wnybassman

Not sure why you need a total lengths worth?

Several years back a 3 1/2" thin walled tube (BPS Tender Tube) was my go to flipping bait when all else failed. Rigged it up with a 1/0 G-lock hook with a 3/16 ounce weight. Caught lost of fish with it and won lots of money. Oddly, I have not fished that much at all in the last few years. I keep telling myself I'm gonna start throwing it again, but never do.

You can buy 2 piece injection molds for the trick worm in either the flat belly or full round version. The flat belly isn't as flat as a hand pour, it does have a little curve to it, which is why it needs to be a 2 piece mold.

I found the USPS to be the cheapest, but only to some zones. I can ship a rod to California for $18, but to Ohio it is $28. I really don't get it myself.

A two piece mold for a flat sided worm means the two sides are different, meaning more design work involved. A round worm will usually have mirror image sides, so it cuts way down on the design/programming time.

I am guessing emeralds. Guys dip for them all the time for bait.

Yep, and they are the bronze finish hooks I don't particularly care for. Thanks for the link though.

Two reasons. The first is I can't seem to find any black nickel hooks that have a split shank. A few different bronze finish split shank hooks out there, but bronze hooks in my boat don't last very long before rust sets in. Second reason is any time I used split rings to attach the hooks, the hooks would constantly foul up on me. It doesn't take long for that to become very annoying.

I am having a hard time seeing how that is different than normal for you while at work. lol Keep it up, you'll get through it.

I don't recall ever catching a bass on a store bought blade bait, I've been making my own for nearly as long as I have been pouring my own jigheads. With that said, it took me nearly 10 years to figure out how to consistently catch fish with them, but once I figured it out I have had great success bladebaiting. I mainly fish for smallies with them, in water colder than 50 degrees or so. I like heavy gear, a 7' MH casting rod with 17 or 20 pound flouro. And yes, you see right. I cut the hook eye, flex it open to put it on the bait and crimp it closed again. I have never lost a fish due to this method, and you will break the line LONG before that hook eye flexes back open again.

All 29 of my rods "in use" right now are St. Croix but range from Premiers to LTB's. Only 16-18 are in the boat at any given time though, the rest are just back-ups or actions/lengths that I am not really using currently. All casting reels are cheaper Abu Garcia and all spinning reels are cheaper Shimano.

I use cheap Omni Flex 15 pound as backing for everything on casting reels. I figure using the heavier line I use less of it to fill the same space. The knot has never been an issue for me. For spinning reels I usually put on a full fresh spool of whatever is going on the spool in the spring, then as the year wears on I strip off about half and refill from there. There has been years I'd fill up in the early spring and use that same line until I strip it off in the late fall, and you don't even want to know what kind of line that was. lol

Can show you how close fish come to your bait without eating it. lol

Traditionally fall is my favorite time of the year also, and I expected to post up a limit of 20-22 inch smallmouth this fall. The smallies around here wanted to play a little game of hide and seek this fall season, and they won. I had my worst year of smallmouth fishing in a long long time. But, I had my best year of largemouth fishing in October, ever! So I guess it was a trade-off. lol

Most anything you've caught in the last month or two. lol

Mine is mounted in the 15" setback on my Ranger, and is only accessible through a 6" porthole. I basically change it by feel, I can't really see it that well.

Oneida is connected to the Great Lakes system by rivers and canals, it was just a matter of time. Tournament results for limits of smallies the last couple years seem to have an increase in weight from past years.

We're doing a spiral ham lol

The only smallmouth I have caught so far on a chatterbait has been with a paddletail swimbait on it instead of the usual skirt/trailer.

7' MH Fast casting - The workhorse. jigs, T-rigged plastics, C-rigged plastics, bubba-shots, deep cranks, lipless cranks, blade baits, spoons, spinnerbaits, frogs 7' M Fast casting - light T-rigged plastics, shallow cranks, chatterbaits 6' 6" M fast casting - wacky, topwater, jerkbaits 6' 6" ML spinning - open hook jighead fishing of all kinds, dropshot 6' M spinning - skipping rod Some of those aren't what I would normally use for those applications, but could if I "had" to.

Not super rare, but I've only caught just the one. European Rudd

A couple years ago I got into catching late summer/early fall crappie here pretty good and they all came from 18-24 feet or so. Caught and released 10 or 12 one of the first days when I looked behind the boat and realized I was leaving a trail of floaters behind me. Went back through and scooped them up with the net, and could only keep the ones that measured. They floated in the livewell also, and I tried both fizzing them and attaching the fin clips to keep them upright. Neither worked. Fished for them several more times that year, and many of them came to the surface nearly dead looking. I could hold them in my flat palm and they would just lay there for as long as I wanted to hold them. I finally kind of gave up fishing for them deep like that because all I was doing was killing them.

The forum was down for a day or so and some posts were lost.