Cgolf

For me it was an 80 lb thrust Terrova with the longer shaft on a 16 ft aluminum boat. First few years with the 55 lb thrust standard shafted power drive saw the batteries barely lasting a day on the lake we vacation on and the prop coming out of the water all the time in the wind. This makes me wonder how the big bass boats do it with the 100lb thrust motors, wouldn't think it was enough.

After inventorying my baits, seeing how many baits I haven't tried yet, kid n college, and that I have enough stock to get me through a season or two (maybe not with one bait in particular, but a suitable replacement). I figure it is time to try this. I will be doing a TW Black Friday order and ask for tackle from family, but even that will be less than usual. The two exceptions will be the up north tackle shop where we always buy a bait or three and get some info. The second would be if my wife gives me a budget at the St Croix factory where I got great deals on factory second Avid X and Mojo this year, would be stupid to be stubborn and turn this down. My wife will not be made aware of this plan. Think this his can be done? Wondering if I give myself any mulligans for outings that my wife would suggest, like a trip to Bass Pro (has been over 8 years since we last went). Would be kind of cool if I pulled it off. The upside is I may force myself to try some different baits and techniques.

There should be some helpful info in here. ‪

I haven't been to our Cabela's since this happened, but I can only hope the fishing section gets gutted and redone. My Father in law likes the store for their hunting gear which is really good quality so I am told. Their fishing section left a lot to be desired considering the number of quality fishing oppurtunities within a 30 minute drive of the store. A local bait shop had a much better selection. The only reason I stopped was for sales or if we were driving by. If there fishing section was improved we would make the trip there to buy some tackle. So I guess I fall into the crowd that is glad they got bought out, I do feel for folks who like my Father in law liked the store for reasons other than fishing tackle.

I use slider spider heads on everything except Ned rigs and see similar results. So far they are the most snag free rig I have found, think it ends up being a similar case to what you are describing depending on the bait I am tossing. Have tried the stupid rigged tube and that seemed to work well, so maybe an internally weighted tube would work too since rock and weeds don't generally mix.

I fish a lot of rock and to compound the issue it is on a swift section of river. The best way to fish it is tossing lures you know you could lose on the next cast, because it is a 50/50 probability you will. Generally I am lucky if I can get 10 fish on a Crankbait before I lose it. I just try to find a diving depth for cranks and weight for plastics that will polish the rocks, but not wedge in the rocks. Even then I still go through a lot of jigs and cranks. You just have to have the mindset that you are fishing throw away baits. For me that is cheaper plastics and cranks. I like the Bandit 100 a lot and have found enough on deal to have a solid stock pile affording me to lose a few. For others that may mean LCs and Megabass. to fish them right you need to hit them, some of my hardest hits have come right after I have popped a lure of a snag. Don't give up they can be money especially if you have current over them as well

Think it will be a great craw imitation too. The smallies on my local river system like the smaller craw baits. Now if they would just release it in motor oil red, that color was money for me in the standard menace this summer.

I picked some up to try on my clear water trip and of course I couldn't put down the RES long enough to give them a toss. My thoughts was fish them just like a lipless around the same types of cover. Figured that they are essentially silent lipless baits. Have had success with them in the past for walleye on rock humps that come up to 12 fow from 30 fow. Walleye really love lipless baits too.

A few worm weight and hook replaced by slider heads. Use them for everything, from tubes to power worms. I haven't fished a proper Texas rig in 20 years. If I need something heavy I will use a bass style jig. Zoom finesse worms replaced by netbait finesse worms. I feel it is both a cheaper and better worm. Only downside is that netbait has cut down on colors recently. They also really ticked me off by getting rid of the slim shake worm, which I found out was an incredible bait too late. If anyone knows of a legit place to order them from, please pm me. Zman baits with anything similar. While I will still use them, some recent issues have me backing away from them. I have enough plastics that durability is not a concern for me right now, so these have been benched for a majority of the season. Also just hate dealing with both types of plastics on the same trip.

I still use a ton of slider heads, just not the way Charlie Brewer intended them. Maybe some day I should actually try out his method.

I have fished a small river system for many years and found that color doesn't matter too much. I have mainly used the Yum Crawbug in black neon, green pumpkin Texas red, and crawfish (watermelon and orange). What I have found makes a huge difference is size. The larger Crawbug will catch a fish or two once in a while, while the little Crawbug has gotten crushed. Same goes for the pit boss jr vs the standard version. So it appears that matching the size of the craws is very important, and having seen some on my system, the smaller baits match the real thing the best. Crawfish scent helps out too I have read this before and have tried to fish crawbugs, Berkley craws, etc with one of the claws bit off and have never gotten a bite. But put a new bait back on and I am back on the fish. I mostly fish for smallies, and maybe they like to tear apart a craw on their own vs one that is already injured? Smallies definately have an attitude problem, so it wouldn't surprise me.

I tried pro cure for a while and Liquid Mayhem and Atlas Mike's before that both outperformed pro cure by a wide margin. Liquid Mayhem has the flip cap, and if is really nice. Surprised megastrike doesn't have it, knowing my luck I would drop the cap in the water lol.

At this point I have given up trying to label the technique I use. I toss a lot of Ned style plastics on Ned sized jigs, but I tend to fish them the way the fish want them. Sometimes a straight in retrieve scraping over the rocks and sometimes like a shakey head bouncing if off the bottom. Another great Ned bait, is the Arkie crawlin fry that I cut into like four pieces. Smallies love it, probably is a good imitation of a Helgie. Only downside is they aren't the most durable, but if you can get 80 baits per bag who cares.

On a slow straight in retrieve a salted plastisol bait will run more parallel to the bottom, will it stand up no. I have been using less and less Elaztech for my Ned rigging, I like the way the others swim better.

Forgot one bait that saved my bacon one cold drizzly morning, the Spybait. I fished it in 6 fow around reeds and the fish really jumped on the bait. I caught 7 on it in 30 minutes after boating only 1 fish in 2 hours.

I see these conditions a lot in N. WI and find the fish get tighter to cover and sometimes have to cast out plastics to cover, let them sit, hope a fish is there, reel in and recast. I have found lipless baits work, letting them drop before reeling in even shallow. I wonder though, since it has been two weeks in the making, I am guessing the fish are rolling with it, especially since the temps have seemed to fluctuate so much this year, at least in WI. So they may no longer see this as a cold front.

I honestly could not tell you what if any sound mine was making as I was fishing it in current. I used tails off the standard and mini skinny dippers. With the two frogs I have used the tail is not out of the water like the real deal, but like I said current and waves could have hindered that. All I know is it works, even if it is a slightly different action. It is more likely because the split ring being around the hooks means the tail is lower in relation to the body

I wonder if I went with a smaller tail on the super frog. I used the tail from a standard skinny dipper with that one and the Jr dipper on the scum frog. Maybe the smaller tail on the super frog would create less tail lift and not drive the nose under.

Sadly for the company I likely won't be purchasing one, but my homemade versions are working really well. So far I have used a Manns super frog and scum frog bass rat as a base. The bass rat runs really well while the Manns frog dives with a lot of line out, then runs nicely when it gets close enough. Essentially treating them as a weedless whopper plopper.

Mine would be the orange cream TRD that was tearing them up for me till I lost it. Well heck now that I think about it I gave that secret away on Twitter and Instagram lol. Now I have to wait for more to turn from pink, er bubblegum, to orange cream, so I can get back out there and toss em again. The only secret I really have is tossing certain baits in areas that nobody is crazy enough to try.

Booms Gambler Ugly Otter Rage Menace, still hate the price, but they work Spin Frog, Homemade, fished it twice now in less than ideal locations and got a nice pike and multiple hits. This thing seems like a winner. Lipless baits The fish can't stay off these things Arishi Spybait Tried this for the first time this year and it worked extremely well for me. Busts Lipped cranks aren't working as well as years past, but I am chalking it up to all the rain and funky weather patterns putting the bass into a more passive mode this year. Everything else i have tossed this year has worked for me.

I have fished them a lot in the past on a slider head. I would cast them out, let me sink to the bottom, and then reeled it back slowly. I did a test of swim jig trailers a while back and was very surprised to find that the swim senko had the wildest kick of all the baits I tried. Of course I haven't fished it yet, but will get to it some day.

I personally will also use a Anglers Choice 5" Wart Hawg cut in half like a Zinkerz. It is a skinnier and heavily salted stick bait, pretty durable for non elaztech bait. It gives a different profile when I retrieve it, and not being buoyant it also will give off a different look than the Zinkerz. I seem to do better on the river with the Zinkerz and the Wart Hawg on lakes. Could be that the Zinkerz replicates a craw better, dominate river food, with the tail high presentation and the Wart Hawg represents a baitfish, dominate lake food, better.

Ok now I am confused too lol. I had thought that was too big. Somewhere on here Team9nine had posted some jig weight/hook size rules along with the plastic size and I thought 4" was too big. I know that list was handy when I bought my jigs, wish he would repost it.

@IndianaFinesse @Bluebasser86 I just stumbled on this now that Instagram is working again. You guys wonder why everyone is so confused what is a Ned Rig, like a Ned rig, not a Ned, etc. Zman posted this which is just going to confuse more people lol.