HoosierHawgs

Flat sided cranks or rattletraps. I know they make floating traps, but if they make suspending ones those would be the best winter hardbait.

Lew's Reels: Feature filled, affordable, durable, smooth, lightweight, and castability is great. Berkley Rods: for $40-$50 they are extremely affordable so I can afford to have 10 (Tackle Monkey's got me when it comes to buying rods) Stren/Berkley Line: Affordable, reliable, XL, XL Fluoro, and Performance braid cast and handle great Lures: Big Bite Soft Plastics, BPS XPS Hardbaits, and Savage Gear Finesse Hardbaits

Shimano gear is rarely part of Tackle Warehouse sale. They sell anyways.

Welcome to the Forum! Most of my family lives in Florida, and I enjoy fishing in Florida when ever I can. I've gone bass fishing down their, as well as surf casting and deep sea fishing. I've also done inshore salt for redfish, but the the bass and surfcasting have to be my favorite. I love surf fishing! It's tough, but you earn every fish you catch!

More baits are made to hook fisherman than to hook bass. It ain't right. Mr. Bass may get used to a lure, but he sure hasn't evolved to get any smarter. I still trick more bass on cheap baits then I do on expensive ones. I can't justify paying $16 for a lure when we have been catching 5-7lb bass on a $3 crankbait. Just my opinion.

No. It's always in my box. I never take it out so I don't lose it. I did hear a story about one guy sitting next to his friend who was fishing and had his license, but he did not, and he was holding a rod, not even a line in the water, and he got fined big time.

First, start w/finesse techniques so you are not spooking the fish. Plastics like stick baits and tubes, and then to cover water use a rattleles square bill in a shad color, and a double willow leaf spinnerbait. Make your cast parallel to the bank, because when there is an absence of cover the fish will hold tight to the bank.

A bunch of Hart Tackle Jigs and spinnerbaits. They are my new favorites now over Booyah. I still like the Booyah, but the Hart Tackle baits have better Blades IMO. The Jigs were a good price and came w/a chunk trailer. I will be using them mostly for flipping shallow cover, but I will also ad a swimbait trailer to one and swim it when their is a good bluegill pattern developed. This year I have bought much more than I have in the past including 4 reels, 4 rods, numerous crankbaits, soft plastics, and topwater lures, and my dad has bought quite a bit as well. We have also fished this season more than we ever have before, instead of shooting as much on weekends, partially due to 22 shortages still having effects. We plan on fishing much more next season, and I still have about 20 baits I am looking to purchase, as well as 2 more rods, 2 reels, and a fishing Kayak. The good thing is I have plenty of time in the spring/summer/fall to play with my new toys. Most of my time suck comes in the winter, so I am one of the few who "uses everything in the tackle box".

1 6'6 Spinning Setup w/30# braid for finesse baits. If you fish the Tennessee river chain a good 7' medium casting setup w/a 5.4:1 reel for cranking is a good idea too. That and a braid ready rod and reel setup if you plan on throwing umbrella rigs.

The greenies excel at throwing lures over 3/8 oz due to its heavy spool. Not great for lighter lures though. I am a fan of the old Shimano Bantum line though. I have a Magnumlite and a Coriolis I still use.

This article talks about how they see some colors but not all. Says they cannot say blue/violet hues well, and says they can see greens and oranges extremely well. By definition if they cannot distinguish blue/violet it would make them colorblind. Also, water clarity and light play into their vision. All color is is light refractions. http://www.bradwiegmann.com/fish-biology/39-fish-biologist/119-characteristics-of-largemouth-bass-vision.html

Save your money and get a Laser MG. Or just the regular Speed Spool SSH1 Baitcaster would be my recommendation. Graphite frame reels will flex. I own a laser MG and like it though. That's the one I would buy. Lew's are the best at their price range though. I will never buy another brand of reel as long as Lew's is going strong.

Interesting. Will check up on this. We do not have any close, which is an annoyance. It still irks me they did this, as well as the fact that they bought out Gallyans. They were great stores, with a great selection of outdoor gear, fishing, camping, kayaking, boating, they had it all. Even their own store brand fishing gear. The closest thing to Gallyans now is Academy Sports near where my family lives in Jacksonville, Florida. I make trips to it each year. Just not a fan of Dick's At least the ones near me.

http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/75803-are-bass-color-blind/

Nice! I wish I lived that close!

Has anybody fished it this year? I have fished it previously, but didn't get out to it this year. I had a pretty good year elsewhere though! I will be getting a SOT fishing kayak for fishing Eagle Creek and Raccoon Lake exclusively next year, so I wanted to start gathering info on them now. If you have fished either lake, did you catch anything? What were you cathcing, and how were you catching em? Any help is appreciated!

I refuse to shop at Dick's as their selection is hopeless. Also, my firm stance on the second amendment is problematic with the way they sell firearms. After taking all of their AR's down, but leaving the ammo their, which is what makes them the most money, for the sake of "political correctness" irks me off.

Gander mountain has a deal w/ a $30 rebate on Lew's tournament MG. This is seperate from the Lew's manufacture $30 rebate. That makes it a $80 reel. It is $60 if you order it online from their website and use the code SAVENOW, and then apply both rebates.

8# is my preference for leader. I assume this is being fished on spinning tackle? Also, use a double uni knot. This is the only knot I ever use to connect line to line, it hasn't failed me yet.

Depends on how dirty it is. I would send it to a professional as well. I normally would not recommend putting a reel in water, as moisture causes a lot of problems, but if it has sand and mud in the gears, and has already been sitting in the water, then it probably wouldn't hurt that much. You want to make sure it is dried very thoroughly as water in the gears and bearings will cause major problems. I clean my reels using rubbing alcohol (Because it dries fast), very selectively.

Plan on doing some trolling from the yak next year. Kinda different for me, so hopefully it causes some exiting action. There is a great article about trolling from a kayak along the lines of "The Backcountry Downrigger"

I would insert the rattle anytime the water has any type of stain to it, and there is some cloud color or overcast. Soft plastic lures are a bait that the bass have to visually hone in on, so when visibility is reduced, inserting the rattle can give the fish another way to locate the bait, even though its only hearing the general direction, not the exact location. When the water or skies are clear, leave the rattles in your bag. The fish will be able to see your bait, and inspect it thoroughly, so you want to make it as natural as possible. Real bait doesn't rattle when it crawls, swims, or slithers by, so your bait shouldn't either. I would take this philosophy with all of my lures. W/ cranks, I fish rattle less models in clear water, rattling models in dark water. With spinnerbaits, in dirty water I fish a colorado blade, sometimes a coated kicker blade, or a bladed swim jigs. In clear water I fish a double willow blade, or a swim jig w/out a blade. I have caught my fish this way, and it may be different for everybody. Just my 2 cents.

To answer your question, absolutely not. Bass are partly colorblind, so color is not that big of a deal in my opinion. When you are fishing dirty water, contrasting jig and trailer can help highlight each other for visibility to the fish. If you are fishing clear water, try to match closely what the forage is. It is all about what you are doing. When it comes to fishing a football jig, I will often match both the skirt and trailer color to crawfish I find in the area. If you find one in a basses mouth with a different coloring, take a felt pen and make an on the spot color change. With a flipping jig, if in clear water, or green tint water, my favorite combo is an Okeechobee Craw Skirt matched w/ a black chunk w/chartreuse pinchers, which most wouldn't think matches, but it works. For swim jigs, I fish 3 combos. Black and Blue Skirt w/a black, blue, purple trailer, an Okeechobee Craw Skirt W/a green pumpkin or orange and blue trailer for imitating a bluegill, and a white skirt w/a pearl w/silver flake colored trailer for imitating shad.

This summer was the year of the weightless stickbait for me!! I caught most of my smallmouth on a wacky rigged stickbait in a watermelon red flake color. I also caught some on swim jigs.

The stick bait is the bait of choice for me due to it's versatility. I can make long cast, but I can also cast it accurately on a shorter rod. Just by changing the cadence of my retrieve I am also able to give the fish a different look. You can pull schoolers up from deep water, or fish it around shallow grass. It also represents many different things smallmouth eat, from shad and other baitfish to snakes.