumps, all kinds of stuff hidden in the water. I don't go there very often.

I think that a 2 foot leader works for me ok. There are lots of different ways to deal with snags and hang ups. I carry both an extendable pole type and a hound dog type. Depending on the snag, one will be better suited than the other. Personally, I have a five minute rule. If it looks like the lure extraction is going to take longer than 5 minutes, or if a few minutes into the extraction it looks like it is going to take much longer than I thought AND if it isn't a lure I'm emotionally attached to, I wrap the line around a boat cleat and back it off with the trolling motor. That solves the problem most of the time. Waste your time retying rather than trying to get it unstuck and your line will most likely be scuffed up enough that you will have to retie anyway. If the lure is one that I have some emotional attachment to, I will spend as much time as necessary to try to get it back. Should I fail to get it back, I understand that I only had temporary custody of it anyway.

For me, in the waters that I fish (mostly smaller conservation lakes) it has replaced a texas rig. When I am fishing main lake points, I am more likely to pick up the jika rig than I am the jig rod. I make my own. I make them pretty heavy, between 1/2 and 3/4 oz. Full size brush hogs or the Netbait Mad Paca have been my better presentations. There have been a few occasions where lizards have totally out fished the creature baits. Berkley Powerbait & Yum Zellemanders have been the best lizard style baits. Mainly I target root wads & other bottom structure in 8 to 15 or so feet of water with this bait. If I am seeing through electronics that fish are more suspended up in the bushes & trees moreso than on the bottom, a wacky rigged senko or a 5" paddle tail worm on a slider head worked better for me this past year. I would point out that this fall, one day on Truman Lake, a buddy totally out fished me, out of the back of my boat, throwing a home made Biffle bug imitation with a skirt & plastic trailer in the same places I was throwing the jika rig. For the most part I chalk that up to the fact that he is just a better fisherman than me, and he was just showing off the new bait that he had poured.

My thought would be that throwing a deeper diving crank from the bank would be more trouble than it is worth. A possible exception might be if there is a dock that you can stand out on the end of and throw parallel for a few casts.

If you are going to fish out of a 10' jon boat and paddle here and there, before you buy another rod & reel, lure, tackle box, whatever, you need to invest in some decent boat gear. To start with, a set of oars beats paddling, by a whole bunch. A shorter set of oars works better in brushy conditions, a longer set gets you more power per stroke, getting you across the lake faster and work better in the wind. I'd get a longer set of oars ( 7.5 to 8 feet) and keep the paddle for maneuvering in brushy areas. Maybe lose the big paddle and get a sculling paddle. Sculling is for the most part a lost art. A Hummingbird Fishing Buddy is around $100 give or take. You will be amazed at how much time that tool will save you. A transom mount electric trolling motor is another upgrade to consider. The basic one, a 30 lb thrust BPS model is $100 in the 2014 BPS catalog - don't forget you'll have to buy a battery & charger also. Spend more and get more as far as trolling motors go. Should you decide to stay physical and not go electric, a sturdy push pole is a good idea. Mine is 6' which extends to 10 feet or so, cost around $40, including the duck foot option, which is necessary. The polarized glasses suggested previously are a good idea. My 2 cents worth.

What you do, in the privacy of your own boat, regarding if your jig trailers match or contrast or complement or whatnot, is strictly between you and the bait monkey. If, right now, you can't match or contrast or complement any jig color you got with any trailer color you own, you just haven't spend enough money. Right now, you should go buy a bunch of different colors and shapes of jig trailers. Have you considered that the current trailers you are using, aren't working as well as you might like, not because they don't match, or contrast, or complement or whatever, but just because they are old. New, unused jig trailers are full of potential, used jig trailers harbor doubts, caused by not working as well as you might have hoped in the past. There, now I have explained in simple, positive terms, why you need to go buy a bunch more jig trailers. Being a helper is good.

My first chunk of advice would be to lighten up. Primarily, fishing is supposed to be fun. I don't know about you, but I don't find super concentrating and focusing on each jig movement to be a lot of fun. Just chill out and maybe you'll catch a few more fish. Taking a different approach, I found over the last couple of years that my jig fishing improved after I switched to a home made jika rig ( which is just a way to fish a soft plastic kind of like a jig) compared to fishing a more traditional jig.

A long time ago, Shakespeare bought All Star. After a few years under their ownership, they managed to reduct the quality of the rods, change the warranty from lifetime to just a year or so and just basically diminish the product in any way they could think of. They were very persnickety about honoring the warranty of older All Star Rods. They took an iconic brand and in a few short years turned it into an afterthought in the made in USA rod market. If you got a quality product from Shakespeare, don't tell them, they will probably change it if you do.

Practical isn't the word I'd use. A couple of questions. Are you absolutely, positively going to fish from the bank your whole life? If you aren't going to own a boat, do you think that there is a chance that from time to time you will go fishing out of some one else's boat? As you progress in your fishing skills, pitching is something you probably ought to learn. As your fishing experiences multiply, there are probably lots of casting skills/tricks you might want to learn. Pitching is one. A Jimmy Houston style roll cast might be another. A back hand roll cast might be another. If you are ever going to throw a carolina rig, you aren't just born knowing how to throw one, there is a learning curve. Same with deep cranks. Going down a bank throwing a spinner bait at objects, I might use an overhead cast one time, a pitch cast the next. If I go too far past an object, rather than turning the boat around, I am more likely to throw a back hand cast at it. Learning your gear and learning how to be versatile in putting your bait where you want it is a good skill to have.

Several years ago, I got a few packs of those hooks in various sizes and tried them out. Mixed results, but in hind site, I think it had to do more with me learning how to drop shot than the hooks. Since then I've gotten somewhat better at drop shot fishing. I've moved on to the Gamakatsu wicked wacky hooks. Same principle, but rather than an arm bent down to run the line through, there is a tube attached to the shank of the hook. I think that is a better design.

The best lightweight cold gear is lots of layers. I like polypro/ or poly pro & wool combo's. I like knits because I can move better in them. I am not a big fan of jeans, even as an outer layer, because I don't feel like I can move well in them and I sometimes have balance issues anyway. I have a buddy who tells me that I would change my mind if I got a pair of the fleece lined denim jeans that BPS or Cabelas sells. If you wear a set of lightweight rain gear over your layers, it tends to keep the heat in better. Last year, I had a friend who went to Ireland get me an Irish Wool fishing sweater. It is so warm it is uncomfortable to wear it when you are driving. I put it on once I get to the lake. With all this being said, I don't know a thing about gearing up for kayak fishing. Just try something and if you don't like it try something else. If you are going to try for something for both hunting & kayak fishing, there will probably have to be some compromise somewhere. Me, I'd go with cold weather clothes for hunting and then cold weather clothes for fishing. The different sports having different movement requirements and stuff like that.

I'll bet not. I believe that given my choice of any plastic in my arsenal, I could out fish you with your treble hook on a barbie head lure any day. If you ever get to Missouri, pm me and we could set up a test of your theory. I wouldn't bet a lot of money on that proposition, but I would bet dinner and/or a case of beer (winners choice) which would max out the bet to the + or - $75 neighborhood. I don't know how to quantify or totally explain how different colors and shapes make a difference in different situations, but I believe that they do. I know that I've thrown a watermelon colored finesse worm to a point - no takers - then switched to a green pumpkin colored finesse worm - same brand - and got bit. I know I've thrown a ribbon tail worm, pitching down a row of stumps & bushes in 7 or 8 feet of water and no takers in 100 yards or so. Then back off, go around and pitch the same brush row with the same color of worm with a paddle tail and caught keepers. I've also had the reverse happen. So, I try not to get married to any one style of soft plastic. A no tail bait, like a YUM Dinger, was pretty successful for me this past fall, fished on a jika rig. All of this leads me to believe that I could out fish a barbie doll head with a treble hook zip tied to it.

There are lots of inexpensive spinning rods out there, go to the store and see which one you like best. Bring your reel with you and see how the reel fits on the different rods. If they won't let you do that, they really don't want to sell to you, go somewhere else. I don't know anything about the Academy house brands, they get decent press, so if there is an Academy Sports near you, that's an option. Nearly every Walmart has Lightning Rods, they are a viable option. I'm not a big fan of their handle, but if you mount the reel, tighten it down and then you can modify the handle with rod wrap tape, or that stuff that they sell to modify tennis racket handles. For that matter, most of my spinning rods, even the much higher dollar ones, I modify with the rod wrap tape after fixing the reel to the rod.

I'm not really brand loyal, although my last few rod purchases have been Fenwicks, HMG & Aetos. The reason for that has been that the fishing tackle store I generally go to has had a few good sales the past year or so. Reels, I am mostly a Shimano guy, although I use a variety of different spinning reels. If there is such a thing as being brand un-loyal, I will never again purchase a US Reel product no matter how much they are discounted.