Cgolf

Hoping to try a home made version of it this weekend. Their lead time to get them is too long, so I went to the fly bench and tied some nails onto a #1 jig hook. If these work at all will get some of the real deal. Rigged up 2 on drop shot baits and one on a ned bait.

I thought about going for it, but I have fished spin rods for so long and can cast super accurately by feathering the line and stopping it against the spool that I figured it wasn’t worth it for me. Heck I even got a MH inshore legend tournament spinning rod for pitching plastics to reeds last year, b rod at factory store. The big downside to BFS for me was I would need a high end reel, most expensive reel I would own, to cast the light baits accurately. So for me spinning gear is a lot more economical. If you are more comfortable with baitcasters I say go for it.

This one was a shock, but water red in tubes. In my search for bulk tubes, many tubes are no longer offered in straight water red. This has been an amazing clear water color on overcast or windy days when the light penetration is diminished a bit.

A little trip this weekend and I picked up a couple of leech plastics made in Prairie Du Chien, thinking rigging them on a slider head, some rage swimmers in colors I haven’t seen in stores around here (silver shiner and sexy shad), and some moon eye jigs for the swim baits Got the DT6 and DT8 in the big Shad color that I think will clean up in clear water. The Ozark Trail baits, SB 3.88 and jerk 4.88. I am actually looking forward to trying these. i will go without changing the hardware to see how they fish. I have had cheap cranks work well in the past. Time will tell.

Yeh I remember that they have come a long way from that as far as branded sales. 38 cents a tube is a pretty good price. I thought they were and maybe still are a plastic house for other brands and eventually released some under their own brand. I know Uncle Josh outsources to an OEM for their Kalin plastics.

Well I got my big bite order. Expecting to cut the claws off most the craw tubes, but I will try them with first. Water red and tubes is a hard combo to find, but at 38 bucks for 100 baits you can’t go wrong. I am hoping for them to be a larger version of the old trigger x tube I did really well with. The rest are some swim jig trailers that were on sale, pack of the smallie smasher that is a great Ned bait, and a couple of line through swimbaits. I really hope the line through swims suck so I don’t end up going down that path. These were 3.50 each, I can deal with that, but not the pricier options. A little nervous about the 100 pack lol. I bought a 100 pack Producto tourney grub and have 98 left because they are tough little baits.

Seriously just burnt out on social media and have spent way too much time on the cruise forums which have been super negative this year. Basically my vacations are all on water lol, one I can fish from, and the other is to escape the real world for a bit. Having shoulder surgery later this summer after the fishing vaca so I will be back then to at least think and chat about fishing. And yes I scheduled the surgery around the fishing trip.

So Big Bite does Free shipping at 75 bucks, so have an order in for a 100 pack of water red craw tubes, will cut the craw bits off and have a slightly larger version of the old Trigger X Water red tube that did a lot of damage for me. Also picked up some swimbaits on sale including some 5” line through to see what those are about, all in good colors for where I fish. Well back to my self imposed ban from posting on the site since deleted account has proven you can’t delete yourself lol. Back to lurker status.

Been trying to find bulk pack of 3.5” to 4” tubes on sale and am striking out. Does anyone know where to get some or have a free shipping code for Big bite? Its amazing how far this old standby has dropped in popularity thanks cgolf

For me I am not sure there is an answer. Initially I did incredible with the SK bleeding baits and caught a ton of bass on them, magic bait #1. Then I discovered War Eagle baits and they outproduced the SKs like 5 to 1, so I deduced that lighter wire is a plus, magic bait #2. I did get the WE finesse and liked the wide willow on that bait that seemed to get me more bites, so I went all in. Magic baits #3-?? are the ones I am making. While the wire isn't quite as thin as a War Eagle on the frames I am buying, what I am seeing is that the unique blade combinations really pays off. I can go in behind people blanking on double willows or tandems and catch fish. The thing is though one bait has been hot on clear water and a different configuration has been hot on nasty water. The kicker was last fall I had a WE tied on and my father in law had one of my baits I made tied on and he out fished me 5 to 1. I didn't know whether to be proud of the bait I made or p!ssed that I was getting out fished?

I will stick with lead acid then. I am not 100 percent sold on lithium as being the safest alternative. Probably due to using the Lipo batteries for RC planes that were temperamental especially during a crash. Having to charge batteries in a burn proof sack is not a great memory when putting lithium batteries in my boat.

Here is the AGM So is the AGM gonna be that much better? When on a week long trip I have an outlet on the dock to plug in to to top the batteries off. Also if the AGMs are better do they justify the extra cost which may include a new charger? thanks cgolf

So in my 16 foot Alumscraft Lunker I run an 24 volt 80 lb thrust Minn Kota Terrova. When first installed they put two size 27s in. Well all I can say is despite a lot of effort and curse words the 27s didn’t fit right. the last two sets of batteries were size 24s. Unfortunately during the pandemic I had one choice of batteries and they were not good. I do have a 10 plus year old Minn kota onboard charger that I need to research on the AGM side. Below is the battery compartment. Here is the 24 DC battery

Stopped at a Mills Fleet Farm yesterday and they had a lot of sale items. The newer Berkley Jerkbaits were 11.99 and the tiny 4s were 6:50. for the multi species fishing folks on here, the reef runners were 75% off non sale baits. The main location was wiped out but I found an end cap with deep little rippers and 1 DD 800. All rang up for a 1,74. I am actually going to try the rippers in the 6 foot reed beds for bass, thinking it will hopefully imitate something dying. As an aside the reef runner website is not loading, they have some amazing baits, hope this isn’t the end for them.

So then in the picture I have it as smalljaw67 defines it, the blade being attached to the free end that spins. Or am I reading it backwards? Also yes those are the bulk ball bearing swivels from Barlows and I have some from LPO as well. With as many spins as I have made I would be broke from the premium ball bearing swivels.

So I think we all are doing it the same way. I know Allen does the opposite which I would try except for this stuff we have in the water that I am not sure if it is even a weed. Should have put the picture in the first post if I would hav3 been thinking straight.

I know @Munkin opinion on this, but also curious what others do and why. I have the spinny bit toward the back because a local lake I fish has what I call snot weed. It is almost like wet craft fur but even more flexible. I find it somehow gets wrapped around the front 2/3 of the swivel and is easiest to pick the last bits off at home. With the spinny bit in the back the blade still spins and catches fish with a little of this crap on it. I wish they could get rid of it all together, but you just have to deal with it.

Made some 1/8 guppy head spins, three on the right. The spin on the left is a Stanley spin and the head looks a lot smaller than the guppy heads, so not sure of the actual weight of the Stanley spin. The skirts are white and burnt orange. then salsa, white, and burnt orange to imitate perch.

I did ok with them and still carry them in the boat. Also did surprisingly well on the river with the scatter crank. Always liked seeing some hate on the scatter raps but like the Megabass S crank;)

I have done 2 orders from TW since they got a certain issue fixed and while not the quickest process it was acceptable. I usually order in the off season so how long it takes to get something doesn't bother me. The only bummer now is that something changed in there pricing model and they are no longer the low cost option. I now have to shop around to get the best prices. I am sure they would price match, but when it is a lot of items, that isn't worth my time on the phone.

The ones I have made, but not really fished that much move like a chatterbait with a lot of roll. I can attest to the fact that they snag up easily as I caught a tree that I would regularly pull a standard spinnerbait over. I hope to use them more next year, but they won't be great in reed beds unfortunately for me.

Hopefully they will be ok. I have an older batch of red, white, and black skirt bands from when I first started making skirts. The older black bands all break trying to get them on the skirt tool, the white bands go on fine but are difficult, while the red bands are very elastic just like the new skirt bands I bought. So I really hope that they will be ok.

its two tabs of living image ghost minnow and a 1/2 tab of blue lavender 446. If you look up the ghost minnow color on the fishing skirts site you will see the subtle colors. I think it will be a winner in clear water.

Got the fishing skirts order today so had to put some skirts together really happy with the lavender ghost minnow skirt, on the top left, way better than I anticipated.

Well fishing skirts got me again. Will have some skirts on the tackle making page tonight.