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Yeah, I know what you mean, Eric. Georgia gets that way too and I use to live in North Carolina. There even the low 80's can feel like some vegetables took revenge and put you in a steamer. JSPOON, the only place locally that I have found rage products is one that only carries 2 colors in smokin rooster and 4 colors of anaconda. The rest I'm just gonna have to break down and buy on BPS. It'll be about a $50 order to make the delivery charge worth it. So it'll take me a bit. This is where I wish I was good enough for tourneys so I might could make some of my money back. But, I have a long way to go.

I have a 1/2 ounce and a 1/4 ounce black/blue jig and have them rigged with netbait's chunker munker. one black/blue flake and one sapphire. nada. i really need to save up for the rage craw, rage lizard, rage shad, and the rage space monkey.

I stole an idea from A-jay for the jigs I own (until I can get the stuff for the other rig). I took a small bead and a 3/16 ounce bullet weight, tied a reverse clinch knot on my 1/2 ounce jig, then used the tag end to tie a uni knot above the bead. I did this to add a little more weight and hopefully dig deeper into the weeds. Didn't really work. The weeds (or whatever) are so thick that the jig just sat on top. However, for some reason the extra bullet sinker seemed to help when swimming the jig back to me. Also, the uni knot does really good on t-rig. It is a little more time consuming, especially taking the lure off.

The other day I seen on YouTube where someone was using a artificial snake lure and largemouths were hitting it like crazy.

I am unfortunately bank bound. Having said that, I've only been bass fishing for 7 months now and, not counting the soft plastics the bass throws off as I'm bringing them in, I have lost: 1 Spook (in tree) 2 Topwater frogs Rebel Frog-R and Scum Frog (in tree) 1 Spinnerbait (bad tying) 2 Lipless Crankbaits (bad tying again) 1 Rapala DT 8'-11' (hung on some submerged object) 1 Bomber model A shallow (broke off on a bass but someone else caught the same bass a few minutes later so I got it back) And a few soft plastics (in tree) I don't think that's too bad. The one's in tree is because I'm just crazy enough to throw them near trees. Most times I can get them back and 50% of the time I land a bass. I've had 2 bass take off with my lure after I got the line hung over some bush limbs. I brought them in though.

To be honest, I cast and reel with right hand no matter what type of rod or reel I'm using. It seems more natural to me and it only takes a second to do. The exception is pitching and flipping. For some reason it seems more natural. As far as I'm concerned, my left arm is weak because I'm right handed, so making those precise or long casts would be difficult. On the flip side, my hook set ratio is pretty good considering that I'm using my left hand to set the hook. Also, it builds up my left arm muscles, so that's an added bonus. I've seen pros both old and new do it. Kevin Van Dam, Jimmy Houston, and Scott Martin are good examples. So I think it's a matter of comfortable rather than being a "bad habit".

My buddy George caught 3 dinks between 8:30 and 9:00 yesterday evening on a watermelon Zoom Swimming Fluke. It seems to me that the bigger bass (by bigger I mean 1# or greater) are playing it smart and staying relatively deep and all the dinks just don't know any better.

LOL, Eric. For a change it's actually cooler where you live than here. Glenn put me up a couple of months. One issue I have is finding the green vegetation. With the exception of a few snot looking slime every now and then, most is fairly brown. Also, it would figure that as soon as I start trying to get away from soft plastics and learn the other lures, I would have to revert back to soft plastics. Thankfully, I did better than May so far (only by 1). It was only cause I made it to my favorite point a couple of times. I don't know though. Despite me not fishing as much this month I've not done too bad.

I miss my Spook. Guess it's back to poppers. Also means that there's no reason to bring my baitcaster. My spinning combo handles poppers much better and in a lot of ways it handles soft plastics better. I can find them easier in the morning. Evenings are a different story. This evening I stuck to the northern bank pitching a smokin rooster into the weeds (and just outside) and then went back making longer casts. Nada. I'll try a different section tomorrow and see what happens. Thanks, guys. Like I said, I believe it's a matter of me readjusting.

With over a third of the nation in the triple digits the next few days, is there anyone who still fishes in the day from the bank? If so: 1)What lure are you using? 2)What situation (i.e. shallow, deep, open water, submerged moss/ weeds) And most importantly....... 3)ARE YOU CRAZY? Just kidding about that last part. Besides getting hot quickly and staying that way until a couple of hours after sundown, I'm having problems locating the bass now. I get one or two here and there. Mostly small bass. I mean like 5-6 inches small. These are the times where I would love to be the stereotypical fisherman and tell a whale of a tale. But, there's no honor or reward in doing that. 80% of the bass I have caught in the last 2 weeks have been 4 ounces or less. Often I wonder why I even bother bringing 3 rods, 2 jigs, and 5 bags of various soft plastics when I end up catching them on a Yum Dinger (with and without F2) using a ML 5'6" Shakespeare Bass spinning combo spooled with 8# test. Before anyone asks, I have read the articles concerning summer fishing and for the most part they assume we're in a boat. They also assume that we're having a normal year. It hasn't been here in Northwest Georgia. We pretty much went from fall to late spring early summer. There was no winter to speak of and spring was almost non existent. Now we're having late july/ early august temps in late june. Point being, I believe the bass' behavior are wacked out. Either that or I'm having trouble making the right adjustments. Does a water plane count as a boat?........................

When did they start making Miracle Grow for fish? You can almost see in her eyes that she's concocting some devious plan to get you on a hook.

You know, even without the skirt the knot would be a better alternative to pegging your weights with a tooth pick. Haha, I'm sure this isn't any real news to most people.

Sorry, I was having an idiot moment. I'm so used to jigs pulling up a lot of salad which ends up hiding the jig. I just never know whether it's a good lure to throw in that situation. I wish I could identify the vegetation. It sorta looks like sherly temple on a bad hair day (for the younger generation that would mean that it's super curly rather than some what straight vegetation). I'm trying to find a work around for that hub. I don't have any and my money got a little tight due to my flea market partner through his back out so we weren't able to go this week. Also, I looked up the double uni knot and I can't see how you did it. From what I've seen it looks like it's for tying one line end to another. The stop knot, however, is for tying a bobber stop, but could be used for your "jig" setup.

It amazes me the different rigs or lure modifications that people still make even though fishing has been around forever. Ajay, that looks like a pretty sweet rig and might work in my weed heavy lake. One question, though......the main thing different is the skirt, what would be the advantage of having a skirt with a t-rig? I know it sounds pretty dumb, but the answer alludes me at the moment.

When you said hybrid I thought it might have been the ones we have in my lake. It's a warmouth/ rock bass. Them jokers are more aggressive than bass and will dern near go after anything. To top it off, they might be 4 ounces but will fight as if you have a 2 pound bass. I've tried wacky rig (must not been doing it right), usually I end up t-rig weightless. As soon as it hits bottom it becomes a jerkbait of a sort. I pop it twice and then let it fall back down. Rinse and repeat. I had a little 5" small mouth trying to suck it down. Sadly, it was the only bass I caught today.

islandbass, lol i don't feel so bad about not being always able to convey what i'm trying to say. For example, I wrote one post saying that my fishing buddy and I would love to see some pros come to my lake to fish it to see how they do without boats and to take notes. Some how it got retranslated to us saying we were better than the pros, which is by no means the case at all. Anyways, thanks for cheering me up!

BassinMD, I found that out the hard way. I bought 2 football jigs with the spring lock and every cast I would pull up so much salad. Now I'm wondering why I bought them. I've been trying to figure out a good way to reach the deeper regions of my lake, which only go max 25' deep, but being bank bound I have yet to figure it out. Even if I could cast to it I am certain that I would only have about 10-20 feet (horizontally) to work in before getting back into heavy vegetation.

Oh, for those interested, when using buckets they will sometimes get turned at an angle. Resist the urge to move them, because now your target strike zone just got smaller. This will help with accuracy. Obviously if they turn completely side ways then by all means move them.

The buckets are roughly a foot tall, but most of the cover I want to be pitching to are trees or bushes that hang over the water. So, I thought it would be wise to practice pitching where it slides under and to the back. I laid them down which made them only 6" tall. Doing this also forced me to pay attention to accuracy as much as distance. The plates sound like a really good idea, but wind could be an issue. I don't want to run back and forth chasing plates. Cups? I'm not ready for and I'm not certain that my wife would appreciate that. Although, we've got so many that we barely have room for it. When I said I wanted the lure to slide under and to the back, I wasn't referring to skipping. That will come later. I meant where the lure "glides" over the surface a few inches before landing in the pocket under the tree limbs (or bucket). Skipping will have to be practiced on water I assume, because the ground would cause all sorts of line issues. Slonezp, I figured it was a poke at long mike, but is that a pic of you or just a random pic? Just wondering, cuz if it's a pic of you then it makes complete sense to me. LOL! Not sure why it would matter to me. It's between you and long mike anyways.

LOL! This is my first summer fishing for bass and I have yet found anything solid that I can say is a "go to" lure. They have me befuddled. One day it's a tube, the next a stick worm (cheap version of Senko), the next it's something else. I can't get a handle on them. Even worse, I can't get to the actual deep part of the lake (bank bound) so I'm forced to look for shallow bass, but even in the 6am-9am period they seem to not really want to take my offerings. So far, I have roughly figured out every season except summer. Unfortunately I still have 3 official months to do it.

Oh, and slonezp, your reply has completely went over my head......

Yeah, I really need to get a 7' or 7'6 rod for flipping. I'm sure I can get more distance with a little less effort. To show you that not all reels are created equal, my pinnacle reel ($40) doesn't like it when I have the mag brakes off. Heck, I have to cast with it all the way up. My Quantum Lite reel is loving the brakes at 2 when casting and 0 when flipping. I don't get it really. The pinnacle has 7 bearings where the quantum has only 2. I'm no where close to being accurate yet, but I do get it within 6" in any direction of my target. Another problem I am having is that I only get a silent entry into the water maybe 15% of the time. But, I think with less than one day of practicing I am doing pretty good. I just have to remember to keep it up while figuring out how to stay cool (temp wise). Also, I think the action of the rod makes a lot of difference. My quantum lite tip doesn't bend a whole lot, but my skakespeare rod does. So, I'm thinking that the less flexible the rod tip is the less likely you are to throw a birds nest when flipping. I could be way off based but that's just from my observation. Since this afternoon, I am wondering if flipping soft plastics in my lake would be better than jigs. My lake is ate up with weeds and I'm not sure a jig would be a good choice. I need to cut down the skirt a little so that might make a difference. Sorry, I'm getting into a whole different topic.

Thanks smalljaw67. In the OP I stated that Bass Pro Shop and tackle warehouse had them....for some reason though it got censored as if it was a bad word. I wonder why it did that? Anyway, I will use the trick worms, but I would still like to try the wacky crawler. Maybe Gulp! has a redeeming quality in those particular worms.

I took a look at the Gulp! Wacky Crawlers and to be honest they look thicker than the trick worms. I am guessing the only advantage in Gulp!'s behalf is that the WC is supposedly slimy. I wonder how much Ike paid those bass to take his lures. I'm sure they have great benefits. They get a cozy tank that probably stayed nice and comfortable temperature wise. LOL! Right now it's staying in the low to upper 90's till 8pm or so. I know it's probably worse in the South West. We also haven't had any rain for 3 weeks or so. We didn't even get much the last time it rained. Now, it's looking like we won't get any for 2 more weeks. You best believe, I will be one fisherman in the rain (unless it's storming). Anyways, didn't mean to side track. Thanks for the great inputs!

I haven't tried it yet, but I think I agree with you. I picked up one of my "trophy" trick worms and it was so limber.