Ozark_Basser

Depends on where I'm fishing. Prespawn on the lake is when I've had my best days as far as biggest bags go. In middle of summer is when I have my best days on the river. However, I have caught my last two PB's in December.

Upload them to photo bucket then copy and paste the link to your post.

I generally don't spend a ton of time in one spot unless I know for certain there are fish there. I'd rather cover water making as accurate of casts as possible letting the fish tell me where they are, then work the area slowly if I think I'm on a lot of fish. I'm of the opinion that it's not so much about the bait a lot of times but the presentation. Truthfully, this is a question with far too many variables. You just have to learn for yourself. Everyone will have differing opinions on this subject.

I would also recommend a drop shot if you aren't already using it. I've always just played around with it and never understood how effective it can really be until recently. That and the Ned rig are two things I'm going to focus a lot more on this year.

Those should work fine. If you want them to walk the dog, you'll need braid though. They still bite it pretty good without walking it though.

I have experienced this. I hooked a duck mid flight. I engaged the spool, It pulled drag, came back down to the ground, then I had to get the hook free. Not an easy task.

Were the hooks still sharp????

Arkansas shiner, rootbeer green flake, green pumpkin gold or copper flake. Not sure why you are asking for help though. You seem to be doing pretty good with what youve been using. Suggestions never hurt I guess. I would just look at the forage and try to match that. I'm partial to the hard floating jerkbaits.

Bass will grab the bait tail first sometimes, especially with longer baits. If you really are trying to get one to bite while sight fishing, after some time spent without getting the fish to commit, when they finally do they usually will just grab the bait instead of inhaling it.

As a matter of fact, my biggest smallmouth at just over four pounds came off a black spro bronzeye 65 in crooked creek. It was in the middle of the day in July or August. It was in an odd place to catch a smallmouth also. It was in still almost stagnant looking backwater. I saw a decent sized largemouth in a shady area that had a laydown in it. I made a couple casts with the frog and right when it came out of the shade the smallie did too and gulped it down, didn't even make a splash.

Fishing crooked creek in my canoe, I hooked into a smallmouth that had to be a 5 lber. I couldn't lip her because she had a 5 1/2 inch jerkbait sideways in her mouth. I probably could have tried to grab her by the belly but this was before I knew about that. I tried to swing her in the canoe with twelve pound fluoro and she got to the edge of the canoe, almost inside, and shook her head hard and broke me off and fell back in the water. I was livid. About twenty seconds later I could see her jumping trying to shake the jerkbait, almost as if she was laughing at me.

Cast them past your target then make sure it deflects off of it. If your target is the bank, cast to the bank, and as soon as it hits the water, it needs to be moving. I get bit a lot this way.

The shimano is too full. The daiwa is close to full.

You'll probably be okay. Don't whip it out there. Be careful with it.

Temple fork outfitters signature series 7MHF is what I use. Its rated as fast, but it feels more like a modfast.

You do NOT want water in your lower unit. Change your lower unit oil and see if its milky. If it is, you need to take it in.

Nice fish. By the looks of some of those smallies, that looks like a very fertile creek. I'd be saving up for a yak for sure.

Definitely go for the shorter rod. I'm quite a bit taller than your average person and a seven footer is just about too long. 6'8 is perfect for me.

If it were me, I'd go with the duckett. I don't like how "stiff" Abu Garcia makes some of their rods. I understand how a good crisp blank is beneficial, but it seems they sacrifice a lot of the blank's liveliness to get that crisp appeal. I'd rather have a blank that's a bit whippy and more forgiving than too crisp to the point it hinders performance. Just my two cents.

I would go with the older zillion vs the newer ones. I have owned the older zillion, and I can say from experience it is a tank and a very nice reel. The newer ones don't differ too much from the tatulas from what TT had to say. If I were in that price range, I would go with a chronarch ci4 or a couple of curado I's. You can get them new of eBay for a good bit cheaper. Or better yet, a metanium on eBay.

Hard to beat a bronzeye 65 from Spro in my opinion. I would like to try out the deps slither k and the teckel USA Honker frog and whacker frog.

I've used devcon a lot for installing weedguards and coating over painted jigheads with eyes. It does yellow over white, but it actually gives white a kind of bone look lol. Doesn't look too bad if that's what you're after. I never worry about mixing exact amounts. I always eyeball it and it turns out fine. It's not like thread master or other thread epoxies where it has to be absoutely on the dot.

This is true but for me there are two techniques that mono is an absolute no go. I can't walk a frog with mono. I also can't keep a floating jerkbait underwater with a jerk pause jerk jerk pause retrieve. For walking frogs, braid is a necessity. I have to have fluoro for working floating jerkbaits the way I like to.

Good luck with that. Maybe live bait or an extra soft presentation like running a fly past them. Tough to get sunning fish to bite.

Nah man its not that bad. I went fishing yesterday for almost ten hours and never even noticed the handle being warm or not on my rod with a woven carbon fiber handle. Plus it gets stickier when wet.