Preytorien

I use most colors with effect most of the time. With soft plastics I can usually always do well with natural colors (greens, browns, pumpkin) and with flukes I use almost exclusively pearl. With crank colors I'll use whatever the water color calls for. Stained I'll use something loud (chartreuse or firetiger), clear I'll use something that matches a bluegill forage. Jigs I usually keep it natural colors (browns, greens, pumpkin). I had Mike Siebert (a site sponser here - Siebert Outdoors) make me some jigs that were green pumpkin skirts on top with some chartreuse skirt on the bottom that would be the colors of a frog, then I add a green trailer to it, and those seem to do well also. Frogs and topwaters - doesn't seem to matter the color. The Ned Rigs do well, and I have good luck with Mud Minnow and Coppertreuse colors. I rig them on a 1/16oz and let them slow-fall. If you fish during the week you'll be okay, although some days are busier than others. Just try and avoid them during spring and summer weekends. The launch fee goes up and it's so busy you could almost jump from one boat to another and cross the lake. Both lakes are muddier at their headwaters - Geist at Fall Creek and Morse at Crooked and Cicero Creeks - but clearing as you get closer to the dams. Fall Creek is quite a bit cleaner so you can effectively fish all the way up into it pretty well, Cicero and Crooked Creeks....not so much, they have a pretty good deal of runoff.

I lived on Morse before I got married, and fish Geist quite a bit in the summer. Here's my two cents worth. Both bodies are similar in ways but Geist is much cleaner. Morse did a major drawdown about 10 years ago and hasn't been as clean since. Indianapolis Water pulls a ton from it. Typically it produces good bass, few north of 5lbs, but has notably good populations of stripers, which if you get into them, are really fun to catch. I've had good luck with squarebill crankbaits in flashy/bright colors and topwater lures (frogs, buzzbaits, spooks) especially on warm spring/summer mornings. Geist is much cleaner so your lure assortment can be a bit more varied, but I've had good luck with cranks, topwaters, weightless plastics (flukes and senkos), Ned Rigs, and jigs. Both lakes have good reports of crappie schools too. Those lakes are some of the only large bodies of water adjacent to Indy, so on the weekends (unless you're in a tournament) it fills up with pleasure boaters and becomes difficult to fish. Tuesday through Thursday mornings are best. Myself and a few others on here like to hit them both in kayaks or inflatables since the launch fees are borderline ridiculous. Might give that a whirl if it's your thing.

I have the 90 and it's a great lure. It reminds me a bit of my Heddon Torpedo, in that it can be stopped but still create a buzzing surface disturbance. Similar, but I would rather tie the WP on.

I picked mine up early. New Shimano Crucial spinning......won it on eBay for $98

Both good ideas, I'll have to try that. Sometimes I'll let it sit a second or two before reeling.

Here's a question for you guys who have more experience with the R2S Whopper Plopper I'm using the 90 series, tied onto 30lb braid. It seems like more often than not I have problems with actually getting the prop to start up. I've tried varying retrieve speeds, but I usually have to give it a jerk to get the prop moving. By that time, I've burnt up about 3-4ft of good water that might have a bass under it. Is there some trick to the WP that I don't know? Any way to get the prop starting up easier?

They certainly have incredible prices, almost TOO incredible. I get a bit antsy buying some things from the Asia region with so many reported counterfeit items. However, they take PayPal, so if you got something other than you were expecting they usually help you out or refund your money. Happened to me on a few things before

I'm usually throwing black/blue chatterbaits....the ones with the biggest thump I can find. In murky water they're honing in on baitfish with their lateral line, so anything that makes a lot of racket would be ideal

Shimano rods

I have and use both of those lures. Here's my two cents. The Duo seems to have the design pretty much perfect. The weight balance is ideal and allows for incredibly long casting, even with the standard Spinbait 80 (not the G-Fix or 90) I use braid with a 6lb or 8lb leader. Neither seems to offer much difference over the other. I use the standard Spinbait 80 on spinning tackle, but I'll occasionally use all three on casting gear, again with a leader, although since it's casting, the leader ends up being closer to 10lb. I'd get the 80 G-fix since it can be thrown on either and will cover most of the bases you'd want with a spinbait. Check, check, and check your knots. I've lost two with a weak knot. Your heart sinks in your stomach when you see that lure plop in the water with no line attached. More often than not I usually fish it too fast. I like to run it just above bottom oriented weed beds, so I run it too fast to keep weeds off the hooks. Slow down and hang on, hits are violent. Good luck!

I like the idea. I'm allergic to fish too, so I could use that for more tackle boxes. I think your setup sounds great.

I've often wondered when fishing in rivers/streams, do all fish constantly move downstream or do they move up and down the river but stay within a certain area?

I use the open finger Cabela's Guidewear fishing gloves. They're warm and have windproof material, which is a big deal. The only problem, which is one with most gloves, is that if you're using braid, it'll soak the ends of your thumb and pointer finger so you might want to find something waterproof too.

Using straight braid or a braid leader? Be prepared to never go back! I can't hardly use my finesse (flouro) or anything with copoly anymore. I can't get used to the stretch. I like that near zero stretch of braid. I just recently (a year ago) started experimenting with braid + leader combinations and it's worked out very well. When you think about it, using a flouro leader for invisibility, or mono for a bit more stretch on hookset, a leader of either would do the same job, no need for a whole spool of it.

I think one of the best solutions I've found for this has been (cut me some slack here)....a lure I don't normally subscribe to a lure being the ONLY thing that contributes to success, other factors like technique, conditions, etc come into play. On heavily pressured bodies of water, my standout lure is the Z-Man TRD. It's subtle, small, and easy to use. It simply works. Slather some Megastrike on it and you almost can't miss. I fish a retention pond near my relatives' house about once a week. I'll see several people on the bank fishing almost every time. There's some serious pressure here. Yet I always catch fish with the TRD.

Like Glenn I've been using Smackdown this year and it's great. I have 15lb on my spinning reel and the diameter is so thin that it casts a mile and has great breaking strength.

Yea I found out the hard way. I wrote to Rod Sox and suggested they might put some kind of warning on the packing slip or packing label to warn unsuspecting guys like me. They were very helpful and said they were actually already considering how to do that, and re-sent me a replacement sock at no charge. Super nice folks.

You'll be happy. I have these on all of my rods. I have broken a couple tips off, and the hardened rubber tip on these really adds a bit more protection. A warning though, I found out the hard way that these DO NOT FLOAT. I was running down the lake the day after I got mine, the spinning one was sitting on the deck and it blew off, that baby sank in no time flat. So keep that in mind. As stated above the spinning versions will bend your rod a bit if you have a light action rod just due to the heavier reinforced tip, but that's a manageable trade-off in my opinion if I can save my rods from myself.

If I've ever known anything about fall bass fishing, it's that every day can be different. By in large, certain techniques work pretty consistently, but just as you think you've got em' figured out, they allofasudden want a senko instead of your buzzbait or something similar. Bass are finicky and it seems fall just accents this a little more. As I posted above, spinnerbaits, particularly white with gold colorado blades seem to be the magic bullet for me this year, but last night I fished it for an hour with no bites. Switched to a purple senko slathered with Megastrike and whaddya know, started getting bit. Beats me....I just try various techniques and presentations until I find "the one"

I've noticed they're cruising a lot parallel to the weedlines where I'm fishing. Like you our weeds are dying off, but they're still hanging around there in shallower water than I'd expect. I've had a lot of success running a spinnerbait along these weedlines about a foot under the surface, sometimes even just under the surface. It's the only bait/technique I've had success with this fall.

Here in Indiana it's pretty much the same. If the vessel has a motor, it has to be registered. The problem lies twofold for me. Likewise I don't have a bill of sale, it was a used inflatable Sea Eagle on CL. Secondly, the state requires 3inch block letters and our registration numbers are a mile long, so it ends up taking the entire side of my little boat. The DMV says it has to be stenciled on the transom, the DNR says the hull (both sides) so I just did the transom and if they have a problem with it I keep a copy of the instructions with my registration to show them I followed the DMV rules. When I went to the DMV to register it, it was like the people had never registered a boat with no serial number, no title, and no bill of sale. The police also have to come "inspect" it to verify something i'm sure, they charge $10 for it. They thought it was the stupidest thing they had ever been called out to do. The officer literally said "You have to register THIS??"

Oh man, I'm not sure. They're Arkie brand jigs from Wal-mart. I know, not the best but I didn't want to spend a lot until I knew I'd actually use them from time to time.

So I've been experimenting with using hair jigs, especially in my local shallow river for smallmouth. My problem is that when I use them, and I can see them in the water, they're not flared out, there's no "pulsing" of the hairs, the hairs are just all clumped up, in a straight tail. Is this the way they're supposed to look? I'm not familiar with them, so any advice is appreciated.

I've got a Sustain, and it's the smoothest reel I've ever owned. Simply wonderful.

I bought it since my first impression holding them in the store was because hands-down the Ci4+ reel seat was by far more comfortable. I'm not really hung up on looks, but I would say both rods look nice in their own ways. While Shimano owns both, the G Loomis warranty is obviously better as it's lifetime, so take that as you'd like. The Zodias is my first 1-year Warranty rod from Shimano, all my others were the older gen with lifetime. I'm all for jobs and profits being in the states, I'm not getting into a regional production debate, but you almost can't purchase everything in the US, this time it included my rods, reels, lures, line, etc....I can't find many that are completely produced end-to-end in the CONUS. They certainly have a regional look - again, both look sharp in their own ways. Point being.....hold the rods in your hands, take your reel with you if you want...try them out in the store if possible....buy the one you feel best about That said....in the future will be a custom that Batson would make for me. I'm interested in the MicroWave guides for my spinning rig. That's a way off though.