webertime

If it's where I think it is, it's very clear (they catch spawners in 25 feet of water there).

It's a MESS... Water temps are 52 (as of yesterday up north) and water is cloudy/muddy. The huge rains in the last 2 weeks had the lake up about a foot and water in some places drop nearly 20 degrees (Mississquoi Bay). Fish are Pre-spawn, Spawn, and Post Spawn, fish are everywhere (not in a good way). We have a tournament Sunday out of Kelly Bay (just north of yours, on Alburgh), lots of guys are having nearly no luck all over the lake. I don't want to be a downer but it should be tough out there this weekend (has been for 2 weeks). Slow and long pause presentations did get the fish that were caught.

Will all the talk around the country on Banning Plastics in fishing (VT now has a proposed bill to ban plastics...) Perhaps the center section is a harder durometer or "less tearable" so lost baits are deminished? Less bass with "senko stomach"?

Seymour?

How heavy is the shellcracker on its own? ~3/8oz?

Spro Popping Frog and the Jackall Boil Trigger. The BT isn't much to look at (tiny mouth/cup) but wow, what a BLOOP it makes, caught some good fish on it.

Use a Fat Ika as your weight or like FnP says get the lead tube.

Google, duct seal transducer well. Painless, simple, durable, and cheap.

Xzone

Fat Ika and Whiskey River Baits Saloon Girl.

It doesn't really make a bigger hole, you can/should lube it with a little smelly jelly or megastrike so it slides easier.

I have an older Cardiff 101 on my Cranking Rod and a 301A on my Swimbait Rod. Both are pretty nice and very workman-like. I think I paid $85 for both together. Deals are out there.

Biffle head is money. I also prefer solid swimbaits like Keitechs on a regular football bc it's got a bit more material to hold on the head better.

Hmmmmm That might work pretty slick with a Biffle-head type jig as long as the line tie were oriented horizonally. hmmmmmmm

Cardiff 300, Abu 5500 C3, Lexa 300, Curado 300, and Abu Toro are all beasts that can handle up to ~4oz.

The only good cabelas reels worth buying are the Grey colored Prodigy and the current prodigy, both are based of Daiwa reels (Advantage and Aggrest) the Tournaments are made by Danco or Silstar I believe. You a righty or lefty?

Chatterbait with a LFT Magic Shad. Tons of "THUMP" Good amount of Flash Moves a significant amount of water Can mix and match the colors to fine tune the bait to the water clarity (or lack of).

Keep them in their original packages and pull as needed. They go into a FTO terminal tackle box for my trips. I periodically go through it and pull bent/rusty/salted hooks and recycle those. I found boxes with moveable dividers would shift enough and hooks would slide over or under the dividers and create a mess. The safety pin idea is pretty sharp though.

Go $10 more and get a new Quantum Accurist CX500/1 on ebay fro $40+/- shipped. The cost of repairing a used reel may make the $30 initial price significantly higher. The Quantum is a great reel for $40. If you have an Accademy Sports nearby, I hear their Metal reel is a nice reel for a similar price when on sale.

Little pieces of wood are called plugs. Hand carved baits were made from plugs of wood back in the day. That's my understanding of where plug came from. Some Shimano reels have meanings to their names... Ultegra a JDM reel, means "Ultimate Integrity".

Thank you TrippyJai for pointing out they definitely aren't the same blank.

Guess I'm a little late on this post. Our club, Chittenden County Bass Masters, has members from Montpelier and the Mad River Valley over to Bristol up to Swanton and North Hero. 33+ members, all great guys without egos. Our club is the oldest club in VT. WWW.ccbvermont.com I'm the president (and VP currently) . 8 "club" tournaments a year and 3 opens as well. Any questions pm me. HeavyD, there's a new club out of the Dover/Wilmington area if you are interested let me know and I'll get you in touch with them.

@How far up the lake are you coming?

Berkley Pitboss Jackall Sastuki Craw Yamamoto Fat Ika Zoom super speed craw

Doc Irving makes some great stuff. 10" senkos are great and I have 1 gallon bags of custom fat ikas. Red dirt baits is another.