Bluebasser86

I believe the fish was in the 4lb range and was caught last year sometime. Still a huge crappie though.

I have the slop-n-frog rod too and it does not make a good frog rod. I didn't buy it for frogs though and it does throw mid sized swimbaits pretty well along with the A-rig.

I find a lot of baits and even spend days looking for baits during the winter. I use a telescoping lure retriever and look in the trees and along the shoreline since there isn't much vegetation to hide the baits in the winter months. Now if you count shakeyheads, jigs, and T-rigs I lose a lot more baits than I find.

3/8 oz white with a chartruese split tail trailer kills them for me. Black and blue with a black grub is good in dirty water too.

Snaps are fine, snap swivels are not. The swivel attached to the snap just adds bulk and weight and can kill the action on smaller baits and serves no purpose. If you take the split ring off the front of a bait and use a snap instead it serves the same purpose as the split ring but also allows you to change baits quickly. Just make sure you don't get too big of a snap.

You have a point but at the same time some that post questions on here I'm sure have tried over and over again without success. Instead of giving up on a technique or maybe fishing completely, they come here and ask for help.

I'm not sure there is a ton of bass in that lake. There is for sure a ton of food for them in there though. Lots of small bluegills, crappie, and shad. I've had very limited success in that lake on moving baits. A big, black 3/4oz jig with half a full sized black sapphire brushhog is one of my best baits out there. A junebug curly tail worm has done well for me also. If all else fails a black and blue flipping tube with a rattle or an Eakin's flipping jig in black and blue will usually get a couple bites. It's a tough lake like I said. Don't expect to get many bites. I bet my best day out there I might have caught 15 or 20 all day, but I had a couple 4's, a 5, and that one that went almost 8. Took the wife to Wyandotte today and tore them up. I ended with a nice round 40 bass with a good ratio of largemouth to smallmouth, 12-15 crappie, and 2 wipers. Jerkbaits and shakeyheads caught a lot of my fish, a couple on a dropshot, some on a wacky rig, and one on a jig. Taking the old man to Melvern tomorrow, hoping the bite down there holds up!

Maybe over weeds? I've never fished an inline that would come through weeds without fouling but they do work well over weeds. Maybe one of the baits that has a big single hook and a T-rigged grub I guess as long as it isn't vegetation that can get caught on the clevis and stop the blade. I still toss a #3 Mepps once in awhile. Like others have said the small fish just get to them so fast or they don't appeal to big fish much or a combination of both. I loved fishing 1/8 roostertails when I was a kid though because of their tendency to catch lots of fish. I still have a ton of them, just rarely use them.

Haven't fished one much this year yet, the jerkbait bite has been too good. My trusty Rayburn Red Xcalibur XRK50 might be the only one I've caught a bass on so far this year now that I think about it.

Dang man that is so rough luck! Those weren't your only 2 combos were they? Did you go back out to the lake to see if they were still there if you did leave them on the groud? I laid one down on the bank of a lake one time and forgot about it until the next morning. Thankfully mine was still there.

I leave mine tied on but I always retie or at least give it a quick check to make sure the knot and line are still good. I fish before work a lot of the time and it's nice to have baits tied on ready to go to get the most of the 30 minutes I might have to go make a couple casts.

It very well may die, might live too though, but every fish you caught that day has a chance of dying and a chance of living, it's part of the game.

New boat, new truck, buy a house on whatever lake I decided I wanted to live on then buy some land with good deer hunting and build a small lake on it and stock it with whatever I wanted. I'd pay off all my family members bills and help them out where they needed. I'd go to work and say everything that I've always wanted to say to my "customers" and just wait until they fired me, then I'd move into my new house

"That water is cold I swear!"

X1000! I turn into a pouting 5 year old if my wife drags me to the mall. I try my best to be a good sport for the first 5 minutes or so but that's about all I can take. At least I like playing and understand darts. I don't like cloths shopping and don't understand why my wife needs 30 pairs of shoes and a new purse every month.

Another vote for a St. Croix Avid. Great rods for a reasonable price and great customer service if anything ever happens to it. I'd probably go for the 7' MH/F or 7' MH/XF in your price range. I use a MH/F to cast swimbaits and do a pretty similar retrieve to what it sounds like you're doing and have great success, only difference is I'm using a Premier but it still doing everything I need it to do.

I don't think my 50 casts any further but it fits on a smaller rod and holds less of the lighter line I fish on it so it's a little better sized for what I'm doing with it.

They are good baits but I've stopped fishing them for the most part, they are just too fragile. I've broken so many bills off them just deflecting off rocks on the retrieve and now that they run 7-9 dollars apiece I can't afford to buy them if they're going to break that easily.

I don't hardly own a shirt that isn't fishing related, unless it's hunting related. Raccoon eyes year round, fishing hats, "So many fish, so little time" hitch cover.

I love having Mondays off. We were tearing them up last Monday and sharing a 7,000 acre lake with about 10 other boats. I still got cut off fishing down one bank though

I think the skeleton fish and the "Fear no Fish" slogan is cool. I don't own and Loomis rods, can't afford to since I only fish for fun, but I would wear one of their shirts. I could get what you're saying if someone has hats, stickers, jerseys, shirts, says how much they love Loomis rods, but fishes a different brand. Otherwise it's their money and if they want to wear Loomis gear that's their call. I like fishing gear, including clothes and decals, even brands I don't use. It's supporting our sport in general, so I'm for it.

Glad to hear you both caught some fish! I'll be taking my wife to Wyco again this Sunday. Hopefully she listens and puts on some sunblock this time. She's still not over her sunburn from last week Hopefully the bass are biting better out there this week. We both caught some but the dang trout kept eating our baits instead. Big trout on a wiggle wart. Since they kept eating our baits we gave up and started fishing for them. This one was a really nice one that ate one of my homemade trout jigs. It doesn't look very big in this picture but the stringer shot with my wife you can tell how big he really was. The other big one is the one that ate the wiggle wart. Hopefully we'll be catching bass this week like we were catching trout last week.

We have done pretty well in that area before, even up in the creek in the cove, it has some pretty decent water with good laydowns. There is also a small marina cove with some good water and rock cover and a couple brushpiles. The riprap along the highway 92 bridge and the riprap around the Old Town boat ramp can both be pretty good also. We don't usually fish up there because there is more places to fish on the south end of the lake and it's a long run with my 16' aluminum and a 60hp motor.

Not suitable? Not that I can think of. Forgot to wear on the other hand. I can remember very clearly warming up for a basketball game in highschool in my warm up pants with the buttons up the side. Once game time got there I grabbed the front of them and ripped them off, only to find I'd forgotten to put my shorts on! So there I was standing in front of maybe a couple hundred people in my boxers on the court. I think I quit playing sports after that year

I love my St.Croix rods and have Triumphs, Premiers, Mojos, Rages, Avids, LTB, even one of the discontinued Classic Catfish rods. Of all their rods I own the Triumph is by far my least favorite. It's not a bad rod, just doesn't feel good in my hand and doesn't seem very sensitive at all. I've got several Mojos and really like them. I know a lot of people complain about them being tip heavy, which they kind of are, but not enough that it bothers me. They've been very good rods for me and have stood up to a lot. If you're patient you might be able to find a couple Avids or Rage rods that have been used. I bought my Avid that I use for jerkbaits (6' 2" M/XF) used for $50. It's got some scuffs and scratches but works just as good as when it was new and obviously cost less than a new Triumph.