Ozark_Basser

That's probably the way I'm going to have to go on some heads styles. I'll give it a shot with arky style heads. It's probably the way to go.

Yours do look good. It's fun and rewarding to catch fish on a jig you made yourself. Post up some more pics if you have any.

Here's one I did not too long ago with biosilk instead of silicone for skirting material. Biosilk acts like living rubber except its way easier to deal with.

But if you do that, you'll have spots on the eye with no paint. That bugs the crap out of me lol. I've found if you don't get the eye too hot it won't fill with paint. I just rotate the head at an angle so the eye doesn't get direct heat. Instead of rotating 180 back and forth on the heat gun I'll just rock it with the eye facing straight up. It's very easy to do with football heads without getting any paint in the eye.

I throw a black frog most of the time, but I do feel like color matters for frogs to some degree. Unless the fish was looking directly up at the frog, it could still see the sides.

I've caught a lot of smallmouth out of streams with red eyes. It always seems like I catch them the most in spring or fall when the water is cooler?

I hear ya. I'm just saying you can get away with a smaller hook and was just giving you a general idea of what is needed for rigging baits the way you are wanting to. If you are just wanting to know hook sizes to fit all of those baits "perfectly", a 3/0 and 4/0 will work fine except for the longer paddletails. A 5" or 6" paddletail will require a 5/0 or 6/0 hook. You don't want to go small on paddletails. With too small of a hook, you might not be able to rig them right and it would mess up the action.

You can get away with 1/0 hooks or whatever size you feel comfortable with. Just make sure with whatever hook you are using, the hook gap has enough room to let the bait move down to keep the fish pinned. I just make sure the space between the hook point and the bend is about twice the width of the bait.

Stretch definitely plays a big role in a hookset, landing fish, and working baits. Of course someone can get by with just mono, but it's all about having an edge. However small that edge is doesn't matter. It's still an advantage. Mono has loads of stretch in comparison to braid. Fluoro stretches as well, but it doesn't have the elasticity of mono. It doesn't retain its original shape when stretched. All the lines have an application that could given someone an advantage over the fish. If you just love using mono for the sake of not having to spend money on other types of line, good for you, but you're still missing out sometimes. Guaranteed.

Reapers on drop shot, shakey head, Texas rig, or even a split shot. Just depends on where the fish are.

Don't be afraid to throw a jig either with a craw imitation trailer. Some smaller ones will still bite it, but you'll catch bigger ones on average.

I love my NFC HM custom I built. It's made on the same blank as the edge series black widow rods with the same guides, I think, and a carbon fiber handle. It also cost me about 120 dollars less to build it than buy it. If I just had a metanium on it, it would be my dream jig rod. The curado I does just fine though.

For shallow fishing braid/fluoro leader kicks the crap out of straight fluoro for sensitivity.

Not much you can do except keep at it and maybe throw a bigger bait. I'd be happy with what you are catching. Maybe try throwing a spro rat at night or wait till you see those bigger fish on beds.

Cottonmouths are pretty easy to identify if you know what to look for. The have a big triangular shaped head, they are way more buoyant than any water snake I know of when me swimming, and they are usually pretty fat compared to water snakes and darker. If you come upon one on land, they lean their heads back and expose their bright white mouths. Hence the name, cottonmouth. Very young cottonmouths on the other hand look a lot like water snakes, at least the ones in my area. They say the only way you can tell the difference is by the tip of the tail. Juvenile cottonmouths are supposed to have some sort of neon colored tail. I've never seen one though.

Green Trout, haven't we been through this more than once? Lol

I've always been taught that if it has a tooth patch on its tongue, it's a spot. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

Red label is way better in my opinion. I've used them both quite a bit. There is no comparison. They both have issues with longevity, but red label is definitely your best bang for your buck.

I think I've seen some of those in one of the ponds I fish. They get pretty big. They tend to rip the skirts off my jigs. They bite hard.

My little brother routinely hooks snakes while fishing the creeks and acts like he is going to sling them into the canoe. I don't care. I'm used to it, and they are just water snakes. Whoever is with us usually gets the crap scared out of them though lol.

Fall seems the most logical. I really don't think it matters though. All of them.

Definitely not a smallmouth. Kind of hard to tell if it is a spotted bass (aka Kentucky) or a largemouth. If it has a tooth patch on its tongue, its a spot. Its hard to tell by looking at the mouth alone.

In most waters, a frog isn't going to be your best option for smallmouth. In shallow creeks, I never go on a float trip without one. Lots of log jams and nooks and crannies to throw a frog in. Plus if there are some nice largemouth in the creek, they'll be bound up in whatever heavy cover is available.

It's basically a senko cut in half on a 1/32 - 1/8 oz mushroom shaped jig head. its really popular nowadays, especially if the bite is tough and especially for smallmouth.@ bluebasser- I like how I googled Ned rig and your picture is one of the first to show up lol.

If the rain muddies up the water, I'll beat the banks with a chatterbait or square bill. I'll pitch jigs to thicker cover. Calm water top waters for me are wake baits like a jackel Mikey or shellcracker or a floating jerkbait twitched on top. I guess that goes for open water only.