WIGuide

Two areas I'm planning on trying to improve this year. The first is to gain confidence in a jig, and also my deep water game which is somewhat weak at the moment. With so many lakes up here having an abundance of pads and grass it's been tough for me to escape that as much as I should.

1. Terminator Original T-1 In chartreuse white shad with the Colorado/Oklahoma blade combo. This will be a great shallow water bait. The Oklahoma blade generates a good amount of lift and vibration while being way more weedless than a Colorado blade. 2. I'd also buy a T-1 with the power pulse skirts in sunfish wit the Colorado/Willow blade combination. The great thing about Terminators is they use the Quick Skirt system, so if you buy a few spinnerbaits and a few packs of replacement skirts, you can change colors quickly, and you don't destroy the skirt when you take them off. They work on other spinnerbaits as well, but I'd rather not wait to have the original skirt fall apart or just destroy it before moving them to the quick skirt system.

I'd be throwing either a road runner, or a minnow under a bobber.

Nicely done!

Nice fish for sure! It's really hard to tell weight from a picture, especially without length. Next time you find yourself in that situation without a scale or tape, cut your bait off, measure the fish with your line and then cut it the length of the fish. Then take the same line, find the largest girth of the fish and tie a simple overhand knot at that distance. Now you can take the line home and measure that to get correct measurements.

I'm going to buck the trend here and say you could get by with the mid-sized suv depending on which one you get. My last two vehicles have been a 1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee Lorado with a 4.7 V8 and my current ride is a 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited with the 5.7 Hemi. I liked them both but the 05 is a great vehicle. Not only is it comfortable, roomy, and fun to drive, but it's got a few great features that make it stand out. First of all, when equipped with the 5.7 Hemi it is rated to pull 6,500 lbs. That's almost double what a Ford Explorer is rated to pull, and matches what the big engine Taho is rated for. I pull my boat all over the place and haven't had an issue. The Hemi would pull circles around my first gen 4.7. When it comes to stopping it's not an issue. Obviously it takes a little longer to stop when pulling a boat, but it would in a truck too. Another great perk of the JGC is traction is never an issue with their Quadra-drive II system. It probably doesn't apply to you down there, but they are absolute beasts for winter driving conditions. I've pulled my boat out of several questionable ramps up here. Sand, loose gravel, icy slick ramps, and it's walked out like it's on dry concrete every time. I've never even had to shift it into 4-low. Maybe it's for you, maybe it isn't, but I think it'd be worth a looking at a Jeep WK. Plus you can get yourself into one for quite a bit less than a decent truck.

This is what I was going to suggest. The fact it worked when he grounded it with a jumper seems that it's not grounded correctly, but this would help solve that by isolating the the trailer by itself. It's also worth a shot to make sure the ground has a good connection on both the trailer and the truck by sanding down the ground area to bare metal and use dielectric grease as well.

If purchased new, they seem pretty comparable in price.

I have only seen one elite boat with the electric steer on it. He had swapped his out for practice, I believe on the great lakes. I don't remember looking to see if he used it for the tournament though. I haven't seen any other pro's use one in tournaments either.

Texas rigged soft plastics, swim baits, hollow belly frogs, and maybe swim jigs if you can get them through it.

Finally someone with an actual cold temp haha. These people on here with their single digit positive temps don't even know what cold is (clearly jk)! It was between -17* and -23* this morning on my way into work. Currently sitting at -18* with wind chill at -30*. Hopefully it doesn't get any windier, because that's with only a 5 mph breeze. Why do I choose to live here again?

I, like Bluebasser haven't used that particular rod, but I fish my spinnerbaits on a St. Croix Mojo Bass MH/F which are also said to be stiffer than rated. It works perfect for my spinnerbaits, swim jigs, and bladed jigs. I even throw my lipless crankbaits on it too.

Just curious, where did you hear this?

LM: 5 lbs caught on a Rapala DT 14 SM: 5 Lbs Caught on a Berkley Havoc Bottom Hopper Jr. thrown on a drop shot

Welcome to the forums Matt!

I think your over thinking things a bit too much. Get them something easy for them to use. If that happens to be a spinning reel, then so be it. If later in life they want to keep using spinning reels, there shouldn't be anything wrong with that. The biggest thing when introducing kids, or anyone to the sport is to keep it interesting. They want action so action is what they need. Sometimes that might not even include fishing. Maybe it's playing with the fish in the livewell, or if you're bank fishing that might mean looking for frogs. Make it fun for them and that's what will keep bringing them back. My recommendations for a combo would be a cheap ultra-light you can pick up at walmart. It'll do the job for a few years until they can figure out if they want to continue with fishing or not. Plus the ultralight will make even a small panfish feel like a big one!

Welcome to the forums!

I wouldn't call it a search bait by any means. I usually will fish it close to a high percentage target, or at least in an area that I feel confident that there's fish. I'm not a big fan of soaking it in an area for an extended period of time. I'll give it 10-30 seconds in a spot and then I'll slowly drag it back a few feet and then repeat. Since I tend to fish mine close to high percentage targets, I'm not going to have it in the water for 5 minutes per cast, I'll do the stop-drag-repeat two or three times before I reel in.

Of the 9 St. Croix's I have, I haven't had that issue with any of them. Check the rod to make sure you aren't inadvertently loosening it by the way you hold it. If not give St. Croix a call. They have great customer service. They can tell by the serial number how old the rod is and if it's still under warranty.

Nice work, keep it up! I wish I lived where bass get that big!

It might be possible for him to palm a Pro Qualifier, or if you could find one on ebay an older pro lite. Those are pretty small and compact, but you might have to go with the route of letting him know you couldn't palm one at that age either and to cope with that for now.

Are you outgrowing your current boat? Does it handle the water you fish regularly? Does the layout work for you? Can you afford a newer boat? If you're current ride works just fine for now, and the newer boat isn't a steal of a buy, try finding out what the payment would be. Then start putting that amount away on a monthly basis until you have the money to upgrade.

Nicely done! Pretty sweet that it still works. I caught an old round baitcaster probably from the 50's-60's era attached to the reel seat a few years ago. The reel's side plate was almost rusted through so it had been there a long while. This would have to be my strangest catch of 2015

I don't feel that it makes much of a difference at all. I've never felt like I couldn't battle a fish with my faster reels. With the few slower reels I have, there are times I feel like I'm cranking as fast as I can just to keep the rod loaded.

As far as ribbon tail worms go, I used to fish Berkley and Mann's as a little kid and then I finally settled on Cluprit being my favorite brand. It's definitely not the same, but if you're looking for a worm that will swim, check these out