MIbassyaker

Yes? I guess? I understand you want to optimize, but I tend to think a lot of people wring their hands unnecessarily about exact, narrowly-perfect gear for particular applications, and at some point you just reach diminishing returns that aren't worth the splitting hairs over. I use a Ned rig on two spinning combos, an ML/F and an M/mod-F with no issues, and don't really notice the difference. Anything you might use for a drop shot or shakey head ought to do the job. Just tie it on and catch some bass.

Haha, yeah, I'm just saying, don't be so sure they aren't working right....A TRD will get attacked right out of the bag on the way down, before it even gets a chance to stand up!

A note to anybody in the Grand Rapids, MI area: I saw two of these, exact same model at the Cabela's In Grandville, marked way down the last two times I was in there. I almost bought one last week, but I thought to myself, "No, MIbassyaker, stay your hand -- some angler, somewhere, needs these rods more than you do..." * *not really. Just a rare, minor, temporary victory over the bait monkey. He will have his revenge, to be sure.

Try it in the lake, where there are fish.

Green pumpkin stick worm (wacky rigged) Fluke or other soft jerkbait, GP or white (can double as open water jerkbait or topwater over emergent cover). Dip the tail of either color in chartreuse JJs for visibility in stained water. Buzzbait, black (not something I would have picked a year ago, but now I don't go anywhere without one) KVD 1.5 squarebill, bluegill or craw pattern Ribbontailed worm, texas rigged. Junebug/chartreuse tail

Now we're talkin'. The Rebel craw, Wee-R, Deep wee-R, minnow, and Pop-R have been among my staples for years, although I've retired my last few old wee-rs and deep wee-rs. I still had some unused rednecks not long ago in green and red, but don't know what happened to them. Bummer.

In a world in which the true level of logical and evidentiary justification for any proposition (or law) is always immediately known with 100% certainty and zero chance of error......perhaps not. But nothing in my experience suggests I live in such a world.

So...I am being asked to respond to a poll about a political event -- that is about a government policy -- but not to turn the topic "into a political argument?" Am I missing something here? A response to this poll is literally a political argument. No?

Holy Smokes! Speak of the devil...and she appears! 9.33lb, 24.5" http://www.wxyz.com/news/giant-smallmouth-bass-caught-this-past-weekend-breaks-michigan-record-that-stood-since-1906 So there is hope yet -- if there's one, maybe there's another, bigger one lurking! I just have to catch it before A-Jay does...

I buy havoc for the bait designs which in a number of cases are kind of unique, and I buy powerbait for the....powerbait.

Selectively trimming or cutting appendages on plastic baits can create new designs and change the action. This is especially useful in clear water when you want something a little more subtle. I'll sometimes cut the side "flappers" off a brush hog to make a double-tailed worm, or split the claws down the middle on a big-clawed craw bait to turn the flapping motion into more of a "dancing" motion. Wide curly tails on grubs can be thinned to make a bit smaller, slinkier profile. And cutting a diagonal slit into one side of a flat paddle-tail will make it undulate more like a curly tail.

Unjustly neglected!

Must have been somewhere else...here's the current list of MI records from the DNR, as of July, 2015: https://www.michigan.gov/documents/dnr/state_records_433983_7.pdf Smallmouth record is still the one from 1906. Big Pine Island Lake, the site of the 1934 LMB record for Michigan is 40 min from my house.

I guess I'm a little confused -- you seem to already know the answers to the questions you're asking. A beetlespin is a sinking, weighted bait that tends to rise on the retrieve because of the spinning blade. So....do you want it to rise a bit more, or a bit less? Fluoro = less, Mono = more. If you already know what # test you want to "end up" with, why not just use that? Clear or green line? Now we're really splitting hairs. I can barely get my head around why using one or the other would matter enough to have a strong preference. Most importantly, though: If you're catching a lot of fish, why change anything?

I use lizards most often on a mojo rig, Zoom, Zman, Berkley, others....honestly don't see much need to split hairs over brands, or even hook size (2/0 or 3/0 are fine for 6"). I tend toward lighter tackle, so I often use light-wire hooks, but I've also bent LW hooks on braid, even on smaller fish with a medium spinning rod.

I do not expect ever to catch a state record bass. The Michigan record LMB dates to 1934, and was tied in 1959. SMB dates to 1906. I do fish the lake that produced the 1934 record sometimes, although it doesn't have a reputation as a frequent big fish producer now, if it ever did. But supposing i did catch one? Well, I fish alone almost always, with no livewell, or any other way to keep a fish alive long enough to release successfully after getting it witnessed and/or certified. And I won't keep one, even a trophy. So I'd take pictures of the fish and measurements...and beyond that, I guess I'd just have a fish story.

Trying my hand at tying some jigs. Made few orders over the last several weeks, which got me: -A jig skirt-making kit and a few Arky heads from Barlow's -Some Brush and Grass Heads from Siebert Outdoors in a few different colors -Some more skirt material from TW. Never done this before, but I was inspired by my little collection of Siebert jigs (the handiwork of which I've been examining closely) to give it a shot. After a little trial-and-error on the first several attempts, here's the first bunch I really like, all made from the stuff I ordered above: (All Siebert Brush and Grass heads, except for a Barlow Arky head left middle) I think I'm getting the hang of it! Still have some more heads from those orders yet to use: I'll probably order a bunch more heads next month...

Cavitron by Megastrike. no clacker, trailer, or trailer hook needed.

I would stick with the minnow, if you've had success with that there. Instead of a buzzbait for the second, I would rig up the a weightless texas-rigged plastic, like a fluke, beaver, stick worm, or something like that. You could run it along the tops of weeds, twitch and jerk it through more open water, let fall through cover, or a hundred other presentations. That gives you multiple natural presentations, vertical and horizontal, that you can try right off the bat and will all work in clear water.

In-line spinners? check curly tail grubs? check spoons? check Those are always the first ones that come to mind for me. Buzzbaits don't really, unless you include pike and muskie in the multi-species pool. You might consider a floating minnow, like a rapala original floater.

The BigBill Tackle Museum!

I really dig 15, 20 & 30 power pro for weightless plastics.

If you don't need it to be weedless, you can rig it as a line-through -- thread the line in through the mouth, and out the belly, with a treble on the end.

I have not entered a Walmart in over 10 years, and have no intention of doing so for exactly the reasons mentioned by Dogbone and WRB above. The closest two BPS are two hours away; I will stop and browse if I'm in the area, but I don't stock up on anything there. I have DSG, Cablea's and Gander in town, and will occasionally visit them for deals. But it's my local independent store that always gets my in-person business first; been around for 50 years, and the tackle guys there know every local species and body of water like the backs of their hands. If they don't have what i want, they can order it, or I'll order it online from TW, or get it direct from the company; online storefronts of regional tacklemakers will always get a look.

I usually use mono and braid, but I picked up a 300 yard spool of Vicious Co-Polymer super-cheap a couple months ago ....even the cheap stuff has noticeably better abrasion resistance, less memory, and less stretch than a standard mono like Trilene. I haven't decided if I'll move over from mono to a co-polymer completely, but I'm definitely impressed enough to sample a few more brands and use it more regularly.