Fishes in trees

An extendable pole and a plug knocker are both valuable fishing tools that you need to have in your boat. Neither one of them works particularly well from the bank. I'd guess that the extendable lure retriever might work a little better, but bank fishing, that's just one more thing to carry. That being said, 4 lost lures in 3 hours fishing time isn't a record. You are going to have to try harder than that if you want to set a lure losing record. If you need any pointers on how to set a lure losing record, here are a few: Use older, more brittle mono. Insist on the lightest line possible. Fish in brushy, hard to get to places and maybe you can lose a few lures on the backswing of your cast. If you are fishing from the bank around brush and cover, using lighter lines and lures, always try to throw into the wind. These tips should help you increase your lost lures per hour ratio. There are lots more ways to lose lures, but I'm pretty sure you can figure them out by yourself. Don't forget the old "unlatch the tackle box" trick. This will allow you to lose many lures without actually getting them wet.

Back when I was a meat fisherman, I gained access to a very private estate in the mid-MO area. There was a boat house with an assortment of boats & canoes to choose from, there was an electric trolling motor, all we had to do was to bring our own battery and it was a smallish 50 acre or so lake with very restricted access. You got to the end of the blacktop and then to the end of the gravel and there was still 2 1/2 miles of private creek rock road before you got to the estate. Anyway, the woman who lived there acquired the property in a divorce settlement and went hermit and didn't allow any fishing or hunting access for 7 or 8 years - at all. The lake got stunted, with too many small fish and about that time I got access to the property through a friend of a friend. The only cash was that we had to keep all fish 12" and under and release all over 12". The place acquired the title of "Bass Valhalla" because the first few times we went there we caught so many fish we figured we'd died and gone to heaven. The first few years me and a few select buddies fished there, hundred fish days were common, and I became an expert in filleting 10" and 11" bass. Small bass from a clear water lake are tasty. I fished it off and on for 7 years and my buds for a few years after that. The constant removal of the smaller fish had its desired effect and the last few times I visited the place, hundred fish days didn't happen anymore, but 20 to 30 fish days did and about a third of those fish would be over 15". A 27" fish was caught from the water around 94 or 95, a few pictures were taken, it wasn't weighed and it was released alive. The last time I checked into returning to the property, the woman who owned it had passed and the property was in the hands of a grandson, who wasn't interested in letting old hippies renewed access to his grand mother's property. End of an era.

If no one is telling you what to buy, don't stop with just one new rig. You are probably going to want a new shaky head rod. Don't stop there, go ahead and get a more finesse ned rig at the same time. You are probably going to want a new spinnerbait rod -don't stop there, go ahead and get a new square bill rod as well. You are probably going to want a new crank rod - don't stop with just one, get several so that you can cover different depths and different weight of cranks. I like to fish jika rigs as opposed to tx rigged plastics & a slip sinker. I've got a couple of different jika rigs, with different lb test lines for different cover conditions. Don;t stop buying new rigs until you can't think of any fishing conditions you don't have a rod for.

Fenwick MHG graphites have been around a long time. They are good rods. I still have one that I bought in 1981. They have a lifetime warranty. Their customer service is good - just a few hoops to jump through and send them $10 and you get a new rod. I got a new 7' MH spinning rod that way this summer when I broke my old one doing something stupid ( got hung, put rod in a rod holder and started looking around my boat for my plug knocker and the wind blew me off the snag and the line didn't break but the rod tip did) Anyway, I like the new handles compared to the older handles. I think that the Fenwicks compare favorably to rods that cost more. I've got a couple of AETOS rods, mainly because at the time Rogers in Liberty had the action I wanted in the AETOS line and not the HMG line, although they carry both. Anyway, the AETOS is a good rod also for a little more money.

Currently I use an older 7 ball bearing Calcutta GT spooled with 65 lb test braid to throw frogs, A-Rigs and swim baits/wake baits up to an ounce and a half (don't have any heavier, A-rigs are obviously heavier, 3 to 5 ounces) No issues. Once, I had a chance to go muskie fishing ( trip didn't work out, had to work) and I called Shimano to ask if the Calcutta would work for muskies, and they doubted if I could tear it up fishing for muskies. When I get some spare money a Curado 300 E is in my future, but I don't know when that is going to happen, probably not this year or next.

That has happened to me a few times over the years. Once just a random snelled hook that the fish had swallowed and my crank bait hook caught the loop. Once, I got my 6 lb line snapped, lost my jig & eel combo - retied and cast to the same area and the same fish hit a similar lure again, not more than 3 or 4 minutes apart. Another time I caught a fish with a Bagley shaky head jig stuck in its mouth. As I reflected on how weird that was, I realized that I was in a similar area where I got a shaky head snapped off a couple of weeks previously. I'm pretty certain that no one else who'd fished that lake recently hadn't ever heard of that brand of jigs - so I got my own jig back - a few weeks later.

Once, I had a bass follow a Strike King soft plastic that I swear was in the 10 lb class. It was incrementally bigger than any bass I'd caught or seen before - equivalent to some of the larger ones in thePS aquarium in Springfield. It followed for a while (6 to 8 feet or so) then slowly turned and swam away. I've caught a few fish in the 7 lb class out of this lake, but this fish was bigger. I think everyone sees a big carp from time to time. At the Long Shoal marina at Truman, there are many big carp in the 20 to 30 lb class that are fed as pets. They never leave the Marina area, cause they don't have to.

The various Dicks in my neighborhood are weak, as far as tackle selection goes. There are a couple of BPS in the KC metro area and one Cabelas. Better know what you want prior to getting there, cause the help they hire aren't much help. I think that the Cabelas clothes fit me a little better than the BPS branded clothes. I think that in the KC metro area we are very fortunate that we have a large family owned fishing tackle/archery/ outdoor clothes store in Liberty. I buy quite a bit of tackle from Rogers Lures in Liberty. They are the only place that I buy reels at, rods, I tend to shop around a bit more. A couple of years ago Cabelas decided to get out of the Kistler line and I got a few Kistler rods at a decent discount. I buy on-line quite a bit also. In the links section, I've contacted quite a few different manufacturers and bought direct. Most recently I bought $60 worth of jig heads from Charlie Brewer Slider Co. As far as "loyalty" goes, I'm not very loyal to any one place. I always check Rogers first. I do use my BPS credit card at BPS and my Cabelas card when I get stuff at Cabelas. Over time the points add up.

Why stop at 7? If your goal is to avoid wasting time on the watery avoiding retying unless necessary, bring a dozen, 15, 18, however many you can reasonably afford without tripping over them. Me, I bring a dozen - minimum and sometimes 18 or 20. I probably won't use them all on any given day, but knowing that they are there gives me confidence that I have many options.

When I bought my Mustang HIT inflatable vest, I went ahead and bought a couple of re-arming kits Pay to play was my thinking at the time. Haven't had to use it yet - knock on wood.

Me, if I was determined to crimp a weight on to my line, I'd use a weight that was designed for that, i.e. a soft lead split shot. An option might be to put your bullet weight on the line and crimp a small spilt shot beneath the sinker, leaving a leader to tie the hook on to. This would give you the benefit of a sliding sinker. Sometimes that isn't a benefit. What you're wanting to do is basically a mojo rig. If you're short on beads & swivels, you probably don't have a mojo rig kit. Don't worry, when you get to be my age, you'll have a mojo rig kit. Finding it when you want it - that's another story. Basically, use what you've got & figure it out. Another option ( this involves sacrificing the weight & some line) would be to loop the line through the worm sinker 2 or 3 times, leaving a long enough leader to tie your hook to. Secure the weight to the line using super glue. That avoids putting a crimp in the line, kinda.

As I've gotten older, lighter rods & reels have become more important because they let me fish longer and give me less elbow pain at the end of the day. The light weigh is more important to me in my jig/soft plastic rods as opposed to my moving bait rods. As the years go by and I cycle through more gear, I'm pretty sure I will go lighter in my spinner bait and crank rods if I can.

Yeah, I've got my ideas on catfish rods, basically straight from the In-fisherman playbook. Many different companies make "catfish rods" Pick one of those. 7' to 8" are best for most bank fishing situations. Much longer and they become a pain to cast from the bank if there is any vegetation around. Make sure that it has a sturdy handle, that will fit into a rod holder. Rod holders work so much better than forked sticks, it isn't even close. The few that I have right now (don't remember brand, got them on Walmart close out) are a 7 1/2' Medium action with a very soft tip. The soft tip is important. It helps you throw dough baits, punch baits and live baits a distance without throwing the bait off the hook. Secondly it helps when you are using circle hooks. Using those, upon getting a strike all you've got to do is go rod tip up and tighten up and the hook sets itself. I used to use a cheap flipping rod, thinking I needed the power to fight the fish. However, distance casting without throwing the bait became problematic and it didn't work real well with circle hooks. With standard hooks and shad sides as bait, hook sets were ok.

Once upon a time, I owned a graphite, medium power, medium action. The curve was equal from the handle to the tip. It was the type of rod articles in Bassmaster said that you should be using for throwing cranks, especially deeper diving cranks. I had the bright idea to throw a buzz bait, reached down to grab a rod and this was the one I grabbed. I was going to have to tie on a buzz bait no matter which rod I grabbed, so what the hell. Long story shorter, it cast a buzz bait great - outstanding distance, for me, with a half ounce buzz bait. It did take a foot or so longer to get it up on plane, but that really didn't register with me. Anyway, it was a good idea, buzz bait bite was on 7 strikes on 8 casts and I missed them all, couldn't set the hook enough. Finally it dawned on my tiny brain what the issue was, and now I don't throw buzz baits on crank rods anymore. I don't throw cranks on "crank bait " rods either. I found a 7'4" BPS extreme rod that has a lot stiffer butt section, and a less "tippy" upper section that works great for me. I get the similar distances that I did with the crank rod, with much more sensitivity and distance hook setting ability. That's why I don't use a crank rod to throw buzz baits.

I've had this happen occasionally over the years. Here's what I've tried and it more or less works. A tennis elbow brace is helpful. More helpful in the late spring through summer, when you aren't dealing with extra layers of clothes. I'd use the brace when jerk baiting and take it off when I was using other techniques. Taking an Alieve or two before starting the fishing day worked great. Kind of a preventative measure, my elbow didn't hurt nearly as much at the end of the day. You might also want to upgrade/lighten your gear. Lighter gear = snapping less weight when you're jerking = less muscle fatigue. I use a 6'3" Medium spinning rod with an extra fast action, a smaller spinning reel and 14 lb Fireline. I'll use a short, 2' or so 15 lb fluorocarbon leader. This rig is a lot lighter than the bait casting rig I was using previously. Additionally, you are kind of immune to the wind, which you definitely not when using bait casting gear. Wind seems to be an important factor for the jerk bait bite to be really working.

Any of the waters around Miami, I ain't getting into the water in a float tube, ain't gonna happen. Two pieces of advice - one on point and one not. One - save your pennies and get a boat, 12'jon, pond prowler, pelican - something. Two - try a Brewer Slider head = 3/16 or 1/4 with your worm of choice. This past August, the 1/4 oz spider slider head with a 5" paddle tail worm was my #1 producer, both for numbers and keepers. Biggest keepers came on a jika rig, but IMO that really isn't the best presentation for bank fishing in snaggy waters.

Just got back from the Fishing for Freedom event at Long Shoal Marina that the Leavenworth Bass Club sponsors. Had a good time. Didn't catch a lot of fish, but then I fish Truman so seldom that I'm not surprised. I tried, even got there early and took a soldier out both Saturday and Sunday. Mostly stayed within 5 miles of Long Shoal, but we did take a run to the dam & back later in the day, just to run the boat a little and swill a couple of beers. I was also thinking that those shallow islands in front of the Little Tebow might hold some fish, and they might have, but they didn't want to bite for us. Little smaller turnout, 127 boats. Apparently they had a couple of dozen late cancellations on both the boater and warrior sides. The word prior to the event was that they were looking at around 150 boats this year. Weather was chilly, but not uncomfortable. 74 out the the 127 boats weighed fish. Not every one caught a lot fish but most everyone caught some. I didn't do so well on bass, but I did catch a 9.5 wiper that was good for biggest trash fish - got a plaque but gave it to me co-angler. I threw the spinnerbait that hooked the fish, but I absolutely would not have gotten the fish in the boat had he not been there ready with the net. All of the warriors I personally met ( 20 0r 30) were very appreciative of the event. The opportunity to take a weekend and just chill doesn't happen all that often for them. Overall, it is a well run event for a good cause, I'm probably going back next year.

Are you married to the idea of using spinning gear? Me I occasionally throw the wacky rig on spinning gear. When I find bass suspended in hard wood timber or locusts ( big thorn trees) I find that the situation screams for a wacky rig. Spinning gear don't cut it, unless you're using 30 lb or so braid, and even then, I've found that braid and timber don't mix real well. Braid is almost indestructible in vegetation, in timber, not so much. My experience has found that 14 to 20 lb fluorocarbon resists abrasion in wood much better than braid. My current favorite is Seagar Abrazx, but that's subject to change. The original point of this post is wacky rig rod & reel suggestions. My current reel for this duty is a Chronarch 50. My current rod is a Falcon Bucco MH rated for 3/16 to 5/8. It is the Bucco version of the older Eakins Jig special. It has enough tip that 50 ' pitches with 17 lb abrazx are very do-able. It has enough backbone that, assuming you recognize the hit prior to the fish running around the tree, it will come out of there. I think that there is around $300 tied up in that rig - not sure - probably bought the rod & reel on sale, but I don't remember. Another wacky tip, if you boost your line test, you've got to boost your lure weight to get the same drop speed. Too fast a drop is sometimes bad - too slow a drop is so boring, it becomes easier to put the wacky rig down and try something different. A good compromise is using weights on your wacky hooks. For 14 or 17 lb fluorocarbon I find that a 1/16 oz weighted hook helps the casting distance paired with a senko. The drop speed is reasonable without being too fast and doesn't impede the wavy motion you need with the dropping senko. If you are only or primarily using the wacky rig on weed lines or in vegetation, feel free to ignore this suggestion.

I collect catfish gear because, ever so often I go cat fishing from the bank. Just because I'm cat fishing doesn't mean I shouldn't have decent to good gear for the task. That reel would make an excellent addition to my catfish arsenal. Ii'd go back and see if they had any more. That reel meets all the standards I have for decent catfish gear. A - will it hold a couple of hundred yards of 25 to 40 lb mono? B - Does it have a sturdy frame and strong gears? C - Is it capable of casting 2 to 5 or so ounces of weight + bait? That reel meets all the standards. A clicker is nice but not mandatory. Josh Smith offered $10 for the reel. I'll go $20, and reserve the right to re-bid if necessary.

Back in the day, that bait, a 1/8 marabou crappie jig, paired with a 4" Uncle Josh spilt tail eel hung on the back, was my primary search lure for pond fishing. I'd throw it on 6 or 8 lb. test. The extra weight of the pork bait make it easy to cast. My favorite color was a red head/ chartreuse body/ white marabou tail. On a good day, I'd swim this bait, trying to keep it 6" to a foot above the bottom the entire retrieve. On a bad day, I'd lose a lot of jigs to snags - but they were cheap, and I believed that if you weren't losing baits from time to time, you weren't fishing where the fish were.

Like the drawers. For guys who don't feel like innovating, a commercial version of your rod holding design is available from Rod Savers for around $20, and it is adaptable to a side variety of vehicles.

In Missouri, with a few exceptions a "keeper" has to be 15". In my vocabulary, keepers are over 15". A good fish is over 18". A big fish is over 20". Monster fish do a remarkably good job at staying away from my lures. I guess a monster fish would start at two feet or so, I haven't seen one of those for a long time.

If you had a cocaine habit all you'd have to show for it at the end of the day would be a runny nose.

If you want a full set, you have got to get 3 of each brand you mentioned in each of the colors you mentioned. If you want to go cheaper, I'd go with something bait fish colored, whatever is more or less closest to the primary bait fish in your neighborhood.

Look at the Timber Tiger DC 8 or the DC 5 if you want a smaller profile.