fishwizzard

I ordered two of them yesterday, one in Bone and the other in X-Ray. At $10 they are in the middle of the road for pricing and I think I only have a pair of normal poppers in the collection as is.

Yep. I had one already and loved it. Was looking at picking up one of the JDM versions but this sale was too good to pass up. Between the reel and the CR721 I got from the ALF sale, I think I might have lost a little money at work yesterday.

Try ebay, sometimes you can find them there. i have ordered them from Alderney Angling in England. Shipping time and cost are both pretty reasonable if buy a decent number of hooks.

American Legacy is selling all their IMX rods at 25% off. Just picked up a CR721 that I have been eyeing for awhile. I hope they keep offering them when they update the IMX line. Otherwise I might have to buy a CR722 soon just to complete my set. It's a hard road being a short rod fan.

I use these hooks from Cox & Rowle; http://www.coxandrawle.com/products/hooks-singles/inline-replacement-single-microbarbed They work well and snag a lot less. Owner makes hooks like this as does VMC, but they are both harder to find.

I use this stuff called "friction tape", it has a tar-like coating on it. I have found it in the electrical section of hardware stores. The braid digs in and does not move.

Man, I am almost 40, but the idea of cutting out a UPC code and mailing a form in seem so......old fashioned? I know that letting people do it digitally is just asking for a ton of fraud, but is still seems so weird. Now, if I could mail in 10 UPC codes and get a pair of x-ray glasses, then we might be onto something.

Hah, I am glad I am not the only one that does this! Any found lure or plastic that is still fishable is immediately tied on and fished unless it is unreasonably heavy/light for the rig I am carrying.

They do seem to draw down most of the other watered sections in the winter, hopefully it is going to be refilled soon.

I am actually pretty excited that there are snakeheads in that part of the canal, I fish there as often as I can and would love to catch one. My fear is that someone at NPS gets the idea to fully drain the canal to kill them all off. They already let it get so low it is a wonder any of the bass survive.

The Marmot Precip can usually be found for under $100 (far under if you don't care about color) and generally gets a lot of "Best Value" reviews from the bigger camping review sites. I have one of them and it is very nice for the money. But, if you, like me, are a sweaty guy, look for something with pit-zips and the most breathable fabric you can afford, it's no use keeping the rain out if you are soaked with sweat.

They seem to live somewhere between floating and neutrally buoyant, if I'm remembering correctly.

I use the 3/0 unweighted ones for senkos and flukes as well. I do kinda wish they sold a 3.5/0 ones for the flunked though.

I have gotten some baits from Doc Irv; http://docirvcustombaits.com/baitbox/Finnese_Small_Fishing-Baits and were very happy with them. He offers a ton of options and I ordered some really off the wall stuff, so much so that he called me to confirm that I really wanted some of it. Lets just say that there is a reason no one normally sells a solid, super soft tube loaded with as much floatant as possiable. But he made exactly what I asked or and delivered pretty quickly. Now, the smaller, softer, solid tubes loaded with as much salt as possiable that I bought from him, they might be worth a second look.

Thus far I have resisted the Fly-Ape (a cousin of the Bait-Monkey) but my wife wants to give it a try so we are going to take a guided trip/lesson sometime next fall. Sadly a lot of the smallest creeks have so much overhead cover that I don't know if I could cast with a long rod.

That looks different enough to try, I sometimes fish a J-7 Rapala like that with a jerky retrieve so the lure is constantly breaking the surface and diving.

They discontinued them in the last few years. I bought a bunch for cheap at a fleamarket and while googling around for info found a lot of awful pictures of guys with that small front hook just buried in their hands from when the fish jumped right at the moment the angler was unhooking them. I think I still have a pack or three somewhere, but I threw the bulk of them out.

Yea, I have had a few half zlikners that have ripped where the hook comes out, but that is after dozens of fish. I have had their finesse worm rip at the head, but they are still by far the most durable plastics I have ever seen. While I agree, for me the part of the fun of smallies is wading/walking the water, so I like to keep both my rod/reel and my tackle as light and compact as I can. I actually have a little kit made up with an assortment of tubes, but I have never really spent a lot of time fishing them.

No problem, typing stuff out helps me keep organized. And yes, the zman lures are almost more always good until you snag and loose them. Often I will break the hook on a jighead and just rerig the plastic and keep fishing it.

I am on a roll tonight, so here are my Zman kits. I have two kits for the Zman plastics, a small one and a larger one. The small box contains a selection of TRD Tubez and some TT for them. I like the little tubes so far, but have yet to see if they are as reliable or more so then the "normal" half-zlinker or TRD. I have heads, in 1/16 and 1/20oz, from Gopher and Zman. They both rig well but the Gophers are a pain, but I do prefer the smaller hook they offer. The ball jig is an Owner Ultra Head. It is one of the best options for a weedess Ned that I have found. The TRF Tubez are a great fit for it as the hollow back section lets the plastic collapse around the hook very easily. I use these lures when I want a very small presentation or in slow or still water pockets. They fall very very slowly and adding small, sharp pops while swimming it back works very well. The larger box contains an assortment of other plastics, lures and tackle. I am giving the Zman micro jigs a go this season. They are very light and will not stay on the bottom in any kind of current, but they have a great action on a swimming retrieve but will still drag and deadstick when I hit a slow run or still pocket. The tubes are the Zman EZtubes and they are imho a very underrated bait. Lubed with Megastrike, the tendrils move like crazy and will still swim well. I rig them on a 1/8oz Stupid Jighead which gives me enough weight to drag them on the bottom if needed. They also skip like a dream and have enough weight to really get up under low hanging brush or log jams, and the stout enough hook to get a fish out. The actual Ned Rigs are mostly cut down Hula Sticks, which is something I tried last season to great effect. They seem to have less salt than the TRDs but are more rugged than the zlinkers. They are all rigged on 1/16oz head, again from Gopher, Zman, and the Owner Ultras. Added to this kit are some of the new DoIt heads, I don't like the hook size on them but want to try them on a full Hula Stick to see how they do on that. Also here is a Decoy Nailbomb jighead, in 1/16oz - #1. They are a bit longer then the Owners but the increased hook neck and longer gap more then make up for any loss in action. I also really like the vertical line tie, it is far better then the angled Owner one in keeping the lure upright and swimming at low speed. And lastly, a micro chatterbait with a small chunk trailer. I like to keep one "loud" lure around when the bass are sleepy and i need to wake them up a little.

So this is my "non-zman" set up. One box for plastics, one for terminal tackle. Both fit in a small fly fishing chest pack with room for a few random hardbaits, micro-jigs, or anything else I want to try on a given trip. The lures are mostly 3" Senkos or Stick-Os, so far I cannot tell much difference at this size. The larger fork tailed worm is also a BPS brand, I got it right at the end of last fall so I don't have much time with it yet, but I am liking what I see so far. The tubes are from Doc Irv and are solid and "salted like a senko". They skip like a dream and look amazing on the fall. They also provide a bit of protection from tiny panfish as they are too big for them to get a bite on. And finaly there are a few small beavers and tiny paddle tails, grubs, and the odd swim-senko, mostly just the ends of packs. The paddle tails are the smallest Keitech FIs, and while they work great, they get destroyed in a single fish and even the lightest snag will pop the tail right off. My terminal tackle box is a mix of hooks and jigheads. The hooks are 1/0 VMC EWG, which I like for the sealed eye and strength. The twistlocks are Owners, both the light wire and finesse models in 1/0. The light wire is a bit longer, the finesse is shorter with a wider gap. The jigheads are a few random odds and ends in the 1/16oz range and the odd looking ones are Confidence Baits Draggin Heads in 1/8oz. Really great heads for rocky rivers. I will post my Zman stuff in a bit, for obvious reasons I keep them in a separate box and just by habit rarely bring them when I bring my standard plastics. Finesse plastics are my favorite type of lure and I have dozens of bags of other stuff not in this kit. My goal this season is to fish everything and by next winter sell/donate everything that doesn't catch.

I fish smaller rivers a ton and the Ned is by far the most productive lure for them I have found. A weightless 3" senko rigged on a 1/0 Owner Finesse Twistlock hook also works well if you need somehing that will give a slower fall. For hard baits, I like a J-5 Rapala with the trebles replaced with single hooks. They come throgh rock and wood well this way and the dink sunfish foul hook themselves as often too. Actualy just last night I went through my "Creek and Stream" box and repacked it. I will try and grab some pictures tonight.

I do something similar, but more of a double set. I retrieve my my rod tip pretty low, like maybe 20d from parallel to the ground. When I feel a bite I sweep it up to almost 90 then reel back down, as soon as I get the tip back to like 45 I give it another slow, hard set. On smaller bass or sunfish, the hook is usually through the bottom or top lip, on the larger ones it is well stuck on the inside of the mouth. If I don't do the second set I find that the fish I land are often just barely hooked and I am often amazed that i was able to land a lot of them. However, I most often fish the Ned while wading, so my rod tip is only a few feet from the surface of the water. I assume that has a lot to do with the hooksets work.

I have a short attention span and neglect the Ned for dozens of trips, then I tie it on again, catch a pile of fish, then wonder why I ever buy other tackle.

Not really the thread for it, but I know someone in here will know. I am looking for a longer (100-120mm ballpark) handle for a Alphas 150H. I wanna see if I like it with a longer one and as the reel is already a pig, I don't super care about weight. What's my cheapest option? Same question, but for fat-flat cork knobs, like on the (26/2) Fishing reels? Quality doesn't really matter as I just want to see if I like the longer handle and if I do, I know there are a few places happy to take my $150 and sell me one. I was moving some reels around the other night and Rippin's "Twins" gave me an idea, but I wanna test some stuff before I whip the credit card out.