Smokinal

I added blades to my arsenal a few years ago and have seen how effective they are in cold water. Now I need to add spoons. What are you guys throwing for a jigging spoon these days? My thoughts are I need around a 3"-4" , 1/2 or 3/4 oz in chrome or hammered and some in white.

I hear ya. I'd buy some of those in the first pic. That color combo works well up here.

Thoughts and prayers to you Dwight.

Some bigguns for sure.

You never know when you'll need a "maintenance wipe".

It's too early for this but I'm happy to answer; I'm partial to Lays Cheddar and Sour Cream.

You should see my hooksets now! Fish don't stand a chance! Thx WIGuide

Wow, I'm a minority. I keep my boat in the garage and ready to go at all times so I just hook up and go. I'm in the "they stay on the boat" club.

Fixed that for ya

All depends on the cover you are fishing. Braid has no abrasion resistance on rock, so if you fish a lot of rock like I do, you better have a leader on; usually fluorocarbon.

You'll be in my thoughts and prayers man. I hope all goes well for you and the outcome is what you want. Do keep us posted as things progress; we'd love some updates.

Ya, lots of ways to work a trap. You can work it with the reel handle as jigme mentioned; you can also pump the rod and let it fall on slack line too, creating the yo-yo effect. It's hard to beat a red craw trap in the fall and I'll have one tied on until the water freezes. I've found, though, that the bite can really vary day to day with a trap. One day they will want it yo-yoed while another day they might eat it better with a flat retrieve or even burned. Definitely a bait that requires a little experimenting with every outing and come up with the bite pattern for that day. Try it different ways, pay attention to what you were doing when you got bit and do it again.

Well they call me Slim, so....

This pretty much sums it up. I fish all rocky lakes up here in Maine and have to have an abrasion resistant line. I hate memory so the braid/fluoro leader has been my setup for years and I can count the number of knot failures I have had on 1 hand. As others have said, a knot failure is owned by the tier. I either use a blood knot or albright.

My thoughts and prayers to his family and friends.

Good one for sure! Nice! It's 4:50am and I'm waiting for my buddy to pick me and my boat up and now I'm all jacked up!

Do you make these for customers? I've always wanted to try hair jigs as we do fish into the 30's. If you need someone to try them in Maine waters, let me know. and thanks for the tips/info on them.

Anyone else do this? It sounds kinda ghetto but I've been doing it for 20 years and it works great. The width is perfect for almost all spools; spinning and baitcasting. Then I only have to put on maybe 75 yds of braid and it lasts forever. I've tried mono backing etc... and see no weight or casting difference between the two. Just wondering why there are so many threads about backing; what to use, how much, why this, why that. Just use tape and tie right around it. Thoughts?

7'M, 2500 Shimano, 10# Sufix Nanobraid, 10# fluoro leader.

Well you wouldn't know it now at 46 but bodybuilding is my other passion; been training since I was 14. Over the years, and really most recently, I've put a ton of stress on my joints and tendons. I tore a hole in my tricep tendon close to the attachment site on the elbow and the tendon was starting to lift off the bone. Luckily it never came unattached by itself as sometimes they do not reattach it; they just let it go. So the surgery was a full unattachment, cut back the torn end of tendon, grind the end of the Ulna, drilled holes in end of Ulna, slid tendon through holes and sew together. My surgeon said that attachment site for the tricep is actually pretty weak and he sees this in many bodybuilders. So now I'm going through the whole rehab scene and it's going ok. getting a little better every week. This is when the cast came off 2 weeks after surgery and 17 staples later: Hopefully I'll be 85-90% by January and 100% by March so I can start pounding it again. Sorry to hijack; carry on.

^^^Nice New England fish!

Anyone thrown a Reaction Strike 7" Bass Harasser before? Is it a decent bait? Action? Great sale on them here: http://www.overstockbait.com/brands/Reaction-Strike.html Other good stuff in there as well. *yells loudly* GET OFF ME MONKEY!!! GET OFF!!

1. The Zman baits work best as they do stand up after the salt dissolves out of them. A senko will lay flat; could still get bit but I think the Zman work better. 2. I have the 3 different weights but find myself using the 1/10 all the time. 3. Both. If the bite is really on I feel the "tick" every time but then there are the subtle bites as well when they will just be on it when you go to hop it. A lot like any other bottom bumping bait. 4. Any time! It shines when the bite is tough though and can turn a rough day into a good day. My home lake gets pretty green in the summer so I went to a 1/2 Zinkerz in Green Pumpkin Orange and they loved it. I would imagine the Coppertreuse TRD would work as well. Here is a fine Ned rig specimen for ya. This was right after my tricep re-attachment.

We're gonna need some pics of course!

That's the way to end it buddy! Geeze you've had a great season with some really nice fish. I've enjoyed the vids.