Bluebasser86

http://www.basspro.com/Norman-Lures-Thin-N-Crankbait/product/55078/ Looks like color 05, Chartreuse Killer.

I used to be brand loyal to Shimano reels until they started changing up the Curado every few years and I wasn't liking some of the new models as much. For me it wasn't so much brand loyalty as just having all my reels feel and work the same so it was easier to pick up any setup I had on the deck and start fishing it. Now I have Shimano, Lews, Abu, Pfluegar, Okuma, and BPS and I use and enjoy all of them. I am pretty brand loyal with rods, just haven't found anything that I like nearly as much as my St. Croix's.

nailed it

Believe they are called a Super Trap and they weigh in at a whopping 1.5 ounces. It is a Bill Lewis design. I tried heaving one for pike once but no luck.

I couldn't read the article, couldn't get past that sweet mustache the guy in the picture was rocking!

That's a monster crappie. I caught a 15-16 inch range crappie on a Zoom Horny Toad in a pond a few years ago. I'd just caught a 5lb bass in the exact same spot on the edge of the weed line when that crappie inhaled the bait just like the bass did. The pond had very tannic water and the white bait glowed under water. It was pretty cool watching it disappear and really surprising when it was a crappie.

Nice 'cuda. Looks like you're half in, half out of a shadow of a building or something.

I've got a Revo S that's a few years old. Lots of miles, fish, and abuse on it. Had to replace the pawl bearing this winter and had it supertuned also, feels even better than new now.

I bought one pack because Cabela's was sold out of Havoc Grass pigs so I thought I'd give them a try. Tried them on a belly weighted hook and a jighead and couldn't get them to swim right for the life of me. They're a pretty hard plastic so I"m sure they'd be durable but never could get anything to eat them to test that.

An 8" black jelly worm still tricks a lot of fish for me.

You got that right and I love it! Most people get excited when they see a nice day coming up on a day they're going fishing. I get excited when it's going to be nasty because I know I'll most likely be the only guy crazy enough to be out there It's easy to forget about being cold and wet when you're putting fish like that in the boat

Haven't seen it, what month is it in? I'll have to check it out next time I'm at BPS.

I've read studies that showed an unusually large number of record fish are caught 3 days prior and following a full moon and the day of the half moon. Never paid much attention to if regarding the big fish I've caught though. Very rarely have I ever done any good the day of the full moon though.

When fish see lots of spinnerbaits and get conditioned to them chatterbaits seem to work. They really shine in dirty water though, especially when they feed heavily on bluegills. A few of the lakes I fish have both things working for them. The fish see lots of spinnerbaits and the water is dirty. People throw spinnerbaits all day long and catch a few fish but you put a chatterbait in the water and they start tearing it up and the bigger fish that "must be in deeper water" start showing up in the same places everyone else has already worked to a froth with spinnerbaits. At times they're magic in clear water though. Another lake I do well with them is very clear and the fish will only hit spinnerbaits on windy, cloudy days. Break out a white with chartreuse trailer chatterbait and the fishes demeanor changes completely. These tentative fish that you can only catch with a shakyhead and finesse worm are suddenly trying to take the rod out of your hand. Exactly why they'll smash a chatterbait but won't touch a spinnerbait I don't know, but I've seen it dozens of times so it isn't just coincidence.

Looking for some very small shaker/chatterbait blades to make some tiny chatterbaits, like 1/8 and 1/16 ounce. My wife loves fishing the micro size chatterbaits and does very well with them and I'd like to make some customs because the hooks on the original ones are pretty bad.

Man I wish I could tie a hair jig that looked even close to that! My hair jigs just never look right for some reason. Nice work! What head are you tying them on?

2 of the biggest bass I caught last year were on my homemade chatterbaits. I have them in a lot of colors but black and blue with a silver blade and white with a silver blade, both in 3/8oz, get the call 90% of the time. I like the black and blue in low light conditions or when the water is dirty. The white gets the call in clear water to lightly stained water in low light to sunny conditions. I use a chartreuse trailer on the white bait 100% of the time and it makes a huge difference in the number of bites I get with it. I fish mine with a slow, steady retrieve to let the bait work and call the fish in to it. They excel around grass because the heavy vibration calls them out of the grass. They come through brush and timber very well for a bait with an open hook.

There is a big one way in the back of one of the arms that I'm going to go check out next time I take her out there. It looks like a really good sized pond but I highly doubt you could get a boat back to it as low as the lake is but it looks like there is a place to park maybe a few hundred yards away. The pond I walked yesterday was not real big but it looked good from what I could see about it.

Well I'm not completely froze in thanks to the power plant lakes but still have a couple things I have to wait for a better chance to use. Mattlures Hardbass VMC Ike approved straight shank flipping hooks BPS Extreme 7' 10" swimbait rod Stradic 2500 CI4

Nope, took the puppy out to Hillsdale and walked the bank looking for lures then walked the woods looking for sheds, not much luck doing either. Found 3 crankbaits, 2 of them unusable, and a bunch of bobbers. Didn't find any sheds but I did find a good looking pond back in the trees on public land. Looked like it had good depth and had some nice laydowns and over hanging trees. Probably have to go back out there during the spring.

My wife may have more money in all the purses she has in the top of her closet than I do in rods and reels. Seems like she comes home with a new one once a month. I don't understand it but I don't bug her about that and she doesn't say anything about the dozens of fishing rods hanging in the garage and laying in the boat.

Slowly crank a small, single colorado bladed spinnerbait or rattle trap. If you can find any suspending rattle traps they're killers in cold water in ponds. Suspending jerkbaits fished slowly if the water is deep and clear enough. A weightless, texas rigged senko drug along the bottom as slow as you can stand can be good.

cbass (Ryan) and I hit Wolf Creek after I got off work this morning. Didn't get any big wipers, or crappies, or bass. Other than big white bass we didn't catch anything real big but man the big whites were eating big time. As soon as we launched I spotted a bunch of gulls diving to the north of the ramp so we headed there first instead of the outlet. Ryan caught one his first cast and I missed one and then caught one my next cast. Flutter spoons, traps, swimbaits, and deep cranks were the baits of choice for the whites. The largemouth we caught were almost all on flukes. We put 110 fish in the boat, probably at least 90 of them were whites. Lots of doubles and even one triple thanks to Ryan's solo double.

Got up to 55 here today, back in the 30's tomorrow. Got out for about 6 hours after I got off work at 8 this morning with a buddy from work. Not as many largemouth as we'd hoped and no smallmouth but between the few largemouth we got and the big white bass we put 110 fish in the boat. A little over 18 fish an hour ain't bad for January

Sure do. Just got done working 60-70 hour weeks for a couple months straight before the holidays. At least you're somewhere that you can go if you get the time. A lot of guys here in the midwest have the time but the water is too hard to go fishing! Which is worse, having the time but no where to fish, or having the water but not the time?