Todd2

Very nice..eager to try this with my traps.... "Less is best"

The teachers always told us there is no such thing as a stupid question..this might be an exception. How do you fish a blade bait?

I've never tried this up in the water column..only off the bottom. Seems like it'd be hard to maintain a constant running depth, I'm gonna give it a try.

Most of our lakes here are weedless...full of rocks and trees but I do have a few ponds that I bank fish with weeds that burning a lipless over might work..not sure why I haven't done that yet. I will now.?

I picked up a few lipless cranks today after I realized I was running low and it made me think.... Why do lipless cranks seem to be less popular than diving ones? Maybe they are not, but it seems it to me from people I know and fish around. I even forget about them myself a lot going with lipped ones until Fall rolls in. But is there a better lure that imitates baitfish that can be worked at any depth? Swimbaits..maybe, but a lipless has to be up there. Also, since a lipless is not loading the rod as much as a diving crankbait during the retrieve, does that make strike detection easier or harder? Just some random thoughts.

I've switched over to steel for most of mine. It's bigger but not too bad in the 1/8 and 3/16 sizes. When my 1/4 lead runs out, I'll probably look at tungsten for that size and higher.

Catch a bunch of Crappie with the occasional big Bass out of brushpiles and standing timber. Bundled up with some hot coffee I don't mind it until it gets below freezing. At that point, I turn in my man card and watch Football or movies...lol

I've fished a small river the last two years quite a bit, for me it's pretty similar to the lake..laydowns...laydowns are golden..on slow moving water they even seem better percentage wise. Pick it apart with jigs and soft plastics before moving to the next. My second best pattern is cranking square bills down rocky banks. I like getting in the skinny water...less pressure too.

Good luck..hang in there and you'll be back out before you know it.

I don't really have the problems with braid that the OP mentions...but everytime I try braid, I usually go back to mono. Not sure why, braid's just not my thing.

I have a 2003 Silver Edition Tracker..it works for me but I've never been in another tin boat to compare.

Copolymer and mono are basically the same or at least I can't tell a difference. Now you have many different types of each, ranging from soft and more manageable (Trilene XL) to harder more durable lines (Trilene XT). Stren and Big Game seem to be in the middle somewhere. Of course there are countless others.

I don't have any to sell. ?

Mono users unite..reject the fluoro propaganda!

How'd you determine that? Is the line curly at the end?

Main lake has been slow, better action has been in the headwaters (river) but even that is more White Bass/Saugeye than Bass...but catching is better than casting.

Back in the 80's when I was a kid I tied that way. My older brother saw me doing it one day and stopped me and showed me a stronger knot. I probably tied the new knot for 10 years before I knew it was called a palomar.

It's all personal preference and what/where you're throwing. I've recently switched over a few to the newer Trilene XT and I really like how it fishes over my old Stren and Big Game. A lot of guys like braid too.

Spend that $18 for a 1000 yard spool of Trilene XT and be done with it.

Interesting thread, I've had very limited success with a chrome lipless crank..but spoon sounds like the correct answer. I've been up in the river in recent weeks where I've caught more White Bass and Saugeye than Bass. I see a lot of Whites out in the middle in the jumps but casting to them is almost pointless it seems, but that same crankbait parallel with rocky banks is a machine. Maybe I'll try some smaller spoons for the jumps.

1/4 oz cheap Dipsey's work for me but I'm rarely fishing deeper than 15-20 feet.

I agree that the T-Rig would be the most versatile rig, but it's not always the best deal of the day. Yesterday, the crankbait "out performed" the T-Rig by a very large margin.

Yeah, the worm is my #1. I catch most of mine along the bottom or on the fall in wood cover. Do you catch a lot of largemouth swimming it mid depth? I try it some but don't have a lot of luck. I hear it works better for Smallies and/or swimming above grass..which I have little of both where I normally fish.

I don't think there is. I mostly use a lot of the same worms and creatures I use for other presentations. I do have a few that are "Drop Shot lures" but I bought most of those at the beginning when I thought I had to. A Zoom trick worm is one of my favorites.

I normally don't like to impose restrictions on working a certain lure a certain way but my experience with the drop shot echoes what Tom has seen. The less I work it, the more fish I catch. One big caveat..there has to be fish around...duh....lol