Kevin22

I don't use those exact baits, but I never remove the front treble of any bait. I have caught a lot of fish that slashed at the bait and got the front treble, especially out in open water.

I picked up a bunch of bone in the puppy and pop-r last fall. Clearance section, $1. Bait bonanza box.

You need 3 square bills. Chartreuse black back for muddy water Bluegill color (substitute perch if that is a big forage) for lakes where there are no shad. Shad color. As for what bait, bomber square A and H2O express.

Start by holding the rod at 135º angle (your feet is 0, head is 180, straight out is 90) and adjust your spool tension until the bait slowly falls all the way to the ground. Turn your mag brakes to half way (usually 5). Now give it a cast. If it falls short and feels like there is too much breaking, back it down to 4, then 3, etc, until it backlashes or gets to the point where you cannot control it well. The only time you will need to go over 5 is if you are throwing into a stiff headwind and trying to get a long cast.

I fish several small lakes/ponds just like that. Old gravel/sand pits. You'll find they have a ton of 10-12" fish, but also a decent population of bigger fish. The bigger fish are going to hang on the underwater humps and boulders left from the mining process. The old roads and shelves they used to excavate are also good fish holding structure. I have never caught a big one from around shore on these types of lakes. They have all been out in deep water. The biggest forage in a lake like that is crawfish. Try a natural looking jig on the areas I already mentioned.

They are 14.99 regular price at TW. Not a GREAT deal, but a deal. You can buy them on ebay for less than that quite often.

Lead will work just fine. Lead is going to be a bigger profile than tungsten, but that won't make any difference to the fish. Punching is reaction strike fishing anyways. The only thing the bigger profile is going to hurt is that it might catch some extra grass going down.

That has been my experience as well. There are three ways to fish it effectively. 1. Just go down the shore and toss like a spinnerbait or square bill 2. Burning above grass or through pads. 3. Slow rolling it just fast enough that you can feel the bait shake. #3 is how I usually end up catching fish.

Mine wasn't a reel, but some other items. They waited to ship all of my backordered items at once, instead of 3-4 shipments (okay with me), so each time one of the items came back in stock I got an email from TW staying the item was being held and will ship with my other backordered items. I'm sure if I would have called and asked they would have shipped the backordered items individually, that's just the type of company they are. I think just about every item came back in stock before the estimated in-stock date.

Does anyone have the duckett ghost 7'M cranking rod, and if so how does it handle small to medium square bills? Talking KVD 1.0 and 1.5, and SK series 1 specifically. Light cover to open water broken concrete/limestone is the game plan, so I'm looking for a rod with a good soft tip yet enough power to turn a head off a log and keep them from digging into the rip/rap.

You don't want 30 on a spinning reel unless its absolutely necessary. 20# will do you just fine.

Nice job on the questions, took less than 20 seconds. Can you post the results in the future?

I don't think a Pro is going to waste time tying on lures at the start of a tourney. They pre-rig beforehand after days of practicing.

Rigged and ready. Exception is any gulp baits as they will dry out.

10-20 depending on the structure.

I use a fine tip sharpie and it works just fine. On cranks I have not memorized, I write the depth on the bill. On swimbaits I put a FS, S, or W on the chin by the line tie so I can tell what it is (fast sink, sink, wake).

30# would be perfect.

Well, first of all why are you throwing a crankbait with 50# braid? Second, it is disrespectful to other anglers and the environment to leave 5-10' or more of braid floating around in the water. You said you cut it off, so I doubt you are within 10' of the lure or you could just pluck it out. When I see guys cutting the line its more like 20-25' of line.

Yes. they are found in walmart bargain bins. $1.97 regular and then they put them in the clearance for much less quite often. If you look at the barcode it will just say "rebel hard bait" "Cotton Cordel hard bait" or just "hard bait". These are factory seconds that they ship to walmarts all across the country, and they have their own special lures that come in the same batches. They are made from cheaper plastic and everything I've tried with a bill has been a pain to tune. And after hitting a few logs or the bottom they will require tuning agian. The topwaters, spinnerbaits, and spoons in the bins are much better.

Don't cut it. You are leaving a chunk of line for fish, turtles, and my lures to get caught on. Disrespectful to say the least. If you cannot break it, then don't fish with it.

I hate o'shaughnessy hooks. I'll take a round bend or sickle any day.

Yeah, you'll spend 10 minutes trying to tune each bait.

You can wrap the line around your sleeve, or a towel in your hand to break it. I have to do it quite often. Just remember to always look away when breaking braid. Braid on a tree limb is no different than mono.Think of a bow/arrow and your jig/bait being the arrow. Its pointed right at you. I'd rather be hit in the back of the head than the front, and yes it has happened. I try to go get the bait out with the boat before I break it, because I do not want a 3/8 jig or weight flying at me. If I cannot get it out then I break it. I'd rather stir up a tree and ruin it for fishing than hurt myself if I don't need to.

I'm sure you are right on Mlbassin. Put a fast reel in a guy's hand and it goes to his head that he has to fish faster. First time I used one I had to tell myself to slow down. I like a 7.1:1 for everything besides cranking. Just need to get more of them!

All of the above, until you get bit. Then you know what the fish want. Its pretty early in the year, if you are not fishing around any cover (downed trees, tall weeds, etc) I would switch on over to a carolina rig with a shorter leader (18").