scaleface

I started making bugs for river smallmouths because they preferred soft plastics with appendages over straight worms most days. I had 100 fish days with them . Then I started using them for reservoir largemouths. Caught a few nice channel cats with them.

McKinney Blaylock Hackney Christie Martin

I use to buy cards of jigs for less than a dollar per jig. There would be 10 or 12 jigs in a plastic slip stapled to a strip of cardboard. I forget who made them. Someone here in Missouri.

If the conditions are right I would like to throw a Bomber Long A Minnow with the tail prop more. It gets big bites .

It changes year to year. Crankbaits might be hot one year then non-existent the next. I'll just list this past years. Texas rigged worm, Chatterbait spinnerbait Bomber Long A minnow tubes neds

I have two of those floating snake heads. I dont recall using them.

Slow speed reels for crankbaits. I dont carry enough combos to justify a dedicated crankbait reel . I'm back to a more versatile 7 to 1 ratio reel.

The snow has stopped . My driveway is clear but now I have 2 foot of hardened snow blocking the driveway left behind by the snow plow . Thats always the hardest part. I'll take a little shovel and chip away .

I shoveled the drive way twice today and may do so again before bed. I'll have to shovel again tomorrow, possibly twice . I'm getting to old for this.

I dont have real vegetation to fish in. All there is around here is algae and gorilla snot. I fish the edges with spinnerbaits, chatterbaits , buzzbaits and various top waters . I fish through it with frogs , toads and weightless soft plastics.

I usually sharpen a hook or two every trip . The diamond file on a Leatherman is what I use.

Ive been doing this for years. I recommend not using white or red strands. Panfish will nibble on them. I posted a photo here of some years ago. I like half a stick worm on a jig head. I called them a bug.

Would a pic of two five lbers count?

Other than spooks I havent used a lot of Heddon lures. My favorite spook color , I dont know the name but its a silvery shad.

I remember well enough to have an idea what to do when I get there. Last year I arrived at my destination only to discover I forgot my battery. Drove the 30 miles back home , returned, then got skunked. I would like to forget that trip.

Larew Salt Craw , double tail grub, but most used plastic's on the boat floor will work. Half a plastic worm catches a lot of fish for me.

The largest spotted bass I have caught came on a Rebel maxi PopR fished like a wake bait. There were no such category of baits then. I was retrieving it straight , just under the surface with a slight wiggle and pushing a big wake in front of it . Brought it by an emergent tree and a four lber jumped all over it.

I see a bait, buy it , catch a bunch of fish only to find out later I've been fishing them the wrong way.

sixteen years later and old style worms still the best lure made.

I dont have a bait that meets the 2.5 to 3 inch criteria. I use the old school Bomber Long A's. The one with the prop on the tail . It gets hammered while waking it in the spring. S\ I have one of the old Ripplin Red Fins in my top water box and for some reason have never thrown it. I'll have to give it a go this next season. Its probably close to 40 years old or older.

Dont know the name but when I was little I had a 45 record of Santa and three elves Hardrock, Coco and Joe.

There are fish inside the locks, so they move from one body of water to another.. I was allowed to fish in one . I caught carp that were sucking on the surface. Just drop a treble hook baited with may flies down to them and they sucked them right in.

Ned Tube Bomber Prop A Spinnerbait Chatterbait #1 Texas rigged worm.

I still have a few Picos and Boogies but they are not in my crank box. I have moved on to other baits. When I first started fishing from a boat back in the 70's , a 200 acre lake near by had a lot of emergent timber. I talked with guys who fished it and Picos were a favorite lure. Thats how I started fishing them.

I used both of them . Pico Perch shallower in emergent timber. Bayou Boogies deeper , yoyoing them off the bottom.