hoosierbass07

I had to a chance to use my new fly rod in the back yard Saturday (it was 71 out). I have 6 WT weight forward floating line on it. I could make the line go straight out half the time. Sunday I tried it a again for a little bit and I discovered my line would go straght the more tighter my casting angle was. So, it would do really good when I cast 9 to 12 but if I went back a little further like 9 to 1 or 2, the line would not be as straight. Also, I noticed the wind would push my line from left to right or right to left when the wind blown.

I bought a solunar table calendar (the one printed in bass Master Magazine.) It's pretty cool to hang up on the wall for one year and look at it but I didn't buy it again. I do miss it though so I might buy another one next year. Was it accurate? I don't think so, nope. Plus, I could only fish when I had time to, not when it said the best times were. In the end it tells you what you probably already know - spring fishing trumps everything.

I ended up ordering an HMG six weight fly rod. Fed Ex shipping is so slow compared to UPS. It's due to get to me Saturday. Ugh. Also bought some weight forward line (that fly line is expensive!). When I get my rod I will buy a reel for it. Hoping this kind of fishing will be fun.

$70.00 in crankbaits Sunday night, should get here Friday. I don't even like using crankbaits but, had to have them. Ugh.

So over the weekend I bought a pack of South Bend flies for around six dollars. It came with twenty little flies. I've been wanting to buy and try fly fishing for the last couple of years but havne't done it yet. So now that I bought me some flies I need a rod. I was thinking of getting a Fenwick HMG fly rod. Would a six weight fly rod be an all around good rod to throw small flies for blue gill/crappie/trout and sometimes larger fish like bass around a pound or less (maybe a two pound bass)?

I'm going to see if I get any action from those Gambler soft lures this season. If I do catch any bass then I might consider buying a few big hard baits.

I bought the regular/shallow Bass Mafia box a few weeks ago from Tackle Warehouse and I have to say, that thing is sweet. What a premium tackle box that thing is. The red color and Bass Mafia logo is pretty cool.

I was thinking the same thing - will those big swimbaits they use in California work at the strip pits I fish at here in Indiana? I decided to not order the real big ones but instead buy some Gambler soft swimbaits. No matter how cool they make it look, it seems most of the big swimbait users are from the west coast, east coast or Florida, not the mid-west and particularly not Indiana. I get the feeling those big bass in California would be caught on other lures just as easy and this big swimbait craze is a craze/fad.

This is easy: Jerk baits.

8 lbs Sufix Elite mono fishing line.

I don't remember if it was Texas rigged or split shot rigged but it was a five inch Yum-Dinger in windy stained water that caught me my small hog.

Yep. And it's great to see some of the competitors struggle to catch even one or two fish.

Yeah, Timmy Horton comes off as a nice guy who's not arrogant or a clown.

Yep, Lunkerville is one of the best fishing shows on TV. I would say Bill Dance, Saltwater Experience, MLF, Hook and Look and Lunkerville are the tops.

Man, the Shaw Grigsy show is a walking talking billboard. lol. The guy is like so juiced up with advertising. I always record his show but I can only take a few minutes before I fast forward to the end. Shaw is not very subtle in the advertising of things on his show. I still like the guy though.

13 degrees outside and what do I do? Yesterday I bought a nice rod, today I bought line! Plus I bought my first pack of tungsten weights. Wow, are they expensive. I'm going to try 1/8 and 1/16 weights for my Texas rigs. I'm going to be ticked when I snag one and it breaks off. Also got Berkley Rib Shad 4.5in. I'm going to throw that thing a lot this spring and hopefully catch a big one!

Bought a MH 7' Shimano Clarus spinning rod for $100 (had a $25 gift card to use with it). Looks nice and can't wait to see how it compares to my HMG Fenwick spinning rods. Also felt very weird looking at nail polish and buying a bottle but - I'm going to try and paint my led bullet weights for the clear water I fish in this season and see how it works. Oh did I feel odd looking at that stuff at Walmart. lol.

This is one of my favorite fishing videos on youtube. It has Gary Yamamoto talking about his new hardbaits and if you listen between the lines (which is not hard to do), you can tell he's basically saying he hardly ever uses hardbaits and doesn't have any plans on it because his soft baits are so superior (I agree) but is doing this only for the money. I like the honesty or unintentional honesty of Gary. They throw in the other guy to pump up the hardbait.

The Powerbait seven inch worm is part of my holy three lures of all time and what I always have on me - Powerbait seven inch work, five inch Yum-Dinger and five to six inch or so lizard. Those three lures Texas rigged have caught me a lot of bass in my four years of bass fishing.

The cool thing about the new year is that the fishing shows on cable TV start up again usually during the first full weekend of the new year. So I have my DVR set to record a ton of fishing shows and I've watched some of them already. It's good to see Bill Dance back and to be honest, he's the best. It looks like he's in a new boat for this year and still sponsored by Bass Pro Shops. He pushed a couple of fishing items in this first episode and didn't have much enthusiasm for them, it was like he was simply reading a script. Anyway, Bill Dance is the only bass show I can take the whole year. Facts of Fishing - In this show they went carp fishing which was a nice change up from the typical bass fishing show. But it was mostly about Mercer and his guest acting like fools while waiting for carp to bite. Not very informative. Hook and Look. This is one of the best bass fishing shows on TV and one of the most informative, or tries to be informative. Another nice episode from them. One More Cast with Shaw Grigsby. When I first got into bass fishing I really enjoyed Grigsby and his show. He's funny, nice, enthusiastic, etc... But now after a few years his salesmen shtick is a little tiring. He seems more a hack for Strike King than anything. I still like Shaw and always pull for him when he's competing on MLF and Bass Tournaments. Major League Fishing. It's good to see this program back on and I'l say I've been waiting all fall/winter for this show to return. I really enjoy this show. Also, you get to learn about a lot of different pro anglers. Salt Water Experience. It's not a bass show but I think it's the classiest fishing show on TV right now. The Bass Pro's. This is a fun show to watch because they feature three or four different topics in each show. It's looks like they added a few more people to the cast this season including Ish Monroe. So who out there is watching the fishing shows this winter?

It's good to see MLF back on television. From the schedule it looks like they are going to have new shows all through January and February which suits me fine since I will be stuck in the house most of the time when not working because of the winter weather.

Hmm. I have a St. Croix Mojo Bass MH spinning rod that is a broom stick and rarely use. I wonder if that would be able to get a crankbait down to around 15-18 feet. I'm OK not getting down to 30 feet or even 20 feet, but I want to get deeper than ten feet and would like to get my crankbaits in the 15 foot range for 2016. I know my Shimano Chronarch would handle the deep diving crankbaits, all I would have to get is a heavier crankbait rod for those heavy crankbaits. But I fish from a kayak mostly and don't want to mess with my baitcaster this year.

I bought a Little John DD last year and tried it once from my kayak on a spinning reel. That thing is heavy and shook the heck out of my spinning rod. lol. I don't want anything as big as the Little John DD.

Are there any deep diving crankbaits out there that can used with spinning reels and dive to fifteen or twenty feet? Maybe I should ask - are there any finesse deep diving crankbaits? I'm going thru my crankbaits that have caught bass and have not at clear water strip pits and I just realized most of my crankbaits are square bills and nearly all have caught zero bass but the round bill crankbaits, like the Rapala DT6, have caught a decent number of small bass and a Strike King crankbait that dives around ten feet (I think) did catch me a larger than normal bass in 2015. The strip pits I fish at do go down to 30 feet (some places a little more). I don't want to chug a crankbait as large as my hand on a baitcaster. I realize 30 feet is very deep for bass fishing. I don't want do that kind of crankbait fishing. But I would like to reach the fifteen to twenty feet depth and I would prefer to use spinning reels. Anything out there that might suit me?

Thanks for all the replies. I'll probably go for the medium then. I'm sure I'll love a medium even if I find it's too light for me so that will give me another reason to buy another one in the future that is MH!